This market is unlike what many realtors who have only been in the business a few years have experienced and has been forgotten by those who have sold real estate for over ten years.

Accurate Comparative Market Analysis. Be sure you/your realtor researches the neighborhood comps accurately. The pending contracts are key to you as a new listing on the market. In a declining market, you MUST be ahead of the activity. This is why pending sales tell us such important information, such as what homes must be listed at to attract potential buyers. They have more current data than the properties that sold a few months ago and are more relevant than the active listings sitting on the market.

Pay close attention to the square footage of the homes under contract in the neighborhood. What is the average dollar per sq foot of those homes? How long was each of the properties with pending contracts on the market?

How quickly do you want to sell? Compare the list price and days on market of the pending sales. Does your home fit into the same sq foot range? If not, how long has it been since a home of your size has sold? For instance, your house is1100 sq ft and the ones that are under contract are all between 1500 and 3000 sq ft.

The active listings are important as well. How many are on the market within your size of home? What is their condition compared to yours? How many short sales and foreclosures are coming up? An abundant amount of upcoming short sales and foreclosures will only decrease the value of your home. Therefore, your home should be priced on the aggressive side to get it sold quicker at a higher price.

Foreclosures and short sales matter. Many clients tell me that those houses don’t count because “their” house is in good condition. Unfortunately, they do count. In most cases, appraisers work for the lenders. They are appraising the value of the home to protect the lender’s asset.

Abundant inventory and upcoming short sales and foreclosures are a factor in the appraisal. Therefore, if you price your home too high because it’s in “mint” condition, and you’ve received an offer (so you’ve had it off the market for about 2-3 weeks as PENDING) and the appraisal doesn’t come in at purchase price, you’ve just wasted another 3 weeks off the market in which the cumulative days on market has increased during that time. YES, it’s true.

What about cash buyers? If you have enough cash to buy a house without a mortgage, I have one question for you. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes, would you pay more than the appraised value for a property even if you had cash? Probably not, that’s why you have enough cash to buy a property outright.

Price Reductions should be appropriate. If you’ve had more than 10-15 showings in the first 30 days and no offers, a price adjustment is probably necessary. I’m not referring to a few hundred dollars or a couple thousand dollars –this is referred to as ‘chasing the market’ and you will always be one step behind. Talk this over with your realtor and look at the facts. The numbers don’t lie. No one’s “opinion” matters here. If the market won’t accept your asking price or even make an offer, it might not be fair but it is reality. Remember, your house is only worth as much as a buyer is willing to pay for it. How many homes went from Active listings to Pending contracts since you listed? Why did you miss those buyers?

Consider signing a Price Reduction form for your realtor in advance. Your realtor will not reduce the price without consulting you first and mutually agreeing on a new price. If you suspect he/she would, then why did you hire a non-trustworthy realtor to handle the most expensive asset you own?

No Reduced Price Signs! This is a classic and common error on behalf of realtors around the globe. You get stressed out and then your realtor gets stressed out and panics. He/she puts out the PRICE REDUCED sign rider and plasters it all over the MLS and marketing material. This has only informed the public that your house has something wrong with it and won’t sell. Take a proactive approach…..look at the comps again and I bet that price reduction is in order.

Remember, full time licensed realtors sell homes every month whereas you may only sell a few throughout your lifetime. They are trained and educated in the legal requirements and will protect you and the most expensive asset you own. “Home sellers who use a real estate professional can expect to sell their homes for 16% more, on average, than sellers who try to do it themselves.”– 2005 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

I suggest interviewing three realtors before making your choice.

Upcoming topics:
• Ten questions to ask prospective listing agents
• Home & Design: What’s In and What’s Out
• 10 Tax Changes for 2008

Venetian Condominiums in Scottsdale Ranch
$189,000
1076 sq ft
2 bdrm/2 bath

Terrific end unit located in the Venetian II condo conversion. Neutral colors. Newer appliances in kitchen. Light and bright living room highlighted by a tiled fireplace. Patio off great room. 2 bedroom split arrangement. Great Location… Great Amenities… Condo located across the street from Mercado at Scottsdale Ranch. Close to the senior center, tennis and park. Schools nearby. Buyer to verify sq ftge/schools. Conversion includes patio/garage.

The House and Senate just passed the 300 Billion Dollar Assistance Bill that will help current homeowners facing foreclosure if they meet certain criteria. Did this Assistance bill come in to little to late? What about Victims of foreclosure already that would have been able to meet the criteria but lost their homes already? Who is to take responsibility for this Foreclosure Mess?

They’re rewarding bad decisions and punishing the people who did NOT contribute to the demise of the real estate market by taking away the Down Payment Assistance programs. And, who’s going to pay for it? WE ARE -the TAX PAYERS! So, not only am I making my mortgage payment on a house I overpaid for and I’m losing the value of my property, but now I have to pay to bail out my neighbor? At the risk of sounding like Denise Richard’s potty mouth, ARE YOU %@!*%$@! KIDDING ME???!!!

So, you’re saying that this is the American Dream? Julie Smith bought a house at $600,000 and is making her payments on time every month and can afford her home because she put 20% cash down. Julie’s next door neighbor squeaked into their home with no money down and now they can’t afford their monthly payments…along with 3 other neighbors. So, the four neighbors get bailed out and the values of the homes in the neighborhood have gone down. Meanwhile, the one homeowner who got into her home legitimately (Ms Smith) is still making payments on a $480,000 loan when her neighbors who live in the same floorplan are making payments on a $250,000 or so loan ?

What happened to the principle we’re taught to raise our children with: Reward good behavior, don’t bribe the kid with candy for not repeating bad behavior? Isn’t that what we’re doing? There are consequences for our actions. If certain people are given a “get out of jail free” card, then ALL of us who purchased a home in 2005 should get that same card.

What they should be doing is keeping the DPA programs. They’re punishing the WRONG people! The ones who are keeping our economy going are now being swiped of the opportunity if they don’t have $10,000, $20,000 or more sitting in a bank account.

The question SHOULD be: Why are they taking away a program that allows people who are well qualified with lengthy job history, good credit scores, and good income-to-debt ratios but don’t have a huge chunk of cash sitting in their bank- from buying the surplus of homes that are sitting on the market for sale? There is a big market of first time home buyers, people who are recovering from life changes such as divorce, and multi-cultural US citizens who are buying the inventory. A large percentage of this group does not have enough cash to cover the entire down payment and closing costs.

The question SHOULD be: Why weren’t the appropriate lending guidelines in place to qualify these buyers who are defaulting? If these guidelines are now in place, then why not let the people who do qualify get down payment assistance from the seller who is willing and able to offer it?

We should be focused on that point, not bailing out the people who caused this mess. I was raised with the principle that there are consequences for our actions, whether good or bad.

Instead, go to GetDownPayment.com and click TAKE ACTION NOW to submit a plea to your congressperson to keep the DPA and the American Dream alive.

Otherwise, who will buy the homes on the market? Investors and people with $20,000 sitting in a bank account? If you’re a seller, that certainly LIMITS your buyer pool! Not to mention…the investor will severely low ball the offer price as much as $100,000 below asking price (after all, that’s what makes it an INVESTMENT, right?!).

If you’re thinking of buying real estate, you better start saving…for the next 2-5 yrs or so! And, then, you’ll most likely have missed the BEST buying opportunity in real estate in YOUR lifetime.

They’re adding to the decline of the economy and real estate market by PROHIBITING buyers who are ready, willing and able to purchase a home from doing so if they don’t have $10,000-30,000 or more sitting in a bank account.

I, personally, am helping several buyers who are well-qualified to get into a home, using this program because they simply don’t have the cash sitting in a bank account for the full down payment. Don’t get me wrong -it takes a huge amount of effort on my part to find the right home that will appraise at the purchase price and has a seller willing to contribute up to 6% (or more) of the sales price to the buyer’s down payment and closing costs, BUT I’m doing it and it’s selling homes. I’m willing to earn my paycheck ….and see the happiness of someone who’s getting the keys to their very first home…and it’s not at an inflated purchase price!

”…I’m just saying…”
Kelli Grant, Residential Realtor TRYING to help dreams come true

The response you posted regarding “Will the 300 Billion Dollar Assistance Bill Passed by the House and the Senate Help the Current Real Estate Market?” was very insightful.- Alexander Bermudez, www.Classic-Apartments.com

Recently, realtors and industry experts gathered to showcase neighborhoods in central and east Phoenix. It appears that home buying and selling is strong in specific neighborhoods, such as the area between 35th and 40th streets, from Oak St. to McDowell. Homes have consistently been selling for about 97 percent of value.

With gas prices soaring to an all-time high, people are focused on living closer to work.

The foreclosure and mortgage crisis dominate the news. Andrew Waite, author of ‘Where to live in Phoenix’, confirms that 94.6 percent of all mortgages are current. And, with certain neighborhoods still doing well, it’s really not accurate to blanket the entire valley with the same negative stats.

Phoenix, the ‘Valley of the Sun’, has always been very neighborhood-centric. The recent housing market highlights how individual communities within one city have their own lifestyle and characteristics.

In the last Neighborhood Advisory Council meeting in Sonoran Foothills, the Community Manager pointed out how we can be proactive in taking control of our neighborhood. Developers and home builders market new communities using enormous marketing budgets. Once the community is turned over to the homeowners, we can still make an impact.

I guarantee each neighborhood has several resident realtors and mortgage brokers. I, for one, am looking forward to marketing my neighborhood as an attractive place to live with all of our surrounding beauty and amenities! I don’t think it’ll happen right away due to simple geography, but as more businesses are built nearby –the better it will get.

For accurate neighborhood housing stats, contact your neighborhood Realtor, Kelli Grant.