Now is the time to buy a home if you cannot afford a down payment. The days of sellers contributing money to a buyer's down payment are nearing an end. Because of this many would be home owners will miss out on the opportunity of home ownership. This will be another cause for a further decline in home sales and lingering listings. Not to mention tighter lending standards which have basically shut out thousands of potential home buyers.
With interest rates fluctuating daily, buying now makes perfect sense. Home prices are ripe for the pickings and interest rates are not as high as they could be in the future. Buying a home in today's market is a great long term investment that should not be put off until the market makes a comeback. By then, interest rates could be sky high. So take advantage of seller assisted down payments before they are gone.
Buying low and selling high is the backbone of savvy real estate investors. I read a quote somewhere that goes something like this, "You don't wait to buy real estate. You buy real estate and you wait."
Today I was talking with a friend that I have had since grade school and found out that he and another mutual friend bought a house with another agent. I was at a loss for words when I found out this news.
I did not know whether to be angry or be hurt by this situation. I mean what happened? I thought for sure they would have used my services to buy a home. I have been offering them my services for the last two years I have been an agent. And I figured that being good friends with them would guarantee me their business. I had to ask them why they chose someone else.
When I began to probe I got them to tell me they had been looking for a while, and that they looked at over 20 homes with the other agent. Also, the agent had 15 years of experience. I guess that might be one reason they used another agent. Given this is barely my second year in Real Estate. Maybe they preferred a more experienced agent to help them with there purchase.
This only seemed to bother me even more. I began to think about all the training and support I receive in my company that I felt a little betrayed by my friends. For example, I went to school, took my tests and passed my national and state exams. From there I took all the classes my company offered and chose my office because my broker was the top producer of the company.
So, I may not be a 15 year veteran of the game but I know what I am doing and I am confident in my abilities as an agent. With the support of my office I could have easily handled their purchase with little to no problems.
Well I do see a silver lining to this gray cloud. And it is that if something goes wrong with this transaction (which in all honesty I hope goes well) it will be the other agent on the hook and not me. That agent will be held responsible, and he/she will have to deal with their unhappiness.
Personally I do not think they got a great deal. For what they paid for that home I could have gotten them into a brand new home. And I believe I could have done the same job or better than the other agent provided them.
Am I bitter? Mad? Sad? YES. Will I get over it? Thanks to AR I am now.
I would like to ask my fellow Active Rainers a few questions. Has this happened to any of you? If so, how did that make you feel? How did you handle the situation? Is this common? Should I get used to it? Am I overreacting?
Any input you have will be appreciated. I would like to hear other stories from other on AR.
Why do home builders in Phoenix continue to build houses? Who is in charge of building more homes here in the valley? And why do they allow their builders to create more homes in a market full of new and resale homes?
I can understand building more homes if the demand for the homes is high. However, right now people who are buying do not need an abundance of homes. I have seen too many buyers forget which house they liked and which ones they hated because they saw too many homes.
In fact, most buyers are having trouble understanding the basic concept of a buyers market and the benefits of buying a home today. I have explained to countless clients the benefits of today's market only to have them discount each one of them.
More over, lender owned properties/foreclosures are also adding to the inventory as a whole. And since Phoenix ranks high in foreclosures it makes for difficult market where any home has trouble selling. Home values decline with each foreclosure to hit their neighborhood. And new home communities are not immune to this epidemic.
Additionally, misconceptions like "foreclosures are the best values and/or have the best prices" are hurting home sales in the valley. Also, foreclosures hold lower days on market and they sell much faster than other homes. I am sure this is true anywhere right now.
The good news is that investors are coming out once again snatching up the best foreclosures. Making for a competitive market on lender owned homes. In fact, getting a contract accepted on a foreclosed property is very tricky. These properties are receiving multiple offers where the banks are asking for highest and best offers. So this is actually leading to foreclosed properties selling above list price.
So things in the valley are not as bad most people expect it to be. In fact the biggest problem facing our market right now is INVENTORY. Sadly I do not see a quick drop in our inventory as long as banks foreclose on properties and builders keep building new homes that will sit vacant on the market. One silver lining in this gray cloud is the fact that congress passed, and President Bush signed a new law helping distressed home buyers. With any luck our market will rebound sooner than later.
GREAT HOME, GREAT PRICE. This home has TILE floors throughout most of the house. There is a COVERED PATIO with HAND LAID brick floor. Both yards are SPACIOUS and have excellent potential. The front of the home has an automatic sprinkler system. Additional square feet not found in tax records. ALL APPLIANCES SUCH AS, THE WASHER, DRYER, STOVE/RANGE, REFRIGERATOR, MICROWAVE WILL ONLY CONVEY WITH A FULL PRICE OFFER. Brand new WASHER, DRYER, and Microwave. Refrigerator and stove/range are fairly new as well. Evaporative cooler is 1 year old. DOGS IN BACKYARD!!!! DO NOT ENTER. SEE THE BACK OF HOME FROM THE ALLEY. Needs some TLC.
Beautiful home with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Upgraded Granite Tile counter tops in kitchen, stainless steel appliances, Range/Oven, Microwave, Disposal, Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Pantry, and Kitchen Island. 18 inch tile floors. Home has a Den, Dining Room, and Great Room. Washer and Dryer are also included. There is also a Covered Patio for enjoying the backyard and entertaining. Great home for first time home buyers or a great family home. Best Buy In Neighborhood. IT IS A MUST SEE. MOVE IN READY!!! SHORT SALE, ALL OFFERS REQUIRE LENDER APPROVAL.
I know I am a little late with my Market Update however I have been busy with clients so I guess that means I am doing something right. I am glad to report that business seems to be picking up again here in the Valley of the Sun. From multiple offers on homes that are well priced, to prices and interest rates being low, the market here in Phoenix is showing signs of life again.
Last year in the month of May there were 4,660 single family homes sold in the Greater Phoenix area. This year there were 4,869 single family homes sold in the area. While this may not be a large increase in home sales it does demonstrate the point I have been making for quite some time now.
I believe our market is bumping along the bottom here in Valley of the Sun. And that the time to buy/invest in real estate is NOW.
I have a buyer who is looking for me to refer him to someone who is versed in Real Estate in Mexico. If you do business there I would like to hear from you and know what you offer. He is not sure if he is ready to buy, but he is interested in renting a home first. So if you can help with any websites of your own, or those you know of with homes for rent/sale in Mexico I would be very grateful.
In the past I would run the numbers throughout the entire state of Arizona. However, I began to wonder what the true numbers are in the GREATER PHOENIX, ARIZONA area. So today I went into the MLS and I selected all the cities in the Greater Phoenix area.
This search includes cites in the East such as Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Queen Creek, etc..., to cities in the North such as Anthem, Paradise Valley, Peoria, etc. This will also include sites in the West such as Avondale, Tolleson, Buckeye, etc..., or in the North West there are cities such as Surprise, Sun City, El Mirage, etc.
This pretty much encompasses the Greater Phoenix area. And the numbers for today's search are 37,411 single family homes for sale. If you we want to include townhomes, condos, lofts and all other listings the number comes to 45,242 for sale. However I feel that including them skews the numbers a little because you cannot compare apples to oranges. So from now on I will be searching single family homes for sale in the Greater Phoenix area.
Now I also ran the numbers for single family homes sold last month and numbers are better than I expected. There were 3,563 single family homes sold in the month of April. If we divide the number of homes for sale by the number homes sold in the month of April we would have just over a 10 month supply of homes for sale in the Greater Phoenix area. Now for those who don't know a healthy market of homes for sale is around a 6 month supply of homes for sale.
If we continue on the pace we are on now, it would only take several months to get to a healthier number of homes for sale. I believe that this year has been better in terms of buyers, more buyers are coming out to see homes and they are very happy with the prices. If we can convince more buyers that the time to buy is now we will have a better, healthier market within a year.
Recently I received an email that explained that ARMLS would be changing their MLS provider from TEMPO to FlexMLS Web in a couple of months. And from what I have seen from the demo/tutorial of FlexMLS Web, the new system will be a 180 compared to our current MLS. The features of FlexMLS Web are Web 2.0 friendly and seemed geared more the tech savvy agent. While I cannot write about all the features associated with the FlexMLS Web because I am not familiar with all of the features yet, I will describe some of the features I think are going to make our jobs easier.
First of all we will be able to add unlimited photos, documents, and we will also be able to make our own virtual and video tours with the new MLS. Compared to the new MLS, TEMPO would only allow six photos and we would have to pay for our own virtual tours. Also there is going to be a new feature that our current MLS does not have, which is a photo will be displayed on search results. On our current system we cannot see pictures on the search results. The only thing we can see in the search results is the information such as price, address, etc... To actually see the photos you would have to click on the MLS number and then click on the photo to open up the photo page. And then, there would only be six photos to see. And as we all know the more pictures the better. For example, how can you properly show a 5,000 square foot home with six photos? Which ones do you choose to display on the MLS? Photos help sell a home and our new MLS should help agents out in that respect.
A new feature on FlexMLS Web will make searching for comparable properties as easy as a click on the mouse. There you will be able to see average, median, low, and high values for homes we have highlighted. You will also be able to see the original list price, current list price, and sales price of comparable homes. Days On Market will be another feature you will be able to see on this screen, as opposed to our current MLS where you have to click on the history report to see this information.
The final feature I will describe to you which is one of my favorites because I believe it is going be a really big time saver when listing a home or showing a homes value to a potential buyer. I am talking about the fun tasks we call CMA's (Comparative Market Analysis). On our current system is a time consuming process that involves finding the subdivision, typing in dates for the last six months, active properties, pending properties, and sold properties. To make matters worse the system has no backup if you do not find comparable homes in the same subdivision. We would then have to search by area to find homes of similar size and value in the surrounding neighborhoods. I believe the new system does this automatically with the click of mouse too. This is going to be one of the best features of the new system.
It appears as though the NAR (National Association of REALTORS®) is pondering changes to rules concerning MLS's (Multiple Listing Services) and Short Sales. Rules that I believe are needed in our Local MLS. You see there are some things our MLS does not allow you to do because of rules they have in place. There are also some areas where concerns need to be addressed when it concerns short sales and bank owned homes. This makes it difficult when trying to sell or buy a home as a short sale or from a bank.
For example, there is the big problem associated with pricing Short Sales and bank owned. While there is no rule with how to list a home's price on our MLS, there could be a rule implemented that would require listing agents to price the home appropriately. Far too many homes being sold as short sales or REO's (Real Estate Owned) are underpriced way below a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) and what is owed on the property. I have seen homes being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars below comparables and what is owed on the home. Honestly, how many banks will allow you to sell the home for $200,000 less than what is owed?
I have found it to be a waste of my client's time and mine to make offers on homes that are not properly priced. I am sure you would all agree that it is no fun to negotiate a home's price in this market when we tell our clients home prices have fallen. And we end up negotiating a higher price than was anticipated. It was time that we could have spent looking at homes that were priced properly. Instead they falsely advertised the home's sales price below what would be accepted by the bank.
Next we come to the issue of commissions and what is owed to agents who are involved in a transaction. In our local MLS there are rules against changing the compensation owed to agents in the transaction. For example, if you as a listing agent advertise a listing with a 3% compensation for the Buyer's Broker/Agent, then you would owe that agent the whole 3%. Now it is a given if you work in real estate that commissions could and maybe negotiated, but that usually occurs with the listing agent and the home seller. However, in the current market with many homes being sold as short sales or bank owned, it is not up to the seller what the bank will pay to the agents in the transaction.
In fact, our MLS does not allow you to state in the remarks that commissions could be negotiated by the bank. Nor, is there a rule that states an agent should make it known that the home requires lender approval. As an agent I can tell you I think that many agents are who are unaware. I believe with a simple rule change all could become aware of this fact.
Personally I educate my clients with the ins and outs of buying and selling short sale/bank owned properties. However there are still many things I'm sure I am not aware of yet. But, I believe rules should be updated and implemented to better deal with the new market and challenges that come with selling buying homes as short sales/bank owned. This would make for better Agents who can help educat thier Clients.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Now is the time to buy a home if you cannot afford a down payment. The days of sellers contributing money to a buyer's down payment are nearing an end. Because of this many would be home owners will miss out on the opportunity of home ownership. This will be another cause for a further decline in home sales and lingering listings. Not to mention tighter lending standards which have basically shut out thousands of potential home buyers.
Today I was talking with a friend that I have had since grade school and found out that he and another mutual friend bought a house with another agent. I was at a loss for words when I found out this news.
So, I may not be a 15 year veteran of the game but I know what I am doing and I am confident in my abilities as an agent. With the support of my office I could have easily handled their purchase with little to no problems.
;)
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