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Archive for the 'luxury homes' Category

Metro Detroit’s Super Luxury Real Estate Sales are UP

Would you be surprised to know that a house in Metro Detroit sold for nearly $10,000,000 this summer?  That’s a whole lotta cash, by just about anyone’s standards.  According to information from Realcomp II, 21000 Turnberry Lane in Novi, sold for $9,800,000 in August.  It wasn’t even officially on the market when it sold.

The Metro Detroit area had a total of 6 sales so far in 2008 that had listing prices over $4,000,000 when they sold.  I noticed that SKBK Sotheby’s was involved in half of those sales, something not approached by any other brokerage.  Our presence in the high end is very firmly established.

The most expensive house on the market today is 730 Vaughan Road in Bloomfield Hills.  I have written about the house before. When we last checked in on it in March 2008, the price was at $9,900,000. Today it is at $8,690,000.

I find it interesting to note that there were twice as many homes sold in 2008 over $4m as there were in 2007.

Tags: birmingham bloomfield luxury homes, Bloomfield Hills Michigan, Metro Detroit, metro detroit luxury home sales

$200,000 Price Reduction in West Bloomfield

Yes, It is true.  Our listing at 6847 Alden was reduced by $200,000 yesterday and it wasn’t a Black Friday Sale.  You can still take advantage today.

This special Green Lake front home is down to $900,000 and it is ready for a new owner. Take a look

Tags: west bloomfield

Shortage of New Construction in Birmingham?

A recent client wanted a completed NEW home in Birmingham.  With a budget of $2,000,000, one would have thought we would have had plenty to chose from.  We did not.

Spec building in Birmingham, and throughout Oakland County, has almost come to a stop.  We are still seeing a few spec homes going up around town, but not many at all.  Most builders are holding off starting new projects, with a few exceptions.

One prominent local builder told me that other builders are having trouble getting lines of credit for construction.  Many of those who have access to cash are risk averse, and not building specs, reserving their work. Anyone who has lived here more than a few years will notice that there are less construction sites throughout the city.

In some ways, this is a good thing. It will help some resale home sellers who might have lost a buyer to new construction, but did not have that option. As the inventory of resale homes diminishes, that can put supply more in balance with demand. Eventually prices will start to head back up, and builders will start building again.

Personally, if I were a savvy builder, I would be looking to acquire land, even if I did not plan to build this year. There are some super values out there, and if the property is rentable it can have a decent positive cash flow for a while.

Tags: birmingham mi

A Plea for Sellers who WANT to SELL their Metro Detroit Home

The last few months have been whirlwind for Dmitry and me.  In spite of all that you hear about the crummy housing market, we, through hard work, good fortune and a bit of creative thinking, find ourselves square in the middle of our best year in real estate-EVER.  Yes, you read that right.  Our best year EVER.

We started the summer with over 30 listings.  Most of those homes have new owners now.  Some sold in a few days.  One half million dollar Birmingham home sold in less than a week at full price. A few more will close in August.  A few unsold listings remain, and that leaves us with those to focus on now.

But we are also at the point where we have the capacity to begin helping more sellers (and buyers) reach their goals, whether it be moving up, moving down or moving out (we hope that is not the case).

I have heard plenty of groaning Realtors around Birmingham, who are saying they are sick of this market, and tired of going without paychecks.  I am not unsympathetic.  However, the most important message I can leave sellers with right now is that HOMES ARE SELLING!  Sales are actually up (in units) throughout Metro Detroit. There are buyers out there who want to buy homes like yours.

Today I had a call from a reporter from Money Magazine.  She asked what we are doing to get homes sold.  I would say there are a couple of things that have proven successful for us:

• “Right pricing” from the start, which means carefully looking at the comps and trends in the market and helping our sellers to understand the market like we understand it.
• Innovative Internet marketing for maximum exposure.
• Staging.  Marianne Sweet, a contributor here on miOaklandCounty.com, has shown us the light and done wonders with our listings.
• The Birmingham Bloomfield Realtor Network, our tight knit group of 13 top producing agents from competing offices.  We meet to create marketing events for our listings and share ideas in a very collaborative manner.
• We have a strong brokerage behind us.  SKBK Sotheby’s International Realty has provided us with great support and with great marketing for our sellers.

I don’t pretend that this market is not without challenges.  Most brokers will say they have never seen anything like it.  Yet I see plenty of hope and success out there.  I want you to see it too.

P.S.  We need more listings :-)

Tags: Birmingham Mi Real Estate, selling a home, selling a michigan home

It’s Sunday, I am a Mother and a Realtor, and I am NOT doing an Open House

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Oakland County (and farther afield) mothers out there. Gloomy as our weather here may be, I hope it is a special day for all.

We’ll now return to our regularly scheduled real estate discussions. There is a Mother’s Day tie-in since today is Sunday, open house day across America.

Recently, on one of the many listing appointments we were on in the last month, a seller asked me about our planned schedule for doing open houses at his home. Somehow, in my presentation on how the lion’s share of buyers are searching the Internet for homes and that our marketing strategy offers about the best Internet marketing available to home sellers in the Metro Detroit area, I left off the basics about open houses.

Open houses are old school…

The number one thing open houses do is give the Realtor access to potential buyers… of other people’s houses. Afterall, the people who come through open houses typically don’t even know the price of the home they are coming into, so they are not qualified buyers. Often they are curious neighbors or people who just like to check out decorating styles. Yes, some are qualified buyers, but it 8 years of holding what seems like close to a thousand open houses, we have sold exactly 2 of the homes we were in from the effort That makes the odds pretty low.

My time marketing your home can be better spent than holding it open

You are better off with me spending 3 hours getting great pictures, building a virtual tour, building a web site for your home and syndicating your home to all of the sites we use. Actually all that takes a lot longer than 3 hours, but we see a higher payoff from the efforts. We are contacted by QUALIFIED buyers and their agents. The buyers have seen about 25 photos of your home, so they have a good sense of what they are getting into before they even cross the threshold.

If open houses are central to your agent’s strategy to sell your home, you either have a very special situation (I can’t imagine what it is, but I will leave room for the possibility) or your agent might be without better tools in his home marketing toolkit.

Tags: oakland county open house, open house, real estate marketing

4 Things Luxury Home Buyers MUST Know in Today’s Market

There has been a lot of bad press over the past year about real estate values declining, home loans being hard to get and foreclosure troubles with homeowners and lenders.  I have to admit it’s a very challenging time in the mortgage lending business.  In times of trouble there are also opportunities that present themselves and this market is certainly presenting some outstanding opportunities for luxury home buyers in Oakland County, Michigan.

•    Great opportunities for buyers

I have seen some luxury homes transact at prices not seen in the past few years.  It’s my opinion that we are at or near the bottom of this market and buyers are starting to realize this, so recently we’ve witnessed an increase in activity.  Remember the old adage of “buy low, sell high.”

•    Oakland County, MI still a highly desirable location

Recently www.Luxist.com rated the most expensive zip codes across the nation.  Bloomfield Hills, MI was No. 6 in the Midwest Region with a median home price of $1,180,000.  Remember the old adage of “Location, location, location.”

•    Real Estate Values have Trended Higher

Luxist also reported that values have risen 113% in 48304 since 1990.  Even with the recent downturn in values real estate has been a good investment with values climbing an average of almost 7% over the past 17 years!

•   Jumbo Home Loans are Alive and Well

There have been a lot of rumors floating about which claim that jumbo loans are no longer available.  That simply is not true.  What is true is that the secondary market for jumbo loans has become a lot more conservative and that has impacted rates on some products.  Many lenders are not able to offer competitive rates on jumbo loans right now and there are some really wide variations in rates for the same type of loan from different lenders.  However, there are still some great rates out there.  For instance, Oxford Financial is currently offering a 7 Year Arm with a rate of 5.875% and it’s possible to borrow up to $2,000,000 with a 70% loan to value!  Like everything else, it pays to have the right contacts.

Tags: luxury home finance, luxury homes

Orchard Lake’s Most Expensive Home

We are continuing our series on Oakland County’s most expensive homes on the market today by stopping off in Orchard Lake. We started Sunday in the City of Bloomfield Hills on Vaughan Road. Tuesday found us in Bloomfield Township’s gated community, Turtle Lake, at a home on Turtle Ridge. Wednesday we were in Birmingham on Quarton Lake.

In Orchard Lake we find our first home in this series that is not a spec being sold by a builder, and our first contemporary home. Right on Cass lake, 3320 Three Lakes Lane sits on nearly 4 acres of private grounds and has 547 feet of Cass Lake frontage. The 13,000 square foot home has been featured in Home Beautiful magazine.

The Stats:

• 6 bedrooms, 7 full baths and 4 half baths
• 3 gourmet kitchens
• 48′x35′ indoor basketball court, gym, sauna & steam room
• home theater
• 30′x20′ master bath
• 2 libraries
• 8 car garage
• Asking price: $4,900,000
• Current property taxes: $46,000

This spectacular home is being marketed by Re/Max 100. If you are interested in learning more about the home at 3320 Three Lakes Lane, please give us a call. If it’s not exactly what you are looking for, we will find you something just right.

Check back tomorrow for another Metro Detroit Luxury Home.

Tags: Cass Lake, cass lake front, orchard lake, orchard lake expensive house

Birmingham’s Most Expensive Home

We continue our series on the most expensive homes on the market in Metro Detroit today. We started Sunday in the City of Bloomfield Hills on Vaughan Road. Tuesday found us in Bloomfield Township’s gated community, Turtle Lake, at a home on Turtle Ridge.

Today we’ve got our third spec home in this series, this time in Birmingham.

Lake Park street is home to Birmingham’s only two homes on the market over $4,000,000. Construction on one of the two homes has not begun, so presumably, the potential purchaser can make lots of choices on finishes. The street’s most expensive homes are on or across from Quarton Lake, the only lake in Birmingham. The lake recently underwent an extensive and expensive cleanup/re-landscaping project that included a new dock, walking paths and new benches.

When I was a kid, and lived across from the lake, the City of Birmingham used to clear the ice in the winter for skaters. That ended a few years ago when the city’s large snow cleaning tractor fell through the ice in what had to be an expensive accident. Dmitry and I watched from the side – nobody was hurt. When we were there, the Fox news chopper was hovering overhead getting footage, and the City Manager was standing on the shore looking none too pleased. But I digress…

222 Lake Park is marketed by SKBK Sotheby’s International Realty. The asking price for the home is $9,750,000. We’ve been watching from the other side of the lake as this house goes up. The terraced landscaping has been in place for a while and the house is well underway. The home has a very unique setting on the lake, near the island and the waterfall, and it is almost unseen from the Lake Park. Most homes on that side of Lake Park have dense tree coverage at the shore-line, and they are set so far back from the lake that they don’t take advantage of the view. 222 Lake Park seems to be smartly designed to capitalize on the beauty of the site.

It will have:

• An 8 car garage
• 11,000 square feet of living space
• 6 bedrooms, 8 baths and 3 half baths

The home is being built by Valstone Group. We showed a few of their other beautiful Birmingham residences this week, and we know Lake Park will exceed expectations.

If you are interested in 222 Lake Park, we would be happy to assist you. If it’s not exactly what you were looking for, we’ll find you something else. Stick with us, we’ve got more Oakland County luxury homes coming over the next few days.

Tags: birmingham luxury home, birmingham mi expensive home, birmingham quarton lake, SKBK Sotheby's Birmingham, valstone group

Bloomfield Township’s Most Expensive Home

Today I am continuing with my series about a few of Oakland County’s highest priced homes currently on the market. We began on Sunday with 730 Vaughan Road in the City of Bloomfield Hills.

In surrounding Bloomfield Township, there are currently 5 homes on the market over the price of $5,000,000. The average price per square foot of those homes is $680. Just for fun, multiply $680 by your home’s square footage. If you could ask $680 a square foot for your home, then you probably have a very special home, just like these 5.

Turtle Lake, a gated community developed by Victor International, and located near Square Lake and Telegraph, is home to the most expensive spec home on the market in Bloomfield Township. The ultra exclusive development offers concierge service that will cater to a homeowner’s every need. They’ll even take care of planning your parties!

I was showing homes at Turtle Lake last week and went by this gem going up on Turtle Lake, the private lake within the development. I haven’t seen the inside, but I have seen other fine homes by Mancuso Homes.

The stats:

Price: $7,999,000

Square Footage: 8605

Finished Lower Level Sq Footage: 4145

Bedrooms/Baths: 5 Bedroom Suites (5 full baths), and 4 powder rooms.

Other Amenities:

• Wine Cellar
• Lower Level Kitchen
• Theater
• Exercise Room
• Spiral Staircase to Second Floor Office
• Wrap Around Screened Porch Overlooking Turtle Lake

The home is being co-marketed by Max Broock and Victor International. There are more expensive homes on the market in Turtle Lake, but they are not currently available on the MLS, so I did not include them in this post.

If you are a qualified buyer and you are interested in more information about this property, please let me know. If this one is not quite what you are looking for, be sure to follow this week’s series on luxury homes in Oakland County, or give me a call and I will help you find just the right home.

Tags: metro detroit gated community, turtle lake

Birmingham Bloomfield Realtor Network Spring Renewal

Come see 284 Tilbury with Dmitry on Tuesday morning.

Tour information on LastTuesdayTour.com