About Wayne County, MI

Here are all the homes that have sold in Redford Michigan in the last year. We have broken them down into price rances. Out of the 1033 sold listings over 800 of them have sold under $50,000. Redford is one of Detroit fringe cities. I would call Redford a blue collar town. Redford is one of America's working towns.

Last year over all the average time on the market was 89 days. Now in the last 30 days it is only 67 days. Homes are moving a little faster. But there are still quite a few deals out there so get out there and start looking.

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Yes can you score or are you falling short? Like the Colts tonight you can have great players, a great leader and still not come up a winner. The Indianopolis Colts were favored to win but they came up short.

It is the same way in real estate. You can have a good realtor, put in a good offer and still not get a home. The other side, the seller may not cooperate.

Here are some examples:

1.) Some metro Detroit home buyers put in a offer over list price, but their offer was rejected on a Canton foreclosure because a lower cash offer was accepted. Yes you heard me right, a lower cash offer. The house needed a few repairs and the client was doing a FHA loan. The bank didn't want to fix anything.

2.) A client of mine lost a bid last week. The seller has to sell the home at list price. Even at that price the seller has to bring $37,000 to the table because the Canton home has lost so much value. At list price the Canton home is way over priced. So my client couldn't buy the home unless he was willing to over pay for the home.

3.) My client put an offer in on a Farmington Hills short sale. She can only get approved up to $200,000. Well the listing agent called Friday and said the bank rejected our offer as too low. We offer slightly above list price. My client can't go higher. We can't score on this deal because the bank won't take that price for the short sale. My client can't go higher. So the deal is dead.

4.) My client put an offer on a Detroit home. We offered below list price, the seller accepted. We had an accepted offer. The mortgage lender did an appraisal and came in $10,000 less than the accepted offer. The seller refused to come down in price. The deal fell apart.

So as a buyer you can put in good offers and not get the house because of what the seller thinks or what the seller can do. They may not be able to sell the home except at a certain price. A price that is too high for you the home buyer. Sellers sometimes have financial restraints that won't allow them to sell except at an above market value. Sellers sometimes won't accept certain kinds of mortgages because it creates potential problems for them.

So don't get discouraged when your offer gets turned down. Put in your best offer and be glad you didn't over pay for the home. That would only hurt you in the long run. You can't change what the seller thinks or does.

More Canton real estate information

Farmington Hills real estate information

Wayne County real estate home buyer advice

Search Wayne and Oakland County real estate listings

If you are thinking of selling your home yourself here are some thing to think about. Selling a home takes time but I will admit it can be done. In this Metro Detroit real estate market it is extremely important to grab every buyer lead that is out there. It is important to have priced your home right. And most importantly to have the knowledge to negotiate the deal to close and hold the deal together when there are issues. These are the top 5 reasons FSBO's are trying to sell right now in the metro Detroit real estate market.

1. For Sale by Owners do not want to pay commission or Pay a commission they think is high: 80%. For sale by owners want to save money. In this market some of them are very close to what they owe. They feel they have to sell themselves. But according to research most FSBOs sell for less than comparable homes according to market research. Why? Here are 3 reason why FSBOS sell for less:

• Because they didn't have all the Local Metro Detroit real estate market data available to find out what there house was worth. A Realtor or real estate agent has access to the MLS and public records at his fingertips. A homeowner doesn't. They can go to Zillow or CyberHomes to get an estimate, but the For Sale by Owner doesn't have the up to date knowledge that Real Estate agents do! I have seen these estimates from Zillow and Cyberhomes off by $40,000
• The Metro Detroit home buyer thinks they should be getting 6% off the Metro Detroit home price when they are buying from a FSBO because they think the seller is saving 6% on realtor commissions.
• The seller is not used to negotiating a real estate sale. Those are some of the reason why FSBOS sell for less than a home listed by a real estate agent. Many times FSBO's take longer to sell

2. Don´t want to deal with a real estate agent: 6% At some point in time the FSBO had a bad experience with a realtor. This is a dumb reason- you don't want to deal with an experienced person in the field of knowledge? Think about this....You don't want to deal with somebody licensed in the field? You don't want somebody that has to take 6 hours of continuing education a year? You don't want to use somebody that has many other realtors to ask questions to, a large reference support team that has years of experience for those odd situations? You don't want somebody that is being exposed to the local market conditions and real estate 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? You would rather use a novice? You don't want a person that is licensed in the field and could lose that licence if they do something wrong? You don't want to use an agent that carries errors and omissions insurance. All agents are not alike. There are many very good Metro Detroit real estate agents out there.

3. Selling to neighbor, friend, relative, someone you know: 9% This is the one time I think you should be a FSBO. If you have the deal all set up, you and the buyer know what your house is worth and you have the ability to get the legal paperwork right. But please consult with a local title company, and an attorney to make sure the paperwork is right.

4. An agent was unable to sell your home: 2% So one Metro Detroit Realtor or real estate agent could not sell your Michigan home. You might want to try a different agent with a different marketing plan. The MLS and the internet sells homes. You need more than a sign out front usually to sell a home. You need to answer the phone calls immediately when somebody call on the house. This is one area that I think For Sale by Owners lack in. I usually get a call back when I call on a FSBO 2 days - 7 days later. By then my buyers have moved on. Real estate agents have office staff to set up showings, floor agents or themselves to answer questions about the property usually within a few hours.

5. Buyers contact you directly: 2% Sure! You get somebody that wants to buy your house. What is it worth? Either you are going to sell it too low, or you might get lucky and sell it high. Think about it. If you were going to offer to buy a home that wasn't listed wouldn't you offer low and try to get it at a bargain. Either the buyer or the seller is going to lose here. Again most of my experiences with For Sale by Owners is that they had the price wrong. They did not have a Metro Detroit realtor or Michigan real estate agent bringing them the latest market comparables that sold in their neighborhood and city

For sale by owners ( FSBOS) do not have the internet exposure needed in this Metro Detroit market to sell there home. You have to react quick to the buyers out there. You have to have your home priced right with the falling Metro Detroit real estate market or else your home will sit even longer and you will be chasing the market down longer.

The bottom line is that the media has hyped that there are great deals out there. That you can offer way below list price. Well take it from a metro Detroit real estate agent if you price your home right many homes right now are selling close to list price. The media is a little off on what is happening in the Metro Detroit real estate market.

If you are trying to sell by owner in the Metro Detroit area and can't give me a call on my cell at 313-310-9855 or email me at info@RussRavary.com to see if I can help you sell your home.

I got that question today from a buyer's mother. It was a first time home buyer and they are a little nervous about buying.

There is no definite answer to buy or wait. I'm not a psychic and I honestly don't think anybody can predict our economy at this point. The metro Detroit economy is not good but will the metro Detroit real estate go up or down?

My answer is that all home buyers at this point should buy for the long term. You need to buy with the intention of staying in the home for at least 10 years. I think we are in for a period of 5 - 7 years of uncertainty. I think we are going to have periods of flatness and periods of real estate growth. I don't think we are going to see huge metro Detroit real estate price increases.

So let's be the devil's advocate and say real estate prices drop next year. Does it really matter if you aren't going to sell for 10 years? What happens if you wait to buy next year? If homes are cheaper but interest rates are more expensive will you save money?

So a $200,000 home at 5.5% has a payment of $1,135. if you wait and the home is $180,000, but interest rates are 6.5% the payment is $1137. I can't predict what the future will be. Sure the home may be cheaper and interest rates may be the same but who knows. I don't and I don't think anybody can.

But the bottom line is if you wait for the ultimate bottom you are going to miss it. Who is going to tell you it is the bottom, before Metro Detroit home prices go up? Will there be some magical flag or sign from heaven that will tell you? Unfortunately no.

If you buy now you will have been in the house, already making changes and memories. You will be getting tax deductions. You will have one year and maybe more of your mortgage paid off. Yes by waiting you have a 50/50 chance of getting a better deal or paying more. It's like rolling the dice. Or YOU COULD BE LIVING IN YOUR OWN HOME. BUY FOR THE LONG TERM.

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1^st Event: The Entrepreneurial dept. at Wayne County Community College District has added a special Internet Coaching Workshop on Thursday, Feb 11th. Mr. Mark Maupin will conduct the special presentation on:

‘What is Good Copy Writing and How to Write a Great Sales Page ’

• What is good copy writing?
• Recommended books to read
• Sample of great sales pages provided
• Long sales copy; short sales copy
• Questions to ask to write a sales copy

‘Leave the Event Knowing How to Write a Great Sales Copy’’

The event will be held Thursday, February 11th, from 4:00 pm. to 6:00 p.m. at the WCCCD Eastern Campus, located at the I94 and Conner exit, in the Cooper Room

Ps: Don’t forget we have 6 events, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Go to http://www.megaeveningevent.com

2^nd Event: 6 PM Event: Internet Marketing Roundtable: Using Social Media Sites to Make Money on the Internet

‘A Panel of Expert, Pat Gage, Al Lavallis and Mark Maupin to Cover the Following Topics ’

• How to use FaceBook
• How to use Twitter
• How to use Linkedin
• How to use ActiveRain
• How to use other top-ranking websites
• How to generate an email list for the social sites

‘Leave the Event Knowing How to Make Money on the Internet with Social Media Websites’