The Ann Arbor Real Estate Market is HOT. It is hot outside,what happened to Spring?

I submitted an offer yesterday, and there are already 5 other offers on it. {EAV_BLOG_VER:7a3e19f8fcb5e977}

I was going to submit another offer on a completely different house and location, and the listing agent told me “sorry, we have 3 offers, one is full price, with a quick close. (((sigh)))

Why?

Price and Condition

Many times a home can be in great condition but not sell in the average days on the market which is currently 94 days because it is priced above the market. If you are a buyer and have been frustrated about how fast the good homes are selling, you need to have a Ann Arbor Home Search new listings sent automatically to you.

You can sign up on Search Ann Arbor Houses and our system will go right into the MLS and automatically send them to you.

The homes priced right and in great condition go quickly.

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Glennborough Estates

All custom built homes of many styles.

• Built in 1993 to present
• Price Range – $600,000 to $900,000
• Association fees $500.00 to $550.00
• Lot size 1 acre to 5 ½ acres
• Home size 2,700 to 7,500 Sq ft
• Ann Arbor Schools – Thurston, Clague, Huron High

Search homes for sale in Ann Arbor

• What Style of Home Should I Buy in Ann Arbor?
• Ann Arbor Sellers Is Your Home Safe?
• Price Per Square Foot in Ann Arbor

“When is the housing market going to come back?” I hear this all the time from sellers in Ann Arbor.

Well, I  don’t have a crystal ball, I tell them. The last 3 quarters in Ann Arbor have stabilized and we are short on inventory so those are two very good signs but…..

What I really think sellers are asking is, “When is my home going to be worth what it was in 2006?” That is something I do not know. I know my own house has come down in value 100K since 2006. (((sigh)))

Today I read a really good blog by Dave Halpern from Louisville, Ky. in it he stated:

“If you have $100.00 and you lose 50% of it, you now have $50.00 left.

If your new balance of $50.00 now goes back up by 50% (fifty percent), it is only worth $75.00.

Because 50% of $100.00 on the way down is $50.00. But 50% of the remaining $50.00 on the way up is only $25.00.

So, if the value goes DOWN 50%, it has to GO UP 100% to equal what is was.

Another way to put it is: If the value of something is slashed in half (by 50%), it then has to DOUBLE (go up by 100%) to equal its original value.”

Historically in the United States we have seen appreciation be around 3-4% a year. Only when houses inflated in the 90′s did it increase in the Ann Arbor area by 8-10%. That was unsustainable. When the market does begin to increase again my gut tells me it will be at those historical 3-4% increases.

Which means for me and you, it can take many years to get back to where we were in 2006. I remember picking up a USA Today paper in 2007 and reading predictions for the recovery. I remember it said Michigan would recover in 2010, and closing up the paper not wanting to believe it.

Right now many people would “move up”, “down-size” or “relocate” but they can’t sell their current homes in order to that. So they are waiting…but how long?

In my opinion it would be better to go ahead and sell if you need to move and sell low but then by low.

Related articles

• Ann Arbor Sellers Say,”I’m Not Giving My House Away” (annarborrealestatetalk.com)

Photos have appeared around the media about the million dollar home that Osama Bin Laden lived in.

Not impressed, are you?

What does a million dollar home in Ann Arbor look like?

There are 28 houses one million and up in Ann Arbor for sale so click the link above and see them all.

Only 12 houses sold at a million dollars in Ann Arbor from May 2010 to current date.(see the graph below)

Here is the graph of the homes that sold over a million dollars in Ann Arbor with the Average Days on the Market.

Search the Ann Arbor Area MLS

We read,worry and obsess so much over SEO,(Search Engine Optimization) but is it necessary?

Here is a fantastic video I found by Matt Cutts, Google WebMaster that cuts to the chase on optimizing your sites.

It was just published in April 2011 so up to date information and hopefully will take your stress level down a few notches.

I’ve been blogging since 2006 and honestly I have never worried to much about it. I use a few little things to enhance my blog posts and when I teach I share them. Thanks to Karen George who coached a few of us on Activerain, a few months into blogging in the rain I learned a few little techniques and have stuck with them.

If you haven’t read Karen’s blog who passed away a few years ago from breast cancer you should read every word she has ever written.Michael her husband now blogs under her profile .

When I teach on blogging, I want folks to walk away with only a few things to make their posts more SEO friendly and that is IT.

• Key Words not too many
• Anchor Text
• Alt Tags
• Call to Action

If as Matt Cutts says in his video Google looks at On Page Content and Off Page Links. (backlinks)  If you want to know more about this read Katerina Gasset, a wonderful blogging coach.

Now go have some fun…

On Ann Arbor.com today, and using the recent market data released by the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, there is a comment I would like to address today.

The comment is “gotta love crooks, I mean REALTORS.

I was going to answer over there and maybe I will but I believe it needs a longer response than I like to give on Blog comments.

REALTORS Are Not Crooks

A seller and a REALTOR work together to determine the price of where a home should be listed.

The market (or current buyers) looking for a home during that time period, and what is on the market determine the value. Period

The numbers don’t lie, and if a REALTOR, looks at the recent SOLDS and currently LISTED homes it is not rocket science to determine, where the home should be listed and where it will sell.

The Problem

The problem is not that REALTORS are crooks, the problem is:

1)    Some sellers don’t look at the data, and say…”If I can’t get such and such out of my home, then I am not selling,” or “I have to get this much from my home so I can move.”

2)    The second problem is some REALTORS don’t have the guts to stand up to sellers and tell the truth. They would rather “accommodate” the mindset of the seller and list a home “over market value”, just to have a listing in their stock pile.

3)    Third, some REALTORS, don’t even do CMA’s, (Comparative Market Value Reports) they just walk through the sellers home and ask what they want to sell it for and throw it in the MLS.

Listing a home at Market Value is NOT Rocket Science, it is not a science at all. It is the professional opinion of an experienced REALTOR, looking at the historical data,current listings and pricing the home accordingly. 

Once I have studied a neighborhood, and put together a CMA, if the homeowners in the Ann Arbor Area don’t like the price, they can interview other agents to see other opinions. In fact, I encourage it.

My typical time to do a CMA is 4 hours, so by the time I meet again with the sellers I know the data, the neighborhood and am confident in my price.

The last few years,after looking at their comps I have told 10 or so homeowners that I can not sell their home for the price they want. I have wished them good luck and moved on.

Of the 10 or so, four called me back, after trying at a higher price with another agent. “Get over here and list my house, Missy, we should have listened to you.”

Others I have watched the home listed and seen price reduction, after price reduction taken until it sells sometimes a year later below what I told them in the first place.They are chasing the market down.

Some have chosen to wait the market out until home prices rise again.

Know Who You Are Hiring

Is the REALTOR you as a Ann Arbor Area home seller interviewing experienced?  Do they list enough homes to know the market? Are they familiar with the area to determine the value? Are they showing you the market data? Do they have a written out Marketing Plan?

I disagree with the comment by Towny of the AnnArbor.com article, REALTORS are not crooks, but some are not experienced and some will take any listing and “throw it against the wall,” to see if it sticks sells. And some REALTORS don’t have the guts to tell the seller the truth.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Consumer Reports in 1990,

“ Beware that some devious agents will at first suggest a very handsome price. Then, after they have the listing and the house hasn’t sold they’ll come back a with a pitch to lower the price.”

Here is a pdf version of the recent Ann Arbor Area Market Data by the Ann Arbor Area Board of REALTORS.