Something has happened since the election in Brevard County Florida!

Hi Everyone!

Wow! It's like almost as soon as the election was over, the buyers started coming out in force! That's a good thing for us in the Real Estate industry. The best part for our buyers...the prices are very low! So far this month we have 23 new contracts with 11 of them being under $100k. Personally I never thought that the prices would come down this low again. We are pretty much at 2002-2003 pricing on almost every home. Crazy!

The foreclosure market, as we have all heard, is dominating our sales. We have become quite the experts on foreclosures and short sales. I'm still not a big fan of short sales for our buyers unless you have a lot of time to kill and don't need to make any plans. They are still taking 3+ months most of the time for the banks to respond. However, foreclosures are abundant in every price range. We are even doing a Luxury Foreclosure Open House shortly (contact debbie@mitchrealty.com for dates) and featuring homes in Brevard over $500k that are in foreclosure. One interesting note on foreclosures that is different from 2001 when I sold many of these to investors. Most of these are in pretty good shape. Of course when you get down in the $50k range the choices are in usually rough shape. This past month though, we closed on a home for one of our buyers that was 2100 square feet built in 2006 for $124,000 and it was in great shape. This home in 2005 would have easily sold for $250,000.

There is a down side to foreclosures. When buying these, you are at the mercy of the bank. They dictate the rules of how the transaction is going to go. It's one of the reasons you should be using a Realtor who is experienced in how to work these deals. They can be tricky. With that said, if you are using one of my Agents at Tropical Realty, you can be sure that they are experienced with these. You can also be sure that our Agents are working full time. Unlike most Real Estate Companies, we have continued to grow even in this down time and our Agents are busy. When many Agencies are packing it in and about 25% of Realtors have left the business or taken full time jobs, our Agents continue to work hard and full time taking care of our buyers.

The one other point I want to make on the foreclosure market is that fact of multiple offers. Almost every good deal has multiple offers...just like 2004 when things were crazy. Let's face it, those who have been watching our market the past couple of years know this is about as low as we can go on some of these homes. We had a couple in today from Canada who is also a Realtor there. She was shocked when she put an offer on a home and found out it was a multiple offer situation. I talked with a foreclosure company the other day and they said that on some properties they are receiving up to 30 offers.

With that said, if you are making an offer on a foreclosed property and you really want it, don't try to bargain for it. You most likely will not win. We recommend offering full price (which is very low anyway) and if the house is excellent, you might want to go $5k above full price. To the banks, it's all about the highest offer. Even on the homes that are not so great, the banks are only coming down 5% and sometimes 10% from their listings prices. These homes are already extremely low priced and the banks have lost so much money. They are going to try to get as much as possible.

So, it's time to get to bed because I need to get up at 5am to get ready for my every Saturday morning golf. It's going to be a little chilly this morning...I think it's in the 40's. Yikes! However, it will be in the high 60's this afternoon and absolutely beautiful! As always, if you need anything, we are here to help. Don't hesitate to call or email us.

Have a fun weekend!

Mitch