Joe fills in for John to give advice on short sales.  http://www.theforeclosurereliefteam.com/ here is the link to visit the site Joe mentions.

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Transcript

JOHN:  Hey, guys.  John Jones with another edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee.  Thanks for tuning in.  Today, we’re talking about the top reasons to own a home, and even though a lot has changed in the real estate market, these five reasons are still the same reasons I would have given you five or six years ago.  The number one top reason to own a home: Savings.  Over time, it’s still going to give you tremendous savings opposed to renting. 

There’s a calculator that you can go to that I think is an excellent tool to use.  Look at the website down at the bottom of the page.  Go to that calculator.  It gives you a real good idea renting versus owning.  Tax breaks.  We still have mortgage interest deduction.  Even though Congress has talked about and threatened possibly to take it away, it’s still available to us as homeowners and a great benefit to a homeowner.

Equity.  As you own a home over time, you build equity.  And that’s just like having a big nice savings account.  It might come in handy down the road to purchase a car.  It might come in handy down the road to put children through college and still get your mortgage interest deduction.  Budgeting, number four reason.  Budgeting, what I mean by that is on a fixed-rate mortgage we know that rate is never going to go up.  So it makes it easier for us to budget. 

Most rents are going to go up at some point.  There’s usually clauses in the lease that allow that to happen.  So you can actually budget a little better on your monthly by being in a fixed-rate mortgage.  And security.  Security of owning a home.  You can do what you want with that home.  You can paint the walls the color you want.  You can play your radio as loud as you want to, perhaps.  You can plant trees, flowers.  You can make that home your own, and there’s a lot of great positive social impacts from owning a home. 

So that’s the Top 5 reasons.  That’s the Top 5 reasons five or six years ago, 10 years ago.  And they’re still the Top 5 reasons today.  It’s an excellent time to buy.  Rates.  I keep getting tired of saying this, but they keep going down.  The best rates we’ve ever seen right now.  You can get rates actually in the threes.  So thanks so much.  Call us if you need us, 867-3020.

John compares February numbers from last year to this year.

This week is part 1 of our behind the scenes look at what makes your experience with us so special.

 Hey, guys.  John Jones here with an edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee.  Today, we’re going to talk about 2011 numbers.  First, we’re going to talk about the month of December.  The month of December, sales were up 27% over December of 2010, which is a very positive sign.  Pendings were up 11% over 2010.  Our inventory right now is as low as it’s been probably in the last three years.  It’s at 6.7 months’ supply, which is low compared to where we’ve been.  So all those are encouraging signs.

Our total numbers year to date were down slightly 5% from 2010.  Now that is the smallest drop we have had since this thing’s been turning south on us a little bit, probably since ’06 actually.  It’s the smallest number we’ve had.  Our average sales price dropped only 3.6% from last year.  This year, average home sales were around 159,000.  The year before, it was 165,000.  I say all that to say this, I do think we have hopefully hit the bottom.  There’s some encouraging signs in the marketplace.

One is our 4th quarter of this year was quite a bit better than the 4th quarter of last year.  Another thing is our unemployment numbers have dipped into the 7% range, and we haven’t seen 8 or 9 for a while, which is encouraging.  Another thing that I like to see is, if you’ve noticed in the papers and local media outlets, we do have some good job creation going on with Nissan adding jobs, having a third shift, Amazon coming on over on Joe B. Jackson, adding I think 1,200 jobs.  So those are all very encouraging signs to the market.

It’s going to be a slow, slow ride.  Another thing I heard, new construction’s actually picking up a little bit.  And I would say a lot of the reason that is is because of our inventory’s getting lower and people are needing a home and a good quality home.  I talked to Ole South Builders, the largest builder in our area, and they had 46 contracts in the month of December.  That was the biggest month they’ve had since in the ‘07 months. 

So all this stuff’s very encouraging.  I’m looking forward to this year.  If we can help you in any way at John Jones Real Estate, please give us a call at 867-3020.  And once again, I wish everybody a prosperous 2012.

JOHN:  Hey, guys.  John Jones.  I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas.  Welcome to Tuesday Morning Coffee.  Today guys, I pulled up an interesting thing, and I want to talk about it.  And it’s probably the most important thing I’ll talk about to sellers.  It’s why pricing your home is so important to getting top dollar for your home.  I just pulled up some statistics from the last year in Rutherford County. 

If you take homes that sold between 100,000 and 200,000, the homes that were priced right, meaning they had no price changes, sold on an average of 53 days.  The homes that had to have at least one price change or more sold on an average of 130 days, almost triple.  The same homes that never had to have a price change sold for an average of $82 a square foot.  The homes that had to have at least one price change or more sold on an average of $78 a square foot, $4 difference, guys.

Is that just by happenchance?  No.  These are great statistics and they show us what we try to tell sellers every day.  And that is that is pricing your home right on the front end is your best chance at getting the most money.  Sellers tell me every day, “But John, we know we can come down.  We can always just price it here.  We can always come down.”  Here’s the problem with that philosophy in real estate.  There’s three things.

One is technology.  Buyers know the market as well as anybody.  They’re looking at it every day online.  So when a home comes on the market and it’s not priced right, they know it.  They go, “Next.”  So your first impression is so important when you put your home on the market.  That’s usually the best time to sell it.  Also, we’re still in a declining market, meaning our home today is worth more than it probably will be in six months.  So obviously, the longer it takes to sell, the lower the value of the home. 

And the third thing, even if you dropped it three times let’s say but you’ve been on the market for seven months, the longer it stays on the market, it encourages a behavior of buyers making a lower offer and encourages a behavior of sellers accepting a lower than what they probably should have accepted for the home because they’re tired and they’re desperate.  And they just take it.  So those are three reasons why pricing your home too high on the front end will kill you in this market.

Another myth I hear all the time, “John, we know that it might take a while.”  Well, you just heard the statistic.  If you price your home right, this home is going to move through the market in 53 days in Rutherford County.  If you’ve got a while and you need to sell in six months, don’t put your home on the market.  Don’t poison that property by putting it on the market too early at a high price. 

Homes that are priced right are moving through the market in under 60 days; however, 60% of the homes that were put on the market last year didn’t sell period.  And those are the homes that people see.  “Well, that one’s been on the market for two years.  I’ve driven by that one for two years.”  You don’t want to be one of those homes.  Guys, the best advice I can give you to pricing your home correctly is (a) enlist a good real estate agent who’s honest and is going to show you the numbers and justify whatever he tells you or she tells you. 

Secondly, be objective.  Forget that it’s your home.  Forget that you raised kids there.  The buyers don’t care.  Forget that you’ve got granddaddy’s oak tree out in the front yard.  They don’t care.  Walk through other homes like yours, go to open houses, and pretend like you’re a buyer.  That will help you more than anything in pricing your home.  Another thing that you’ve got to remember when selling a home, buyers buy by comparison.  They’re not just looking at your home.  They’re looking at seven, eight, ten other homes.

So that is how they’re determining what is the best value.  Even though they may want your home, if you’re 10,000 above the one down the street that’s almost exactly identical to you, they’re the ones that are going to receive the offer rather than them even low-balling you.  It’s just how the buyer’s mind works.  They buy by comparison.  If we can help you in any way, please call us at John Jones Real Estate, 867-3020.  Have a Happy New Year.