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Happy Thanksgiving From Our House to Yours

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Jim D Brown
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Happy Thanksgiving from Exit Realty
Exit Realty of the Valley

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Exit Realty of the Valley- Jim D Brown

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EXIT Realty of the Valley has the commitment to have the most highly trained, competent, and effective agents in the marketplace. Whether you are buying or selling Huntsville homes with Exit, you can be assured that the agents of EXIT Realty of the Valley are going to be on the cutting edge of homes in Alabama.

“We believe the key to continued success and prosperity for all lies within hard work, positive thinking and office team work. Working together and pulling for one another creates a pleasant, pro-active and harmonious office environment that breeds success!”

Exit Realty is a full-service agency providing both listing and selling services, including information on finance and loans for all

 

 

 

 

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Real Estate Market in Huntsville Alabama- Don’t Look Back

Today’s Real Estate market can be deceiving dependent on who you’re talking to. Some are saying the market is thriving and we are beginning to set records all over the State. This may be true, but Real Estate as anyone will tell you is highly localized. That does include drilling down past streets and subdivisions and segmenting “your” house as “local”.

You see, the housing market has always been able to set records, but it has always been Local. If you will take a quick look back into the “BOOM” we experienced 100 years ago ( well, it seems that long anyway) the market wasn’t really localized. It was more nationalized.

We were seeing houses with multiple offers on every street corner. While that is long gone and chances of experiencing that again are slim, we still and have since had certain homes with multiple offers.

So here is the bottom line; Choose a Real Estate Agent who is going to give you purposeful and correct information. You don’t want information that is simply a “presentation to get your listing”. You want real information. Information that can help. Help you decide if you are really ready and can sell your home. If not, at least you will know up front and not be blindsided 3 months later.

Yes, Real Estate is rebounding and you could benefit from the growing market. Contact me to see how.

 

 

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4 Easy Steps to Buying Your First or Fifth House

After months of searching online and getting nowhere, here you are. Now you know the 4 Easy steps to buying a home.

First, as 90% of buyers today, start with a home search online. As long as you’re here why not search here? We have all active listings shown on North Alabama’s MLS index. In addition to our MLS I also offer several “For Sale By Owner listings”. That is an extra step in giving you every option to find the perfect house.

Second, You found it! Congratulations! I knew if you started here you could more than likely finish here. Wasn’t that easier than driving around town for countless hours hoping to see “the house” around the next corner.

Third, this is the fun part. All you have to do is sit back and let years of negotiating and getting the best deals for our clients, work for you.

Fourth, Sure there were several points in the process that were high pressure or potential deal breakers, but you didn’t need to stress over any of them. We always keep a positive outlook and keep the process moving forward. Now we celebrate the big moving day.

Yes, it is that easy. Give it a try.

 

infographic-online-home-search

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Fannie Mae Shows Signs of a Recovering Market

2013 was an extraordinary year for a lot of Real Estate Pros. Many conversations about the housing market are ending in a much different matter than they had in years past. Lately the story is, “Wow”, We are really seeing an increase in home prices and a decrease in inventory”. Years ago this comment would have been accompanied with a graphic of a donkey with mouth wide open laughing hysterically.

The Real Estate market is definitely showing signs of growth and movement. Today home prices are beginning to slightly increase and whispers of a “Sellers Market” are rolling off agents tongues. This truly makes people a little more comfortable with the country still trying to pull out of the recent crash. All of this still would simply be mostly “lip Service” if not for the the giants of the mortgage market producing such impressive numbers. Let’s take a look at Fannie Mae and data released in a recent article by Timothy J. Mayopoulos President and Chief Executive Officer, Fannie Mae 

In the statement Fannie Mae reveals their financial performance, over the past few years, has improved significantly, and in 2013 reported “84.0 billion in net income and $38.6 billion in pre-tax income, the highest annual income and annual pre-tax income in our company’s history”. In addition to this improvement Fannie Mae also has strengthened the underwriting and eligibility standards as so to promote a more sustainable housing market as related to homeownership.

In addition to developing stronger requirements for home buying eligibility, Fannie Mae has also worked to help owners avoid foreclosure by “completing more than 1.5 million workout solutions since 2009. In 2013, we completed 234,000 foreclosure prevention solutions. Less than 1 percent of the single-family loans in our book went into foreclosure in 2013, and we strive to help every at-risk family find an alternative to foreclosure.”

Below is a graphic giving a few numbers to grow on. Take a look and decide for yourself if you still should be standing on the sidelines or if it is time to Move forward?

fannie mae numbers at a glance

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New Home Buyers Beware of the Deed Processing Scam

Buying a home is suppose to be a wonderful time in Home Buyers lives. You search online for months and call your Realtor® (ME) Huntsville-real-estateeveryday, probably twice a day until you find that perfect Home you have been dreaming about. So now begins the dirty work. There is the offer(s), counter offers, inspections, mortgages, re-inspections, negotiating the contracts, attorneys etc, etc… You finally get to the closing and take possession of the Home of your dreams. Now a week or so later you get a bill in the mail saying something about remitting payment of $83 (apx) to said Deed Processing co. so you can receive the deed to your new home. So without thinking or calling your Realtor® (ME) again to ask what it is, you just send it in. It’s a scam!

home deeds

So here is the skinny. There are these illegitimate companies who are putting together an elaborate scam taking advantage of folks who just completed the purchase of a home. They are taking public records of recently purchased homes and sending out professionally crafted letters that would be hard to question as fake.

 

 

First, at any point you have questions or do not remember a conversation about a home or home purchase, call a Realtor® (ME). That is what I am here for. Simple questions to complex questions, I want to help.

Next, these letters asking for this fee, reportedly are being addressed form an out of town business.

Another thing, Your Realtor® (ME) or the closing  Attorney should have explained in detail where and when to expect your deed (free of charge) should be arriving to you and exactly what you need to do with that deed.

Keep it simple and keep it safe. When a question or concern comes up call a Realtor® (ME)

 

 

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Reports Indicate Another Housing Slowdown | Via Inman News

New reports point to housing slowdown | Inman News.

 

Economic reports released today show that activity in two sectors of the housing market dropped to its lowest levels in more than a year, providing some of the latest evidence that elevated mortgage rates and home prices may have slowed the pace of the real estate recovery.

Housing slowdown before real growth

“Housing is not about to collapse into another bust, but it is due for a pause after a strong rebound since the first half of 2012,” wrote David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, explaining the thrust of the reports.

For the week ending Feb. 14, a seasonally adjusted purchase index from the Mortgage Bankers Association hit its lowest level since September 2011, the trade group said today. On an unadjusted basis, demand for purchase loans for the week dropped 17 percent from the same week a year before.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today that housing starts in January hit a 17-month low, falling 7 percent year over year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 573,000, a figure that dovetails with the National Association of Home Builders’ finding yesterday that builder confidence plunged in February.

Other indicators also point to a slowdown. Pending home sales and existing-home sales have trended down in recent months, though one of the few brights spots in recent housing data are new-home sales, which grew at a fast clip in January.

Some trade groups and analysts have said that the unusually cold weather has contributed to weakening activity in the housing market.

“While we don’t want to dismiss out of hand the downbeat message of these measures of residential construction activity, we think that they largely reflect a correction from the sharp gain in starts in November and the recent unseasonably severe weather,” Capital Economics, an economic research firm, said in response to the report on housing starts.

The biggest impetus for the recent slump, however, may be substantial increases in both home prices and mortgage rates. The combination of both has pushed up the cost of financed homeownership by roughly a quarter from last year in more than 300 counties nationwide, according to a report data aggregator RealtyTrac is set to release tomorrow.

“Last year was a nice bounce-back year for the housing market, particularly home prices, but we cannot expect to see the patterns of 2013 repeat in 2014,” said RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist. “This year will be more of a reality check type of year as home prices and sales slow down to allow incomes and confidence to catch up.”

More from Teke Wiggin

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/02/19/new-reports-point-to-housing-slowdown/#sthash.hGvhs6HV.dpuf

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What buyers want?

Times of needing to have a formal dinning area may have come and gone, but having a space to dine and entertain hasn’t.

Years ago folks wanted to have a formal dinning room so they could have a nice gathering over a meal and entertain guests. Well, that hasn’t changed except where it is located. Today buyers are wanting a warm comfortable open kitchen design where they can entertain guests and still be where the action is- “The Kitchen”. Even with the influx of restaurants in local places folks still want to have guests over for entertaining.
Today’s buyers want an updated kitchen area, generally overlooking a dinning area or den area.
So there is something to think about when you are updating your house for a market analysis. Should you take down that wall or simply update the kitchen. My recommendation is, if you’re going to update the kitchen then probably go ahead and take out that wall and open things up. Otherwise, leave the kitchen to attract a different buyer wanting a fixer upper.
Call me if you would like a Pre-market analysis and or “on the market ready” analysis.