Louisville Homes Blog: #1 Real Estate Blog in Louisville, KY

Sellers Offer to Refund Sales Price Upon Their Deaths

Oct 31, 2007 Residential

Here’s something you don’t hear every day. A couple near Pittsburgh are trying something, that to my knowledge, has never been tried by someone selling their home.

According to the Husicks’ offer, the buyer would get the money back when the couple dies. And if the buyer agrees to care for them in old age, they could also inherit their retirement home in Arizona, bringing the estate’s current value to about $500,000.

Surely, someone will jump on this highly aggressive marketing approach. Even if they aren’t allowed by the courts, this free PR make the Husicks some smart sellers.

Museum Plaza Breaks Ground in Louisville, Kentucky

Oct 27, 2007 Commercial

We’ve been talking about it for months. But just in case you hadn’t heard (Do you live in an underground bunker?) developers have broken ground on Museum Plaza. Which, if you’re keeping score at home, will be Kentucky’s largest ever public/private real estate project. We’re talking $490 million. And that’s before costs inevitably go up once the project is underway.

This particular modern design is not my favorite, but I’m quite pleased that Louisville is updating their image with this bold statement of a skyscraper. It’s certainly going to be unique and our city will benefit in a myriad of ways.

Louisville Housing: Good News vs. Bad News

Oct 24, 2007 Residential, Trends/Statistics

There seems to be a never-ending flow of negative news coming from news outlets these days; especially regarding the housing market. True, it’s a tough time for sellers given all the inventory out there. But the “silver lining” is that home values continue to rise in Louisville. That’s certainly good news.

Like every market, corrections occur to make recent increases more realistic and reasonable. So, just because a house has dropped its asking price by $30,000 doesn’t mean the sky is falling. It could mean they were asking too much to begin with. (I love how writer’s strive to find a way to put a negative spin on everything. Actually, I don’t.)

For even more good news, that we hear so little about, is that home buyers can get amazing deals. Where is all the chatter about this golden opportunity? Isn’t this something we could focus even a little attention upon?

If there’s one thing we can set our watches by, it’s that the news is 80% negative (crimes, disasters, etc.) and only 20% positive. In the case of our housing market, I would set those closer to 50%/50%.

Top 10 Things to Consider When Contemplating a FSBO

Oct 16, 2007 Top 10 Lists

Why It’s Tough to Sell Your Own Home
In a recent National Association of Realtors^® survey, only 13% of all transactions were done without the help of a real estate professional; 39% of those were “closely held” between parties who knew each other in advance. So clearly, it’s a tough proposal. What are the issues to consider?

1. Setting the Asking Price

The Internet is now ubiquitous. Except for a small portion of our population, the vast majority of Americans utilize the Internet for everything from emailing photos to loved ones far away, to checking the show times for a movie just down the street. With that said, there is a great deal of information available to real estate professionals that is not readily available to the public. Realtors have the expertise to analyze this data and take advantage of it.

Setting a strong but fair asking price is one of the most important factors when selling a home. Often homeowners see that a house down the street sold for $XXX but perhaps don’t know the particulars of the transaction. For example, it’s not uncommon for a seller to add funds to the sale price in order to pay for the buyers’ closing costs. This makes the true market value of the home lower than the stated sales price. Realtors can conduct research on cases like these to give their clients information that would have been impossible for them to get on their own.

2. Marketing Savvy

No two properties are identical. There’s no such thing as a commodity in real estate. Therefore, promoting a particular property should take into consideration the property’s strengths and weaknesses while keeping an eye on what the market is doing.

Realtors are professionals in the field of real estate and should be on top of all the latest trends in their home area. What was hot last year may not be highly sought after today. Putting together attractive flyers, Web sites and more are now all part of a top agent’s repertoire.

3. Importance of the MLS

Properties that are not listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) suffer a huge disadvantage to properties that are. This is simply a fact of life. The MLS is the first place both homebuyers (on their own) and agents (on behalf of their clients) go to find prospective properties. Discount brokers offer to list properties on the MLS for a fee, which is a great start, but in today’s day and age of increased competition it’s really only the essential first step towards professionally marketing a piece of real estate.

4. Professional Networking

Because Realtors are focused on real estate day-in and day-out, they have built up a network of clients, partners and vendors who expand the marketing reach of each property. Here’s a situation that occurs from time to time: a Realtor allows another agent to show Listing A to her client. The client decides this home just isn’t right for her. When the Realtor follows up after the showing to see what the client thought of the visit, he learns more about her tastes and realizes another one of his listings might be a better fit. When the client gets a chance to see this other listing, she realizes that it’s a perfect fit! There is a great deal of synergy in the world of real estate and FSBO properties are often on the outside looking in.

5. Legal Aid

While they are certainly not lawyers (or even legal clerks, for that matter), Realtors are well versed in much of the legal dealings in real estate transactions. As our society grows ever more litigious it pays to be protected, especially in a purchase or sale that involves hundreds of thousands of dollars. When you add the complexities involved with issues like new government regulations, title search clouds, personal safety tests like radon inspections and a host of other legal matters involved in a real estate transaction, buyers and sellers benefit greatly by having a real estate professional on their side.

6. Expertise in Negotiating

Negotiating the sale of an average property involves a range of $20,000, if not more. While homeowners are emotionally tied to their homes, the real estate agent typically isn’t. Without the emotional tie, the agent is free to focus on the negotiations of the deal. An experienced Realtor can also help in the negotiations of requested repairs, which can easily derail a sale. Having an expert on your team alleviates some of the stress involved in negotiations and can often be the difference between a broken deal and the property closing.

7. Personal Security

There are some benefits of having a Realtor that are often missed by FSBO properties and increased personal security is one of them. When a Realtor has the property listing, they pre-screen potential buyers to make sure they are legitimate house hunters and not just wasting time. Then the Realtor accompanies the prospective buyers through the home to make sure the property is kept safe and secure. FSBO owners must show their own properties, which increases the risk of harm coming to themselves or their property.

8. Personal Time

When a homeowner lists their property with a Realtor it gives them more of their own free time to use however they like. This way the Realtor does what he does best and the homeowners can focus on their own areas of expertise. It’s a win-win!

9. Avoiding Risk/Wasted Time

The last thing homeowners want is to be on the wrong end of a bad deal. How do you know if the deal is actually bad, good or fair to both parties? Knowing what other properties are selling for in a given area is a start, but even similar properties aren’t identical. One survey showed that 83% of all properties that start off as FSBO eventually list and sell with an agent. When a Realtor markets the property through his many channels from the start, that is the optimal way to sell a home quickly at the best price.

10. Best Sale Price

The reason most people choose to go FSBO is to avoid paying a larger commission and hopefully make more money on the sale of their home. (Although the vast majority of FSBO transactions do pay a commission to the buyer’s agent.) But what many do not know is that according to a 2006 poll, the home price for sellers who use an agent is 16% higher than those who don’t.¹ There are several factors at work here. One is that homeowners often don’t price the home appropriately from the start and over time, as they continue to drop the price, it conveys the perception that their house is “unwanted.” Another big factor to consider is that when a prospective buyer negotiates with a FSBO, they often assume they will be able to get a deal on the property because they already know the FSBO isn’t paying a partial commission to a listing party.

At the end of the day, owners looking to sell their property want the best sale price possible, with the least amount of stress, in the fastest time. In order to reach those goals, statistics show that using a Realtor beats going it alone.

¹ http://www.realtor.org/

Tre Pryor, a lifelong resident of Louisville, is a Realtor® with Rick Shaw Realtors. A graduate of the University of Louisville with a degree in Marketing, he has 23 years of professional experience, that includes consulting Fortune 200 companies. He uses his Internet expertise to help his real estate clients realize superior results. Mr. Pryor lives with his wife, three sons and daughter in the Springhurst area of Louisville.

Tags: FSBO, Kentucky, Louisville, real estate

Speed Exhibit Salutes Architect Hammon

Oct 15, 2007 Commercial

Stratton Hammon, one of Louisville’s premiere architects died in 1997. His memory is now receiving some special attention in the form of an exhibit at Louisville’s Speed Art Museum.

The exhibit and book fill a gap in the existing history of Louisville’s marvelous array of housing stock, which runs from shotgun houses for working-class families in the California and Butchertown neighborhoods to the high-style Victorian, Beaux Arts, Renaissance Revival and Romanesque variations in Old Louisville, the Highlands, Crescent Hill and spreading to Pewee Valley. [link]

History buffs and architects alike may want to take in this show. The exhibit starts tomorrow and runs through February 4th, 2008.

September 2007 Home Sales in Louisville, KY

Oct 11, 2007 Residential, Trends/Statistics

Today marks the first time we’re going to publish monthly home sale numbers here on Louisville Homes Blog. If there’s another piece of data that you would find helpful, just drop us an email.

September 2007

Source: MetroSearch, Inc.

Louisville Boasts Positive Appreciation in Housing Market

Oct 9, 2007 Trends/Statistics

Quick. In one word, describe Louisville’s housing market? Down? Bad? Wait a minute… not so fast. Let’s look at the facts of the case.

Much of our perception comes from national media outlets. These are the same people who thrive on bad news like the paparazzi who practically kill themselves to get bad photos of Lindsey Lohan. All we hear is that the market is “down” but without historical data, otherwise known as perspective, how down is it really?

Enter my new favorite writer at the CJ, Alex Davis. His story Sunday highlights the fact that the market in Louisville isn’t down at all. In fact it’s up! (Something most Realtors should already know.)

The median price of a home in the Louisville area has risen nearly 5 percent a year over the past two decades—better than inflation, and about the same as the national rate.

Last year our home appreciation was 2.2% and this year we’re on track to pass 1%.

While it’s certainly a buyer’s market, (which is also very good news depending on your situation) the overall housing market is still healthy and growing here in Louisville, Kentucky.