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Birmingham Farmer’s Market Season Kicks Off

May 30, 2008 by 1 Comment

Birmingham MI Farmers Market

Look for me Sunday morning, perusing the wonderful offerings at the Birmingham Farmer’s Market.  The season kicks off at 9 am in the parking lot on Old Woodward at the end of Harmon, kitty corner from Booth Park.

The organizers have done a GREAT job with the farmer’s market since it started, and I know they have lots of fun events planned for this season.

The Birmingham Bloomfield Realtor Network is happy to be sponsoring the farmer’s market this year, and we will have members there 5 Sundays to chat with you.

Filed Under: Birmingham MI Real Estate, Things to do Tagged With: ,

Good Things Come to Those Who Don’t Wait

May 27, 2008 by 4 Comments

In the last few weeks we got an offer on a new listing within 6 days of it hitting the market. Not bad, huh? For all the bad things you hear about the Southeast Michigan real estate market right now, there are lots of stories that are not sexy enough to make it in the main steam media.

I’ve long done anecdotal market reports here on miOaklandCounty.com. Before the stats come in from Realcomp, I tell you what I am seeing out there on the street. In the last few weeks, I have been seeing A LOT.

  • SKBK Sotheby’s reported that it had it’s best month in 4 years in April. That means 10′s of millions of real estate transacted in Oakland County (with Sotheby’s agents driving those sales).
  • Dmitry and I are having our best year ever. I don’t say this to brag, but to let you know that homes here are selling in spite of what your neighbors are telling you.
  • I’ve been trying to find a NEW spec home in Birmingham for a client who is in the $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 range and the pickings are slim. We have a couple of great choices, but inventory is low. I see an opportunity in that segment of the market, once the builders are ready to take the risk again.
  • We are still seeing strong rental activity, but it looks like rental prices are heading up.
  • We have had/been involved with multiple offer situations on at least 6 or 7 properties this Spring. Buyers are competing when a property is well priced.
  • This winter, rentals dominated the transactions in the MLS. Sales have clipped way up in the last few months and have passed the rentals.

Certainly our market still has some challenges brought on by the broader economy and the mortgage market, but we are seeing a surge in activity. Prices have continued to trend down. But, most people don’t realize that a market has shifted until a few months after the best opportunities have passed. I don’t have a crystal ball to know when that might be, but my gut tells me that we are in the midst of a shift.

Filed Under: Metro Detroit Tagged With: ,

Listing Agent More Valuable Than Ever!

May 22, 2008 by 2 Comments

There has been a lot of buzz out there this year about how mortgage brokers created the current crisis in mortgage lending.  Say it isn’t so!  Well, it isn’t.

Mortgage brokers can only work within the framework of guidelines set up by the investors (banks) who buy loans from them. The bank sets down rules for minimum credit score, max loan to value, documentation requirements, etc. Mortgage brokers do not approve loans. They fit customers into programs that investor banks offer.  Barring actual fraud on behalf of the broker it’s the bank that decides if a borrower is credit worthy.

One of the things being talked about right now is inflated appraisals.   A new ruling attempts to address appraisers being influenced by lenders and brokers to come in with a certain value on a property.  There is no doubt that some lenders do try to inflate appraised values to get a loan transaction approved.  However, most lenders, brokers and appraisers are ethical and don’t engage in this type of activity.

This new ruling, dubbed “The Home Valuation Code of Conduct” proposes sweeping changes in the way appraisals are ordered.  Under the new rules lenders and brokers would not be able to directly order an appraisal in a loan transaction.  The lender / broker would not be able to use a trusted appraiser for a home purchase or refinance transaction.  The appraisal would likely be ordered though an appraisal clearing house and would be farmed out to the next appraiser on the clearing houses list.  Like any other business there are good and bad appraisers but we would have no say in who did the job!  Appraisals are not an exact science and the same property might appraise by different people with as much as a 15% swing in value.  So your $200,000 sale could appraise for as much as $230,000 or as little as $170,000.

This could really throw a monkey wrench into your home buying or selling plans.

The only person who will unquestionably get a chance to talk to the appraiser is the LISTING AGENT.  The Listor will have an opportunity to present the most relevant sales data to the appraiser when the property inspection is done.  So, you home sellers should List your property with a Realtor who has excellent market knowledge and can help to facilitate the successful valuation of the home.   A top notch Listing Agent is going to be more important than ever if these proposed changes are adopted, so, you home owners who are ready to sell make sure you interview your agent to ensure they have a solid understanding of the value of your home based on relevant and recent sales data.  It may be the difference between getting your sale to the closing table or not!

Filed Under: Finance, Ken Mascia on Mortgages and Finance Tagged With: , , ,

Birmingham Bassett Hound Parade

May 18, 2008 by 4 Comments

In typical Michigan fashion, we experienced hail, rain, wind and bright sunshine all within an hour span. The weather did not prohibit all who turned out for today’s parade from having a great time.

I just realized I did not get any pictures of the Bassett Hounds! Next year…

Filed Under: Birmingham MI Real Estate Tagged With: , ,

$100 Well Spent: Inspect the Sewer!

May 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment

For years now, we have been recommending that buyers have the sewer scoped during their home inspection period. For about $100, a guy named Dave and his colleague show up, head down the basement and stick a camera on the end of a long cable all the way down the sewer line until they hit the city pipes. When the buyer isn’t there, they make me watch it, or they make a video.

This week Dave found a sewer with a big sag in it in a house one of my buyers had under contract. He recommended that the line be replaced. That, among other things, was more than the buyer wanted to take on.

Birmingham, in particular, has negotiated some great savings on sewer replacement for it’s homeowners. If you are a Birmingham homeowner, be sure to call the city for information.

I was driving through the Rail District today and I saw two homes within a block of each other with freshly dug up front yard, a sure sign of a new sewer line.

As this week’s prospective purchaser wisely noted: “I would be really bummed if I had to spend eight grand on a new sewer. Nobody sees it. A new bathroom, now that is something different…”

A bad sewer does not have to be a deal breaker in a home inspection, but you should know what you are getting into.

Filed Under: Buyer Information, Metro Detroit Tagged With: , ,

HGTV: “The #1 Biggest Real Estate Mistake is Failing to Stage”

May 12, 2008 by 9 Comments

HGTV recently aired a special program entitled “25 Biggest Real Estate Mistakes” which featured experts in all aspects of real estate: agents, mortgage lenders, home inspectors, flippers and stagers. The experts opined about the top reasons a listing lags on the market. Catch the full list here. Better yet, watch for a rerun on HGTV.

The usual suspects were included:

  • overpricing the house,
  • not providing easy access for showings,
  • FSBO,
  • overdoing the remodeling for the area,
  • not marketing your property, etc.

The #1 Biggest Real Estate Mistake?? “Failing to Stage and Showcase Your Home.” This validates the home stagers of the world!

A quote from the HGTV website:

“When you are selling your house, you have to really look at it objectively and think about it from the viewpoint of the house hunter. Make minor enhancements to the house and maybe hire a professional stager to come and arrange your furniture. Staging is about decorating your house for the buyers’ taste, not yours. A great place to start is with the front of the home and the main entryway. Home staging is designed to increase the potential selling price and reduce the amount of time the house stays on the market.”

There you have it. Stage those listings! It is the most efficient and cost-effective marketing tool available to Realtors and home sellers.

Go Tigers!

Filed Under: Marianne Sweet on Home Staging Tagged With: ,

It’s Sunday, I am a Mother and a Realtor, and I am NOT doing an Open House

May 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Oakland County (and farther afield) mothers out there. Gloomy as our weather here may be, I hope it is a special day for all.

We’ll now return to our regularly scheduled real estate discussions. There is a Mother’s Day tie-in since today is Sunday, open house day across America.

Recently, on one of the many listing appointments we were on in the last month, a seller asked me about our planned schedule for doing open houses at his home. Somehow, in my presentation on how the lion’s share of buyers are searching the Internet for homes and that our marketing strategy offers about the best Internet marketing available to home sellers in the Metro Detroit area, I left off the basics about open houses.

Open houses are old school…

The number one thing open houses do is give the Realtor access to potential buyers… of other people’s houses. Afterall, the people who come through open houses typically don’t even know the price of the home they are coming into, so they are not qualified buyers. Often they are curious neighbors or people who just like to check out decorating styles. Yes, some are qualified buyers, but it 8 years of holding what seems like close to a thousand open houses, we have sold exactly 2 of the homes we were in from the effort That makes the odds pretty low.

My time marketing your home can be better spent than holding it open

You are better off with me spending 3 hours getting great pictures, building a virtual tour, building a web site for your home and syndicating your home to all of the sites we use. Actually all that takes a lot longer than 3 hours, but we see a higher payoff from the efforts. We are contacted by QUALIFIED buyers and their agents. The buyers have seen about 25 photos of your home, so they have a good sense of what they are getting into before they even cross the threshold.

If open houses are central to your agent’s strategy to sell your home, you either have a very special situation (I can’t imagine what it is, but I will leave room for the possibility) or your agent might be without better tools in his home marketing toolkit.

Filed Under: Luxury Homes, Metro Detroit, Seller Information Tagged With: , ,

Metro Detroit Home Sales UP for the 4th Consecutive Month

May 6, 2008 by 1 Comment

Yes, that headline is correct. Sales are up over last year for the fourth month in a row, according to our MLS, Realcomp II. We’ve told you, we are seeing a lot of activity, and we are busier than ever. Spring has sprung! Here is Realcomp’s report

.

  • Yesterday I tried to show 4 Birmingham homes. Two of them went under contract over the weekend. The third was a short sale and there is an offer in it too. The 4th was just put up for rent and sale, and a tenant had put in an application. So we will keep looking because others got there before we did.
  • An agent who I respect enormously for his market knowledge and decades of experience said to me last week, “2008 will be the year that people look back and wish they had bought a new home.” I think he is right.
  • That said, a seller still needs to be aggressive in pricing a home and completely on top of making sure it is in the best possible condition. Especially with homes that have already experienced a long marketing history. We just had a stager go into two homes and I am excited about relaunching them now that they have been freshened up and repriced.
  • Buyers, there is nothing wrong with paying full price or more. Sometimes the house is actually worth more than the list price. You might miss out on a great house because you’ve been told that your first offer in this market needs to be low. Agents from throughout South East Michigan are all telling me that they are seeing multiple offers on the best properties this Spring (if it is well priced and in great condition…)

Want to know more? Give us a call.

Filed Under: Beverly Hills MI Real Estate, Birmingham MI Real Estate, Bloomfield Hills MI Real Estate, Buyer Information, Market Updates, Metro Detroit, Royal Oak MI Real Estate, Seller Information, Troy MI Real Estate, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

11 Things About Buying A Short Sale Property In Michigan

May 5, 2008 by 11 Comments

In today’s Metro Detroit real estate market, there is almost no way a prospective buyer cannot run into a few short sale properties or foreclosures during a home search. Each is much different from a standard “retail” home purchase where you are working with Susie and Sam Seller, their agent and your agent.

In a short sale you have at least one other interested party: the bank. Quite often you have two banks if there is a first and a second mortgage. You may also have bankruptcy courts and lawyers, but we will leave those for another post.

  1. Typically, your first round of negotiations is with the home owner. Once they have arrived at a written agreement with you, they will submit a short sale package to the bank(s) for consideration. A complete short sale package will include things like your offer and preapproval, a current CMA, the seller’s financial statement, hardship letter, tax returns, a seller’s net sheet and w2′s.
  2. The bank(s) will send out an independent agent to provide a broker’s price opinion. This will give the bank a better sense of if the offer is reasonable or not.
  3. You will usually have a lot of waiting and uncertainty to deal with. Hopefully your patience will be rewarded with a speedy approval, but be prepared for a wait.
  4. The bank can counter the offer you have with the seller. If they feel the property is worth more, they might ask you to come up in price.
  5. Some sellers will continue showing the home and presenting other offers to the bank after they have accepted yours. Have your agent ask the seller’s agent what he plans to do once your offer has been accepted just so you know.
  6. If a sheriff’s sale is scheduled while your offer is being reviewed, the listing agent can ask to have it postponed until after your closing date.
  7. If the sheriff’s sale has already taken place, you need to close before the redemption period expires or the deal is off.
  8. The listing agent is very important in a short sale. She will be contacting the banks on regular basis for status updates and to keep the file moving. I have been known to call a couple of times a day. Or fax. Or email. Or all 3…
  9. The seller may have some extra emotions associated with this sale since it has likely been a stressful experience. They’ve probably been dealing with the bank and difficult personal financial issues for months.
  10. I typically write my buyer’s purchase contracts so that they do not have to pay for things like home inspections or appraisals until AFTER the bank has provided approval.
  11. The reward can be worth the wait for those buyers who have the patience and nerves.

I’ve learned a lot from each short sale we’ve completed. Every bank is different. Every loss mitigation officer is different. Most are overworked and underpaid. Being nice, and presenting a complete package go a long way.

Short sales are here to stay for a while. You can steer clear, if the uncertainty is not for you. Or dive in with your eyes wide opened if you’ve found the home you want.

PS. Dmitry and I have attended numerous training courses on short sales and we are short sale certified.  If you are a Oakland County home seller in need of a short sale, we may be able to assist you.

Filed Under: Buyer Information Tagged With: , ,

East Side Real Estate Blog Launched

May 2, 2008 by 1 Comment

Kris Wales, a great Realtor and blogger, has just launched Chat About Macomb. Take a look. Kris is a great writer with lots of insight about living in Macomb County.

Filed Under: Metro Detroit
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