To my knowledge, there isn't a way for buyers searching the internet (Realtor.com, Homegain, the local MLS feed) to enter search criteria for bank owned homes (foreclosures) only.
In Macomb County MI there are 2 Multilist data sources: Mirealsource™ and Realcomp™. Some real estate agents belong to one. I pay dues and belong to both.
If you are looking for foreclosure homes only (bank owned homes) in Macomb County and want to weed out the private sales, short sales and homes for renting you will have to ask the buyers agent you chose to sort through the list for you. This list can then be emailed to you, faxed to you, or hand delivered.
As of this morning there are 7293 homes listed for sale or lease in the Mirealsource™ database. Of those homes, 1055 are tagged with "Bank owned" or "Government owned" designations.
If you want to narrow things down further by school district or price range or city then your agent can also do that for you and provide you with a list.
An example: There are currently 5 homes for sale in Chesterfield Township MI, within the Lanse Cruese school district with a price range between $100,000 and $120,000 that are bank or government owned.
Searching for homes on the Internet can be frustrating for home buyers who are trying to narrow down their search by details of either the ownership or the features of a home. Your buyers agent can be a tremendous help in this effort and also save you time and precious gas money. (How many of you drive from address to address to look at the outside of the homes first?)
Pick up the phone and call your agent, or compose an email detailing how you would like your search conducted. That's what we're here for. It's what we enjoy. It's also part of our duty to you the homebuyer.
I've been a bit melancholy lately. Some would call it empty nest syndrome, but if that is what it is, it hit 2 years after the last child left the nest.
Something I haven't shared publicly before: My husband and I have a blended family and between us we managed to bring into the world 5 children. The oldest, my stepson, is 33 years old. The youngest, my baby- ex GI Nick, is 25. We've also been blessed with 3 pretty darned terrific grandchildren and are overjoyed that the 4th will be arriving this winter.
Earlier today I was in BabiesRUS shopping for a baby shower gift for a neighbor. Of course I did what any expectant grandmother would do. I spent quite a bit of time browing the aisles and daydreaming about the new addition. (Grandmas have to have a lot of things for their home also.)
As I was walking to the checkout counter I spotted a small knit cap. On it was one word.
Peace.
I teared up. I remembered that not too long ago I watched as ex GI Nick went off to a very large sandbox courtesy of the US Army. I remembered that I have 2 darling grandaughters and one precocious grandson who are going to be growing up in this topsy turvy world. I thought about friends who have sons and daughters who are off now away from home serving their country.
Peace
What a simple yet powerful word, adorned on a tiny little knit cap.
May their children and yours be blessed with peace in the world.
Photo swiped from my son Rick without permission, who originally swiped it from me with permission.
One of the authors that I regularly read is Michael Thornton. Michael is a home inspector in the Nashville Tennessee area and always makes me laugh, makes me think, and has something that sticks to me after I've read his articles.
That message kicked me in the tush. I have another blog that I haven't been playing with too much, mainly because I have such a hard time meandering my way around WordPress. (Meandering wouldn't be the correct word after all. I pull my hair out, curse, and grab more coffee to keep me focused whenever I have to edit or add something to the coding.)
For quite a while I've wanted to add a section to the sidebar of the blog that could be a simple. easy to use place for readers to leave comments or ask questions. Should be easy enough right? Not for me. I made it quite the adventure.
I searched for and found a wordpress plugin. (Thank you Vladimar Prelovac).
Downloaded the plugin and uploaded it to the proper folder.
Unzipped the plugin, and then went to my control panel to activate it.
I edited the options, hit submit changes and crossed my fingers.
Refreshed, refreshed and refreshed my blog. No plugin.Nothing.Re-read the installation process. Checked off each step that I did, and didn't have any leftovers. (Kind of like when you're putting something together and at the end realize you have leftover parts...not good)
Got up for third cup of coffee with Michaels message echoing in my head "Fear of failure..."
Spent another 40 minutes going through all of the areas of my control panel one by one. (Still hearing Michaels words in my head and stubbornly refusing to give up.)
Found the widget panel. Duh. It's a widget. I had to move the newly created widget over into my sidebar. ::headslap::
Refreshed my blog again and shouted with excitement. I didn't fail! It's there and I'm anxious to see if anyone notices it and uses it.
Thank you Michael. Your motivator this morning made all the difference in the world to me.
August can oftentimes be a slow month for home sales, as many buyers are getting in the least of their summer vacations and families are preparing their children to go back to school.
I was curious this morning to see how many homes have sold to date for the month of August 2008 in Macomb County MI and logged into our Multilist service, Mirealsource™, to take a look.
So far this month 149 homes have sold in Macomb County. (I stripped out the homes that have rented, the statistics quoted are for homes thatsold.)
The lowest priced home sold for $11,000 in the Rice & Millers subdivision in Warren MI and was bank owned.
The highest priced home sold for $550,000 in the Clear Spring Lake subdivision in Shelby Township MI and was owned by a builder.
What was astounding to me is the change in the mortgages used by home buyers during this month. 44 of the homes sold were with buyers using FHA mortgages, and 3 used their VA benefits to obtain mortgages. Almost 32% of the homes sold in the past 10 days have been to home buyers using the outstanding FHA & VA mortgages.
In comparison, last year during these same 10 days only 8 homes were sold with FHA mortgages, and none sold using VA mortgages.
If you would like more specific information about home sales in your neighborhood in Macomb County please don't hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have in a non-pressured manner.
It was a bit of a slower month in Macomb Countys Chesterfield Township for home sales, but all in all I am still feeling good about the local real estate market and the wonderful bargains to be had for home buyers.
From glancing at the prices of the homes that sold in July (2008) it appears that many first time home buyers took advantage of the low interest rates, good FHA and VA mortgage progams, and a plentiful supply of homes in Chesterfield Township.
During the past month 28 residential homes sold. The lowest price home sold at $70,000 and the highest price of a home sold in the township is being reported at $239,000.
This nice ranch home located at 25657 Briartown Boulevard in the Briartowne Subdivsion sold for $127,500 with the seller paying $3825 of the buyers closing costs, prepaids and/or tax prorations.
(For those who are interested, the Briartown Subdivision has many homes for sale and is a wonderful subdivision with its own community pool and clubhouse. Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions about this area.)
Condominiums also sold in Chesterfield Township during the month of July. Nine of them sold, with the lowest one reportedly sold for $34,300 and the highest sold for $128,450. Sounds like bargains all the way around for some lucky home buyers!
All sold information courtesy of Mirealsource™ and it's participating brokers and real estate agents and is deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed.
We've all received those phone calls from eager people wanting to sell us their latest and greatest SEO service, "lead generator" service, and "I'll make you #1" service...
Yesterday afternoon I recieved one of those calls but they were offering a different kind of product entirely: Ghost writing.
Yes, you heard read it correctly. A gal who said she was from Michigan called to say she read my blog (my other blog) and linked over to here on this blog, and knew without a doubt that she could be helpful to me. This is what she said could be of benefit to me:
Save me time by submitting to my blog/blogs 3 fresh content articles per week.
Save me money by charging $20 per article for her service which would naturally free time for me to spend doing other real estate related duties and increase my income.
I wasn't the least bit tempted. I told her that I'm sure someone else would find her service helpful, and that perhaps she had found a niche in the blogging world that would bring her business but that it wasn't for me. She then asked the "closer" question: "What were my objections to saving time and money by using her service?" This is what I told her:
I write for me, and for my local consumer.
You are a Michigan resident, but not local to me, and would not know my local market.
You are not a licensed real estate agent, nor have you been a real estate agent.
I would be personally liable for anything you wrote. In other words, if you stuck your foot in my mouth and offended someone or worse, I would take the heat. (Goodness, I can do that myself!)
Last but not least, it is important to me that people who contact me know me through my words, not yours.
She didn't have good objections to my objections and we ended the conversation on a cheerful note, with her wishing me well and likewise my wishing her well in her new endeavor.
After I got off the phone I wondered...how many people who have blogs would be tempted? Is this going to be a new niche cropping up over the next several months as real estate professionals finally learn about the power of blogging?
Kris Wales - a Macomb County MI real estate agent (who will continue to write her own articles of interest to consumers)
A couple of hours ago it was announced that the Detroit Tigers have traded catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez to the New York Yankees for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth.
I try not to get too wrapped up in emotions when trades are made, as they are part of the business of baseball. But this time my heart is heavy. Pudge came to the Tigers as a free agent when it wasn't cool to come to Detroit. In my eyes he became the face of the new Detroit Tigers.
Wow. WOW. I still have trouble believing it, and it happened to my buyer client. The bank owned home below (overgrown trees and shrubbery included :-) was sold to my buyer client in just 15 days from start to finish. The home is located in Marysville MI (St. Clair County) Here is what transpired during the process:
Offer made and submitted to asset manager/bank (HSBC)
Counter offer made by asset manager and conveyed to the buyer.
Counter to the counter offer was made by my buyer to the bank/asset manager.
"Best and final" offer asked for by HSBC.
"Best and final" offer submitted to HSBC and accepted by them.
Signed documents sent by HSBC via email.
Title company contacted, inspection period passed, utilities changed into buyers name.
Final water bill ordered, verification of property taxes conducted, closing date set.
Signed deed received. Closing for the new homeowner.
I have to tell you, even with a cash buyer I have never had a foreclosure sale in our Metro Detroit area go as smoothly or as quickly as this one. It made me want to knock on every piece of wood I came in contact with during the process.
Thank you to those at HSBC for their quick responses and most especially to Greg Goforth of Classic Real Estate in New Baltimore MI for his diligence and hard work.
...I'll be asking you if you have 3 1/2% of an estimated purchase price in your bank account.
The down payment gift assistance programs that have been so helpful to Macomb County MI first time home buyers over the years are probably going to be taken away from these purchasers by our "we know what's best for the public"government. (The new housing bill, with this little tid-bit included, has been passed by our representatives and is now heading to President Bushs desk for a signature.)
Goodbye Nehemiah - it's been fun working with you. Ameridream? Ditto. To the employees of those companies: I feel for you. Our entire state has been hit hard by lay-offs and job losses. I see it in the eyes of our residents every day. Good luck to all of you and thank you for being there for my first time home buyer clients over the years.
To the future first time home buyers in Michigan: You can still receive a gift of money for the down payment of your new home if the gift comes from a family member, close friend or employer. Keep a paper trail of the gift money, your mortgage lender will need to see that it is truly a gift and not a loan.
What I find completely amazing about all of this? Most of the home buyers that I've been a partner with in their real estate transactions have had the money to come up with a minimal down payment to meet FHA requirements. They chose to utilizie the down payment gift assistance programs to keep the money in their bank accounts tucked aside for emergencies.
I called that smart. Very smart. Our government calls it stupid.
From my understanding potential home buyers have until October 1st, 2008 to take advantage of the opportunity provided by programs such as Nehemiah and Ameridream. After that, plan on having 3 1/2% of a purchase price as a down payment prior to begin looking for a home.
When you hear me ask if you have a down payment don't be surprised. It will be the first question I ask of you when we meet and talk about your housing dreams.
Kris Wales is proud
to be a licensed real estate agent with RE/MAX
Advantage 1, Inc. in Chesterfield
Township MI. I'm a firm believer that the most successful real estate transaction involves a partnership between the consumer and the REALTOR®
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