Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - More Real-Estate Speak

You'd think it would be simple -- a property is either available, under contract or sold. But of course, we have to complicate that just a bit.

In MRIS (Metropolitan Regional Information Service, Inc), which is our proprietary computer system for posting properties listed by REALTORS, we have several ways of describing properties that are under contract.

CONT/KO (contingent with a kick-out clause) This is the least-firm type of contract. It refers to a real estate contract contingency that's often used when a home buyer places a house under contract with the understanding that he must sell his current house before he can move forward with the new purchase.

Sellers holding a contract with a kick out clause continue to market the home. If they receive another offer, the buyer has a number of days or hours (determined by the contract itself) to remove the contingency and move forward to buy the house, whether his existing house is sold or not. If the buyer cannot move forward, the seller can back out of the original contract and sell to the new buyers.

Another type of "kick-out" might be when the buyer is waiting for money to be received from outside the USA, or perhaps the buyer has some other contingency where the outcome is uncertain.

CONT/NO KO means that there are contingencies to be met, most commonly home inspections, third party approvals, document review, etc. Once these contingencies are met, the status is changed to CONTRACT.

CONTRACT describes a property that is firmly under contract with no contingencies like home inspections, appraisals, or selling other properties.

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - How to Interpret "Real Estate Speak"

Many of you are on one mailing list or another and get listings with lots of cryptic things like DOMM and DOMP. 

If you're confused over the difference between DOMM and DOMP, you're not alone.

DOMM and DOMP are acronyms for Days On Market.
DOMM stands for Days On Market - MLS#
DOMP stands for Days On Market - Property

DOMM indicates the number of days a specific listing (with a specific MLS#) has been on the market. This will be tracked by the MLS#.

DOMP indicates the number of number of days a specific property has been on the market. An internal key assigned by the database tracks this.

How are Days on Market calculated?
Days on Market will calculate as long as a listing is active. If a listing is taken off the market because a status of withdrawn, expired or tempoff has been assigned, then DOM count will pause at that point. DOM count will resume when the listing returns to an active status.

During the time a listing is off the market, DOM will not increase - these days off the market will not ever be included in a DOMM or a DOMP count.

Should a property be re-listed after having been removed from the market, the new MLS# will cause a new DOMM count to begin (DOMM resets to zero with the assignment of the new MLS#). DOMP will continue to increment starting with the last DOMP count - the days off the market will not be added to this updated DOMP count.

Should a property be off the market for more than 180 days, then the DOMP count will also reset to zero if that property is subsequently re-listed.

A status of sold or rented causes all DOM calculations to stop.
(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

Monday, August 7, 2006 - Under Contract? Maybe Not for Long!

Name something that characterises today's real estate market...

You could say it takes longer to sell houses and you'd be right.

You could say lots of listings have had to reduce their prices and you'd be right.

But you can also say that if you get a firm offer on your house, you aren't out of the woods because a growing percentage of contracts are falling through and then the property is back on the market.

A group of us were talking about the "whys" of contracts falling apart. One factor is that we have fewer offers to choose from. When you have 10 offers, you can pick the best. When you only have one, you might have a less-qualified buyer to begin with. Another factor is that buyers are being a lot pickier about the condition of the property. More buyers are walking away from properties after the home inspection because they and the seller can't come to agreement about the repairs that need to be done.

Sellers are having a rough time realizing that the market has changed. The seller is no longer firmly in charge. Most sellers don't realize that their houses are not particularly better or worse than any others on the market and therefore price becomes the most important factor. Price it right and the buyers will come.

That's more difficult than it seems because we're beginning to chase a declining market. One rule of thumb that many agents are recommending now is to price your property 5% less than the most recent comparable sale. It's not bad advice.

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

Friday, August 4, 2006 - Pets and Selling Your Home

I know -- your pet is a member of the family. How could any prospective buyer fail to fall in love with your affectionate dog or cuddly cat? We'll leave off the more exotic pets at the moment.

I was once showing a townhome that had one of those long narrow windows along side the front door (called "sidelights" for those who are interested). There, sitting proudly in the middle of the foyer, was the cutest cat I had seen in a long time. To my surprise, the buyer totally freaked out. The only way I could get her to go inside was if I held the cat and stood in the corner as far away from her as possible. She was so concerned about the cat that she couldn't remember a single feature about the house an hour later.

I've also had owners assure me that their dog is going to do nothing more vicious than lick us to death. As true as the owner may believe this to be, a dog may react very differently to strangers entering the house when the owner is not home. Small children may startle a dog and make it behave very differently than normal.

Then we come to the more exotic pets...snakes and lizards may frighten some buyers. Or fascinate them so much that they never really look at the house. The worst that happened while showing property involved an amorous rabbit and my client's foot. This rabbit really took a fancy to my client's foot and attempted to demonstrate it...physically!

So if you have pets, think twice about leaving them in the house while it's on the market. You never know if potential buyers share your love of animals or if they are terrified of them.

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.

Friday, August 4, 2006 - Cheverly Bike Club

A friend of mine (and a Cheverly resident) started the Cheverly Bike Club several months ago with the following goals in mind:

This site was created as a result of a conversation between friends. We were trying to find ways to bike to work. While researching bike paths, safety tips, and various other biking information, I joked that we should start a bike club in Cheverly. This prompted us to buy the domain name CheverlyBikeClub.org. Our goal for this site is to provide a biking resource to the Cheverly community. This resource will provide tips on bike safety, bike routes in and around Cheverly, biking equipment reviews and suggestions, information on organized rides, and stories from the road.

For those of you with an interest in biking, visit the website -- it's a fledgling club and could use some support from others who share the same interests.Now, for me, it's a little hot for bicycling right now. However, this is a great time to start planning for fall trips and events. So please visit Cheverly Bike Club and or send them an email.

Meanwhile, I did a little searching and found a listing of Maryland cycling events at ohbike.com. The Bicycle Trails and Advisory Group has a meeting in October (yep, that far away) and then there is the Potomac Trail Council with all kinds of information on places to ride bikes and hike.

Accokeek Foundation
www.Accokeek.org

 

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Prince George's County Planning Department
www.mncppc.org/pgco

 

Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club
http://ohbike.org

 

Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation
www.pgparks.com

 

Prince George's County Planning Department, Bicycle and Trails Advisory Group
www.mncppc.org/Btag/BTAGmain.html

(c) 2006 Susan Pruden