Belleville Michigan Home Buying

WXYZ Picks Up Interview With Our Buyer's Broker Jon Boyd

2009-08-25T21:53:00.002-05:00

A journalist for Bankrate.com interviewed our broker Jon Boyd some months back for an article he had been working on regarding home purchase language.

In particular, the focus was things seller's real estate people will say with reference to their listings to try to grab the interest of home buying consumers. Hint: They are not always true.

These phrases were collected from our nationwide organization (naeba.org) and the are totally real.

Here is what you want to think about:

If a real estate agent routinely directs expressions like these to buyers, why would you ever want somebody like at being your buyer's agent or designated buyer's agent?

Just a idea to ponder as you look at Belleville real estate.

Here is the article.

20090814 status check

2009-08-14T07:03:00.002-05:00

20090814 status check2

Flamingos invade!

2009-06-15T09:57:00.001-05:00

I'm at an inspection today and one of the neighbors has about a dozen
flamingos.

I remember 20+ years ago when I had a flamingo in my yard on West
Madison.

Bad electrical work

2009-05-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm out at an inspection today and it isn't a big deal, but this looks
like some typical homeowner wiring.

At least the actual joints are in wirenuts. It would have been a lot
worse if the had just been wrapped together and then electrial taped.

However any electrical joints like this should have been put in an
electrical box.

The Country's Two Largest Builders Will Merge

2009-04-09T08:36:00.002-05:00

Pulte and Centex, the two largest builders in the country, have decided to merge.

Both builders have been active in this area. Centex built a big development on the North side. I think we helped one buyer purchase there.

This economic thing is really creating some unusual mergers.

If you would like a real estate company to help you buy a Belleville home and actually be on your side, call us.

The Home Buyer's Agent, helping Belleville home buyers for 15+ years.
1908 W. Stadium Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-662-6240

Here is the gutter screen photo

2009-03-21T09:46:00.001-05:00

On an inspection - amazing gutter screen

2009-03-18T11:17:00.000-05:00

I'm at an inspection now and neither the inspector nor I have ever
seen a gutter leaf screen like this. It feels like a fabric over a
grill over the gutter.

Blogged from my iPhone.

Back to life after trying a different webhost

2009-03-17T08:59:00.002-05:00

We are back to our original web hosting company for this blog.

We tried a different one, and it worked from November to December, then it died.

Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Continuing Education for real estate in Belleville

2008-12-13T09:33:00.001-05:00

This morning I'm in Belleville taking my yearly continuing education
class.

Jean-Paul Pilot is doing a nice job teaching.

Blogged from my iPhone.

We just moved servers - typical this day and age

2008-11-24T16:26:00.003-05:00

We just move to a different server for this blog and site.

If you notice anything strange here please send us an email at jon (at) buyersagentannarbor.com or call our office at 734-662-6240.

Thanks!

We just moved servers - typical this day and age

2008-11-24T16:26:00.001-05:00

Secret way some buyers give away negotiating leverage during a home purchase

2008-11-22T18:52:00.003-05:00

If you are reading this blog about buying a home in Belleville it is fairly certain that you are thinking about buying a home. If not in Belleville Michigan then somewhere.

Here is something I bet you don't know:

When you go on a property search site that belongs to a real estate company or a individual agent they can track your activity. That's right. They can spy on you.

This can end doing bad things to you if you end up negotiating on a home with that company as the selling office or the listing office. We've seen it happen.

There is more to this than meets the eye, but if you want to be sure you aren't being watched, you should know that our property search site guarantees your searching process won't get shared with a listing office or with a home seller. We can do that because we are an exclusive buyer agency office. (Exclusive buyer agency is when a real estate company only works for buyers, never sellers. And they never list property.)

Our announcement of the site will be coming shortly and it will be at our main office website:

Ann Arbor Real Estate Buyer's Broker

Quiz for Home Buyers

2008-10-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

A few years ago we created a twelve question web based home buying quiz.

The answers are informative, especially to first time home buyers.

Click the link below:

It has specific discussion of some Ann Arbor real estate issues but it is still helpful to anyone in the home buying process.

Some of the items in the quiz are things that traditional salespeople actually don't want you to know.

Solution for fogged windows, but it takes time

2008-08-28T08:20:00.003-05:00

There is now a company in the area that corrects fogged windows in-place.

They are based in Southeastern Michigan and they service Belleville as well as most of Wayne County.

The link above takes you to one of our other bloggs where the process is described.

Good to know!

Helping Home Buyers Locate, Evaluate, and Negotiate great home deals!
Jon Boyd, Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
http://buyersagentannarbor.com/
734-6620-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!

Be Careful When You Choose REALTORs & an Inspector

2008-08-18T15:02:00.002-05:00

The link in the headline takes you to a news report about an average couple buying a home.

They look at about a dozen homes with a real estate agent and end up buying the one that her husband is selling.

Then, the buyers take their recommendation for a home inspector.

The end result is the buyers have a home that needs tens of thousands of dollars of repairs and corrections that they didn't learn about until after closing.

The point here is that if you are going to buy a home and you want to minimize the conflicts-of-interest, use an Exclusive Buyer's Agent.

We won't push you at "our listings" because we don't have any! An Exclusive Buyer's Agent is a company who never has listings and never represents a home seller.

We focus our total attention on you, the home buyer

Free CLass - How Belleville Home Buyers Can Improve Their Credit Score By Over 100 Points

2008-06-20T09:09:00.001-05:00

This Monday night we are having another free class. But this time it isn't just for home buyers.

"How To Repair Your Credit & Boost Your Score By 100+ Points!" Is a class about dispelling some of the myths of credit and showing you exactly what is possible and why in terms of improving your credit file.

You know that your credit file is critical in determining what kind of home loans yu qualify for, but did you know that potential employers will check your credit? Did you know that your credit score has a dramatic impact on your insurance rates? Even renting an apartment is impacted by what is in your credit files.

Why do we know so much about credit and how to improve it? Because as we have been looking out for the best interest of home buyers for close to 20 years, and that includes helping buyers with their credit files dating back for over 15 of those 20 years.

So, come to the free class Monday night, June 23rd and find out all about what can be done to turn your credit around in the next six months.

Again the class is free, but pre-registration is required.

Call the voice mail system at 734-223-9831 and leave a message with the number of seats you would lie to reserve, your name(s), and a phone number we cal call to confirm your reservation.

And, we will see you Monday night!

Couple Home Buying Video

2008-05-28T21:31:00.003-05:00

This is a short but good video from Youtube. It illustrates a traditional real estate sales person and a young couple looking at a home. The challenge is that the wife is emotionally interested and the husband has some grave concerns....

If they would have been working with an Exclusive Buyer's Agent, the agent would have focused her attention on the problems so they both could have made a more objective decision on the home.

Remember, good schools don't make up for a home filled with unspeakable evil!

"How To Buy A Foreclosure" class well received

2008-04-29T12:52:00.002-05:00

We had another one of our free "How To Buy A Foreclosure" classes last night here in Ann Arbor. Last month we filled up but this time we had extra seats.

I could tell that a couple of the buyers who were there were gaining insights about the process. One of the buyers who had actually viewed a number of foreclosed and short-sale homes was clearly much more comfortable with the process when he left.

Belleville certainly has its share of foreclosures and short-sales right now and we are thinking much of 2008 will be the same.

If you are thinking about home buying this is a class you really should see.

Oh, and we don't sell home-study courses and this isn't about get-rich-quick. The class is focused on buying a home to live in.

Click on the link above for information about the next class if you are interested.

How to choose a buyer agent

2008-03-26T18:38:00.001-05:00

A good article from Cyberhomes on choosing a buyer's agent.

Take a look if you are thinking about home buying, particularly in the Belleville area.

Maryland Court strikes a blow AGAINST home buyer's rights

2008-03-25T14:06:00.005-05:00

I just heard the final decision of a court case in Maryland about a buyer who was actively mislead by his real estate agent/brokerage.

The short version is he hired a company to represent him as a buyer's broker. Then after the agreement expired they got him to sign a purchase agreement on one of their listings. (He thought they were his agent based on the original contract and their actions.)

Somehow it seems that the real estate company was more interested in the commission dollars. Who would have thought?

So here is the rub... the buyer, thinking the agent was working on his side, signed a purchase contract that was not contingent on the sale of his old home. (Really dangerous since he couldn't afford both mortgage payments.)

Then the buyer finds out the real estate agent is NOT his buyer agent, but working for the seller's best interest.

The buyer realized he was getting scammed and wants to pull the plug on the whole transaction.

So the court decides that even though the real estate agents violated the law and the buyer thought they were still represented, that the buyer must still be bound by the contract. (And loose his earnest money deposit.)

The real estate broker and their agents apparently got away with this without any penalty of any kind.

The poor buyer is out his original earnest money deposit plus tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and court costs.

Baltimore Sun Article on Choosing an Agent

2008-03-04T22:06:00.003-05:00

If you are thinking about buying a home here is an article that has some good insights.

Stephen Brobeck, who I met about a year ago at our national conference, is the executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. He works to protect consumers in a lot of different areas. He is quoted here:

Baltimore Sun Article on Choosing a Real Estate Agent

Home seller's question: rent or sell??

2008-02-14T22:46:00.003-05:00

We had a negotiation if the office last fall with a home seller who had a unique situation.

The owner had his home on the market for about six months and had already moved to another area. And he needed to get out from under the mortgage payment.

Other than our buyer who was interested, he had a person who was interested in renting the home with an option to buy it at the end of the year.

I needed to convince the seller that he should sell to our buyer for less than what the rental guy wanted to pay next year, without letting him know how much our buyer wanted the home.

So I pointed out to him that:

1. The renter may not be able to get a loan in a year - which would put the seller back in the same situation.

2. The renter may break the lease and the owner would be saddled with landlord challenges.

3. The market values could drop and the buyer wouldn't want to pay as much next year.

4. The renter could damage the home or something in the home could break, and he would need to put more money in the home.

And a few more....

At least one of the scenarios must have struck a nerve for him because when he saw our offer (again that was significantly less than what the rent-to-own guy was offering) he took it.

Good deal and great house for our buyer, and we solved the seller's problem.

If you know who the rent-to-own guy was send him to our office so he doesn't get out-negotiated the next time!

Interesting Belleville market statistic

2008-02-10T11:56:00.000-05:00

One of our clients in the office is looking a luxury homes in Belleville. (We define luxury as homes with asking prices above ~$550,000)

The other real estate agents are all gushing about how wonderful their listings are, our agent Laura looks at things a little more objectively. (Remember we represent the buyer - a big difference.)

So at one of our staff meetings recently Laura mentioned that in the particular segment of the market where she was helping a buyer look there are 21 homes on the market.

And-

In the last year 3 similar properties have sold. That is a 7 year inventory!

To be fair the luxury homes normally has a longer market time (closert o a year in most areas) but seven years of inventory is amazing!

If you are a buyer this is the MOST CRITICAL PIECE OF NEGOTIATING INFORMATION for you to have.

As the Exclusive Buyer's Agent working in the Belleville market we may be the only company who will discuss this with you.

Top EBA's (Exclusive Buyer Agents) get "green" in Las Vegas

2008-02-05T10:35:00.000-05:00

Many of the top Exclusive Buyer's Agents in the country met recently in Las Vegas for their annual conference.

The professional association is called the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org) and since many NAEBA members are also REALTORS it made sense to host the conferences together so members could visit both.

The conference was titled "Going Green... It's No Gamble" and focused on education in the Green building area.

This post from another blog mentions some youtube.com videos taken at the conference of NAEBA members: http://annarbormichiganrealestate.com/?p=62

I believe our office (in the link above) is the only NAEBA member who serves Belleville Michigan.

New high school for Belleville?

2008-01-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

The Belleville Board of Education looks close to asking Belleville voters to approve a new high school.

As the current school approaches its 90th birthday the plan would be to demolish most of the old school and replace it with a new school in the same location.

Proposals like this always come with a tax increase for local home owners. But normally the improvement in the desirability of the school system more than makes up for the increase in costs.