Archive for September, 2007
Sunday Night Steals and Deals
September 30th, 2007 Categories: Buy A Charlotte Home
Tonight we will continue looking at Huntersville, NC, a little higher up on the price ladder…under 600k, under 800k and under 1 million.
In the under 600k range, we now see many features become common place. Mostly full brick veneer, granite counter tops, Stainless Steel appliances, and tile bathrooms. Neighborhood features step up a level as well, including golf, clubhouse, pool and tennis courts. Several of these homes were on the Golf course. Of, course. lot sizes are larges, ranging from .32to .94 acres.
Here is a case where $/sf is not always the best measure of value. The range here was 131 – 170 $/sf. Your ‘value’ in these homes would be in direct proportion to your interest in Golf, no necessarily in the amount of total space in the home. The same goes for the one house that had a private pool in the yard. Either you want it or it has no ‘value’, and may even be a negative, in your estimation of value.
Having said all that, the choice in this range was a 3866 sf home in Skybrook. A golf course community that has all the amenities mentioned above. At $151/sf it is solidly in the middle of the range at $584,900. Built in 2004, many of the new home hassles, like establishing a yard and initial window treatments are already in place. Of course new owners may have different tastes for some items, but changes can be made over time, not immediately. The house has a Master Suite down, a feature more and more in demand.
My choice in the under 800k range was easy. There was only one available, and newly on the market, as well. Also in Skybrook, priced at $799,900, the distinctive feature is a fully finished basement. Larger than the others at 5861 sf, it has 6 bedrooms and 6 baths, sitting on .57 acres!
In the under 1 million category, we see some true custom homes and estates, with land up to 15 acres or Lake view or even Waterfront. My choice is the Waterfront home. This is new construction, 3561 sf at $899,900. There is a private deck off the master bedroom with a lake view. This home even has a Private pier on Lake Norman (this is becoming a rare item, as every lot is not automatically allowed to have a pier). All these features make this one a real ‘Deal’, if it’s in your range.
As I’ve said before, due to advertising restrictions, I cannot show pictures of these homes here, but you can email me and I will be glad to send you a full property report.
See you next week.
| Currently No Comments » |
Carolina MLS Days On Market: Delibarately BAD Numbers from the MLS
September 24th, 2007 Categories: Real Estate News
Breaking Down The Carolina MLS Numbers, first of at least two post.
Well after quite a number of tries, I was able to duplicate the results for the MLS August press release with one exception, Days on Market… that’s not surprising since Days on Market, DOM, is a meaningless statistic the way Carolina Home computes it.
This is first in a series on our local MLS and will be included in the transparent real estate section of the blog- in this post I examine how the Carolina MLS and the DOM numbers are deliberately inaccurate and how they work against buyers and their agents.
Good agents and brokers use the MLS daily and it is generally a very reliable source of data- a truth teller for the property, and a truth teller for the market. It needs to be because customers depend on it… we send them “Customer Full Reports” in their email every day. They can and frequently do compare properties side by side for features and square foot for square foot. Accuracy is so important, an Agent or Broker can be sued for knowingly putting in false information, and censured by the real estate commission for accidentally putting in false information.
So why isn’t MLS’s Days on Market accurate? And why did I say deliberately above? You be the judge.
For the Carolina MLS, and many, but not all MLS across the country, the Days on Market given by the MLS don’t start necessarily when the house first went on the market. DOM is often an indicator of seller motivation and the general health of the market. A seller with a DOM of 200 is more likely to take a lower offer than one with a DOM of 5, wouldn’t you think? That might be important information to have when considering how much to offer, wouldn’t it? But what if the reverse were true? That DOM 5 was actually over a year old, could you miss making an offer here? Yes you could and the truth is client or agent don’t know from our MLS reports. Interestingly, the inaccurate DOM does not appear on the “Customer Full Report” only on the “Agent Full Report”
As an aside, I spoke to our MLS today, asking how they arrived at their DOM reported in their last Press Release? I was told by their Data base manager that the “Numbers were flaky from the start.” Back to the customers…
Customers frequently ask, “How many days has it been on the market?” We refer to the Agent Full Report and tell them. And it may not be correct at all. How is that so? Well in the example above, in the Carolina MLS, the DOM 5 could have been on the market much longer than the DOM 200. Say that again? Thats right, the DOM 5 could have been on the market longer, because the way CMLS measures it, it is from the last Listing Date, not the original listing date. In the example above, the DOM 5 listing could have been on the market for one year, 365 days, then fired their first agent. A day later they re-listed with a new agent. Presto, new listing date (latest listing date) and a brand new DOM, 4 days later we (buyer and buyer agent) are reviewing and it says DOM 5. Can we research this and find the true answer? Yes, but again, why is this Wrong answer on the MLS Sheet WE strive so hard to make accurate?
Two additional questions: Why isn’t DOM on the “Customer Full Report”? and Why do they measure it from the last listing date, instead of the first, like so many other MLS’s do? In the example above, the Listing Date and DOM should have been taken from the first listing date, not the last, for accurate DOM.
Why? It is figured from the last List date on the MLS to yield the smallest (DOM) number to protect Sellers. It not being on the Customer Full Report protects the MLS from liability, and in the process they leave us Buyer Agents liable. What? We’re liable as Agents when the MLS printed the info? Yes because we tell the customer the DOM from the Agent Full Report. That means the liability is with us, if we don’t also explain every time we say “DOM is 20, but that number doesn’t mean much I’ll research it.” They then ask why it doesn’t mean much…
Then after explaining why this number is not to be trusted, the customer then asks, which other numbers can not be trusted? It happened to me this past month, just this way working with an astute California couple moving to Charlotte. He pointed out to me the differences and asked the same questions I am trying to answer here.
I think it is clear– Days on market should be from the first listing date- as I understand in California if its re-listed within 30 days it is the same listing. And I think it should be on the Customer Full Report– no reason to hide it and set up an inexperienced agent to mislead his client by not doing his homework.
What other numbers on your MLS are hidden from the customer? What other numbers do the MLS use to favor sellers? Ah the subject of my next post. There is a movement nationwide towards transparent real estate, I’m getting on board because transparent real estate is better real estate.
And its been this way forever? Do you think they don’t know the DOM numbers are bad?
I knew you were a smart crowd! 
| Currently No Comments » |
Against the Transit Tax Repeal
September 22nd, 2007 Categories: Charlotte News and Politics
Oh let me count the ways! Let’s start with these facts I think most of us could agree on: Charlotte is growing at an extremely high rate, congestion is high here by any measure, and that growth will continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore,
The tax, .5 cents added to our sales tax, is good policy because:
1. Roughly 2/3’s of the annual $68Million in revenue has supported expanding the Charlotte bus service, rapidly addressing short term needs, and 1/3 supports light rail, long term needs.
2. The sales tax is a regional tax, in other words commuters from Iredell, Union County, Cabarrus, York, Gaston– everyone coming in to Charlotte and purchasing goods here helps pay the tax, in other words, those who benefit from our economy need to be involved in improving Charlotte infrastructure. If the tax is repealed? Ask the pro-repeal guys, it will fall on the shoulders of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to pay for it through property taxes. This is an easy economic question for city of Charlotte voters.
3. It allows the city to guide its development and reconstruction. It is inescapable that the “transportation policy” is a “land use policy” in disguise, as a detractor points out. Yup sure is- just like a highway plan! Real estate agents in North Carolina have long known that if you want to invest in land, the first stop you should make is Raleigh to see where the roads will be in 15-20 years! Likewise, when choosing transit corridors, there are by definition “winners” (those owning property on or near the corridors) and Losers ( those owning property along competitive avenues) which accounts for some of the cut with a knife screams of “conspiracy” by Transit detractors.
4. It is something we can do. It will not solve the area’s congestion by itself, not by a long shot,
but as most know, federal funds for mass transit have dried up and highway policy is set in Raleigh.
5. Suppiorting the tax doesn’t keep us from fighting for more roads for the Charlotte region. WE NEED TO! I am a supporter of Republican’s Phil Berger and Paul Stam’s advocacy that the transportation fund stop being looted, raided, or plundered -your choice of words for a state taking transportation tax revenues to pay for other measures, of a $1.5B road bond for NC being placed on the November ballot, and addressing the archaic way the trust fund allocates highway spending without regard to growth, congestion or highway miles traveled. Berger and Stam also call on Governor Easley and the Democratically controlled state house to take transportation and infrastructure seriously which means NOT cutting the funding by 41M as the current budget does. If education was a winner in the state budget, transportation was a loser.
The critics have been against transit from the start, the cost over runs just gave them the cover to get this on the ballot. Just a note, the price of transit projects is very hard to predict accurately, and if you lived in Seattle you’d think our cost over run small. Many of the tranist critic are the same critics who told you we could get more schools by voting against the last school bond, how did that work out for you? Many of the arguments are the same too. “It cost too much”, or “I’m not getting enough for my community” or “We’re over-taxed”, or “My voters won’t ride it.” All of these arguments can be translated simply into this reality, “I am not getting what I want.”
The sales tax spreads the cost of transit improvements over the greater Charlotte community, and is decidedly more fair than raising my Charlotte property taxes. Most believe a family of four pays roughly $59 more for the sales tax– and to get similar revenues from our Charlotte property taxes? $160 per year per property owner to fund the $68M the tax produces.
We, the citizens of Charlotte who believe in Charlotte’s future, need to take the lead. We need to take the lead on transit, highways, public safety and all the policy’s needed to keep this city the great and the wonderful place it is– for families, for business, and for the state. We need to support forward looking politicians- and communicate that support through our votes and presence to those who believe in the future of Charlotte and this state, and NOT those that believe the city’s best days are behind them. I include Mayor McGrory in this forward-thinking group, he has led the way on transit and taken political heat for it. We need to push our State representatives to do what is necessary to provide roads for the 21st Century for North Carolina and Charlotte.
And the .5 cent tax benefits every Charlotte resident because for every person taken off the highway… that makes my drive (and those who have to or prefer to drive) around town a little better.
Vote for Charlotte’s Future, Vote NO on the repeal, and lets beat it 3 to 1.
| Currently No Comments » |
Real Estate Headlines
September 19th, 2007 Categories: Real Estate News
These headlines just came across the wire (love that expression, culled from my vast email list)
1/3 of purchaser loans originated by Mortgage Brokers failed to close in August, 2007. WOW!
1/2 Fed drop is like putting the lending industry on steroids, jet fuel in place of regular fuel… hopefully that will translate positively as it percolates into the nation-wide housing market. The Fed seem’s serious about heading off a possible housing recession– that’s good news.
The priciest zip codes in the country, from Forbes magazine . Always fun, surprises? Yes, number 1 is a new Jersey zip, famous Beverly Hills-90210 was 40th and only 3 Carolina zips made the top 100, all on the coast, 2 in NC one in SC. Check it out
| Currently No Comments » |
Mortgage Market Report
September 19th, 2007 Categories: Real Estate News
NO DOC LOAN CHANGES
I currently work for the largest mortgage broker in the Charlotte area, as ranked by the Charlotte Business Journal. We are known for aggressive programs and rates. One area I have personally specialized in is No Doc loans, especially for people new to the area.
Olan Carder
| Currently No Comments » |
Why is th APR different from my interest rate?
September 19th, 2007 Categories: Real Estate News
by Olan Carder
What is an APR and why is different from my interest rate?
Most homebuyers get very confused when they first see their APR. Their loan officer told them that the interest rate is 6.25%, but they see the APR is 6.456%. What is going on?
Before understanding the APR, you need to know its purpose. The APR was invented to help consumers shop and compare mortgage loans. If one lender quotes you 6% with no points but the other lender quotes you 5.75% with one point, which one is better? The APR enables you to easily compare 2 loans because it shows you the interest rate you are paying and the fees you are paying to get that rate spread out over the term of the loan.
In theory, it should be a true apples to apples comparison of two loan quotes. Since the APR shows your interest rate and the fees you are paying for that rate, it should normally be higher than your actual rate. The test is how much higher.
There are 2 problems:
Problem #1 with comparing loans with the APR… each loan officer’s computer has to be setup properly to include the correct fees into that number. That leaves it open to human tampering. Far be it from me to hint that some loan officers would willingly print a false APR to win a loan, but even an honest loan officer might make a mistake. That’s why you should compare the APR, but also compare the Good Faith Estimate line for line and make sure you are getting the best deal.
Problem #2 with comparing loans with the APR… the comparison only works if you keep the loan for the entire term. If you get a 30 year loan but only keep it 6 years, the comparison might not be correct. The APR shows you which loan costs less over 30 years not 6 years. That’s why I offer a “Total Cost Analysis” to my clients that calculates the total cost for period of time they plan to keep the mortgage. That is the best way to compare loan programs.
For more information about this or other loan topics, email me at olan@myersparkmortgage.com.
| Currently No Comments » |
Unbelievably Beautiful!
September 18th, 2007 Categories: Charlotte News and Politics
Or, said another way, this is a day “nice enough to move to Charlotte for”…far more typical of October, we’ve had two beautiful fall days in mid-September. Yesterday and today the temperature hasn’t left the 70’s, it is dry, sunny and the sky’s are somehow bluer than they get up north- yes I know that is technically not possible, just another fantastic North Carolina day. Here’s one of my favorite lake pictures, taken from one of the waterfront lots at the Sanctuary on Lake Wylie, on another gorgeous Carolina day. 
| Currently No Comments » |
