Leveraging the power of the Internet to help people

buy or sell real estate in Southeastern Michigan

Sellers - It’s time to get Real

The Home Improvement payback chart

www.MoveToMilford.com

Be First to Know

Should I buy a Fixer-upper?

What About Feng Shui?

Vaastu...What is that all about?

If you’re a news hound, try

This mash-up page of real estate news sources

A new section on product recalls and class action lawsuits that impact  home sellers & home buyers

Declutter and help others too...

As reported on 11/26/2007 in the

Oakland Press, the Furniture

Bank of Southeastern Michigan

needs donations to help out less fortunate families in the area. You can drop smaller items off at the Bank at 333 N. Perry St in Pontiac or  call (248)332-1300 to arrange for pickup of larger items.

Appraisals are the major hurdle these days.  Appraisals have replaced home inspections and the biggest thing to worry about when an offer has been accepted. Certainly getting through the inspection without any major show-stoppers is still sometimes a nail-biter, since there are so many areas that can pose problems; however, these days getting through the appraisal process with the deal intact is often a minor miracle. The market is changing so fast that Realtors have trouble keeping up with it, so far as pricing goes.

Then there are the banks themselves, who have decreed that we are in a declining market and therefore have told appraisers to take an additional 5% off the appraised price of almost everything. Recently Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two major, quasi-governmental buyers of mortgages have taken the declining market penalty out of their decision process; however, they cannot force banks and other lenders to follow suit and so far they haven’t. So, the banks have tightened things to the point where their doom and glom view of the world has become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Let’

S hope that they lighten up soon or we are all in for a long downward slide.

How much value has your house lost? Find out on our Real Estate Market Statistics Page. Go to the Zestimate from Zillow.com for an answer. While the Azillow.com site isn‘t the most accurate in the world, when it comes to individual home values, they do collect enough statistics about the market that they serve to publish these trend reports quarterly and they are interesting to look at for local areas.