Plymouth Michigan Home buying

Real Depressing Look at Michigan's Economy

2008-08-19T08:46:00.003-05:00

I saw this post on another blog that I thought was worth sharing. But don't dwell on it!

The writer has collected a bunch of photographs of abandonded buildings in the Detroit area, and taken together they are pretty depressing.

It does make an interesting contrast to Ann Arbor right now where there are three or four huge crains on the skyline indicating all the new construction going on downtown.

Let me know what you think.

Helping Home Buyers Locate, Evaluate, and Negotiate great home deals!
Jon Boyd,
Broker/ManagerThe Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc. http://buyersagentannarbor.com/
734-6620-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!

Plymouth Michigan - How To Boost Your Credit Score For Home Buying

2008-06-20T11:38:00.001-05:00

You know that your credit file is critical in determining what kind of home loans yu qualify for, but did you know that potential employers will check your credit? Did you know that your credit score has a dramatic impact on your insurance rates? Even renting an apartment is impacted by what is in your credit files.

"How To Repair Your Credit & Boost Your Score By 100+ Points!" Is a class about dispelling some of the myths of credit and showing you exactly what is possible and why it is possible. (In terms of improving your credit file. REALLY improving your credit file.)

Why do we know so much about credit and how to improve it? Because as we have been looking out for the best interest of home buyers for close to 20 years, and that includes helping buyers with their credit files dating back for over 15 of those 20 years.

For example we have personally helped people remove negative student loan information. It isn't something you can do overnight, but it isn't brain surgery either.

So, come to the free class Monday night, June 23rd and find out all about what can be done to turn your credit around in the next six months.

Again the class is free, but pre-registration is required.

Call the voice mail system at 734-223-9831 and leave a message with the number of seats you would lie to reserve, your name(s), and a phone number we cal call to confirm your reservation.

And, we will see you Monday night!

Plymouth Michigan gets top honors from RelocateAmerica

2008-05-30T13:00:00.001-05:00

From the Journal Newspapers: (Full story at the link above.)

"The Plymouth community is receiving national attention after a group of real estate and development experts declared the area as one of the best locations to live in the country.

The City of Plymouth and Plymouth Township were among 100 cities and towns across the country to make the RelocateAmerica.com 11th Annual Top 100 Places to Live lists."

Congratulations Plymouth/Canton area!

How To Buy A Foreclosure Class Tuesday Night

2008-05-22T21:07:00.002-05:00

Next Tuesday after the holiday we are having another FREE class on How To Buy a Foreclosure. The class is in Ann Arbor but the information is still very much on target for Plymouth. (The Plymouth/Canton area actually has a higher percentage of foreclosures that Ann Arbor at this point.)

Reservations are required because we have limited seating and limited handouts.

If you are interested you can get some additional information at the link above.

To reserve a seat call 734-223-9831 and leave your name, the number of seats you want to reserve, and a phone number where we can call you back during the business day to confirm your reservation. (An answering machine is fine.)

We hope to see you there!

What Do You Know About Garage Doors?

2008-04-29T14:07:00.003-05:00

On one of our office blogs we posted some photos from some homes we've been involved with recently. Kind of fun stuff.

Garage door post #1

Garage door post #2

Cool Stuff!

Another clueless "buyer agent" from a "team" office

2008-04-17T19:55:00.006-05:00

I ran across a really embarrassing post on Trulia today. An agent who works in a big team got a question from a home seller and responded:

"In this market all Buyers care about are price and condition. If you want to receive the bonus for selling your home yourself, under price everything in the neighborhood by about 3%. At the xxxxxa Group, of which I am exclusive buyer agent, my experience is that right now there are lots of buyers out there who are looking for a good value and will make an offer immediately if the value is there. There is no reason your home should languish on the market for more than 60 days if priced correctly to begin with. Feel free to contact me for further advise or to learn more about listing with the xxxxx Group, where we sell a home every 1-2 days!

Note she says she is an "exclusive buyer agent". Then she tries to get the listing. The whole point about being an exclusive buyer agent is that your office DOESN'T TAKE LISTINGS!!!

Then it gets worse... In the next post she answers a question from another agent about how she gets paid 25% more if she sells an in-house listing!

"I am a buyer agent on a team and we are paid 40/60 split, no higher for friends and family, and 50/50 on our in house listings. I would much prefer 50/50 across the board. The keller Williams Mega agent suggested split is 50/50. However, we do have a closing agent who handles the transaction from u/c to close, which frees up a lot of our time and energy. "

So when she has promised a buyer that she will be loyal to the buyer's needs. Her compensation jumps 25% for selling one of her office listings. Gee I wonder if her buyers know that????

Bazaar shower

2008-04-08T12:01:00.001-05:00

I was out previewing homes for a luxury home buyer and I came across
this in a nearly new home.

Anyone want to shower in a spaceship?

Free Home Buying class for Plymouth - Canton - Ann Arbor areas

2008-03-31T21:25:00.002-05:00

We are offering another home buying class at our Ann Arbor office on April 14th.

These classes pack a lot of information in about 90 minutes and offer a great overview of the home buying process in our area.

If you want to feel confident about your home purchase, (or confident enough to hold off on a purchase you really shouldn't be making...) come to one of our classes.

Click the link above for more information.

Local Exclusive Buyer's Agent quoted in the LA Times

2008-03-25T16:33:00.002-05:00

I was quoted last week in the Los Angeles Times in reference to work I have been doing with the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org).

The topic was staging, and specifically the effect of staging on home buyers.

Check out the link above.

Wayne County employment Outlook Not Good

2008-03-16T23:21:00.002-05:00

Here is a recent article from the Free Press about the employment survey from ManPower which shows that employment will be probably be dropping in both Washtenaw and Livingston Counties.

Not good news for real estate values.

Cover Up Fad -- kind of funny

2008-02-14T19:58:00.001-05:00

OK,

This isn't about real estate, but my wife showed this to me and I wanted to share it:

Cover Up Fad

California home buyers sue their "buyer agent"

2008-02-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

If you have been watching news about home buying you might have seen the New York Times article about the Ummels in California.

According to Marty Ummel when she bought her home using a "buyer agent" from Re/Max, the "buyer agent" didn't tell her about similar property in the neighborhood that was priced less. The Re/Max guy also was the loan officer and reportedly didn't let the Ummels see their appraisal even after they had asked for it. (This allows the agent to make a lot more money, typically at the expense of the home buyer client.)

Bottom line - if you are a home buyer you need to understand what kind of "buyer agent" you have. It sounds like this guy might have been out for his own best interests.

Good Article on Builders Stopping Development

2008-02-01T13:35:00.001-05:00

Here is a good article on the challenges faced by buyers of new construction when a builder stops building in a development.

Remember that real estate does go in cycles. It is just a challenge working and living in between the peaks and valleys!

I can't count the number of times that I've cautioned buyers about buying in new developments. That is part of what we do as the largest Exclusive Buyer's Agent in the Western Wayne County area. (We also help people buy in Washtenaw, Western Oakland, and Livingston Couties.

But no matter how much homework you do the marketplace has a big impact.

Funny thing about real estate blogs

2008-01-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

As I have been looking at real estate blogs I've started to notice something interesting.

The buyer agent blogs post about problems to watch out for when buying a home or a condo, and the regular real estate agent blogs post about houses they have listed.

Here is an example of a couple blogs relating to Ann Arbor real estate: (There really aren't any Plymouth Michigan blog sited other than this one right now.)

http://annarborrealestate.blogspot.com/ Here, the agent Kathy Toth talks about her recent listings. (And you can bet she never says anything bad about her listings.)

Contrast that to the area's exclusive buyer agent site (ours):

http://www.annarbormichiganrealestate.com/

The last couple of posts include discussions on problems with Zillow property values, a title company that is doing terrible closings where a buyer has to wait 4.5 hours and still not have the correct figures, and a new negotiating tactic used by lenders selling foreclosures.

I'm going to check other markets to see if this is consistent around the country.

Plymouth Michigan decides to waive parking policies for the holidays

2007-12-07T10:56:00.000-05:00

Interesting variation on the problem of parking during the holidays.

Plymouth City Commission voted to not enforce the parking laws downtown during the holidays.

Could be good if people are good and don't abuse it.

Could be bad if people are bad.

I've got the link above from the Observer-eccentric website.

This is a fine example of how living in Plymouth really is not like living in a big city. You would never see this type of decision in Detroit or Chicago.

Goofy things home sellers do

2007-06-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is hard to believe what we see when showing homes. This article is from a survey of Exclusive Buyer Agents across the country.

Lots of strange stories.

Plymouth Buyer's Agent in Business Review

2007-04-12T19:24:00.000-05:00

NAEBA or the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, is the standard setting organization for real estate agents who work in the best financial interests of home buyers.

This year I happen to be the President and the local Business Review Magazine published a nice profile about me. I'm so proud! - just kidding - But it might be interesting if you are wondering about how buyer agency got started in this area.

Slow Plymouth Real Estate Market is good for investors

2007-04-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

The market in Plymouth has picked up a bit as we get more into spring, but it is still really slow by "normal" spring standards.

The cold weather doesn't help.

But - since prices are down it is a very good time for investors. Have you ever considered buying a rental home?

Here is an article from Bank Rate on the topic: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20070329_real_estate_investments_a1.asp

Still a quiet market in Plymouth

2007-03-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

Currently there are about 343 homes on the market in the Plymouth area priced under about $550,000.

In all of 2006 there were about 309 closings in the same area.

This means that there is over a year of inventory currently. This time in 2002 we might have seen 4 months of inventory.

On the luxury home side we currently see about 26 homes on the market in Plymouth.

In 2006 there were a total of about 15 homes that sold priced above $550,000. That means that at best about half the Plymouth luxury homes on the market now will still be on the market a year from now.

This is exactly the type of information you want to have to make a good home buying decision.

You also want a company on your side!

Don't be in such a hurry to buy a home!

2007-03-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

When I meet with young home buyers I often get the feeling that they want to look at a few homes and have the process over. This concerns me a bit because buying a home takes some serious thought.

It kind of feels like they just watched the Home & Garden channel and they think that home buyers make a buying decision by looking at just three homes.

That is not a good way to buy.

Here is an article from one of our other blog sites: http://ann-arbor-homes.com/being-a-smart-buyer/

Buyers using less down to buy

2007-03-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

We help a lot of buyers. But our buyers tend to be a little more financially conservative. (And they often have really good credit also.)

So I was a bit surprised to read that the median down payment for first time buyers in CA went from about $25,000 in 2005 to just $10,000 in 2006. Even for repeat buyers the numbers were down. Going from $119,000 in 2005 to just about $100,000 in 2006.

Certainly we are a society who lives on credit!

Make sure and do a walkthrough before you close

2007-02-26T10:46:00.000-05:00

Saw this post on another site and thought is was important to pass along:
http://annarbormichiganrealestate.com/?p=19