Bill Park

The Great American Dream of Home Ownership, just imagine the possibilities

Forget for just a few minutes about all of the things you are hearing, buyers market, foreclosures, shortsales, and close your eyes and think about your dream. (read this first though!)

Picture your dream home, use your imagination, what do you see? Now really what it looks like, cute and comfy but now let's look deeper. Imagine a place, your place to live that is really "home." Just your own space. Yours.

Space you can decorate and furnish, talk freely, play your music loud or not. Having a quiet place where can live the life you please. Maybe a workshop or a sewing room, a super entertaining area, a spacious family room or back yard...maybe with a small garden space. Walls to hang pictures or paint any color you want. Its your dream and that is what motivates you to make the sacrifices necessary. To buy a home.

So, now open your eyes and get busy getting your ducks in a row. Find a Great Realtor and get started.

Good luck in your home search. For starters take a look at this article about How To Buy A Home.

Good luck and happy hunting. Bill Park sells in the greater Livingston County Area of Michigan.

I am always amazed at what buyers and sellers are thinking. I mean after being in this craft for nearly 24 years it still settles back to people serving and protecting their own interest. This week I have been negotiating a deal for sellers that are a "non foreclosure, non short sale" and have no mortgage. Originally, just a few years ago the seller paid over $400,000 for the home and then is moving for personal reasons. At Listing time over the Christmas Holidays we had several discussions about pricing and getting the property to fit in this market and they realized that the market would not support getting their original purchase price back. I suggested $329000 to start. They said no, let's start at $339,000. Okay so it is a very nice unit and the first offer came in a few days for $290,000,Cash. $49,000 under the listed asking price. The seller said NO. and would not counter. I encouraged them to at least go back at full price, something... and they still declined. So as we said good bye to that buyer and we moved on to other interested parties. About a couple weeks went by, our buyers came back in a snow storm to take another look and to put in another offer. The buyer now raised their offer to $325,000.00, Cash and to close in 30days with occupancy flexible.

The savvy seller, liking the activity and liking the idea the buyer came back, said, well, we are in snowbird land and won't be back until April how about $327,000 and close the end of April? The buyer said, "okay but we want to have occupancy the day of closing." Done deal. Amazing, here in Livingston County Michigan there is life and action going on at surprising levels.

So the "art of negotiating" is sometimes patient waiting and guiding the process.

PS. One of my goals this year is to blog and to get to know Active Rain better. I appreciate your tips and techniques and welcome your feed back and encouragement.

The Christmas Holidays around our home have changed. Our kids are grown, have kids of their own and each year the grand children get bigger and more, well more sophisticated. One of the traditions that we started a few years ago was, instead of everybody trying to get us a gift, we would like them to write a story for us. Big and small, mostly they do it and we are always impressed with what we get.

Peggy, my non realtor wife, puts them into order in the big and growing note books so that over the years each person has a "new" chapter. That along with the dozens of Holiday photos makes it a memorable event even years later. These deep conversations that we have in our family have an impact, and we have found that for them to tell us in written form is like a growth ring in a tree. From the drawings of little children, to the profound conversion experience of a grown grand child and that new found "meaning of it all as a Christ led person" to the snow bound hunting experience of a grown son are all part of our Christmas every year. We really treasure these stories from people we love deeply.

Two of our Grand Daughters are off in different parts of the country and so we missed them this year. With love and encouragement we ask them to send their story to us and we will put it in the book. Yes there are couple of "blank" years for some, and with love and encouragement we hope that someday they will take up again and share in this precious collection of lives that we call family.

Family ties and building memories really help us to stay grounded. As a Realtor now for 22 years and as we enter the uncertainties of 2009, I am feeling solidly grounded and that even though times in peoples lives are tough, family, love of family and staying in touch with their journey helps me keep perspective on what is really important. And, I hope that it helps each one of them to get in "touch" with a story that they can share.