Wakefield Reutlinger Realtors July 2009 Newsletter

Wakefield,Reutlinger

W

AND COMPANY/REALTORS

m o c . s r o t l a e r R

Insider REAL ESTATE A Publication of Wakefield, Reutlinger and Company/Realtors

Vol. 1 No. 19

July 2009

How Does a Seller Get an Offer in a Buyer’s Market?

LOUISVILLE Ranked Top Spot For Business The results from MarketWatch’s 2nd ranking of the best U.S. metro areas for business places Louisville in the top 50. Ranked in the 32nd spot, Louisville was one of the cites, for various reasons, that made some of the biggest moves. This years ranking looked at several small-business categories. As with last year, the rankings are purely result-oriented and are based on available data in 8 categories from various government agencies and financial organizations, as well as two business publications, Fortune and Forbes. No subjective criteria such as “quality of life” were included.

WRrealtors.com

ALL THE WAY HOME...425-0225

Buyers have been quick to see the change in the real estate market moving in their favor. In a buyers’ market there is an abundance of homes on the market for sale, but not as many qualified buyers shopping for homes. Many sellers, however, have been slower to understand the new market dynamics. Most think they have the best house in the neighborhood and that it will sell quickly. In today’s housing market sellers are finding their houses sit on the market much longer than they ever have. So, how can they get their house sold? And how can they get the most money for their house? In any market condition there are always people who are ready, willing and able to buy. If you are a seller in today’s buyers’ market, it means your house has to stand out among other homes for sale in your area. There are three ways you can make your house more attractive to buyers. Prepare your house to be in turnkey condition. This means that when a buyer looks at it, they will feel they can just move into it without having to fix a thing. In a seller’s market you can get away with walls that need painting or carpet that needs to be replaced. But now, buyers are picky about the details because if yours doesn’t suit them, they have many more choices. Buyers in today’s market will only consider a home that needs work if they can get a great deal on it. In order to get the most for your house, you need to look at it critically and make all necessary repairs. Clear clutter and extra furniture. Clean the outside and inside thoroughly. Make sure the landscaping is well maintained. Set the price realistically based on what today’s market will bear. Forget about what your neighbor sold his house for last year. Setting your price right will catch buyers’ attention. If you set it too high, buyers will not even look at it. And, it is not advisable to set the price high with the expectation to lower it if it doesn’t sell. The longer a house sits on the market, the less desirable it becomes in the eyes of buyers. Sweeten the deal. For example, you could offer to buy down the buyer’s interest rate (subject to the

underwriter’s approval); pay some or all of their closing costs; pay one year of their homeowners’ association fees; pay for a swim or tennis club membership. You could also throw in the flatscreen TV, washer and dryer or a gift certificate to a furniture store. The less money a buyer has to shell out, the higher the perceived value.

Real Estate

Update

Year to Date Sales by Price Range Greater Louisville Area Single Family Residential & Condo Jan 1-June 30,08

Jan 1-June 30,09

$29,999 or under

Price

335

416

$30,000-39,999

129

127

$40,000-49,999

162

120

$50,000-59,999

147

162

$60,000-69,999

189

150

$70,000-79,999

217

162

$80,000-89,999

263

233

$90,000-99,999

318

213

$100,000-119,999

678

576

$120,000-139,999

744

531

$140,000-159,999

613

430

$160,000-179,999

386

353

$180,000-199,999

333

273

$200,000-249,999

542

429

$250,000-299,999

335

249

$300,000-399,999

340

237

$400,000-499,999

137

93

$500,000 or over

172

95

Year to Date Residential Sales Stats Single Family Residential & Condo Jan 1-June 30,08 Houses Sold

Jan 1-June 30,09

6040

4849

Average Selling Price

$168,136

$154,886

Median Selling Price

$135,000

$129,900

Source: Greater Louisville MLS.

Deadline for the $8,000 Tax Credit is Approaching! First Time Home Buyers Must be Closed by December 1st!

This is not intended to solicit a currently listed property. Information

By the Numbers… The percentage of first‐time buyers for exist‐ ing home sales for the forth quarter of 2008, up from 46% in the first quarter of 2008, According to HouseHunt.com

65%

Between March 2007 and March 2008, the number of new households grew by compared with an increase of 1.63 mil‐ lion a year earlier, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

home 87% ofsearchers

772,000

look on the Internet first. The percent of income spent on housing in Louisville . In markets like San Diego, it can cost 40% of income to own a home!

FACEBOOK is a free-access social net-

working website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 250 million active users worldwide. Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria, China and Iran, although Iran later unblocked Facebook in 2009. It has also been banned at many places of work to

11%

The average size of homes started in the third quarter of 2008, down from 2,629 square feet in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Similarly, the median size of homes started in the third quarter was 2,090, down from 2,291.

2,438

$100

U.S. house‐ holds spend an average of $100 per year to power electronic devices when they are in “power mode.”

TWITTER is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 mo s t p opu l a r websi t e s worldwide by Alexa's web traffic analysis.

discourage employees from wasting time using the FEATURED PROPERTY service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's former classmates, who claim that Facebook had stolen their source code and other intellectual property. A February 2009 Compete.com study has ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace. Source crunchbase.com

Ping.fm

will save tons of time and provides a simple way to update all your social networks in a single step. To help you stay current with all the sites—Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. (over 40 in all) Ping.fm allows you to update your status only once, without having to update it at each individual network. You can update blog entries, photos or even videos. You can sign up for a free account at ping.fm and be up and running in no time. Enter the sites to which you belong and add your username for each and ping.fm does the rest. You can ping from your cell phone, email or instant messenger.

7810 Cedar Ridge Ct $1,195,000 Federal period reproduction w/5BR’s, 6BA, on Hunting Creek golf course. His & hers master baths, gourmet kitchen, 4‐car garage.

Mortgage Rates 30 year fixed—5.375% 15 year fixed—4.75% FHA/VA—5.5%