Mortgage data turns table in buyer’s favor

Every Realtor^® has run into it once or twice. Encounters with sellers who are less than forthcoming about their property’s shortcomings, including withholding facts about the outstanding mortgage.

“Those kinds of surprises are detrimental to closing the deal,” says Andrew Balalovski, broker and owner of Balalovski Real Estate in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. “So before I ring a client’s doorbell, I’m two steps ahead of the seller. I know everything about the property’s worth, its past mortgage, deed history, loan amount, taxes, characteristics, and even how the market is doing in the neighborhood.”

Knowing where to access the data he needs is what make Andrew a storyteller of sorts. “The RPR app displays all of the data you need to tell a property’s story,” he said. “You can even press a button to call the listing agent, check out the neighborhood’s property values, see historical data, taxes, photos, and so much more.”

Andrew recalls a handful of scenarios in recent times when he used the RPR app to tell the real story about a property. One, in particular, was a standout.

“Commercial property owners consider themselves very market savvy so I knew I had to be on my game when I presented an offer for a gas station,” said Andrew. “We came in at $700,000, yet the seller claimed he needed more.” His basis? The station’s owner said his existing mortgage was more than the offer.

Andrew, an avid user of Realtors Property Resourcer® (RPR), knew he had leverage. He immediately signed into RPR and within seconds learned that not only had the owner bought the station for $500,000 but that he also had very little left to pay on the mortgage.

“It was a little embarrassing for the seller when I presented my data and then renegotiated the deal,” he said. “But without the RPR data, who knows which way the transaction would’ve gone.”

A second generation real estate executive, Andrew A. Balalovski entered real estate full time in 2005 to service the commercial, industrial and residential sales and leasing needs of individuals and businesses in the state of Ohio.

Prior to opening his brokerage, Andrew graduated from Capital University and has worked for three large Ohio brokerages where he achieved designations naming him a specialist in Commercial Real Estate and Property Management.

Specializing in brokerage, Balalovski Real Estate offers sales and leasing services for commercial, residential and industrial real estate buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants.