For those of you readers who are interested in Metro Detroit Real Estate, yet you find yourself landing on this curious post, the carnival of real estate is essentially a round up of some of the best posts in the vast and ever growing land of real estate blogging from the previous week, as determined (this week) by me. Actually, in the year since I last hosted, real estate blogging really has exploded, and there are now thousands of real estate blogs one could read. But if you are interested in Metro Detroit real estate, of course, you need not look any farther I don’t know if carnival hosts are allowed to use emoticons in carnival posts, so forgive me if I wasn’t supposed to do that.

Like last time, there were lots of interesting submissions.  There were a few more than I have mentioned here that I really thought stood out, but this week I wanted to distill it down to four posts.   Thank you for the good submissions.  On the other hand, quite a few not so interesting, like the one that said “we already link to you, please link us now.”  Folks, this carnival is actually not an orgy of link love.

I hear the engines revving up on Woodward Avenue, so its time for me to get started with this week’s road rally.

The Edsel Award

It had so much potential. And it probably is not fair to compare this post with the most spectacular failure in automotive history because actually the post is interesting, and I was excited about it until one little sentence turned me away.

Future carnival entrants, take this advice to heart: its pretty important not to slam the Carnival host’s stomping ground when you submit, especially if your knowledge of economics seems a little off.

I was excited to see that Detroit topped Zillow’s affordability survey, but then Zillowblog went on to say:

It might come as a surprise that Detroit is high on the list. This probably arises from a combination of factors. First, home prices are very low, so mortgage payments are low as well. The other factor is that Detroit’s high unemployment rate can make the average household income look higher.

OK, correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t a high unemployment rate make average household income look lower? I mean, last I checked, unemployed people don’t make much usually, right? Bottom-line, Detroit has been near the top of such lists for a long time. Our cost of living has been relatively low and wages here were/are high.

Now lets motor on to some happier territory.

The Chevy Award

Think baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet. This one goes to Larry Cragun, for his piece “God Bless America and Title Insurance.” We’ve all had sellers and buyers grumble about having to pay for expensive and seemingly useless title insurance at closing. Afterall, how many times do you actually hear about someone filing a title claim? Not too often. Larry’s piece points out that when you need it, you might REALLY need it.

The Corvette Award

Mike Simonsen from Altos Research offers up an interesting piece on hedging real estate risk using MacroShares. At first blush, this sort of investing sounds a bit complex for the average investor, but
the day could come when we are all holding MacroShares in our SEPs and IRAs. Warning: do not take financial advice from me!

The Lincoln Town Car Award

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade is so consistently good. This week he writes about why he is hearing about more and more deals not make it to close. I feel fortunate that it hasn’t happened to me, but his statistic of 50% of escrows failing to close in San Diego County is more than sobering.

2008 Malibu Award

The Malibu is the Car of the Year for 2008 and I am going in a completely different direction than I normally would with this week’s top winner. Lauren Mitchell may be the first blogger to ever win the Carnival with a market report. Frankly, I have been writing market reports for 3+ years now and I almost always find them painful to execute. Lauren made reading about Toronto’s market interesting and entertaining. I write about local things and I am happy to have someone who is “keepin’ it local” take the top carnival award.

Well, folks, that’s your automotive update. Thanks for cruising by. Be sure to visit next week’s carnival of real estate on Renthusiast.

Big thanks to Drew Meyers from Zillow for keeping the carnival running so smoothly for all these months!

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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We never planned to refinance this home. In fact, I believe the phrase “if we’re still living here in 5 years, I’m going to shoot myself” was voiced when we chose the 5-year plan in 2003. Our Christian Hills abode was far from our dream home. We had only been living there two years at that point and had already dumped a ton of money on various repairs and issues. We had unknowingly bought a “handyman’s special”. There were two major problems with that scenario: a) the home inspector failed to alert us to many of the glaring money-sucking issues (but that’s a whole other post!); and b) no handyman lives here.

With a 2008 resale in mind, we embarked on renovations. Big stuff. Expensive stuff.

We finished the basement. . . twice. Apparently our basement has a propensity to flood, whether it be from a leak in the wall, a water heater past it’s prime, a bad sump pump or a frozen sump pump discharge. Two sets of walls and two rounds of new flooring later, our basement is fabulous. We replaced the painted-shut windows on the main floor and had a doorwall installed where there was once a window. We installed a new roof, custom patio with new landscaping, hardwood floors throughout, a new driveway, and new cabinets and granite in a bathroom. We completely overhauled the front landscaping and had major tree work done. Every room in the house has been repainted, some more than once.

Conscious of the steadily falling home values in Oakland County, we anxiously awaited the results of our bank-ordered property appraisal. Our money pit appraised for $50,000 less than it did 5 years ago, and $10,000 less that when we bought it 7 years ago. Aaaaack!

Our loan officer told us we were actually quite lucky, as some homes were appraising for almost 50% less than their prior purchase prices. Our outlook changed immediately upon hearing that, and we realized that all of our upgrades helped to hold our property value as steady as possible in this housing climate. We consider ourselves fortunate that since we had over 35% equity in the house, our payment only increased $90 per month. As foreclosures abound, we know that the majority of those with maturing ARMs can’t count on that.

So, we’re once again the proud owners of a 1966-built colonial in one of the more desirable subdivisions in the city. We continue our quest to bring the house into the new millenium and have several more projects on the horizon. Big ones. Expensive ones.

When the real estate market rebounds and our youngest is off to college, we’ll be ready!

Go Tigers!

Go Red Wings!

Thanks for a great season Pistons!

Written by Marianne Sweet
Home Sweet Home Staging, (586) 212-8400
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• “Your home is not worth what you paid for it.”
• “You owe the bank more than your house is worth.”
• “Your neighbors got more last year than you will get this year.”
• “Buyers want PERFECT.”
• “Certain ‘shortcomings’ will get you almost no showings.” (Location, location, location. Condition, condition, condition. Price, price, price. Marketing, marketing, marketing.)
• “I don’t know when…”

It’s been rough. Honestly, I really don’t enjoy that part of the job. I don’t think anybody would.

It has also been tough watching my peers leave the business as they struggled to put sales together to support their families. Realtors are independent contractors. We live without the safety net that comes with a ‘job’. No health insurance, retirement plans, paid vacations, sick time, or the ability to collect unemployment checks when there hasn’t been a closing in a while. Every morning, we wake up unemployed.

Our payment is contingent upon a home sale closing. We can show someone 80 houses, giving up hundreds of hours of our time, but if they don’t buy, we don’t get a nickel for our time and expenses. Or we can list a house for a year, spend money on marketing, but if it does no sell, once again, we get nothing.

We signed up for this career with our eyes wide opened. We understood the risks, and the potential for profit. Today, I think you would be hard pressed to find a handful of Realtors here in Southeast Michigan who would tell you that this is an “easy” job.

When I started this blog in March of 2005, the market was much better. I started it as a way to keep in touch with our past clients and to provide information to others who might share my interest in Oakland County real estate. All in all, my achievements with this blog have FAR exceeded my goals.

Back then, I didn’t really think that people would call me and ask to work with us because of what they read here. Now I know why they do. Not only does this blog come up high in search results for lots of key local real estate terms, it gives people a sense of who we are and how we work. It shows that we are innovative. We are doing things differently to get results for our buyer and seller clients. We put it all out there for you to see and judge for yourselves.

In addition to regular calls from prospective buyers and sellers, I get a fair number of calls from local and national media looking for information. USA Today did a feature this summer on a Birmingham home we sold in 6 days. A few weeks ago I had a brief chat with Nathan Hurst, a new real estate reporter to the Detroit News. Nathan had recently relocated here from Boston and started reading my blog. Cool, huh! Today Nathan mentioned miOaklandCounty.com in a piece he did about the tough times Realtors are experiencing right now. It’s true, times are tough for sellers and Realtors alike.

But I did not start this blog because times were tough. I started this blog because I am always looking for the best ways to market my client’s homes, a quest we embarked on in 2001. This blog is a part of our innovative marketing plan. We beat most offices in google searches. This helps us to get more eyes on our clients properties. That is something that can make a huge difference with most buyers doing their search for a new home on-line. There is a lot of information in these pages that can help you to do the things you need to do to get your home sold. We are focused on what we can do and how we can deal with today’s market conditions.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Don’t be left behind.

I am Realtor. I sell houses. My blog helps me to do that.

[tags]detroit news, michigan realtors, oakland county real estate, metro detroit real estate, maureen francis, luxury homes[/tags]

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Right out of college I worked as a commercial loan officer for First of America Bank in Kalamazoo. Every loan decision in every area of the bank was made manually, by a human being or a committee of human beings if it were large.

One spring, the residential mortgage department was buried in applications and they called upon us commercial lenders to go upstairs and help them process some of the backlog. We sat around a conference table with our HP12C calculators, looking over TransUnion credit reports, applications and income tax returns, manually calculating debt to income ratios. The easy loans (good credit, good employment record, low debt to income ratio) were put on a fast track through and approved, some loans were denied, and others were left behind for the mortgage department to make their own call on the loan. There were no fancy algorithms generating credit scores. That would come along in a few years.

It was a labor intensive process. But what I remember now is that all of those borrowers had equity in their homes. The purchasers were not looking for 107% deals. They had all saved up money for a down payment to buy their house. That was the mid 1980′s, and interest rates were much higher than they are now.

Fast forward to today, and here we find ourselves in the the middle of turmoil in the mortgage industry, where lots of buyers borrowed every penny that they could out of their home, and now, unfortunately here in East Michigan home values are declining just as people’s mortgages are ballooning. Not only do they owe WAY more than their house is worth, they can’t afford the new payments. And they don’t have the money that they would need to bring to the closing table to sell the home.

In the last month and a half, we’ve seen mortgage lenders permanently close their doors, underwriting standards change daily and general confusion as the market reacts.

Everyone is looking for somewhere to point their finger.

• Did Greenspan make money too cheap, too long?
• Did investors get greedy and promote ridiculous products to marginally qualified applicants?
• Did mortgage lenders put consumers into products that the borrower had no hope of repaying?
• Did Realtors encourage people to buy homes that were more expensive than they could afford?
• Were consumers lead astray?
• Did consumers take the money and hope for the best?

Maybe a bit of all of the above. No one factor is totally responsible. Though my opinion might not gain the popular vote, “buyer beware” is in play especially with things like mortgages. Consumers do have a responsibility for making sure that they get the right loan product for their needs. Afterall, the consequences of not understanding how a loan works will bear most heavily upon the consumer, not on the mortgage broker or the bank.

There is a human face behind all these loans where the owner is “upside down” even though the lending decisions are no longer made by human beings. I am seeing people respond in lots of different ways.

• Some have resigned themselves to staying in their current home and figuring out a way to make it work. They are paying the bills and waiting for the market to turn around.
• Others are walking a fine line, just barely keeping up and unsure how much longer they can make the payments.
• Some are walking away. Leaving the house for the bank after having trying to do everything they could to save their credit rating and their home.
• Others are grasping at straws, looking for any possible solution to the mess that they find themselves in.

It is hard to watch people in these situations. Though there are some cases where we can help, especially if the homeowner comes to us early and is willing to face reality. It is awful telling someone that their home isn’t worth anywhere near what they owe on it, even though they often already know it. Or they don’t know it, and they insist that it is worth that number from the refi appraisal 18 months ago.

In the short run, we will all feel the consequences.  Foreclosures hurt the values of other homes in the neighborhood.  Tightened underwriting standards diminishes the pool of home buyers.  Higher interest rates for jumbo loan borrowers means that even those with perfect credit can afford less.

[tags]short sale, foreclosure, owe more than home is worth, mortgage, michigan real estate[/tags]

Exploded ATM by Pat Hawks

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Consumers might not notice this readily, but a different kind of correction is taking place in the Southeast Michigan real estate market: agents are quitting the business.

The exodus in the mortgage industry began some time ago, maybe more than a year. With refi business falling off and purchases at a lower rate, mortgage pros were finding it hard to pay the bills. In recent months, we’ve seen large offices shut down and major players announcing their demise, as the entire mortgage industry faces tumultuous times.

But, until quite recently, Realtors seemed to be able to endure the slowdown, for the most part. I attribute this to a couple of factors.

• First, many Realtors sell homes as a part time job or a second source of income after retirement. The earnings they gain from selling homes is a bonus, or welcomed additional income. When times get tough they are less effected by a reduction in earnings.
• Many Realtors have a spouse who is the primary bread winner, providing medical insurance and other traditional benefits.]

For the first time since Dmitry and I entered the business in 2001, we are seeing experienced and outstanding full time agents leaving the business. Many of them have joined the exodus from Michigan, put their homes up for sale, and moved on to new careers in cities that are not facing the economic challenges that we are facing here.

I am sure I should not be saying this out loud, but this trend upsets me. Like many of the good agents I see leaving, Dmitry and I have only one source of income to support our family: selling homes. As we have long told our sellers, “we are as motivated as you are to sell your home.” But I worry less about us personally than I do about the choices that could be left for consumers as experienced professionals leave the area.

Admittedly, the Metro Detroit real estate market has more Realtors than it needs. The market can afford to lose some agents. But this business is not necessarily the perfect model of capitalism, rewarding those who are best at their jobs. If it were, I would not have seen some of those agents who I considered to be excellent at this job leave Michigan recently.

Often Realtors are rewarded for being in the right place at the right time, or just for showing up. Consumers hire their Aunt Tilly to assist with a purchase without concern that Tilly has never been to Oakland County, let alone sold a home here.

This is all part of the consumer’s right to chose. However, I am left thinking that consumer would be better served with a few less choices. I don’t say that because I want less competition. I actually would just like to see the level of professionalism in this industry elevated. I am all for increasing the continuing education requirements for retaining a license in Michigan. The 6 hours we need now is inadequate, as is the 40 hours of coursework we take in order to handle most people’s largest financial transaction of their life. Of course, with the challenges our state faces at the moment, I admit that a change in real estate licensing law is not the highest priority.

My thought for the consumers who read this post: choosing your Realtor is one of the most important decisions you will make in buying or selling a home. Make an informed decision. There are lots of us out there, but we were not all created equally.

[tags]metro detroit real estate, metro detroit realtors, metro detroit real estate market, oakland county realtor[/tags]

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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When the news popped up in my feed reader this morning that President Bush was making an announcement today about plans for the FHA and assistance for those facing foreclosure, I decided maybe it was time to discuss something going on in Washington because this actually does have a great impact on South East Michigan. It is, by no means, a cure-all to our woes, but it will give a many people who are struggling to make their mortgage payments some hope. And potentially it will relieve a few who have already lost their homes to short-sales from a significant IRS tax burden that follows the forgiven debt.

Outlined in Bush’s plan:

• 1. The President Calls On Congress To Pass Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Modernization Legislation. The President’s FHA modernization proposal would lower down payment requirements, allow FHA to insure bigger loans, and give FHA more pricing flexibility. These reforms would empower FHA to reach more families that need help – first-time homebuyers, minorities, and those with low-to-moderate incomes – and offer more options to homeowners looking to refinance their existing mortgage.
  • The Administration Will Also Launch A New FHA Initiative Called “FHASecure.” The President has asked Secretary Jackson to pursue important administrative changes to give FHA the flexibility to help more families stay in their homes during this time of transition in the mortgage market. The FHASecure program will help people who have good credit but who have not made all of their payments on time because of rising mortgage payments. For the first time, FHA will be able to offer many of these homeowners an option to refinance their existing mortgage so they can make their payments and keep their homes. FHA will also charge mortgage insurance premiums based on the individual risk of each loan, using traditional underwriting standards, so it can expand access and help even more families.

• 2. The President Calls On Congress To Change A Key Housing Provision Of The Federal Tax Code So It Does Not Punish Families Who Are Forced To Sell Their Homes For Less Than Their Mortgage Is Worth. Current tax law counts canceled mortgage debt on primary residences as taxable income. For example, if the value of a home declines and $20,000 of the homeowner’s loan is forgiven, the tax code treats that $20,000 as taxable income. The President proposes temporary relief to ensure that canceled mortgage debt on a primary residence is not counted as income.

• 3. The President Announced That The Administration Will Launch A New Foreclosure Avoidance Initiative To Help Struggling Homeowners Find A Way To Refinance. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will reach out to a wide variety of groups that offer foreclosure counseling and refinancing for American homeowners. These groups include community organizations like NeighborWorks, mortgage lenders and loan servicers, FHA, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The goal of this initiative is to expand mortgage financing options, identify homeowners before they face hardships, help them understand their financing options, and allow them to find a mortgage product that works for them.

Details still need to be worked out on these initiatives, and it appears that the Whitehouse is still looking for more ways to help consumers looking at losing their homes. They have stated that they are not looking to bail out Wall Street or the institutions who offered these loans.

We’ve personally seen a huge upsurge in the number of foreclosed properties in our market. The economy is hurting and bad things are happening to good people. But we are also seeing instances where banks were defrauded by people who knew better and participated in illegal scams to rob unsuspecting lenders. Money was easy to get, and now the banks are finding it is harder to collect.

2 weeks ago we did our first FHA loan in a couple of years. Those loans had fallen out of favor to cheaper 80/20′s and other hybrids that were churning along home sales. Now we are headed back a few years to tighter underwriting and government guarantees. I was happy that the FHA was there to back this recent buyer, and I feel more assured that the deal will go forward as we have already made it through the once dreaded FHA inspection. I suspect that I will be doing more FHA deals this year, which is fine with me. Glad to have that tool in the box.

[tags]fha, mortgage, foreclosure, tax relief, short sale, george bush[/tags]

Photo by James & Vilija

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Read on for a great piece from a new blog.  Jay found it first.

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Our daughter, Katya, was born into a family where both of her parents work together as Realtors. As such, she has no idea what it is like to have parents with “normal jobs”, where they stop working when they get home for the day, don’t answer business calls after 6, have weekends that consist of family time; all have dinner together, and other things that the rest of the world does that we don’t.

She likes driving by the homes that we have been entrusted to market and she has been known to tell her grandmother with pride, “That’s my mother’s listing.” She has told me exactly what it will be like when we move, after our house gets “old.” Clearly she does not understand that we are not moving just because moving is going on around her all the time.

Since she was born, Katya has popped in and out of the office with us when we need to pick up papers or take care of something quickly. She is quite comfortable there, and our colleagues have been wonderfully tolerant.

Today Katya told me she loves the office. When our quick stop in was nearly foiled by the construction job in our parking lot, Katya burst into tears and suggested that we park in the nearby ramp. She remembers quite clearly that last week, after her birthday, she collected cash from generous people who gifted her with dollar bills to spend as she pleased. The money was spent that night on ice cream for her family. What’s not to like about a place that gives out money just for showing up, right? I think Katya might think that people will give her money every time she shows up.

Then there is her friend “Haack.” Kathy Haack has a treat drawer that Katya feels very comfortable opening even if Kathy is not there to offer. She knocks on Sara Lipnitz’s door hoping for a chat with Sara and some gum. Will Bev McCotter have a surprise for her? Does Mike Cotter have any cookies? Is Luca Leftwich (Kathryn’s pug) around for a little fun? Does Gloria have any crackers? Is Patty going to let her type or play with anything behind the desk? Will Candace Konen share something from her locked treat drawer?

On a good day, the answers to most of these questions is yes. It really just depends who is around.

I guess I can see why a four your old thinks that being a Realtor is a GREAT thing.

PS. That picture is not Katya.

[tags]maureen francis, michigan realtor, skbk sotheby’s[/tags]

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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Kate is a sophisticated buyer. She is scouring listings, knows prices per square foot better than I do, and seems to be reading lots of sites and blogs looking for more information. In one of her recent posts she picked on me and my recent Staging Your Refrigerator blog as she thought that was rather trivial advice for a seller in Michigan’s challenging real estate market.

IF that were all I had to say on how to sell a Michigan home right now, I would agree. But I have a large archive of information written especially for the Michigan home seller, and I have some of my better advice (in my not so humble opinion) stashed away in Dear Mr and Mrs Seller. Kate did not have a chance to delve deeper into my blog to see those things, which is OK.

I’ve rather enjoyed reading Kate’s blog, particularly because I learn something by hearing a consumer’s perspective on this industry. Kate dissects MLS listings, and when the listing agent does a down right cruddy job at presenting a home, Kate is quick to point it out. Rightfully so. I’ve wished that I could do that with listings I run across here, but I don’t think that would go over so well from a fellow Realtor. Yet agents seem to know that Kate has highlighted them, and it seems that they go and update their listings after Kate’s not so gentle prod. Not that Kate should even have to prod these professionals…

So, go take a look at Kate’s Fifth of May Blog and be glad you are not living her search for a home. Kate, it is MUCH easier to be a home buyer in Michigan right now. I could offer you LOTS of great choices in your price range. As a bonus updated kitchens here do not have 6″ ceramic tile countertops in the $800K range.

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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But what can we do about the fall off in attendance? Should we do anything? The Birmingham Bloomfield Realtor Network has gone to truly elaborate ends since last November to coax agents in to our listings. Sponsors have given away lots of goodies, we served food, we’ve offered shopping. And the results have been good. But there is no way we could do this any more than once a month. It is too labor intensive, and if it were done more frequently people would stop showing up, because it would become ordinary.

Yet regular open houses and broker opens are getting almost no attendance. It is frustrating to sit there for three hours and have nobody show up. 3 of our most recent 4 open houses have had nobody at all show up.

I have long wondered how important it is that people or agents come to these open houses. Yes, buyers and agents need to see homes in order to buy them. But I have the feeling that on-line marketing is beginning to replace much of the schlepping around that we all used to do prior to a home sale. Homes are certainly getting eliminated and selected based on photographs and other methods of marketing. We know that our listings are getting viewed on the web because we can track the hits to the sites where we showcase them. If people are interested, they will schedule a showing when they want to see it, not during the random 3 hours that we happen to be sitting there.

There is the convenience factor too. My websites are open for 24/7 viewings. No need to schedule with the other agent and the home owner to find a convenient time for everyone. Just visit or Oakland County MI real estate site or our Birmingham MI real estate site and you will find lots of information about our listings and all the MLS listings as well. I am officially declaring the death of the Sunday open house.

[tags]open houses, marketing homes[/tags]

photo by Macieklew

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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I was not there for the conversation but a couple of things come to mind.

First, 99.9% of real estate agents in Michigan are independent contractors. Our real estate licenses are kept with one broker who is responsible for supervising us. But we act very independently, and there is little that can be done to ensure that all of the agents working for one broker live up to one high set of standards. Unfortunately, that is just a reality of the way this business is structured. If you go to a McDonald’s Restaurant anywhere in the world, you can expect that the burger will taste pretty much the same. But if you go to a Re/Max, Century 21, or, for that matter, even a Sotheby’s International Realty, you cannot be assured that all of the agents are the same within that brand. So if Simon got bad advice from one agent from a particular brand, he should not write off the whole company.

Second, the market was so different a few years ago that paying asking price might have been not at all unreasonable. Basically almost anyone who bought a home in Southeast Michigan in the last few years and wants to sell it now would be lucky to get back what they paid for that. Even in a more normal market it is rare to recover all the costs of selling a home in the first few years after purchasing. We are not in a normal market.

Third, hindsight is 20/20. Simon got the home he wanted at a price he agreed to pay. Unfortunately the market did not keep up.

I am sure there is much more to the Simon story. I never like hearing that a consumer was dissatisfied with the services of any Realtor. But I do recognize that in the course of the hundreds of thousands of real estate transactions that take place every year, there is lots of room for disagreement.

I have long advocated a change in the way the Michigan licenses real estate agents, and I would be thrilled to see an increase in training requirements not only for new licensees but for those with existing licenses. As it stands today, a new agent in the state of Michigan only needs to take 40 hours of coursework and then pass a relatively easy exam. This pales in comparison to the state’s requirements for getting a license to cut hair or give a manicure, and yet a real estate licensee is typically overseeing someone’s largest single financial transaction of their life. A real estate license renewal requires nothing more than sitting through a six hour class every year.

I know that Governor Granholm has bigger fish to fry right now than looking at the real estate industry. Still, I would like to see it addressed in order to better protect Michigan consumers. But even if we do raise industry standards, Simon, and every other consumer, will need to do a bit of due diligence of his own before he engages the services of a real estate licensee. Just because Aunt Tilly took the classes and got the license, that does not mean she is the best one to represent you. Caveat emptor and caveat venditor.

[tags]michigan real estate license[/tags]

Photo by Zesmerelda

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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I am assuming his source of information is a factually incorrect post on the Birmingham Buzz, in which John McTaggart claims that 11% of Birmingham is for sale based on statistics he found on Realtor.com. I will attempt to set the record straight here.

Some real estate brokerages in Birmingham use two mls’s, MiRealSource and Realcomp. If a home is entered in to both mls’s then it appears twice on Realtor.com, thus falsely inflating the number of homes on the market. Realcomp is clearly the primary mls service provider of choice for Birmingham brokerages, and if one wants correct market statistics Realcomp should be the source of information.

I checked Realcomp this morning and found that there are 727 homes and condos for sale in Birmingham. This is 7.96% of the 9,131 households in McTaggart’s article, and a far cry from the 11% figure that made his headline. Realcomp’s public record data, which is a different database than the MLS information, actually shows me that there are 8,938 households in Birmingham, so I would need to verify this base number with the city.

Regardless, I would be happy to provide accurate real estate statistics to the Buzz any time they need them. Our economy faces enough challenges right now that we do not need to have public officials overstating the issue based on faulty statistics.

[tags]birmingham mi, birmingham mi real estate market, birmingham mi home sales, birmingham buzz[/tags]

Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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