Real Estate Market Watch March 2012

I have one important message in this month’s Market Watch: If you or someone you know is thinking about selling their house, list it NOW.  Let me tell you why.

Combined January and February closed transactions are up 5% from last year and up 17% from 2010. The number of homes currently listed is down 10.1% from last year and down 17.6% from 2010. When sales increase as they have and listings decrease, the month’s supply of homes also decreases. It will be no surprise that average month’s supply has also declined significantly. The average month’s supply this year is 16.2% less than last year and 30.7% less than 2010. The absolute number of active listings is down over 33% from its peak. If we close the same number of homes this March as we did last year in March and active listings don’t increase, we will only have 6.28 months supply of homes on the market. The supply of homes has not been that low since June of 2006.

Winter decided to skip us this year. The home buying season has already started. Home affordability (a calculation based on average household income, median home price, and mortgage interest rates) is at an all-time high. Homes have never been more affordable, and there are not too many on the market.

No one has better tools to market your house.  FCTuckerEmge.com is the best local website for shoppers in our market. Opportunity is knocking.  So take advantage of today’s housing environment.

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Real Estate Market Watch February 2012

January 2012 closed volume was the best January our market has seen in four years. Closed sales in January 2009 through 2012 have been 197, 198, 220, and 241. Although January is typically the slowest month of the year for real estate closings, this 9.5% increase in 2012 following the 11.1% increase in 2011 suggests that our market is showing steady improvement. Our local figures mirror the nation–which also had a bump in January volume.

Resale home sales are off to a good start; however, new home construction is still slow. Just a little over 300,000 new homes were built nationwide last year. Prior to the financial crisis, new home construction had not been less than 1 million units for 15 consecutive years. This slowdown will also improve. The short explanation is that there is too much supply and too little demand. There are currently 1 ¾ million vacant homes in the U.S. Until the number of vacant homes declines, there is not enough demand to warrant significant new home construction. A normal number would be in the 1 ¼ million range. The good news is that the number of vacant homes continues to decline. I believe, we are 12-18 months from getting back to normal levels. In the meantime, I expect continued but gradual improvement in the real estate market.

Recently, our MLS (multiple listing service) became a BLC (broker listing cooperative). The reason for this change is that national aggregators of real estate information have, in many cases, hijacked the term MLS. REALTOR organizations did not trademark the term decades ago, and it is now too late. By switching to a BLC, we will be better able to assure the public that our information is both complete and accurate. Many national companies advertise and solicit leads through their websites. They offer valuation data and show homes for sale. Unfortunately, their data is almost always incomplete and frequently inaccurate. The best way to get accurate, complete real estate information is to contact me or go to At Home In Evansville or TuckerMobile.com I can help you with any real estate information you need, and you can be sure the information is complete and accurate.

Vanderburgh County Offers Free Radon Testing

In cooperation with the Indiana State Department of Health and the American Lung Association the Vanderburgh County Health Department is offering free radon testing for homes in Vanderburgh County. Radon is a cancer-causing radioactive gas that seeps into homes from the soil though basements, crawlspaces and in some cases through the water service. You cannot see, smell or taste radon, but it may be a problem in your home. The Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. Some scientific studies of radon exposure indicate that children may be more sensitive to radon. This may be due to their higher respiration rate and their rapidly dividing cells, which may be more vulnerable to radiation damage.

The purpose of the testing is three fold;

· To provide testing some homeowners are aware of their radon risk

· To promote education regarding the risk of radon to our citizens

· To conduct an organized study to determine which areas of the county and the types & ages of dwellings most prone to radon infiltration

To conduct the test Health Department personnel will place a test kit in the home and retrieve it 3-7 days later. The kit will then be processed and the results forwarded to the occupant in ~ 2 weeks. If you would like to take advantage of this free testing and assist the Health department in our study please contact us at 435-5695 to schedule a test.

Real Estate Market Watch June 2011

I have some news and observations this month that I think you will find interesting. On the national front, housing affordability has reached an all-time high. This calculation, released by Wells Fargo and The National Association of Home Builders, says that 74.6% of all homes sold in the first quarter of 2011 were affordable for families earning the national median income of $64,400. This is the highest level in the 20 years this data has been tracked. The two driving factors in this calculation are the price of homes and interest rates–both of which are at historically low levels. In fact, according to Corelogic, national home prices have declined 33.8% from their peak. Keep in mind, that is a nationwide statistic.
Locally, home values never declined that much. From our peak average annual sale price of $129,421 in 2006, prices have only declined 5% based on the January-May 2011 time period. Average sale price for the first 5 months of this year is $122,939 and has increased from 2009 to 2010 and again so far this year. Prices in our area have stabilized and are on the rise.
Homes may never be more affordable. Contrary to popular opinion, there are not too many homes currently on the market in our area. Based on May sales, we only have 8.04 month’s supply of homes currently listed. That is lower than the average annual month’s supply for every year from 2007-2010. There are almost 1000 fewer homes currently listed than there were at our peak in September of 2007. In fact, I’ve heard several buyers mention that there aren’t enough potential homes to see.

Real Estate Market Watch May 2011

Residential closed transactions in April declined slightly from March, but pended transactions increased from March to April. I expect closed transactions to increase slightly over the next few months and still believe that the second half of 2011 will be significantly better than the second half of 2010.

The primary factors influencing sales over the next few months will be interest rates, shadow inventory, and general economic conditions with particular emphasis on employment. Although I still believe interest rates will increase, I do not expect any significant increase for several months, maybe not until 2012. Shadow inventory, which consists of foreclosed or seriously delinquent mortgage loans, continues to decline. The National Association of Realtors forecasts a 1.8% decline in median home prices nationwide for 2011; however, our local prices are up over 2% for the first four months of this year compared to last year. This is another sign that our prices stabilized last year.

The national economy continues to grow at a relatively slow rate (only at 1.8% pace during the first quarter of this year). But our local employment data suggests we are doing better than the nation as a whole. While national unemployment is still at 9.0%–locally our rate is 7.5%. What is more encouraging is the actual number of workers who are gainfully employed. The nine-county region in southwest Indiana had 167,034 employed people as of March compared to 160,420 last March. This year’s figures are after the loss of 1,100 Whirlpool workers last summer. These employment numbers coupled with the stabilization of home prices gives me cause to be optimistic about our local housing market.

Historic Preservation Month–Annual Banquet

Historic Preservation Month – Annual Banquet
Date: 5/10/2011 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Cost: $27.00
Location: Old Courthouse
201 N.W. Fourth St.
Evansville, Indiana 47708

The thirty-sixth annual Historic Preservation Awards Banquet in observance of Historic Preservation Month will be in the Old Courthouse in Downtown Evansville. The banquet will be catered by Just Rennie’s. Delivering the annual Amy W. MacDonell—Randall T. Shepard Historic Preservation Lecture this year is architectural historian and Courthouse Preservation Advisory Commission member Diana Hawes. The presentation, “Sizing Up Indiana’s Historic Courthouses: How and Why We Should Honor Them,” summarizes the soon-to-be-published findings of the Courthouse Preservation Advisory Commission. Hawes considers the preservation of our State’s courthouse heritage a top preservation challenge. The banquet also recognizes the just completed renovation of the Old Superior Courtroom by the Evansville Bar Association. Hawes’ presentation, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. The cost of the banquet meal is $27.00.

Reservations are necessary. Call 436-7823.

Habitat for Humanity competition asks architects, designers to ‘IMAGINE’

By John Martin
Habitat for Humanity of Evansville has announced a venture that will challenge local architects and engineers to redesign the face of an entire city block.

As part of the IMAGINE Design Competition, professionals will design a streetscape of the east side of Morton Avenue, between Riverside Drive and Sweetser Avenue, where abandoned homes and vacant lots sit among a few homeowner-occupied homes that may need repair.

“This is an opportunity for us to further our mission of providing simple, decent housing and to expand our product line to include rehabbing,” said Lori Reed, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Evansville. “This block-by-block model of rehabbing is a pilot project that we would like to replicate if funding is available.”

Habitat owns five properties along the east side of Morton — two vacant lots and three empty homes. It will demolish one of the homes, rehab the other two and build new homes on the vacant lots.

Habitat invited architects and engineers to imagine what this street might look like if it were newly developed, incorporating updated facades for the existing homeowner-occupied homes and a sustainable Habitat design that parallels its mission of being simple, decent and affordable while still integrating creative design.

The competition is open to any regional architect, engineer or student studying these disciplines. Final submissions are due May 2. Judging by an independent panel will occur May 3-15. Winning entries will be announced during a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. May 20 at Old National Bank. First place will receive $2,000, and second will receive $1,000.

Habitat officials said the initiative follows recommendations from a 2008 study by the University of Southern Indiana Center for Applied Research which found that cluster building carries a greater visual impact than scattered site building.

Habitat officials said they found the same to be true in the building of New Haven, a 55-home subdivision it developed in response to a tornado that hit Evansville in 2005.

Habitat then looked to replicate the cluster-build design with Shadewood Place, at Shadewood and Sweetser avenues.

Both Shadewood Place and the IMAGINE Design Competition are part of Habitat’s overall efforts to revitalize the Glenwood neighborhood, a project under bordered by Veterans Memorial Parkway, Riverside Drive and Kentucky Avenue. For three years, Habitat has worked with several community partners to upgrade the Glenwood neighborhood.

Real Estate Market Watch April 2011

If you recall the Market Watch I sent in December, I made several specific predictions about how our local real estate market would perform the first several months of this year compared to last year. Those predictions have been accurate to date, but what is more telling is how we are doing compared to 2009. As I have mentioned before, the homebuyer tax credits in the first half of last year distorted sales. There were no homebuyer tax credits in the first half of 2009. Closed sales in the first three months of 2011 were up 11.7% in units and up 18% in total sales dollars compared to the corresponding period in 2009. The local housing market has improved and will continue to get better.
The number of active listings on the market continues to stay at historically low levels. Housing affordability–which is influenced primarily by the price of homes and interest rates–is at historically high levels. If you are thinking about buying, waiting will inevitably mean you pay more for your home; either in terms of price, interest rates, or both. If you are thinking about selling, it is better to get your house on the market now before inventory levels begin to rise.
If you are selling your home, it is important to understand that buyer behavior has changed significantly in the past few years. Now, virtually all buyers look at homes online before physically visiting a house. Showings happen online. The number of times a home is viewed online is as–or more–important than the number of physical showings and is a better barometer of buyer interest. Seller reporting at AtHomeInEvansville.com provides sellers a realistic picture of marketing activity. This tool allows you to know when and how often potential buyers are looking at your home online. Call me if you have additional questions about this valuable program.
Let me know if I can help you with any of your real estate needs, and please enjoy the beautiful spring!

City/County “Pothole Blitz” to Take Place April 4th through April 8th

Residents urged to report potholes through April 1st
Posted Date: 3/29/2011

(EVANSVILLE, IN) – March 29, 2011 – Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel and Vanderburgh County Commission President Lloyd Winnecke announced today that the annual City/County “pothole blitz” will take place from April 4th through April 8th.

Between now and April 1st, residents are urged to call the City’s pothole hotline at 435-6000 to report potholes on City-maintained roads; and the County’s pothole hotline at 435-5777 to report potholes on County-maintained roads. Callers should give specific information about the location of the pothole, as well as their contact information in case workers have trouble finding the pothole or need additional information. The City and County will then map out the locations of all reported potholes and develop a systematic plan to repair them.

“While road crews repair potholes throughout the year, freezing and thawing through the winter months always lead to an increase in the number of potholes this time of year,” said Mayor Weinzapfel. “Now that the threat of freezing weather has passed, we can go out and address the problem in earnest, making local roads safer for drivers.”

“It is vital that residents take the time to call because we can’t fix potholes unless we know where they are,” said County Commission President Winnecke. “If you see a pothole, please don’t assume that someone else has already reported it. We’d rather receive calls from multiple people about the same pothole than to miss one because we didn’t know about it.”

Please note that Diamond Ave., Morgan Ave., U.S. Highway 41, Lloyd Expressway and State Road 62 are maintained by the State of Indiana, and potholes on those roads should be reported to the Indiana Department of Transportation, Vincennes District, at (800) 279-5758.

Evansville Home Show–Save the Date

Looking for good ways to make your boring house into your dream home? Thinking about sprucing up the yard or preparing for summer with a hot tub? Desperate for do-it-yourself tips and tricks? The 64th Annual Heritage Federal Credit Union Home Show has all this and more at Roberts Stadium on April 1st through the 3rd.
Features include:

Don’t miss this!
Sunday at 1:00 PM – Staging Your Home to Sell! presented by Terry Haas, Real Estate Expert, Home Staging Consultant and featured agent of HGTV’s Designed to Sell sponsored by F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors

- 200+ Indoor & Outdoor Displays
- 15,000+ Attendees
- Two Stages
- Live Demonstrations and Presentations from Local and National Experts
- Thousands of Dollars in Home Show Sweepstakes Giveaways
- Information and Specials from Exhibitors
- The Children’s Pavilion
- And more!

Here is the schedule of events.

Health Department offers free testing for water wells recently flooded in Vanderburgh County

Vanderburgh County Health Department
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
435-5289
(Please use until April 30, 2011)

EVANSVILLE, March 15

The Vanderburgh County Health Department will be offering free well testing for bacterial suitability to Vanderburgh County residents whose water wells were covered by recent flood waters. Well users should wait until the flood waters recede from the top of the wells before they have testing done. This ensures no contamination occurs between the time testing occurs and the flooding recedes.

Well water testing is also offered to non-Vanderburgh county residents and well users who do not have flooded wells for a twenty dollar fee (cash or check). In order to get your well tested, please stop by the Vanderburgh County Health Department Laboratory at 420 Mulberry Street. You will receive the proper sample collection bottle and instructions. See our web site www.vanderburghgov.org/health or call the Laboratory at 435-5568 for details.

Real Estate Market Watch March 2011

While the national media continues to report that home prices are declining and sales are decreasing, I have much better news locally. Closed transactions for the January-February 2011 time period were up 12.6% compared to the same period in 2010 (501 homes in 2011 vs. 445 homes in 2010). In addition, the average sale price is up 2% to $120,711 for the first two months of the year.
If you are thinking about listing your home, let me give you some great reasons to list it now. At the time I wrote this Market Watch, there were only 2660 active listings in our multiple listing service. There have not been that few homes on the market since May of 2006. Many sellers think that “buying season” correlates to the summer months but the truth is homes sales pick up in the spring. Potential buyers–on average–look for a couple of months before they sign a purchase agreement. All of this means that buyers who will close on the purchase of their new home this summer are looking for homes now. If your home is not on the market, buyers won’t find it.
My company feels so certain of this time schedule that we are kicking off a new billboard and radio campaign this month. AtHomeInEvansville.com and TuckerMobile.com are both excellent tools for buyers to find homes whether they are at home, in the office, or in their cars. These sites are also offer effective marketing tools for our sellers.
Buyers are looking: improving weather makes searching for a home more pleasant. I am ready to help you sell your home today. Give me a call, and let me show you how I can help.

How to Win in the Foreclosure Bidding Process

It is often frustrating–making offer after offer on different properties and never actually buying your dream home. But in today’s market, this situation appears to be the norm when dealing with foreclosures and short sale offers.

Here’s how to Stop Losing Homes to Higher Bidders
REThink Real Estate
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Thursday, March 10, 2011.

Q: My daughter and her husband-to-be, who are both 21, are trying to buy a house and have put many offers in on various homes. They already are preapproved for the amount they need. Every time they put an offer in, even on houses that have no other offers, and that have been on the market for a long time, all of a sudden many offers come in–sometimes within 24 hours!

Then the bank goes with the higher offer, which confuses them because their agent told them there were no other offers. This has been very depressing for them.

They are getting married in June and would like to purchase a home before then, so they have a home to move into after the wedding (they both still live with their parents). Is there anything they can do to resolve this problem? –Julie R.

Being a buyer in today’s market is nearly as frustrating as being a seller. You read and hear all day long about what a strong buyer’s market it’s supposed to be and what great deals there are to be had via foreclosures and short sales.

But when you start making offers on properties you find that the banks are nowhere near as willing to negotiate as you expected, and that many of the bank-owned homes cannot be bought without prevailing over a sea of other offers.

Depressing and frustrating–yes. But there are some strategies they can and should put into play to better their chances going forward.

With an individual seller, you can minimize the chances of being outbid unawares in a couple of ways. You can put a very, very short time frame on your offer, eliminating a window of opportunity for other buyers to swoop in on the property.

Also, most listing agents in “regular” sales want their clients to get the highest possible price for their home, so it’s common for them to ring up any previous offerors to let them know when additional offers have come in, to give them an opportunity to increase their offers or otherwise make them more competitive.

You can’t force a bank to respond to your offer in a very short time frame, or in any time frame at all, for that matter. I once sold a bank-owned property in a transaction where the time frame between when we submitted an offer and when we received the signed acceptance back from the bank was nine weeks.

But what your daughter and future son-in-law can do is go into these transactions with the lessons they’ve learned thus far.

Whatever it is that caused them to be interested in this property at this point in time could very well be inspiring other buyers to make an offer at the same exact time. So, even when their agent is told that there are no other offers at the time they make theirs, they need to do several things.

First, they need to enlist their agent to stay in very close contact with the listing agent–as often as two or three times a day is not overkill–once their offer is submitted.

Your daughter’s agent should not only be calling the listing agent frequently to check and see whether other offers have come in–they should also be asking the listing agent upfront to notify them if additional offers come in. That way, your daughter and her fiancé may at least get the chance to try to compete with the other offers.

Additionally, your daughter should consider changing her approach to formulating the price she offers for a home. She will have a better shot at getting a home if she offers a price more in line with the recent sales in the area, versus just offering something below or even at whatever the list price is on the assumption that she has no competition.

Every time she wants to make an offer, she and her mate should sit down with her agent and get an analysis of the recent sales of similar properties in the area. If she’s making an offer on a bank-owned property, she should look at those sorts of sales. It’s critical that she not only look at the recent comps’ list price, or sale price, but their list-price-to-sale-price ratio.

For example, if a home’s list price is $100,000 and it sells for $110,000, the list-price-to-sale-price ratio is 110 percent.

From what you’ve said, it seems that it’s pretty common for these homes to sell over asking. If she can work with her agent to determine how much, on average, over asking these homes typically sell for, then she can apply that ratio to the list price of the home for which she wants to place an offer.

So, for example, if the other homes are selling for 107 percent of their asking price and she is seriously interested in buying a home that is listed for $125,000, she would multiply $125,000 by 107 percent and consider an offer price of $133,750.

Yes, that may mean that she goes in with an offer over the asking price, even in a situation where she has been told there are no other offers. But if the recent comparable sales justify that value, and it is within the price range she can afford to pay, that may be necessary to avoid being chronically overbid and secure the home in which to start her family.

Some buyers get hung up on the idea that they are “overpaying” if they make an above-asking offer, but the reality is that the list price is not the actual price of the home–it’s a starting point for upwards or downwards negotiations, depending on the local market dynamics and how the list price was set vis-à-vis the fair market value of the home.

Getting a great deal is not necessarily the same as paying at or below asking; just think–if the list price is set too high, then offering to pay it isn’t a better deal than if you offer above-asking on a place where the list price is set way too low. This is why it’s so critical to rely heavily on an analysis of recent comparable sales to drive your offer price, rather than just on the list price or what the listing agent tells you.

Further, no house is a good deal if you don’t get it, which may be the learning that your daughter and her fiancé are experiencing. And given that prices have rolled back to 2003 levels in many areas, whatever they pay will undoubtedly be a great deal, from that perspective. Please pass on my advice, along with my best wishes for their house hunt and their marriage.

As Spring Approaches

As Spring approaches, you may be considering a move. Please call on me to assist you in the process. I will provide you with a comprehensive market analysis that gives you an opinion of the value of your home in today’s market. If you decide the time is right to make a move, I will put all of my energy, experience, and tools to work to help you achieve your goal. My tools now include a revamped www.AtHomeInEvansville.com, as well as our new GPS-enabled TuckerMobile.com. I am confident you will be impressed when you visit these sites. Ask me about how I can customize your home search on my website. It allows you to receive new listings, as they come on the market. You can also be made aware of Open Houses and price changes. I make it easy for you.

Please let me know if I can set you up to receive this information. I am here to advise you in all things real estate. Do let me know how I can help.

Taxes on Short Sale or Foreclosure?

I am often asked whether or not a 1099 is issued on a short sale or foreclosure. Is there a lesser of the two evils?
This article addresses the issue. I have bolded the important sections.

Worse tax bite: short sale or foreclosure?
REThink Real Estate
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Thursday, March 3, 2011.

Q: Is there a difference on how you are 1099′d on a short sale vs. foreclosure for California residents? Is a foreclosure more “forgiving”? –Barb

A: Before we delve into a serious subject, I want to share something funny (and tangentially relevant) that happened to me the other day. “My mother sent me a text message that read: If I send you an address, can you tell me whether it is a shortcake?”

I’m pretty sure she meant short sale, and her texting software’s auto-correct function actually transformed it to the much more pleasant confectionery delight.

Anyhow, let’s start from a place of clarity. Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 is the form on which miscellaneous forms of taxable income are reported to taxpayers, who are then required to report this income on their tax returns (and pay taxes on it as required by their financials and the tax code).

In every state, every short sale or foreclosure can give rise to the bank issuing the borrower/former homeowner a form 1099 to report what is called Cancellation of Debt Income (CODI).

The theory is that you were not required to report the money you borrowed as income at the time you took the mortgage, because it was not income–it was a loan. When any portion of that debt is forgiven, whether through a short sale, a loan modification or a foreclosure, those funds convert from a loan to income, and must be reported to the IRS.

Any lender that wipes out debt in the context of a loan restructuring or a foreclosure has the right to issue the former borrower a 1099 form on the deficiency amount: the difference between what the lender recoups on the property through auction sale, short sale or a reduced loan balance, and what the borrower owed on the property. (The lender may not do it, but has the right to–and most lenders do.)

As a result, in foreclosures involving equity lines or loans or refinance loans that resulted in cash out (i.e., were not used to purchase the home or to refinance a purchase loan), that bank may not issue a 1099 because that line or loan has not been forgiven–the bank retains the right to pursue the borrowers for those funds in California.

Early on in this housing crisis, it was widely believed that a short sale would generate income tax while a foreclosure would not. This was largely misinformation, misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the relevant tax rules, largely due to the fact that we had simply seen very few cases of short sales or foreclosures until this wave of foreclosures came four years ago.

I think the (incorrect) belief was that a short sale was elective while a foreclosure was not. In fact, in 2006 I actually represented a would-be buyer on a property where the sellers decided to let the home go to foreclosure vs. closing on our short sale, out of the false belief that they would incur a great deal of income taxes on a short sale and none on a foreclosure.

As we now know, several years into this housing crisis, both foreclosures and short sales involve 1099s and cancellation of debt income. However, under the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act of 2007, the IRS is not charging income tax on most mortgage debt forgiven through short sale or foreclosure–especially on a borrower’s primary residence, and with a few other conditions–so long as that foreclosure, short sale or loan mod occurs before the end of the 2012 calendar year.

While there was a brief period of time during which California’s state tax law did not align with this temporary federal tax exemption, California’s law now mirrors the federal law.

A couple of points of note: Lenders are taking a long time to foreclose now–16 months after no payments, on average nationwide, and much longer in some areas. Many homeowners considering a strategic default vs. a short sale should at least make an effort at a short sale, especially given that there’s no guarantee that a foreclosure will occur before the end of 2012 even if they stop making payments now.

Unless the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act is extended, former homeowners who lose their homes after 2012 could be subject to income taxation at their regular tax bracket on the deficiency amount–sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There are a number of other exceptions to this taxation that apply at all times, though, including an insolvency exemption for those with a negative net worth, that may apply to many upside-down homeowners–more detail is available at the IRS website for the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act.

To be fair, I must mention that many experienced short-sale listing agents advise borrowers to stop making payments before requesting a short sale, too, as a number of major lenders and loan servicers do not seriously consider any sort of loan workout requests from borrowers who are current on their loans.

Before you make a decision about whether to attempt a short sale or let your home go to foreclosure, consult with a tax professional and get fully briefed on how the relevant tax laws will affect you.

Real Estate Market Watch February 2011

Market Watch

This month, I would like to discuss home inspections. These are an important part of virtually every real estate transaction. Unfortunately, many buyers and sellers do not consider inspections before purchasing or selling a home. I always recommend home inspections for buyers. This is an opportunity for the buyer to hire a 3^rd party professional to evaluate both structural and mechanical systems in a home before the transaction closes. When significant, unknown problems are discovered, this gives the buyer an opportunity to ask the seller to make an allowance or repair defects in the home prior to closing. The inspection is not intended to sour a transaction because of minor, inexpensive defects. Too often I see buyers asking for a laundry list of minor repairs, especially when considering an older home. Keep in mind that inspectors will, and should, point out items for the buyer’s benefit that are not necessarily major defects but simply minor repair or maintenance items.

I try to remind sellers that most buyers will ask for an inspection. In many cases the inspection will uncover some legitimate defect(s). In these cases, it is often in the seller’s best interest to make the repair because any known defects must legally be disclosed by both the seller and the Realtor. The next buyer will likely ask for the same repair.

As I hinted last month, we have just relaunched www.AtHomeInEvansville.com, as well as an upgraded TuckerMobile.com for your web-enabled phone. The new sites are designed to make the customer experience as quick, easy, and efficient as possible. TuckerMobile is the only local GPS enabled site and also allows the customer to search easily. Please, try both: I know you will be happy with the experience.

I will be back next month with more helpful information, and we will be one month closer to warm weather.

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