Nov. 14, 2007 - The Winning Hand

Don't you just love those situations where everybody wins? It's even better when you are the person who pulls it all together.

My last post was about playing the hand your dealt. Actually it was a teaser post that was leading up to this one. I just had to make sure that the deal I was brokering would work out. Work out it did and I am sooooooo proud. I mean, if you can't boast and brag in your own blog them why bother?

So here we are faced with an slowly declining market. Most of the REALTORS® I know, including myself, have a pretty good inventory of listings. That's because the buyers seem to be hiding out somewhere waiting for the market to bottom out. They listen to the regurgitated crap that the shallow thinkers are blathering about not buying on the downward slide because you will probably lose your life savings. Because of this the market times on our great inventory of listings is slowly building up making us look bad.

When one of my clients changed jobs and had to move out of town, I suggested that he put the possibility of leasing with an option to buy on his listing and also list the home as a rental under a separate MLS number. I pointed out that the average rents in the area were high enough to cover his carrying expenses on the house and he would even be able to pocket a few dollars a month. He agreed.

Because Internet marketing really does work, I got a call one day from someone who had seen the rental listing on a website. With two children, a boy and a girl, they needed more room and were looking to rent a detached single family home so they could get out their cramped little two bedroom apartment. We made an appointment.

As I was showing them the home it became pretty clear to me that the only reason they were renters was because their debt to income ratio was just a bit to tight. They would have no trouble making the mortgage sized monthly rent payment and if it was this time last year they probably could have gotten qualified for a loan irregardless. They had ample funds to buy out their lease at their current apartment complex, pay the security deposit and the first months rent, and still have some monies left that, according to their budget, they were saving for a future down payment. They even laid out the plan of action they had already implemented as far as paying down their debt was concerned. I mentioned that they looked like really good candidates for a lease with an option to purchase. They agreed.

The long and short of it is that they liked the place, liked me, and liked the idea of having a percentage of their rent paying down the purchase price of the house. The owner liked the fact that the proposal called for them to pay more per month than he was asking, they were willing to use their saved future down payment funds to secure the option to purchase, credited to the purchase price of the house of course, and the fact that they offered to pay the full list price of the house minus the agreed upon portion of the monthly rental, the security deposit and the monies used to secure the option.

And so, the consent to dual agency was signed, the lease was signed and the option to purchase agreement was signed. They will be moving in tomorrow. Everybody got what they wanted, including me. I now have another set of happy past clients because we all played the hand we were dealt.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Nov. 1, 2007 - Playing The Hand You Are Dealt

I keep hearing people say we are in desperate times and desperate times call for desperate measures. The buzz on the street, according to the media that is, is that the entire country is headed for financial ruin. The Chicken Little's of this world are having a field day. When it comes time to pay Association dues and MLS fees dozens of fair weather real estate agents are quitting the business. Hundreds of others who can still afford to try and stay in business for a while longer, without doing a deal, are allowing the johnny come lately guru's of foreclosures and short sales to entice them to free "seminars" where they proceed to spend the last of last years profits on "the course".

I say keep it up kids. I want you all desperately chasing the distressed sellers. It puts a big grin on my face knowing that, at least in my market, those poor unfortunates are still a small segment of the market. Just like in a hotter market where some agents believe they are going to make a living off of expired listings, only to find that twenty five other guys beat them to the door, the poor distressed seller of today has to put up a force field to ward off the invading hoard of new guru trained "experts". If these poor distressed people really knew what was happening they would have to double up on their Prozac.

Personally I am finding that a majority of the people in today's market are simply bruised, not totally beaten. Those are the folks I choose to deal with. Those are the people who are going to appreciate what I do for them and tell their family and friends about what a wonderful REALTOR® I am. When I can take a person with a little less than stellar credit history and help them put a roof over their head by creating a win win situation for buyer and seller alike, I sleep like a baby. Creating win win situations is what makes me who I am.

How do I do it? By creating terms and then going the extra mile. I play the hand that I'm dealt.

Still confused? Maybe I should have a teaser seminar where I can proceed to sell you my secrets.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Sep. 14, 2007 - For Sale Or Rent

Do you remember the old Roger Whatshisname tune that goes "Trailers for sale or rent"?  Well in today's market some perfectly good home sellers have raised the bar and are singing that tune about their perfectly good houses.  Some perfectly good REALTORS® are singing along with Roger as well: "Dang me, dang me, they oughta take a rope and hang me".  Rental listing are practically a free services as far as the REALTOR® is concerned but the fact is, if you are truly going to serve your clients best interest, and put them first, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

It doesn't do anyone any good to let a perfectly good house sit on the market, empty and unloved.  After all of the homework and analysis has been done you can pretty well determine that no one is buying houses in a certain market.  In a subdivision of similar homes it's pretty easy to see that price and condition are not the reasons houses are not selling.  Even with price reductions, staging and repairs, they sit there racking up market time.  Not just some of them, but all of them.

Could it be the location?  I doubt it.  The particular home I am talking about is in one of the most desirable school districts in the Northwest Suburbs.  It's not for lack of marketing either.  Buyers are just not active at this time.

And so, 7914 Kingsbury Drive in Hanover Park is now for sale or rent.  Not only have the terms been extended to include Lease/Purchase and Rent with Option, it is also available as a straight rental.  For just $1,450 a month some lucky family can sign a one year lease and live the good life in this beautiful 3 bedroom 1.1 bath tri-level.  Take a look at the virtual tour and call me.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Sep. 6, 2007 - Hey, Remember Me

I know what your thinking.  "Where the heck have you been Gene Molloy?"  Or maybe not.

Just in case you have been wondering I will give you a bit of a run down.  First and foremost I have been pulling out all of the stops trying to sell my listing in Hanover Park.  The average market time on the houses that are selling in the area is 120+ days.  I am about 48 days into the listing, so we are nowhere near that, but then I have always thought of myself as "better than average".

In my little corner of the world the market is slower than the freight trains in Des Plaines.  No one seems to want to budge, either.  I have been running around with a buyer client friend of mine, complete with his own money, who is looking for an investment in Addison and the sellers keep turning down perfectly good offers.  They aren't exactly full price offers, but they aren't bad either.

All of those "the sky is falling" media reports have scared people into paralysis.  Many of the "buyers" who are running around think that there is easy equity to bought by looking exclusively at distressed properties.  They have the Mr. Potter mentality.  "I'll pay 25 cents on the dollar for your shares, George Bailey."  What they haven't seemed to figure out yet (I wonder what kind of agents they are using) is that the guy on the other end who is sitting in some bank in God knows where probably IS Mr. Potter.

So, since my little corner of the world has gone dormant for now I have been hatching ideas as to how I might expand my horizons.  I have gotten a very grandiose idea and I have taken the first steps in implementing it.  I am not going to divulge too much just yet, but I can give you a teaser.  I still intend to stay in Real Estate and it involves interstate commerce.  When I have more of the requirements in place I will tell you more.  Until then feel free to hazard a few guesses.    

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 2, 2007 - Slow And Unsure

So I do all of this groovy stuff in order to market a listing.  It makes me soooooooo happy, because that is what I do.  That will get the word out to the public, now I need to rally the troops.  Wing off some just listed stuff to the other REALTORS® and we'll be all set. 

I throw a Brokers open and offer a bribe of pizza and soft drinks so I can get every agent for miles around to attend.  I indicate that if you are the kind of person that needs something a little stronger to wash the pizza down you are more than welcome to bring your own personal flask.  If I'm lucky, Chicago Agent Magazine will send a photographer sometime between 11:00 and 2:00 to record the event.   Couple all of that with the opportunity to come face to face with Gene Molloy himself and I figure we have ourselves a real Tuesday afternoon wang dang doodle.

Can you imagine my suprise when the clock struck 11:00 and I was all alone in my lovely listing?  Not to worry, I tell myself, everybody must be sleeping in this morning.  They will be arriving soon.  Low and behold, the clock stuck high noon and I was still all by myself.  At 1:00 I started to worry about looking foolish serving cold pizza when the last minute rush of hungry REALTORS® came in.  By 1:50 I had everything cleaned up and put away.  At 1:55 a married REALTOR® couple I had never met before rang the bell.  Too bad they arrived so late.  We could have had a party.

The open house I held last Saturday was not to much better.  My first first visitor was a Hanover Park Police Officer who had one of my open house signs in his hand.  It turned out to be the one from Barrington Road.  He said I had placed it too close to the public way.  He said I needed to put it about a foot further in from the roadside.  He effectively cut off any drive by traffic I could hope to attract from busy Barrington Road.  Now I'm not alluding to anything here, but there was a Century 21 open house sign right where mine used to be when I was leaving that evening.  The exact same place I have put my sign during many other open houses.  Go figure.

The only other person that showed up was in fact a prosective buyer.  Her son is a REALTOR® and he has her Townhouse listed.  She indicated that whenever she got a contract on her Townhouse she would be ready to make on offer on something.  She was sure doing her research.

I called a few of my associates this week.  I was thinking that maybe I was loosing my touch.  I was feeling washed up.  Fortunately, they are all telling the same story.  Nobody is out shopping.  They too are spending lonely weekends in empty open houses.  I guess I'm not so all alone after all.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 1, 2007 - Short Sale, It's Never A Good Idea

Just because something exists does not mean it is a good thing.  Take the short sale for instance.  The short sale in real estate is something that happens when you have to sell your house but you owe more on it than you can actually sell it for.  Believe it or not that is happening a lot right now.

It's happening because of all of those tricky mortgages that were out there a few years ago.  You know, the boom times, back when it was a sellers market and houses were flying off the market as fast as you could list them.  Those were the good old days for some people, but for others it turned out to be the worst time of their lives.  For the "well qualified buyer" (as the auto industry refers to those who can get the good deal) things turned out not so bad.  For those that needed to get into the market with gimmic loans and took on mortgages with teaser rates or interest only payments in order to buy more house than they could normally afford they might just as well have been the end times.

Any way, for some people things are getting mighty tight.  ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) have been adjusting up, the interest only period on the interest only loans are over and market values are not sky rocketing any more.  They are having a hard time making ends meet and some are even finding themselves having to make late payments, which is only making their situations worse.  They come to the realization that selling the house might just be their best option.  They even decide to go FSBO because if they can save the commission they will probably be better off.

Enter Swifty.  Swifty may or may not possess a license to practice real estate but one thing he definitely does not possess is a heart.  He probably has taken a Carlton Sheets course, or the equivelant, and he is going to come at you like he is your friend.  "I can help you out of this mess" he says.  "I have money.  I don't have enough to actually pay off your whole debt, but let me talk to the people at the bank and see if I can't get them to accept a short sale, I've done this before and I know how it works.  No more worries for you friend, you'll be out from under your mortgage payments and I might even be able to rent you the house at a price you can afford, you won't even have to move".

Old Swifty is not your friend.  Swifty is not telling you that even though the bank will be willing to give him your house at his price they still might want you to pay them the balance you owe them.  He also hasn't mentioned that even if the bank does forgive you the balance of your debt, the Internal Revenue Service is going to look at that as income and you are going to owe them their pound of flesh and believe me, if you come late with them you will not believe the interest and penalties that they are allowed to tack on.  And that's not to mention that they can just take your pay check one fine day if they get tired of waiting for you to pay them.

The moral of this story is that you should try and avoid the short sale, and people who tell it that it's a good solution, at all costs.  If the burden is getting heavy, talk to somebody who has more to talk about than a short sale.  In fact, don't wait until the you can no longer carry the load, when you can see the writing is on the wall, look for a solution right away.  Don't wait until you have to desperately try to FSBO and bump into Swifty.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Mar. 27, 2007 - The Perfect Storm

Wall Street is rattled and the pundits are saying that it's the soft housing market that is causing it.  New home sales are down and builders inventories are up.  Charlie Gibson is doing a series on The Home Wreckers.  I heard him blame the mortgage industry for all the foreclosures that are taking place.  Home prices in most areas of the country are feeling the downward pressure of an over saturated market.  I believe I saw Chicken Little running down Main Street today screaming that the sky is falling.  The local hobo was wearing a sandwich board that indicated that the end is near.  Doom and gloom are the buzz words of the day.  The perfect storm is brewing.  What are we to do?

Perhaps we would feel better if we sang.  Come on everybody sing along with me now: "What goes up, must come down.  Spinning wheels got to go 'round."  Sir Issac Newton figured the what goes up must come down part out along time ago and not much has changed.  I realize that the basic premise of it is about gravity, but think about it, it works on just about everything.  It's the yin and the yang.  It jives with that for each and every action there is an equal, but opposite reaction thing.  Have you ever heard that ditty that goes something like "Those that the gods would make crazy, they first raise up"?  That's all this is my friends.

When they talk about consumer confidence being at an all time low, who are they talking about?  Has anyone asked you about how confident you feel as a consumer lately?  It is my belief that the spinning wheels of the media sets the tone for consumer confidence.  One thing I know for sure is that you can take statistics and make them say pretty much whatever you want them to based on what you leave in and what you leave out.  How are things at your house?  Is your mortgage being paid?  Is there food on the table?  Even though Wall Street is rattled by the soft housing market do you still have a couple of bucks left in your IRA?

If you are faced with, or actually in foreclosure then I guess you didn't listen to your REALTOR® when they told you that interest only loans would come back to haunt you.  You must have been daydreaming when they said that the A in ARM stood for adjustable and that rates would most likely be adjusting upward.

On the other hand, if all is well with you and you have a few extra bucks, perhaps you should give me call.  Now would be a great time to invest in some rental property.  All of those people in foreclosure are soon going to need some place to live.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Oct. 5, 2006 - What's Behind Door Number One

I have a few investor clients who just love to shop for bargains. I was out with two of them yesterday. We were looking at some of the majestic Greystones on the west side of Chicago in the Lawndale neighborhood. That is an area of Chicago that is on the mend, so to speak.  Some of the Greystones still have the stone blocks out on the easement where folks used to hitch their buggies when they came to call. There are some really nice old buildings there that have deteriorated from neglect over the years, but they are restorable. Given the proper care it will rise to it's former glory.

However, there is a reason why these grand buildings can be bought dirt cheap. The area had become absolutely treacherous over the years. Open air, drive up drug markets, controlled by the street gangs were allowed to flourish. Addiction was rampant in the area, along with all of the evils that come with it, strong arm robbery, prostitution, con games, etc. Since it was a neighborhood of renters as opposed to owners, no one really complained too much and the "hood" hit the skids with no resistance from the powers that be. The money was no longer flowing into the absentee owners pockets, it was going mainly to the street gangs. Finally things got bad enough that the absentee owners felt that it was time to get out.

When they began unloading these magnificent buildings, investors took notice. As new money flowed into the area, along with a vocal public that wanted to protect it's investment, the streets began to get cleaned up. The drug dealers began being arrested. When that didn't produce the desired result, drug buyers began getting arrested in phony drug spot sting operations. The common folks were taking back the streets, and the people who were buying the properties cared about the properties. On the surface everything appears to be working out. However, there are still a few things that need to be ironed out, as evidenced by my experience yesterday.

Upon gaining access to one of the properties we were looking at, a sound, two unit Greystone with much of it's outside character in tact, I detected a strong urine odor. I did not think too much of it, thinking that perhaps there was once a cat in the house, or maybe a dog. At first blush, the place was not in too awful bad shape. Much of the original wood work was present but needed refinishing as one would expect from a 100+ year old place. The important part then, was to see the condition of the water rooms, the bathroom and kitchen. These rooms were totaled. That was OK though because there would be no need to gut them, there was not a fixture to be seen.

It was beginning to look doable until we opened a closed bedroom door and walked in on the squatter. It seems that a few homeless people had taken up residence in the glorious vacant Greystone. Each and every bedroom contained a five gallon bucket of urine. There were various articles of dirty clothing that was being used for bedding. Our squatter friend was the only one "home" at the time, but there was evidence of at least a few others. Closer inspection revealed their access points, an unhinged board on a boarded up basement window and a broken window off of the front porch, broken just enough to gain access to the window latch so they could open the window and lock it again behind them once they got in.

We escorted the poor guy out and continued to look over the property. No one else appeared during the course of our visit, but I knew they would be back soon after we left. I called the listing agent to let her know she had a problem. She indicated that this was not the first she had heard about it and that she would call the seller and let him know it had happened again. That's all fine and good I suppose, but don't you think that if she knew this problem existed that she would have given me the courtesy of a warning when I spoke to her to make the appointment to see the place?

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Jul. 26, 2006 - It's Official?

Sorry to tell you this Mr. and Mrs. Seller but a whole bunch of people are officially pronouncing it a buyers market.  Take a look at what Chris Isidore CNNMoney.Com's Senior Writer had say about it. How about today's RISMedia Newsletter? Then there is the headline from today's Chicago Tribune about the story by Mary Umberger, a Tribune staff reporter. It goes on and on. Everywhere you turn they are telling buyers that it's their turn. What's a poor seller to do?

The talk going around on a couple of the national real estate agent forums I subscribe to is that you have to bury St. Joseph in your yard. That's right folks, just plunk old St. Joseph head first into the ground, say the St. Joseph prayer and the buyers will come a runnin', cash in hand ready to take your house off of your hands.

They haven't said much about condominiums. Knowing condos like I do, I imagine that if the association found you digging around in the yard you'd be in for a violation warning at least, and probably a fine if you refused to exhume old St. Joe and repair the turf. Of course there may be some alternative form of magic or incantations or voodoo or animal sacrifice or something that will work, they haven't seemed to get that thread started yet. If they come up with anything, I'll let you know

Me personally, I'm still in favor of you turning to a good Realtor®, like myself, who will help you price your house correctly, suggest things you can do to make your house more appealing to prospective buyers, give you an honest evaluation on market time and market it like it was the mansion of dreams, that every buyer needs to see. But that's just my opinion. Some of the nations best educated real estate professionals seem to have different ideas, so be careful who you let into your house.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 18, 2006 - Getting Back To Business

I got a call from an old buddy this morning. It was good to hear from him as we haven't talked for awhile.

He is a business man. I remember him when he was a working for someone else's company as a sales rep. Now he owns his own business and is doing pretty well by most standards. He inspires me to think big.

We talked about what's going on in real estate these days. The fact is, I have had this same conversation with a few people lately. They want to know what's happening. Since "What's happening out there?' seems to be on so many peoples minds, I might just as well turn the answer to that question into a post, eh?

It has been my experience as of late that the buyers refuse to be bullied. There are plenty of properties to choose from. Sellers should not expect obscene profits at lightning speed, even if they have me representing them.

One of the things that is driving this scenario is the gimmick mortgages that people took out to buy more house than they couldn't really afford. I was never an endorser of the interest only, adjustable rate, 125% equity loans, etc. Taken out in the hay day, they are all coming back to haunt people. I have seen some very shrewed negotiators get some very good deals lately.

As long as sellers are willing to be reasonable with their list price, they will not be disappointed, however, now is a great time to be a qualified buyer.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Jan. 20, 2006 - What Is Going On With This Market?

As you may or may not know, (if you follow this blog you know), I have been a busy, busy guy. Much busier actually, than one would expect for January. I have five active listings that are keeping my phone ringing and one tentative buyer with a house to sell that he will be listing soon. An individual agent might expect this kind of business in early spring, but January?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Oh no. Not by a long shot. I have plenty of time and energy left to continue my prospecting efforts and to accept referrals from you, my faithful readers. Like my tag line says "Real Estate Is My Lifestyle, Not My Job". If you are going to be any good at it, it has to be.

So break it on down. It's a buyers market.

What's that mean? That means the the buyer is in the position of power when it comes to negotiating the deal. There are a lot of homes to choose from. The sellers need to be flexible. Now is the time, the time is now, buy, buy, buy!

How long can we expect this to last? Well, having gazed into my crystal ball, chanted incantations and burned incense, I can honestly say........................I dunno. What I do know is this, there will be a paradigm shift in the market sooner or later. There always is. It could start next week, next month, next year, who knows? The one thing you can count on is that I will be keeping my eye on things for you and let you know what I know when I know it.

This is one of the reasons why you need to come back to our blog here on a daily basis. Another reason is that there is a fine Mercedes Benz listed for sale on Gene's Board. Yes indeed, and soon there will be some furniture as well. If you didn't stop by the blog you might not even know about Gene's Board, the community bulletin board that is out there in cyber space for all to use.

Last but not least, let me tell you about commenting on this blog. I encourage it, as you well know. You can comment anonymously if you wish, however, if you register and comment as a registered user, you will get your very own blog in the registration process. That's right, your very own blog, free. Who knows where that may lead?