A stately home on 2.2 acres, this home has the upgrades! Wide plank maple hardwood floors, 9′ ceilings, recessed lighting, french doors, crown molding, whole house audio, stainless appliances & more. The finished walkout basement simply needs your choice of flooring to cover the radiant heated floors. Outside, a large cedar deck is perfect for entertaining on your secluded, wooded lot. Around the corner from Ann Arbor, you can be on Main Street in about 15 minutes. Be sure to view the narrated walk through video, then call for your appointment to view this home.

Seen while showing homes recently…

The same is true for folks entering the real estate market to purchase. If you haven’t noticed, many folks when they call for housing information, ask for information regarding foreclosures and these “short sales.” I’ll tell you right now, that of the folks that I closed that originally told me they wanted a foreclosure or short sale, only 1 in the last year actually purchased a distressed property.

You know the drill, prospect says, “I want to only look at foreclosures and short sales,” thinking that these are the cheapest properties out there, and, therefore, the best value. As a buyer’s agent, you likely know how the dance is going to go….

1. Send prospect list of homes that meet their criteria, distressed properties and non;
2. Immediate phone call from prospect, “Only want distressed properties!”
3. While showing the prospect homes one beautiful Saturday, they ask why they haven’t gotten 123 Main St sent to them
   1. 123 Main St is a non-distressed property
4. 123 Main St is priced appropriately, in great shape and already under contract

At this point, the prospect does one of two things:

1. Begins to listen to you; or
2. Decides to work with a different agent that “listens to me.”

Ok, so a bit of an over-simplification of the process, but you get the gist.

Need more reason to be wary of short-sales, specifically? Check out this article from USA Today:

Just 23% of short-sale offers that homeowners receive from potential buyers actually close, according to a February study of 1,300 real estate agents by Campbell Communications. More than 90% of agents cited a slow response from the lender as the reason short sales were lost.

23% is an extremely LOW execution rate! 77% fail…over 3 out of every 4 short sales fail to close. Yikes, those are low odds for closing…

That’s a Grim Picture of Short Sales, but…

There is a silver lining, thin, but it does exist.

If you are the listing agent of a short sale listing, you need to stop trying to negotiate with the banks on behalf of your clients. Your efforts are best utilized, on behalf of your clients, in marketing the property and negotiating the deals to be presented to the bank. For your sanity, and the sanity of your clients, you should enlist the help of a short sale specialist or a real estate attorney.

The Ann Arbor News will close in July 2009, after 174 years.  A new news source will arise online and in twice a week print editions:  AnnArbor.com.  The question that real estate agents and sellers should be asking is, “What do I do now?”

Here’s the video describing the upcoming change by Matt Kraner, President and CEO of AnnArbor.com:

The newspaper has been a mainstay of marketing advertising listings for sale.  Within the last 3 years, it has been easy to see, but hard to predict, when online marketing would supersede the use of newspaper advertising.  For many agents, it is another way to get their face and name in the paper.  For sellers, it’s a tangible way to see that an agent has done something to expose their home to the marketplace.

While it appears that AnnArbor.com will be doing a Sunday edition, let’s play what-if and ask:

What if there were no Sunday paper?  How would you expect your agent to market your Ann Arbor home?

Todd

A Nutshell Lesson from Randy Repicky

Last year, this blog covered the impending Board of Review time line that every Michigander has to appeal their property tax assessments. Kind of like that bag of Bates’ burgers you had earlier today, it’s baaaacckk!

If you haven’t already, you will be receiving from your local municipality that fun, one page document from your municipality telling you that your property value has moved in some direction. If you are like a majority of Michiganders, you are likely staring at this document in disbelief.

Disbelief because it says right there in black and white that the value of your home dropped, but your taxes went up!

“What the deuce,” you might be saying. Or, “How do I appeal this insanity?”

A great article was recently sent to my attention that does a great job of explaining the how and why of the Review Board and how to effectively fight your assessment. From the article:

If you are interested in more in-depth Ann Arbor Real Estate statistics, give Todd a twitter.

[Heads up: my mic "peaked" on me at the beginning of this preso...see, getting better all the time!]

Yikes!

If you’ve ever been to Ann Arbor in the winter, you have likely seen ice dams build up on the edge of some buildings.  The icicles that form can be gorgeous, but 4 foot long sabers of death really don’t appeal to me.

Seeing that this winter has been a particularly harsh winter, in light of the amount of snow and length of ridiculously cold weather recently, my broker sent out an email highlighting the phenomena of ice dams.

Check out the info after the jump:

CHECK FOR ICE DAMS Some are worse than others, but most winters create conditions that are ideal for ice dams. Melting snow on the upper portion of the roof refreezes at the bottom. WHAT Check for ice dams. WHEN When there is snow on the roof and the temperature is a   few degrees below freezing. WHY Ice dams will cause a perfectly good roof to leak. Considerable damage can occur to interior finishes. Concealed damage also can occur within exterior walls.

HOW Heat escaping from the house raises the temperature in the attic. This melts the snow on the upper portion of the roof. The melted snow re-freezes when it runs down to the cold eave area, where there is no heat loss from the house. Ice builds up at the eaves and traps subsequent water running down the roof. The water backs up under the shingles causing leakage. The best solutions include increasing attic insulation and ventilation. This will reduce the temperature in the attic so the snow on the roof does not melt. Of equal or greater importance, is the reduction of warm air escaping from the heated portion of your house, into the attic. Air leakage past the attic access hatch, recessed lights, plumbing stacks and chimneys must be stopped. (There are companies that specialize in air sealing.) When re-roofing, a waterproof membrane can be laid along the lower edge of the roof. This is called eave protection. It will not stop ice dams — but it will prevent the subsequent leaking. TIPS Ice dams are more common on: low sloped roofs roofs which change slope near the eaves roofs with large overhangs (wide soffits) roofs above heated spaces that extend out over unheated areas such as porches Electric heating cables can be installed along the eaves to prevent ice dams; however they are only effective if they are turned on before snow and ice accumulate. Ironically, these cables can provide more opportunity for leakage because they have to be secured through the roof covering. [photo credit]

Tweetup:  A meeting of folks that use Twitter. For those unfamiliar, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform: Conversations in 140 characters.

Twitter has been gaining in exposure for its ability to rapidly share information across the globe. Some twitter users most likely suffer from ADHD with how frequently they post and check their accounts… 

Getting a gaggle of tweeters to gather in the same location at roughly the same time can be like herding cats.  @kenburbary recently organized a tweetup for any and all SouthEast Michigan Twitterers.  It got publicized through twitter and facebook was utilized to handle further notications and RSVP’s. This past Monday, more than 80 tweeple got together at the BW3′s in Novi, for socializing, networking and some light eats and drinks!

A yeoman’s effort for sure, @bchesnutt took on the responsibility of trying to gather names and handles of all who attended.  Instead of trying to recreate the experience, I will simply point you to his blog post on the Novi Tweetup event. Here’s a brief video from the event via Brandon’s Flip camera:

Buyers:  Search all Ann Arbor Area homes for sale. List updated every 15 minutes Sellers:  Learn about Team366′s proprietary Listing Syndication System (LSS), the area’s BEST marketing system.

_{Todd Waller}

_{Team366 | Real Estate One
734.564.7465}

There is good news coming out of the 2008 real estate market; the pace of listings slowed right down and we sold more units in 2008 than in 2007.  So, inventory is thinning out because of sales and fewer properties actually coming onto the market.  Price continues to be king around the Ann Arbor real estate market and 2009 proves to be more of the same.

From Big House Data’s summary for December 2008:

If you bought real estate in Washtenaw County in 2008, pat yourself on the back. This was a good year to purchase property; low interest rates, lots of inventory to choose from and a market that appears to be near the bottom.

If you sold property in 2008, pat yourself on the back for completing your sale in a very tumultuous time in our real estate market. If you moved up after selling your property, you did very well indeed.

Quality and Price: These are the two biggest factors to selling property in Washtenaw County. If you’ve got great quality and the best price in the market, your property will be the next to sell.

On to the charts!

Average List Price – December 2008
Ann Arbor Real Estate Dec 2008 Avg List Price	Average list price for December was $184,414, down nearly 17.75% from December 2007. For 2008, the average list price was down over 8%, compared to 2007. For 2008, the average list price in Washtenaw County was $228,689.

Average Sales Price – December 2008
Ann Arbor Real Estate Dec 2008 Avg Sales Price	The average sales price in Washtenaw County was $157,810 in December. This is down over 29% compared to December 2007. For 2008, the average sales price was down over 12% to $195,142.

Number of Listings v Closings – December 2008

Ann Arbor Real Estate Dec 2008 Listings v. Closings

Listings: December saw 393 listings come on the market. That is a nearly 21% decrease in the number of new listings compared to December 2007. For 2008, the number of new listings is down nearly 29%, compared to 2007. Keep in mind that the listings tracked here have not been scrubbed for re-lists or price adjustment re-listings. Closings: 192 closings in December 2008, nearly 17% less than December 2007. For 2008, closings are up over 2.25%

Todd Waller
Team366 | Real Estate One
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