Friday Facts 12-17-10

FRIDAY FACTS
December 17, 2010
Here’s an interesting REAL Trends Comment by Steve Murray: The times they have changed
“Can we move on from the days where we thought we could manipulate consumers with the old saying “it is a great time to buy a home”? In the Internet age they can see for themselves and read for themselves what is going on in the housing market wherever they live and come to their own conclusions about whether it is or isn’t the best time to buy. Further whether it is or isn’t the best time to buy is a highly personal decision as well – do I need to make more, do I want to, can I bear the cost, can I get a decent price. Because while for some it might be a great time to buy, even the most over optimistic real estate professional might admit that it is a lousy time to sell.
The report from Fannie shows that consumers are far from the tipping point as far as the belief that housing has finished correcting. In some markets yes and in more than a few further corrections in price and inventory have yet to be completed. Those are just the facts on the ground.
We don’t do anyone any favors spouting “it’s a good time to buy”. Many consumers might think the pressure of this tough market has caused us to lose our collective minds.”
Nationwide, the average sales price of properties sold in some stage of foreclosure during the third quarter were discounted more than 32% compared with the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process.

Zillow now provides agent ratings for those agents and clients who have activated profiles on their site. Zillow will screen the reviews before publishing. They join the ranks of the Houston Association of Realtors, Redfin and Ziprealty in providing rating systems.

From a recent court ruling on whether agents should disclose a short-sale situation: “When a real estate agent is aware that the amount of existing monetary liens and encumbrances exceeds the sales price of a residential property so as to require either the cooperation of the lender in a short sale or the ability of the seller to put a substantial amount of cash into the escrow in order to obtain the release of the monetary liens and encumbrances affecting title, the agent has a duty to disclose this state of affairs to the buyer, so that the buyer can inquire further and evaluate whether to risk entering into a transaction with a substantial risk of failure.”