Is it a good time to sell? - 5 Reasons to sell now!

Your House Will Get More Exposure Now Than the Winter

Housing sales usually level off in the summer and then regain momentum in September and October. The spring buyers’ market has passed. Don’t miss the early fall market. It has consistently outperformed the winter season.

Distressed Properties Will Impact Prices

Distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) on the market will increase this fall and winter. This will put tremendous downward pressure on prices for at least the next 12-18 months. Get your home sold before they become your competition.

Mortgages Will Become More Difficult to Attain

Lending standards are continuing to tighten. There is legislation currently being considered that will make it even harder for buyers to qualify. Less demand will equate to lower prices.

It is the Perfect Time to Move-Up

With prices where they are and interest rates at all time lows, there may have never been a better time to move-up into your dream home. If you move into a more desirable home now, you will be in position to gain larger equity as prices eventually appreciate.

You Get to Move On with Your Life

Probably the most important reason to sell is so you can get on with your life. You are considering selling for a reason. Do not allow a less-than-stellar housing market prevent you from reaching your goals as an individual or as a family. Think about the reasons you are thinking about moving. Are these reasons really important to you? If you have to take less than you were originally hoping to get for your house, your family has a question to ask each other: Is the dollar difference in sales price worth putting off our plans? Only you and your family know the answer to that question.

Rate Watch

This Week; over the weekend it appears there is a deal to avoid a debt default. Congressional leaders and the President came to a compromise as by know everyone is aware of. What isn't clear yet is will the deal make it through the House after members actually see the plan that early this morning hasn't been seen by most members in the House or Senate. The stock market will open better this morning on the news but the bond market isn't likely to buckle much. So far there has been nothing from the rating agencies whether the deal is sufficient to avoid a downgrade of US credit rating.

Once the borrowing limit is increased markets can move back to focusing the economy. Today at 10:00 the July ISM manufacturing index and this afternoon auto and truck sales for July. This is employment week with July employment data on Friday. Expect continued uncertainty and potential market volatility this week as investors sift over the debt ceiling details. Prices of bonds and mortgages will continue to hold a bullish bias given the economic weakness and high unemployment. Whether we can hold the 10 yr at 2.75% area is not clear; it will take a few days for the entire agreed upon plan to be digested.

Orlando Real Estate News

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Orlando loses foreclosure infamy — for now Orlando Sentinel The real cloud hanging over Orlando's real-estate recovery, Sharga added, is the number of houses still destined for foreclosure that haven't received the first default notice yet. Orlando lawyer Justin Clark said his office remains busy with ... See all stories on this topic »

Marriott time-share spin-off will give Orlando a new headquarters Orlando Sentinel ... which operates or franchises 3500 hotels in 71 countries, has acknowledged the difficulty of finding stockholders these days who want to invest in both an asset-light hotel-management company and a real-estate-intensive time-share operation. ... See all stories on this topic »

Two Orlando rock figures pass this week: Rob Grill and Joe Lambusta Orlando Sentinel (blog) He took us through a great period.” Lambusta segued into real estate in the 1990s and had suffered from some health issues, Dolan said. Even then, he remained a valuable caretaker of Orlando's rock history. In 2005, Lambusta talked to the Orlando ... See all stories on this topic »

Study: Bakersfield among top markets for rental home investors Bakersfield Californian 5 in the country for rental home investors, according to two real estate firms that teamed up to gauge the market. The study by HomeVestors of America, a property-investment firm, and Local Market Monitor, a real-estate data firm, looked at current ... See all stories on this topic »

How much activity is enough?

During the listing process, we keep a close eye on web-stats for each and every property. We monitor search results from the major search engines as well as our local MLS. This aspect of the marketing process is more of an art than a science. This is an example of a property we put on the market 2 days prior to this screen shot being taken. This screen shot shows that there were 919 prospective buyers who are actively searching for properties that were triggered when this home hit the market. This means their search criteria fits what this home has to offer.

Furthermore, 1583 emails were sent with this property in the email. This is the biggest number I have ever seen on one of our listings. The truth is, with this property, we received 2 offers within 15 hours of hitting the market, and another 2 within 48 hours. We had over 15 showings in the first 2 days. This is a rare case but don’t forget…Good Deals Never Last!!!

 

Get your offer accepted!

You have finally found the house of your dreams. It is priced right and is receiving a lot of attention from other buyers. You don’t want to miss this opportunity so you are ready to put in an offer with the real estate agent immediately. What can you do to guarantee your offer is the one accepted? Financially, offers can be broken down into three categories:

1.) An All-Cash Offer

Obviously, a cash purchaser is always favored by any seller. In today’s real estate market, an all-cash offer is even more enticing. Last month, one in four real estate transactions were impacted by a low appraisal. An all-cash buyer eliminates the need for the bank appraisal.

2.) A Non-Contingency Offer

If you don’t have the cash reserves for an all-cash purchase, the next best thing would be to make a non-contingency offer. To do this you should be already pre-approved for a mortgage and have your current house already in contract. This gives the seller the confidence that you are already a qualified buyer who will be able to complete the purchase.

3.) A Contingency Offer

Some buyers start the process of looking for a new home before their current home is sold. This could be a big mistake. If you find the home you were hoping for (perfect for your family AND priced right), it will be very difficult to get your offer accepted because you are not actually qualified to buy.

Asking a seller to wait for your home to sell is somewhat unreasonable in today’s environment. One of the reasons you would want the home is because the seller priced the home at a value to sell it NOW. They want to know it is sold when they accept an offer. They normally will not even entertain a contingency offer. 

Bottom Line

Unless you have the ability to purchase with cash, the best thing to do is to be pre-approved for a mortgage and have your current house already in contract before looking for the home of your dreams. That guarantees you will get the home you love at a price that makes sense.

Home Alone Home For Sale – CB Previews

If you are around my age you remember watching the Home Alone series. The actual home was located just outside Chicago and has just been listed for sale. Reminisce with me as we take a tour of the home in the video below. The home is listed for $2.4 Million and is listed by Coldwell Banker. 

Continue Reading.

Two Fla. cities set for dramatic turnaround…http://wp.me/p146tm-fr

Kiplinger.com names two Florida cities – Jacksonville and Orlando – to its list of 11 comeback cities in 2011. According to the website, 2011 will see a “dramatic turnaround – new investment by businesses, growth in the number of jobs and a reblooming of hope” in the noted cities.

The website did not list the cities in any particular order.

Orlando

Kiplinger predicts that Orlando employment will increase by 3 percent this year. It points to an improvement in tourism for the vacation destination, but also points to the growth of a “life science cluster of medical care and research.”

Jacksonville

Kiplinger expects job growth of 2.8 percent this year. It points to increased demand from financial service firms, hotels, health care, restaurants and warehousing.

Other cities in the top 11 for a turnaround include:

• Charlotte, N.C.

• Chattanooga, Tenn.

• Flint, Mich.

• Las Vegas

• Nashville, Tenn.

• Phoenix

• Portland, Ore.

• San Jose, Calif.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®