At the Closing Table

Sometimes there are tears of sadness at the closing table, but mostly joy. Just 3 days ago Deb, a very happy young woman, closed on a delightful 3 bedroom home in our area.

The story of how this came about is interesting. Deb has a friend who knows a Realtor friend of mine and this Realtor friend called me while I was recently on vacation. He said a young woman who worked at Eastern University really needed help. He told me Deb had been working with a Realtor for 8 months trying to buy a house! She felt everything had gone wrong in her relationship with the other Realtor and wanted to start fresh.

Immediately I called Deb and discovered she already knew which house she wanted to buy. She and her friend had even visited the owner one day long ago and had seen it and liked it. So with a call to Deb's lender, a call to my business partner Dennis, and a call to the listing agent, I set up a new showing, got a verbal agreement on an offer, emailed all the necessary paperwork to my partner Dennis, and we had this home under contract all in the same day! I love it when real estate deals come together like that!!!

It's times like this when the experience of 20 years in the business, makes a huge difference. I knew exactly who to talk to, how to make this come together, and got to a smooth closing, all done very efficiently. If you know someone who's struggling with any real estate needs, please do let me know and see if I can help. I can always be reached at 800-923-3245.

Do You Have a Tenant in Your Listed Home?

There are great tenants and there are difficult tenants. If you still want to sell your home but need to rent it out during the listing for the cash flow, be extra careful in choosing a tenant. I have a listing right now which is being totally controlled by the tenant, and we are almost never able to show the house, and when we do, it is a mess! This is a tenant who clearly does not want this house to sell.

Within your lease agreement you need to spell out the terms of showing. By law we always have to give 24 hours notice to any tenant before we can show the home, but it should be possible to show with reasonable notice whether the tenant is present or not, just the same as we do when homeowners are still living there.

So, if you are in the position of wanting to rent but also wish to sell, be sure you get some good legal advice and a good lease contract.

Ideally you want to stage a vacant home and leave it vacant, but in these times we are seeing much more renting than in the past, and we can work well with those arrangements when they are properly set up. Call me at 800-923-3245 if you have any real estate questions.

Improvement in the Ann Arbor Real Estate Market

Is it possible the strong buyers' market is changing? Washtenaw County stats released by the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors August 12, 2008 indicate an upward trend in the number of sales and sale prices. The year-to-date residential listing inventory declined by 23% from the same period a year ago, and the average sale price for July rose 2% compared to a year ago. Pending sales, increased 12.39% compared to a year ago.

Everything points to continued improvement in our county's real estate market for the rest of this year. So, if you've been waiting to buy, get out there now and seriously consider making a home purchase before we really move off from the "bottom" of the market.

Call me at 800-923-3245 if you wish more specific information on any area within the county.