News, News and more News!

Being in the business that I am, I tend to be a news junkie. I have a son who is in law school at the University of Florida and is also in the Army Reserves and recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. He has a few years left on his Army commitment which also serves to motivate me to stay on top of things.

We have endured 2 years of our local paper playing “chicken little the sky is falling syndrome”. Now the latest headlines in the local paper and national news is the month of May having the 1st increase in home sales over May of last year by 2%. As you can imagine I really hope this is a trend but I really think that distressed sales are what is driving the volume upwards. Now this is still a good thing since it will aid toward price stabilization. I investigated the figures of what is happening in our market as far as single family home sales as well as condo sales.

We have 2 associations in Brevard County, Central Brevard which is my home association is called Space Coast Association of Realtors (SCAR), south Brevard is the Melbourne association of Realtors.

I have researched SCAR only and this is my findings:

During the month of May this year there were 475 single family homes sold in the month. During the month of May in 2007 there were 474 single family homes sold. You can see that the increase is one home.

During the month of May this year these were 120 condo and townhomes sold. In the month of May 2007 there were 130 sold.

The prices of single family homes sold in 2008 were down between 17 to 20% depending on the range of prices. The prices of condos are still falling and average between 22% and 30% decrease and I believe we will see a further reduction. We have seen one large complex go to auction with about 19 sales that sold for about 50% of the original list price. We will see other complexes go this route or be reclaimed by lenders.

Now I don’t want to be known as Gloomy Gus but my thoughts are as such. There will be tremendous opportunities to be had for buyers for at least the remainder of 2008 and possibly the 1st quarter of 2009.

Pick and choose very carefully and know when to walk away.

Find a buyer’s agent if you are relocating to our area, it is just too difficult to drive by and look for signs. Most of the time the listing agent is not your best bet to get the deal on his or her listing and that includes me.

.

Jim

Real Estate is like a box of Chocalate?

Almost everyone knows that most things in Real Estate are not as true as they used to be in the recent past. Change is always inevitable and usually some good will come from change.

One of the truths that still remain is that the worst house in the best neighborhood will still draw interest. One example of this is the foreclosure in Cocoa Beach that recently closed for more than the listing price. This home is located on Andros Av in a very desirable neighborhood. It was listed at $399,900 and received multiple offers ,our company had one of the offers. It closed for $419,700. This home needs a ton of work but could still have built in equity.

Another home that has gotten my attention is a Suntree home built in 1986. It is also a foreclosure and is the worst house in the best neighborhood. This home has over 2400 sq ft, pool, 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 3 ½ baths and sits on a lake with .26 acre lot. I am sure it needs a lot of work and it is also frame construction so a detailed inspection would be imperative to see if it is worth the price but this is definitely a possibility as it is priced at $170,000.

A Merritt Island home that is not a foreclosure or a short sale is in Villa De Palmas Sykes Cove subdivision. This is a great smaller neighborhood of homes with some located on the water and some not on the water. This one is not on the water but is priced to sell. It was built in 1995 and is concrete construction. It has over 2100 sq ft, solar heated pool, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage and all the bells and whistles. This home is priced at $229,900. I believe the appraisal should be more that the purchase price.

The good deals are becoming more and more prevalent both in single family homes and condos. The sellers who are not in the position of foreclosure or short sales do realize that in order to complete they have to price accordingly. For the sake of argument lets assume that we have another 8 months of market decline. If this is the truth which I really don’t know it to be then you need to do the comps and get the property at a price that would be of value 8 months from now. That seems rather easy, however there are some properties that are priced to sell at a year from now so if you low ball you will lose the property i.e. the Cocoa Beach foreclosure.

Bottom line is to find an agent that is knowledgeable and aggressive and has their buyer’s best interest at heart without the commission being the most important part of the transaction.

Busy Busy Busy !

I have spoke about this before but to be successful in Real Estate you have to build your reputation and depend on referrals and return business. The worst sin you can do in Real Estate is to assume you are much more intelligent than the public. There was an article in the paper this past weekend that the agent was offering the following for the buyers, if you buy an ocean front home for 1M plus then you will receive a Merritt Island home free of charge. Now let’s face it if the Merritt Island home is worthless to the seller then what is worth to the buyer. Now could it really be that the home on the ocean is overpriced and the seller won’t reduce the price. Now I have been in the grocery store and found a 2 for 1 sale on a 24 pack of toilet paper, I really don’t need that much toilet paper so sometimes they will give me one pack at the sale price. So I would ask to see an appraisal on the 2nd home and ask for a reduction on the 1st home.

This has been a busy week for the Viera and Merritt Island market.

From June 7th through June 19th there have been 23 single family homes sold and closed. Of these there were 10 in Merritt Island and 13 in Viera.

A few of my favorites in Viera are as follows:

A 2400 sq ft home with 3 car garage, pool built in 2001 by Lennar. This home was listed at $335,000 and sold for $315,000.
A 2300 sq ft home built in 1996 was listed as a short sale for $264,900 and closed at $237,000.
Now there was a beautiful 3300 sq ft home with a 3 car garage, great pool sitting on .86 acre listed at $599,900 and sold for $534,000. This was a deal even in a down market.

Merritt Island picks:

A short sale sitting on the 11th hole of Savannahs golf course. Over 2000 sq ft with a pool listed at $295,000 and sold for $297,000.
A Banana river front home 1700 sq ft, pool, 2 car garage with direct access to the Banana River. This home was listed at $399,000 and sold for $358,000
This is a Swiss family Robinson special. A very tropical A frame Banana River 1 car garage with an additional 3 car garage detached over 3000 sq ft. Listed for $699,000 and sold for $500,000.

In this same period there were 84 new listings in Viera and Merritt Island with 44 in Merritt Island and 11 of these were short sales, in Viera there were 40 new listings and 7 of these were short sales. A lot of agents will shy away from short sales because it takes longer to close, much follow up and there is no guarantee on the commission. Short sales are great tools for buyers and sellers if you are not in a hurry to close. I have put together a team to handle short sales for both buyers and sellers. We have all the necessary tools to make it work and we have a dedicated team of 3 lovely ladies to bring a successful closing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Good Morning Viera!

We are going to look at an update on what is selling in the Viera area at the present. Viera is one of the most unique areas in Brevard so you have to stay on top of it. Before we do that I want to take you through a typical history of Real Estate in a capsule during a down market.


I met a client in 2002 who was relocating to our area. We found and purchased a 3/2 home on Merritt Island for $175,000, we listed and sold this home for $205,000 in 2004. The client had decided to upgrade so we found and purchased a very nice 2000 sq ft pool home in Viera for $260,000. In 2006 we listed and sold this home for $340,000. So far so good but the client upgraded again with a waterfront home and the market turned on us like a fickle friend. If we can sell this home it will be at a significant loss. Now as you see that the 1st 2 homes were sold at inflated prices. The 3rd will be sold at a deflated price. I know it is very hard to reconcile yourself with this but if you consider your enjoyment of your home while you lived there, mortgage interest write off and previous profits then it could be a wash. If you were of the mind set that the market would never correct and took all value out of the home through refinance then that is where the short sales, foreclosures, sub-prime mess and all the factors that cause a down market have came from today.

Viera update

Since April 1 of this year there have been 93 single family homes sold in the Viera area. Of these homes there were 24 that closed under $200,000. There were also 2 that closed over $1M. Some of the ones that caught my attention are as follows:

2 pool homes sold on the same street as mentioned in the previous paragraph. One sold for $250,000 and the other sold for $255,000. Interestingly 1 of these was listed at $248,800 and sold for $255,000 and the other was listed at $250,000 and sold at $250,000. Now remember that the one sold in 2006 for $340,000. Some homes are priced right with no room for negotiation.

Another home was a short sale with over 2700 sq ft, pool, 3 car garage and all the bells and whistles listed at $465,000 sold for $465,000.

Another short sale listed at $229,900 sold for $230,000. Home has over 2100 sq ft and a 3 car garage. Multiple offers because it was priced right.

A foreclosure with over 1900 sq ft, 2 car garage and built in 2002. Listed at $189,900 sold for $175,500.

Now finally we have a brand new home that contains over 6000 sq ft, 2 story, top of line pool, custom kitchen, 3 car garage. This home showed beautifully and was custom built. Originally listed at $1.79M and sold for $1.4M.

Sorry to be so long but I wanted to show you how many choices there are in this area. You just have to be diligent in finding what suits your needs in home and price.

Next time will be shorter.

Jim Bagwell
walkerbagwell@aol.com
321-213-0615