An Overgrown Property and a Bee Attack It was a listing of mine which had a yard with extremely overgrown shrubs and trees. One of the potential options for the property was to subdivide it into two buildable lots. My concern in selling the property was that it was a bit difficult to see it with all of the over growth. I went to the property a few times.  It was near my office so it was easy enough to go by frequently.  One stop was to install a sign, one stop was to take photos of the house on the property, another was to take photos of the lot itself, and a few other reasons. Each time that I was there, I took a few moments to clear a little bit of the lot.  I wanted prospective buyers to be able to see the lot, to walk, at least, parts of the lot, and I wanted to be able to actually ... 09/22/2011

You Will Pay When You Own Your Home Or You Will Pay When You Sell Your Home You will pay the cost of maintaining and upgrading your home while you own your home. Alternatively, if you do not make the investment while you own your home to maintain and upgrade it, then you will pay, at least, the same amount when you sell your home. Obviously, a home which has not had proper maintenance or a home which has not been upgraded over time to more modern and efficient systems will not be as valuable as a home which has had these things done. At the time of selling, not only will the home be, at least, lower in value by as much as the cost of these now necessary and required improvements, but it is likely that most buyers would want to pay even less for the home since they will have the hassle o... 09/21/2011

Multi-Tasking For Football Fans It's football season again and you do not want to miss a single play of a single game, at least, for your favorite team. At the same time, you are in the market to buy a house, but you are too busy with work during the week and too occupied with football on the weekends to have the time to go out and look for that house. Have you considered multi-tasking? That's right; with multitasking, you have more than one thing happening at the same time. With myself for instance I will have several things happening this Sunday. I will be watching the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans football game on the big screen high definition television.   I will be holding an Open House at one of the most spectacular properties in Baltimore County.   I will be on my comput... 09/15/2011

Where Should She Set Her Thermostat? The Temperature Is . . . . But It Feels Like Usually when temperatures are in a moderate range, we do not hear the statement about what it feels like. Of course, in the dead of winter, there is talk about the temperature feeling lower than it is because of the wind chill and in the peak of summer there is talk about the temperature feeling higher than it is because of the humidity. Remember earlier in the summer when temperatures in the northeast United States were in the upper 90s to low 100s, but how it felt like 115 and such because of the humidity. Now that temperatures are in the more moderate range of the 70s to 80s, we are not hearing about how it feels. However, I have found that this may be just as relative a range of temperatures for having... 09/09/2011

She Told Me That A Woodpecker Did It I went on a listing appointment and as I always do on such appointments I walked around the property to see just what it entailed. There was a nice sized deck off of the back of the house, which would be a very good selling feature. However, I noticed that several areas of the supporting framework for the deck had some issues. I was thinking that maybe it was some form of dry rot or an eating away caused by termites or some other wood destroying bug. In actuality, it did not seem to fit any of these possibilities of which I was thinking so I asked the owner what she knew about it. She told me that she had a problem with woodpeckers. She had tried different things to ward them away, but nothing seemed to work. Although, I knew that woodpeckers pecked ... 09/09/2011

High Days on Market Equals Desperate Seller? What are they asking and how long has it been on the market? These are two of the questions which many buyers ask when they are thinking about making an offer to purchase a house. Obviously the price is important, but how much relevance to negotiating a deal does days on market actually have? There are many reasons for why the days on market could be high, for instance: The seller started at a high price to test the market, but gradually dropped to a reasonable price when reality showed that a high price was not going to happen.   The seller put the house on the market prematurely.  For example, work was still being completed on the house so it did not show well until the work was complete.   What should be considered a high number of days on... 09/08/2011

NOTTINGHAM HOME FOR SALE - NEW LISTING BY MIKE KLIJANOWICZ INTRODUCING 8257 BERRYFIELD DRIVE NOTTINGHAM, MD 21236        If you are considering listing and selling your Baltimore County or Harford County Maryland real estate, I can provide a FREE HOME EVALUATION REPORT also known as a Comparative Market Analysis Report (CMA).  The report will detail all of the Baltimore County or Harford County homes comparable to yours that have recently SOLD in your immediate market area!   CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE BALTIMORE COUNTY OR HARFORD COUNTY MARYLAND HOME VALUE REPORT AND TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR HOME! Are you searching for a new place to call home in MD, PA, VA, DC, or WVA?  Then CLICK HERE FOR A FREE MLS SEARCH AND SEE ALL OF THE ACTIVE HOME LISTINGS!  They are directly downloaded from... 09/05/2011

PERRY HALL HOME FOR SALE - NEW LISTING BY MIKE KLIJANOWICZ INTRODUCING 4120 SLATER AVENUE NOTTINGHAM, MD 21236        If you are considering listing and selling your Baltimore County or Harford County Maryland real estate, I can provide a FREE HOME EVALUATION REPORT also known as a Comparative Market Analysis Report (CMA).  The report will detail all of the Baltimore County or Harford County homes comparable to yours that have recently SOLD in your immediate market area!   CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE BALTIMORE COUNTY OR HARFORD COUNTY MARYLAND HOME VALUE REPORT AND TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR HOME! Are you searching for a new place to call home in MD, PA, VA, DC, or WVA?  Then CLICK HERE FOR A FREE MLS SEARCH AND SEE ALL OF THE ACTIVE HOME LISTINGS!  They are directly downloaded from th... 09/05/2011

Interest Rates Are Incredibly Low A national lender just gave me his mortgage interest rates. Wow!  They are incredibly low! The rate for an FHA or a VA loan is 3.875 percent with no points. The rate for a conventional loan is 4.000 percent with no points. This is getting close to giving the money away for free. A couple of years ago the rates were closer to 6.000 percent, which would have been equivalent to about a 20 percent increase in the mortgage payment. If you want to get the economy moving and save money in the process, then buy a house while interest rates are at these unbelievably low rates.   09/04/2011

The Agent Told Me That No One Had Been in The House in Awhile I viewed a house with my client.  Lots of work had been done and the house "showed" very well. However, the house did not "smell" very well. Much of the smell could probably be attributed to new carpet and freshly painted walls. The lower level had an additional smell of mildew. Most likely these smells would substantially have been abated had the windows been opened more often, if the air conditioning had been allowed to run, and if a dehumidifier had been used in the basement, however, this was not the case. My client and I were left to guess as the whether our suspicions were correct, in which case there would not have been a major problem, or as to whether there was a more severe problem with water in the basement and who... 08/27/2011

Do You Tell The Seller When Their House Is Worth More Than They Think It Is? It may be a rare occurrence when the seller thinks that their house is worth less than what the market is showing. When agents prepare for listing appointments they research lots of data and information and develop detailed comparative market analyses and, usually, they find that the seller already has a price in mind, which is higher than all of their data would suggest. But on that rare occassion, when the number that the seller has in mind is actually less than all of this research shows, should the agent let them know? We have heard about agents who "buy" listings by trying to indicate that the home is worth more than what other ethical agents indicate through their honest comparative market analyses. Alter... 08/16/2011

You Have No Control Of Your Home's Value People sweat and they fret and their blood pressure goes up and down as the stock market wildly swings up and down and down even further.  Even though they are invested in the stock market, they feel that there is very little that they as an individual can do to impact it. Alternatively, when it comes to ones home, these same people feel that they have the power to positively impact its value. They will price it based on what it was worth five years ago. They will price it based upon how much they need to pay their debts. They will price it as if it is the best home on the market. They will price it in comparison to another house which is not at all like theirs. They will price it high with the idea that buyers will always offer less. They will p... 08/14/2011

Importance Of Original List Price The percentage of an actual sales price compared to the original list price, or the price at which one lists their home for sale when they first put it on the market is inversely correlated to the days on market. The Metropolitan Regional Information System (MRIS), which includes the markets of Washington DC, Baltimore, Maryland, and their surrounding areas has tracked several metrics, including original list price versus actual sales price and days on market. The data over the last year, August 2010 through July 2011, shows a strong inverse relationship for these variables. The closer that the sales price is to the original list price the shorter the number of days on market is for that property. It seems to make sense, but the data shows that midway i... 08/13/2011

Is Renting A Good Investment?   Has Your Rent Gone Up In Value? We invest our money in various things.  Some more popular investments are stocks and bonds.  In the recent economy, many people have been suggesting gold as a very good investment. To us folks in the real estate business, we are very familiar with real estate as an investment. Real Estate Investments There are some who invest in real estate in a somewhat removed fashion similar to investing in stocks.  That would be through a Real Estate Investment Trust. Others invest more directly, whereby they like to manage rental properties.  They look for positive cash flow and long term appreciation. There are some who look for faster turnarounds who look for fixer upper properties.  This requires a few extra skills related to buildi... 08/01/2011

Well as most people on the East Cost know, it is scortching HOT out there. I know some of the folks from the Southwest are calling us wimps because this is their spring weather, but for most of us, and I was born in a town where 80 degrees is as cold as it gets. This heat is too much. But to answer my question, if you have  buyers who want to go out and look at houses, those are A buyer in my book, those buyers are ready to write an offer, those buyers are serious they are not playing games, they are not trying to entertain themselves looking at the way other people live. Please take good care of those buyers, bring water with you, stay hydrated and remember those buyers don't want to be out there in the heat looking at houses any more than you do, but they need to buy soon and they are... 07/22/2011

Are You Getting a Good Deal? A few years ago the real estate market was in very good condition.  Prices were rising at extraordinary rates.  Interest rates were low, so these properties were still affordable even at higher prices.  Lots of people were selling and lots of people were buying.  Many people were skeptical about this boom in prices, referring to it as a bubble and asking when it would burst.  Indeed, it did burst.  Prices began to come down. While prices were coming down, many people were reluctant to believe that values were coming down as well.  What used to be an appreciating product in most markets was now a depreciating product in most markets.  Real estate was losing value almost at the rate that an automobile would lose value. The slow acknowledgment of this changed m... 07/22/2011

This is a great incentive from Fannie Mae, if you sell one of the HomePath approved homes, and you buyer might qualify to purchase the home with a Homepath and up to 3.5% closing cost help, and even renovation financing. And $1,200 bonus to buyer's agent     HomePath® Buyer Incentive: June 14 – October 31 Fannie Mae is currently offering buyers up to 3.5% in closing cost assistance through October 31, 2011. A $1,200 selling agent bonus is also available to selling agents who close on an owner occupant property and meet all eligibility requirements and terms and conditions. Terms and Conditions: Buyers and/or selling agents (the agent representing the buyer) must request the incentive upon submission of initial offer. Initial offer must be submitted on or after June 14, 2011 and close by... 07/19/2011

I Am Insulted By Your Offer Buyers see a house that they like and they wish to make an offer to purchase it.  However, the offer that they wish to make is far below that of what the seller is asking for the house. Most people do not want to make an offer that will insult the other side for fear that it will stop, or at least hinder, negotiations before they even get started.  At the same time, most people do not want to go into a transaction with an unfair price. Typically, it is the buyer who is expressing these concerns about their potential offer, but there is a question as to whether or not they should be the one showing such concern. If the house is reasonably priced in the first place and the buyer still wishes to make a low offer, then they should not be worried about insulting a... 07/15/2011

I Am Not Going To Offer Full Price This is a popular statement and negotiating strategy for many real estate buyers. Questions arise as to what is the rationale for this thinking and as to whether or not it is valid. Generally, two answers are given as to the rationale. One, the sellers always list high knowing that the buyers are going to make a low offer.   Two, the buyers want to get a good deal so they make a lower offer than the listed price. It makes sense that sellers would want to get as much as possible for their home, even more than it is worth.  This would seem to give them an incentive to price the house above its market value. However, statistics will show that an overpriced home will sit on the market for a longer number of days and if not adjusted in price quickly will ev... 07/14/2011

Have Property Values Returned To Normal? Up to about the year 2000, the value of homes tended to equal that of inflation when it was measured over a long period of time. There were peaks and valleys along the way, but generally the long term average was relatively predictable. After the year 2000, values started to appreciate at unusually high rates, like 20 percent per year. However, true to the law of averages, the resultant drop in value was just as severe. There was a question as to how high values would go and now there is the alternative question of how low values will go. Can this low point be predicted based upon historical appreciation rates or should current factors be considered? Current factors such as a slowly growing economy, unemployment numbers which are almost stagnant ... 07/10/2011