Posted: 07 Jan 2012
The Numbers Have It - 2011 Plumas County Sales
FeedBack ( 0) | The Numbers Have It – 2011 Plumas County Real Estate Sales
The great news…..Closed escrow sales were up significantly over last year by 34%. Not such good news….Concurrently, sales prices were down by about that same percentage. The Plumas County median price of an existing, single-family detached home, was $129,900., down from the 2010 number of $175,000.
As a comparison: The November statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home sold in California was $280,960, up 1.0 percent from $278,060 in October but down 5.2 percent from the $296,480 median price recorded for November 2010.
Here’s the final Plumas County numbers for 2011 with a comparison to 2010 and 2009:
Year 2011 2010 2009
Total Sales 417 311 257
Median Sales Price $129,900 $175,000. $195,000.
Median List Price $139,900 $195,000. $212,000.
Average Days on Market (DOM) 210 202 213
Bank Owned (REO) 216 131 75 +/-
% REO 52% 42% 29%
For me…It’s been a great year with over $4.6 million in sales of 20 homes sold with an average sales price of $230,521., six sales over the price of $400,000.
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Posted: 07 Jan 2012
5 Overpricing Cures That Can Get Your Home Sold
FeedBack ( 0) | 5 Overpricing Cures That Can Get Your Home Sold
By Tara Nicholle-Nelson, Trulia
Today’s home sellers have a hard row to hoe, as my Mom would say. Home values have dropped, the market is flooded with competition and even if a buyer does come along, a record high number of deals fall through. On top of that, they face the age-old conundrum of having two seemingly conflicting aims: they want to get their homes sold, fast, but also want - and need - to squeeze every single possible dollar out of it.
While it’s tempting to price your place on the high side and ‘test the market’ or ‘negotiate down,’ overpricing your home can actually deter buyers, cause your home to lag on the market and eventually even expose you to the risk of being perceived as desperate and receiving lowball offers.
Here are 5 ‘cures’ to the temptation to overprice your home, all of which can help you max out the chance that your home will sell.
1. Check the Comps! “Comps” is real estate lingo for comparable sales - the nearby, similar homes that have recently sold. You might think that your taste level, aesthetic style and home maintenance practices are vastly superior to those of your neighbors - and you might be right. But this will be the single largest purchase your home’s eventual buyer will ever make, and trust me - they will be doing the research. The small contingent of urgent and qualified buyers who are active on today’s market do not want to overpay for a home, and most will view your home as overpriced and not worth the hassle (or the haggle) if it is out of whack with the recent sales prices of similar homes.
Similarly, appraisers will use these numbers when figuring out your home’s value. Even if you do get an offer at a higher-than-justified price, if the buyer’s appraiser finds that your home is overvalued compared to other nearby recent sales, it can cause major delays in your buyer’s mortgage process - or derail it altogether.
Work with your agent to find and evaluate the recent sales in the area, and to ensure that your home’s list price makes sense vis-a-vis the comps.
2. Get inside the minds of the local home buyers. The vast majority of buyers - over 90 percent - start their house hunting online. And what most of them do is type in a price range, a range of bedrooms and bathrooms and a geographic area, then spend dozens of obsessive hours perusing hundreds of listings.
Given the flooded market and buyers’ busy lives, many will screen your home off their interest list in a New York minute if it seems overpriced from its online listing. If that one-inch picture and the number of beds, baths and square feet either (a) doesn’t make it into their search results because the price is so much higher than what most local buyers want to spend on a home with those criteria, or (b) seems underwhelming, for the price, compared to the other online listings of similar homes, prospective buyers will never even make it into your home, and all your stunning staging and crave-able curb appeal will never have the opportunity to work their magic.
Local agents have an inside track on what local buyers care about and what they will and will not spend. Talk to your agent about it, but don’t forget to actually listen to and consider what your agent has to say! If you don’t trust what an agent is telling you about where you should list your home, talk to several agents - if the consensus is a recommended list price range lower than what you had in mind, that’s a sign you should reconsider.
Also, search for similar homes to yours on Trulia, to see how it would stack up against similar listings online at the price range you have in mind. That’s where local prospective buyers will see it (and screen it in or out) first.
3. Visit competing Open Houses. Buyers do not shop for homes in a vacuum. They’re out there looking at dozens of homes - or more - to make sure they’re (a) getting the best deal possible, and (b) not missing ‘the one.’ So, while viewing a thumbnail image of your competition and seeing the list prices of other homes online is informative, it is even more useful to walk through the actual properties with which your home is competing, in living color.
Before you put your home on the market, take a few hours and visit nearby Open Houses. This exercise is the most vivid way to get a reality check about what you’re up against and what your home’s strengths and weaknesses are compared with the other homes buyers will see, which will go a long way in getting you to the right asking price. Even if you are unpleasantly surprised at how nice the neighboring homes are at low prices, taking this information in before you list your home is much less painful than waiting months for the market to give you this education (in the form of no or low-ball offers).
4. Get an inspection - in advance. Home buyers have long used the home inspection as a negotiating tool to get the seller to come down on the sale price mid-stream. Get ahead of the game by getting your own inspection(s) - talk with your agent about which ones are appropriate - and getting the skinny on your home’s condition before you list it. Keep in mind that you will likely need to provide any written professional inspections you obtain before listing your home to the buyer under your state’s real estate disclosure laws.
You might be able to repair some things at relatively low cost and include the recent improvements in your marketing. Alternatively, you can set and negotiate pricing based on any condition issues or needed repairs you want to pass down to the buyer. This empowers you to get to a final price that aligns with market conditions and the condition of your home without taking massive mid-escrow hits on pricing. It also empowers you to offer a discount for needed fixes up front, when the price break has the most power to help attract bargain-seeking buyers.
5. When in doubt, go low. An overpriced home, in most cases, will cause a lot more problems in your real estate journey than an underpriced one. Think about it: an overpriced home just sits on the market with little or no buyer interest until the seller cuts the price. And many interested buyers just sit, waiting for that price cut, seeing it as a cue to make an even lower offer.
Now, consider the opposite end of the pricing spectrum: you start with a lower price than you want, but one that is supported by the comps in your market - or even goes a tad bit lower than recent homes have sold for. Lots of buyers are attracted to your house, in part because it looks like a great value for the price. You end up with multiple offers, which gives you the upper hand in negotiating a higher price.
The moral: if you aren’t sure about what price to place on your home, go a little bit lower than the recent comps sold for. Insiders know from experience that you’ll sell your home faster this way - and at a better price than if you overprice it out of the gate.
These steps can help you get out of your own way, get a bird’s eye view on the market and see your home as buyers will see it. And that’s a reality check that can make the difference between selling your home and not.
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Posted: 31 Dec 2011
4 Predictions About 2012 Real Estate Market
FeedBack ( 2) | By Tara Nicholle-Nelson, Inman News. It's important to know what the market is doing before listing your property. "Financial fitness includes getting your real estate business in order. But you can't set up your real estate plans for the year in a vacuum. They must be done in context of what's going on in the market. Here are four predictions about what that market context will look like in the coming year".
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Posted: 20 Dec 2011
Troubled Homeowners Get A Lifeline
FeedBack ( 1) | The government announced changes to a federal program that will make it easier for struggling homeowners to refinance to today's near-record low rates. For more information about the HARP Program, contact Jeni Soares, Senior Loan Officer, Summit Funding, Inc. at (530) 832-4482.
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Posted: 15 Dec 2011
Graeagle Real Estate - No Immunity From Foreclosures and Lower Values
FeedBack ( 0) | The sign of the times has hit the charming town of Graeagle hard as well, making a home purchase in Graeagle a fantastic buy, with values dropping again significantly since 2009. Most buyers are opting to purchase existing homes versus buying lots and building due to the high cost of construction.
Overall, YTD, there have been 22 sales in the Graeagle area, up from 19 during the same time period for 2010. However, values are down by 13% with an additional 2 foreclosure sales from last year. The days on market (DOM) for 2011 was an average of 329 days, up from an average of 221 DOM in 2010. In 2011 there was one sale just over $500k (my listing) with most sales $345k and below (15 sales under $200k). Prior year had one sale at $555k (my sale) with most sales $409k and under with the majority of sales (11) under $200k.
How I see it: This is a great time for buyers to come off the fence now, and in the near future, with more foreclosures looming in the pipeline.
Call me today to receive your listing of great buys in Graeagle and beyond!!
October Foreclosure Activity Nationwide
Foreclosure activity increased in October
Foreclosure filings increased 7 percent compared with September, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac.
Including notices of default, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – of which all increased month-over-month – filings were reported on 230,678 U.S. properties in October.
Defaults in California, Florida, and Michigan all rose to their highest levels in at least a year. California notices of default increased 17 percent from the previous month to 29,240, pushing the state’s foreclosure rate to the second highest in the nation.
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Posted: 18 Nov 2011
Foreclosure Activity Increases for Third Straight Month
FeedBack ( 0) | From the article by Carrie Bay of DSnews.com
California default notices increased 17 percent from the previous month to 29,240, pushing the state’s foreclosure rate to the second highest in the nation. See full article.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2011
Welcome to Carol Murray's Real Estate Market News Blog
FeedBack ( 0) | To stay informed regarding real estate local to Plumas County as well as general information regarding real estate, set up Pings to receive email alerts when new items are posted.
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