Sales statistics for Marshall County and the surrounding areas for Sept are as follows....

Currently Active Listings = 914
Currently Pending Sales = 41
Currently Contingent Sales = 42
Sold Properties for Sept = 56
Average Sales Price for Sept = $115,895.00
Average Days on Market = 130
Average Sold Price as Compared to Listed Price = 92%

Contact Karen Harrison for more details on statistics, to list a property or to sell a property  256-226-5062
I look forward to hearing from you!

Are you considering a 2nd home purchase, a weekend get a way, or just that little place in the world that is yours?  Look no further.  Guntersville, Al or Scottsboro, Al is just the place.  Both areas are mountainous and lots of lake properties.  This is a year round destination with beautiful change of seasons, warm summer months, cold winters but not too cold, occassional snow, and gorgeous fall with the tree leaves turning all sorts of beautiful colors.  In the spring there is not a better place to see all the new flowers blooming in a vast array of colors.  There are activities all year long too.  The spring time offers "Art on the Lake", there are lots of hunting and fishing areas for the outdoors people in your family.  The small town of Guntersville offers several unique shops and the town of Scottsboro is a true southern town with the old town square still a large part of that shopping adventure.  For those who like the malls of the big city, Huntsville is only a short 30 - 40 minute drive with different malls, lots of good food and the many attractions of the space and rocket community. 

If you might be interested in looking at some of the properties that may be for sale in any of these great areas visit my web site.  If you would like more information on Guntersville or Scottsboro areas visit Guntersville by clicking here or visit Scottsboro by clicking here.  I hope you find valuable information and decide to give me a call if you come to visit our town.  We hope you will find your 2nd home in our area.

Here on the Gulf Coast of Alabama we mostly deal with investment and 2nd home properties.  In the past when the markets were stable or going through the roof we have never had to deal with short sales of foreclosures.  When a market changes as Realtors all across the country well know, it is a time for new knowledge of how to handle new challenging situations.  I am finding this to be true with short sales.

In my opinion, and I am certainly not an attorney..........but....I believe that if a "seller" "accepts" an offer "contingent on lender approval" that you have an accepted offer until something happens that may cause it to fall through.  It is a contingency just like a mortgage contingency or a walk thru contingency.  Now I realize it is much more complicated and time consuming than that.  I showed a property last week and my buyer wanted to make an offer only to find out that there was another offer out there and the Realtor said "they will present all offers to the bank".  Now if a seller has already accepted an offer are not all other offers only "back up" offers until the first one is either pushed through or denied???  The bank does not own the property, it is still owned by the seller and the seller has accepted the offer.  Sure the seller should be presented with all offers.   Should this property not be listed as "under contract".  It is kind of mis leading to go show a property and get ready to write an offer only to find that there is another offer already in the short sale process. 

This has happened to me one other time.  With that process we were the accepted offer and a higher offer came in and we weren't even offered opportunity of "highest and best" just "hey we have a better offer now and seller is going with that one"...........................  If your seller accepts a regular offer and then gets a higher one (not a short sale) does he have the right to back out and take the higher offer??  I don't think so.

Here is a list of foreclosure condos for sale in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Al. http://tinyurl.com/yhjgpwu  If you would like to be included on my weekly update of foreclosures and sales in the area you can visit my web site at KarensGulfProperties or email me at kjharrison@gulftel.com

We have been seeing many great buys with the many foreclosures for sale along the Gulf Coast of Alabama.  With in the last few weeks those foreclosures have begun to decrease.  Every week I update those who would like to have my weekly report on sales and foreclosures in the area.  For the last few weeks the number of foreclosures are definately down.  If you would like to have a copy of that email and be updated on the sales for the week as well as the available forelosure listings in the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach areas please email me and I will be happy to add your email to the mailing. 

If you want to have a view like this for a relaxing weekend at your leisure or for a permenant residence it is time to buy along the Gulf Coast of Alabama.  The best deals are really getting picked over.  If you would like to be updated on a weekly basis of currently sold prices or foreclosures that area available for sale please send me an email and I will add you to my weekly Gulf Coast Update

I have been working on a short sale since May.  It is now October the 23rd.  It is extremelty frustrating to me, the buyer, the seller, and the other Realtor.  The only people that seem to be content to hold a mortgage that they are now not receiving payment for is the mortgage company.  We turned in all our paper work and were told they had a COMPLETE package.  A few weeks later they asked for something else and then they asked us to re fax everything......when they continually said they did not receive the fax (even though our fax machine said it went through) they gave us a new fax number.  After a few faxes there it was determined that we should try emailing........................................................................

Do the mortgage people not know how to use a fax machine???

This property has been with the negotiator now 8 weeks and we are told this investor is slow.  Well all of the sudden the investor looks at it and would you believe that everything is now OUTDATED AGAIN.  Now we need to re fax all current information .... oh and we need to send the same distress letter but just put a new date on it   DAH!!  We need a new BPO which supposedly was ordered on the 8th of Oct but no one has contacted anyone to do it.  So now the mortgage company has ordered it again and still no contact has been made.  Once again we go through the fax thing where we fax directly to the negotiators fax and she don't get it even though 3 times our fax says that all pages were transmitted successfully!

WAKE UP AMERICA!

Being in Real Estate sales along the Gulf Coast of Alabama is a unique market.  It is generally very easy to do a market analysis or appraisal due to so many properties that are exactly alike.  They are alike all but personal touches of the owner such as paint and furniture.  If you have a 20 story building on the Gulf Front and the 02 column of the building holds all 2bd units and one of them just sold then you got yourself a comparable property.  The problem comes in when you go to list a property and the seller believes that their property is better.  They spent more on furniture and they just painted and their view is better. 

Here is the thing .... all sellers think they have the best property and all buyers want a deal.  If one just sold for 300,000 and you want 400,000 it just is not going to happen.  There is just no way.  First of all no one will ever even call me to see that property.  Many sellers tend to believe that making a new picture or putting a slightly different angle of a picture or adding comments to the listing such as their furniture was imported from New Zealand will cause someone to view their property as the better deal.  Buyers just don't get past the price to even look at the pictures or read the comments. 

The other problem is that the appraisal just want work for an overpriced property.  Now days the appraisal industry is very regulated.  If a buyer is getting a loan the property must appraise for the sales price and if the buyer is not getting a loan (with today's market) the buyer definately wants to know they are not over paying. 

If you are a seller and you want to sell your property it is in your best interest to price your property to sell.  If you would not like to sell your property at that price then you should wait as the market will eventually take a turn.  Leaving an overpriced property on the market can make buyers believe that the market is still drastically dropping and therefore make them afraid of purchasing at all.  While some buyers are really getting good deals and it is frightening for a seller to see things go for that low of a price, that sort of thing must happen before the market can go up.  We have got to get the most motivated and most desperate sellers out of the market to get the prices to go up.

While some sellers truly do have properties that are definately a cut above the rest it is still a bargain basement market.  The yard sale will be over soon!

I believe along the Gulf Coast of Alabama that the Real Estate Market has seen the bottom.  While I say that I must also say that there are still properties on the market that are overpriced.  But, we have seen properties begin to sell for more than the last sold prices.  This is great news and hopefully the entire country is seeing the same.  Interest rates are beginning to increase again this may send us through another slow time.  All in all it seems that we are seeing a bit of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

Search my web site to find properties in my area at KarensGulfProperties

In Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Alabama we are starting to see more cash buyers.  Thank goodness since mortgage loans for 2nd homes and investment properties are difficult.  I will tell you that Vision Bank in Gulf Shores is doing a great job getting things financed.  They do in house as well as have other lenders they can send things to.  I have found they are one of the few getting deals done at the moment.