Maureen Francis & Dmitry Koublitsky, SKBK Sotheby's - Metro Detroit

There are all kinds of articles on the web for first time buyers. Plenty of advice, including seminars, classes and such. But rarely do I hear someone talking about first time sellers and the questions they may have. Yes, first time sellers have been on the other side of the transaction once, but the needs of a seller are quite different from the needs of buyer. If this is the first time you are selling a Michigan home, here are some things you may not know:

1. Michigan property taxes are paid in advance, so you will receive a credit back from the buyers at close for the property taxes you have pre-paid. Who doesn't like getting money back?
2. Chances are that you did not pay your buyer's agent a commission when you bought your home. It was paid by the seller. In Michigan, the sales commission is traditionally paid by the seller and is most often paid at close to your listing brokerage. They, in turn, pay your agent and the the buyer's broker who pays the buyer's agent. So that commission is actually split four ways in the end.
3. Interview a few agents. The best listing agent is not necessarily the best buyer's agent. Look for a good marketing plan first and foremost. Take a look at Dear Mr. & Mrs. Seller, here is what you need to do and Help! I can't find your agent for some thoughts on what you should be looking for in a listing agent. If you need a referral for a listing agent anywhere across the US, let us know.
4. The seller traditionally pays the transfer tax, which is calculated at $8.60 per thousand dollars. For example, on a $250,000 sale the transfer tax would be 250 x $8.60 for a total of $2,150.
5. The seller also pays for title insurance, which protects the seller against claims against the title that might be made after the sale. The cost of the title insurance varies based upon the sale price of the home. If you provide your previous title insurance, you are likely to receive a discount.
6. In a strong market, where real estate is appreciating, it is challenging to recoup the expenses associated with selling in the first few years after a purchase.
7. Michigan law requires you to provide a purchaser with the following documents: a seller's disclosure and a lead based paint disclosure.
8. There are a number of things you can do to help you get maximum value for a home. A few that come to mind include: make sure it "shows" as well as possible, price it correctly for market conditions, make sure you have an agent who can offer you maximal market exposure and make showings as convenient for buyers as possible.
9. You can use a home warranty during the listing period, if your agent places one on your home, should the stove or microwave suddenly go out. We've discussed that more thoroughly in Is a home warranty warranted?
10. Today, selling a Michigan home takes a little patience and a strong team effort between the seller and the listing agent. Houses are selling every day. Position yours to be the best in its class and you will be rewarded.

You will find no shortage of our thoughts on selling a home in Seller Information. Our Dear Mr. & Mrs. Seller series contains some of our best advice and commentary on selling a home.

Maureen Francis is a top producing Realtor with SKBK Sotheby's International Realty in Birmingham, MI. Visit her award winning Oakland County Real Estate blog. Free Metro Detroit Home Search.

Tightened credit markets and sluggish real estate sales in Oakland County MI have sellers looking for ways to seal the deal. This week I saw a Birmingham builder do what he could to take control of the situation and set his properties apart. His answer: the land contract.

Not only is he offering land contracts, he's offering them at rates better than you will get at the bank. Today he advertised 4%! What's not to like about 4% money, especially since his homes sell at prices where the buyer is likely to need a more expensive jumbo mortgage. Other advantages of land contracts:

I think this sounds like a great incentive for buyers. Kudos to this seller for thinking outside the box and looking for a new source of buyers.

Intrigued? Take a look.

Maureen Francis is a top producing Realtor with SKBK Sotheby's International Realty in Birmingham, MI. Visit her award winning Oakland County Real Estate blog. Free Metro Detroit Home Search.

2008 has certainly provided for lots of unexpected surprises for Metro Detroit. In January we will be rolling out a new series of posts for Metro Detroiters on how to deal with the challenges in today’s real estate market. The good news: there are previously unseen opportunities for buyers. Sellers, you are not left out, there are ways for you to get your home sold in 2009.

Dmitry and I started this year with one of the most intense personal challenges of my life. Along with our young daughter, we moved in with my parents to help care for my dying father in his final months. We put most business aside and purely focused on our family. I am thankful that real estate allowed us to make that choice, and our clients understood. We miss my dad enormously, but we feel so fortunate to have been there when we were most needed.

Perhaps Dad was looking out for us. 2008 presented us with professional opportunities like we had never seen before. In the summer it seemed like I was going on 3 or 4 listing appointments a week. The best news was that we sold most of the houses we listed, and quickly! We finished the year far surpassing any previous year we’ve had in the business since we started in 2001, both in terms of units sold and dollar volume.

I tell you this for a couple of reasons. First, I think the economic doom and gloom around us is paralyzing people and then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. We had a great year and we will have another great year in 2009. People need to hear the good things that are going on out there, and they certainly aren’t finding it in the main stream media. I have almost completely stopped reading the newspaper and watching the evening news.

I am finishing 2008 and starting 2009 by saying thank you. Thank you to our clients for trusting us. Thank you to our blog readers for your interest in Metro Detroit real estate. Thank you to Marianne Sweet and Ken Mascia for all of the great articles this year, and for the wonderful resources you have been for our mutual clients.

Wishing you all the best in 2009.

PS. 2009 is a great year to buy a house and an American car. Call me.

this post appears courtesy of miOaklandCounty.com

When you are a landlord with a house to rent, it is so tempting to bite when you think you have a hot lead for a tenant.

Last week I placed an ad on Craig’s List for our Beverly Hills MI rental home, in addition to our other marketing activities. The ad snared an interested party within an hour of going live. Boy, was I excited! Visions of a positive cash flow rolled in my head.

There were a few red flags in the gentleman’s email, but I remained cautiously hopeful. He asked me to send him pictures, yet there were photos on the ad and a link to 25 more there. I don’t think he actually read the ad.

“John” told me that he is currently in England and his employer is moving him here. He asked for the total move in costs and told me he wanted the house. He engaged the services of a designer who would be getting the furniture and things he would need for the home so it would be ready when he moved in. He wanted to send me a check for twice the move in cost and have me give his designer money so she could start furnishing the place. He would not be able to complete an application or a lease until he arrived in January.

Hmmmm. All suspicious.

Still, there was some small hope he was legit. So we told him to wire us the money. Of course, that was not an option for him. He could only send his company’s check.

Then we told him to send a cashiers check from a local bank. Also not an option.

Of course, I knew this was going no where, but my last carrot to him was to send the check to his designer and have her give us cash for the security deposit and rent. I have not heard from John since.

Boy it sure would have been nice to have a new tenant, but having his check bounce after I gave cash to his designer would have been the most likely outcome of this sad story.

Photo credit

Post courtesy of miOaklandCounty.com

Metro Detroit Home Search

I just ran a complete search of home sales in Birmingham MI for the first three quarters of 2008. There were 243 home sales (225 sold, 18 pending sales) between January 1st and September 30th, 2008.

I decided to create a pdf file so that readers could take a look at these sales themselves. Statistics about Birmingham home prices are always skewed by the high number of $1 sales, deeds that are recorded without the actual sales price. So far this year, I counted 48 $1 sales. So basically over 20% of the home sales data is incorrect or hidden.

Unfortunately, this leads to huge distortions in the statistics we receive from our MLS and our board of Realtors. These statistics are most skewed for Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, where the practice is most common. The numbers are consistently skewed, so we continue to use them as we have nothing better to offer.

For the downloadable compelete report, please visit miOaklandCounty.com