Archive for June, 2010

Thinking Outside The Box – A Puzzle

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An elderly lady who looks as if she is about to die.

2. An old friend who once saved your life.

3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

To which one would you choose to offer a ride, knowing that there could be only one passenger in your car?

Think about your options before you continue reading…

You could pick up the elderly lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; Or, you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The options listed above are the obvious ones, all of which result in a partially unfavorable result. A Realtor who is a highly skilled negotiator, however, would come up with the following win/win scenario after thinking outside of the box for all of the options:
“I would give the car keys to my old friend and ask him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.”

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Highly skilled Realtors rarely allow negotiations to get to an impasse. Never forget to “Think outside the box.”

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REALTOR.COM Adds Functionality

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Can’t remember the last name of that Realtor you met at a cocktail party last week, or the agent who helped you on that house hunt two years ago?

An improved “Find a Realtor” search tool now allows location-based searches using part of an agent’s or company’s name. The initial search can also filter for designations and certifications and the number of active listings an agent represents.

The Realtor.com beta site, which officially launched last week, also sports some snazzy map-based search capabilities, serving up information about individual properties, neighborhoods and housing markets that can help buyers and sellers get a handle on recent trends.

Unless agents choose to suppress such information, their profile pages will show the number of active listings they have, the average listing price, and their designations and certifications.

Profile pages also display the geographic markets served by agents and recent updates to their listings.

Map-based searches show neighborhood boundaries and can display heat maps of home prices or property valuations. Users can zoom in to the parcel level to click on individual properties.
Officials with Realtor.com, operator Move Inc., say the new capabilities are intended to help Realtor.com maintain its position as the most visited real estate site on the Web. The goal is not only to put more information into the hands of consumers, but help them find a real estate professional to interpret it.

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State’s economy will continue to rebound, Comerica economist says

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Business owners in Michigan needn’t worry about the state’s recovery being affected by financial troubles in Greece or Europe, Dana Johnson, the chief economist for Comerica Bank, told a breakfast gathering of bank executives and clients at Oakland Hills Country Club Thursday.

He said the impact on the state and U.S. “will be little more than a rounding error,” and said at worst it likely wouldn’t do more than reduce by two-tenths of a percent his forecast for national economic growth this year of at least four percent and for 3.5 percent for 2011.

Johnson said Michigan’s economy, although it had a mild step backward in April, will continue to rebound, perhaps at a rate exceeding the national average.

The state, he said, will see net job growth this year and next, driven by increasing demand for cars made by the Detroit Three.

“It looks like the long, persistent slide in market share has been arrested,” Johnson said. “You’ll see double digit sales increases by the Detroit Three, which are the first increases by the Detroit-based automakers in 10 years.”

Market share by the Detroit Three fell every year — from 63.2 percent in 2001 to 44.2 percent in 2009 — before rebounding this year to 45.3 percent.

Source: Tom Henderson, Crain’s Detroit Business

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The Silver Lining

Monday, June 7th, 2010

The gloomy shadow cast over Michigan by our terrible economy has camouflaged our new hidden value proposition. Like seedlings emerging after a forest fire, Michigan, and particularly the metro Detroit area, offer wonderful new opportunities as a place to live and work.

Consider our cost of living. The cost of virtually everything has been reset to levels of 10-15 years ago. Housing prices are half of what they once were and the total cost of home ownership is even less than that, due to lower interest rates and lower property taxes.

For businesses, the cost of infrastructure has also been lowered dramatically. Office space, retail space and manufacturing space are abundant and inexpensive. Employee wages have also been reset. Add to that the readily available pool of educated and talented labor and you have a fertile environment for new business growth.
And then there are all the other amenities that accompany living and working in Michigan. Our natural resources, educational institutions, recreational opportunities and the like are all attractions that place Michigan among the most desirable locations to work and play.

At some point, the rest of the world will take notice and come join us. We must play our role as ambassadors of Michigan good will and speak only positively about this place we call home. And when we do so, we will then take advantage of this silver lining.

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When will housing prices return to 2002-2003 peaks?

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Experts can’t agree where home values will be later this year. There are so many variables to consider: interest rates, foreclosures and unemployment to name a few.

One group of experts have looked not only at this year but also predict when housing values will return to the peak prices. Fiserv teamed up with Case Shiller to examine different parts of the country and determine when those regions will rebound to the prices we experienced at the height of the market.

Market values reached their highs sometime back in 2002-2003 in Michigan, but not until 2005-2006 in the rest of the country.
The report states where prices are headed this year and they map out certain regions and estimate when these markets will return to peak values.

According to the report:
“Nationally, Fiserv Case-Shiller data points to a further seven percent decline in home prices through the end of this year, with a prolonged recovery beginning early in 2011. In many markets, the emphasis is on the word ‘prolonged,’” said David Stiff, Chief Economist, Fiserv. “We see several powerful forces in the market that will severely hinder the housing recoveries of many metro areas, particularly in the hard-hit states of California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. It will take these markets 15 or more years before home prices climb back to their peaks.”

For those of us in Michigan, it is important to recognize that our home prices did not experience the significant double digit price escalation that occurred in the markets listed above from 2002-2006. This is the primary reason that market stabilization will take longer to return to those markets than ours.

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