Well, everything goes in cycles, what goes down must come up…..
There have been signs of a bounce back in the housing market in the Metro West area of Boston for quite awhile but the most recent activity is virtually unmistakable. Last week in Lexington, several new single family listings hit the market with a BANG! Last weekend was a weekend of multiple offers. WOW! On one new listing there were 13 offers!
There is no doubt that any buyer that is standing on the sidelines waiting for the market to “hit bottom” or who may be looking for a bargain, it is starting to become very clear that that time has passed. If you are hoping to buy in the near future, therefore, it is time to get going and get prepared. Be ready to act quickly and aggressively in this housing market.
Start your search! Be ready to hop right in when the “right” house presents itself to you. If a competitive situation presents itself you will have to act decisively. Put your best offer in right away…..Highest with the most favorable terms to the seller. Keep in mind you will likely have to go over the asking price! Good Luck! Here are recent statistics from the MLS pin system for Lexington and the surrounding towns as of 2/16/2010:
Lexington
Single Family Listings: 105 Average List Price: $1,248,609 Average Market Time: 166.09
Bedford
Single Family Listings: 24 Average List Price: $668,174 Average Market Time: 81.83
Concord
Single Family Listings: 65 Average List Price: $1,401,248 Average Market Time: 151.34
Winchester
Single Family Listings: 57 Average List Price: $1,226,158 Average Market Time: 175.82
Arlington
Single Family Listings: 38 Average List Price: $586,167 Average Market Time: 139.05
I received this invite to a webinar this Thursday which looks great! Whether you are interested in investing yourself or working with client investors- it really should be informative!
Join us a webinar with D.C. Fawcett, the creator of Virtual Short Sale Investing
On the webinar, You’ll Discover:
How to get 100% of your deals done for you without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Why the old way of doing short sales is DEAD!
The simple 7 step process for closing virtual short sale deals while 100% of the work is done for you.
How to leverage the hottest foreclosure market we’ve ever seen to make the most amount of money in the shortest period of time with Virtual Short Sale Investing.
How to Make $100,000 per month doing only one deal per month with No Cash, No Credit, and No previous Experience.
DONT MISS THIS! Go Here to Register for this webinar: ..."UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), "e391cfa4a49d541a2c3ec342a37e3101", event)">reieducator.com/virtualshortsaletraining...
Real estate has always provided the ultimate leverage for any business or investment vehicle. However, the power of leverage has just been elevated to a whole new level using virtual luxury home short sale investing.
Here’s why:
100% of the work is done for you by real estate agents and professional short sale negotiators so you don’t have to do any of the work, and yet you make most of the money.
You can do as many deals as you want because you are not limited by your own time or resources, because you don’t need any cash or credit to acquire these deals.
The entire process runs on autopilot so you can do what you want when you want unlike the typical 9:00 – 5:00 corporate job where you’re treated like a slave and have no freedom to take a day off whenever you want or take a vacation whenever you want.
Bottom line: Luxury short sales are the most profitable investing strategy for today’s market.
I began the process of working to expand my business into the REO market quite sometime ago and have had some success but have found the process of marketing myself to the bank and asset management companies to be quite daunting. I have built a career on marketing my abilities, experience, results, accomplishments, etc. and in the REO arena none of the aforementioned matters AT ALL! WOW!! Now to be fair, there are banks I am working with that actually do take experience and qualifications into consideration but there are far too many that do not. It is amazing! One of my latest responses to an inquiry I made was:
All agents are treated equally regardless of experience, past work history, accreditations, or recommendations. We appreciate your interest in our company. However, at this time we are not seeking any additional coverage nationwide. Your information will be kept on file for future reference
Really? Is it me or does this response seem entirely ridiculous? This is the first time I have ever seen a selection process based on anything other than the criteria above. Can any of you imagine going out for a listing with a homeowner that has this mindset. So, it would seem the first agent at the house gets the listing??
Anyone have any suggestions or feedback of their own?
I recently closed on a transaction that had been under agreement for quite some time due to title issues. Really good thing for the Buyers! Had they closed on time they would not have been able to take advantage of the expansion of the tax credit which now provides for a $6500. tax credit for current homeowners. What was interesting as we approached the closing is that there was little information related to the date that the homeowners could begin taking advantage of the tax credit. There were SO many sources out there that stipulated that the current homeowner tax credit only applied to properties which closed on or after December 1st. There were no extensions available to these buyers and they met the residency and income guidelines. HOLD ON A MINUTE!! In actuality, the credit became available as soon as President Obama signed it into law. Therefore, buyers who closed after November 6th are indeed eligible. Providing, ofcourse, that they meet the other guidelines; income limits, purchase price, primary resident of home they are selling for 5 of the last 8 years. I found that the most straightforward explanation of the tax credits are located on The Massachusetts Association of Realtors website. This is a great reference that all of us should have at the ready!
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mortgage-Aid Plan Gets Tepid Results, the loan modifications predicted by the government have fallen well below the expected number of four million. There are all sorts of Banking explanations that have been cited by the leaders of many of the top banks and promises made to increase the effort to increase the number of loan modifications thus allowing homeowners to keep their homes and avoid further costly foreclosures. Okay, all of this seems to identify a problem but really doesn't bring about an effective solution. From being out in the field, it would seem to me that the largest number of troubled homeowners can not pay their current mortgages nor CAN THEY QUALIFY FOR A MODIFICATION!! Obviously, there needs to be income to qualify for a modification! Problem is many, if not most, of these homeowners have fallen upon tough times through job losses or business downturns. They need job assistance and income to pay ANYTHING toward their housing payments!
Unfortunately, the problem lies more in the job market than the housing market in my opinion and until BOTH sides seem to show further signs of improvement there won't be real progress made!
