The bedrock of the residential real estate industry is the American Dream of owning your own home. Current market conditions have amplified another motivator: those looking for great investment opportunities. There have always been professional “Flippers” in the market but today shrewd buyers recognize that the current market conditions offer some outstanding investment opportunities in Lewiston-Auburn and Kennebec County. It’s not just professional investors considering foreclosures; many first time buyers and existing homeowners are looking for unusual bargains.

The appeal is understandable due to some commonsense consequences caused by the mortgage meltdown (and the headlines that followed). When banks come into possession of foreclosed properties they find themselves in an unenviable position. Incented to sell them as soon as they can, they aren’t free to wait until the market rises to meet historic price levels. As a result, mounting numbers of those foreclosure listings are carrying price tags that are a fraction of their original market price.

Some current homeowners see a second home as a path to create a passive rental income stream. Foreclosure listings comprise tempting investment vehicles. And for first time homebuyers, the information in the same foreclosure listings can mean nothing less than a foot in the door of homeownership. In both cases, the first step to buying a bank-owned property comes with finding reliable Lewiston-Auburn and Kennebec County foreclosure listings. Looking for a trustworthy source means finding one that features up-to-date and accurate information. Too many dedicated “foreclosure” websites offer endlessly duplicated, incorrect, or woefully outdated information. Relying on them can send would-be buyers on a frustrating series of time-eating wild goose chases that end up locating houses that have already been sold.

One way to test a source of foreclosure listings is to take advantage of free trial subscriptions where they are offered. It’s a money-saving way to determine whether a foreclosure source can be trusted to include attractive properties listed soon after they come on the market. FIn any case, the opportunities that foreclosure listings represent also carry special characteristics that savvy buyers need to take into account. Home inspection rules are one example. Banks are under no obligation to disclose information about a property’s flaws in the same way that regular homeowners must, so it’s imperative to make a physical investigation of a foreclosure listing before proceeding further.

If you are curious about your chances of finding a great deal in today’s foreclosure market, I will be happy to send you the Lewiston-Auburn and Kennebec County foreclosure listings as well as other areas of the State. We can also help you identify other non-foreclosure “bargains” that may fit your criteria. While there are some great buys out there, there area many risk involved with foreclosure purchases and one should be fully aware of all the risks. Frequently there are also financing obstacles involved with the purchase of foreclosed property unless you are doing a conventional mortgage or you are a cash buyer.

Feel free to give us a call if you would like to know what you should be aware of upfront! You can reach The Tanya Busch Team at (207) 689-9880 or www.TanyaB.com.

Few will argue that buying and selling real estate isn’t a specialized business transaction, or that when you want to buy or sell a property in the Lewiston-Auburn area, hiring a Lewiston-Auburn real estate agent isn’t the most common way to get the job done. It may be an excellent idea, but it doesn’t go quite far enough.

All real estate agents aren’t the same, because there are two types of specialists: residential and commercial real estate agents. At the Tanya Busch Team, we specialize: Cookie Dean, with years of personal commercial investing experience, handles our commercial sales and leasing while Tanya Busch specializes in residential sales.

When economic activity grows sluggish, agents may try to cross over in their efforts to keep business humming. Whether you are buying or selling a place to live, or contemplating a business-related real estate move, job one is to pay attention the type of brokerage the agent specializes in. There are very few true commercial agents in Lewiston-Auburn and while an agent may sell an occasional “in-home business”, it doesn’t necessarily make them the top choice as a commercial broker.

There are distinct differences between the residential and commercial real estate agent. Let’s take a look at the some of the major areas that make them different:

Types of Properties

The most basic distinction between a Lewiston-Auburn commercial real estate agent and their residential counterpart is the type of properties they deal in -- just about always determined by the intended use of the real estate.

For the most part, the role of the residential real estate agent is to help their client purchase or sell a single family home. On the other hand, commercial real estate agents help their clients find income-producing properties. They may be retail space, manufacturing or service locations, or any of the other types of real estate that house a business endeavor.

Valuation Methods

Not only is the intended use of the property different, so is the determination of market value. Lewiston-Auburn residential real estate market value is determined by comparing it to recent sales of similar Lewiston-Auburn properties. There are a wide variety of ways a commercial real estate agent determines the value of commercial property. All of them deal in one way or another with calculating future income and return on investment.

Clientele:

True commercial real estate agents deal with businesspeople – building owners, tenants and investors -- who are, as a general rule, dispassionate about the transaction. The client’s main concern is to get a decent return on the investment. It’s business, after all.

Residential real estate agents, on the other hand, deal with people to whom the product – the house or condominium – usually comes to represent a significant emotional attachment. There’s far more emotion involved in the residential transaction and good residential agents will have much experience in handling the emotional component in such a way that it does not wind up compromising an otherwise sound transaction.

Enough already! Economy this! Housing market that!. It seems like we have been bombarded with mostly bad news forever. Every month Lewiston-Auburn would-be home sellers and prospective buyers hope for signs that the economy has turned around, and this month was no exception. Despite the relatively good news that unemployment numbers continue to show promise, the question remains: just how will we know when the Lewiston-Auburn real estate market begins its upswing for real?

Market forecasting is always a bit like reading tea leaves, but for a change let’s take a look at a couple areas that could be indicators of positive economic signs for a real estate recovery:

“Inventory Level”

Inventory is one of those real estate terms that can be misunderstood by anyone who thinks of its everyday meaning. Instead of being the total number of homes on the market, in real estate the term “inventory” is often expressed in months. It describes how long it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market if no new homes were listed.

When housing inventory shrinks, it means people are buying homes – a solid positive economic sign for real estate. While there are currently signs of shrinkage nationwide, the experts remain cautious due to what is known as the “shadow inventory.” These are homes that are in the foreclosure process but not yet on the market. It also includes those homes owned by folks who are putting off selling until prices recover.

As a local real estate professional, I pay close attention to “absorption rates”: the rate at which homes are able to be sold in a given market segment. Real estate is local and some parts of the market (price range) move at a different rate that others. So while the statewide information we get on the local news may give us the pulse of the real estate market, I don’t find it detailed enough for a personal consultation. We analyze the specific market segment for our clients.

Unemployment

Among the most important economic signs to keep your eye on are the unemployment numbers. Rampant unemployment -- and the resultant concern over job security -- drags down consumer confidence in Lewiston-Auburn and everywhere else. But when people begin to get back to work, confidence always builds. That is why it was an early positive sign for the real estate industry when the U.S. Labor Department came out with its November unemployment numbers. They are falling, and now sit at 8.6 percent -- the lowest level in over two years. According to the Washington Post, the broader figures suggested that while this improvement may be modest it is also “widespread”.

So while the economic recovery is still sluggish, there are some stirrings that the worst may be over. If so, one implication for Lewiston-Auburn homeowners and potential buyers is that keeping an eye on market trends is once again a good idea.

Tear it down, or spend a kazillion dollars renovating the space?

The City of Lewiston Maine has long struggled with ideas for what to do with the Bates Mill No. 5 building. Much of the city center has been undergoing a revival over the past ten years. This landmark remnant of Lewiston's textile mill hay days came to the forefront this past year when an initiative to build a casino, hotel, and convention center on the site failed to get voter approval.

Most of us in the Lewiston/Auburn Maine area have never seen the inside of the building that we pass by each day. From the outside, it appears to be fraught with possibilities. Mainers pride themselves on their creative utilization of the old for something new. Other mill buildings in the area have been successfully renovated, although they are still not at full occupancy. However, in this case, has the deterioration gone beyond the point of usefulness?

Today, the Lewiston Sun Journal ran a good story on the potential fate of the Bates Mill No. 5 building and included the video below. Personally, I was struck by the level of deterioration on the interior and the fact that so much of the old factory equipment is still there. What do you think? Time to tear it down...or is there still hope?

Click here to view video and see inside Bates Mill No. 5.

Part of the everyday vocabulary for everyone who deals with our Lewiston-Auburn real estate market are the words “MLS” and “MLS Listings”. First-time buyers and sellers can find the term confusing because it is used in so many different ways. You may hear people ask if a house you are considering is “on the MLS”; you might hear that “it was withdrawn or expired,” or has been “relisted”. Especially to anyone trying to do a “FSBO” (For Sale By Owner), the MLS Listing status can assume strategic importance.

“MLS” is an acronym for Multiple Listing Service. In many parts of the country, there are county or regional MLS’s. In Maine, we have a single, statewide MLS, which is owned by the Maine Association of Realtors, and only it’s members have direct access to the database. Each property is tied to key descriptive information (how many bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, water frontage), and all of it (including photographs and virtual tours) is organized into a uniform database.

Most simply put, an MLS Listing is any property for sale that has been entered into the Statewide MLS database. Because so many people rely upon the information attached to each property, only members of the MLS are allowed to make an entry. Anyone entering a listing must an “authorized user” (most likely, a licensed Realtor) working under the auspices of a licensed broker. They must pay yearly dues to belong to the MLS, and as an agent, must abide by the rules created by the Statewide MLS or face fines and penalties. And, as you have certainly already noticed -- it's a big deal whether a property is an MLS listing or not. If a property isn’t listed in the MLS, it’s not going to www.realtor.com or many of those other “feeder” sites across the Internet where buyers are looking!

Real Estate agents work on commission, and like everyone else, they need to know that they will be compensated for their work. When a listing is entered into the MLS, it automatically becomes a legally binding offering of sharing the commission. It says to all the other agents in the area (in fact, nation-wide), “I have an active listing agreement with this seller and we are offering to pay you X% if you introduce someone who winds up buying this property.”

MLS Listings also provide a set of uniform facts about listed properties – facts that are designed to make possible comparisons between listed properties. Square footage, lot size, age (displayed as 'year the home was built'), and many other facts make it easy for agents to determine if the MLS listing is one they their buyers might be interested in investigating further. The MLS is the backbone of every real estate agent's business. It's how agents know what is for sale this minute and how buyers know what is for sale this winter in the Lewiston-Auburn area, what has been for sale in the past, and what has actually sold.

Most MLS Listings are published on a number of on-line venues automatically (like www.realtor.com) so an MLS Listing will have great exposure not only to Lewiston-Auburn agents, but also to buyers as well as agents all over the country looking to refer a buyer to Lewiston-Auburn.

A FSBO seller misses all these opportunities. To everyone who is serious about selling their home, the kind of exposure that automatically comes along with a MLS listing is pretty much a strategic starting point.