Cincinnati Living Online

CABR released the following press release about May Home Sales in Cincinnati. Home sales locally continued their upward climb last month, as Realtors sold 1,658 units. That’s a 19.8% improvement over April’s sales activity. The average sale price in May was $155,896, a 12.9% improvement over April.

Statewide, the Cincinnati region posted the second highest average selling price last month. Columbus was highest at $168,576. Dayton was at $125,236; Cleveland/Akron $118,016, and Toledo
$104,146.

In comparing month-over-month, May sales were down 13.7% from a year ago. For the first five months, sales were off 14.6% from the same period one year ago. Nationwide, seasonally-adjusted home sales climbed 2.4% in May over April.

“The public continues to buy homes despite a soft economy” said Paul Jacob, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors. “That’s because continued home buying is a testament to asset building.” Mortgage rates near 5.7% remain favorable, Jacob added. “It’s not as low as two months ago at
5.2%, but it’s better than a year ago when mortgage rates were at 6.7%.”
Inventory of homes available for sales is another plus for buyers. Current inventory is 8.48 months of homes for sale. Last month it was 9.96 months. A year ago it was 8.35 months. A lower number means greater demand for current inventory. A balanced market for buyers and sellers is around six months, and that’s why a buyers’ market still exists.

The current $8,000 tax credit for persons who buy a home that haven’t owned a home in the past three years is another part of a buyer’s current-day advantage. That program expires Nov. 30. Jacob said home buying should continue to improve, as buyers realize that sitting on the fence too long simply delays asset wealth building. Bargains exist today, and smart buyers are doing just that buying smartly.

CNBC ran this story about appraisals this week.

I hate to say I told you so, but on May 1st and again on June 1st, I told you about the potential negative ramifications of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. Today the Realtors confirmed what I had been hearing all across the mortgage industry.

“In the past month, we have suddenly been bombarded with many stories of, at the last moment, transactions falling apart because appraisals are coming in unrealistically low,” said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “As a result it opens up a new round of negotiations between a buyer and a seller or in many cases the buyer just steps away.”

The HVCC went into effect at the beginning of May, an outgrowth of a lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo against Washington Mutual. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed not to buy any loans that didn’t comply with the code.

The HVCC forces a firewall between lenders/brokers and home appraisers. Gone are longstanding relationships between a local mortgage broker or lender and a local appraiser.

Now, lenders and brokers are forced to use appraisal management companies (ironically – or maybe not so ironically—many of which are owned by the big banks). These companies hire independent appraisers across the country and call on them to do the local appraisals.

Realtors say some of these appraisers are not only not local, they don’t even have access to the local MLS. They are doing appraisals using computer models, often incorporating distressed sales as comps, and often not even knowing that the home had extensive renovations or an addition. As a result, the appraisals are coming in far lower than the agreed-upon purchase price.  It’s affecting new purchases as well as refinances.

“The new HVCC is certainly increasing processing times, raising costs for consumers, and in often cases bringing in valuations that don’t appear to be correct as a result of lesser experienced appraisers from outside the area appraising properties at potentially lower valuations,” says Craig Strent of Bethesda, Maryland’s Apex Home Loans. “When that happens that throws the refinance or the purchase mortgage out of whack of course and creates fairly large problems for the financing, so we’re seeing some really negative effects as a result of this HVCC.” The point of the HVCC was to take fraud out of the appraisal process, and let’s face it, there was plenty of that. But they may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater here. Interestingly, after I discussed this on CNBC this morning, we got a call from a Congressional office asking for the transcript of my report.

Cincinnati homeowners and homeowners around the U.S. need to be aware of the following information if they are looking to refinance and are having difficulty getting approved. There are options for refinance and loan modifications mandated by the federal government.

The Making Home Affordable Program was created to assist homeowners whose home values have declined to the point where they may no longer have equity in their homes. So the homeowners have not be able to refinance their homes and take advantage of lower interest rates. In addition, many of these homeowners are also locked in to 3,5 or 7 year adjustable mortgage rates which will soon reset at higher rates. To try to assist these homeowners  the federal government started the Making Home Affordable Program. The purpose of the program is to stop the cycle of foreclosures and short sales and to provide homeowners who are in this position to have options to save their home and financial stability. This program has eligibility requirements that must be met.  For more information please visit the Making Home Affordable Website. This site  helps borrowers learn basic facts about mortgages, homeownership, and resources available, with more than 17.7 million page views in less than two months.

Fourteen servicers, including the five largest, have now signed contracts and begun modifications under MHA. Between loans covered by these servicers and loans owned or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, more than 75 percent of all loans in the country are now covered by the program. The 14 participating servicers have extended offers on over 55,000 trial modifications and mailed out over 300,000 letters with information about trial modifications to borrowers.

House swapping, the practice of exchanging properties is making a resurgence with help from a  number of home swapping websites and services.  Home owners who are interested in searching for others willing to exchange properties now have a number of resources to use  to make their searches more fruitful.

Property owners are using sites such as onlinehousetrading.com ,  mkhomeswap.com , and besthouseswap.com to identify potential swap partners in the areas they are looking to relocate to. The reach of the Internet is making finding those elusive swap partners easier and faster.

In most cases these swap site require a registration fee that can range from $20 to over $250. Also the idea of a swap can be misleading. In most cases homeowners negotiate sale prices and work with real estate attorneys and mortgage lenders to facilitate property exchanges particularly when there is a difference in value between the properties. House swapping could be a for home owners looking to sell their Cincinnati Real Estate.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Urban Cincy reported this morning that Mayor Mallory has selected the development company that will finance, plan, design,construct, operate and maintain Cincinnati’s Modern Streetcar System.  The location of the streetcar would be on the northern end of the Downtown/Over the Rhine circulator which would head uptown from there. This is great news for Cincinnati Real Estate. The addition of a streetcar in Downtown Cincinnati is great news for Cincinnati Real Estate. The continual development and success of downtown will continue to attract the creative class, which could eventually lead to new businesses moving their headquarters to Cincinnati.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

RIS Media published a report to teach consumers about how to maintain and improve one’s credit score. Everyone has become more concerned about their credit scores these days, especially when a better score can result in lower credit interest rates and payments saving thousands of dollars from interest. With this in mind, many consumers are paying more attention to their credit and, unfortunately, in the process of trying to make it better, they are harming their credit score.

A consumer credit score is made up of five key components:

35% :    Payment History -   Types of accounts (credit card, mortgage, etc.), accounts paid as agreed, number of past due accounts, etc.

30% :    Amounts Owed -  Balances of current loans, debt-to-credit ratio, proportion of installments still owed, etc.

15% :    Length of Credit History -  Time since accounts opened, last activity, etc.
10%      New Credit – Recent inquiries, new accounts, etc.

10%      Types of Credit Used -  Mortgages, credit, retail, etc.

Greg Breitfelder, Comey & Shepherd’s licensed property auctioneer, provided me with these helpful pointers to guide buyers leading up to and at a property auction.

Registration ‐ Bidders typically need to register before the auction, this is a simple form to fill out so that the bidder recognizes and understands the terms and conditions of the auction. We have a bidder’s registration form that can be viewed on the Comey Website under our auction heading.

Sold “As Is – Where Is” – This is common, as it says, the property is sold to the highest bidder without any conditional requirements. At this point, the prospective buyer should have had an inspection previous to the auction. It is by far, a great advantage to your bidder and to you to have buyers get an inspection completed, doing this will either get  buyers more excited or less excited based on the inspection findings.

Buyers Premium – Typically when an auction is being conducted, the number that the auctioneer is chanting is not always the bid price, buyers should be aware that if there is a “buyer’s premium” it will be added to the end of the winning bid. Many are confused as to why we have a buyer’s premium –this is the commission and it is split many ways. The seller does not pay a commission in an auction sale.

Down Payment ‐ Bidders typically need to have a down payment the day of the auction, it may be a flat fee or a set percentage of the final bid amount, be sure that the bidder understands that he or she should be able to produce a down payment the day of the auction. Too many times a bidder shows up with a personal check or a business check, these methods of payment are typically not allowed.

How much should I bid? It is always a good idea to decide how much you want to bid and stick to that number, it can be easy to get caught up in the emotion and bid too much. Your Cincinnati real estate agent can provide you with comparable sales in the are so you understand what the property values are in the area before you bid.

Your Commission ‐ Agents typically need to register their client, many times he or she would have to actually show the property to get credit for the sale. Make sure that you understand what hoops he or she has to go thru before getting commission for the sale. Let the Auctioneer tell you.
Not All Auctions Sell to the Highest bidder.

There seems to be confusion all the time with this. The only type of a sure sale is at an Absolute Auction, if the bidding starts, it will end with a final and successful bidder.

Reserve Auctions – Sell if they are confirmed by the owner of the house.

Minimum Bid ‐ auctions only sell if the minimum bid has been bid.

Hope this helps and feel free to contact me at any time regarding any auction questions you may have!

Here is my letter to Richard Dyer GM of WLWT Channel 5 Cincinnati. The hypocrisy of this news station to advise people to not use Realtors is irresponsible. Please voice your opinions on this to him.

Mr. Dyer:

I just saw a teaser for a story that you plan to run on Monday, June 8 about how people no longer need real estate agents to sell their home. As a Cincinnati realtor and real estate blogger, I am disappointed that you would encourage the public to stop using realtors for many reasons. There are many situations when people engage in business and hire professionals to mitigate their personal and financial risk. We rely on  lawyers, and even dentists to perform their jobs and keep us safe. It is entirely conceivable that anyone could pull a tooth, or even represent themselves in court without the counsel of these professionals. It is my belief that you would see it as egregiously irresponsible to run a story on how to represent yourself in court using resources you can find online, or how to excise an abscessed tooth using tools you in your garage.

In this economy, when Channel 5 you are promoting job fairs and unemployment reports I feel it is disturbing that you are encouraging people to not patronize the real estate professionals that deliver documented value to their customers. There is genuine peril in real estate transactions that could lead people to financial loss, losing their homes, and risking exposure to lawsuits. It is disingenuous to tell people to put themselves in a risky situation without professional assistance when the research proves that they will make more money and have less risk when they use a licensed professional real estate agent even with commissions. For once, the news should present the facts backed up by research instead of what shortcuts people can take that they perceive will save them money, when in reality it does the opposite.

Essentially your station is encouraging people to buy or sell the largest investment that they can make in their lives without getting professional representation. I think you should present the facts to the public, and the facts are that houses sold by realtors are on the market for shorter periods of time and net higher sale prices than homes that are sold by owner even with commissions. There is a lot more to selling a home than just posting photos on the web and getting a check in the mail. The process of buying and selling a home involves legally required disclosures, strategic market placement, contracts, negotiations, inspections, and in today’s market a lot of navigating the red tape of the financial system which many lay people do not understand. I hope that you will reconsider how you present the story on Monday. If you need research to support my claim please email me as I would be happy to email you articles or direct you to the sources of much of the real estate research: The Cincinnati Board of Realtors, The National Association of Realtors have a lot of data to support these facts.

Regards,

Alison Moss

Cincinnati sits atop the list of the most vacant properties in a city. WCPO reported that there are about $4 million vacant properties nationwide. Cincinnati’s Over-the Rhine Neighborhood has the highest vacancy rate in the Tri-State area. Vacant homes can have a substantial impact on home values depending on their status. Foreclosures in particular can bring down neighborhood values simply becuase they will often for less money at auction.

My professional opinion about this situation as a Cincinnati Realtor is that property owners in areas where vacancy rates are elevated, can face delated property values. Before purchasing a property you should always be aware of the sales trend and vacancy rates in that specific area prior to signing any contracts.

I wanted to clarify the information that was released by HUD since the information they released last week was very generic. What I found out is that the proceeds of the $8,000 tax credit can only be used toward downpayment IF the 3.5% requirements have already been met. To clarify the $8,000 cannot be used CANNOT BE USED for the first 3.5% that a buyer puts down, but the money can be applied as an additional downpayment or as prepaid items or closing costs.