Cash offers are one thing. But when they are verbal, realty professionals agree that they’re not worth the paper they’re not printed on.

A few months ago, Janice Zaltman, an agent with Keller Williams Partners in Hollywood, Florida, received a text from another agent -- who should have known better -- that he had a client who wanted to make a cash offer on a property Zaltman had listed. Her response: “Please put it in writing and show proof of funds.”

She never heard another word, she said in a recent post on real estate site ActiveRain. When she followed up with the other agent, “he informed me that he could not reach the buyer. She had disappeared.”

Four days later, Zaltman received a similar text from another agent. Her response, again, was: “I don’t do verbal offers.”

Writing offers is what good agents do. It’s part of the job description. “Nobody wants to waste their time,” Zaltman said in her post. But “writing offers and presenting them to get accepted ... is part of our business.”

The responses from other realty pros were nearly unanimous. “I totally agree,” said Kristin Hamilton of Keller Williams Realty in Redlands, California. Her standard response? “I will present all written offers to my sellers.”

Added Jeff Dowler of Solutions Real Estate in Carlsbad, California: “If it’s not in writing, it’s not real. Gone are the days of handshake deals.”

In Maryland, reports Buzz Mackintosh of Mackintosh Realtors in Frederick, verbal offers are not binding. Offers there must be in writing to be enforceable. Ditto in New Jersey, said Marna Brown-Krausz of RE/MAX Greater Princeton.

Bruce Kunz of Century 21 Solid Gold Realty in Brick, New Jersey, contended that “if a buyer can’t sign a paper, there is no way to take them seriously.”

Theo Shaw of Baird and Warner Residential in Evanston, Illinois, said, “When the buyer can’t be bothered to submit a written offer, they are not serious buyers.”

Zaltman, who started this conversation, wrote that there are important reasons never to accept a verbal offer. Several are for the protection of the listing agent, but a couple apply to the sellers.

For example, if you agree to a price verbally, the buyer could rethink their offer and submit a lower one. Or, if the offer is accepted and the buyer has a change of heart, the buyer loses nothing: With no written contract, there is no deposit to forfeit.

Also, verbal offers rarely take into account the many important details that are covered in a written contract. Price is just one item. Among other things, there are points, deposits, inspections, appraisals, financing and the closing date.

The moral is this: If you receive a verbal offer, even at or above your asking price, don’t get too excited. Rather, get it in writing.

It used to be that homebuyers had to pay off their past-due federal taxes to obtain financing. But no more, at least not when the mortgage is being purchased by Fannie Mae.

Under new rules from the government-sponsored company, which helps keep the money flowing to primary lenders, as long as you have an approved payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service, you can qualify for a home loan.

But realize that the monthly payments under the IRS plan will be counted as debt when your lender calculates your all-important debt-to-income ratio. Consequently, you may not be able to borrow as much as you would like.

TIP: Try to renegotiate your agreement with the IRS so you have smaller payments and a longer payoff period. It’s the monthly debt that counts against you, not how long you have to pay it, so this step should allow you to borrow more.

Alternatively, pay your entire tax debt off as soon as possible before entering the housing market. Unless you have the cash on hand right now, you may have to wait a while to buy, but it could be worth it.

As usual, there are rules that come with Fannie Mae’s new guidelines: First and foremost, a Notice of Federal Tax Lien cannot have been filed against you in the county in which the property is located. Also, at least one payment under the IRS agreement must have been made prior to closing. The lender must obtain extra documentation, including:

-- An approved IRS installment agreement with the terms of repayment, including the monthly payment and total amount due.

-- Proof the borrower is current on that contract. Acceptable evidence includes the most recent payment reminder from the IRS, reflecting the last payment amount and date received, and the next payment amount and due date.

You’re looking for a home and a mortgage to finance it, but you think that since the real estate implosion a decade ago, lenders are looking for a 20 percent down payment. You are resigned to the fact that you still have a lot of saving to do before you can come up with that kind of cash.

But in the words of the old song, it ain’t necessarily so. That down payment may be within your reach a lot sooner than you think.

The Urban Institute (UI) calls the down payment one of the three biggest barriers to homeownership -- the others being credit and affordability. But the bipartisan think tank also says a lot of would-be homebuyers have misconceptions about how much money they need upfront. There are still a bunch of options available for low- or even no-down-payment financing.

According to a recent UI report, “80 percent of consumers either are unaware of how much lenders require for a down payment or believe all lenders require a down payment above 5 percent. ... Fifteen percent believe lenders require a 20 percent down payment.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. UI’s Housing Finance Policy Center says the median loan-to-home-value ratio nationwide currently is 93 percent, meaning those average down payments are closer to 7 percent than to 20. If you’re a veteran, you can still get a zero-down-payment mortgage through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Another government mortgage, insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), sometimes calls for just 3.5 percent down.

The Washington-based UI has done the digging and the math on low- or zero-down-payment loans, and it reports that “there are 2,144 active programs across the country, and 1,295 agencies and housing finance agencies offering them at the local, state and national level.” Housing finance agencies are state institutions chartered to help low- and moderate-income borrowers and first-time buyers afford a house.

So, yes, you have a bunch of options. But since these programs are not standard and not all lenders use them, UI says it is wise to get counseling on the particular terms and determine which one is right for you. You should also remember that mortgages with less than 20 percent down still require mortgage insurance, either from the private sector or from Uncle Sam in the case of FHA-insured and VA-guaranteed mortgages. Mortgage insurance covers the lender in case a borrower defaults on the loan, but you pay for it, usually as part of your monthly payment.

Another aid is down payment assistance. Again, there are a lot of choices, depending on where you live.

“Assistance is available for many loan types, including conventional (private lender), FHA, VA, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) loans,” says UI. Eligible borrowers could qualify for assistance from $2,000 up to $30,000.

To locate the programs available in your neck of the woods, visit downpaymentresources.com, which lists more than 2,400 programs nationwide.

As to the second barrier, credit, UI notes that the average credit score needed to qualify for a mortgage has zoomed from 692, prior to the mortgage meltdown a decade ago, to 779 currently. (That’s on purchase-money mortgages, as opposed to refis.)

Median credit scores vary from state to state, though, so what works in one state may not be enough in another. Nevertheless, a low score may require credit counseling, and it may take a substantial amount of time to put your credit house in order. But it is necessary.

Affordability, the third potent barrier to homeownership, has been discussed endlessly by numerous experts. Industry analyst CoreLogic sees the current market as being at a tipping point.

CoreLogic’s latest report shows that half of the 50 largest metro regions are overvalued, meaning prices in those places are too high; 36 percent are at normal value; just 14 percent are undervalued. The top 100 metros look a little better, with only 37 percent overvalued, 37 percent at normal values and 26 percent undervalued.

Alarmingly, some of the same areas that were overvalued a decade ago, when the market went bust -- parts of Florida and “sand states” like Arizona, Nevada and California -- are in that category again.

The Urban Institute agrees, noting that one disadvantage with lower down payments is higher monthly mortgage payments. Of course, the bigger the sticker price on the house you want to buy, the more you’ll have to pay. And, as noted above, mortgage insurance will make your monthly payment even higher.

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this report.

House sizes are coming down, but the size of apartments is going up.

According to preliminary data from the Census Bureau, the square footage of new single-family homes in last year’s final quarter continued its downward trend after years of marching ever higher.

The median floor area of a single-family home was 2,371 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2017. In the fourth quarter of 2016, the median was 2,440 square feet. (Median is more representative than average, because the figure is not skewed by outlier super-size houses.)

The lowest median point in the most recent cycle was 2,135 square feet in 2009.

“The post-recession increase in single-family home size is consistent with the historical pattern coming out of recessions,” explains Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders.

Typically, the size of new homes falls prior to and during a recession as buyers tighten budgets. Then sizes rise as high-end buyers, who face fewer credit constraints, return to the housing market in relatively greater proportions.

Dietz reports that the normal pattern was exacerbated during the current business cycle due to market weakness among first-time buyers and supply-side constraints in the building market. But the recent declines in size indicate that this part of the cycle has ended, he says, and house sizes will continue to trend lower as builders add more entry-level homes into their inventories.

On the other hand, apartment sizes are trending larger, as developers take aim at baby boomers, who are giving up their big houses for smaller -- but not too small -- apartments.

According to recent data from Transwestern, a full-service commercial realty firm based in Houston, the average one-bedroom apartment has 874 square feet, while two-bedroom units average 903 square feet, and three-bedrooms ring in at 976.

However, apartments in properties constructed in the last 12 months average 935 square feet for a one-bedroom, 945 square feet for a two-bedroom and 996 square feet for a three-bedroom.

To meet demand for the larger rentals, developers are building a larger percentage of three-bedroom units.

With apologies to Sports Illustrated, here are three signs that the real estate apocalypse is nigh:

-- David Sicilia, the Henry Kaufman Associate Professor of Financial History at the University of Maryland, believes that real estate agents will eventually go the way of the dodo. Asked by the school’s Terp magazine what mainstay of American life will have vanished in 25 years, Sicilia responded: “Realtors are headed for extinction.”

His reasoning: “The occupation owes its existence chiefly to the Multiple Listing Service, a former monopoly on market information that is rapidly migrating to the internet. Software is coming that will price to market with much greater precision and objectivity than real estate agents’ intuition. Video property tours make scouting from the laptop simple.”

For more serious, in-person visits to houses for sale, the professor envisions “bonded, paid-by-the-hour docents escorting prospective buyers through properties.” He also thinks “an increasingly friction-free economy will eliminate real estate agents’ enormous fees.”

-- 35 percent of buyers who took the plunge last year said they made an offer on their home without first seeing it in person, according to a December 2017 survey commissioned by Redfin. That’s up from 19 percent in June 2016. The survey found that millennials were the most likely to make a sight-unseen bid, reflecting their comfort level with relying on information they find online.

-- Another Redfin survey asked would-be buyers what they’d do if mortgage rates hit 5 percent. Six percent of respondents said they would drop out of the market altogether, and 25 percent would slow their plans to buy. But 20 percent said they would speed up their search and jump on a home they liked, for fear that rates would rise even higher.

-- When it’s cold outside, most homeowners turn up their electric or natural gas furnaces. But some of us -- 1.9 percent, the Census Bureau reports -- rely on wood for heat.

Most of the counties with a population of at least 65,000 where residents use wood to keep warm are in the West. A sampling of places that keep the fire burning: In Apache County, Arizona, 60.6 percent of dwellings are heated by wood; New Mexico’s McKinley County, 38.8 percent; California’s Mendocino County, 24.8 percent; New York’s St. Lawrence County, 17.5 percent (the only Eastern county in the top 10).

In less than two decades, America’s population will join Japan’s as the one of the oldest on Earth.

By 2035, the Census Bureau projects that older adults will edge out children in population size. People age 65 and over are expected to number 78 million, while children under age 18 will number 76.4 million.

Looking out farther, nearly 1 in 4 Americans will be 65 or older by 2060, the number of 85-plus adults will triple, and the country will add a half-million centenarians.

Japan currently has the world’s oldest population, where more than 1 in 4 people is at least 65 years old.