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Awesome Top Producer Panel

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**TOP PRODUCER PANEL**

Peter Knapp’s Comments

Subscribe to the 4 P’s

  • Persistence
  • Purpose
  • Perspective
  • Patience
  • Reminding yourself “why”
  • Why are you in the business?  Providing for family
  • The idea of “you signed up for it”
  • Available 24/7
  • It’s your job so do you best
  • Embracing the profession
  • Be responsive
  • Separating yourself from the transaction
  • Don’t be emotional – Be honest
  • Emotions
  • Separate yourself from the transaction – Don’t take personally
  • Creating quality of life
  • Servant mentality
  • serve all the time
  • Outworking people – some people are smarter but no one will outwork me
  • And common sense
  • Each transaction, you are working for more than one sale
  • By servicing everyone they will refer you.
  • Every client is the only client
  • Have people say  – I thought I was the only client you were helping
  • Do Charity events as client events
  • Address previous hurdles with clients in initial interview to minimize problems down the road

 **Tom Connor’s comments

Peter’s list was on target – he didn’t miss a beat!

It is important to block time off.

Spend majority of time on lead generation – Most Agents don’t do this.

Manage Team like a business – presentations, systems, and processes are important.

Website built with lead generation – on Back office – Real Pro Systems

Discuss business and an Agent’s productivity with buyers and sellers so they understand how hard you work and what your results are versus the “standard/average” agent.

Be responsive

Be communicative

Develop online biz but understand it is hard – lots of rejection – must be persistent

Read Book “Work for a Reason”

John Rumcik – ‘RUM’ –No Team – leverage company events with sphere to show you are involved in the community and give back to charities.

  • Hard work has no substitute
  • Work 100% by referral
  • BNI is great – members & clients are referring because of high level of service
  • Tons of referrals
  • Work outside the box
  • Don’t say “no” if it’s legal & ethical – yes, I will try for you is the right answer
  • Advertise on Craigslist to help military for free on rentals and your email will blow up.
  • Nothing is below me
    • BPOs and rentals pay RE/MAX expenses – no deal is to small or beneath me to provide my clients
    • BPOs help with knowing valuations
    • Sell clients for the future 

What are your motivations and how do you stay accountable?

Rum – Motivated by money

  • Has business plan
  • Has goals

Peter – Meets with Scott

  • His “why” of why he’s in the business

Tom – Incoming bills – money

  • Drive from within:  either you have it or you don’t.

Just a few more thoughts…

Do the little things and they will eventually add up to something big – rentals, BPOs, etc.

This job is mental →

Never be satisfied with success – always strive for more.

And we had the market update…

From DSNEWS.com  

Foreclosure Sales in Q1 = 158,434 – Altogether, third parties purchased a total of 158,434 bank-owned and short sale homes during the first three months of this year.  That’s down 16% from the previous quarter’s total and down 36% from the first quarter of 2010.

…REOs that sold in the first quarter had been repossessed by the bank an average of 176 days prior to the sale…

…Sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the first quarter of 2011 – in our area is was 30%, the highest percentage since the first quarter of 2010.”

…California and Arizona, foreclosure sales accounted for 45% of all residential home sales during the first quarter – in Vegas it was 53%.

…Residential home prices slipped 2.5% during the first quarter of this year when compared to the previous quarter…Our area sales prices are up 5.84% – an 8.24% difference.  We are lucky to be where we are today in regards to home sales and pricing!

From Builderonline.com

Foreclosures Continue to Take Toll on Pricing…only 20% of the 1.2 million homes in some stage of foreclosure have hit the markets – how is this going to affect prices?  In addition, over 4,000,000 are behind/in default on their mortgages.

From Realtor.org – Today’s REALTOR:  older and more experienced

Sales agents report $25k median net income in 2010. How much did you or your Realtor earn last year?  Experience=money – you better ask!

The typical REALTOR of today is older and has more experience than the typical REALTOR on year ago, according to the national Association of REALTORS’ 2011 Member Profile.  The average age is 56.

NAR had 1.01 million members.

Only 12% of REALTORS under 40, half are between 40 and 59, and 38% are age 60 or older. Only 6% of REALTORS said real estate was their first career. By comparison, homebuyers had a median age of 39 in 2010.  Get in tune with your buyers!

8% did not complete a single transaction in 2010, down from 12% in both 2009 and 2008.  I believe this number is very suspect…

Real estate was the sole occupation for 75% of REALTORS…

From DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS

 New-home sales see monthly rise in April

Sales of new, single-family homes saw a monthly rise in April, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today.

New Home Sales increased an estimated 7.3% in April compared with March and it is 29.2% above the rate in February, when such sales hit an all-time low.

The median sales price of a new homes rose 4.6% year-over-year in April, to $217,900.  Builder’s homes are priced right that is why they are selling and they are seeing price increase.

From WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL

 Rates fall for sixth straight week – what a great time to buy!  Rates are down and prices are up.  Time to get in now before both are too far out of reach!

 HOUSING DATA

Last May versus this May – week 4

                                                                2010                                                       2011

Active homes for sale                                7,428                                                     7,516

Month’s supply  of u/c                              2.1                                                          2.1

Settlements last 30 days                           3162                                                       2598

Month’s supply of solds last 30                  2.3                                                         2.9

Percent of market that is distress inventory      15.2

We are in a very similar situation to last May – pretty crazy!  As usual, we had a great training that shared a lot of information.  Be sure to see video footage at www.youtube.com/scottmacdonald5 to hear more!  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

Selling your home? Avoid these mistakes!

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Top 12 Seller Mistakes and how to avoid them if you are looking to sell your house:

  1. Selling on your own.  There have been so many changes in financing, contracts, and regulations that it is difficult to keep up with if you are not in the business learning and keeping up with these changes you can get burned at the last minute.  How will you navigate the process when things go wrong with no experience in how to handle the types of problems?  The business is changing exponentially virtually daily.
  2. Not hiring a true professional.  A true professional in the business is someone who is actively selling houses and participating in continuous training – not just someone with a license.  Nearly 40% of licensed Realtors did not sell a house in the last 12 months.  Be sure your agent is a true professional who is keeping up with the changes in the market, trends, contract changes and all other aspects of the business.
  3. Not listening to the advice of your professional.  Some owners will hire an active agent in the business, listen to their advice but then take over “the driving” of the listing by dictating the pricing, condition, showing details, negotiations, etc.
  4. Not hiring a stager.  Some sellers fancy themselves as decorators, interior designers, etc. saying they know how to put their property in the right condition to sell – well, it doesn’t help in most cases.  If your agent isn’t an Accredited Staging Professional – hire one and do all that they tell you to do to sell your house.
  5. Not doing what the stager or professional suggests.  Yes, some people will hire professionals and not take their advice or delay in making the changes suggested.
  6. Not following the advice of feedback presented by agents who show the property quickly or in a timely manner.  Agents who are actively previewing or showing properties have the best perspective on the market.  Their buyer’s feedback is the heart of the market and its conditions so their input should be carefully considered and followed – with the advice of your agent.
  7. Not maintaining the “right” condition of the property during the sale process.  Many times, especially as time goes on in the marketing process, sellers won’t make beds, load the dishwasher, keep the blinds open, etc. and that is when the property will be shown.  It is a difficult process but it must be followed because you don’t know when the next showing will occur.
  8. Pricing the house a little high for negotiations.  Pricing is extremely critical.  What happened last month, last year or when you bought your house doesn’t matter in today’s market.  Buyers are looking for houses that are priced right – which in many cases, is a little below what the last sale was in the neighborhood.  Pricing a little low may also generate multiple offers and allow you to attain a higher sales price.
  9. Not utilizing a lockbox to grant access – appointment only will hurt the number of showings and thereby extend the length of time the property is on the market which will lead to frustration on everyone’s part.
  10. Not leaving during the showing process – it is uncomfortable to the buyers and they won’t provide the best of feedback.
  11. Not negotiating contracts that come in – no matter how low.  Sometimes buyers or their agents will see how low they can go before they will agree at a reasonable price and terms.
  12. Not making the contract work and get to closing.  Often times both buyers and sellers will need to negotiate all the way to the closing – home inspection items, HOA violations, appraisal issues, title issues, and so many other things can become stumbling blocks.  Remember to keep your eye on the end goal of selling the house.

By avoiding these costly mistakes, you can get your house sold in virtually any market in a reasonable time.

Help! Don’t allow Congress to hinder housing recovery!

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The Northern Virginia Real Estate market continues on it strong pace but there is legislation that can bring this to an end – and fast.  The legislation is known as Qualified Residential Mortgages.  NAR believes Congress intended to create a broad QRM exemption. Evidence shows that responsible lending standards and ensuring a borrower’s ability to repay have the greatest impact on reducing lender risk, not high down payments. Proposals that require high down payments will drive more borrowers to FHA, increase costs for borrowers by raising interest rates and fees, and effectively price many eligible borrowers out of the housing market.

A provision in the Dodd-Frank Act requires that financial institutions retain 5% of the risk on loans they securitize. The purpose is to discourage excessive risk taking and create strong incentives for responsible lending and borrowing.

Congress came up with the QRM concept to ensure that banks were only putting up ‘safe’ loans for securitization. NAR supports this goal, but in practice, regulators have come up with draconian parameters for what constitutes a QRM.

NAR feels this will not only affect buyers, but would also affect the ability of home owners to sell their homes, since there would be fewer buyers who could qualify for home ownership.

NAR wants federal regulators to honor Congressional intent by crafting a QRM exemption that includes a wide variety of traditionally safe, well underwritten products such as 30-, 15-, and 10-year fixed-rate loans; 7-1 and 5-1 ARMs; and loans with down payments in the 5% to 20% range with PMI, where required, and with other features found in low-risk loans such as no prepayment penalties or balloon.  Implementing a new rule requiring a twenty percent or higher down-payments would stop the housing recovery in its tracks and we can’t have this happen to our fragile recovery in the housing sector.  Please contact your elected officials today and have them stop this in its tracks.  If you are interested in receiving a letter to forward on, please let me know.

 

I would like to thank NAR for allowing me to take their words and post this for you.

 

Now, go sell something!

A meeting of even greater minds…

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One agent says it is slowest quarter in 3 years but he also agrees that results he is achieving are a direct result of the activities he has participated in the previous 120 days.  We all know what we need to do – you just have to do it.  Others continue to stay busy.  Here is the office activity the last  few weeks:  36 sales 14 listing, 18 sales 10 listing, 30 sales 20 listings, and 20 sales 5 listings  – a little up and down don’t you think?

Houses have to be jazzed up – granite, stainless, hardwood floors but most importantly price.  Buyers want everything in the house with nothing to have to do to fix it up and at the lowest price.  Pricing is a fine line today…price it right, not a little high to getter done

Banks are negotiating cash or financing loans to offset the differences.  Joe negotiated a deal with bank, they were $250,000 upside down bank wanted $40,000 cash to close – he negotiated $30,000 loan for 10 years no interest or $15,000 cash at any time.

Inventory levels are up – where is the market?  Not completely crystalized on the next quarter and what it is going to bring us.  Rates need to bump up to get people off the fence – we keep saying they are going up but they are at the lowest point this year.  Only things selling are the “good” deals are selling.  If nothing grabs the buyer, it is not selling. 

New homes are doing really well.  Brambleton had a record year last year – 354 sales last year and through the end of April they had sold over 200.  Toll Brothers has sold 52 year to date in South Riding. – Broadlands is crushing it too.  Pulte at East Market is selling at a record pace because of price and location.  Stanley Martin is ahead of last year’s record pace.  And NV Homes sold 7 homes in Saranac versus 1 for Brookfield – not many other new homes for sale

Sellers dominate the landscape amongst the agents in Platinum Club.  If you need new buyers – hold open houses:  18 people went through one open house last week in Centreville, 47 people went through another one in Fairfax – Home Buying Seminars are working now too, one agent had 50 people attend – internet advertising is working too.  You have to be actively involved in the business to get business.  Buyers have so many avenues to find properties plus they have access to so much information that they feel they don’t need an agent.  You need to develop relationships, get referrals and build the bridge or else you won’t get them – best way is to have a face to face buyer presentation.  Therefore, the adage of listers last will ring true for years to come.

First time buyers are getting bumped out who are using FHA loans – cash, conventional and even LFMI loans are beating them out.  The first time market continues to be red hot.

You have to meet appraisers now more so than before to get the house to appraise.  Most are open to your feedback so show up and do your job to protect your sellers and your contract.

Google yourself and see what happens.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

Great minds, great information…

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Between Freddie and Fannie there are still 218,000 foreclosures set to come on the market.  As reported in Creative Real Estate Daily, in terms of Fannie, just as we were so surprised and pleased that Freddie Mac had actually turned a profit in the first quarter of this year (see the article, “Did I Miss the Freddie Mac Bake Sale?” posted last week), Fannie Mae comes out with its first quarter numbers. The GSE had a loss to the tune of $8.7 billion in the 2011 first quarter! It’s enough to make you want to do a Donald Trump on the agency—you’re fired!

Fannie Mae says this was mainly because of declining home prices in that quarter. Really? Would that be the only reason?

With needing to draw additional funds to cover these losses, Fannie Mae’s draw on the government piggy bank (since the government seized control of Fannie in late 2008) has now reached nearly $100 billion.

Fannie Mae’s first quarter production numbers look like this:

  • 51,043 loan modifications
  • 78,000 single-family loan workouts  (including  60,000+ home retention solutions)
  • 17,120 short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure
  • 53,549 REO properties gained through foreclosure  (up nearly 8,000 from the 2010 first quarter)
  • Total single-family REO inventory (as of Mar. 31, 2011): 153,224 with a value of $14.1 billion.

Dave Liniger mentioned at the Catalyst Conference that Bank of America is holding 700,000 properties that are 90 days late – not sure what other banks are holding.

The big question is – how many are here locally?  How will it affect our market?  How will it affect our prices?

RealtyTrac has released the results of its statistical study on which U.S. cities are the best places to buy foreclosures in 2011. It started with the 100 most highly populated metropolitan areas, and then used a 10-category criteria of things like unemployment rates, foreclosure activity, and sales prices to narrow the field. The result is the 10 best cities to buy and invest in foreclosures this year:

  1. Akron, OH
  2. Rochester, NY
  3. Buffalo, NY
  4. Cleveland, OH
  5. Portland, ME
  6. Milwaukee, WI
  7. San Jose, CA
  8. Memphis, TN
  9. San Diego, CA
  10. Durham, NC

Guess what, we aren’t in here which is good for us!  Thanks for the update Creative Real Estate Daily!

Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5B – Wow! EBay Inc. bought Skype in 2005 for around $3.1 billion but took a $1.4 billion charge for the transaction in 2007 after it failed to produce.  Regardless, jump on board Skype – 107 million users Skyped 207 billion minutes.  Also, when communicating with people 55% of communication is physiological, 38% is tonality and 7% is words.  Emails and texts can get misconstrued, get in front of your clients or get them on Skype – it’s free!

State attorneys general are holding meetings with the nation's largest mortgage servicers this week to negotiate a settlement agreement for the robo-signing issues that surfaced last fall.  Speculation on the combined fine amount ranges from $5 billion to $20 billion.  The services include Bank of America and Wells Fargo among other banks.  Stay tuned for more details.

Mark Zuckerman of Facebook looks to have purchased a $7,000,000 home in California.  Not too shabby for a 26 year old!

Online real estate brokerage Redfin has removed 42 agents from its partner referral program due to mixed customer reviews, the company announced in a blog post Friday.  Redfin also axed eight partner agents for creating fake customer reviews – integrity counts.  We just have to get them to not rebate back to buyers off the HUD!!

Home Alone house is on the market for $2.4 million!  Great house, great neighborhood, bratty kid not included!

Mortgage rates are at this year’s lows, purchase mortgage loans are up and I know Leslie Wish will tell us all about it and MARS has reared its head again and I know Sadaf Saberi and Ryan Koppel will cover this topic for us as well.

You now have great information to help you with your business and to talk with clients about to show you are the expert.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

 

A fad? I don’t think so!

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Social Media is here to stay.  It was reported on the news that the killing of Osama Bin Laden was being tweeted live by Sohaib Athar as the raid occurred.  As the death Bin Laden was being reported, over 4,000 tweets per second were being posted – the typical average is 600 per second.  If you noticed, people at the Mets and Phillies game were getting the news of his death on their smart phones – no doubt many through social media postings.  The question is, how did you hear about his death?  I heard several people saw the postings on Facebook.  If people are going to these sites so frequently and getting their news there, why aren’t you there?

People are getting the news of school delays from weather from social media sites as well as other news about friends and family.  If you aren’t it the social media game, you will be out of the game before you know it.

  1. Check out the Facebook numbers – http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
  2. Here are twitter’s numbers – http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/03/twitter-by-their-numbers.html  – there are over 460,000 new accounts per day in the last month alone!
  3. How about YouTube?  http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-statistics/   - more of the same!
  4. Then there is Linkedin – over 100 million users and the identities are real people.

There are so many other sites but these are the some of the most visited.  Get busy getting social if you want to survive and thrive in today’s business world.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

In like lion, out like a lamb….NOT!

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Look at house 

Here is a quick market update for the end of April. 

The spring market is officially in high gear!  Let’s see what the numbers are telling us about the real estate market in our area.

Our resale inventory for the Northern Virginia Market has increased 8 consecutive weeks and we are now over 7,100 houses currently for sale.  It is the first time we have had this much inventory since the third week of November 2010.  It is important to realize that houses continue to sell when they are priced right – which means under market in some areas and price points – and show like model homes. 

The good news is distressed property inventory is down.  Distressed properties only make up 16.1% of our market – down from a high of 45.5%.  This is good for now but more distressed properties loom on the horizon.  At RE/MAX meetings this week Dave Liniger reported that Bank of America has over 700,000 loans more than 90 days late on their payments.  

Inventory of vacant properties continues to decline which means we are flushing through foreclosure properties.  Pending sales are down slightly over the last seven days but it is taking longer to negotiate contracts so we may see an uptick next week – stay tuned. 

We currently have a 2.2 month supply of homes for houses that have gone under contract the last 30 days and a 3.2 month supply of houses that settled the last 30 days. 

The market is staying strong for investors – prices remain reasonable, rental prices are up, interest rates are low and we have a 1.1 month supply of rentals – extremely low.

When armed with the right information, you can give your clients the right advice whether they are buying or selling a house.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

Got Short Sales? What you need to know…

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House 2 
 
We had another outstanding training on Friday, this time on short sales.  Jane Clawson and Sara Rodriguez put on an informative meeting that went over 1.5 hours on how to increase the chances of your short sale getting to settlement. 

First thing to know is that although short sale/distressed property inventory is down locally and has been decreasing over the last several weeks, they are going to be a part of our residential landscape for the next 3 to 5 years.  So whether you like to deal with them or not, you need to learn how to deal with them appropriately to get the best results for your clients whether they are buying or selling houses.

First things first, set the right expectations for your sellers.  In today’s market, short sales are taking a very long time to complete, banks are not necessarily releasing people of their liabilities, they are providing 1099’s at closing, they have been asking for interest free loans for a portion of the balance owed and most importantly, they need to be upfront with you.  Are they current with their payments – if not, when was the last time they made a payment.  Also, how many loans are on the property, are there any judgments against the property, and are they current on their HOA or condo dues.  Just so you don’t have any complications at the last minute, ask them to speak with a reputable bankruptcy attorney to make certain this is or is not an option for them.  Speak with the bank about a potential loan mod as well.  Lastly, speak with an accountant about potential tax liabilities of the short sale. 

In order to give yourself the best shot, fill out the owner’s bank paperwork –not forms you develop or others that you may have picked up at a seminar.  The best way to expedite this part of the process is to go to shortsalesuperstars.com.  They have every bank’s short sale paperwork readily available or get the paperwork directly from the lender.  Every page needs to have the owner’s name and loan number on them – bar none.  Have your title company do a preliminary HUD-1 with all charges that apply – past due association fees, well/septic fees, home warranty, agent fees, etc. because bank will push back on fees so it is better to give them the worst case scenario dollars wise upfront and provide them with a title search as well.

Follow up 24 -48 hours after you send it to ensure it was received.  The process only begins once the entire package has been received.  Ask if they have a complete package.

Harassment works – call two to three times per week.  Ask if foreclosure date is set – if so, when.  Has a negotiator been assigned?  Have they ordered the BPO yet – if not, can you call and order while I am on the phone?  Where are we in the process…whatever it is just call regularly.  Remember the person on the phone doesn’t think outside the box so work within their guidelines.

The bank is not always the investor so you need to find out who the investor is and who will be making the decisions.  Also, all banks handle short sales differently so you need to know the bank and their process – some only answer emails, some only answer phones in the morning, and others the afternoon.  Get into their routine and know how to work with them.

Other notes of interest – foreclosures can be stopped with a contract but all hands need to be on deck and work expeditiously to get it done.  Short sales can hurt your credit for 2-4 years, bankruptcy and foreclosure are both longer.  For more details on the credit situations, go to http://lindaferrari.com/.  Remember, the title company represents the transaction and not the seller so title companies will not do seller only closings.  Also, it is best to have the seller directly negotiate the outstanding condo, HOA or IRS judgments with the appropriate party as they will have the most leverage.  They are less likely to negotiate with an attorney because they will say if they can pay for an attorney, they can pay their bill.

For additional questions or concerns, feel free to call Jane or Sara at 703-448-3556 or me at 703-652-5777.  Again, keep up with trends, numbers, and processes and you will get results.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

 

It’s good to know!

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We had another great real estate exchange yesterday at Clyde’s in Ashburn sponsored by Jane Clawson at Ekko Title and Josh Burruss at Potomac Mortgage Group.  We discussed the Loudoun housing market as well as the Northern Virginia housing market and how inventory is up due to the time of year but distressed property inventory is down.  This trend has been occurring for the last few weeks throughout the region. 

New home sales are more and more prevalent as the houses that are for sale are not priced right or are not in the right condition and if they are, they are receiving multiple offers with escalation clauses.  In addition to lack of acceptable housing in the resale market, builders are now priced right and are offering a viable option. 

A few agents are experience appraisal issues and as prices escalate, we anticipate seeing even more as underwriters are not in sync with the market and appraisers want to be conservative and not be too far ahead of the curve in pricing like we saw from 2004-2006 – stay tuned!

Josh mentioned that rates remain great – 4.75% with no points on conforming/FHA products and just 5% on conforming jumbo products.  One reason we continue to see great rates is that inflation is came in lower than expected on Friday despite the fact that gas prices and food prices are on the rise.  On Monday, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the US debt which resulted in a slight uptick in rates.  It is the first time since 1995-1996 that they have downgraded the debt, if this trend continues, we will see rates rise and rise quickly – keep an eye out for further announcements.  Loan applications continue to roll in for purchases – 86% of applications were purchase apps and 75% of those were for new homes.  Again, new homes are having an impact in the Northern Virginia housing market.

Jane discussed the importance of utilizing reputable partners when buying or selling houses.  They have seen recent trends when researching titles that there are rampant defects in title.  This is because previous title companies have not gone back 40 years when looking at the title history, they just went back an owner or two. Jane and her team will go back and contact the banks to get liens released or indemnify the parties so they can move forward with the transaction, receive their title insurance and move forward. Lately, they are seeing unreleased liens, mistakes made with the wrong substitute trustee selling the properties, issues with previous second trusts and more.  Be sure you work with a reputable team to handle these issues and protect your clients.   Also, remember that you cannot put “owner of record” as seller on your contracts.  Call Ekko and they can do a quick title bring down and let you know who is the owner of the property – you need to know who has the authority to sell the house. It’s good to know and to work with people in the know.

Next, we discussed our listings and reviewed buyer needs.  Activity on listings is up which means buyers are out in the marketplace – get your house in the right condition and price it right to get a sale!  Investors are still hungry for properties in the lower price points as the rental market remains strong and rents are brining great returns.

It is imperative to stay on top of the market, review trends, and network with other professionals to inform your clients of what to do when buying or selling real estate.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

Don’t kick yourself later…stay on top of the trends!

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Platinum Group April 2011

The Platinum Group is made up of Realtors from various companies that meet once per month who earn in excess of $250,000 – the true top producers in the business.  We discuss market conditions, trends, short sales, foreclosures and many other topics.  The advice given should be taken to heart if you are in the market to buy or sell as this is relevant information in regards to our market.  If you are an agent, feel free to share what we discuss with your clients.

Spring has sprung…inventory levels are up just as we had expected them to be this time of year but what has surprised me is that the level has jumped 13% in just 2 weeks.  Luckily, there are buyers out there looking to own because decent listings are coming on and off the market.  Houses are selling but the properties need be in the right condition and priced right.  Above average condition is selling – low prices are selling – if you have both they are sold, if you only have one or the other you are sitting on the market.  It is imperative now more than ever to understand this scenario.  If you don’t, the house will stay on the market.

Although inventory levels are rising, the good news about our market is that foreclosure and short sale activity have been stable and are making up a lower percentage of the inventory available.  I am not completely sure if we have seen the bottom on this or not – my experience and what will be written about later also indicate we are not completely out of the woods in regards to distressed properties.

In the price range $475,000-650,000, there has been little to no activity in Centreville/Chantilly…first time buyers are buying and the wealthy understand the value of the market – interest rates, property values, etc. so they are buying in upper price points.  The reason for this being a difficult price point is because of lack of move up buyers in the market today.  Many move up buyers over the last 3-4 years have either short sold or got foreclosed on so there is now a void in the market – it may take a few more years for this segment of the market to recover – stay tuned!

Sellers are more willing to do work today – they are watching home improvement shows, are  going on line and look at other properties and how they are presented and making the house show to attract buyers.  Putting the home in model condition is the key.  Decluttering, neutralizing colors, sprucing up the yard, packing up belongings and getting a storage unit are the keys to getting the house in the right condition to sell.  I find it interesting that we spoke about this on more than one occasion this month.

Be careful how you load you photos – some internet sites only pull the first 5 posted on MLS.

Foreclosure releases are slow and have been since November.  Many people are still in the house because they know they can stay in the house and not pay any mortgage or rent and cash for keys is nowhere near the savings of not paying at all.  In reviewing the paper and in particular, the public notice section, more foreclosures are likely to come on the as filing notices are increasing in the paper.  Fannie Mae is sitting on 162,000 properties valued at $15 Billion.  All total with banks, and Freddie included, there is over $1 Trillion inventory.  Obviously, these numbers are national numbers – we are looking into local numbers so stay tuned.

To understand the consequences of short sales and foreclosures, go to www.lindaferrari.com she has all the potential scenarios.  Your credit score may be the least of your worries.

Interest rates are projected to be in the range they are today through the summer which should help us absorb the increase in inventory levels this time of year.

This is valuable, timely and informative which needs to be acted upon and/or shared.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!