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Tag Archives: buyers

Change to Local Market Reports

Monday, 05 September 2011 08:00
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Image representing Zillow as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

As a real estate agent, I run across a lot of cool tools.  Some of them are great for me to better read the markets and help buyers and sellers to accomplish their goals.  Other tools are great for consumers to use while making decisions about buying or selling a home.

I always recommend that both buyers and sellers look at the local market where they are buying or selling.  It has a tremendous bearing on whether prices are on the rise or falling, as well as what the competitive environment might be.  Looking at a solid CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) for the home (that they are selling or looking at buying) is a great start… but it doesn’t give the wide picture.

 

Map of Georgia highlighting Gwinnett County

Image via Wikipedia

Many buyers and sellers turn to AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) to get an idea of the value of a home.  Probably the most well known of these would be the Zillow Zestimate.  I have written about Zillow and their Zestimates a few times.  Zestimates are amazing tools… within the bounds of their limitations.

 

While I would quickly point out that Zestimates are a very limited tool in regards to pegging the value of a particular property, one thing I will point out just as quickly is that the Zestimates have given Zillow an amazing database of historical and current home values.  And while individual Zestimates are seldom right, I feel that their compiled data is quite accurate (1 house is too small a sample size to be accurate, but 10,000 houses can make them very accurate in pegging the market in general).

I will be incorporating Zillow’s Local Area Indexes into my Market Reports moving forward.  I think that they are a valuable tool for you, the consumer, to better assess the market value of homes that you might be considering.  Look for charts like this one for various areas within Gwinnett as part of market reports.

Atlanta Metro Zillow Home Value Index

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Wayback Wednesday… Bankrupt Subdivisions… Good Deal?

Wednesday, 31 August 2011 08:00
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Sign of the times - Foreclosure

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Two years ago, I wrote about some of the pros and cons of buying a home in a ‘distressed’ subdivision.  While there aren’t quite as many builder foreclosure properties as there were a couple of years ago, there are resales coming into the market now from people that bought builder foreclosures.

As with many things, all that is old is new again.  I’m hearing from buyers more than any time in the last year and a half that they are thinking about buying a home in an abandoned subdivision.

As I said in the original post, there are both pros and cons.  It would be a great post to go back and read.

Oddly, a couple of months after writing the post, I got a call from a local TV station that wanted to interview me on camera regarding this situation with a specific subdivision.  Unfortunately, I was on vacation with my family and out of town.  I wasn’t important enough to warrant a satellite interview…

Homes had originally been marketed at $600k to $800k in the neighborhood.  As the market started to slide, the prices offered by the builder started to drop.  They weren’t able to sell many units though.  Eventually, the bank took over and was selling the homes in the $400k to $500k range.  Just after the last existing home had been sold, another builder bought the remaining lots and began selling homes under $300k.

Some of the owners in the neighborhood that had purchased at higher prices were VERY upset with the builder and everyone else involved.  One owner had purchased for just over $800k, and needed to relocate.  Her house was not likely to sell for much over half that.

The bottom line is that there is potential for a VERY good deal… and there are some major pitfalls that could make that deal go very sour.  Step in with your eyes wide open…

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School Has Started… Moving Season Must Be Over. Or IS It?

Monday, 29 August 2011 08:00
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Etchingham School 1946

Image by ttelyob via Flickr

I get a similar question every year about this time…  Many buyers (and some sellers) worry that after school has started it must be too late to move their kids if there is a school change involved.  The feeling is that it is rough to move kids during the school year because the classes might not be in sync… students may be learning different things.

A few years ago, I ran across an article by a Child Psychologist.  (I wish I could locate the article again…).  In it, she stated that kids actually cope best with a move during the school year, and the best time during the school year to move is at the very beginning.  The theory behind that timing is that it puts the kids right into the situations that will most easily allow them to meet new friends.

Since I am NOT a Child Psychologist, I can’t comment on the psychological effects from a medical standpoint.  However, when I was a kid, we moved a few times, including cross-town moves and one from Michigan to Virginia.  All of our moves happened during the summer…  My Dad was a school teacher, so move coincided with his contract renewals…  And each time, I recall that I didn’t really begin making friends in earnest until school started.

Just this year, our family moved…  And we did it right after the end of the school year.  Had we been able to influence the timing of our move more, we might have tried to push it back to the beginning of the school year.  We did consider making the move shortly before the end of the school year, but it wasn’t practical for us.

The result was that my older son spent the majority of the summer not really knowing many kids in the new neighborhood.  He met a couple of them at the pool or riding bikes in front of the house…  but for the most part, he didn’t meet many new kids.  Granted, he had a VERY busy summer.  But by the end of the first day of school, he was much more integrated in the neighborhood.  In fact, after school, he was out riding his bike with all of his new friends…

So, don’t just assume that kids can’t effectively move during the school year.  It might actually be easier on them socially.  Educationally is a different matter.  In some cases, it might be very easy.  In others, it could be a tough transition for the child.  However, the same could be true in moving during the summer.  Moving into or out of a district that is very performance oriented can be a total shock for someone coming out of or going into a more laid back district or school.

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Wayback Wednesday… Police Response, 15 Minutes…

Wednesday, 24 August 2011 08:00
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Special Response Team of the US Mint Police

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Every job has it’s hazards, and one of the ones we face in real estate is the occasional police call…  and my last one was two years ago this week.  It was an alarm.  It has happened a couple of times.

It actually happened twice on the same house on different days.  I wrote the post, and then we went back out to look at the house a second time… my buyer was pretty serious about it.  The seller had actually changed the code between our visits.  So, even though I had left the information in the lockbox (per the Listing Agent’s request) it was wrong.  The seller also didn’t bother to tell the agent that they had changed the code. Gee… thanks.

On the second call, the exact same officer showed up.  He didn’t even stop the car.  Rather, he recognized us, made a radio call and just rolled by, waving to us out of the window.  I guess we had made him pretty comfortable with us on the previous visit.

Should I also mention that the house was vacant and cleaned out?  There wasn’t much to steal… but vandals could have had a field day stripping out copper.  I understand the fears on the part of the seller, but they were actually making it difficult to show their home.

For sellers, the piece of advice I would pass along is this…  Make your house easy to show.  Communicate with your agent if you are changing alarm codes, and trust your agent to have a fail-safe code if the normal one is lost. 

 

Picture of the

Image via Wikipedia

For buyers, I would say this…  Stuff happens.  Keep a cool head.  Your agent should be cool under pressure, too, but ii helps if you aren’t flipping out.  

 

And for other agents…  You are the pro.  Don’t get flustered.  Getting angry won’t help.  No person involved in this little event woke up that morning looking to pee in your oatmeal.  Stuff just happens.  If it is an alarm, walk outside, relax, gather up any papers you might need and stay in view.  Keep your buyers calm and with you. 

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Mortgage Rates Lowest in 50 Years… according to Freddie Mac

Friday, 19 August 2011 08:00
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Freddie Mac

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Freddie Mac issued their Primary Mortgage Market Survey yesterday, and the rates are unbelievable.  Let me click off a few quotes from the Press Release.

30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.15 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending August 18, 2011, down from last week when it averaged 4.32 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.42 percent.

15-year FRM this week averaged 3.36 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.50 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.90 percent.

5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.08 percent this week, with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.13 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.56 percent.

1-year Treasury-indexed ARMaveraged 2.86 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.89 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 3.53 percent.

I guess that is the upside of economic stagnation.  And when combined with the amazing prices on homes in the market right now, it makes for a GREAT time to buy property.  Assuming that you don’t have to sell first.

And that is the flip side.  Many would be buyers are sidelined because they can’t afford to sell their current home.  The best they can hope for is to re-finance with the low rates… of course, that isn’t helping those that have a need to relocate.

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