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| Birmingham Alabama Real Estate |
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| What Happens to “OLD” Foreclosures? |
(Sun, 29 Jun 2008)
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A bank or mortgage company forecloses on a property. After a few months of legal hassles, the lender finally gets clear title to the property and hires a local real estate agent. Of course, the lender, at this point, wants to try and recover almost all of the money lent on the property.
6 months or a year go by and this period is full of price reductions and repairs to the property. The property may have been vandalized, lived in by squatters, had new carpet and paint, even had new landscaping. The problem is usually that the lender refuses to set the price where it should be so the property, although shown many times, continues to sit on the market.
There is a hidden time limit for this lender. Does anyone know how long it is? How long can the lender keep a non-performing asset on its' books? How long can the property be an REO? We aren't talking about government foreclosures here (FHA and VA loans), the government can keep them forever. We are talking about bank or lender owned foreclosures.
I have a done a little research and it appears that the time limit that a private lender can keep an REO on its' books is 2 years plus or minus a little.
The questions is... What happens to the house or property AFTER the statutory time period has expired and the lender is forced to "get rid of the property at any price"?
Unfortunately, researching this topic has produced very little in the way of usable results. However, I did happen upon a few references to something called The REO Black Hole List. Apparently there really is a place that lenders can "dump" their old REO inventory as a last measure. And, they dump them at dirt cheap prices - usually for thess than lot value.
My research has found that there appears to be a handful of asset managers, companies that buy these old REO properties in bulk, that lenders turn to when they absolutely must liquidate the non-performing assets. These asset managing companies turn around and sell, in bulk, to a "secret" list of private, seasoned investors who actually purchase 50 to 100 to 400 houses at a time.
And guess what? These investors are able to purchase these homes, on average, for $2350 to $5000 per house! I kid you not. I actually spoke to an investor who bought around 182 houses direct from Fannie Mae for $400,000. You do the math. That is under $2500 per house.
The thing about this kind of setup is that the investor must buy all of the homes in a package - whether they are vacant lots, burnouts, or condemned. AND - they are not in one location but spread out all over the country. That's why the average price per home is so cheap...to spread the risk. But, these homes have all been in an MLS system somewhere - they were all REO properties at one time - so there is a way to find the market value pretty easily: Call a local agent!
AND since the investor may live in Maine or south Florida, he or she will also call a local agent to list these properties. They usually pay a high commission because the price will be low and because they have very little invested in the house. Does anyone have any experience with these types of investors? Or - if you know a local investor, would they be interested in this kind of "bulk buying"?
One other little tidbit I found out: a lot of the packages that these asset managers sell consist of only 10 or 20 homes. Think about that. You could buy 10 homes for $30,000 or $40,000. While some of them may not be the jewels you would want, several of them will always be great fix and flip homes that will sell for as much as you paid for the entire package.
Again, little information can be found on this "underground network" and the only place I could get any information was at this REO site. I know it exists. If you know how to get on this list or how to get in touch with the investors that participate, please post it! If you are in Ohio and I am in Alabama, we are not competing against each other! |
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Category: las vegas foreclosures |
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| Should You Start Off With A High Sales Price? |
(Wed, 04 Jun 2008)
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Because of the change in real estate market conditions, more sellers are competing for fewer buyers. So once again, it seemed important to challenge a long-standing "myth" of real estate.
"The initial listing price isn't that important because the price can always be adjusted down later."
Many homeowners believe this.
It is a myth.
Not true.
If most buyers first viewed your house because of a newspaper ad, a magazine, the internet, brochures, or the sign in your front yard, the initial listing price probably would not make a difference. The house would always be "new" to those seeing it.
But most buyers do NOT come to your house because of various types of advertising. That is the another myth.
Sure, buyers call on an ad, they often LOOK at that house, but not always. Once they talk to an agent, they may discover it isn't what they need (or want) at all.
However, they ARE talking to an agent. That agent knows the current inventory and will know of other property that DOES fit their needs.
Those are the properties that buyers look at, and THIS is how most buyers end up looking at your house, too. Because of other agents, not because of your ad.
Hardly anyone buys the house in the ad.
As a result, you need to get other agents interested in your property, and this is where your listing agent comes in...and why a good listing agent is extremely important. The listing agent gets buyer's agents looking at your home.
Those agents have clients who called in on other properties.
Buyer's agents are not swayed by advertising. They look at the needs of the client, where the client wants to live, location, condition, and other details of the property...
And most importantly....
...price.
If your house is overpriced, agents are going to show similar homes that are priced more attractively. Your listing will get passed over.
Agents pay MOST attention to homes newly on the market. There are fewer NEW listings than current listings. It is easier to keep an eye out for what is NEW, compared to the vast number of current listings.
New listings are on the "hot" sheet circulated in real estate offices. The MLS computer identifies new listings. Your listing agent may hire a service to distribute fliers to all the buyer's agents. There are office previews and MLS tours to showcase new listings. A lot of attention is focused on what is NEW.
With agent's looking at newly listed homes so aggressively, a properly priced home gets attention.
An overpriced home gets passed over.
You may be thinking, "But I'm willing to negotiate!"
Buyers aren't thinking in advance about how much you are willing to negotiate. They are comparing your asking price to other asking prices.
Plus, when your house is new on the market, you may not be willing to negotiate as much as you will later, once you've realized your error. Keep in mind that statistics show, quite often, the first offer is the best offer.
So what happens if you overprice in the beginning and get more realistic later?
You don't have all those important Buyer's Agents looking at your listing because it is NEW. A price reduction later in the listing cycle often gets overlooked. It is just one of many listings, not one of a few new listings.
As time passes, you could actually become desperate to sell because you've accepted a new job or because you have already bought a new home.
That is a recipe for receiving lowball offers, so you could end up selling for less than if you had priced the home correctly in the first place.
Agents know this stuff, but many sellers still mistakenly believe they should "price it high" because they can lower the price later, if necessary.
That is not the best strategy. |
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| VA Loan Secrets YOU need to know |
(Tue, 29 Apr 2008)
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The Veterans Housing Act allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to guarantee a home or mobile home loan. While eligibility is still determined by VA, the benefits vary depending on when you served in the military and the type of service. While those currently or previously on active duty are allowed benefits after serving anywhere between 90 days to 24 months, depending on the year, reservist and national guard members never called to duty, will need to contact VA to determine eligibility.
While most consumers feel VA gives a borrower a loan, VA only guarantees loans in case of default. Loan approvals are made on their behalf by approved lenders. VA does require all homes be appraised by a VA roster appraiser and there are only special circumstances in which VA reviews a loan for credit determination.
VA Home financing allows 100% financing, 4% seller contribution, limits what a borrower can pay in the form of closing costs, provides excellent interest rates and does not require perfect credit. A VA loan will consider approval for a borrower with no credit. It is by far the best loan program available, and it is only for veterans. |
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| Lenders Now Hampered by Mortgage Insurance Companies |
(Fri, 14 Mar 2008)
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(Birmingham, AL) The most recent fallout from the mortgage crisis that began last summer is now rearing it's ugly head in the form of Fannie Mae approved loans that cannot get insured by Mortgage Insurance companies.
Mortgage insurance companies, spurred on by recent recommendations in congress, are tightening their credit standards for providing insurance. Without mortgage insurance, borrowers are forced to provide a down payment equal to 20% of the purchase price of a home - something very few home buyers can afford to do. Just this past week, mortgage insurance companies raised their credit score requirement to 620, effectively cutting out 50% of home buyers from the home buying market. The move came unnanounced and without any notice to lenders or to Fannie Mae.
In fact, lenders are still approving loans that meet Fannie Mae guidelines for purchase in the secondary market, but then find, just before closing, that there is no mortgage insurance available to insure the loan. Without insurance on money loaned that is over 80% of the value of the property, the loan is declined. Buyers that have a "loan approval" from a lender should immediately ask their lender if the lender can get their loan insured. Otherwise, homebuyers could spend hundreds and even thousands in the days leading up to the closing only to find, at the last minute, that loan insurance is not available to them.
This move by the Mortgage Insurance companies will only add fuel to the fire that is the current US Housing market. By effectively eliminating more home buyers from the market, at a time when the housing market needs more buyers, not fewer, the mortgage insurance companies have put another nail in the coffin of the housing market. The resulting effect on the market will be an even bigger drop in home prices. The immediate impact of this new policy will be felt quickly in the market, not over time as has been the case with loan defaults, adjusting loan interest rates, and foreclosures.
Be forewarned: if you are a seller, drop your price now before the market itself forces an even larger price reduction. If you are a home buyer, your credit score must be above 620 or you cannot get a loan. |
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Category: mortgage crisis |
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| Alabama Real Estate in Recovery |
(Wed, 13 Feb 2008)
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(Birmingham, AL) The Alabama real estate market is already recovering from recent lows. Evidence is everywhere.
Inventories of property on the market hit an all time high at the end of november 2007 into the first of December 2007. Since then, the inventory of property for sale has been shrinking. This is always the first sign. As property inventories decrease, the demand for property rises. This causes price support and shores up values.
Mortgage applications, or new people applying for a home loan, increased 12% just last week. This is yet another sign that more buyers are entering the market to buy a home. If you combine this with the fact that inventories are shrinking, it doesn't take a genius to see that values will stop declining soon and prices will again start to rise. |
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| New Blog Network in Birmingham! |
(Thu, 20 Dec 2007)
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There is a new blog network in Birmingham, Alabama! The Realtors at Weichert, Realtors - Access Realty have joined together and created the only real estate blogging network in Birmingham.
The blogs are titled simply by their city names such as: Homewood Homes, Hoover Real Estate, etc., making them easy to find.
The blogs contain the latest homes for sale and real estate news about the local communities. I have included links to the citys that are up on my link list to the right. Check them out! |
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| THERE IS A SERIOUS SHORTAGE OF HOME SELLERS! |
(Tue, 30 Oct 2007)
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By Joe Klock, Sr.
Real estate analysts (and what American is not among them these days?) tend to survey the sea of sale signs in most areas and join the gloomy headline writers who conclude that there are not enough ready, willing and able buyers in the market place.
Not so, gentle reader! The shortfall is among sellers, of which there are relatively few treading water in the aforementioned sea.
"Whoa, Nellie!" you might exclaim (ignoring the by-line clearly displayed above), "any fool, including the by-lined fool, can see that it's buyers that are now in short supply."
In so doing, you might cite the hordes of hungry house-hunters who roamed the house-hunting roadways during the many months of a recently-deceased feeding frenzy, fueled by mortgage lenders with deep pockets and all the fiscal restraint of sailors on leave.
It is a now a fact of real estate life in most areas that their numbers - and that financial fuel - have shrunk like last month's birthday balloons, and it's true that there are fewer prospective buyers rummaging through the current logjam of listings.
Enter the law (not the theory or fantasy) of supply and demand, which dictates that when the number of consumers is dwarfed by a surplus of products, either prices take a hit or activity takes a holiday.
That reality underpins my contention that, while there may be too many homes for sale, there are too few legitimate sellers offering them.
This position is backed up by more than a half-century of experience on and behind the firing line of real estate brokerage, during which I have seen and survived several cycles of inflation, deflation and stagflation, as well as so-called sellers' markets which morphed into buyers' markets and vice versa.
Through all that trauma, certain facts remained unchanged - facts that are being ignored by too many would-be sellers and, sadly, pseudo-professionals. They are as follows:
1. No home in history has ever sold for a penny more than the best offer obtainable from the best buyer available in the then-current market.
2. The only way to determine the true value of a home is to thoroughly and aggressively test the market and challenge the competition. That process need not be a lengthy one, since buyers and their agents do comparison shopping and readily react to an attractive offering.
3. Once that procedure has been pursued, properties remaining unsold for an extended period of time are, quite simply, overpriced. Forget about what similar houses sold for in the past (which is history), or what those would-be sellers might have invested in their homes (which is irrelevant), or what qualified appraisers say they are worth (which are only opinions). The critical test is exposing one's home to the greatest practical number of prospective buyers and active agents, and then analyzing the results.
4. A home that is appropriately priced and effectively marketed, preferably by competent professionals, will ALWAYS attract attention, generate activity and ALWAYS sell for what it's worth (refer to Fact #1 above).
The problem today is not that there are too few buyers. Demand is what it is and neither wishful thinking nor wistful memories will increase its size.
The more serious shortage is of genuine sellers; i.e., those who meet these specific criteria:
a) They are willing and able to accept the best price obtainable from the best buyer available in the current market, and
b) They have something to lose if they don't do so.
"Sellers" who do not fit that mold are not sellers at all and should be encouraged to take their properties off the market. (Realistically, they're not actually ON the market, anyway!)
The market is not always kind, but it is never wrong - and those who believe otherwise pay a heavy price for ignoring "The Facts Of Life For Home Sellers."
FOOTNOTE: For a further dose of this perhaps-unpleasant medicine, visit www.joeklock.com and click on that caption. You have nothing to lose - except, maybe, a pipe dream.
If that doesn't work for you, take two antacids or a short snort and DON'T call me in the morning!
Here's the bottom line - take it to the bank or to any nearby Wailing Wall: When proper pricing is combined with effective marketing, there is a buyer for everything and, given those conditions, any home can be sold in any market.
The ritual dances of negotiation may change with market fluctuations, but the drumbeat of reality does not!
Mike Carraway
Broker/Owner
WEICHERT, REALTORS - Access Realty
1100 East Park Drive, Suite 104
Birmingham, AL 35235
1-800-840-0165
WEICHERT, REALTORS - Access Realty
Valleydale Branch
4500 Valleydale Road, Suite 160
Birmingham, AL 35242
205-995-3939
24/hr Info: 800-634-0511
24/hr Fax: 800-634-0511
www.Access1000.com
www.Weichert.com
www.AlabamaWebPage.com
www.TakeOurTest.com
www.BirminghamRealEstateSchool.com |
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| Helping buyers and sellers save thousands of dollars every day! |
(Fri, 13 Jul 2007)
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----------------------------------------------
The following are the links to the selected listings.
Details 331358, 5020 GIHON CIR, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $308,900.00
Details 338932, 5012 GIHON CIR, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $308,900.00
Details 339702, 7913 COUNTRY CLUB DR, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $309,900.00
Details 346229, 4966 JOAB CIR, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $309,900.00
Details 344631, 6229 JONATHANS WAY, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $309,900.00
Details 347557, 6672 SERVICE RD, TRUSSVILLE, AL - $309,900.00
Or Click Here to go view all listings at once.
If your email program doesn't support an HTML url, then copy and paste the following
address to your browser's address box. Make sure you copy and paste the
entire link; it may appear on multiple lines.
http://bhammls.net/BAARReports/listings.asp?ID=WMI5467956
REALTORS: REAL-Service REAL-Expertise.
You can also visit http://www.Access1000.com to perform your own property search.
Broker
WEICHERT, REALTORS - Access Realty, Inc.
1-800-840-0165 |
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| Post License Class |
(Fri, 13 Jul 2007)
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We are in our LAST DAY! We take the test at 2pm and then we are done! Mike Carraway
Broker/Owner |
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| New Alabama Relocation Network makes debut |
(Thu, 09 Nov 2006)
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A new network of websites which features the largest 494 cities in Alabama will make it's debut statewide in December. Called the ePartners Network, the statewide web will make it easier for consumers to find properties all across the state of Alabama. In particular, the major cities, Montgomery, Huntsville, Birmingham, and Mobile and their surrounding communities are linked and cross linked so consumers can easily search for homes and real estate from one single location.
The state affiliate Broker, Mike Carraway (Broker, Access Realty), has already introduced the network to real estate agents in Birmingham, Huntsville, Jasper, Cullman, Hoover, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Montgomery, and several other Alabama cities. Each city has it's own site and weblog and an agent can elect to be the exclusive real estate agent for their city to help consumers find what they want or to market their property statewide.
This is the first time in the history of real estate that geographic boundaries have been erased. In the past, agents and brokers have worked in certain geographic areas and basically limited themselves to that area, even though they were licensed to do business anywhere in the state. Now, for the first time, those boundaries are gone. An agent licensed to do business in the state can assist customers finding homes or locating a local agent from anywhere.
This new network will be a plus for all real estate ancillary services as well. Mortgage companies, insurance companies, and others can now advertsie their services on the network either statewide or in a local community.
The ePartners Network will change the way that the real estate business is done in other ways as well. It will serve as the first statewide, and even nationwide, platform for paperless real estate transactions.
Developing... |
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| ePartners comes to Alabama |
(Tue, 07 Nov 2006)
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ePartners is making it's debut in Alabama in 492 cities statewide. ePartners is a nationwide relocation network that allows anyone to search for and find properties for sale in any city any time.
The local cities are affiliated with an agent or team of real estate agents who work the areas and are specialists in properties in each city. They can help members of the homebuying or homeselling public find exactly what they are looking for.
The ePartners network also contains specific city information on schools and neighborhoods, shopping and restaurants, and parks and recreation.
Sellers can market their homes through the nationwide network and buyers can easily find them from anywhere in the United States.
Some of the main sites are very easy to find: Alabamawebpage.com, Montgomerywebpage.com are examples of url's that make this network very consumer friendly.
The ePartners network also allows real estate agents to easily get plugged into a nationwide relocation and referral network.
ePartners is set to take off in early December 2006. We will be watching. |
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| Todays HOT NEW Listings |
(Wed, 01 Nov 2006)
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 | Dear Blog Update,
There is 1 new listing that matches the criteria you expressed to your preferred REALTOR®. | 
| Your preferred REALTOR® has prepared a report for you which includes all of the properties in the list below. Click the button at the right to view the report. |  | 
 | 318434 | 45 Ridgewood Dr, Trussville, AL | New | $389,900 |
 | Mike Carraway
Access Realty
Direct: 205-833-6300
Cell: 205-369-8689
Office Ph: 205-833-6300
Home: 205-655-4086
|   |  | |  | |  | Click here to unsubscribe if you do not want to receive real estate notices by email that match this particular criteria. | This email was generated by:
Solid Earth, Inc.
109-B North Jefferson Street
Huntsville, Alabama 35801
On behalf of:
Mike Carraway
Access Realty
Direct: 205-833-6300
Cell: 205-369-8689
Office Ph: 205-833-6300
Home: 205-655-4086
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| Automated Messaging Service |
(Fri, 27 Oct 2006)
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Dear Blog Update,
Today, the automated messaging system used by your real estate sales agent, MIKE CARRAWAY, has stopped sending email to you because none of the email messages sent have been opened. For a mail message to be considered "open", you must have clicked one of the links contained in the email and viewed the report your provider sent.
This message is an automated process designed to reduce the sending of unwanted emails. If you would like to continue receiving emails, please click here. Once your account has been reactivated you will begin to receive your emails immediately.
Thank you. |
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| New Listings |
(Thu, 26 Oct 2006)
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New listings coming soon!
Broker
Access Realty, Inc.
1-800-840-0165 | | |