Kris Wales - Macomb County MI real estate blog & homes for sale search site

This evening you are invited to treat yourself to a wonderful dinner at HuHot
and help the Fraser High School Winter Guard girls raise funds for their
continued efforts and performances.

Kati Belz is hosting the fundraiser and 10% of the sales
for the evening will go directly to her girls.

It is also Katis birthday, so while you are there make sure
you wish her a Happy Birthday!

A tip jar will also be provided, along with a tin can auction.
(I've never heard of that one before, so I'm curious to find out what it is!)

HuHot is located in Fraser, on Utica Road just north of 14 Mile. Hope to
see you there!

In the Metro Detroit area two scenarios we are seeing on a daily basis in the real estate industry are the increase in homes on the market that are foreclosures (bank owned) and the growing popularity of FHA mortgages for home buyers.

Typically many home buyers who want to purchase bank owned homes have been frightened off by FHA mortgages, feeling that the inspection guidelines have been too restrictive. Bank owners of these homes have also been slow to offer FHA terms as one of their purchase guidelines along with conventional or cash terms because they were likely worried about the home sale being completed.


Below is a true story of one typical Metro Detroit home buyer who utilized the FHA buying program AND purchased a bank owned home (foreclosure) at a phenomenal price.

Please meet Mr. Steve Cooper: Steve came to me in November of 2007, ready to start his hunt
for a new home and move out of the rental home that he had been living in.


Steve was very articulate with his needs and wants and also was educated by Mr. Mike Caira of Great Lakes Mortgage Funding about the home buying programs that were available today for him. It was decided that purchasing using a FHA mortgage with a down payment assistance program would be best for Steve and keep him well within his comfortable payment amount.

Steve and I then set out on the hunt for the right home for him at the right price. After many weekends and several weeknights of viewing homes, we kept coming back to one particular home in north Southfield. It had everything he wanted: Brick, 3 bedrooms, basement, quiet street, garage, cosmetic updates needed, major updates completed. It felt like “home” to Steve. As the price on the home dropped even further Steve decided it was time to make an offer on the home. Now, it was a matter of convincing the bank owner to accept an offer with a FHA mortgage. As the home apparently would need few, if any, FHA repairs we felt confident going forward and submitted the offer to the bank, with Steve being responsible for any required FHA repairs up to $100.


The bank rather quickly accepted Steves offer, and the process began. An appraisal was ordered and the value of the home was more than what was needed, and the repair list was given to us. We started on the items of repair (a couple of trip hazards, one piece of broken glass in the garage window, a garage door opener without a safety “bump up”), had the water turned back on to the home, the furnace fired up and waited for a re-inspection. The re-inspection brought a couple more items into view (leaking plumbing in a couple of spots) that were quickly taken care of by a savior named Felix. Inspection #3 was ordered and all went well.

It may appear that all of the items above added up to too much money or too much time to make it worth it, but I can assure you it didn’t. The repairs cost approximately $250 in materials, 9 hours worth of labor and one round of Starbucks delivered by a lovely young lady named Lauri.

The time frame from start to finish? 28 days.
Twenty Eight Days. The offer was formally
accepted by the bank owner on January 2nd
and Steve closed on his new home yesterday
January 30th.

I've received several nice emails over the last few days asking why my real estate blog hasn't been updated lately and I sincerely thank all of you who have written with concern.

Several days this month I was blessed to be able to visit family members in Mississippi and upon returning home was welcomed by what I thought was "change in weather" cold symptoms. It turned into something much more viscous and for 2 days I was hospitalized while the very nice doctors and therapists gave me breathing treatments so that I could breathe somewhat normally again.

I am home now, resting, and within a few days the energy level should be back and I'll be back hard at work keeping my eyes open and taking in all that is happening in the real estate market in Macomb County. I have to tell you, even though this is supposedly a "tough" market I have missed it, and I've missed watching the daily changes and keeping on top of things for my clients.

The end of the month is almost here and I'll be back with the monthly market report and will update all of you on what has taken place in Macomb County as far as home sales to start off this New Year.

Warning: This post has absolutely nothing to do with real estate.

It is a real life post by a real person with a real family who found a real situation
amusing the other day and wanted to share it with you.

This is a true life tale of one of those examples of the "differences between men and women".

We will be leaving soon for a visit with our daughters and 3 Darling Grandchildren. One of the Christmas gifts that we had for the Darling Granchildren is a trip to WackyBear™. Instead of sending them a gift certificate at Christmas, we decided to take them there while we are visiting so that we could have fun watching them make their selections.

As I'm preparing for our trip and doing the usual packing, taking care of my business, making arrangements for the care of our dog, and other day to day things I realized I didn't like the idea of simply handing each child the money for Wackybear™ and telling them about their gift.

I decided to stop into Target for cards. It's post Christmas, so there weren't any cute Christmas cards left, and pre-Easter so ditto on those cards. However, there were Valentines Day cards out already, and I picked out 3 of them.

Then, as I was looking at the cards I didn't like the idea of simply handing them the cards with the money inside. Browsing the store a bit more I came across 2 adorable purses for the little girls and even a small little boys wallet.

Mission accomplished, or so I thought, for approximately 30 seconds. It dawned on me that simply having the little purses containing one lonesome card inside didn't appeal to me. More browsing in Target and I spotted absolutely adorable Valentines Day socks for the little girls. I could tuck those inside of the purses, along with the cards that held the gift of money for WackyBear and it would be a wonderful gift. There was one small problem. There aren't any cute items for little boys for Valentines Day. Once again, off to the browse the store and found a small motorcycle that makes revving noises that I knew our little grandson would be happy with.

Later that evening as I was putting the gifts together my husband came home, saw what I was doing and as I explained what the items in front of me were for, he rolled his eyes at me in the comical way he has of doing that.

It was then that I realized that we were having one of those "The difference between men and women" moments.

My husband? He would have whipped out his wallet and handed each child cash.

Me? It took me an hour of shopping and $49.67 to accomplish the same result.