About Tooele County, UT

This weeks column was about tips on Utah short sales. Not just being for Tooele Home Buyers is an understatement. Actually not even just for those families looking for a good buy on a home in Utah.

Short Sales are a national phenomenon that have had an impact on the Real Estate market like nothing else except maybe foreclosures and interest rates. I hope this article is helpful

President's Message

Chris Sloan

During these tough economic times, a once uncommon real estate transaction is becoming more and more prevalent. In fact, if you've been watching the marketplace, you've probably already run into a few homeowners who are looking to sell using this type of deal.

It's called a short sale, and it's a situation that occurs when homeowners are unable to sell their property for the amount they owe on their mortgage. In other words, the owner can't sell their home unless a third-party creditor, usually a mortgage lender, approves the deal. The situation usually occurs when home prices fall and the owner has little or no equity in the property. The seller seeks to do a short sale rather than face foreclosure.

While these situations are difficult for each of the involved parties, they can also be a win-win: Sellers receive a less severe mark on their credit reports, which can help them purchase another home in a quicker timeframe than if they had a foreclosure on their record; banks can often reduce their losses by avoiding the costly foreclosure process; and buyers can purchase competitively priced real estate. Nevertheless, they are complicated and often frustrating transactions, especially for buyers who are unfamiliar with the process.

Below is information that can help you decide if a short sale purchase is right for you and, if so, what to keep in mind as you go through the transaction.

Hire an Experienced Realtor

By their nature, short sales are complicated transactions. One figure from the California Association of Realtors estimated a short sale success rate of only 50 percent. That's why if you decide to buy one of these properties, you should work with a Realtor who is experienced in short sales. A Realtor can protect your interests, guide you through the process and provide advice when things don't go as planned.

Get Information about the Asking Price

Buyers typically see short sales as a way to get bargain-priced real estate. While it's true that short sales can be a way to get good deals, don't expect huge discounts. Lenders are trying to minimize their losses, and while they will sell competitively priced real estate, they require purchase prices to be in line with current market values.

Also keep in mind that the asking price for a short sale is usually only a baseline figure because the seller doesn't know how much the bank will accept. That's why it's a good idea to initially find out whether the lender has approved the listing price. If not, know that the final price could be higher.

In deciding how much to offer on a property, your Realtor will be a great resource. A Realtor experienced in short sales will be able to determine a price that the lender will likely accept.

Be Patient

Once you've been pre-approved for a mortgage and find a property you're ready to purchase, you'll submit an offer to the seller who, upon acceptance, will then submit your offer to the lender for approval. Once the offer is submitted to the lender, be prepared to wait. Getting an answer from a bank can take at least 60 days, and the entire process from start to finish can take about three to four months.

One tip for possibly reducing the response time is including in your offer a deadline by which the lender must act. When banks have stacks of pre-foreclosures to review, your offer can end up near the bottom of the pile if the lender has no reason to look at it sooner. Nevertheless, keep in mind that significant delays do occur even when deadlines are included.

Because of these delays, buyers looking to act quickly may be better off making an offer on another property that is not subject to third party approval.

Be Careful about the Contract

In most short sale transactions in Utah, buyers will include in their offers a provision that states there is no legally binding contract until the lender accepts the offer. That allows the seller to continue to accept other offers, but it also allows you to walk away from the deal for any reason. So if you find another house in the meantime, you're not obligated to buy the short sale if the bank has not yet approved your offer. But that's not always the case, so make sure you know and understand what you are agreeing to when you submit an offer.

Short sales are complex transactions, but they can also be great opportunities. For the best chance at success, make sure to work with an experienced real estate professional.

Published Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:19 PM by Chris & Berna Sloan

Home sales were down a lot in Tooele compared to '07, but prices were only slightly down.

For 2008, home sales were down by 34% as 675 residential homes sold in Tooele County Utah compared with 1033 in 2007. Prices of homes sold was also down slightly as the median price dropped 3.5% to $183,275. The average price of homes sold dropped 2.5% from 2007's average of $203,063 to $197,998.

Currently there are 520 homes for sale in Tooele Utah. The median price of these homes is $215,000, average price is $239,876, and at 2008's sales rate, there is 9.24 months of inventory. It's a buyers market in Tooele, and the list prices of many of the homes for sale will need to come down if they want to sell. 2009 should be a better year for Tooele Utah Real Estate.

These numbers are not official, but they'll be pretty accurate.

Just think about it, a new year just around the corner, and still time to buy a New Home in Stansbury Park.

I know, you can't believe you can select a neighborhood, pick a floor plan apply for financing, and close your new home in time for a New Years housewarming.

I didn't either but then I looked at the "shadows" post on Cories blog and saw what Richmond America was doing over on that side of the mountain, and got pretty excited.

If they can do it we can do it! BETTER ! We've got them beat hands down. In all four categories.

FINANCING:
Sure they have a special 4.5% FHA financing option with an interest rate on a 30 year mortgage. (5.1434% APR) but so do we. What they don't have is 100% financing available throughout Tooele County.

QUICK CLOSING:
I don't know why I let the fact that it's only a couple of weeks from the end of the year. (or the beginning of a new one if you folks are on straight commission prefer). We'd be happy to let Richmond America do the heavy lifting, but remember were the guys that took only 7 days to get a client moved in. From start to finish. (with the help and service of a fantastic local lender). It can be done.

NEIGHBORHOOD:
Are you kidding? It's Stansbury Park. Lake, boats, Golf, parks, playgrounds; A sophisticated, rural community thats lets you commute to the Airport, or Airport Industrial area in 20 freeway minutes. Downtown Salt Lake? Tack on another 10...... No contest.

NEW HOME SELECTION:
This could be a problem. But it would be a problem anywhere. If professional designers said dark marble tops look better than wood grain laminates, then you might not like the decor. If you had your heart set on a sea foam green carpet for your New Home, my bet is that the builders people thought a darker color was more practical. Just remember that these New Homes were outfitted by professionals with an eye for color and functionality, and to please the majority of the people that visit the Model Home. It can't be too bad.

So here's what we've got to choose from.

Stansbury Park New Homes For Sale: (Ready to go)

Stansbury Place has three new homes to choose from.

The Alexander II is 2150 sqft home with 4 bdrms, 2.5 bths and a 2 car garage. Priced @ $259,920.

The Chamberlain II is 2550 sqft, has 4 bdrms, 2.5 bths w/ a 3 car garage for $324,707.

The Lincoln II has 4 bdrms, 2.5 bths, a 3 car garage in 2700 sqft for $329,589.

Starside II has one new home for sale.

The Bryce is a 1600 sqft Rambler that sells for $254,990, and has 3bdrms, 2.5 bths w/ a 2 car garage.

Picket Lane II has a couple of new homes ready for delivery.

The Cedar @ $225,759 is a 1200 sqft 2 bdrm 3 bth Rambler w/ a 3 car garage.

The Winter is ready for $235,870 w/1500 sqft, 3 bdrm, 2.5 bths, and a 3 car garage.

Not a bad selection to choose from.

If your interested, give us a call, @ 435-840-5029. We'd love to introduce you to the folks at Richmond American Homes. If you are working with another Realtor, call them and get out there to the Stansbury Park Models. But as usual I recommend that when thinking of buying a New Home you have your own agent. It's FREE and just makes good sense. Read new home agent.

To see all of the homes for sale in Tooele County as well as Stansbury Park, stop by our web site, Tooele Homes and see what else is available. You'll get photos, maps, prices and valuable information about all of the homes listed in Tooele.

In the meantime, let us help you celebrate the New Year when you buy New Home In Stansbury Park UT.

It seems that with me it's always Real Estate even when I'm not in Tooele checking my "Homes For Sale" signs, filling brochure boxes or at the Tooele Courthouse researching Foreclosures and Pre-Foreclosed homes from the County records. If I'm not in Tooele I'm attending a meeting.

Even though they are about Real Estate, they are pretty boring, and don't cover any information I can pass on to our clients about how to buy a house, or how to search the MLS to find homes for sale in Tooele.

So I don't post about them much. I rarely think you'd be interested.

Yesterdays meeting was different though. It was the Utah Association of Realtors (UAR) annual statewide summit.

Every year Real Estate Brokers from all over the state meet to discuss Economic, Legal, political and Educational topics and how they pertain to our business.

Since the meeting was poorly attended I thought I would e-mail some thoughts I had about it to the various board presidents around the state.

When I reread what I was sending, I realised that I have some pretty hard core readers here that are interested in much of what we talked about. So I'm posting a bit about it. If you find it interesting great ! If you don't, dont worry I wont be doing this often

Next week it will be back to how many homes are for sale in Stansbury Park, and are Short Sales selling better in Tooele or Grantsville UT?

Here goes !!!

Good morning, all!

As I didn't see many of you at yesterday's Broker meeting, I thought I'd give you a quick overview of what was discussed.

As you might guess, the topic was the economy, both present and future.

We had Howard Headlee from the Utah Bankers Association. He stressed that Utah banks were very strong, especially compared to others around the country. He also mentioned that the TARP money (the 700B bailout) is just now hitting the market. He said that banks won't lower their lending standards, but that there is money out there to lend. He said the residential lending market is going "back to basics". Development money will be extremely limited until existing inventory is at a more realistic level, and that commercial money will be on a "case by case" basis. I thought he had the line of the day when he described our lowering membership numbers as a "flight to quality". I agree that the best Realtors will still be standing when the dust settles.

Bill Erickson, President of Utah Housing also talked about some of the programs they have, as well as the Guv's new Housing Action Coalition.

We then heard from 3 different economists that were basically singing the same tune. Unemployment is up, and will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. They all seem to agree that we are in a recession (shocker!). They also all seem to agree that we are looking at 3rd to 4th quarter 2009 before we start to see an upturn in the economy. The good news is that even with a flattening of in-migration, we are still creating around 13,000 new households per year through "natural" factors. This is Utah, after all! Most agree that these cycles generally have a 3-4 year "life" and depending on how you measure, we are in year 2 or 3. They anticipate that Fannie/Freddie will start buying up more mortgage backed securities helping recapitalize the lending market, which will help us all a ton.

It was an excellent meeting. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

In addition, podcasts of all of the presentations will be available on the UAR website (www.utahrealtors.com) in the next couple of days. I'd urge you all to take the time to watch and listen to what they have to say. It wasn't great news, but it was very valuable info.

Sorry for the length of this message but it was a 3 hr meeting and had multiple economists! Have a great day!

Chris Chris Sloan
Branch Broker
Group 1 Real Estate
tooelehomes4sale.com
(435)840-5031

So there you go. Now you know , It's about Real Estate even when I'm not in Tooele.

We got some great leadership tips at our latest conference. Most were obviously business related, but as I was driving home it occured to me that perhaps these lessons are better applied in our homes and with our families. I promised myself I would share them.

UAR Leadership Tip

Achieving Extraordinary Results

The most important quality of leadership, the one quality for which you want to be known, is extraordinary performance. With the goal of achieving extraordinary results.

These results then serve as an inspiration to others to perform at equally exceptional levels.

People ascribe leadership to those men and women who they feel can most enable them to achieve important goals or objectives. (Source: 1000Ventures)

Do you have your goals set for the coming year?

Your goals for yourself, your business, and your Association need to be taking shape in your mind, if not on paper.......... WRITE THEM DOWN OR THEY DON'T EXIST!

Enough work stuff.

It's the best holiday of the year this week.

How can you beat getting together with family and friends, eating too much watching football, then eating some more?

In all seriousness, I hope you all take a moment this week and think about the things you are thankful for this year.

It's very easy these days to dwell on the negative things we are inundated with on a constant basis. Like the economy. Just remember, as bad as ours seems, 99% of the rest of the world would trade places with you in a minute!

Stress? Go for a walk (or take a nice long drive!) and get some perspective. I'm thankful for my friendship with all of you, and the opportunity I have to associate with such "Eagles". Anyone can hang out with the chickens...

.By the way, does anyone know the words to "Utah Man"?

Have a great week and an amazing holiday! Chris