If You Think It, They Will Come.

Typically, August in Chicagoland is a verrrrry slow real estate market. Everyone in the industry seems to be on vacation, or taking a child to college, or shopping for the latest and greatest backpack for their students.

But me? Not so much. I dared to think "maybe I'll start getting busy again in September" a few days ago. And suddenly I am juggling several very active clients. It's that Law of Attraction principle. I'm here to tell you, it works. I started getting phone calls and emails from past clients and new clients to get out on the streets to find a piece of property to buy, list their home for sale, and from would-be customers who want to find a rental home to lease.

I am to the point of putting up a white board to jot down the names of these many excited clients, rather than lose the highest level of consciousness about each one of them.

So I must stay focused on my good real estate karma, and stay busy with LC, SS, TA and WA, CM, and JW and SM. Thanks to all for keeping me focused and productive!

Mars and Venus Buy a Home

Now this is something a Realtor could have guessed, based on field experience; but it is very interesting to read a seemingly valid survey on the topic. **

According to a news story that I read today in the Illinois Association of Realtors weekly web mag....



* Some 70% of women decided on the house they wanted to buy on their first visit to the home.
Men? Only 62% knew on the first visit that they had found nirvana.



Yep, I've seen this time and time again. In fact, it has been my experience that the lady of a couple realizes the good match of a particular house much sooner than does her male cohert. Multiple repeat visits to the property are usually necessary to earn the "buy in" of the guy. The lady is likely to be giving him a running sales pitch as they tour the property, pointing out all the positive aspects of the home. He is responding "Yeh, but ...



* The right house is found, but considered unsafe (for whatever reason) - how does that resonate? 64% of the gals responded that their interest in the home would cease. Only 51% of the guys indicated that an unsafe house would deter them from making a purchase.



I suppose this is very easy to understand and accept; fear of personal safety and the safety of all family members is usually a strong instinct of the nurturing woman/mother in a family unit. I had one female client describe this as the baby carriage test; "Would I be comfortable pushing a baby stroller around this area?" The man/father is more likely thinking in terms of "No problem, I'll just .... .... to keep myself safe." Should the gals get busy and earn a black belt in Karate?



* Having family members nearby is more important than being closer to my job: girls said yes 55% of the time, while guys said yes only 37% of the time.

*Again, not surprising that the woman/mother feels comfort in having family members close by, as opposed to being a block from her job. I had a client who started her home search by stating with great determination that she would not be interested in buying a home near her parents, that being convenient to her job was the highest priority. Guess what she bought? An older home that needed much renovation, was giving her a one hour commute to work, but was only 3 blocks from her parents' home.



All of this is mildly entertaining to read, but there is a lesson to be learned from the study: having an experienced Realtor guide a couple through the home search can make the conclusion a much happier one. The Realtor is going to recognize these differences between the 2 members of a relationship, and will know how to coordinate their wishes and needs to keep their search on track and also have the couple learn to compromise their personal agendas for the common good. And that's not always easy.





Just last summer I was helping a couple who were determined to live in a specific town, and in specific parts of that town. Once I had surveyed the market in that town, I felt they would have to expand their search border to find a good fit in a house. I visited a particular house on the weekly Tuesday Brokers' Tour without the couple in tow, and knew it fit their needs exceptionally well. It was in their chosen town, but sooooo not in any of the areas they preferred. But it offered them the space, yard, "newness", and location they so badly needed. She would have a 5 minute ride to work; he would walk 1 1/2 blocks to the commuter train he needed. I knew it was right for them immediately. At the first visit, the woman knew it as well. The husband fought it, and had to be exposed to the house multiple times before he relented and made an offer to purchase it. Yes, they bought it, they moved in, invited all the family for parties asap, and promptly became pregnant with #2. They plan to have lots and lots of kids, and now they are off to a good start. This was a particularly rewarding transaction for me.





Home shopping is fun, it's demanding, it's emotionally wrecking at times; getting you through it with minimal stress, and a happy result is the Realtor's job. How does your agent measure up?

** survey conducted by telephone by franchiser Coldwell/Banker, results published in April 2009. See link to press release.

Up Close and Personal with an Appraisor (and why do we want to do THAT?)

I had the pleasure of chatting with an appraiser at my office a few days ago, at the invitation of a Realtor colleague. "Ok, so a lender gives you an assignment to appraise a property for a mortgage loan. What do you do?" was the question we posed to him.

His answer was animated fascinating. One of the many twists and turns the real estate and mortgage industries have experienced most recently is a very tight control on how appraisals are ordered and performed. And the result has been been 100% effective in meeting the goals of said controls. I will certainly concede that in years past, appraisals were submitted to a lender with a wink and a nod to get a mortgage underwritten.

No more. Indeed, the pendulum had swung too far in the opposite direction. Only a couple weeks ago a bit of reason was injected back into the process of appraisals for home purchases. The details of this topic will be left for another day. What is important to know now is that as a buyer, you will be asking a mortgage lender for a lot of money to buy a property. The lender wants to know that you are not over-paying for that property; the appraisal is the measure of the property's current market value.

Until the rules were recently modified, appraisers were being sent to a property without any regard to the appraiser's familiarity with the surrounding community. In an attempt to keep the appraiser "pure" and without influence, the listing real estate agent was not permitted to provide opinion or comparable properties to the appraiser. In the worst case scenario, an appraiser from 60-100 miles distance from the subject property would be sent to appraise a property, having to research and understand the neighborhood and community to do a correct appraisal, even though the appraiser might never have set foot in the community prior to the appraisal order.

The end result of that situation was that appraisals were becoming grossly incorrect and derailing property transaction closings. Now the appraiser assigned to an order is to be familiar with the area; in addition, the listing agent is permitted to offer multiple comparable sales to the appraisor to provide solid background information. This can be invaluable assistance to the appraser. And ultimately, a fair and correct appraisal will go far in putting a buyer into the house of his dreams.

These days, anything that can be done to stimulate more activity in the real estate industry is a good thing, don't you agree?

Uncle Sam Wants to Give You a Gift!

This does not happen very often, readers, and it won't last forever, so let's remind ourselves (and somebody you care about) about this fabulous program for first-time-home buyers.

If you have not owned a home in the past three years, and fall within the household income limits, you have the distinct pleasure of, and extreme joy in reducing your income tax bill by as much as $8,000 come next April 15.

The catch? You have to find, purchase, and close a home no later than the last day of November, 2009. In reality, that leaves you about two months of home shopping time before the calendar cuts you off.

Because the closing for a home purchase can be no later than November 30, 2009, your offer to purchase a home must be accepted by the seller and your mortgage application process started no less than 4 weeks prior to the scheduled closing. Unless, of course, you are paying for the property with cash, no mortgage. The timing of your actions are crucial in this process; the mortgage lenders are taking longer to get a loan approved and ready to close than they used to brag about, due to constraints recently built into the system. The major culprits in this scenario are the changes in appraisal rules and the new Truth In Lending requirements imposed on lenders. But those are for another day.

And the media has been telling you the truth; this is a WONDERFUL time to buy a home, due to the reduced values of homes in our market. In theory, if you were to purchase a home this year, and own it for at least 3 years, you have an excellent change of owning a home with vastly improved value, and thereby more equity in your financial portfolio!!

So if you have been mulling over the question of what to do about buying a home this year, are wondering if your finances allow you to secure a home of your own, let's talk about it. I can help. I LOVE helping clients save money!