Kathy Byrnes

Check out this article from the REALTOR Magazine:

Executives from some of the largest brokerages in the country expect to see their sales grow 6-8 percent in 2010 and home prices to start heading up about 3 percent, REALTORS® heard in a state of the real estate industry discussion Saturday at the 2009 NAR Conference & Expo.

J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, said expansion of the tax credit to include repeat buyers will help boost middle-market sales next year, although mortgage financing above the $417,000 non-jumbo conforming loan limit will remain a challenge. "The repeat tax credit will at least start a conversation about buying" among existing home owners, Scott said.

Congress recently extended temporary high-cost loan limits of $729,750 for 2010, but the lion's share of markets don't qualify for those so-called jumbo-conforming loans. As a result, repeat buyers face tougher underwriting challenges. "People applying for a $419,000 mortgage are not wealthy-they're two teachers," said Helen Hanna Casey, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, which operates in Pennsylvania, New York, and other states in that region.

The improvement in the middle market will help tighten inventories, helping to shore up prices, but the upper-end market will continue to under perform until companies start hiring again. That's when the industry will see more relocation business among transferees, a critical component of the upper-end market, said Scott.

Merle Whitehead, president and CEO of RealtyUSA said a key job of brokers next year is making sure their sales associates understand FHA, because federally-backed mortgages will remain the principal provider of mortgage financing for most borrowers. Too many sales associates still think of FHA as financing for people who can't qualify for conventional mortgages, but in fact FHA is the main source of mortgage capital today. "We have to change the thoughts and beliefs of our agents," he said.

-Robert Freedman, REALTOR® magazine

The stats are in and it tells a huge story. My last blog shared our story of the creation and the first drawing of RE/MAX at the Lakes 10G drawing. Now the real story is how effectively did it work for our Listing Clients. These are the time time frames from when we started the program this year and how it compared to the average days on market for all homes, then all our RE/MAX at the Lake Listings and then all the RE/MAX at the Lake listings that were 10G homes.Here are the Stats:

Average Days on the Market
Charlotte MLS

141 Days

Average Days on the Market
RE/MAX at the Lake Listings

132

Average Days on the Market
RE/MAX at the Lake
10G Listings

86

This powerful fact shows that listing a home with a RE/MAX at the Lake agent and agreeing to pay a modest $250 toward the pot can reap a much faster sale.

Today was an exciting day. Early in the Spring RE/MAX at the Lake launched a new program called the 10G program. A former Florida agent from the Palm Beach area told us how they had used the concept to create a 1 in 40 chance for the Buyers agents to win $10,000. Homes for sale that participate in the 10G program pay $250 into a trust fund and once 40 of those 10G homes are closed there is a drawing. The buyers agents that brought the Buyer to the 10G home then become eligible to participate in the 10G drawing.

Today all the agents that had sold the 10G homes from all over the Lake Norman area came to participate and hope they would win the $10,000. No one went away a looser. Each person that was eliminated got a gift card until it came down to the final two. The second place winner was given a complimentary fly over lake Norman with Attorney/Pilot Ben Thomas. He offered to let them fly over their listings for an areal view. Ben was the closing attorney on over 50% of the 10G closings.

The winner was Margaret Johnson from Coldwell Banker in Statesville. She almost didn't come because she had a closing that was switched to 11:30. The entire time she almost left to go to the closing and could have missed out. 4 other agents didn't make it to the drawing either. It was an exciting time and I cant wait for the next drawing. We already have 8 homes closed towards it.

I would love to sell one of the 10G homes myself. All my listings chose to participate in the program to help compel an agent to bring their buyers to at least check the property out. It was all reviewed and approved by the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.

It's just another way thinking outside the box selling is so important in this challenging market. You can count on that from RE/MAX at the Lake and myself.

Time on Market

The average days on the market for closings in the reported month is 140.7 days. Of

the reported home sales 42% closed in 121 days or more. This represents an increase

of 6.7 days in closing time over October 2008.

Average List Price of Sold Homes

The average list price of sold homes reported through the CRRA was $218,050. This

represents a decrease of 8.1% from October 2008.

Average Sales Price of Sold Homes

The average sales price of sold homes reported through the CRRA was $196,204.

This represents a decrease of 9.5% from October of 2008.

Residential Contracts Reported

There were a total of 2400 contracts reported in October of 2009. This represents a

33.5% increase in reported contracts from October of 2008 and a 9.1% increase

over September of 2009.

Residential Contracts Closed

There were a total of 2210 contracts that were reported as closed in October of 2009.

This represents a 19.6% increase in closings as compared to October of 2008 and

a 13.6% increase over September of 2009.

The number of signed sales contracts to buy homes rose in September for the eighth straight month, according to recently released data from the National Association of REALTORS®. Most analysts trace the steady improvement to the government's first-time homebuyer tax credit program, which has brought in between 200,000 and 400,000 additional sales that would not have otherwise been made. This was an article published in the NC Realtors report. Read more....