How safe is your deck?

Since we are having an early Spring this year, people will be out on their decks enjoying the weather and it may be time to look at the safety of your deck.  Decks cause more injuries and loss of life than any other part of your house.

The number of deck failures resulting in injuries has been increasing at an alarming rate!  Between August 2004 and December 2005, the US news media reported 225 injuries and one fatality from deck collapse caused by ledger connection failures.  many more deck injuries go unreported every year, some with and without injuries.

“Clearly, something needs to be done to tackle the growing problem of unsafe decks,” said Mike Beaudry of the North American Deck and Railing Association (NADRA) and that’s why we are supporting this month as Deck Safety Month.

One way to approach this problem is to have a professional inspection  done which will examine every inch of your deck, provide information on your deck’s capacity limits, identify any dangerous problem areas, and give you a idea of what to keep your eye on in the future.  If your deck is an older one, it might be good to schedule regular inspections.  This is because older decks were built before the code requirements were in place.  Some of these “pre-code” decks may have deck-to-house attachments using only nails which is more suseptible to pulling away from the house.

People to contact for a deck inspection would be a Home Inspector, a contractor that build decks, or your local Town Building Inspector.

Let us know if your deck is having problems so we can pass that information along to the consumers to help them look for those areas of concern.  Also, here are a few sites to visit for more information.

Annual Deck Inspection

Residential Wooden Decks

Deck Safety Month

This past week I took a special course in Short Sales and Foreclosures from the creator of the course Frank Serio. Frank is a Broker owner of his own real estate firm in Deleware and has been in the real estate business for 26 years. He is also the President-elect for the Council of Residential Specialists (CRS).

To put it succintly, I was blown away by the incredible content of the couse as presented by Frank Serio! Hence the purpose of my blog, to try to present some of the info I received to help you to either avoid a bank foreclosure or to understand how to work thrugh it, if it has happened to you or you find yourself in this situation.

Here are some strategies to avoid foreclosure:

Be proactive about the problem when the first warning signs appear. Not only does this reduce the stres of not knowing what is going to happen, but it makes it easier for the creditors to work out a plan.

Contact your lender when you become aware that you have a problem. The last thing that a lender wants is to foreclose on the property. Financial institutions lose a significant amount of money by foreclosing on a property ($50,000+/-). Foreclosure is a lose/lose for the lender and the homeowner. It is important to be honest and forthright with your discussions and be prepared to discuss the reasons for your problems.

Read the mail! Not knowing does not solve the problem, it just delays the final result. By not reading the mail, a person avoids the opportunity to get help before it is too late.

Contact a HUD approved housing counselor or call a REALTOR for advice. Call 1-800-569-4287 to find a nearby counselor, or go to www.HUD.gov

Priortize your spending by paying for the necessities of life first. Always pay the house payment and health payment first.

Look for ways to generate cash. Sell those items that have value but are not used or needed, or seek a part-time job to get through the crisis. Not only does this reduce the emotional and financial stress, but it provides evidence to the lender that the borrower is proactively seeing a way to remedy a bad situation.

Don’t get scammed by a private “foreclosure prevention specialist,” instead go to www.HUD.gov to obtain valid information about foreclosure prevention.

Make an appointment with a REALTOR to discuss the problem and to get their advice.

New Carbon Monoxide Detector Law

GREATER ROCHESTER ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® RELEASES YEAR-END
STATISTICS

ROCHESTER, NY – January 25, 2010 –The Greater Rochester Association of REALTORS®
(GRAR) released its year-end statistics for 2009.

When compared to 2008, overall year-end activity remained relatively stable, with total sales slightly
down 1.3 percent. Pending sales were up at 2.3 percent. Median home prices decreased a mere 0.9
percent, from $117,000 in 2008 to $116,000 in 2009.

“Although sales in 2009 reflected a slight decrease over 2008, we still considered it as a somewhat
sturdy market,” remarked Ryan Tucholski, GRAR’s chief executive officer.

“We feel that we weathered the worst of the storm,” stated Carolyn Stiffler, GRAR board president.
“We are looking forward to a strong second quarter, with April being the month that I expect to carry the
quarter, in part because of the extension and expansion of the tax credit.”

Federal legislation not only extended the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, but also included
an expansion to included current homeowners who are selling their home and who may be eligible to
receive a $6,500 tax credit for the purchase of another principal residence. In order to qualify,
homeowners must have used the home sold as a principal residence, consecutively for 5 of the previous
8 years. There are additional eligibility requirements that apply for first-time homebuyers and current
homeowners. Both must have a written binding contract to purchase by April 30, 2010, which is when
the tax credit expires. The purchaser will have until July 1, 2010 to close.

Significant increases in sales were realized specifically in Chili, which showed a 21.2 percent increase
and Wheatland, with a gain of 89.7 percent. Sales in the city of Rochester decreased 7 percent, but
showed a 14 percent increase in the median sales price.

The results cover the city of Rochester, all Monroe County towns and villages, and Genesee, Livingston,
Ontario, Orleans, and Wayne Counties.

GRAR will continue to support the local residential real estate industry through its Time2Buy marketing
campaign, which focuses on the benefits of owning a home and using the services of a REALTOR®
when buying and selling a home.

A factor in getting our economy back up an running is to get many of the componets of the real estate industry back to work.  One aspect of this is the buying of distressed or foreclosed properties, rehabing them and putting them back on the market!  I talked in an earlier blog about the benefits to the market by having this process in place.

Up until today, there was a 90-day Seasoning Rule which meant it could not sell until after 90-days from the day the investor had purchased it.  There were some legitimate reasons for this but it also hampered the ability for investors to make a profit.

Apparently HUD saw the advantages and realized that removing this restriction would help speed up the recovery process.  this would be especially helpful in communities where the foreclosure activity is high.

HUD Secretary, Shaun Donovan, announced a temporary policy that will expand access to FHA mortgage insurance and allow for the quick resale of foreclosed or distressed properties.  This is part of President Obama’s commitment to addressing these types of properties.  Secretary Donovan announced there would be $2 billion in Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants to local communities and non-profit housing developers to combat the effects of vacant and abandoned homes.

This is all good news at a time when it will be well positioned to have a huge impact on the real estate industry as it surges forward!  My hat goes off to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan for his efforts on our behalf!

This house which was just purchased by investors will be back on the market in two weeks because of this new action by FHA.

The New Norm

At first I didn’t think any thing about it, but after several weeks, it started to dawn on me that we are actually in a different climate with real estate transactions! Maybe it’s only in Rochester, New York, but I think not! Welcome to the new norm!

Here is what that means to you as a buyer, no longer can you expect to put an offer in on a property, go to the bank, and close nonchallantly 45 days later.

Now, it’s a tug-a-war with the seller over every little thing that doesn’t meet their expectation in the purchase offer.

Then after the home inspection, the seller is going to balk at everything we asked them to correct in the house.

Then, it’s off to the mortgage company to get the loan. Good credit, good job history and a solid downpayment, should be a piece of cake! WRONG! After the basic application, comes a steady flow of requests right up to the commitment. Then more requests after the commitment to get cleared to close. Then follow-up on the repairs and maybe it will close only 3-4 weeks late.

I hope as other agents do, that this process is a temporary one and the mortgage process will return to a more normal and sane process in the future!

But until this happens, you can count on me to be with you every step of the way!

How much is your Home Worth?

Whether you are selling or buying or refinancing or paying taxes, it’s important to know how much your home is worth.

Many people will tell me what their tax assessment is and think that it represents their home’s worth. Others will measure their home’s worth by comparing it with homes that are on the market or even worse, homes that have expired on the market.

The value your home has is never a fixed value. It is constantly changing with the economy. The interest rates affect it, the world economy affects it, the local economy affects it, and the real estate market affects.

Fortunately for us that live in Rochester, our home values have increased each year for the past 30 years that I have been in the real estate business until 2008 when they dropped slightly, about 1-3%.

What Realtors do to determine your home’s value is to do a CMA, comparative market analysis, which is a snapshot in time of your home. It is arrived at by a careful review of the recent sold homes that are similar to your home in square footage and features.

Usually we also have to make some additions or subtractions for features present or absent in the sold homes as they are compared to your home. This is a subjective valuation by the Realtor doing the CMA. Because of this subjective value, you could get different values for your home if you were to have several Realtors do a CMA for you.

This is why it is important for sellers who are interviewing several agents for listing their home that you don’t want to make your decision based on the highest price received from an agent, because they could be too high in their subjective additions. You need to look at the agent’s years in the business, experience, credentials, and marketing plan.

So if you would like to know you home’s worth, just call me or a Realtor in your area and we will be happy to meet with you and work up a CMA on your home.

The Reality of a Short Sale!

Over the past ten days I have been working with a property that is heading towards foreclosure. To sell it, the price will need to be less than the outstanding loan balance. This is called a short sale because it will be short of funds at closing to pay the loan balance and the closing expenses.

It is obvious to everyone that there is tremendous value in this property at the listed price which is below both the assessment value and the market value. So why is it, when we finally got an offer on the property, and we got two offers, that they are another $15,000 under the listed price?

Quite simply, Human Nature!!! The buyers are in the driver’s seat and the banks need to sell the property at the price the market will bear out, however low it is! Unfortunately, they are not helping the property values for the neighborhood that they are moving into by putting a sales comparable on record at that price. But at least, they are taking a vacant property off the market by buying it and moving in.

Is the Tax Stimulus Working?

People are always asking me: How is the real estate market is? Once they know you are a REALTOR whenever they see you this question comes out. I’m not sure if they are interested in a detailed answer or a five second answer or if they are interested because they own property or a home.

Either way, I usually make it short and in most cases, put a positive spin on it because that’s just the way I am. If you know me, you know I’m a very positive upbeat person that looks on the bright side of things. I’ve always been this way!

Now, let’s get back to “How is the real estate market?” It would be good to hear from you how the tax stimulus is working in your part of the country. For Rochester, New York, it is working very well. The homes that are in the lower price range are flying off the market, getting multiple offers! It is really crazy!

From here it looks like the $8,000 tax credit is doing the trick for getting the homebuyers off the fence and into the market as first-time homebuyers. But…..we need a tax credit for the other homebuyers who are not first-time homebuyers to get the rest of the real estate market going. I believe this is what is needed to get the whole economy going with all the services that drive off the real estate industry.

So then, “How is the real estate market?” not bad, but it could be a whole lot better! Tell me how your real estate market is doing.