January 31st, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
Activity not what it should be on your House now for sale? Here’s a list of suggestions which I have borrowed from many top flight pros in our industry:
1. Open Houses during school drop off time and school pick-up time. (If you’re near a school).
2. Poll all other agents who have a similar priced home and ask THEM how their activity is.
3. Do a reverse prospecting function on the MLS to see who has a buyer in this price point.
4. Pull up every agent who has SOLD a property in your listings area for the past year. Send them an email or call.
5. Open Houses during the week. Twilight Open House when folks are coming home!
6. Craig’s List–run it under different headlines
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Wisdom Shared, Tales from the Trenches | Please post a response »
January 31st, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
Mr. Pete Phillippe will be joining us this weekend to discuss all the interest rate spikes and retreats plus a new conforming loan limit of perhaps, dare I dream? $750,000. Call him on our real estate hotline: 707-636-1350.
Posted in Interest Rate Update | Please post a response »
January 31st, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
Our statewide Association of Realtors gave us some interesting updates today. They are:
*Interest rates continue to remain near their historic lows. The fixed-rate mortgage was 6.10 percent in December, below November’s 6.21 percent, and slightly lower than 6.14 percent from December 2006. Today they are hovering around 5.375!!
• December’s fixed-rate was at its lowest level in the past five months, having peaked in July 2007 at 6.7 percent. A week ago Monday the rate fell to an astonishing 5.125%! The following attempted “lock-ins” crashed the whole system!! So be prepared to “Lock and ROCK!”
• Month-to-month sales increased for the second month in a row, rising 4.7 percent in December compared with November. The new home builders we speak with have been seeing multiple offers on some of their models!!! They are offering rock-bottom pricing, upgrades and terrific incentive packages. You an also be represented by your Favorite REALTOR as they are cooperating with every licensee to get their product sold!
• The time a home remained on the market prior to selling improved to 67.2 days in December compared to 72.1 days for the same period a year ago. Back in the early 90’s when the market was very bleak the statewide inventory on the market hit 26 MONTHS!! Here in the NorthBay it’s more like 6 months.
• In December, it would have taken 14.5 months to sell all the homes on the market at the current sales rate, an improvement compared with November, when it would have taken 15.4 months.
• Although seasonally adjusted sales fell 33.4 percent year to year in December 2007 compared with 2006, they were above the 300,000-unit level for the first time since August 2007. Don’t forget–when you come OFF HISTORIC HIGHS you are bound to see huge numbers when they quote PERCENTAGES!! We had virtually NO foreclosures for years in Sonoma County but a modest increase could results in a PERCENTAGE number of 50%!! Careful with what you read!
Don’t forget to listen to the Real Estate Hour every Sunday for the latest and the greatest in NorthBay Real Estate.
Posted in Statewide Issues | Please post a response »
January 31st, 2008 . by JoetheSportsGuy
After picks in the playoffs that have been terrible at best…who else can you take in this game:
SUPER BOWL XLII… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Pro-FootBall | Please post a response »
January 30th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
Posted in Fun Stuff, Open Houses | Please post a response »
January 30th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
Working with Bank Owned properties and/or “Short-Sales” its kinda like the Wild West out there nowadays. I think we all have “vented” our frustrations as how quickly contract law, ethics, timeliness, etc have all been thrown out the window by some of the Assett Managers for the duration of this shakeout in “Short-Sales” and Foreclosures. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Community Alerts!, Short Sales | Please post a response »
January 30th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
A blogger in Florida is being sued by a large developer for stating on his blog that this particular developer had gone “Bankrupt”. This was false and the guy is now being sued for libel. Here are my thoughts on this:
A very simple truth here which every journalistic knows–you always get your facts straight before you publish. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Wisdom Shared | Please post a response »
January 30th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
My wife and I attended NAR’s yearly convention in New Orleans a couple of years back. We had volunteered for a work crew preparing the City Park for their annual Xmas party. The park itself and especially the diverse amount of plantings were really suffering. We were told they had gone from a paid staff of 2,000 down to 200. Seems their income was derived from the Park, its golf course, and the lack of attendance and play on the course (ruined by the flooding) was almost nil. And this is a Park which is BIGGER than New York’s Central Park! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Wisdom Shared | Please post a response »
January 29th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
GSE (Government Sponsored Entities or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and the new (Conforming) Loan Limit Increase
Time Frame. Mortgages originated during the period beginning on July 1, 2007, and ending at the end of December 31, 2008. The limits will “sun-set” end of THIS year!!
Calculation of New Conforming Loan Limit. The limitation on the maximum original principal obligation of a mortgage that may be purchased by the GSEs shall be the higher of:
(1) the conforming loan limitation for 2008
(2) 125 percent of the area median home price, but in no case to exceed 175 percent of the conforming loan limitation for 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Interest Rate Update, Housing Updates | 1 Comment »
January 25th, 2008 . by Mike Kelly
The following is from Alicia Hodenfield who provides us with an Interest Rate update every Friday for this blog. This is one reason why you should, as a buyer, have all your paperwork submitted and get “credit approved” so when the rates bottom like they did on Monday–you can LOCK and LOAD that great rate which was 5.125%!
“Here’s my thoughts on what’s been happening with rates the last few days…
The Fed makes a surprise announcement – they are cutting the over night rate by .75% - down to 3.50%. The international markets reacted as it would appear that the US economy might be in some trouble since the Fed to step in. This seemed to have triggered a response with investors here, and as a result, the investors moved from the market to safer investments, like bonds. This is when things started to look good for interest rates. The better the bond market is doing, the better it is for interest rates. So we woke up on Wednesday morning with the stock market losing and the bond market rallying. Rate sheets reflected this good fortune. But after a very bad day on Wall Street, it had been down by over 300 points and the market rallied up 500 points. Money left the bond market to go back to the rapidly rising market. This caused lenders to re-price, and re-price and re-price. By the end of the day, the 5.125% rate I had available for a 30 year fixed rate, was hovering close to 6%. That’s a lot of movement in one day. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Interest Rate Update | Please post a response »
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