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Previewing Homes

November 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One of the things that agents do is preview homes.  That’s where it’s only the agent who comes through your home.

I preview for three reasons:

  1. Preview to stay up to date on the market and know the inventory
  2. Preview homes for a potential buyer
  3. Preview homes for a listing we may be working on

It drives sellers crazy when they go through all the effort to clean and prepare their home only to see that’s it’s only an agent coming through the home.  Most real estate brokers do a good job, I believe, in calling the seller to let them know there is a preview request.  However, what can often happen with sellers is that they get busy and can’t remember if it’s a preview or a showing and so they work like dogs to prepare their home….thus they get frustrated when it turns out it was just a preview.

One of the things that I do to try to save my clients a lot of work and frustration is to call them once I’ve been alerted via e-mail that an agent has set up a preview.  I call the seller to remind them that it’s a preview.  They should certainly make sure the home is presentable but they don’t have to knock themselves out getting ready.  It’s also okay, (again in my opinion) for the seller to remain at home while I’m previewing.  It’s always best if the seller can leave, but I don’t believe it’s necessary.

Sellers sometimes get frustrated if someone else is previewing a home in order to work on another listing in the area.  My philosophy is that any preview is a good preview especially if they are working on a new listing.  If that agent now gets a new listing, they might also be attracting new buyers as well.  It doesn’t hurt that they would then be quite familiar with your home.

Previewing takes a lot of work.  I’ve found that a lot of agents don’t do it any more.  The good agents are continuing to preview, and if anything, stepping up the amount of previewing they are doing.

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Remodeling & Design Expo: Minneapolis Convention Center, Nov. 10-11th

November 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I’m heading off to the Mid-American Remodeling & Design Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center today.  I’m looking forward to hearing about the latest designs in home remodeling as well as what some of the new technologies are that are being used in the construction of homes today.

Attending events like this are important for real estate professionals so they can engage with dozens of contractors and designers to learn the latest in state of the art design and construction.  I enjoy doing this and I believe it helps me to bring even greater value to my real estate clients.

The event is in part sponsored by the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC).

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Twin Cities Upscale Housing to Decline 3.2% Over Next Five Years – Fortune Magazine

November 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Fortune Magazine has teamed up with Moody’s Economy.com to create a very interesting forecast for 50 major markets over the next five years.  Granted, this is just a forecast and no one knows for sure how this will turn out, but the study does offer an interesting methodology.

The Twin Cities is in very good shape compared to many other cities across the country.  The way I read this is that we are likely to continue to see sluggish sales for the next several years with little or no price appreciation.   Given that we have had almost nonstop appreciation from 2%-12% over the past 15 years, it’s not unreasonable to think we might go through a period of flat appreciation in order to consolidate and digest the gains of the past.  (On a separate note, and I will try to find the link, I have seen forecasts for a roughly 4% decline in overall prices in the Twin Cities for 2008.  Remember, if you are selling, that means that in order to get back to even, it will require that your home to appreciate 8% in order to overcome that 4% decline ).

Fortune looks at what they define as upscale houses…those homes that sell for at least twice the median sales price for the area.  For the Twin Cities, that would be approximately homes priced over $450,000.

They then looked at historical norms and ratios between rents and home prices.  In estimating their price declines or increases, they also factored in expected rises in rents.  For example, in the Twin Cities, they are expecting rents to rise 16.6% over the next 5 years.  That seems to be a very healthy rise.  Perhaps that’s predicated upon the expected uptick in demand from those who can no longer afford to own their own homes because of the subprime crisis.  (The Twin Cities had a fairly significantly high percentage of subprime mortages…we weren’t like California, but it’s not like Utah either).

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“The Anti-Mortgage Lending Act” Opinion Journal

November 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Stuart M. Saft, Partner at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf, LLP, has written an excellent opinion piece that is published in this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Congress is once again preparing the full employment act for lawyers at the expense of the American people.  This is all done under the guise of trying to protect the consumers from the evil mortgage industry.

I am of the belief that the problem is fixed.  Congress should back off and stick to their other nonsensical ideas where they can do little harm.  This act will hurt the American consumer and home owner.

If you thought it was difficult and expensive to get a mortgage today, wait until some lawsuits start flying and see how challenging it will be.

If this passes, you will see many of the smart law firms specializing in suing mortgage bankers and Wall Street banks and investment houses.

One of the real success stories about the American real estate market is that mortgages have been able to be sold off to other parties.  This has allowed more lending and more people to own their homes.  Granted, it got out of control the past 2-3 years and that is being corrected by the markets.  But to throw all this vague legal liability now in to the mix is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.

I suspect the banks from main street to Wall Street have been so humbled and humiliated that they won’t have the courage to fight this battle with Congress.  It reminds me of the Catholic Church’s problems after the homosexual priest sex abuse scandal broke.  The Church was so defeated it accepted whatever penalties the “experts” suggested.  I’m afraid we are heading down the same road with the mortgage business.

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Minneapolis: Most Affordable Place to Live Well – Forbes Magazine

November 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Forbes Magazine just named Minneapolis the most affordable place to live well….see the story here.

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