This Month in Real Estate, KW

in this months video

• Housing trends
• understanding FHA Loans

Should I do a Deed in Lieu

So last week, I was making phone calls to see if people still wanted to sell their home and I had a couple  of families tell me that they have had enough and that the are going to give their home back by Deed in Lieu of foreclosure.  While this is a definite option, I worry that consumers are not getting the best.  Now I am not an attorney, an accountant, or a mortgagor, I am just a Realtor that wants to make sure Homeowners make the best decision for them and/or their family.    Now their are many options out their for homeowners that are struggling making their payments, such as loan modifications, Deed in lieu of foreclosure,  Walk away, Borrow money, or Foreclosure!

For the basis of this post I am just going after 2 options Short Sale and Deed in Leiu of Foreclosure.     The disadvantage  is you have to find a buyer to make an offer, which takes times and more stress on your finances.  banks will also sometime say no or make owners sign a promisary note for a portion of the deficit.  As far as Short sales goes, the advantages of them are your Realtor and legal counsel will negotiate with the bank(s) to accept less than what you owe on the loan(s).

With Deed in Lieu the biggest advantage is that your will be able to give the home up quickly no real wait time, although most often the bank will want to see an honest attempt to sell the home first.     The disadvantage is their has been no attempt to negotiate down the amount owed back to the bank. There is a very strong likeliness that they will come back for the amount owed to the bank.

My current recommendation is to give Real Estate Agents that specialize in selling homes Short a chance.  It will save you a lot down the road and if that doesn’t work you can then do the deed-in-lieu(banks want to see you have tried selling anyways).

Again I am not an attorney, accountant or mortgagor, this is my interpretation of what I have seen in my years as being a Realtor.  If you have questions, concerns,or anything you want to add to this please comment to this post would be happy to hear everyone’s take on this.

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Dekalb gets a baseball team

Coming in June DeKalb gets a Collegiate Prospecting Baseball team called the Liners.  These games will be played at Founders Field in sycamore. Looks like there are about 15 home games, price varies from 6 – 10 dollars.  there is group pricing and table pricing as well.

Here is a little information taken from the Liners website

“Starting June 6, 2010, the Liners will play their first home summer collegiate baseball games at the renovated “Founders Field” located in the Sycamore Park, @ Airport Road, just off Route 64, in Sycamore, Illinois. The Liners baseball team roster will include local and national collegiate players.

The Liners are members of the Prospect Summer Collegiate Baseball League. The Prospect League is comprised of teams participating in 3 divisions, in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Tennessee. Since the 1960’s, the Prospect League has been attracting some of the most talented collegiate baseball players to play their summer baseball in the league. Nearby teams are located in Springfield, Danville, Quincy and Lisle, Illinois. Listed below are some of the many current and past major leaguers who have played in the Prospect League: Gary Gaetti, Joe Girardi, Rusty Greer, Ken Holtzman, Ryan Howard, Don Kessinger, Jonathon Papelbon, Kirby Puckett, Rick Reuschel, Mike Schmidt, Kevin Seitzer, Tim Stoddard and Jim Sundberg.

“We are pleased to support The DeKalb County Baseball Club, in its efforts to bring summer collegiate baseball games, lots of fun and entertainment to the citizens of DeKalb County. Liners Baseball – 2010 – Be a part of it!”” – taken from Liners website

Personally I am looking forward to be able to go to watch a good baseball game and not walk away 200 dollars less in my pocket.   Cant wait to see you out there!

This Month in Real Estate – National news April

Catch up on the national trends in real estate

This Month in Real Estate

Check out the Latest from KWRI. Great stats and food for thought.  Enjoy

Big Discrepency

A colleague and me were doing a little research last weekend.  We discovered a very interesting little tidbit.  in DeKalb 9 homes sold short last year, while over 30 homes were sold as a foreclosed homes.  What is disturbing to me is that is a lot of homes that I believe could have sold some other than foreclosure.  My question is why did these homes go into foreclosure, did the homeowner not know there are other options. If that is the case I am sorry, I will do a better job of vocalize all options homeowners have.   If you have questions that need answers sooner than my next blog.  please go to my website

Year in Review

Well, as everybody may guess,  home sales in De Kalb county were skewed with distressed homes.

Last year in DeKalb county a total of 567 single family homes were sold,  with an average sale price of $172,000, a market time of 173 days.  that is a pretty big drop considering that in 2008 the average sold price was $208,000 and a market time 172 days.   The price drop is about a 17% price drop in sold prices

townhouses and condos in DeKalb count had 119 homes sell last year at an average sold price of 135000 and a market time of 162 days. In 2008 132 homes sold with  the average price was 160000 and a market time of 162 days, that makes a 15% change in sold prices

Distressed property being in the forefront of all media topics lets take a quick look at their number for 2009. In this post Distressed properties represent short sale homes and foreclosures

of the 587 single family homes 191 of these homes were either short sales or foreclosures. With an average sold price of $141,000 and a Market time 166  that is nearly 33% of all homes sold last year were distressed properties.

What does this mean.  In short there are opportunities to buy and invest in real estate this year.  This is because short sales and foreclosures are supposed to increase this year and give first time home buyers more chances to win.