David & Lisa Webber, www.webberteam.com

Anne Arundel County pretty much mirrors what is happening throughout Maryland and is actually one of the better performing areas. It may appear that homes are not selling, but they are, just fewer of them. A big problem is the high number of "short sales" and foreclosures is affecting what we call inventory level, or the number of houses that are available for sale. This graph that I got from Kirk Groves shows what has happened recently:

As you can see, homes are still selling, the savvy buyers are out now snapping up homes at bargain prices, but the inventory level has increased tremendously, which is why you see so many for sale signs around. Supply continues to increase while demand never grew this year as in years past. This makes it tough if you are a seller because your house needs to be in TOP CONDITION and at the BEST PRICE, to be chosen by the buyers that are out shopping. This means pricing below your neighbors house - if your house is priced in the middle of the competition, it may languish on the market. Your Realtor can help you by showing you listings of houses that have sold recently and what they really SOLD for, not what they were listed for. Many times a house will be listed for one price, and the sellers will make several price drops and then accept an offer with closing help to boot, so the sold price may be much different than what they told you when initially listing.

This chart illustrates why a "long" time on the market doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong with a house, the average time it takes to sell a house has gone up tremendously compared with previous years. As a seller, it means you may need to be more patient than in the past. If your Realtor hasn't sold your house in 2 weeks, it's not the Realtors fault, it is just the market. All homes will sell, the question is at what price will it sell. When you are within the price range that your house will sell, you will see the showings pick up and then you'll get an offer.

If you are looking to move into another house, this market is the perfect one to do it in. You will need to price your house competitively, but in turn you can get a bargain on the house you are choosing. Most buyers in this market will have several "favorites" to choose from and can pick the house where they get the best combination of amenities and price. The lower home price coupled with the low interest rates equal a real deal.

If you are thinking of selling, make sure to put your house up for sale first, then start looking at houses to purchase. If you fall in love with a house and yours isn't even available for sale, it may take too long to sell yours so you'll miss out. Plus, in most areas there will be several homes that will be a good fit for you!

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To list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Maryland, call Lisa & David Webber, ABR, Licensed Realtors®. For more information on our services, please visit our profile or our website.

To view all the Maryland Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Property Search on the left hand side. We know Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Baltimore, and Prince George's Counties and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

I was pulling statistics for a seller here in Prince George's County Maryland, specifically in Bowie, zipcode 20715. We have this gorgeous home on the market for almost a month, originally listed at $499,900 and now down to $429,900. Only 2 people have seen it since dropping down to $429,900 in the past week. As I was wondering where the buyers are, I decided to break it down by price.

Most of the buyers are in the $275,000-$349,000 price range - first time buyers! When you look at all the homes that are in "active" status, yours really needs to be the best, condition and price-wise if you want to join the "under contract" club above!

Now if you are in the "move-up" buyer price range, do I have a gorgeous, LARGE home for you, complete with inground pool, quiet neighborhood of well-kept homes, and only $429,900 - better grab this one quick!

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To list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Maryland, call Lisa & David Webber, ABR, Licensed Realtors®. For more information on our services, please visit our profile or our website.

To view all the Maryland Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Property Search on the left hand side. We know Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Baltimore, and Prince George's Counties and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

I know the market is supposed to be bad but there are actually still multiple offers coming in on well-priced homes. We were showing a family a beautiful home over in the Manors Of Crofton neighborhood in Crofton last week. It had been listed at $569,000 and they decided it was time to sell so they made a dramatic price drop to $499,900. This was during a weekend when they held an open house and they had a ton of interest, several disclosure requests, and 2 written offers with ESCALATION CLAUSES. Our clients decided to move on to another home as some people don't want to fight over houses in this market.

The same week I had another client out, ready to write an offer on either of her two favorites and by the time the weekend was over, both had contracts on them! Good news for serious home sellers is the selling market is here in full force. And home buyers, if you are ready to buy, learn the prices in the neighborhoods where you are looking because when a home gets into that magic prce range, it WILL get an offer quickly. Don't forget, many sellers in this market are expecting to negotiate so even if the price is higher than you planned on spending, don't be too shy to make an offer. Or go see it in person and keep an eye on it because the seller may get motivated and do a big price drop so you'll want to be ready to POUNCE!

Happy House Hunting!

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To list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Maryland, call Lisa & David Webber, ABR, Licensed Realtors®. For more information on our services, please visit our profile or our website.

To view all the Maryland Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Property Search on the left hand side. We know Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Baltimore, and Prince George's Counties and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

So you're wondering how there is a $10,000 house in Crofton? There it is, plain as day, listed in the multiple list system, $10,000 for a Crofton Meadows Townhome. It's pretty nice too, mostly original, but 3 finished levels, walkout basement, near the school, clean.

The catch is it is NOT a $10,000 home. The auction company that is selling the house has it listed for $10,000 to "get people's attention". Which it certainly has. I got a call from my girlfriend who qualifies for $150,000 and she said I have to ask you about a house I just saw listed. Of course I said, "You mean the $10,000 one?" I've already had many inquiries about that one and it's not even my listing!

We all know that most open houses don't draw very many buyers, especially when it is pouring down rain like yesterday. Well, this one sure did. The unsuspecting potential buyers thought they were going to get a real deal, but once they came by were told that this is not a distressed property, not a short sale or foreclosure. The sellers are using the "auction technique" as a way to hope to sell the house quicker and for more money than a regular sale. There is a minimum amount that they will accept and if the auction does not get up to the minimum amount, they will not sell That amount is confidential of course.

I have to say BUYER BEWARE in this type of situation. Have you ever seen the TV show "Going, Going, Gone?" It is a reality show about auctions and has featured homes in Maryland including one in Baltimore City and another in Ellicott City. They first bring in an appaiser to give an idea of the property value and then show the auction. In each case, the buyer PAID MORE than what the appraiser thought the house was worth. Why would you pay more??? The Baltimore home I believe was about $20,000 too high (sold in the low $100s) and the Ellicott City home that the appraiser thought was worth in the mid 500s, sold for around $620K.

An auction environment can get you caught up in the game of it. "Just another $1,000 and I'll beat that guy", "Oh it's just another $5,000", it's easy to get carried away.

And when all is said and done, you have to pay another 6% "buyers premium" on top of your winning bid.

If you are going to go to an auction or are considering buying at auction and you are not a seasoned investor, please bring your BUYER'S AGENT!!! They will first take you to the property, look at it, do comparables for you and tell you about what you should pay for it. Then take off that buyer's premium and you'll be at your very top bid - and don't bid more than that!

There are so many great deals available right now there is no reason to pay more than market value for a home because someone wants to play the auction game.

If it is a true auction, let's say a foreclosure auction, you can potentially get a good deal there as the property really needs to sell so the mortgage company usually just wants what is owed so if you bid more than the mortgage owed, it's yours. There again, make sure the mortgage isn't for more than the current market value of the home. In that case, you'll want to wait until the bank takes back the home and then lists it for sale. Then you can make them an offer and get a real deal.

Talk with your BUYER'S AGENT and have them help with your research - you won't believe the deals that are available today!

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To list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Maryland, call Lisa & David Webber, ABR, Licensed Realtors®. For more information on our services, please visit our profile or our website.

To view all the Maryland Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Property Search on the left hand side. We know Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Baltimore, and Prince George's Counties and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

If you're looking for a special gift for a relative, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, etc., Express It is a great place to go.

We had a Brownie Troop meeting here at Express It and it was a blast. Express It is an art studio in the same shopping center as Christopher's Restaurant, behind the Dunkin Donuts that is on Rt. 3, across from the Crofton Gates.

The girls had their meeting in the back room and there are also individual tables in the main part of the shop. On one side is shelf after shelf of ceramic items ready to be painted and customized. Everything from piggy banks to dishes, picture frames, figurines, a huge selection. Some people come in and create customized dishes and serving platters to use for themselves. Others bring their children and have them choose gifts to be personalized for loved ones or special people. You do your art work there, the painting and designing. The ladies there will help you with color choices and designs if you'd like or you can work on your own. Once you are finished your creation, they put it in a kiln for you and fire it and you come back to pick it up later.

We've also come here for a birthday party and it was great fun. This time as well we were in the back room, where the girls made all of their creations and then we brought in snacks and birthday cake and sang to the birthday girl. Something different and a fun afternoon with or without the kids!

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To list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Maryland, call Lisa & David Webber, ABR, Licensed Realtors®. For more information on our services, please visit our profile or our website.

To view all the Maryland Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Property Search on the left hand side. We know Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles, Baltimore, and Prince George's Counties and look forward to the opportunity to serve you.