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Getting a Great Deal or a Great Tan Requires the Right Plan

This time of year we have winter guests that want to check out our beaches and our real estate market, but end up frustrated because they end up doing too much of one and not the other.

Real estate expert Denny Grimes talks about having the right plan to find the best deal while making the best use of your time.

To see the full interview click here

What buyers/sellers should know about chinese drywall

Point 1: Realize that there is more to be learned about CDW then what’s already known

18 months ago people wouldn’t have been able to describe the difference between Chinese drywall and Chinese checkers

So, there are still many unanswered questions about the best way to identify and correct it, potential health risks, and how it will effect the value of the property or even the surrounding neighborhood.

Point 2: Pay attention to the year the property was built

Most experts suggest that if a property was built or remodeled from 2004 to 2006 that there MAY be a potential for CDW

In Lee County 25% of the available inventory was built in that time frame, so there is a 25% chance CDW could exist

Point 3: If the property was built in that time range, have the property inspected for sooner verses later. That means buyers of short sales, have a Chinese drywall inspection as soon as the seller signs your offer.

Don’t wait for the lender’s approval because that may take months

Sellers, have your home inspected before you put it on the market

In fact, all owners of property built in that time frame should have an inspection because not only is there property tax relief but I believe there will be government intervention into the correction of it.

Watch whole story: http://www.winknews.com/features/62314162.html By WINK News

Lee County’s home prices inch up, but sales may level off

Pending transactions in August are lower

BY DON MANLEY
dmanley@news-press.com

Single-family home prices are climbing in Lee County and sales continued at a torrid pace in July, although there was a slight dip from June’s record-setting pace.

Meanwhile, sales across the nation and state are up, but with a drop in the median sales price.

A total of 1,570 single-family homes were sold with the assistance of a Realtor in Lee County in July, according to statistics released today by the Florida Association of Realtors. That’s down from a record-setting 1,705 sales in June, but the July total was staggering compared with the same month in 2008 - a 104 percent increase.

The median sales price for July in Lee County was $89,000, an increase over June’s median sales price of $87,900. For most of the past 31Ú2 years, the sales price has been dropping sharply.

Statewide, there were 115,882 Realtor-assisted sales in July, up 37 percent from July 2008. The median sales price was $147,600, down 24 percent from the July 2008 median price of $193,800.

In a separate report released Friday, the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of previously occupied homes rose for the fourth consecutive month, posting an increase of 7.2 percent - the largest increase in at least 10 years.

Experts say the flood of foreclosed homes that has hit the market is still glutting inventories and depressing prices. But some local experts say the red-hot market is about to cool, at least temporarily.

Fort Myers-based real estate broker Denny Grimes of Denny Grimes & Co. predicts sales numbers for August will show a decline because the pending sales for July (815) are down by 50 percent from June. Not all pending sales close, but pendings feed the number of closed sales.

Grimes cited three possible reasons for a drop in sales: July, August and September are traditionally slow sales months; an “interruption of supply line,” meaning fewer foreclosures hitting the market; or demand has declined, which Grimes said he doubts.

“We’ve had a fantastic year and we’ve had a great month, year over year, but before we go out and buy a bottle of Dom Perignon, July pending sales are down,” Grimes said. “The prudent person is going to keep the champagne on ice, and over a cup of coffee, try to figure out why are sales slowing.”

He also predicted a drop in the median home sales price for August because the median price for July pending sales was $79,000.

Banks have been releasing fewer foreclosed homes onto the market of late, perhaps hoping for prices to escalate, said Keith Campbell, a managing partner for Silverleaf Capital Group in Fort Myers. The company sometimes represents large investors who buy available homes in bulk.

Campbell theorized banks are being selective to avoid further depressing prices.

“I think the banks have been been besieged with so many properties that now, they’re ramped up to handle them with asset managers,” Campbell said.

He said investors will continue to be a force in Southwest Florida.

“There’s a lot of money trying to come in from outside the area because of all the press we’ve received,” Campbell said.

That helped feed the uptick in prices. Demand is outpacing supply, said Steve Koffman, a real estate broker with Century 21 Sunbelt in Cape Coral.

“We’re clearly seeing inventory levels drop and that’s because of extraordinarily low prices,” Koffman said.

“The mindset of the buyers today is very much what it was in ‘04 and ‘05, with people wanting to buy before prices get too high. The one major difference is we’re selling houses below replacement cost, and back in ‘04 and ‘05, we were not.”

Denny Grimes, President

Denny Grimes & Company, Inc. - Statistics supplied by http://www.homey.com

Single-family home resales jump in Fort Myers in April

Yo Have You Heard About HOMEY

Specialized Simple Real Estate Search Engine

For the last year and a half I’ve been working on the idea of changing the way real estate is handled. Most of the systems and tools used to search for real estate and manage real estate transactions are the same systems used for 30 years. They have evolved first to the personal computer and then online to the web. However, they are still the based on the same ideas and systems just more connected and accessible.

Enter HOMEY.com.

We started with a blank piece of paper and have created a simple real estate search engine. The searching abilities are based on what we call REALS (Real Estate Adaptive Language Searches) HOMEY has a vocabulary to help bridge the gap between searching for homes in cryptic words and the way we think and talk about real estate. It is even more refined for each particular area.

Currently HOMEY.com has been loaded with data for Lee County, Florida. With President Obama visiting this coming week our area will be in the spotlight as he holds a town hall meeting. He chose our area because of the large number of foreclosures. Part of the problem has been it is hard for the consumer to easily find these homes.

For the consumer finding information about foreclosure homes was limited to a few sites that didn’t have the live full details on the property. HOMEY is a tool that can help the consumer because you can search for things like a “lehigh acres bank owned home” or “3 bedroom 2 bath home under 100,000″ or a “cape coral gulf access home”.

Drilling deep into the data is now available to the consumer. If it is in the MLS system HOMEY has a way to interpret the information. HOMEY knows if there is room for horses, a pool, southern exposure, great room, vaulted ceilings and much, much more.

HOMEY has the ability to allow you to get more information, schedule a showing or make an offer on any property. Future releases are already in the works and more data areas are being added. HOMEY will incorporate more and more information about each property to help buyers make informed decisions and sellers to gain maximum exposure.

So, now you’ve heard about HOMEY! Give it a try www.homey.com

p.s. try out the mapping feature with Google’s™ new Street View built right in.

A good home is as important as a good deal

Rules about the home inspection process can make transaction less stressful

 

As the ink dries on the sales contract, buyers develop a sudden case of heartburn as scenes from the vintage movie The Money Pit mysteriously begin playing in their minds. They are plagued with visions of termites swarming or the property developing a myriad of mechanical and structural problems, ones that won’t become evident until the day after they move in They have shopped hard to find a good deal.  How can they know they bought a good home?

 

There’s no need for them to stock up on Alka-Seltzer because the majority of the buyer’s concern can be eliminated by following a few simple steps. Step one is to make sure they have access to the property’s most current information. Home inspections and Seller’s Disclosures are a snapshot of the property’s condition at a point in time, thus they do not necessarily reflect the condition of the property the day they decide to buy it. Sellers may have a “recent” home inspection report from a previous deal that failed to close and they may offer it to the new buyer as a way of streamlining the transaction. There is nothing wrong with using it as long as the buyer weighs the risks, because Murphy’s Law says that if something in the home has gone kaput, it did so after the first home inspection was completed. A new home inspection may be the safest route.

 

Another document that the buyer should request in the sales contract is a copy of a current Seller’s Disclosure. The key word is “current.”  It is standard practice for a seller to fill out this document when the property is listed and then it usually gets stuffed in the listing file until a contract is submitted. The problem is that some properties are on the market for months, if not years, during which time the condition of the property can change. Sellers may have made the proper corrections, but they generally forget to update their Seller’s Disclosure. Everyone wins when there is full disclosure, so it is a good practice for all concerned to have a clause similar to the following added to the sales contract:  “Seller to provide a Seller’s Disclosure that reflects the condition of the property as of the effective date and this contract is contingent upon buyer’s acceptance within X days.”

 

Prudence is wise as long as it doesn’t lead to paralysis. Some agents or their buyers will request a copy of the Seller’s Disclosure prior to making an offer. Learning as much about a property before you decide to buy it isn’t a bad idea, but one should do so realizing the risks of slow decision making. Buyers have missed great deals because they performed their due diligence before they had the property under contract. If a buyer wants to make sure each 2 x 4 is plumb or they want an exact count of cracked roof tiles, great, but do this research during the inspection period, after the property is under contract.

 

Step two is to understand what a home inspection is and what it is not. A home inspection is like an annual physical. During a physical your doctor gives you a general exam of your major systems. You may pass the physical, but that does not necessarily mean you’re 100% healthy, because something may be going on in your body that could only be determined by performing more specific and invasive tests. If the doctor felt something didn’t look right, he would ask you to see a specialist for a closer look.

 

Likewise, a home inspection is a general examination of the property’s health. The inspector will visually check the major systems of the property and if they pass his inspection, chances are the home is in good shape. Keep in mind that a home inspection is not equivalent to a MRI or a CAT scan, because latent issues could still lurk beyond the eyesight of he inspector. The buyer has the option to hire a specialist to analyze every system in the property, but spending more on inspections than he did on the property sounds ridiculous. Normally, if the home inspector finds something suspicious he will recommend a specialist be called for a more in depth examination. 

 

The third and most important step is to understand that inspection issues will fall into one of three categories. The first category includes issues that the contract specifically requires the seller to correct. The second category would be issues that the contract specifically states that the seller is not required to fix and the final category deals with issues that are not specifically mentioned in the contract. Most inspection anxieties revolve around misunderstanding what issues are legitimate seller’s responsibilities, so it’s a good idea to read the inspection paragraph carefully. A clear understanding of this step will keep countless deals together and maybe prevent a black eye or two.

 

Two out of three categories are no-brainers because the buyers and sellers simply have to abide by the contract. End of discussion. However, the third category is a potential mine field because the contract does not specifically list the thousands of doodads that could potentially need a minor adjustment. Sellers usually feel they gave the home away and have little tolerance for being nitpicked to death. The buyers feel they did the seller a favor, thus the home should be delivered in like new condition.

 

Too many deals die right here because ego wins over rational behavior. That’s sad, because a handyman can usually correct these minor issues in less time than it takes for everyone to get worked up over it. So, apply a little common sense along with an application of the Golden Rule and chances are that the good deal you’re looking at will become a good home for many years to come.

 

 

Keep the Faith

 

Denny Grimes is President of Denny Grimes & Company, a local real estate firm. He can be reached at denny@dennygrimes.com.

Buyers need two rules as they structure initial offer

Forget how you bought last home

Buying is fun, although the majority of people dislike the shopping process, because shopping is work. Shopping for a home is work too, especially when there is so much to look at. It’s like wading through a “Clearance Sale” bin as large as an Olympic swimming pool, filled with thousands of blue jeans minus the price tags. You know that if you persevere and find something that fits, you will get a great buy, but without the price tag, you don’t really know how good of a deal you should expect.

Too many home shoppers spend countless hours doing the laborious work of shopping for a home but fail to invest a few minutes thinking about a strategy for buying a home. A haphazard approach to structuring an offer to purchase can negate dozens of hours of research and legwork, because a failed buying attempt may mean that you have to begin the shopping process all over again.

When writing a contract for purchase, many negotiating points are worth considering, but let’s discuss price, since that seems to be at the top of the list for both buyers and sellers. When home shoppers find a home on which they want to make an offer, they can save time and plenty of frustration if they follow two simple rules on how to structure their initial offer.

…continue reading the story called Buyers need two rules as they structure initial offer

Buyers’ disappointment can be self-inflicted

Homebuyers missing great deals because of unrealistic expectations

 

Everyone at some point has been disappointed as a result of an unrealistic expectation. Some experiences can be looked back on and laughed at, while others will never become a laughing matter. Let me give you a personal example of the former.

 

Thirty years ago, when my wife and I had just started dating, I was faced with the challenge of buying her a Christmas gift. It was our first Christmas together, so I wanted to find that extra special present. She had just turned 16 and had bought, with the help of her parents, a Formula Trans Am, just like the one in Smokey and the Bandit, only yellow. The car was hot, but the floor mats looked like bargain-basement knockoffs. So, I thought a new set of Certified General Motors, standard issue, logoed floor mats would surprise her. They did, and I never heard the end of it. I soon learned that she expected something that came in a much smaller box, was shiny and was hard enough to cut glass. She eventually got her bobble, but the floor mats in her car have never looked as good.

 

It’s a fact of life that unfettered expectations have a way of consistently outrunning what reality can deliver. As expectations take the victory lap, disappointment may become your closest companion. Today’s home sellers know all too well what it feels like to have disappointment as a pal. However, an increasing number of buyers are making the same friend.

 

Homebuyers over the past three years have been conditioned to believe that, there is no limit on what they should expect. These buyers are making a fundamental mistake by assuming that the term “buyers’ market” applies to all segments of our local market. It does not.

  …continue reading the story called Buyers’ disappointment can be self-inflicted

September home sales set new record

Strong third quarter tempered by Wall Street distractions

An age-old philosophical question asks, “If a tree falls in a forest, and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” A more recent philosophical question might be, “If there is good news in the real estate market, and everyone is focused on the Wall Street carnage, is it still good news?”

It would take an entire forest of fallen trees to produce the paper necessary to print all the negative happenings that our residential real estate market has seen over the last couple of years. In spite of the negatives, Lee County’s existing home market has steadily improved each quarter this year, and the third quarter is no exception.

…continue reading the story called September home sales set new record

Residential Market Watch: Chance to buy newer home at low cost fading

Tropical Storm Fay has come and gone, but the rain it dumped on Lee County lingers. The ground is saturated and some streets are flooded. As much as we needed the rain, we are anxious for the way things used to be, like being able to walk to our mailbox without wearing our slickers.

Likewise, we witnessed our real estate market raining inventory for the past couple of years. It rained so hard and long that you could forget about walking to the mailbox, because the only way to get to it required something with Evinrude on the back of it. Our inventory is still at record levels, but we may have reached the high-water mark. In fact, in some sub-markets, inventory is receding.

A few observations after looking over the resale home contracts for July:

The number of homes for sale in specific submarkets is starting to dry up. Buyers are recognizing the value being offered today. Our real estate market, like the recent rain, had a problem with “run off.” Buyers would make an offer on a property and if the seller didn’t accept the offer, the buyer would just “run off” and make an offer on a different home.

Single-family homes that went under contract in July sold within 2 percent of the original list price and were on the market less than 45 days.

In contrast, homes that sold for more than a 2 percent difference from where they were originally priced and where they were priced when sold, took 148 days to find a buyer on average. More importantly, they averaged only 80 percent of the original list price. What this tells me is that when the numbers are in line, so are the buyers. Being realistic up front can save sellers money and time.

Buyers are recognizing a value priced home. In July 40 percent of the homes that went under contract had been on the market less than 30 days and went pending within 98.8 percent of the original list price. There was no run off as the buyers absorbed the value-priced homes. Having young families and first-time home buyers own and live in these homes is a foundation our market needs to be strong.

Last month in Lee County, under $100,000 there were 138 homes sold that were less than 5 years old. At that pace there is 9 months of inventory, while for homes older than 5 years old there are 12 months of inventory. This is a sale and a beauty contest all at the same time. The prettiest house at the best price goes first. In this case the newer homes that are value priced are the first to go.

Looking at Cape Coral there is 12 months of inventory for homes under $100,000. However, there is only six months of inventory for homes built in 2003 or newer. This puddle is drying up.

The opportunity to own a home less than 5 years old under $100,000 is limited. Homes under $150,000 will be the next to dry up. Most of these homes are below reproduction costs. The rain has stopped falling as the number of building permits being pulled has averaged less than 50 per month. There is now less than 14 months of inventory and only 12 months of inventory of homes built in 2003 or newer. New construction starts at $100,000 or just under with most builders. This typically does not include the home site, sewer, and/or water expenses. Buyers, the time to take advantage of the value is now.

This is not just true for the lower-priced homes. Homes in certain areas and at different price ranges are being recognized for the value they represent.

If you are a seller, the critical time is during the first few weeks. Ask yourselves “How many showings have I had?” If the answer is zero or a low number you need to act quickly and get your property priced to get noticed by the buyers that are out there.

There are still foreclosures that are flowing into our area like tributaries feed rivers. Foreclosures look to continue to add to our inventory levels and slow the drying-out process. The quicker this storm passes the faster our market will recover.

The media may paint a gloomy picture but you can still get sunburned on a cloudy day. So buyers, listen up: If you ever wanted to own a newer home the time is now. You better get those Ray-Bans on and start looking because the ground is beginning to show in a few areas. Remember it is better to buy one day early than one day too late.

As published in the News-Press
By Michael Polly

Copyright 2008 Denny Grimes and Company, All Rights Reserved
Office: (239) 689-7600 or Email Us

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