About Baltimore's Canton

Do You Walk To Your Showings?

In some areas of the country, this may sound like an odd question to be asking, but in others it may make perfectly good sense.

There is a web site called Walk Score which promotes walking and as such they have rated cities for their walkability.

To come up with a score, Walk Score measures walkability of individual addresses based on proximity to nearby amenities using U.S. Census Bureau data. The score is for the city, not the entire metro area.

The top cities on the list are New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Baltimore is number 14 on the list and there are some neighborhoods where, indeed, walking may be the best option for getting around, even for showing houses.

Although many people have cars, they prefer to keep them parked once they find a good spot, lest they walk a half mile to get to their home. A back yard which has been converted to a parking pad is a valuable amenity. To make up for the loss of the back yard, many houses have added roof top decks.

This fits the lifestyles of many of the newer residents of these neighborhoods. They are young, professional, and very health and environmentally conscious. Walking, biking, jogging, and even kayaking where possible, are their preferred means of transportation.

In some parts of Baltimore City, if an agent tried to drive from showing to showing, they would spend just as much or more time than if they just walked since they would not find parking spaces close to the homes that they scheduled to show.

Take a look at the Walk Score web site to determine how walkable any given neighborhood is before you make the move.

Check out the walk scores of Baltimore's Neighborhoods.

Do you want a home with a view like this? Give me a call and I'll show you some great Baltimore Skyline views!!

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home give me a call today and we'll talk about the market conditions and what your home could possibly be worth in today's market place if you are thinking of selling. You can save thousands by listing your home with Advance Realty Professionals Inc.. If you are considering buying a home, there is no better time than now to buy. The tax savings and wealth building a lone is worth the plunge into todays market.

In keeping with saluting our heroes, during 2011 Advance Realty Professionals Inc is waving administrative fees active duty military, retired military and the families of fallen military, as well as policemen, firemen and emt's. If you enter into a contract by the New Year's eve Advance Realty Professionals Inc. will waive the admin fee at settlement. This is a $395 savings. If you are thinking about buying or selling a home give me a call and receive full service real estate assistance from an experienced agent. Our office is open 7 days a week and we can be reached at 410-744-2100 or you can reach me directly at 410-292-0100.

Bike To Work Day, May 20

Expect to see more bikes on the roadways on Friday, May 3, 2011.

Each year on the third Friday of May, bike riders in the Greater Baltimore region are encouraged to take their bikes to work and to celebrate the concept of clean commuting.

Around the area, new laws to protect the safety of bikers have been implemented and new bike lanes have been appearing throughout the region.

This may be more critical than one may think as the population is increasing much faster than the expansion of the roadways. The economy of Maryland is growing at a much faster pace than the nation overall which means new companies are opening, people are relocating, and more people are making the daily commute to work.

Bike riding provides for a healthier individual and helps to improve the overall air quality.

There will be competitions for the most bikers who participate from organizations from the region.

More information can be found at Bike2WorkCentralMD.

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home give me a call today and we'll talk about the market conditions and what your home could possibly be worth in today's market place if you are thinking of selling. You can save thousands by listing your home with Advance Realty Professionals Inc.. If you are considering buying a home, there is no better time than now to buy. The tax savings and wealth building a lone is worth the plunge into todays market.

In keeping with saluting our heroes, during 2011 Advance Realty Professionals Inc is waving administrative fees active duty military, retired military and the families of fallen military, as well as policemen, firemen and emt's. If you enter into a contract by the New Year's eve Advance Realty Professionals Inc. will waive the admin fee at settlement. This is a $395 savings. If you are thinking about buying or selling a home give me a call and receive full service real estate assistance from an experienced agent. Our office is open 7 days a week and we can be reached at 410-744-2100.

Commissions Are Inherent to Realty Values

When the price for a product is determined, one of the major factors which must be considered is the cost for that product.

The cost of the product along with any profit, or gain, that the seller wants to make helps to determine the price.

If the market does not bring a price of at least the cost of the product, then it would be a losing venture to sell the product.

One of the costs which has been considered in almost all sales is the cost of the real estate agent's commission. This should be considered along with every other cost. If any costs are missed, then the seller could lose money.

The purpose for the commission cost is multi-faceted. The agent provides information about the market and what price is reasonable for any given product, provides marketing to achieve the estimated price, and provides knowledge to protect the seller and the sale from risks during the entire process. This is a vital service which has its reasonable cost factored into the price.

Using real estate agents over several sales of any given product will yield certain prices. If the real estate agent's services were not used, and if all things were otherwise equal, then the values would consistently be lower.

If you look at three sales over time of a particular property, using an agent versus not using an agent, then you may see different values.

Consider the following example:

• A home is sold for $100,000, several years later, it is sold for $150,000, and a few years later it is sold for $225,000. In each case there is a real estate commission paid of 6 percent. So the cost for their service would be $6,000, $9,000, and $13,500, respectively for the sales.
• If the same home were sold without the real estate commission, then the cost for such service would not have been factored into the sale. The sales prices in this situation would have been $94,000, $141,000, and $211,500 respectively for the sales.

Since the majority of sales use this vital service, it can be deduced that the market prices are about 5 to 7 percent higher than if the agents were not used.

However, if this is evaluated in more detail, we would find that the market prices may be far different than this if the agent's services were not used. Remember that the agent is limiting the sellers risk so without the agent the higher risk factor would need to be factored into the price or looked at differently the potential costs could be much higher. The risk would be so much higher than the cost of the commission that the prices may be far higher to offset this risk.

Can a property be sold without an agent? Yes it can, but this would be no more desirable than selling the house without the drywall in place.