Just posted on June 6th is the much anticipated news about our local construction industry. For many month’s now we have seen a small but steady upswing in the number of single family home permits being pulled by builders in our Lee County.
Remember the old days………you go to the store and outside are kiosk racks of homes “For Sale” magazines and books of “For Sale” homes? You would pore over those publications and circle homes that looked interesting, then walk into a real estate office with it in hand.
Remember the old days……..you would walk into a real estate office and leave with a stack of MLS print-outs of “For Sale” homes to review, drive-by the neighborhoods, check out the other homes on the block, and select a few listings to go see?
Remember the old days……..Realtors used Television ads, Billboards, car door signs, and other print media as methods of marketing to potential buyers?
We have just made it thru the first quarter of 2013 and we are seeing solid evidence that our local real estate market is well on its way to being the best year for the housing market in over 7 years. While challenges still remain, like getting lenders to make loans a little easier to obtain, we are seeing good numbers in the housing sector here in Lee County. …continue
I often see and hear comments from sellers, that it would be easy to sell their home as a “For Sale By Owner” to avoid the Realtors Brokerage fee. Equally as often is the comment from a buyer that they only want to deal with the “Listing Agent” on a property, to perhaps make the Brokerage fee smaller since another Realtor is not involved.
From experience, I can tell you there are many reasons for using the services of an experienced Realtor. Here are a few of the most important.
This is a big one! Today’s purchase contract that is used in our area is 10 pages long. That’s right, a full 10 pages of legal jargon drafted by the Florida Bar. There are 20 separate topics addressed in the basic contract ranging from default litigation issues, inspection periods, method of payment for the home, loan verbiage, escrows and deposits, title choices, assignment of contract……etc. …continue
Existing home sales jumped 7.8% in the U.S. in August for over 4.8 million dollars in value!!
That data is the very best we have seen in the market since May of 2010……..when sales were fueled largely by Federal Home buying Tax credit. At the same time, this new report indicated that the housing market was 9.4% better than the same month in 2011. That is a significant increase in just 1 year.
These figures were just released by the government 2 days ago, and certainly shows that the housing market is leading the way toward economic recovery in this country.
Here is an interesting statistic contained in the report……..Foreclosures accounted for only 12% of the August sales and Short Sales only accounted for only 10% of the sales. This is a leading indicator, that the huge supposedly “Ghost” inventory of foreclosure inventory soon to bombard the market……..really does not exist. It has long been my opinion that lenders and banks are holding onto assets and plan to rent them out thru local property management companies, to obtain and maintain an income stream. With an increase in home sale prices we have witnessed during the first half of this year, equity positions for homeowners has begun to creep back into the mix. …continue