It's Time to Buy in Wright County

Attention buyers!  Buy on weakness for perceived weakness?  Recently the StarTribune ran a three part series on property values and other issues related to homes in Wright County.  The article did not shine brightly on the County as a whole, which is interesting.  There are indeed some areas of the County were builders ran their business more like prospectors, rather than that of sound investors and it has caused some areas to see significant pricing decreases.  Well, as the buyer I am currently working with said, "I could not ask for anything more"!  Currently he is in negotiations to purchase a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 3 car garage two story built in 2005 in the price range of $230,000.  Wow!  Could he ask for more?  Rather than looking at the situation negatively, my buyers are exited to be able to afford what two years ago seemed unattainable.  If you are looking for a wonderful home at a great price, now is the time to strike!  Rates and home prices are low and there are wonderful homes to be had.  Call Eric at 763-463-7557 to get started on your home search or visit our site at htt://www.HelmersOnHomes.com.

Check out some of our property virtual tours while you are here!

Rogers: Town Home, Split Entry

Brooklyn Park Two Story

Champlin Two Story

Buying REO Properties-Be Patient!

Deciding to help a client to buy a Bank Owned (REO) property or assisting them in dealing with a short-sale purchase will in many cases require you to have a great deal of patience with both the selling agent and your buyer(s).  Banks and Title companies are currently overwhelmed with the number of foreclosures hitting the market.  With properties switching hands from bank to bank due to insolvency issues, deeds are taking longer to track down and update, REO managers are feeling the pressure to get inventory numbers down and yet still meet the banks bottom line.  It all leads to extended wait times for answers on offers and final Title work to be completed. 

 Buyers are also convinced that they can get bargains due to T.V. and radio commercials for companies generally using foreclosures as a way to real in prospective buyers and then re-sell those leads back to agents willing to pay for leads.

SAMPLE RADIO SPOT IN OUR MARKET (Buy foreclosures at huge discounts! Learn how now! Get your free list of foreclosures now!  If your last name start with the letter A-F, call today.  All others call tomorrow for your free list of foreclosures.) GREAT LEAD GENERATION! 

Lowball Offers lead to extreme delays!  As with any seller, banks are easily anoyed with low offers and have in some cases just shelved the offer with no replay for weeks. We see offers coming in 20-30% below list.  Fact is over the last 6 months our group has achieved a sale to list price of 93% on our REO inventory.  We also have a 98% sale to suggested list price.  There are so many flippers and investors out there that the competition has helped list to sale prices stabilize.  Also, the banks have multiple Broker Price Opinions and at least one appraisal done on these properties so their original list price is not determined by the practice of simply throwing a dart at a board.

 Suggestions for having a smooth transaction when dealing with these transactions- Read the MLS print out (agent/financial remarks) thoroughly! Understand how to explain AS-IS to buyers.  Have paperwork completed thoroughly. Banks often reject PA's due to missing information from buyers. Coach/Prep. your buyer(s) before hand, that they need to be realistic with offers, flexible with their closing dates and patient throughout the process. Calling banks or agents contantly asking "Any word yet"? will only slow the process down.  Banks hate being bothered over and over again.  Follow these steps and your transactions will flourish.

Rental Market Shrinking-Rents Rising

As home prices cool, rents are heating up

•·        By Alex Markels  Posted 7/13/06

Just when you figured that putting off buying a house was a prudent move, the price of renting is going up.

After years of slack demand and "one month free!" incentives from many landlords, apartment rental markets are tightening in many parts of the country, especially areas like Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington, D.C., where home sales have begun to slow amid increasing mortgage rates and talk of a housing bubble. Rents are expected to increase nationally by 5.3 percent this year, about twice what they did last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. And they're growing even faster in places like Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Jose, Calif.; and the Washington suburbs of Maryland, where luxury apartment rents increased by 11 percent last year.

Real-estate experts credit a strong economy, low unemployment, and sky-high home prices that have boxed out many would-be buyers. That's not to mention those who have decided to put off a purchase until the market cools off. "A year ago, people may have expected some upside in house prices, but now they're not so sure," says Sam Chandan, chief economist with REIS Inc., which tracks the national real-estate market. "So people are less willing to pay a premium to be a homeowner and more willing to rent."

Combine that with recent strong employment growth (which typically increases the number of renters), and it's easy to see why vacancy rates have plummeted. With more people in the rental pool, apartment vacancies in Washington, D.C., have fallen by nearly a third over the past year to a rate of just 1.7 percent, according to real-estate market researcher Delta Associates. (The national average is 5.7 percent.) Not surprisingly, landlords in the city of Washington have taken full advantage, raising rents there by about 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the supply of rental apartments in many areas has been eroded by the recent trend toward condo conversions-transforming rental units into condos for sale. This trend decreased the nation's stock of rental units last year, according to REIS figures.

That could change if the home-buying market continues to cool, which is already pushing some developers who'd planned to sell condos to add the new units to the rental pool instead. But even then, "a handful of conversions back to rentals won't take up the slack anytime soon," says Delta Vice President Grant Montgomery, who expects rental prices to increase strongly for at least the next year or so.

Real-estate economists say the increase may actually be a good sign for home prices, which have risen in some areas to what many say are unsustainable levels. With monthly rents still well below what an equivalent property would cost in monthly mortgage payments, "increases in rental prices [combined with moderating real-estate prices] will help bridge the disconnect and firm up the fundamentals," REIS's Chandan says.

So does that mean it's time to buy? YES!

Stay tuned.

Source: REIS Inc.

Cave? Do You Practice This

According to a recent article in the Boker Agent News, there is a new trend to watch for when searching for homes in 07'.  It's called "Caving". or as my father called it, "Time Out".  Caving. Man caves and Mom caves are coming out of the closet. Personal dedicated space for one person in a household can go and work on projects or "chill" without being disturbed and if so only in an emergency. Author: Mark Nash

I'm interested in knowing if you or someone in your family is a Caver or if this is a trend in a market you live and work in.   Have a great day!  Eric