Perils and Advice of Short Sale Real Estate Buying in Murphy, North Carolina

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Short sales in Murphy NC Real estate has been on my mind a lot lately because there are a handful of homes out there that are short sales. Last night after writing the Basic Information on Short Sales in Murphy NC article, I felt compelled to continue on with it because there are so many things that be a challenge with them.

You can get a great buy with them, there’s just a few things that you need to know with them.

  1. Has the listing price for the short sale been approved by the mortgaging bank? This is probably the most important question you can ask. If not, who’s to say the bank won’t approve it? I had an instance a month ago where we wrote an offer for more than the list price and the bank did not accept the offer.
  2. Be patient. Like with foreclosures, you must be patient.
  3. Have buyer agency. Make sure you have your real estate agent representing you and giving you good, sound advice. If you don’t feel like they are working for you, fire them and get another real estate agent who is – CALL The Poltrock Team!! 😉
  4. Be prequalified with a bank for a mortgage prior to making an offer or buy in cash. Just like with a bank owned property, money talks and they want to know you have the ability to follow through with your offer to purchase.
  5. You’re not appealing to a seller. Yes the seller is involved and must sign your Offer to Purchase. In many cases though, they don’t care what it will sell for unless they have to bring money to the closing table. You are appealing to the bank and your offer needs to be written so it protects you and so it appeals to the bankers, not a “person.”
  6. Be prepared for stupid requests. Although it won’t be as bad as in a foreclosure, there are a lot of stupid forms you may be required to sign. Smile, grin, and bear it 😉

That’s a great start as to what you should expect from a short sale. Be certain about item #1. Otherwise, there’s a good chance you are wasting your time trying to buy it. If you like the house, have patience, and follow the rest of the advice, there’s a possibility you will get a great buy!

If you would like to know more information about short sales, what to do, and need a Realtor to represent you, give us a call! We’re here for you and in business because of you, so let us know what we can do to do help.

John Poltrock – The POLTROCK TEAM at RE/MAX Mountain Properties – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call toll free at 1-866-687-7496

 

Previous Related Articles:

Understanding a Short Sale in Murphy NC Real Estate

Foreclosure Houses and Tips to Buying Them in Murphy NC

What to Expect When Offering to Buy a Foreclosure in Murphy NC

Tired of Making Bad Investments? Consider Buying Real Estate in Murphy NC!

Posted by I Love Murphy on

            Have you ever bet your life’s savings on the craps table? How about taking a weekend to Vegas with everything you’ve worked for? Would you ever bet everything on one spin of the wheel?  Although Ashley Revell sold everything he owned, traveled to Las Vegas and bet it all on one spin of the roulette wheel, it’s simply not a smart idea. (See below for Ashley’s Vegas Adventure)

            Right now, the stock market looks like a good investment – yet you simply don’t know. This year alone, the Dow has lost 5,228.04 points, or an astonishing 37.1%.  This past Friday it dropped a whopping 1.41% in one day! So I pose my question again – have you ever bet your life’s savings on roll of the dice?

            This past week, a couple who are very good clients of ours wanted to make a pretty sizeable investment – and it accounted for a very large portion of their savings. Where did they put their money? Real Estate. What did they buy? Land. Why did they buy it? Because it was a smart, safe bet. We found two tracts of land that works perfectly for them and are very likely to provide a safe, reliable place to put their money.

            In watching properties on the market, the best properties are getting snatched up at record rates. We sold one of the properties as an investment to the couple above 84% faster than the market average! Why? Because it was a phenomenal opportunity that simply doesn’t stay on the market and you have to act fast for opportunities like it.

            How many times have you heard people, friends and families say, “When this election gets out of the way, things will really turn around.” Mentality of the people you know and of the nation makes a tremendous amount of difference as to when fortunes are made. The election is less than a month away. Would you like to be ahead of the curve and buy an investment while the market is at the bottom or buy when prices are on the way up?

           If you want to find the best real estate investments, call us or your Realtor today before the election and market upswing.  Find out what properties are available, look at them, size them up, and decide what’s best for you. Don’t see what you want? Ask to be set up on automatic notification so you can be alerted as soon as a property hits the market before anyone else has time to find out about it. We would be happy to do this for you for free of charge and start getting your investment portfolio where it should be – well diversified and profitable!

Written by John Poltrock, Contributing Writer for The Cherokee Scout. Be in “the know” by visiting The Cherokee Scout’s Website to have their paper delivered to your door.

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I Want to Sell My Murphy NC Property. Will an Appraisal Help?

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Appraisals can do you a lot of good when you get ready to sell your property here in Murphy, North Carolina. Real estate prices are constantly changing, so it’s good to have an accurate analysis of what your value is.

Realtors are able to perform a CMA, or Comparable Market Analysis. When you’re ready to sell your home, this will give you a good idea as to where you should price your property. There is a difference between an appraisal and a CMA. Appraisals are often more detailed in valuation, yet they frequently do not take into account current market trends.

With real estate values going down, many people interested in selling are using old appraisals to try to hold onto former higher prices. This strategy is a stage of denial that will hurt your home’s position to sell. If you list it too high to start off with, your home develops a “stigma” to it that will make it stagnant on the market and ultimately sell for less than what you could have achieved originally.

Other times, sellers are using an appraisal from a refinance. More often than not, that appraisal is not necessarily useful in marketing your home. Sometimes the appraisal is biased toward a certain value, whether it is conservative or high. You can read more about inflated real estate appraisals here.

Old appraisals mean nothing. Think of it this way: it would be the same as printing off a stock quote from when Enron shares were worth $50 per share. Consider taking it to your stock broker now and expecting the same price. It won’t happen. Real estate operates the exact same way, just the numbers are larger and more difficult to determine. Unfortunately, your real estate does not have a “ticker” streaming across the front of it telling us the current market value of your home.

An accurate appraisal will help you sell your home. Leaving a current appraisal on your counter while trying to sell will help prospective buyers determine how you priced and the value of your home. When and if you get a new appraisal before selling, ask around to find a good appraiser. Get a good recommendation and call them in.  Be certain not to influence their pricing. You want an unbiased evaluation of market value to sell your home. Make sure they know that’s what the appraisal is for.

All that being said, it’s not necessary, but having an appraisal done can give you a great marketing edge. It can give you the competitive edge over the competition. An average appraisal costs about $400 and can be an excellent investment when you’re selling your largest investment.

John Poltrock, CRS – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – For Real Estate in the Mountains of Murphy, NC, Call The POLTROCK TEAM at (866) 687-7496

What’s Happened to the Value of My Real Estate in Murphy, North Carolina?

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Real estate in Murphy NC, as for most of the United States, is a high topic of conversation. Whether it’s about an individual home or land or the prices of them, you can expect to hear about it at any local hangout. Now, most folks don’t walk around and openly say, "my home is worth a gajillion dollars," but they do watch what’s selling and for sale in their neighborhood.What's the value of my Murphy NC Real Estate???

So it’s natural to wonder, "What’s happened to my property value over the last few years?"

Since Murphy, NC doesn’t have subdivisions with 100’s of the exact same house, it’s difficult to track a definite percentage of how much our market has adjusted. Fortunately, there’s still a good way to calculate it based on a popular style of houses. Like most areas, we do have a popular style. And nope, it’s not stucco, brick, or any of the common houses you see in primary markets. We have a popular home style called the chalet.

Because we have many chalets for sale and in turn help families buy a lot of them, we can get a rough idea of what the market has done. Without a doubt, these numbers will not apply to every home – especially unique ones. This is intended to give you a benchmark.

Market Summary

 

2006

2007

2008

2006 to 2007 Difference

2007 to 2008 Difference

2006 to 2008 Difference

List Price

 $253,031

 $269,155

 $237,730

 Up 6.37%

 Down 11.68%

 Down 6.05%

Sales Price

 $246,777

 $259,757

 $217,813

 Up 5.26%

 Down 16.15%

 Down 11.74%

List to Sale Ratio

 97.37%

 97.01%

 91.99%

 Down 0.37%

 Down 5.17%

 Down 5.53%

Days on Market

 111

221

225 

 Up 99%

 Up 1.8%

 Up 102.70%

*Based on an average of all 2/2 chalets on a basement sold in Cherokee County in the given year as sold across the Mountain Lakes Board of Realtors®. You can view more market statistics on our Murphy NC State of the Market Reports.

The large and short of it is that we have seen sale prices decline about 11.74% over the last 20 months. The stock market has lost 13.3% in 2008 alone (based on the DJIA index). With that said, it appears your money is far more stable and secure in the tangible asset of real estate rather than stocks.

This chart is a great indicator as to how the market trends. The year 2007 was our transition year where values began to decline. One of the largest indicators as to this is that days on market practically doubled while prices still increased. This indicates that although there was appreciation, it took longer for buyers to find and buy homes on the market. Since days on market is remaining quite stable, it shows a strong sign our market is reaching the "trough" (or bottom) of the business cycle.

Since it looks like we’re riding the wave at the bottom of the market, now is a great time to buy. You can purchase your real estate at low prices that we haven’t seen in years. If you’re waiting for the market to go up, you’ll miss out on huge amounts of appreciation that’s in store for us soon.

Are you considering selling and want to know what this data means for your individual property? Contact your local Cherokee County Realtor® for a free market analysis to interpret what your home is now worth. If you’d like us to research it for you, please feel free to call us or use our FREE Online "What’s My Home Worth?" form. 

Are you considering buying and want to find the best buy on the market? Be sure to contact a local Realtor®. They’re the ones living and breathing real estate and you should rely on their expertise. You can also call us to find your new property or use our FREE Online "Find My Dream Home!" form.

Written By: John Poltrock, your Cherokee County Certified Residential Specialist – www.MyMurphy.com – Call Toll Free (866) 687-7496 and demand The POLTROCK TEAM! – Real Estate in the Mountains of Murphy, North Carolina – Email me at JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – RE/MAX Mountain Properties

*Watch for this article in the upcoming issue of the Cherokee Scout’s Country Roads, which is the *new* real estate section of Cherokee County’s newspaper. Be sure to subscribe to the Scout newspaper and have it delivered at your home for 38 cents per week!

John and Jessica Bring Superior Education to the Murphy Real Estate Market

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Murphy, NC — March 21, 2008 — John and Jessica Poltrock have just returned from their stay in Greensboro, NC where they completed a highly specialize course in residential real estate buyer sales strategies conducted by the Council of Residential Specialists of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS.

The course is one in a series of professional education sequences required to qualify for the coveted Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) designation. Learn why you should demand to work with a CRS and how we work.

"The growing importance of negotiation as well as sales strategies in today’s residential real estate market were addressed by the instructor of the course," said Jessica. "The many and varied needs of the buyer, who is making what is probably the largest single purchase of a lifetime, is dealt with in this advanced course."

The segments of the course included counseling techniques, understanding human behavior, and professional knowledge of the required steps in the real estate sales sequence.

The Council of Residential Specialists Courses are presented throughout the U.S. in affiliation with the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS, as part of its on-going program of promoting professionalism of the residential sales associates.

The completion of this course leaves John less than three months from obtaining CRS Designation for paperwork processing. Jessica lacks a mere one course.

Want to work with The POLTROCK TEAM? Put them to work for you! Use our Dream Home Finder, use our website to search Our Listings or the MLS, email them, or just call them at (877) 837-3002.

When you want results, demand The POLTROCK TEAM! John and Jessica Poltrock – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call Toll-Free (877) 837-3002 and demand The POLTROCK TEAM!

Flip This House… But Isn’t Flipping Illegal??? Not the investor’s ethical kind!

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Everyone is an investor in some form, fashion, or another. You may own stocks, bonds, have a bank C.D., or own real estate. There’s many ways to make money in real estate – rent, leases, appreciation, and more.

During the housing boom, flipping houses was almost a national pastime. Shows like Flip This House, Flipping Out, and Flip That House attracted huge viewing audiences, and nearly every book in Amazon’s real estate top sellers category had the word “flipping” in its title.

If you mention house flipping to a real estate or law enforcement professional, however, they are more likely to think that you are talking about committing a crime. To them, the word “flip” is a nasty four-letter word. HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) declared it so when it released its FR (Final Rule)-4615 Prohibition of Property Flipping.

So, is flipping good or bad? Legal or illegal?

Well, that depends which form of flipping you’re talking about. The illegal variety consists of selling a home multiple times over a relatively short period in order to artificially inflate the home’s value and cash out the inflated equity. To begin, a con artist will purchase a home (typically a dilapidated property that costs very little).

He or she will then obtain an inflated appraisal for the property – by finding an appraiser willing to go along with the scam, stealing an appraiser’s identity to forge a fake appraisal, or using a phony appraisal document. The con artist can then apply for a loan for the inflated amount. (Or, the con artist will apply for the loan and then, with the help of a cooperative loan officer, obtain the inflated appraisal to present to the lender.) In either case, the con artist usually takes out the loan in the name of a straw buyer (someone who owns the home in name only) or by using a fake or stolen identity.

Eventually, the house flipper either sells the home to somebody who is unaware of its true value or abandons the home.

That’s illegal flipping in a nutshell.

Legal flipping consists of buying a home for less than its true market value (usually at least 20 percent less), fixing it up, and then selling it at or near its true market value. This fix-and-flip approach is the type of flipping they do on TV shows like Flip This House and Flip That House. It is a shrewd and honorable way to earn a buck in real estate.

As a consumer, knowing the difference between the two types of flipping is important. Know the illegal form of flipping so you don’t break the law or get stuck with an overpriced piece of real estate that’s being used in a flipping scheme. Know the legal form of flipping, so you can fix and flip your way to wealth in real estate.

About the Author: Ralph R. Roberts, GRI, CRS is an experienced real estate investor and consultant and the author of Flipping Houses For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons).

In working with The POLTROCK TEAM, you won’t have to worry about becoming the prey of an illegal flipping scheme when you’re looking to buy a home or land in the mountains. It’s extremely important, no matter where you are, to work with a Realtor who’s looking out for your best interest so your investment doesn’t become a bogus one.

If you’re looking to invest in the mountains and want to do the legal flipping by purchasing a great property to make money in the short term or long term, let us know! We come across great values, not every day, but regularly and need people who are looking to invest. Call us us today and let me know! Not only that, subscribe to our blog and you can find out great values as we come across them!

John and Jessica – The POLTROCK TEAM – RE/MAX of Murphy, NC – Real Estate in the mountains of North Carolina – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call (877) 837-3002 and demand The POLTROCK TEAM!!!

 

Realtors are Your Local Referral Database

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Realtors are an excellent way to not only buy homes or land, but to find out who the best sub contractors, vendors, stores, shops, dealers, and any other place to buy “Stuff” and services. This is very often taken for granted, and if you merely ask, you will receive.

For example, I can tell you the best grocery stores in Murphy. I know where to buy meat and where not to. Need a lawn service? How about a contractor to build a house? Garage? Best place to buy a washer? What about the best burger joint in town (and no, McDonald’s doesn’t count.)? What school district would you trust with your kids? You name it… we know it or can find out.

I can send you to the right person just about every time when you’re looking for something in Murphy, North Carolina. Cherokee County is a big place, and so is every other county. No matter where you’re at… save yourself the trouble… ask a Realtor.

John Poltrock – REMAX Mountain Properties – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call us toll free at 1-866-687-7496

For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Works in Murphy NC and in the United States!

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Consumers – there’s something you’ll never hear from most real estate agents. Selling For Sale By Owner Works! Did you know that it works only 20% of the time? You can sell your property on your own and be successful, but the 80/20 rule is stacked against you. Regardless of whether its in my town of Murphy, North Carolina or the heart Washington state, 80% of sellers are unable to successfully sell their home.

Why do you ask? Think of your personal shopping experiences. Think about your largest investments. When you bought an engagement ring, where did you buy it? Where do you have your 401(k) or IRA? Did you buy your ring at a jeweler? Does a well recognized stock brokerage firm keep safeguard over your retirement portfolio? Most of you reading this will agree you work with professionals when looking to make a large purchase or investment. Some of you won’t. Either way, it is the difference between shopping at the Mall and shopping at the Flea Market.

National Association of Realtors (NAR) Statistics show 90% of buyers work with an agent. That’s a lot of buyers. The others look FSBO because they’re looking to buy cheap just like you would look on eBay. They don’t go to FSBOs to spend top dollar because they want to save money just like they would at the flea market! You should want quality buyers who are willing to go to the jeweler to find the perfect diamond. With a Realtor, you won’t have to worry about marketing, signage, market statistics, deed preferences, contracts – any of that.

For Sale By Owner does work. You must ask yourself – do I want top dollar? Do I want to sell as quickly as possible? Do I want help from someone who knows the tricks of the trade? If the answer is yes, find a qualified Realtor. I’d be happy to refer you to a great agent in your area if you don’t know one.

Now ask, Do I want to give someone a good deal? Sell cheaply? Go through all the marketing process? Price my home by what the neighbor says he sold it for? Hope the buyer who might come up doesn’t walk because there’s nothing to hold him? If you answer yes to that, try to sell your home yourself. Try it for a while, but when you see a poker player, ask him or her if they’d go all in on a 20% chance.

John Poltrock – The Poltrock Team – REMAX Mountain Properties – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call us toll free at 1-866-687-7496