About Jasper's Big Canoe

There was not going to be a working with boomers 2 except for a headline I saw in business week. The headline read Boomers Nest Egg Shrinking.

So the question is should you dump working with boomers? The anser is no. My blog gives some great strategies for working with boomers. But if the nest egg shrinking is the case now more then ever there are some things you should focus on.

1 Down sizing means smaller areas to heat and cool. This is something we fail to stress. In the general scheme of things boomers say they want to downsize so they have less to take care of. In Boomer code this can often mean things will cost less

2 Look seriously at a reverse mortgage. A boomer moving to your area selling a 200,000 home may want to buy a 200,000 home to avoid a mortgage. Work with them and have them pay 150 for that home have 50K in reserve and if the math works right get a small check every month

Look for the value and the overall cost of living in your area along and you will be providing a great service and successful in working with this demographic

Every Market is different but in different areas I am hearing the same thing. Yes there are buyers out there. Yes there are loans out there. However buyers are coming in with really low prices and negotiations are tough.

Some of you are lucky in that your market has not gone through the pain that others have gone through. The pain is different from location to location and varies in severity. But the market here at least and from what my friends in Atlanta tell me is still out of balance. You can buy an existing home for less than it would cost to build today.

Try to get a land loan to build with credit under 680 ! Can you say 50 percent down and a point up on rates. Even conventional loans are tiering. Below 680 credit means a higher rate. So the market still is in a state of flux.

The big question is where is it going? The answer I think is it is going up. Right now we are flat. Areas that are decreasing are areas that had unsustainable run ups. Other areas are flattening out. I think the Fed's will extend the 8k credit and it is even money that they make it 15k no first time buyer restrictions. So I think while some of us are underwater a great number have moved from under water to treading water.

The market is not good yet for sellers despite the rose colored view of NAR. But I think it has gome from bad to neutral.

As we age many of us are looking for that home that has a master on the main. Many baby boomers are looking for mountain property. So Masters on the main are a big plus. But what about your friends?

When your friends, or brothers and sisters come to visit aren't they getting older too? So consider when you are shopping for a home a second bedroom on the main level. We live in a ranch so have 3 bedrooms all on the same level. Master on the main is a great plus . But more than one bedroom on the main is even better.

There has been a change in the way we bid on foreclosures for our buyers. In the old days, 1 year ago, you looked at the bank price and put in an offer. Usually the offer was lower than the asking price. If you were all cash you were even lower.

Then things started to change. We had multiple bids on property so the banks would come back and ask you for your highest and best offer. But if you were all cash you still usually came out OK. Lately we have seen starting offers go in at OVER the asking price, including all cash offers. I have even lost deals where we were all cash full price and 11 day close! We were not even asked for our highest and best. They just took another offer.

This tells me that money feels the market is turning and the good deals are becoming fewer. Buyers are more and more surprised at this turn of events. There is a lag in what the buyers are doing as opposed to market changing conditions. I am interested to know if you all are seeing the same thing. So

The gathering of storm clouds in the mountains is really the definition of Anticipation. You await what is to come. The storm brings violence and the threat of fire through lightening. It is also noisy as windows shake to the sound of thunder. But at the same time the storm brings rain. Rain water is life to plants, animals,and us. After the rain the earth says thank you with green and growing things. The smell of the earth in the woods after a rain is one of life too. The process shows natures duality.