Ed & Cindy Knight

In Macomb County many of the homes listed for rent are home owners or what we refer to as "Sell Lords". They are not Landlords, have never been a landlord and have no idea what it takes to be one. But because they can not sell their home, this market is creating tons of them. So who are they?

• Sellers that need to move out of Michigan for work but have not sold their home yet
• Sellers that have bought another home BEFORE selling their old one home
• Sellers / Investors that have been unable to sell their Flipper
• Sellers who have fallen behind or stopped making payments and are now in their redemption period

The question is will they be the next wave of Foreclosures? Yes, it seems many of them are already headed there. In the past 30 days we have received several calls from tenants looking for a new place to live because someone came to their door saying the landlord was in foreclosure.

• One was a lady whose landlord bought the home, fixed it up, could not sell it and decided to rent it. He had used the past 3 months of rent to pay his bills and was headed to foreclosure.
• Another was a guy who had rented from someone who had just bought a new home and could not sell this one. Problem is the tenant thought he was doing a lease option and finished the basement. He just found out his landlord was also 3 months behind.
• Another was a gal who was renting a home from someone that needed to move out of state. In this case the tenants husband has been out of work and they were now 2 months behind in rent. The landlord is having a hard time making double payments now.
• The worst was a young couple who rented a home from someone going through a divorce. The tenants just found out the landlord was in his redemption period when he rented to them.

So what can you do to prevent this from happening to you?

As a Seller/Landlord - check out the tenants credit and have them complete a financial statement. Call their references and their employer. Set three (3) months payments aside to cover shortages. You also need to verify what your non homestead tax rate will be. Check here for Macomb County mill rates because an increase in property taxes can really mess up your escrow account and put you behind, if you are not collecting enough rent to cover it.

As a Tenant - don't be afraid to ask the landlord lots of questions. Go to the city to make sure the property taxes are paid and check the county records to see if their has been a sheriff sale. With property values still slipping do not get caught up in a lease option. If you suspect your landlord has already been foreclosed on find out how it can affect you.

As a Real Estate Agent - if you are working for the seller make sure you know what they owe, if they can afford both payments and Please Please tell them what their new taxes will Be. If you are working for the buyer make sure the listing agents did their job.

I was raised with three brothers and had to attend all kinds of sporting events as a kid. But to me none was worse than football. Now I did make the best of it and became a cheerleader, liked the boys hated the weather and the game. Then I grew up and guess what? My dad and brothers watched football on TV at all the family gatherings. Want to know the best part - two of my sons LOVE football. That means every Sunday and Monday when the NFL comes on, I have to listen to screaming and yelling.

Now the one thing I can not figure out is why the heck they watch the Detroit Lions. They actually wanted them to sell out so they could watch them on Thanksgiving Day. Why in the world would you want to put yourself through that pain? Better yet who bought the tickets for the sell out? In case, you don't follow football the Detroit Lions are in last place. They usually lose more than they win, have never won a super bowl and this year have 12 losses and zip zero nada wins.

So after the loss yesterday and the sad faces, I started thinking, watching the Lions is kinda like watching my Blog. I write a post and nothing, I write another post and nothing. I keep coming back for more, I must be crazy. I take a break and read Kim Wood's post about Twitter and join. I write another post only this time put it on Twitter - still nothing. Is anybody reading this Blog? Then finally someone makes a comment. Yippee. Actually it's my friend Kris Wales, she's the only one that comments. Then I start writing on my Facebook wall about my posts, still nothing. Hopefully some of my friends are reading it now.

Here I am back again! But I figure this way the Detroit Lions may have tons of followers but they Really Really need a new coach. I on the other hand have no followers but have some pretty awesome coaches on Active Rain.

Several years ago I was looking to get rid of some old clothes and just happened to stop in the Samaritan House in Washington Township. They told me that they did not store clothes there but did occationally need them and asked if I would like to be added to their e-mail list, in case someone had a specific clothing need.

Since then I realized they are a wonderful organization that not only help those in need of clothes but also shelter, utility bills and Christmas gifts through Sharing Tree. I have personally helped them pass out dinners for Easter and Thanksgiving and backpacks and school supplies to kids in need. I remember one little boy this past summer and the smile he gave me when I handed him a Batman backpack. It warms the heart to help those in need and makes you Thankful for what you have.

Samaritan House is operated by 22 Christian churches in the Romeo, Washington, Bruce, Ray and Shelby Township area. They can always use food for the pantry, drivers for local bakery pickup and of course volunteers.

With Michigan being hit so hard with job loss and foreclosures they are busier than ever. If you would like to donate goods or time you can contact them by e-mail at samaritanhouse@sbcglobal.net or by phone at 586-677-7590. Just look here to see how many families they have touched.

Yesterday while setting appointments to show homes with XYZ Real Estate here's what I heard "sorry there are no showing on that home till after 6 pm on weekdays. Would you like to reschedule?" Now unless I missed a Huge news flash we are still in a buyers market. I guess any buyers working the afternoon shift will not be able to view that home. Nor will my buyer who is a stay at home mom, with a husband in the military and Only looks while the kids are in school.

Now I know some agents spend all day with their buyers and show them 20 + homes. But I limit my buyers to 7 max, pick the best homes for sale, allow 3 hours and map out the homes. That means if I am showing someone homes from 11 am - 2 pm, I will not be rescheduling with them that evening because one seller was not available. Now when we were in a heavy heavy sellers market I will admit I was a bit of a pop tart and showed homes as they hit the market. But not now. Macomb County currently has over 8000 homes for sale and in the past 30 days we had about 800 closings. So my buyers have a lot of homes to choose from.

As for our sellers- we let them know they must have their home available from around 9 am to about 9 pm. If they have pets they need to have them in a cage or have someone come over and let them out. We let them know we'll be putting a lockbox on the home and if we call and do not reach them, we'll just leave a message, then give out the lockbox. If they have small children we'll try to have them schedule before 8 pm. That way no showings are missed.

I found a $300,000 home for $150,000.This seems to be all we hear nowadays. But the fact is ...the home IS NOT a $300,000 home, it's a $150,000 home. It was only worth $300,000 at the top of the market. Of course, the seller, government, wall street, builder, banker, real estate agent and tons of stores all benefited when it was $300,000. Tons of money was moving in and out of the economy and everything looked So Bright! Everyone was enjoying the ride going up. We all felt Rich just like the movie stars. Spending was at an all time High.

STOP those days are over. So how did we get here? Where are we going? and Will there be a "Bail Out" number two?

We all have read about how the Big Bad Bank took advantage of the Little Homeowner. But the fact is the government told the banks "Lighten Up". So they did. Everybody liked the banks and there was a buying and selling frenzy. Until the market was no longer climbing. Then people no longer liked the banks and said "You can have my house back". But banks don't sell homes they only loan money. So they hired a few bank agents and said "Get it sold and Quick". So the agents did and the market began to fall. More and more foreclosures came and the prices fell faster. Now the banks were really in trouble. So the banks went back to the government and said "It's your fault so Bail us Out". The government agreed passed a huge "Bail Out" bill H.R.1424 with lots of Pork added. Now the government will buy the bad loans with money they will borrow from the banks and we'll all pay the difference. The sad thing is the government doesn't have any experience selling real estate either.

So where does that leave us? Well, we just may see the market drop a bit more. The once $300,000 home may drop a bit more But hold on do not foreclose. Don't walk away. Fight for what you have it will come back. You have to live somewhere. If you are having trouble making your payments in the state of Michigan visit Save the Dream. Otherwise visit the HUD site . Contact a local real estate agent and see if they can help.

Americans need to stand up and fight. Unlike the government we the people may need to tighten up our purse stings... cut cable, cut vacations, stop wasteful spending, sell the stuff we don't need, cut utilities ect. Some may need to get a second job (yes there are some available). If we don't fight we will end up with Bail Out number two.