Aaron Dickinson and MAAR Publish Report on Foreclosures and Short Sales on Twin Cities MLS

Check it out now

Posted by Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty on 05-05-2008 at 11:05 pm
Posted in Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion with 0 Comments

Short Sales are Locking Up Minneapolis/St. Paul Buyers

With so many short sale listings on the MLS in the Twin Cities right now, there are a lot of buyers that are “locked up” in offers on these properties for weeks… and months… with the high probability that they will ultimately not be able to purchase the house at the price they offered.  See my previous article for more background on my short sale experiences.

Since many times the eventual response from the bank is a no or “you need to bring your offer up x%” or the buyer gets outbid by a later offer, these properties could be tying up significant numbers of buyers who would otherwise be purchasing (and closing!) on another property.  This weekend I was told there were 4 offers on a short sale I was showing to my buyer.  That means 4 houses with ready, willing and able sellers (”traditional sellers”) are stuck waiting for the bank to reject 3 or all 4 offers sometime in the next 30 - 75 days before they’ll get their chance at those buyers.

Posted by Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty on 05-04-2008 at 05:05 pm
Posted in Foreclosures & Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Opinion, Personal Experiences with 1 Comment

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?

Leave it to a loan officer to give the best explanation for why buyers may want to consider a purchase right now:  http://www.themortgagereports.com/2008/03/stop-asking-you.html

Posted by Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty on 03-31-2008 at 08:03 pm
Posted in Info for Buyers, Mortgage Market, Opinion with 0 Comments

I Love Fan Mail

Today I received a call from a reader that wanted to first and foremost commend me for my blog, but also had a couple questions to ask.  It’s great to get calls or emails from readers (there’s a lot of you out there!) and I’m always happy to answer questions as well.

If you need something, do not hesitate to call or email me.

Posted by Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty on 03-22-2008 at 01:03 pm
Posted in General, Opinion, Personal Experiences with 1 Comment

Foreclosures and Short Sales are Comparables

A debate recently in my office between another agent and I focused on whether foreclosures and short sale properties really should be used for comparables for “normal” sales.

My esteemed colleague believes that since foreclosures and short sales are sold under “distressed” situations, they are not good comparables for other homes for sale.  My counter is that many foreclosures and short sale properties are not in bad condition and so they should sell at a fair market price regardless of their “distressed” situation.

When it comes down to it, foreclosure and short sale listings most often do sell at a discount to regular listings and should have that taken into consideration, but even in a slow market houses priced appropriately are selling quickly, so those are market prices.

What we do find is a substantial disparity on how much of an impact those foreclosures have on the houses around them.  In areas with low numbers of foreclosure and short sale properties, we find that those properties have little effect on the market as a whole.  Where there are a high number of these properties in a single area, we find the the impact is more like an exponential impact: the higher the number, the more substantial the impact each additional listing has.

Posted by Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty on 02-29-2008 at 12:02 am
Posted in Community Issues, Foreclosures & Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Opinion, Personal Experiences with 0 Comments