The answer is “it depends on your individual circumstance”.

One of the first things to ask yourself is,  How long will you be living in Ann Arbor?

In the past it definately made more sense to buy, but now it really depends. If you are a Medical Resident and will only be here 3-4 years, then perhaps renting is the best option. Do you have a dog, that needs space to run?  All of those personal decisions should enter into your decision.

Here is a mortgage calculator that you can play around with. Put in what it will cost you to rent, and along side of it put it the monthly mortgage payment. You can add in the interest rate you have been quoted, and the cost of selling the house in the year you plan to move.

The mortgage calculator will calculate a report for you  based on the information you submit. You can save it or print it out.

Home prices have never been better in Ann Arbor, so if after doing the research you can begin your home search here, to see all the homes on the market throughout Washtenaw County. You’ll be happy to see the houses with Google Satellite Images, Google maps and multiple photos.

You can also find rentals, listed through the Ann Arbor MLS.

Renting vs Buying is a personal decision, and it is always best to speak to qualified professionals about your financial decisions.

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Stonebridge features executive homes, golf villas, condos, and single family residential homes. The Stonebridge Community is surrounded by the Stonebridge Golf Course, designed by Authur Hills. You can book T times on line and check out internet specials, or see a layout of the course all online.

There are currently 27 homes on the market in Stonebridge. Six of the 27 are under contract to purchase. Three in Saline side and three in the Ann Arbor side for schools. There are two homes currently for rent in Stonebridge for a rental price of $2850 and $3000.

All of Stonebridge is located in Pittsfield Township and all of Stonebridge has an Ann Arbor mailing address with a zip code of 48108.

The home under contract are:

5408 Pennacle Ct

2413 Moors Ct

2203 Stonebridge Dr

4484 Stonebridge Dr

2126 Stonebridge Dr

1764 Stonebridge Dr.

Prices are currently ranging in price from 314,000 to 1.2 M.

Last year between July 1st and December 31, 2007, 33 homes closed in Stonebridge. With the current inventory of 27 available, Stonebridge is homes have a low absorption rate. Which means the amount of homes available is equal to the amount that have sold.

There are 11 different associations in Stonebridge, each governed by their own homeowner associations. Their community web site is available for public viewing.

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Condo’s that don’t qualify for financing FHA? Either they don’t have enough units finished or there are too many renters in there. If they are not on the approved condo list in Washtenaw County, then the condo association has to fill it out. In some cases they are charging $200.00 to fill out the form.

We, ( my daughter ) has written two offers for this Toyota Employee who is desperate to get in a condo, one condo community is not on the approved list. ( not finished yet and too many renters) One is not going to appraise. The listing agent is telling us she will get the sellers to meet the appraised value. hummm…..we’ll see.

We are seeing this?

Sellers are at rock bottom. They price at rock bottom. They accept an offer at rock bottom. They have no more money.

The inspections are done.

The radon is high.

The sellers have no money to mitigate. They feel the buyer has got their home for a steal. In many cases they have. They don’t have or want to put any more money into the house.

The buyers expect them too.

I’ve never had any problems with the sellers mitigating with radon high. Now I do, two offers at one time. One time on the buying side and one on the listing side.

Enough said

The day in the life of an Ann Arbor Real Estate TEAM.

Begin your Ann Arbor Home Search Here. 

We’ll hope it is FHA approved, appraises and has no radon.

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Begin You Home Search Here

*** Click on the graph to see the entire graph***

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10 Easy Steps to Sell Your Home in Ann Arbor

1)  Hire a technology Realtor

2)  Curb Appeal

Make sure the first impression is a good one. Paint the front door, trim the hedges, plant some flowers. Simple really.

3)  Hire the Realtor that tells you the truth

4)  Price it right from the beginning.

Don’t reduce the price and chase the market down. Homes in Ann Arbor need to be priced  in the top 5 best homes to look at for buyers. Price it right in the beginning.

5)  Make sure your Realtor has a huge internet presence.

6)  Have your home professionally staged.

7)  Use a Realtor that gets the most exposure for your home.

8)  Use multiple photos and a virtual tour on every home, buyers want to see multiple photos. I can’t tell you the number of times I get called from my search site, which is a direct  feed from the MLS, with a buyer requesting more photos. Not my listing but they find it on line and want to see more. In this case there is never too many good photos.

9)  Make sure your Realtor uses a home search site to bring more buyers exposure to the market.

10)  De-clutter.

Throw away, pack it up, move it out. If your not using it then get rid of it. Take it to Salvation Army or Purple Heart.

***Notice any pattern in this ? Thought so...***

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The challenge was to answer 8 questions.

The challenge was to pick 8 friends and tag them to answer the same 8 questions. Well, I have a ton of friends on Active Rain, Twitter and FaceBook. Let’s see who will get the least upset with me ?

1) Who is my favorite musical artist?

That’s hard, I like so many and it rotates and evolves depending on my mood, new CD released etc… Overall I love County Pop flavor the best. So I guess my long time favorites are Reba and Martina McBride.

2) Who is my favorite artist?

Saint by Sarah Jane. Sarah is my second cousin and designs jewelry. I could never afford it, but my cousin sends me some to wear. It all has meaning and has come at special or difficult times in my life. She designs jewelry with a nature inspired motif.
The Bee is her signature piece, it and is related to Overcoming Obstacles. You see by the bee’s body weight and small-sized wings it aerodynamically incapable of flying.

The bee let’s us know and believe we can do anything. To see all of the collection and the symbols of what Sarah Jane crafts you can visit Saint here.

3) Who is my favorite blogger?

Impossible to name, I like so many. Would love to give you a list but impossible to do.

4) Who would I like to meet?

Jesus, hands down the winner. I have a lot of questions to ask and want to bask in His love for eternity.

5) What did I want to be when I grew up?

All my life I wanted to be a social worker. That is from about 5th grade on and what I majored in college. Social Work is a helping profession and I always had an extreme desire to help people. Real Estate is also a helping profession and the skills I learned were extremely transferable. We are called to council everyday in our profession, it is an emphatic profession.

6) What is the most important trivia I know?

I hated the game Trivia and was terrible at it. Probably if I have to choose anything it is knowing all the words to Top Gun with my family. We get such a hoot out of it.

7) If I could live in any point of history when would I want to live and why?

I use to think I would have wanted to live in the days of the Southern Antebellum era. Driving through Mississippi and seeing all those fabulous homes, I have often wondered what it would have been like to wear those hoop skirts and attend Southern balls. When I read Widow of the South, a novel by Robert Hicks, I was so taken by the dedication of Carrie McGavok who lived in 1824 and was dedicated to making sure every soldier during the North and South had a proper burial and spent her life mission on burying each soldier by their state. The museum is and graves are still open in Franklin, TN for touring. The soldiers buried there died at the Battle of Franklin.

My most interesting job?

My most unusual job was when I worked in a pet shop my Sr. Year of High School. I loved taking care of the tropical fish and am still enamored with the salt water fish.

Thanks to Tracy Sandrock and Jeff Belonger who also tagged me. I have been reading all the posts since Memorial Day weekend so by now I’m sure most everyone has been tagged to participate.

But here are my 8 people I would like to know more about:

1) Tom Braatz
2) Marc Blasi
3) Vance Shutes
4) Lynda Eisemen
5) Fran Gatti
6) Jennifer Fivesdale
7) Jeff Graves
Bill French.

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It is located at 2554 Traver Blvd. (off Green Road).

All new carpet, fresh paint, full finished walk-out basement with a study, extra 4th bedroom and a full bath.

Convenient to U of M. North Campus and the Medical Complexes.

Work hard, study hard and come home to 2554 Traver to relax.

Located across from Logan Elementary and walking distance to Clague Middle School. A perfect location.

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In December of 1980, we had our first baby there, Christa, who is now my Partner is Real Estate. In August that year, my husband was “called’ to Michigan. There were skid markets all the way from the South to the Mid-West with me dragging my feet.

When we arrived and I shared with our Realtor what we were coming from and what I hoped to find in a home. She said, “Well, that will cost $100,000. to buy in Ann Arbor.” We were paying $350.00 per year in property taxes in Auburn, AL and the taxes here were around $2,200.00 adding to the less amount of home we could buy.

After looking for a month, in August of 1980, and HATING everything we could afford, we moved in to a townhouse apartment, that is now a condo conversion and sells for $160,000.

After about 9 months of living there, our Realtor called us to tell us, she thought she had found us a home that was listed at $69,000.00 with a $3000.00 decorating allowance. The family was moving to TX. Mr. Seller was already there and school was out so Mrs. Seller was anxious to join him. They had reduced the home from 100K to 69K. So we took a look…

Yuk, orange and brown bold vinyl wall paper, dated kitchen, brown carpet. But, we bought it. I hated paying rent. The best news of all is that the owners would accept an 11% land contract. Interest rates at the time were 18%. So we moved in, re-carpeted, painted the whole house, painted the kitchen and lived there for one month shy of when the land contract was due. I sold it by owner for full price. We made 36,000 on the house.

Then we moved (can you believe this?) down the street into a four bedroom home, where we also stayed for also 5 years. That home was in move in condition. (It was hilarious to see our friends walking the swing set down the street.) We loved it there and would not have moved but baby number 5 was on the way and we couldn’t get everyone around the kitchen table in the nook. We bought the home for $110,000.

Close to 5 years later, I sold the house myself in one hour, to another neighbor who lived in the street over. She was helping her daughter with her paper route, when we put the sign in the yard. Then we were able to purchase a lot and build the home we are still in Saline, MI.

Ann Arbor has always had issue with “affordable housing”. Many people could not afford to purchase homes in Ann Arbor so they would start out in Ypsilanti, Manchester Milan or other smaller communities around Washtenaw County.

Guess What?

Ann Arbor is now affordable.

In the 1980’s, Michigan and the rest of the country were going through a recession. Housing prices were coming down. It afforded us the opportunity to own a home in Michigan.

I grieve everyday when I have to tell my sellers that their home prices have come down. I have turned down so many listings that I know I can not sell for what they owe or want. It was getting so bad, I had even considered taking them over-priced and doing what many Realtors do, keep asking for price reductions. But, it is just not my nature to not tell them the truth.

Bottom line for us in Michigan, this has allowed many home buyers to purchase their first homes in Ann Arbor. Had it not been for the recession when we moved here, I may still be renting.

In the midst of the current market conditions, there is a silver lining for buyers.

There is “affordable housing” in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County.

***Photos courtesy of Flickr, KCkellners for carpet***

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