Massachusetts is glutted with homes for sale that are either over priced or simply not “desirable” to be kind here. These Single Family Homes for Sale in Massachusetts, especially in suburban areas outside of Boston such as Worcester County, Essex County, Middlesex County, Norfolk County and Plymouth County make up 80% of single family homes for sale and increase the overall marketing time to 8-10 months on average.

However, there is no shortage of qualified buyers as evidenced by multi offers on well priced nice homes. These homes will have 2 or 3 offers in just a few days from entering the market.

There are 2 types of home buyers in the Massachusetts market right now. Investors looking for cheap foreclosed distressed rehabs and buyers that want well priced, great location, and meticulously maintained homes. Any home for sale that falls in the middle, which is 80% of all homes in Massachusetts for sale right now, will sit on the market.

It seems that home sellers that can afford to wait and buyers that are in no hurry are both just sitting on the fence and waiting in general. This indicates that when the market does turn finally in Massachusetts, that it will come back quickly and in full force.

Condominiums are another story, as there are many gorgeous and well priced condo’s throughout Massachusetts for sale. New construction included. However, condominiums are scrutinized for Continue reading this post

One of the keys to Real Estate or almost anything else, in my opinion, is lifelong learning.

I hear a lot of criticism of the various designations that REALTORS attain. Much of life is in the journey and not the destination, so when I see Realtors with “alphabet soup” past their names – I think that they must have been on a good journey!

Will the alphabet soup mean that they are good Realtors? Probably not, but it will tell you that they are willing to invest in themselves and their profession.
I will grant to you that people have different ways of investing in learning but the designations are one tangible sign that a particular Realtor is interested in becoming better at their profession. Just like a college degree does not ensure that a graduate is competent but does signify a certain level of willingness, ability, and perseverance.

All that said, my wife and I spent last week working on our CRS designation (Certified Residential Specialist) in Key Largo, Florida. Continue reading this post

Atlanta real estate continues to send mixed signals with home values declining for the overall Metro Atlanta market while certain areas on the north side of the city realizing small, but steady price appreciation. The driving factors continue to be constrictions in lending guidelines and high supply.

The absorption rate for Metro Atlanta is 13 months supply of homes. Year over year closed sales are down about 36% with an average price of $240,100 which is down 8.5% from this time in 2007 and also lower than 2005 or 2006. It would be easy to look at these numbers and see gloom and doom, but, it’s important to look deeper at the market to get a better sense of what is really happening.

In a previous post here, I wrote about the importance of looking at hyper local statistics, but, broad statistics are essential for comparing what is happening in the smaller markets.

However, they don’t tell the whole story.

Some areas within the city are skewing the numbers down considerably so on its face the whole Atlanta real estate market appears to be in bad shape when that is not entirely the case.

Worst hit has been Continue reading this post

Nowadays, with the internet and email being such a large part of our business and life, written communication is more important than ever. Whenever I am writing an email or letter, or any other type of document I always think back to my Business Communications class that I took in college. I hated the class at the time, but looking back many years later, I now think that it was the best and most useful class that I took.

The professor always stressed the importance of writing from the “you” point of view—meaning the reader’s point of view, not your own. Whenever I would write something along these lines: “I can do this…” or ” I am …” or anything that started with “I”, my professor would always give me back my paper with a big “So What!” written all over it. In other words the other person doesn’t care about you—they want to know how they will benefit.

To put this in a real estate perspective, so often we see ads from Realtors that say “I’m number 1” or “I sold 300 homes last year.”

So What! What are you going to do to get my house sold? Continue reading this post

The supply of homes on the market in the El Paso area has grown to 12 months. We normally have a 7-8 month supply of homes in El Paso.

Texas home prices are still holding, however. We have experienced a 5% increase in prices so far this year.

Currently we have 5,184 El Paso home listings, whereas a year ago at this time we had about 3,200 listings. Home buyers looking in the El Paso market are getting a good deal, but sellers are having a hard time getting the home value they want.

It’s hard to say where the real estate market in El Paso will look by the end of the year.

For further information, please contact Barry Karch, Prudential BKB, REALTORS, El Paso, TX, 915-549-4663 or 800-963-1909, www.HomesForSaleInElPasoTexas.com

For more regional updates, click here.

Click to learn more about El Paso Real Estate and El Paso home prices.

In our exclusive interview with Mike Farmer of Mike Farmer Realty in Savannah, Georgia, Mike describes how expanding his reach on the Internet – from providing content on consumer facing real estate blogs to providing advice to the real estate community online to maintaining his own websites and blog – has changed and grown his business.

Listen in to hear Mike Farmer’s real estate advice:

Highlights of the call:

Mike discusses what he’s experiencing as most challenging in a down market, like the Continue reading this post