Certainly there is a lot of grim news out there - but things are not that bad.  Actually, I have not noticed any difference in my daily life or that of most people that I have come in contact with since this “financial crisis” has begun.  Sometimes I think that the news people like to jump on the bandwagon and are going out of their way to find and report bad news.  After you report on it enough, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Strangely enough, year to date, this has been my best year of my 23 years in real estate.  There are still  a lot of people out there who want to buy homes.  I am finding numerous new home buyers every week.  
 
Let’s look at the home buying situation a bit closer. 

Interest rates are excellent right now, in the low 6% range, and even in the upper 5% range.  These rates are much lower than they have been during most of my career. 

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Market update provided by Claudia Armbrister of RE/MAX Savannah in Savannah, Georgia.

With more than 8,131 active home listings (not including more than 5,000 new homes for sale under construction & spec homes) as of 1 October 2008 – the trend has been towards a “BUYER’s market” – with a definite increase in sales overall!

We averaged approx. 1,000 new listings per month in 2007 and thus far in 2008 the same applies, plus some. More supply than demand – great for home buyers, not so great for sellers. Higher end homes are languishing in this “SOFT” market. Homes priced to sell (not overly priced) and in great condition are usually under contract in 1-3 weeks, while others linger or incur increasingly lower offers, due to time on the market and the rising costs for seller(s) to “hang on” for that offer they “want”, and ultimately negatively affecting the bottom line.

If sellers want top dollar and to get their home sold in under 60-120 days, they need to price according to THIS more cautious market and have it Model Home perfect and seriously entertain ALL offers – even if it might be lower than they had desired.

Listings are more in demand for homebuyers of homes under

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What possible reason could you have to buy a home this year? Let’s analyze the facts.

1)    Interest rates down to 5.5% - the takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have the rates tumbling. Why on earth would anyone want to pay a low interest rate like this when we could wait for double digit mortgage rates. I mean at 11% interest we would get twice the write off on our taxes wouldn’t we?

2)    $7500 tax credit for first time home buyers. You heard me right that is a tax credit – not a deduction. Of course if we wait on 11% mortgage rates we will have a pretty big deduction anyway so we may not want or need this $7500 tax CREDIT!

3)    Seller incentives are at all time highs. Sellers are almost certainly going to pay all your closing costs.  They may also be willing to throw in a refrigerator, privacy fence, and who knows what else.  But who needs all that stuff!  I would really rather pay my own closing costs and other expenses to get into a home as this makes me more independent.    Again, I can write that off on my taxes – right?

4)    Homes are at bargain prices compared to a couple of years ago! We don’t want to buy when prices are down though – do we? It is always better to buy high and sell low isn’t it?    If we bought now we might make a big profit in a few years – what would we do with all that money?

Any rational person can see that buying a home in 2008 would be a huge mistake.  Waiting a couple of years to buy a home would obviously be the wise decision.

We have close friends who have moved in and out of real estate investments very profitably over the past few years—and it was not unusual for them to be holding several properties at once. Good friends they are, but they never took our advice about mortgage financing.

Instead, they always used some loan hack who never returned phone calls, was late on all commitments, but somehow managed to get the loan funded—several days late. According to our friends, he could “get any loan funded.” And he did.

This hack has relocated from the Los Angeles area to San Diego and is now one of those non-responsive real estate phantoms who list foreclosures.

It’s deja vu all over again.

It absolutely baffles me that the very folk who helped create this mess are now being rewarded by the lenders they duped. I am amazed at the number of listing agents who are also former loan brokers and wonder how this came to be.

And like Brian Brady and other concerned real estate professionals, I believe that separate licensing should be required of mortgage originators and real estate agents—and that banks and lenders should be vetting their foreclosure representatives more closely.

Far too often, in my opinion, these foreclosure listings are being placed with Continue reading this post

People buy things for its “utility”, the pleasure or service received from a product or service, be it food, clothing, house cleaning, a car, a wide-screen TV, a computer, a hair cut, a manicure, and …a home.

I can attest first hand to the fact that when I show potential homebuyers a home, I don’t hear: “Oh look honey, we can make $15,000 on this kitchen when we go to sell it in 7 years”, or, “Wow, this wonderful back yard will net us $50K in 2015. People generally don’t think like that. They are looking at a home for its potential use and pleasure, its utility.

This doesn’t mean the homebuyer shouldn’t be prudent with their money. Most people should eventually buy a home, but not everyone and not at every point in their lives.

Obviously, responsible lending practices, coupled with a true understanding of what one can afford in a home are omnipotent. And the time to determine what one can afford is not in the kitchen of that “dream home” that was just viewed, but in advance with your lender and REALTOR®.

There are those that argue that a home’s future appreciation is extremely important in making a purchasing decision. I certainly don’t advocate purchasing a home to experience negative equity! But are we talking short term, or long term?

Homeowners benefit from the power of leverage. Over 10 years, a $10,000 investment in the stock market at a normal 10 percent rate of return would yield Continue reading this post

Working with buyers is difficult. It’s no wonder most real estate agents would rather list homes and avoid spending a lot of time dealing with buyers. Home buyers are demanding, fickle, sometimes emotional, sometimes unrealistic, but always there waiting for an agent to help them.

Even though many home buyers think they want to do it alone, I’ve found most eventually ask a Realtor for help. They may not want a contractual relationship with a buyer agent, but they want assistance.

Many have gone from listing agent to listing agent and they are tired of looking for homes that way, so the buyer is in between, they don’t want to sign a buyer agent agreement but they want guidance.

If you decide to work with home buyers you will have to capture them soon and you will have to impress them with service. Most buyers don’t know what they can get from a real estate agent until they get it—then they like it.

Buyers now are going online and making a request to an agent with a website, or going through a company like HomeGain that offers help—they want listings or information about a listing or area—they are sticking their toes in the water, to see what the response will be.

If the response is immediate and it offers help, then the buyer will likely go further.

Upon the first significant contact is the time to impress the buyer with service. Continue reading this post