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Metro Detroit Home Sales UP for the 4th Consecutive Month

Yes, that headline is correct. Sales are up over last year for the fourth month in a row, according to our MLS, Realcomp II. We’ve told you, we are seeing a lot of activity, and we are busier than ever. Spring has sprung! Here is Realcomp’s report

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• Yesterday I tried to show 4 Birmingham homes. Two of them went under contract over the weekend. The third was a short sale and there is an offer in it too. The 4th was just put up for rent and sale, and a tenant had put in an application. So we will keep looking because others got there before we did.
• An agent who I respect enormously for his market knowledge and decades of experience said to me last week, “2008 will be the year that people look back and wish they had bought a new home.” I think he is right.
• That said, a seller still needs to be aggressive in pricing a home and completely on top of making sure it is in the best possible condition. Especially with homes that have already experienced a long marketing history. We just had a stager go into two homes and I am excited about relaunching them now that they have been freshened up and repriced.
• Buyers, there is nothing wrong with paying full price or more. Sometimes the house is actually worth more than the list price. You might miss out on a great house because you’ve been told that your first offer in this market needs to be low. Agents from throughout South East Michigan are all telling me that they are seeing multiple offers on the best properties this Spring (if it is well priced and in great condition…)

Want to know more? Give us a call.

Tags: metro detroit home sales 2008, Michigan home sales 2008, oakland county home sales 2008

Happy Halloween

Today we offer you some fine real estate related horror stories, courtesy of The Real Estate Tomato’s Carnival. Speaking of Carnivals, Jim Cronin (the Tomato) won this week’s Carnival of Real Estate.  Its been a fine week at the Tomato House.
Take a look at some of Jim’s picks.

Google has a built in calculator

I know this has nothing to do with real estate. I just found it on Terry Moravec’s Blog, and I love this kind of stuff. So all credits go to Terry, whose text follows:

Did you know google has a built in calculator? Type 1 + 1 in the search bar, and see what it returns. In addition to basic math functions, it can also handle units. Say a home has a 120 foot by 82 foot lot and you need to know the acreage. Type “120 feet x 82 feet in acres” (no quotes), and google will tell you that the lot is 0.225895317 acres. Or try these:

75 F in C
5 kilometers in miles
65 mph in furlongs/fortnight
c in furlongs/fortnight
for you football fans:

41 in roman numerals
and for international travelers:

$10 in Euros
For more info, go to http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html

Happy International Women’s Day

Fact Sheet

Today is my favorite Soviet holiday. International Women’s Day. When I lived in Ukraine, it seemed like this was the holiday that EVERYONE looked forward to, and celebrated with gusto. There all the men ran around town delivering flowers, candy and other gifts to the important women in their lives. Offices began the party early with big meals, champagne (and vodka) and gifts.

More on the holiday on the fact sheet above.

Treat yourself to something nice today.

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…”

Excuse the Sound of Music reference, I could not resist. A few months ago we mentioned the city pages we are building on our web page, Oakland County Homes.

We are still adding on, and we would like us to tell you some of your favorite things about the city (or village or township) where your live in Oakland County. We’ll make a running list and add it to our web page. You’ll get credit for your contribution. Yes, instant fame!

SKBK’s Relocation Director, Ann Burns, started us off with things she likes about living in Royal Oak. We can still add on to her list if you’ve got more things you would like to share. Since we live in Beverly Hills, we did that page.

So, drop us a line. We would love to here the things you love about your community!

Oakland County Homes: Clean out Your Linen Closet and Help out the Women of the Detroit Rescue Mission.

Good news! We are continuing the linen drive for the Detroit Rescue Mission. So if you have some things you would like to clean out of your linen closet, there is still time. Just call us, or drop them by our office at 348 E. Maple in Birmingham. Your donations will be greatly appreciated.

Oakland County Homes: Clean out Your Linen Closet and Help out the Women of the Detroit Rescue Mission.

Smooth Jazz V98.7

Realcomp, our MLS and v98.7, Detroit’s Smooth Jazz station, have teamed up to promote MoveInMichigan.com. As part of their promotion, they invited Realtor members to send in tips for home buyers and sellers. We sent in a couple, and are listing them here for you:

In addition to looking at proximity to schools, work and shopping, before you choose your next neighborhood, you may wish to also consider your future property taxes. The State of Michigan provides a great property tax estimator that will allow you to ballpark your property tax costs for your new home. You’ll find it on Oakland-County-Homes.com

Michigan home buyers are fortunate to have a phenomenal resource for evaluating our public schools. Standard & Poors is behind SchoolMatters.com, a site that allows visitors to compare teacher qualification, test score results, funding, graduation rates and more. Comparisons can be made on a district level or on a school level.

For a seller, landscaping can be one of your best investments. Curb appeal helps to draw buyers in. A well landscaped home is more photogenic for internet shoppers and stands out to those driving by.

Light can make a room look bigger, and it makes your home more inviting to a prospective buyer. Make sure to pull back the drapes during the day, and turn on the lights at night.

If your home is vacant, and you are selling during the winter, it makes sense to have your home winterized. A plumber will turn off the water and blow out the pipes. Doing this can help to prevent expensive water damage repairs from a burst pipe.

Try to keep out of the house when it is being shown. If you do stay at home, let the Realtor do her job; stay in the background and try not to distract the tour.

January Newsletter

Our monthly newsletter is up on our web site. We’ve got new articles with advice for home buyers, tips on making sure your are properly insured and thoughts on dealing with pets when you are selling. As always, our Oakland County Market condition reports are available here (scroll down), and on Realtor.com

If you would like to receive our newsletter every month, please send an email with “subscribe” in the subject line to us.

We are also considering sending the newsletter out by “snail mail”. Let us know if you would like a hard copy and we will get one off to you.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from Dmitry, Maureen & Santa’s Little Helper