One of the services I provide is performing Broker's Price Opinion for Banks and Mortgage Companies. When a borrower is behind on their mortgage payments the mortgage company or bank will have me drive by the home. Usually without the borrowers knowledge and check out the home including taking an exterior picture. I then compile a Comparative Market Analysis for the mortgage company. In a typical month I will perform 70 to 100 Brokers Price Opinions (BPO). The bulk of the work comes in during the first few weeks of the month and they slow down toward the end of the month. December was an unusual month; it went out like a lion. I got slammed the last week of the year with about 40 BPOs to perform. I hope the mortgage companies and banks were just trying to catch up and it is not an indication of more foreclosures. In our Real Estate business besides selling in the regular real estate market we list and market foreclosed homes for Banks and Mortgage Companies. The first week of this year we received 5 additional listings and 3 of those were in one day. The housing market from my perspective appears continue to be soft. If you are buying a home, it is a buyers market. The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex has been on a building boom for years. According to the news, new home sales are down. That means inventories are up. With new home sales slowing down many builders are offering more incentives than usual. It some times makes it hard for the owner of existing home to compete with the builder. This in turn makes the Days on the Market (DOM) longer than sellers are use to. As the market slows down and it takes longer to sell a home, some home owners do not have the staying power to outlast the market and end up losing their home through foreclosure. Often, with the right Realtor a home owner in trouble can work out a short sale. This is where the mortgage company agrees to take less than is owed on the home. Short Sales can work out to benefit the home owner if they are handled correctly and can often give the owner additional time to sell their home before foreclosure. I see 2007 as being a year that the Dallas/Fort Worth housing market will continue to see new homes built and foreclosed homes records broken. Real Estate Investors may be the winners in the housing market this year.
My hope is that whatever your position is in real estate that 2007 turns out to be your best year. I always remember what my dad says "The Deal of a Lifetime Comes Every Week in Real Estate"
Dusty Irving
United Country - Fort Worth Texas
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