I am an avid sports fan and when driving around mostly listen to sports radio. I know this is not the only station or medium that is used for advertising, but everyday i hear and ad spot of how luctrative it is for people to buy these foreclosure properties. The ad usually features 2 women talking about one of the friends new home that costs less than the other is paying for rent. I really do not have a problem with this part at all.

 

The advertisment is for a company that sells a lists of foreclosure homes in a specified area. This is what i have a problem with. You see, I have actually seen these lists and checked them against my local MLS. Yes, that's right. All the foreclosure properties on this list are actually listed with Realtors® and are available at no cost if you would simply contact a Realtor® from the get go.and that still is not my biggest problem with these compaines.

As I just stated i checked the status of alot of the properties on these lists and they are far from current. In fact close to half of the properties that they had advertised as available were either sold weeks to months ago or were already in the Pending process. They are charging for information that is not even current, and yet charging you as if they have all these amazing properties for sale wehnin fact they are long gone.

If you a consumer looking to take advantage of this part of the market here is some advice from someone on the inside.

Contact a Realtor® that has experience helping buyers purchase these kind of properties. you see folks the banks now if they want to sell a property for the most amount of $$$ in the least amount of time that need to list with Realtors®. A Realtor® has access to all available homes including foreclosures that they will provide to you at no cost.

Now here is the part that most people run into problems. Some of these properties may not be elgible for financing. they may be in good locations but if things like the roof, or furnace need to be replaced. Most  lender will not back the mortgage. Also there are many investors in the market that are buying with cash in hand and willing and able to close fast.

This is where it will help you again to ire a buyer's agent to represent you so you will be assured the best information and advice available to you.

I hope this message finds you well and hope that it can of help to you, your family and friends, as I encourage you to pass it along to anyone that is thinking of buying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was a very important meeting at the NAR Real Estate Summit in
Washington. The following is an excerpt from that meeting:

"Secretary Donovan (secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development) said that important changes, which the National
Association of Realtors® has been calling for, will help consumers
purchase a home. "We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home
buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the
cash can be used as a downpayment," Donovan said. According to Donovan,
the FHA's approved lenders will be permitted to "monetize" the tax
credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home
buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table."

What does this mean for you? First Time Buyers may in fact be able to
benefit from an up and coming change in the way the $8,000 tax credit is
used for the purpose of purchasing a home. We just may see the chance
for a borrower to use the $8,000 at the point of sale!!!

More to come, please stay tuned...

AND: please call me if you have any questions!!! I love talking about real estate.

I was writing a blog earlier about meeting with a prospective seller that believed his chances were better of saving money with a Flat Fee, MLS only agent vs. going with a full service agent.

This got me thinking of the true stats that these companies actually delivered and I wanted to share them here.

This is a study of the top 3 Flat Fee providers in Milwaukee WI

Milwaukee Area Flat Fee service Stats

I will not include any names here.

This is based on the #1 flat fee in our area.

380 homes listed

59 Sold

only 15.5% actually sold

Of those that were lucky enough to get an offer the average sold price was 8% lower than the asking price. 

This is from the #2 Flat Fee only company

100 homes listed

16 sold

Only 16% actually sold

Of those that were lucky enough to get an offer the average sold price was 5.4% lower than the asking price.  the average in our MLS sold for 95.2%.

This last companies very well known and offer an Ala carte service where you can add more services later if you wish. You may have seen their magazines.

138 homes Listed

41 Sold

29% Actually Sold

Of those that were lucky enough to get an offer the average sold price was 4.5% lower than the asking price. 

I attribute this to the customers that actually stayed with this company and eventually opted for more services(which usually costs more in the end than listing with a full service agent from the get go) vs, the majority who felt like the were handed the old bait an switch and went off to list with a real full service agent.

The important thing to note is all of these companies charge an up-front fee of at least $400. For some companies this can be quite lucrative, because all they provide is MLS access. In honesty they could really care if the home sells or not, since there is no incentive for them. In fact if your home does not sell and you re-list with them would be even better since you will be paying them again, and they can keep their sign in your yard and they can continue to receive buyer calls where they can show and sell buyers other homes than yours, where they can actually make an average commission. (Not all Flat Fee Companies advertise their numbers or operate this way but many do)

If you are just testing the waters, and are not committed to selling and live with a 16% of selling your home while you have to do more leg work this might be the best route to go. But be advised the buyers and agents viewing your home know you are not paying the other half of commission and thus is usually deducted from the offer to purchase. All this extra work you are doing and money you are trying to save is going right to the buyer.

If you are serious about selling, contact a full service agent like myself that can show you how full representation can work to your advantage. Because 90% of our listings sell and we average 98.7% of list to sales price.

Well after running around a late afternoon I thought it would be best to hit the phones for a bit before calling it a day. So i was calling on some expired listings when i came across a client that had recently built and was planning a move to their retirement home far far away.

The Gentleman made it clear that he has already told a number of agents that have called before me that he and his wife had no interest in hiring a full service agent or paying 6%.

He also informed me that they were not the most motivated people and that they did not want to get locked into any kind of contract. But at the same time would rather move now instead of waiting for the market to rebound in their favor.

So dug a little deeper and found that they really did not understand that when you list all brokers work together.

He was pretty adamant about renewing for a Flat Fee, MLS only listing. So I better have a strong case if they were going to be convinced to list their home with me.

OK so here i am looking around for strong arguments on why full service is better, and not really finding anything i like. So the analytical part of me surfaced for a moment, and I decided to pulll the numbers from the flat fee broker in comparison to my own.

I found some very interesting things out.

Flat Fee broker listed close to 100 homes last year. 16 sold

So far so good, by listing with them you only have a 16% chance of selling.

90% of my listings sold last year.

OK lets go a little further of those home that sold the average price was $202k, with out anything selling for more than $300k. MR. & Mrs. Sellers home is $375k. the average selling price for Flat Fee broker was $193k So the Average list to sales price was 95.5%.  Which is not too shabby when our local MLS stats that the average home sold for 95.2%.  However the homes we sold...sold for on average of 98.7%.

And the real kicker was the Flat Fee agent they were listed with is no longer in the business.

So there in the numbers i found some great ammo to go in with:

If really want to sell...is listing with a Flat Fee broker and having a 16% chance good enough?

They don't sell homes like yours, and of the homes that do sell they sell for 94.6% less than listed price. So you do the work and the buyers save more money?

We sell homes like yours, when you list with us you have a 90% chance of selling, we are a full service brokerage that guarantees our service in writing and our listings sell for an average of 98.7% list to sales price.

Let's not even get into how most buyer's agent work on these sales. Most buyer's Agents do not want to work on these sales, since there is a no other agent involved to insure the deal will go through properly as well as the extra legal liability situation the agent is putting themselves in.

Long and short of it, at the very least most buyers and there agents know you are not paying that other percentage to have an agent represent you so, agents like myself usually advise the buyers to knock even more off the offer price. So again it's back to the seller trying to save money and the buyer usually ending up with the savings.

So I guess after the end of the day, if you just plain hate the idea of an agent working for you, and you want to do more work and expose your self to legal liabilities, and at the end of the day end up with the same amount or less than it would cost to hire an agent in the first place, than from these numbers going it alone might be for you.

It might be hard to say that the market is rebounding for sure from the real estate recession but it sure has taking a bounce. either way this really is not the year for buyers to be waiting on the sidelines.

Now that the stimulus has been finalized and the 1st time home buyer tax credit has been offered the phones are starting to buzz quite a bit more in my office and i am expecting quite a bit more as the word gets out.

For those of you buyers out there with steady jobs that really have a low probability of going away, you really can't wait. the rates are amazingly low, and from what i am hearing from most mortgage pros really can't and won't get any better from where they are now. That and a good amount of selection really will go along way. As a buyer the chances of getting into a bidding war on a home are a great deal slimmer, and the prices are at the point where a lot of buyers were looking for years ago. That's right, if you missed the boat before, it's you're time to take advantage now.

As for my report from the trenches; I am seeing and meeting a lot of folks that are now starting to get off the fence and make the move to home ownership, and I have to say that i am seeing prices holding steady and less and less foreclosure homes for sale in desirable areas, and if they do become available there is almost always a bidding war. most recently in fact an associate of mine had some clients that wrote 15k above and still received a rejected offer.

also i am beginning to see new pre-owned homes coming on the market at higher prices than we have seen through the winter are at a hold steady prices. Meaning that the prices really are or will not go down much further besides the occasional fire sale price set by some seller that are looking for bidding wars and fast sales. Hence the bounce. And the sold prices are going up as well.

if you're going by what you see in the headlines of the media you are being mislead. Real estate is very local. And the national stats they usually post are very misleading yet are very effective at getting ratings or selling papers. do your self and decide for yourself if owning would be a better option than renting, and in most cases it always is.

for those of you with homes looking to make a move...look at this logically. obviously you are not going to clear what you wanted but when you make that move up purchase and sell later, it is almost impossible to lose out and on fact you stand a very strong chance of coming out ahead if and when you stay in your home for more than more than 3 years without a re-fi.

none the less how many stimulus packages are we going to see for this industry? If you were waiting for the bottom it's gone, don't miss your chance now. I'm happy to help.

 

Driving around town lately I have been seeing a by owner company advertising on billboards with the headline "Now more than Ever". I could not help but to think to myself that they are exactly right, but not in their favor.

In a tough, buyers market does it really make sense do have less service? Or to pay a fee to a company that could care less if your home sells or not? Or for that matter does it even make sense to hire an agent for a discounted fee, knowing that they will not be giving you a full service package?

The fact of the matter is that most sellers, think what an agent charges will come out of what they will net, without weighing how much it could really cost them by not using a good full service agent. I understand this may sound confusing but I will explain.

Let me put into another context if you were going to buy a new printer and there were 2similar ones for sale, one for 200 and the other for 350. Most would opt for the 200 printer. But what if you found out the 200 printer uses more ink and the replacement cartridges cost $20 more than the 350 model. You can see you may have paid less up front but in the end it really cost you more.

Now more than ever good agents are continuosly honing thier skills and using every tool available to get as much exposure to get their listings sold.

Can folks really afford to have limited exposure, less information, and less representation? Every year around this time of year we start seeing what the median sales price for agent assisted sales compared to FSBO sales. These studies consistently come show that FSBO homes sell from 16%-30% less than Agent assisted sales. To further put this into context in my market, per the MLS the average home sold for 95.20% of List to Sales price. not too shabby right? I studied my numbers in comparison to that and found my listings sold for over 98%.

My point is that I totally understand someone wanting to try and saving some money, and I absolutely believe it is possible to sell a home without an agent, but what you save and what it cost you will not be the same.

 

 

I was working the phones as I do everyday and calling on nice folks that had their listings expire with other agents. And one of the folks I talked to was a guy that had his home listed with a friend at a price where he felt he would be able to pay all the commissions and fees to break even or a little less.

He felt his agent did a good job and that his agent was keeping him informed of other comparable properties in his neighborhood that were selling or coming on the market. Mr. Seller told me felt he was going to need a major price drop to sell, and that he was in the process of moving into his new home. (We all know it's never good to put the cart ahead of the horse) He said he was fine with paying 2 mortgages and was not in a situation for a short sale. He also stated he may be interested in the future of hiring a MLS only broker. But would not be willing to pay a whole commission, and that the price drop alone should get it sold.

Now, I am thinking to myself how I really do empathize with the situation, but at the same time in this market can you really afford not to have a Realtor? I did not want to discourage him against a bare bones service, but could not help thinking in this kind of market folks need really good agents that will pull out all the stops to get people through the door and to write an offer.

Some of the questions I asked were:

if he ever had to make a sacrifice that paid off in the end?

Or if the home did not sell on time, how much more he could possibly lose in carrying costs, before coming around and pricing correctly with a real estate agent. (He felt he had to at least try)

And I admire that, so with that I wished him the best and told him I would keep in touch.

There really are alot more reasons I could have brought up, but I decided to end there.

 

We are all see this more and more, and I'm sure most of you are strongly advising against sellers purchasing another home before their current home is sold. I'd be interested to hear how others are dealing with the situation as sellers or agents.

 

This is something I do every 2 weeks to keep myself up to date on the numbers in the areas I work in. I thought I would post the results for you out there as well.

 These are for single family homes only in the areas I most often work in. I know there are other areas of Milwaukee that I am leaving out. If you have question on a particular area listed below or that I left out, please feel free to contact me.

The system I use is:

____ Active Listings

____ Sold in the last month

____ Month supply (Based on the number of homes sold in last month)

____ New homes (Listed in the last month)

 

Milwaukee County

3665 Active listings

202 Sold

18 Month Inventory

856 Newly Listed homes

Inventory is coming down.

 I like to break it down to the cities of Milwaukee county as well.

Milwaukee

2217 Active Listings

126 Sold

18 Month Inventory

508 New Listings

Cudahy

71 Active

2 Sold

35 Month Inventory

20 New Listings

Franklin

139 Active

9 Sold

15 Months

29 New

 

Glendale

70 Active

1  Sold

70 Months

11 New listings

 

Greendale

27 Active

1 Sold

27 Months

7 New

 

Greenfield

79 Active Listings

8 Sold

10 Month Supply

21 New

Oak Creek

120 Active listings

7 Sold

17 month

28 new

 

South Milwaukee

73 Active

2 Sold

37 Month

18 New listings

 

St. Francis

33 Active

1 Sold

33 month

10 New

 

Wauwatosa

194 Active

9 Sold

22 Month

46 New Listings

 

West Allis

297 Active

14 Sold

21 Months

74 New

 

 

 

 

This is something I do every 2 weeks to keep myself up to date on the numbers in the areas I work in. I thought I would post the results for you out there as well.

 These are for single family homes only in the areas I most often work in. I know there are other areas of Milwaukee that I am leaving out. If you have question on a particular area listed below or that I left out, please feel free to contact me.

The system I use is:

____ Active Listings

____ Sold in the last month

____ Month supply (Based on the number of homes sold in last month)

____ New homes (Listed in the last month)

 

Milwaukee County

3665 Active listings

202 Sold

18 Month Inventory

856 Newly Listed homes

Inventory is coming down.

 I like to break it down to the cities of Milwaukee county as well.

Milwaukee

2217 Active Listings

126 Sold

18 Month Inventory

508 New Listings

 

Cudahy

71 Active

2 Sold

35 Month Inventory

20 New Listings

 

Franklin

139 Active

9 Sold

15 Months

29 New

 

Glendale

70 Active

1  Sold

70 Months

11 New listings

 

Greendale

27 Active

1 Sold

27 Months

7 New

 

Greenfield

79 Active Listings

8 Sold

10 Month Supply

21 New

Oak Creek

120 Active listings

7 Sold

17 month

28 new

 

South Milwaukee

73 Active

2 Sold

37 Month

18 New listings

 

St. Francis

33 Active

1 Sold

33 month

10 New

 

Wauwatosa

194 Active

9 Sold

22 Month

46 New Listings

 

West Allis

297 Active

14 Sold

21 Months

74 New

It's understandable that these numbers might be discouraging if you're considering buying or selling. But is important to keep in mind that January is always the slowest month of the year for Milwaukee real estate. In fact that is why I usually try to spend as much of the month of January on vacation, usually in Mexico.

So from here out we will see improvement for the rest of the year. As you might have heard sales are down, but as this survey shows, the amount of inventory is down about 20-30%. Most home sellers like to list their homes in the spring, so keep in mind that if you're also thinking of waiting, you will also be listing in time to face the most competition.

With market conditions it could take 3-6 months to sell,add to that the 45 days it takes to remove contingencies and you can expect a closing date of around June 15th if you were to list today. So the question is do you want to be sold by then or do you want to start selling then?

Buyers there are tremendous opportunities available in the market, especially when it comes to foreclosure properties. Your time frame is also something to consider. It can usually take about a month to find your new home, and 45-90 days to close. Which would put you on track for a closing in April or May.  Perfect moving weather. There are alot of buyers as well that are waiting for spring as well to start looking for new homes. By waiting you may find yourself bidding on a property against other buyers. Leaving you with less negotiating options.

 

 

 

 

http://BayViewRealEstate4U.com

http://AndrewBaumbach.com

This is something I do every 2 weeks to keep myself up to date on the numbers in the areas I work in. I thought I would post the results for you out there as well.

 These are for single family homes only in the areas I most often work in. I know there are other areas of Milwaukee that I am leaving out. If you have question on a particular area listed below or that I left out, please feel free to contact me.

The system I use is:

____ Active Listings

____ Sold in the last month

____ Month supply (Based on the number of homes sold in last month)

____ New homes (Listed in the last month)

 

 

 

Milwaukee

2252 Active Listings

144 Sold

15 Month Inventory

386 New Listings

Cudahy

68 Active

6 Sold

11 Month Inventory

10 New Listings

Franklin

134 Active

8 Sold

17 Months

13 New

Greendale

28 Active

2 Sold

14 Months

3 New

Greenfield

81 Active Listings

13 Sold

6 Month Supply

20 New

 

Oak Creek

129 Active listings

14 Sold

9 month

22 new

South Milwaukee

75 Active

5 Sold

5 Month

14 New listings

St. Francis

31 Active

2 Sold

15 month

4 New

 

Wauwatosa

200 Active

18 Sold

11 Month

40 New Listings

West Allis

282 Active

20 Sold

14 Months

45 New

There are certainly a lot of opportunities for realistic buyers in this market. Over all inventory is down and the amount of new homes coming on the market is down almost 50%.

It is a great time to be a seller as well, since there are curently less competing homes coming on the market, and sales are increasing every week. Bare in mind we usually expect the amount of new inventory to reach it's peak in July. So by waiting you will be among hundreds of other new listings.

Now is a great time in real estate to make a move. Despite all the negative media reports on the Real Estate market, it's important to remember that all real estate is local.

Milwaukee has really remained a stable place for those purchasing real estate and has actually seen a modest increase of close to 2% of average sold prices, while some other parts of the country are down 5%10%,20% or more.

 http://MilwaukeeRealEstate4U.com

http://BayViewRealEstate4U.com

http://AndrewBaumbach.com

 

Hi gang,

It's been a long time since i spent some time here, or posted a blog. So I have been feeling the need to jump back in the rain.

I feel very lucky to know that there is a great site like this for everyone in the real estate business and those looking for answers is available. I can always think of something I'd like to know more about, or think of something where i'd like to hear others opinions before jumping into something, and this site has really come through for me as well as being a great place to meet new friends and clients.

So what have I been up to? Well for starters I have been feeling the effects of the economy pretty hard. Got lots of debt and not quite enough to pay for it all.  I had a pretty OK 2008 but there is certainly a lot more I need to accomplish in 2009.

Definitely seeing alot of our agents leaving the business this year. I heard in my company alone we have had somewhere between 20-45 agents (out of 200) not renew their board dues. I recently read that nationally 20% of Realtors are quitting. So a lot of us are in the same boat, some worse than others. So I can understand why coughing up around $1,000 every January can make folks re-evalute things.

That being said. I jumped into Real estate in 2004, and got to taste the madness that goes along with selling homes like crazy and now have the experience of a slumping market. So I can honestly say i feel  seasoned on what it takes to sell a home in different housing markets.

I personally feel at least for my own business that 2009 will be a positive step forward. I can't honestly see too many buyers sitting on the sidelines this year with all the opportunities currently available. The prices, the rates, my goodness.

As i stated above the herd is thinning, and i don't want to sound to much like a Darwinist, but i do think that will benefit the agents that are still here that practice professionalism, and operate up to high standards.

Let's face it, there are always going to be folks that need our help, and it's our job to be there for them. These are the times when we can show our worth and value, and laugh about how unnecessary we are viewed by the media in busy years.

In the words of Neil Diamond"Hello again, hello"

See ya around, and if you have a question for me feel free to drop me a line.

 

-Andrew