If you’re anywhere on Facebook (and who isn’t), you’ve probably seen the gazillion quotes that get posted to people’s walls. They’re all very positive and uplifting. They’ve even taken on new life in the form of graphics with different typefaces, sizes, backgrounds.  In fact, the way the quote is presented sometimes overshadows the message of the quote itself.

Enter Hall’s Cough Drops.

My wife an I have been trading cold symptoms back and forth for the last few days and while she prefers the Luden’s Honey Licorice cough drop, my loyalty goes to Hall’s  I guess I just prefer a cough drop that tastes, er, like a cough drop. In  any case, while I was unwrapping my cough drop I happened to notice that there was some stuff printed on it that wasn’t just the Hall’s logo.

They were quote! Little motivations snippets to encourage me through the day.

• Take charge and mean it.
• Don’t try harder. Do harder!
• Don’t give up on yourself.
• Get through it.
• Let’s hear your battle cry.
• Put your game face on.
• Power through.
• Bet on yourself.

There’s more but you get the message. There’s even this message on one of the drops I unwrapped: “A PEP TALK IN EVERY DROP™” Notice the little ™ at the end of that one. What Hall’s is trying to say is that they have the corner on cough drop pep talks.

Hey, I’m all for it. If a couple of little motivation quotes helps me get over this cold I’ll be grateful

So. What does all this have to do with real estate?

A lot of the same stuff applies:

• You can do it and you know it.
• The show must go on. Or work.
• Keep your chin up.
• Listen to your Realtor’s advice.

I made that last one up (but it’s still a good quote!).

Are you ready to get motivated to sell or buy a home?
Send me some e-mail or call me at 240-417-9100 and we’ll get through it together!

(Please note: you may have to click here to see the video for the real estate market trends)

In this video provided by Real Estate Business Intelligence (a MRIS company) there is some room for optimism that home prices are finally starting to bottom out.  This will be a good thing for home sellers that have been waiting to see if now is the time to put their home on the market.

If experience is any guide, though, a lot of buyers will continue to sit on the fence waiting for lower prices and/or lower mortgage interest rates.  Unfortunately, just like the home seller who was waiting for the peak of the market back in the early 2000s and missed an opportunity to cash in on the real estate bubble, many buyers will miss “the bottom” by waiting and will miss many of the bargains on the market today.

Having said that, it is important to remember that home buyers still need to qualify for a mortgage – especially first time home buyers – and that is still extremely difficult. Mortgage underwriting standards are still extremely tight and potential home buyers need to have platinum credit to get a mortgage.  This tight credit scenario, in my view, will continue to keep home prices low in order to attract the potential home buyers that can, in fact, qualify for a mortgage.

So, without further ado, here is a short video on the current real estate market trends for Montgomery County, MD and Prince George’s County, MD which includes the towns of College Park, Silver Spring, Bowie, Greenbelt, Bethesda…and more.

Are you interested in the specific real estate trends for your zip code?
E-mail me or give me a call at 240-417-9100 and I’ll send you the stats for your zip code.

We’ve been dealing with the “foreclosure crisis” for awhile now. The sad part is that it is far from over. Many parts of the MD Suburbs of Washington, DC are still have large numbers of homes that are in foreclosure that still haven’t been sold. Worse still are the large number of short sales that are not fully foreclosed upon but are in the process.  If the banks do not allow the short sales to sell in time, they all eventually become foreclosures and end up in the statistics.

Prince George’s County which includes a lot of the towns I work in – College Park, Beltsville, Greenbelt, Laurel, Bowie – seems to be the hardest hit. The neighborhing counties of Montgomery and Howard and Anne Arundel still have their share of foreclosures but not nearly as many as Prince Georges’s.

The inforgraphic below shows the percentage of foreclosures as part of the total number of sales. This is not the total number of foreclosed home, it is a percentage of the total number of home sales.

Read with an optimistic eye, you can see there are still a majority of home sales that are not foreclosures. Staying in that optimistic point of view you can tell that the number of foreclosures as a percentage of total home sales has dropped from 2010 to 2011.  Hopefully, this trend will continue through 2012.

A big thank you to Corey Hart at Real Estate Business Intelligence (a MRIS company) for providing this great visual.

Purchasing your first home is always thrilling and buying the second one is equally exciting. Make use of your common sense as well as other strategies to buy the right home at the right value and in the right place for you and your family. In the present economic situation, buying a home is something very expensive. Under such a situation, you might need the help of a mortgage company that’s skilled enough to provide you with the best home loan. Remember, this is a crucial decision, and before you opt for a home loan ask yourself “mortgage how much can I borrow?” Following are a few steps to get a mortgage for your second home.

• There are certain things that you need to have in order to receive good mortgage rates. They are a good credit score, proof of earnings, and cash for a down payment. You aren’t eligible to acquire a mortgage if you don’t meet the above requirements.

• Find out the reason for buying a second home. Remember that getting a second mortgage is always a huge investment on your part. Ensure that you are capable of paying for any improvements that are essential for your home. Also make sure that you are able to sell your house at a reasonable profit if that’s your ultimate goal.

• Evaluate your financial position. Look at your budget and see whether you are in a position to afford a new loan. If you are finished with your budget and understand that you can obtain a second mortgage, you are probably on your way to a vibrant new home.

• Wait for loan rates to reach a sound position. Conduct some research work and see which organization works best for your situation and requirements. In order to get approval for a home loan, you will require evidence of finances, established earnings and an excellent credit score.

• In case you are presently making payments for the mortgage of your initial home, talk to an agent from the mortgage institution that you are presently working with. If your first mortgage states a good payment history, you may receive an excellent deal on your second mortgage.

Settle on the kind of property that you would like to buy. If it’s a house to live in, you may want to offer more as your down payment, and then make less monthly payment over an extended period of time, because this will be something that you are going to retain for quite a long time.

In case you are purchasing an investment property, select a mortgage that requires a minimum down payment, as you will be making payments for your mortgage until the asset is sold.

Thank you to our guest blogger, Christine  Jones, for this timely post.

(Note: if you are having trouble viewing the graphs just click here…it’s worth it)

Every now and then I like to take a look at market trends in the area.  In this case, I’m going to look at Beltsville, MD in Prince George’s County and the 20904 zip code in Silver Spring, MD located in Montgomery County. These are two contiguous areas with the biggest point of difference being the County.  There is this long held notion that Montgomery County is the “better” County.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• the idea that the school system is more desirable
• general upkeep of infrastructure (roads, etc.) is more frequent
• access to more METRO stops

However, like everywhere else, it really depends on where in the County you’re living. There are many school districts in Prince George’s that have both an excellent reputation and high desirability. Yet, there is still this idea in lots of people’s minds that one County is a better place to live than the other.

So.

Let’s take a look at what two areas that are generally indistinguishable from one another except for the County they’re in look like for the housing market.

Median Home Price

This is the price at which there are equal numbers of homes being sold above the median price and below the median price.  This price, in and of itself, is pretty meaningless but it is useful to show the home pricing trend.

Beltsville, MD

Silver Spring, MD (20904)

Days on Market

This number shows how long a home stays on the market before it receives an offer acceptable to the seller. There may still be a long waiting period between the offer’s acceptance by both buyer and seller and the time of the actual settlement.  However, this is a good indicator of how the market is trending. Short Days on Market indicate that pricing has become more attractive. Maybe the bottom has been reached.

Beltsville, MD

Silver Spring, MD (20904)

Average Sold to Original List Price Ratio

This number shows how close to the original list price the home is actually selling. Again, this indicates if home prices have hit their bottom. The closer the home sells to its original list price means that Mr. Market feels that it’s a true value and not some inflated fantasy number.

Beltsville, MD

Silver Spring, MD (20904)

Interested in knowing the real estate market trends for your neighborhood?
Send me an e-mail or call me at 240-417-9100 and I’ll send them your way.

In a previous blog post, I showed how, even in the dead of winter, homes will sell if:

1. The owner has enough equity to price the house competitively
2. The home is in great condition and
3. Good marketing is in place

In this post, I’ll show how another home in the same community — College Park Woods — also sold very quickly using the same three conditions with one very counter intuitive twist.

3503 De Pauw Street | College Park, MD

Like many of the homes in College Park Woods, this 4 bedroom, 2½ bath Rambler style home was built in 1964.  It’s a brick home with a fenced back yard that backs up to the neighborhood park that is managed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).  It’s a nice, wooded park with a picnic pavilion, playground area, tennis courts and a ball field.

This home sold pretty quickly in December. Here’s why:

Condition

In the nearly 14 years I’ve been selling real estate full time, I have rarely come across a home that was so clean.

The house was vacant.  More than that, everything had been removed.  The appliances were all there and some of those were dated but functional. But the place was clean as a whistle. No stray rolls of paper towels or half used Windex bottles.  No half full cans of paint many people leave behind so the next owner can “touch up” areas (but never do).  No old tools or shelves or anything.

The carpets were cleaned and vacuumed. The windows were clean. The entire home was spotless. It was truly in “move in condition”.

The front and back yard had been mowed and edged.  All the leaves had been removed. No stray garden hoses or forgotten ladders.

Bottom line: potential buyers could really visualize their stuff in the house when they came to visit the house. The could see the true space available.

Price

This is the counter intuitive twist.

I try to persuade sellers all the time that a competitively priced home will help it sell quickly. Leaving a home on the market for months in the hope of getting a higher price only costs money.

1. If there is a mortgage, you still need to pay it which includes the property taxes and insurance.
2. Utilities – gas, electric water.  They all cost.
3. Upkeep – all the little things that come with the seasons like leaf removal, mowing, snow removal, etc.

The seller of this house took the advice of their Realtor and priced the house slightly below market value. That’s right. They priced it for less than what the market says that home is worth.

This is counter intuitive because most home sellers think about coming down in price during an offer negotiation. They rarely think that an aggressive price will attract multiple buyers and that they can actually get a higher than list price offer. But that is exactly what happened in this case.

This house is now sold and settled for 101% of the list price. 4 days to complete a ratified contract and 13 days from the time the house went on the market to the time everyone was sitting around the settlement table.

In December. Winter.

It can be done. If you’re thinking of selling your home, drop me an e-mail or
give me a call at 240-417-9100

Woooo! Hooo! Another year. 2012.

This is the part where I tell you everything is going t be great.  The real estate market is poised for a big comeback, home prices will stabilize and start to rise, Days on Market will start to get shorter and shorter. Now is the time to buy. Now is the time to sell.

You’ve heard it all before. More than once.

The 2012 Real Estate Outlook for the Maryland Suburbs of Washington, DC

Here’s the real deal.

No one knows for sure how the real estate market will go.  In fact, I just had a little bit of a, er, “discussion” with my financial advisor guy who pointed me to some reports from some very high powered analysts that indicate real estate is going to rebound.

As I mentioned to him (and I’ll mention here, now), for every Pollyanna that says the real estate market is going to see a recovery there are other Debbie Downer types that will give you equally logical reasons why we’re still in for a bit of a slog.  Bottom line: no one knows for sure.

Here is what is for sure:

• mortgage money will remain tight meaning it is still going to be very tough to get a mortgage
• those who can qualify for a mortgage will enjoy historically low interest rates which makes buying a house more affordable
• house prices will stay affordable. This is not to be confused with “low” or “a steal”. Yes, some foreclosed properties will be priced very attractively but they’ll also need a lot of repair. Better to try and buy a home from someone who has some equity in their home.
• Bank mediated — short sales and foreclosures — will continue to be a substantial part of the market and continue to put downward pressure on home prices. Remember, though, bank mediated means the banks (whoever holds the mortgage) needs to be involved in the sale. This is not really an optimal situation. It also means the house you buy is in “as is” condition and you may need to sink money into repairs.
• Home sellers with equity in their home will find that they will be able to sell their homes more quickly assuming they can price their homes competitively. Unfortunately, this means competitively to the bank mediated homes.

Don’t Try To ‘Time’ The Real Estate Market

The idea is that if you’re thinking of buying or selling a home it is best not to try and “time the market”. It doesn’t matter if you wait until Spring (see this blog post about a quick December sale). It doesn’t matter if you want to wait until prices drop or mortgage interest rates drop (if you’re in a buying mood). It doesn’t matter if you think the market will turn around.

At this point, flipping a coin would be a great way to decide.

Home ownership is a good thing for a lot of different reasons. People will continue t buy and sell houses in any market at any time of the year and waiting may be the absolute worst thing you can do.

Need more information before you make a big decision? 
Send me an e-mail or give me a ring at 240-417-9100

There is the conventional wisdom that it is better to wait until the Spring before you put your home on the market.  There are lots of reasons for doing that but the biggest one is “Just Because”.  That’s right.  It’s better to wait until Spring “Just Because” everyone says so or it’s the tradition.

If you can’t wait until Spring or you don’t want to wait until Spring, you’re in luck. There are lots of good reasons to sell in the Winter and this blog post and the next two will detail how three homes that were put on the market in the Winter sold…and sold quickly.

9100 Bridgewater Street | College Park, MD

The owner of this home decided he wanted to sell and move on. There were things going on in his life that made selling his home a priority. He didn’t want to wait until Spring.

So we talked about what needed to be done.  A little decluttering, a little touch up here and there.  Luckily, the house was in pretty good condition. It has a nice, updated kitchen with a new counter, newer appliances and nice cabinets.

The rest of the house was roomy. Lots of space.  It also had a couple of custom touches. A stone fireplace hearth instead of the standard brick common to the neighborhood. It had a spacious stone patio and a large shed that looked like it had been converted from a one-car garage.

The house was also was at the end of the street.  He had a neighbor on one side and woods on the other. It was really kind of private.

Yet, it still had some areas that needed some attention.  The bathrooms hadn’t been updated. Some of the hardwood floors in some of the rooms looked a little worn and in need of refinishing.  All in all, though, it is a nice place, in a nice neighborhood.

Selling The House

Once the owner had made the decision to sell, he set the price appropriate to the market and competitive to other homes that were selling in the area.  To be honest, it wasn’t super low but it was definitely not high. As Goldilocks would say, “It was juuuust right!”.

In fact, the house was on the market about a week when it received it’s first offer. While we were negotiating terms for that offer, a second offer came in.  You don’t hear about that very often.  After some back and forth, the owner decided on the offer he liked best and signed off and moved forward.  The inspection was completed. The appraisal came in. The title work was completed.

In fact, all the work of the financing and title work was finished early enough that the buyers wanted to move the settlement date sooner than the contract settlement date – by two weeks.

The house is now sold and settled at 96.5% of the list price. 9 days to complete a ratified contract and 42 days from the time the house went on the market to the time everyone was sitting at the settlement table.

In December. Winter.

It can be done. If you’re thinking of selling your home, drop me an e-mail or
give me a call at 240-417-9100

‘Tis the Season.

Gift giving and partying. Visiting with family and friends. Decking the halls and fa-la-la-ing.

It’s Christmas. Or, to be more inclusive Christmas … Hanukkah … and Kwanzaa.

For me, though, it’s Christmas.

Lots of stuff going on (it never seems to end) and lots of food and goodies. It’s really just me and the Missus for Christmas Day. We go over and visit with her family a few days after Christmas mostly because her family is so scattered it takes a few days for them all to get together in one place. It’ll be a big meal and and exchange of gifts. After that, some hugs and perhaps some memories of their mother who dies this past summer making this the first Christmas without her.

So, it’ll be bittersweet. Some of the tradition will be carried on, some not so much.

But, for Christmas Day, it’ll be kinda quiet. Which is the way I like it. Maybe read a little. Possibly catch a movie. Take a nap.

Next week will be time for reflection on 2011 and some projections into 2012.

Merry Christmas and a Ho! Ho! Ho!

A little while ago I  wrote a blog post about what people want vs what they actually get when they sell their home. I tried to explain, as best I could, that no matter what good reason a home seller may have for wanting a certain amount of money from the sale of their home, the market is really the determining factor.

• Location,
• physical condition,
• school district,
• traffic,
• proximity to shopping and other amenities like parks and the like.

All these and more are what really determine the market value of any particular home.

Maryland Isn’t the Only Place This Phenomenon Occurs

I have a colleague who works and lives in Charlotte, NC.  She’s a real sweetheart and she doesn’t like to sugar coat reality. Leigh Thomas Brown has been around awhile. She knows real estate, she knows her market and she doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

That’s why I was thrilled when I saw a short video she made (note: if you’re getting this by e-mail you may want to click here to see the video).

This tells me that College Park, Beltsville, Silver Spring and the rest of the MD Suburbs of Washington, DC are not the only place where home sellers think that some special aspect of their home makes their home much more special and much more pricey than other homes similar to it in the same community.

Enjoy the video. It’s short but it’s packs a lot in it…