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Every month Todd Waller dives deep into the previous month’s real estate market stats and delivers exciting insights into the status of the Ann Arbor area real estate market. Subscribe to the Studio Four8 YouTube channel and never miss an update again!
Lincoln School District Real Estate Market | April 2021
Transcription:
Are you wanting to learn the latest numbers for homes in the Lincoln School District real estate market here in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan and areas around? This video’s for you.
Hey thanks for stopping by, my name is Todd. I am a partner at Studio Four8 at Berkshire Hathaway home services at Synder & Company realtors here in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. I’ve got the Lincoln School District housing numbers fresh off the multiple listing system.
I’m going to tell you right out of the gate Lincoln is hot right now. So if you’re a purchaser, sorry it’s really rough out there right now. If you are a seller, it’s really good to be a seller, if this is what works best for you at this time in your life.
Average Sales Price
But let’s get right into those numbers, shall we? So the average sales price for a home in Lincoln School District, Michigan was up 21.65% .A quick refresher, we’re comparing these numbers for April of 21 to April of 2020. You might remember that a year ago we were trying to figure out what was going on with the Covid pandemic. So we kind of shut real estate down for a period of time. So a lot of the percent-changes I’m going to spout here are going to seem incredible, and they are incredible. But let’s put them in context. We’re comparing this to a period in time when there was very little in the way of business going on. So some of these numbers in the way of comparison are going to seem extraordinary.
The average sales prices jumped 21.65% to an average sales price of $294,402 for the average home here in the Lincoln School District. And when I say home I am speaking specifically of single-family residences, houses, as well as condos. Not that there are as many condos in Lincoln, but there are some around. Median sales price for a property in the Lincoln School District jumped 17.9% to $281,500. These are great numbers for folks that are wondering about the equity in their current home that they own. These are great signs for the strength of the market, as well as the health of the real estate market and the appreciation rates that are coming in for your property in Lincoln.
Days on Market
Days on Market. This number is incredible, I think. The days on market fell 13.65% compared to a year ago to 11 days. So if it’s in your wheelhouse to sell your home this year, sooner is probably better than later, because 11 days on market. . . there may be a little bit more of a downside there where it can get shorter but, 11 days on Market is almost nothing. It’s extraordinary, actually.
The number of properties sold in April of 21 did jump 41.67%. This is where the comparison to April of 20 kind of starts throwing things off. It jumped nearly 42%, but we sold 34 properties in Lincoln School District in the month of April 2021. So, great strong numbers there, I like seeing that.
Sold At or Above List Price
This following number is the one that blows my socks off, quite frankly. This one is the percentage of properties in Lincoln that sold at or above list price. Meaning, the seller accepted an offer that was at least list price, if not higher. 73.53% of those properties that sold on April 21 sold at or above list price. That is extraordinary. This speaks to, in my opinion, the strong demand for the great, well-priced properties here and the Lincoln School District. If you’ve got almost three-quarters of the properties that are selling in the given month selling at or above list price we’ve got two things going on. Number one, we’ve got extremely strong demand and we have very little in the way of inventory.
So, for those homeowners in the Lincoln School District Area, I’ve got two messages for you: Number one, if you want to know the value of your property because maybe you want to put a deck on the property, or you want some cash out because someone is going to college, or you want to pay down some some credit card bills, let me be your resource. I would love to chat with you about your property in today’s market and it’s value so that you can make the correct decision for this time in life. If you’re a homeowner in the Lincoln School District and you’re thinking about selling, I want to give you that value, but I also want to show you what we can do to make sure that you’re a part of that three-quarters of the folks that are getting at or above list price. This is Todd saying we’re here to recreate real estate. Thank you so much!
Lincoln School District Real Estate Market Sharable
This month’s sharable graphic version of Lincoln School District’s Real Estate Market stats
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Todd Waller explains why he believes there is not a housing crash in our near future.
Is a Housing Crash Imminent?
Todd Waller explains why he’s not expecting a housing crash any time soon
Transcription:
Hey folks Todd Waller here, Studio Four8 for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder and Company Realtors. Quick little video here for you. I’m talking with a fair number of purchasers who are trying to pull themselves out of the marketplace because they are worried that there’s going to be a market crash coming in the not-too-distant future. I get it. We’re all a little gun-shy from what happened 10-12 years ago with the Great Recession were housing lead the economy into the dumper by just crashing, losing 20% of equity, and all that fun stuff in the housing market. Here is why I don’t think we have a housing crash coming.
Forbearance
A lot of folks who were pulling themselves out of the marketplace are citing the number of homes that are in forbearance as a result of the pandemic that we are working our way through. So let’s throw some numbers on the table, shall we? At the peak of the forbearance run here due to the covid pandemic there were nearly 6 million forbearance. Forbearance is that time and place, if you will, where the bank and the homeowner say, you know what, we’re going to pause on paying mortgages for the time being, maybe even work out putting those missed payments on the end of the amortization schedule.
Short story is, forbearance is that state where a homeowner is not making the full mortgage payment or not making any payment at all, and the bank is okay with that for a period of time. Yes, there may be some interest rates and interest charges and other fees tacked on there when the home comes out of forbearance. But the reality is at its peak, there were only six million homes that were in forbearance. Right now, here, the middle of April there are 2.3 million homes that are still in forbearance. I know this number still sounds and appears very large, 6 million down to 2.3 that are still in forbearance.
Inventory Shortage
The reality is right now in the marketplace we are probably running about a 40% deficit on the amount of inventory we need to meet the current buyer demand in our market place nationally. What do I mean by that? What I mean is, we need an additional 3.8 million homes on the market right now to match the buyer demand that we are seeing in the housing market across this country. Last I checked, 2.3 million homes in forbearance, if they all came out as foreclosures, that number, 2.3 million, is still lower than 3.8 million.
Where am I getting these numbers? Well, the National Association of Realtors was working with the home builders and they came up with that 3.8 million homes that are necessary to match the current demand. The 2.3 million properties that are in forbearance that was through a Forbes article. So I’m here to tell you if you are a purchaser and you’re thinking you’re going to pull yourself out of today’s marketplace and wait for the crash and you’re basing it on those homes that are in forbearance, coming to the market as foreclosures, I don’t see that one happening.
Housing Crash Unlikely
I will also tell you if you think that there’s a crash coming it’s going to be for something drastically different than what we experienced 10-12 years ago. The Great Recession was led by folks getting some funny money from the bank. Lending standards were very loose. People could walk away from the table as purchasers with money in their pocket because we had things like 103% and 105% financing going on.
Today it’s very difficult to get yourself a mortgage, you have to be very well qualified to do that. And on top of that, when people are making up the difference between the appraisal value of a home and the sales price they’re using their own cash to do that. They’re not using Bank funny money. If you’ve got questions about all this and how it impacts your specific real estate goals give me a contact here. This is Todd with Studio Four8 at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder and Company Realtors saying we’re here to recreate real estate.
The Studio discusses some techniques on how to buy a home when you already own a home.
How to Buy a Home When you Already Own
Can you buy a home when you already own one? The studio discusses!
Transcription:
So you, like many homeowners in the United States, would like to sell your home and move into something different. Whether it’s bigger or smaller that can be a tricky thing to do. So in this short series we want to talk about some techniques that you can do to move from your current home into another one. There are some technical aspects, there are different techniques for every situation. For whether you are buying first, selling first, third options… There’s something out there for everyone. You’re going to need to talk to an agent, talk to a lender, see what makes sense for you. and what’s financially viable. but hopefully we can shed some light on that for you.
Purchase, then List
One option to consider as a buyer is to actually purchase your home before listing your current home. This may be especially easy for those with a little more financial bandwidth. When you’re working with your agent you go out to find that first home, get it under contract, you should be ready at that point to get your current house on the market. You want to time this somewhere around those critical milestones in your new purchase. Inspection, appraisal, or otherwise. To minimize the impact of having dual mortgages you want a time the closing of those two properties as close together as possible. This is a topic you should consider talking about with your lender.
Contingencies
Another option that you have is to make your offer on the new house contingent on selling the house that you live in. Now this is a little easier financially, but much more stressful when it comes to timing. It is doable, we’ve done it, even in this market. But there are a lot of details and very careful contingency timing steps that we have to take. Here’s roughly what that will look like. You get your current home ready for sale and we identify a property that you want to purchase, get that property under contract, making it contingent on selling the home you live in. Then we immediately list that house, hopefully get that under contract right away, and we line up all the contingency dates so that they follow one right after the other. So in the end the closing on the old house happens just before the closing on a new house. Now the hardest part about this is what property you’re going to buy. I tell my clients it really depends how long that house has been on the market, how likely is the seller going to be to take an offer contingent on selling your house. It’s doable, we have done it. A little harder in this market, but with the right agent and the right timing you can do that.
Home Equity
You also have alternative options when it comes to executing this buy and sell when you already own a home. So, you own a home, you have the option of talking with a lender and going after what is called a home equity line of credit. This is where a bank would assess the value of your property, give you a loan in the amount of maybe 80% of whatever your equity is in the property at that point in time, and now you got that equity in your back pocket that you can use to help purchase your next property. You can use that as your down payment, and if it’s a really tight sellers market, you could potentially now make offers that are not contingent on the sale of your home. A little bit of stress there potentially if you’re unsure of the value of your property or if you think the market might be descending at the time. Maybe a little bit riskier.
Alternative Option
There’s also another option that is relatively new to the real estate space. There are some companies out there, there is a company specifically called Easy Knock that will buy your house and give you 80% of the value of your home. Then with that 80% value you pay off your mortgage, you pay the bills that come with the sale of that particular property. And now you have the ability to rent your home back for market value until you are able to find and close on your new home. Then once you move into that new home, the company puts your old home on the market, and any increase in profit that happens as the result of the last sale to this final sale, you share in the profit with that company.
Studio Four8 discusses some of the techniques we use on how to make your offers more competitive in this hot real estate market.
Ep 1 | Initial Offer Price
Sara Maddock discusses initial price expectations
Transcription:
Hi I’m Sara Maddock with the Studio Four8 partnership of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder & Company realtors and I’m here to talk about how to make your offer more competitive in a hot real estate market. The most obvious thing to do is to offer more than list price on the property. Buyers always ask how much more should I offer? What is typical? And the answer can be hard to get to, but basically it depends. It depends on the house, it depends on how many other offers there are, it depends on how long it’s been on the market, and it depends on how much you love that house and likely it is that another house that meets your needs is going to come up soon. A skilled buyer’s agent is going to work to create a professional market analysis and share that with you, so that you have a good understanding of what the value range for the property is. So that’s step one. One of the concerns that people have is how much more it’s going to cost and you should keep in mind that a $10,000 price increase might only equate to $50 or less in your monthly payment. So don’t lose that house over a few thousand dollars if it’s going to make a difference in you getting the property. Now the only concern might be will the house appraise for that much?
Ep 2 | Appraisal Guarantee
Dan Kurylo on Appraisal Guarantees
Transcription:
Hi I’m Dan Kurylo with the Studio Four8 partnership of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder & Company realtors. WIth part two of our series on how to make your offer more competitive. If you’re dealing with a mortgage you’re going to have an appraisal to deal with. Something that can give you that extra edge is guaranteeing the difference between a low appraisal and the sales price in cash. Now that often ends up as a secondary negotiation between yourself and the seller, but you could be on the line for several thousand dollars on the lease. That being said, that might be the difference you need to get your offer accepted in a competitive market.
Ep 3 | Escalation Clause
Jeffrey Post on Escalation Clauses
Hi this is Jeffery with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder & Company realtors. With part 3 of our panel on how to write a more competitive offer. An escalation clause in a contract means you’re willing to pay above and beyond your offer price. There are two different kinds of escalation clauses, escalation clauses with a cap meaning you won’t go above a certain price or an uncapped escalation which means the sky’s the limit. This is saying if any competitive offers come in you’re willing to pay 1,000, 2,000, 2,500 over that competitive offer up to your cap or the sky’s the limit. This can make your offer very, very, competitive. You will have to initial any escalated offer that becomes first position. This is a great way to make your offer more competitive.
Ep 4 | Other Terms and Conditions
Todd Waller on Other Terms and Conditions
Transcription:
This is Todd Waller with Studio Four8 at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Snyder and Company Realtors, with the fourth in our series of how to make your offer more competitive in today’s market. So the final video we have here is all of those other terms and conditions. When we talk about all those other terms and conditions we are talking about things that are sort of intangible. Number one: work with your agent. Your agent can talk with the seller’s agent to figure out what’s really important to the seller and advise you on what is the best way to roll there. One of the things that may come up that we see frequently is post close occupancy. Maybe the seller needs to stay after closing for moving concerns or something like that. If you have the ability to offer that and that’s important to the seller that might just work. Another thing we’ve seen that works very well is maybe it’s worth your time to pick up some of the traditional sellers’ costs, like transfer taxes and things like that. Sometimes increasing that bottom net line for the seller is also the winner in a multiple bid scenario. And Finally one thing you may hear from some agents is to eliminate your inspection. We do not recommend that you eliminate your inspection contingency. You need to know what you are walking into. So still reserve yourself the time to go ahead and have that home inspected.
Is it a good idea to sell your home in the winter months? Studio Four8 comes together to discuss the pro’s and con’s of selling your home in the winter time.
Should you Sell Your Ann Arbor Area Home in the Winter?
The studio talks about selling in the snow
Transcription:
One of the questions we get this time of year is: should I really be selling my house in the winter? We got together to answer that question for you.
Bigger Audience
Despite winter traditionally being a slow season in real estate there are some advantages. People are at home especially between that Christmas and New Years break. People are spending more time online, they’re scrolling online, they’re scrolling in Zillow or realtor.com. So digital marketing, especially social media marketing, can have a really big impact and a larger audience than other times in the year. If you list in the winter, those homes you are seeing could be yours.
Less Competition
As seller’s you have less competition. So when you bring a home to the market in the winter time, many of the other homes that might have come on Market, just flat-out are not there. The buyers that are walking through the marketplace looking at homes in the winter time, those are some of the most serious purchasers of the entire 12 months of the year.
Losing Daylight
Some obvious challenges to showing houses this time of year. For example, we are often battling bad weather and snow. It gets dark at 5 o’clock which could be hard for some buyers who have to wait till after work to see the home. So there are some challenges but we definitely have tips and can help you work through and mitigate some of that.
Clearing Clutter
While most all of you probably have a great number of holiday decorations still in your house right after the holidays, and you’re going to find yourself boxing those up. What a great time to talk to us and find out how to properly stage your house and get it ready to go on the market. As long as those decorations are going away there might be a few more books or furniture that you also want to put away.
The Studio discusses what you can do to make your home tours smooth and stress free.
Tips For Smooth Home Tours
The Studio talks about how to make your home tours smooth and easy
Transcription:
Leave the Kids At Home
Probably your kids are better behaved than those. Nevertheless, it’s not a good idea to bring kids when you’re touring a house. You don’t want to be responsible for anything that gets damaged. Besides it’ll be a lot easier for you to concentrate on things like room sizes or condition of the property if you’re not distracted by the little ones. I know that’s not always possible and we have to make accommodations for families obviously and I happen to love kids. But if you can find someone to take care of them while you’re looking at houses, that’s the best plan.
Dress Appropriately
You know there are all kinds of properties to go visit at a showing. Rule number one, dress appropriately for the property.
Why would you want to be out in the middle of vacant land with mud, dust, and all that fun stuff, in a great sport coat or a three-piece suit and loafers? It just doesn’t fit very well, it doesn’t work. Conversely, as well as these boots may do out in vacant land, as you can see from the mess they’re not that great inside a house.
So as you’re preparing to go out and look at home this season, make sure you got a great pair of slip-ons. Slip-on shoes that is. They slide on and off nice and easily. When you walk into homes anymore many sellers are asking that shoes be removed. Either that or have some booties on hand. but I tell you what, it’s really simple to have a great pair of slip ons. You’re rolling, kick your shoes off as you wander around. Putting them back on is a breeze, right? Just like that.
Be Mindful of What you Say
Hey folks, back here again. I want to quickly tell you about what to do during showings and more specifically: what not to do. The trick is you want to pretend, and sometimes because that’s the case, that everything you say and everything that you do is being monitored. Now that could either be by the sellers themselves or maybe they just have friendly neighbors that want to say: “hey that group before was really complementary and a house I think you can gouge them on that price.” But why do we need to be cautious inside the home? After all, you’re the only ones there.
Microphones
Well, the fact of the matter is microphones, cameras, can look like a whole lot of different things and they’re not that hard to come by. The microphone this is being recorded on looks a lot like this. Microphones can look like a lot less than microphone-y things too. This is a TV controller, it has a microphone. If you know what you’re doing it can be used just as a recording device if you want to set that up. Maybe more easily: an old phone, If you have an old phone you want to start a voice memo, or you just left it on her phone call. Now the seller hears exactly what you said.
Even speakers. Now it’s true that any speaker can be reversed and in and out of itself in a microphone, but that takes some technical knowledge to accomplish. but they also just have microphones built in a lot of the time. Especially one of the newer smart speakers like your Alexa, Google homes, home pods, the nest series by google, all those things have microphones. Even less-smart speakers still have microphones in them. So the easiest way to get around this and not act completely paranoid just imagine that you’re always being watched and listened to when you’re in and around a home that you are viewing.
So watch what you are saying, talk to your agent about the language that you want to use. Maybe talk on the phone on the way to the next listing. What’s what I do for my clients and it’s what I recommend that you do as well to keep yourself safe and competitive.
Studio Four8 discusses some of the Do’s and Don’t’s when it comes to preparing your home for showing.
Preparing to Show Your Home
Studio Four8 talks about what to do before you show your home
Transcription:
Welcome back folks were talking today about some key points to remember when you are preparing your home for show.
Who Enters?
Now first and foremost, don’t let people in who don’t have an appointment or aren’t accompanied by an agent. It sounds like one of those obvious things. But when you’re outside doing some lawn work, trimming your hedges, and somebody walks up, sees the sign, and says “hey, this is exactly the home we’ve been looking for, do you mind if we come in and take a look”? You want to say yes, you can come in and do that. But don’t. Just don’t do it. You’re exposing yourself to risk, you’re potentially not perfect and if the buyers are serious, it’s not that much of an ask to say “hey, not ready at this point in time. Have your agent get in touch.” If they’re serious about your home they’re going to come back to look at it. If they’re not doing that, they weren’t going to purchase your home in the first place. So at the end of the day, not that big of a concern.
Don’t Be Present
To kind of go further along with that thought process, when you’re preparing your home for sale one of the things to keep in mind is to not be present when there are showings. If somebody comes up to your door, knocks on your door, says hey I’d like to see this, this is exactly what we’re looking for. If there’s no agent visible or accompanying them, you are now potentially allowing a member of the public through your house and now you’re with them. Now if there’s an appointment that an agent has made and they’re bringing buyers through your home, its still a good recommendation to not be present during the showing. You want to give the buyers agent and the buyers as much space as possible to experience your home, and to talk about your home. There may be things that you don’t like to hear, but they are looking for their next place to live, an extension of their lifestyle and who they are. So at the end of the day, any showings, do not be present. It’s as simple as sitting on the back deck, that’s a good move. Better yet, grab the dog, jump in the car, roll over to Starbucks and get a coffee to go. Sit on the patio there, something along those lines.
On Pets
Another thing to not be present, is your dog or the cat, or the parakeet, or the iguana. As much as we love our pets to death and we think nothing could be more charming and maybe even you’re thinking it might help sell the house because they are so adorable, it is just not a good idea. Now you cant always do that. It’s the most convenient thing to do. But when and where you can, when possible, or at the very least if you have to leave them at home and you have a cage down in the lower level and some toys to keep them happy, that’s if you need to leave them there.
Funky Smells
The other thing that appears with pets can be odor. Yes I’m using my candle prop. I’m going to talk to you briefly about odors. That is if you think the vanilla candle smells are just going to enhance a showing, they’re not. The first thing that people think when they smell a candle or a glade plugin is that you’re covering something. Pet odors, mold, anything like that. So at least 24 to 48 hours before a showing if you have that notice, don’t light any candles. Don’t light any incense. Just let the natural smell, the spring air outside, open the windows if you want. That’s the best plan.
Securing Your Home
Another thing we like to have a serious conversation with our sellers about is to just have a security minded feeling. We have so many steps and procedures in place to keep your home safe during a showing. But we still need your cooperation and just for you to walk through and think about when you’re leaving your home for a showing what not to leave behind. You want to be careful not to leave your checkbooks, your credit cards, your bills that you are paying, do not leave those out on the kitchen table, put them away. Any medications that you may have in your medicine cabinet that people would be tempted to take, put those away. Fire arms: we’ve all had the experience of walking into a home and having firearms just present. That’s very dangerous if your buyers have children, so put those things away. So you just want to think about that when preparing to show your home. Walk through and think what should we be leaving out and what should we not be leaving out.
