Tony & Darcy - The C Team's Blog

Occasionaly our box at the office gets something that is very useful.  Yesterday was such a day, we had from one of the local Mortgage Brokers offices.  It was a CD and a Brochure from Steve Harney   the Realtor and Trainer from New York.  While I have been a little too busy to get through the CD, the brochure has some really interesting points to help get buyers off the fence in this market.

He noted that nationally home prices our down 10.9% over the past few month.  What was interesting is the fact that in the past 3-5 years homes have gone up much more than that.  He used Miami as an example, before it dropped 15% it had peaked at an 83% increase in prices.  That is still a great return on investment if the investment had been held.

He points out that we need to know what our peak percentage was over the rate that homes have dropped in your market.  He also points out that the actual cost of a home is the price plus the interest rate of the mortgage.  So even if homes in your area were to continue to decline up to another 8% in the next six months, but interest rates go up just 1%, that home is more expensive six months from now than it is right now.

This was information that I thought was extremely helpful to us in our local market,  I hope that this may help someone out there.

It's starting to warm back up.  I thought that we were supposed to be concerned with global warming!  It has been great March weather for most of this month.  I keep looking at the calendar to remind myself that it is May that is drawing to a close.  I am not making light of evironmental issues, just making a feeble attempt at humor.

This seem to be heading in the right direction in the real estate market here in Cedar City.  An agent in our office listed a house here in Cedar City for a really good deal.  It hit the MLS on the 23rd and there are already multiple offers on it.  Darcy and I were going to show it this evening to some clients, we were supposedly the 6th group to preview the property this afternoon.  So when houses are priced well, there is interest and a lot of it. 

We have started to see some investors begin to come back to look at buying rental properties, this is a very good sign.  If things can continue in this vein, we are on our way back.  I know that it won't happen next week or month, I am hoping for a steady climb, not the elevator ride that we saw a couple of years ago.  Whether you are looking to relocate, retire, or just invest, give us a call.  We would love to earn your business!

As we near the weekend, I wanted to take time to ponder and remember why it is that we have this Holiday Weekend.  Memorial Day was orginally set up to honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for us, those that gave their lives in combat. 

I want to add my voice and my heartfelt thanks and gratitude for those heroes that died so that we may enjoy the freedoms and way of life that we enjoy.  They didn't worry about politics or ideologies beyond the fact that their country asked a sacrifice of them, and they gave it!  Thank you, and each of your families!!!

Memorial Day evolved then into a day where we honored our beloved dead.  Those family and friends that meant something to us.  To them again I say thank you, for being there for me.  Thank you for all that you gave and taught me.

While you're out enjoying yourselves this weekend, take a minute to say thanks!

I am not sure if Spring has actually arrived again, or if this is going to be another teaser weekend.  It is absolutely gorgeous right now.  This has happened several times in the past 5 weeks, 2 or 3 days of unbelievably beautiful Spring weather, followed by a couple of days of high wind, then either really cold rainy days or even snow flurries.  This is one of the most bizarre months of May that I have ever been through, and I am getting to the point that I have been through several.

I guess that it is just the way that things are, you can't do anything about the weather, so it does no good to complain!  It does remind me that when things are good, it is best to really enjoy them to their fullest, to help get you through those cold rainy times!  Kind of like the way things work in our lives, isn't it?  Have a GREAT WEEKEND!

Darcy is on our local board of directors, she is in charge of the MLS.  Part of her assignment is to "clean up"  the mistakes and clear out the old no longer existing listings on the MLS.  She found the task daunting enough that she has asked several Realtors from several different Brokerages to help her clean up certain parts of the MLS.

I realize that typos occur, and I don't know about everyone's software, but our software that we use has a mapping feature that if the road didn't exist when the map was made, it has a couple of default locations that you have to manually go in and change. 

These types of mistakes aren't my pet peeve, it is the houses that show active, your clients want to see the house, and it has been sold and closed for over a month, or it has been under contract for over a month.  The other issues are the wrong number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the wrong address or tax id number.  These are things that we are paid to take care of.  I don't know what everyone else thinks about their pet peeves.  Let me know if you have others.