St. Louis Real Estate – Thinking about Selling?

Filed under: For Sellers

Sold

What is my goal in selling this house? 

Selling your house in the St. Louis real estate market can be a stressful event if you are not fully prepared.  Starting the process with a clear goal in mind will help eliminate a lot of the unnecessary confusion.   You should ask yourself what you want to accomplish with the sale of your home.  Is your goal to have a great selling experience that will allow you to move forward with your life?  Or perhaps you are looking to sell so that you can purchase a larger home.  Writing your primary goal down and sharing it with your Realtor gives you a reminder of why you are going through with the sale in the first place, and will also help your Realtor better understand your needs.    

Part 1

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.27.2010

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 17th, 2010

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, MO.  January 17th,  2010
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week is showing signs of upward movement as the holidays are past us, the cold weather is gone, for now.  Active listings are up almost 200 from two weeks ago, as sellers are coming back on the market after the holidays.

Homebuyer activity is still strong, as many have their eye on the April 30 deadline to have an accepted contract, as that will allow them to qualify for the First Time Homebuyer tax credit or the move up buyer tax credit.  With an accepted contract by April 30th, they will then have until June 30th to close.

Also, finally, the IRS has just released the new form that first time homebuyers will have to fill out in order to apply for the tax credit.  The one challenge with this form is that when you attach it to your 2009 Federal Tax filing, you must file in paper form, ie…mail it in.  E-filing will not be allowed, as the IRS is not set up as yet to accept attachments to their E-File tax return documents.  Bummer!

Below is more GREAT NEWSbrought to us by one of our compadres, Jason Palliser at Prospect Mortgage.  This article appeared on Jason’s web site and on the real estate investor web site, REI Blackbook.

If you haven’t heard as of yet, HUD has removed the 90 day seasoning rule for FHA purchases of foreclosed homes, investor owned homes, etc…for one year, beginning February 1st, 2010.

 HUD TAKES ACTION TO SPEED RESALE OF FORECLOSED PROPERTIES TO NEW OWNERS
Measure to help bring stability to home values and accelerate sale of vacant properties

WASHINGTON – In an effort to stabilize home values and improve conditions in communities where foreclosure activity is high, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a temporary policy that will expand access to FHA mortgage insurance and allow for the quick resale of foreclosed properties. The announcement is part of the Obama administration commitment to addressing foreclosure. Just yesterday, Secretary Donovan announced $2 billion in Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants to local communities and nonprofit housing developers to combat the effects of vacant and abandoned homes.
“As a result of the tightened credit market, FHA-insured mortgage financing is often the only means of financing available to potential homebuyers,” said Donovan. “FHA has an unprecedented opportunity to fulfill its mission by helping many homebuyers find affordable housing while contributing to neighborhood stabilization.”
With certain exceptions, FHA currently prohibits insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days. This temporary waiver will give FHA borrowers access to a broader array of recently foreclosed properties.
“This change in policy is temporary and will have very strict conditions and guidelines to assure that predatory practices are not allowed,” Donovan said.
In today’s market, FHA research finds that acquiring, rehabilitating and the reselling these properties to prospective homeowners often takes less than 90 days. Prohibiting the use of FHA mortgage insurance for a subsequent resale within 90 days of acquisition adversely impacts the willingness of sellers to allow contracts from potential FHA buyers because they must consider holding costs and the risk of vandalism associated with allowing a property to sit vacant over a 90-day period of time.
The policy change will permit buyers to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.
“FHA borrowers, because of the restrictions we are now lifting, have often been shut out from buying affordable properties,” said FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens. “This action will enable our borrowers, especially first-time buyers, to take advantage of this opportunity.”
The waiver will take effect on February 1, 2010 and is effective for one year, unless otherwise extended or withdrawn by the FHA Commissioner. To protect FHA borrowers against predatory practices of “flipping” where properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers, this waiver is limited to those sales meeting the following general conditions:
All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.
In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions.
The waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.
 
Specific conditions and other details of this new temporary policy are in the text of the waiver, available on HUD’s website.

 

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW is facing challenges in our local St. Louis Real Estate Market?? We have unique solutions custom tailored for troubled homeowners, sellers and buyers.  Contact us for more information.

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.18.2010

Lindbergh School District Real Estate Snap Shot

Filed under: Neighborhood Reviews, Real Estate News

SnapshotThe St. Louis Real Estate Voice is back with community snap shots. Track your home value for the 00 decade.

This time with a new twist thanks to broker/agent Klaus Bank from Keller Williams Realty St. Louis.

We will feature a new school district every week or two. They will be randomly selected. Go ahead and give me a call 314.640.1778, if you want to twist my arm to move your school district to the top of the list.

Lindbergh School District

 

 

Posted by Doug Aegerter   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.08.2010

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch January 2nd, 2010

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, MO.  January 2nd,  2010
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week is in our typical cold weather, winter mode. We are seeing less active listings, less homes accepting contracts, which has dropped the pending ratio somewhat to 11.9 percent.

Even though it’s bitter cold right now, we are still experiencing buyer activity, fueled by the extended tax credit and favorable interest rates.  Homes in the First Time Homebuyer price ranges continue to get showings.  Sellers in the market now should have an upper hand on those who are waiting, as buyers have less to choose from now, but are still making the decision to buy.

This cold weather serves as a reminder that this new year is still a great time to make sure your home is up to date regarding energy efficiency.  You can still receive a tax credit for updating windows, doors, roofing, HVAC systems, and even alternative energy sources.  Some improvements have a deduction up to 30% of their cost.  You can find out more by clicking HERE.

 

 

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW is facing challenges in our local St. Louis Real Estate Market?? We have unique solutions custom tailored for troubled homeowners, sellers and buyers.  Contact us for more information.

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fill out the form below to view the Market Report
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   01.04.2010

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch December 20th, 2009

Filed under: Real Estate News, St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
December 20th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week is preparing for Christmas with less active listings and less homes accepting contracts, dropping our pending ratio to just over 12 percent.  Our homes sold in the last six months has tapered off a bit, but still remains over 200 more than last year at this time.  Expired listings have increased a bit, as some homeowners will be staying off the market until after the holidays and after the first of the year. 

Those homeowners staying off the market may wish they hadn’t, as there are still a good number of  first time homebuyers in the market. 

From our partners at Gorman and Gorman Home Loans comes this real estate news update:

Last week the Federal Reserve kept the Fed Funds Rate at the 0.0% to 0.25% range and reiterated that interest rates will remain low for an “extended period.” The Fed did say that economic activity picked up since the last meeting in November. The statement went on to say that deterioration in the labor markets is abating.

One very important note – the Fed took the time to reiterate that their Mortgage Backed Security purchase program will end on March 31, 2010 as previously stated. There had been some speculation that the program might continue beyond the March 31st date, but the inclusion of this reiteration in the Fed’s Policy Statement leads us to believe that the Fed is trying to make it clear that this program will terminate as scheduled. Source: CNN/Money

The inventory of completed but unsold new houses fell to 239,000 at the end of October, according to the National Association of Home Builders. That’s the fewest since May 1971, when the inventory stood at 236,000. The months’ supply — that is, the amount of time it would take to sell the current inventory at October’s sales rate — fell to 6.7 months, which the NAHB says is “respectable.” The historic high was set in January, when the supply topped out at 12.4 months. Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold existing houses fell in October to 3 million, and the month’s supply dipped to 6.8 months. The supply of resale houses hit its cyclical peak in June 2008, when it reached 11 months. Source: National Mortgage News

Note:  Our Market Watch Report will not be published next weekend.

From all of us at The St. Louis Real Estate Voice to all of you;
Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year.

 

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW is facing challenges in our local St. Louis Real Estate Market?? We have unique solutions custom tailored for troubled homeowners, sellers and buyers.  Contact us for more information.

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fill out the form below to view the Market Report
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   12.22.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch December 13th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
December 13th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week heads for the Holidays with activity slowing just a bit.  Buyer activity is still very good, especially in the lower price ranges anywhere from $280,000 and down.  Why $280,000, you ask?

In the St. Louis Metropolitan area, FHA lending limits for single family homes are $281,000, and with a great number of buyers choosing to use FHA lending, it stands to reason that these price ranges will have the most activity.

One item to note is that for the second week in a row,  the “homes sold” in the past six months of 2009 have exceeded “homes sold” in the same time period of 2008 by 7.3 percent.  It looks as though some of the home buyer assistance programs are working.  

 Buyers in all price ranges are understanding the value in the marketplace right now and moving forward instead of waiting.  Buyers that are looking for “deals” and willing to do a little work to the home are also finding great bargains in foreclosures and short sales, thus keeping the buying activity moving along.

For would-be buyers that aren’t considering buying now due to lack of a down payment,  credit issues or any other reason,  we have discovered something that may be of help to you. 

We recently, this week, got involved with a program which allows a buyer to purchase a home with 100 percent conventional financing, no down payment, no closing costs, don’t need perfect credit, and at below market rates.

WAIT…I know what you are thinking….sounds too good to be true,  this is a scam, or it’s some “creative” financing arrangement.  NOT SO.

The program is provided through the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America,  NACA.  It is real,  and they have helped individuals throughout the country for the past 20 years become homeowners  through common sense approach to lending and anti-predatory lending assistance.

Check them out at www.NACA.com.  You will be amazed at how they can help.

 

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW is facing challenges in our local St. Louis Real Estate Market?? We have unique solutions custom tailored for troubled homeowners, sellers and buyers.  Contact us for more information.

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fill out the form below to view the Market Report
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   12.14.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch December 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports, Uncategorized

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
December 6th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Real Estate market this week continues with our Holiday slow-down in both seller and buyer activity.  

For a brief look back this year, we took a look at the change in list prices and sales prices for the past six months compared with the some six month time frame last year.  We found that average list prices fluctuated between 1 percent and 3 percent and sales prices fluctuated between 0 percent and 1.7 percent.  The big differences in all price ranges continues to be the number of days that a home stays on the market before it is sold.  Compared to the last six months of last year, days on market fluctuated between 13.6 percent up to 51.3 percent.

Take a look for yourself; you can download and print this comparison HERE 

Ben Bernanke speaks today, Monday, Dec. 7th which will give us a good idea as to what home loan rates will be doing in the near future.  He will be speaking at the Economic Club in Washington today.  This will be the first time we will hear from him since the better-than-expected jobs report came out last Friday.

The FED also meets next week for the final time this year to implement policy for the nation’s financial system.  There has been some talk of the FED raising the interest rates a bit sooner than previously thought.  That may have to change according to James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, as he beleives the Fed needs to pay attention to future asset bubbles.

Another concern is, What will happen to home loans if the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities next March?  If and when the program ends, rates will rise, but most financial observers say it is very likely they won’t skyrocket.  Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at financial publishers, HSH Associates, predicts that the end of Fed intervention will push rates up about three-quarters of a point for a 30-year conforming loan-somewhere in the mid-5 percent range.  By late 2010, Gumbinger says the rate will be closer to 6 percent.  Michael Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research, is dubious that the Fed will actually end the  program.  He contends that the Fed will continue buying securities as long as the housing recovery is tenuous.  And as long as the Fed continues to donimate that market, “we’re not really going to move the needle on rates,” Larson says.  Source: Smart Money.
Information for this article has been contributed by our friends at Gorman and Gorman Home Loans.  Thanks, Guys!!

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW is facing challenges in our local St. Louis Real Estate Market?? We have unique solutions custom tailored for troubled homeowners, sellers and buyers.  Contact us for more information.

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fill out the form below to view the Market Report
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   12.07.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-November 30th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
November 30th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 Our St. Louis Real Estate Market this week is definitely showing signs of Holiday Slow-Down.  Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen active listings decline by 243 listings and homes accepting contracts have declined by 175.   Due to this decline, our pending ratio has dropped to 12.77 percent as compared to 16.03 percent just two weeks ago. 

Blame the holidays and we think first time homebuyer activity has slowed a bit since the extension has passed.  First Time Homebuyers are not faced with such a small window of opportunity any more. Now they have until the end of April 2010 to get a home under contract and until the end of June 2010 to get their deal closed. 

After spending some time in Pontiac, Michigan last weekend, all I can say is that we should count our blessings that we don’t live in the suburbs of Detriot.

We talked to numerous real estate agents and investors who live and work in the Detroit, Michigan area and heard many accounts of homes selling for pennies on the dollar all around the area. 

It is not uncommon for homes around the Pontiac area and Flint area to be selling for 10 cents to 50 cents on the dollar.  These homes range from low price point, investor/rehabber type homes up to pretty homes in the $250,000 to $400,000 dollar range. 

Remember the Pontiac Silverdome??  A year or two ago it was valued at between 20-30 million dollars.  A couple weeks ago it sold, at auction, to a group of investors for a little over $500,000 dollars!  The sale is being challenged in court, but this may be a quick view into the future of where some commercial real estate is heading, and not just in Michigan.

The area is deemed to be so lucrative for investors these days, that many are coming from other parts of the country to invest in Michigan real estate. We even ran across an investor from Australia, who is living in Michigan temporarily and investing in properties in and around the Detriot area.

Between the problems plaguing the auto industry and the real estate industry in Michigan, their challenges are compounded greatly. 

 

   WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!! 

WHO DO YOU KNOW that’s thinking of buying or selling a home?
Contact Doug Aegerter or Art Wagner for more information and a FREE Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of your home or your neighborhood. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fill out the form below to view the Market Report
 
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Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   11.30.2009

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