May 2009 
There are 3 blog entries for May 2009.
Local HGTV Buy Me Show
Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 5:45pm. 759 Views, 0 Comments.
I caught a great "Buy Me" show on HGTV today that was shot in Chicago. It was very interesting because one of the owners was a long-time veteran real estate agent that had her REALTOR son list the home.
It was a very unique, custom styled 3-story and although the home owners seemed to acknowledge that they were looking for that special (needle-in-a-haystack) buyer, they were not cooperating with their son about staging the home and pricing it correctly. And it kind of bothered me that as a real estate agent, the wife was one of the most difficult to convince.
She had a difficult time de-cluttering and kept items that her son tried to get her to store away. And she wanted to try a very high price even after her son showed her
…Is the Media Creating This Declining Market?
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 3:49pm. 729 Views, 0 Comments.
I made a post on Active Rain (a popular real estate blogging site with agents from all over the world) about Orland Park homes for sale - current supply and demand. I put the following chart on that post showing factual information from April of last year to April of 2009. I did not make this chart myself - I copied it from a program that I utilize that gets the data from our MLS (multiple listing service). It is not easy to read here since I had to shrink it down to fit in this blog. But even without reading the numbers, you can see how many homes are up for sale (red) compared to those with contracts (blue) or that have already sold and closed (green). As of today, there are 332 Orland Park homes for sale and this chart was compiled a few days
…New Appraisal Agreement - HVCC
Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 12:57pm. 1000 Views, 0 Comments.
I had heard of something new coming on May 1st to the mortgage industry. I was trying to find out what it was, and I found out today. It is called the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, or HVCC for short. Do a search for either name and you will see some links explaining it, dating back to 2008.
It is not a law
It is an agreement between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Some banks have already been following the agreement although it was slated to go into action starting today (May 1, 2009).
Supposedly, it is trying to keep banks from turning to a shortlist of preferred appraisers and to use AMC's (Appraisal Management Company) instead. AMC's are like middlemen for appraisers and charge each
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