Charlotte Home Sales - Month-By-Month

While home prices in the rest of the country are still falling, Charlotte NC home prices have continued to rise an average of 3-7% over the past year. And when the rest of the country was having double-digit appreciation a few years ago, Charlotte home prices were holding steady at an average of 3-7% average annual appreciation, so slow and steady has proven to be a winner for the Charlotte real estate market! Average home sales prices by month for the past year:

April '08: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for April was $221,497. The average sales price was down by 2.2% over the same period last year. April sales totaled 2,400 out of approximately 26,790 listings, so it is taking about 11 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell due to the sluggish national housing market.

March '08: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for March was $220,620. The average sales price was down by 3.5% over the same period last year. March sales totaled 2,659 out of approximately 26,466 listings, so it is taking about 10 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell due to the sluggish national housing market.


February '08: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for February was $216,292. The average sales price was down by almost 1% over the same period last year. February sales totaled 2,179 out of approximately 24,666 listings, so it is taking almost 11 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell due to the sluggish national housing market.

January '08: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for January was $218,610. The average sales price was down by .003% over the same period last year. January sales totaled 2,009 out of approximately 23,813 listings, so it is taking almost 12 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell due to the sluggish national housing market.

December '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for December was $218,399. The average sales price was down by 3.7% over the same period last year. December sales totaled 2,559 out of approximately 22,098 listings, so it is taking almost 9 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell as we move into the middle of winter.

November '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for November was $233,141. The average sales price was up by 6% over the same period last year. October sales totaled 2,447 out of approximately 21,823 listings, so it is taking almost 9 months for the inventory to turn over. Homes are taking longer to sell as we move into the middle of winter.

October '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for October was $217,504. The average sales price was down by -.01% over the same period last year. October sales totaled 3,262 out of approximately 23,150 listings, so it is taking almost 9 months for the inventory to turn over.

September '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for September was $236,061. The average sales price was up by 9.2% over the same period last year. September sales totaled 3,067 out of approximately 23,018 listings, so time on the market jumped up to 7.5 indicating a major slowdown going into the winter months.

August '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for August was $241.323. The average sales price was up by 3.9% over the same period last year. August sales totaled 3,769 out of approximately 22,177 listings, so it is taking about 6 months for the inventory to turn over.

July '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for July was $239,696. The average sales price was up by 4.14% over the same period last year. July sales totaled 3,875 out of approximately 21,776 listings, so it is taking about 5 1/2 months for the inventory to turn over.

June '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for June was $248,048. The average sales price was up by 3.3% over the same period last year. June sales totaled 3,852 out of approximately 21,354 listings, so it is taking about 5 1/2 months for the inventory to turn over.

May '07: No statistics available.

April '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for April was $225,748. The average sales price was up by 4.2% over the same period last year. April sales totaled 3,534 out of approximately 20,189 listings, so it is taking about 5 1/2 months for the inventory to turn over.

March '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for March was $228,665. The average sales price was up by 11% over the same period last year. March sales totaled 3,573 out of approximately 18,917 listings, so it is taking about 5 months for the inventory to turn over.

February '07: No statistics available.

January '07: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for January was $219,270. The average sales price was up by 6.9% over the same period last year. January sales totaled 2,615 out of approximately 17,187 listings, so it is taking about 6 1/2 months for the inventory to turn over.

December '06: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for December was $226,966. The average sales price was up by 5.3% over the same period last year. December sales totaled 3,283 out of approximately 16,213 listings, so it is taking about 5 months for the inventory to turn over.

November '06: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for November was $219,681. The average sales price was up by 3.6% over the same period last year. November sales totaled 3,067 out of approximately 16,723 listings, so it is taking about 5 1/2 months for the inventory to turn over.

October '06: According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association statistics, the average home sales price for October was $219,268. The average sales price was up by 1.5% over the same period last year. October sales totaled 3,471 out of approximately 17,372 listings, so it is taking about 5 months for the inventory to turn over.

Read More......

BUYER BEWARE: When you hire a buyer's agent, what does this mean to you?

Buyer agency has been very popular in North Carolina since it was introduced in 1995. After using "buyer agency" over the years, it's important to the consumer to ask some questions of their agent. Questions need to include if the agency relationship is exclusive or non-exclusive and if dual and/or designated agency would be permitted.

Read More......

Freebies From Home Builders - Builders are trying to lure reluctant buyers with plane tickets, new cars and even a pet peacock.

In Seattle, a homeowner is offering round-trip airplane tickets to anywhere in the world, plus a six-night stay at a Four Seasons hotel to anyone who will just, please, buy the house he has on the market.

In New Jersey, a builder is trying to entice prospects to purchase condominiums and attached homes with a free two-year lease on a Mercedes-Benz. And in Michigan, a homeowner told potential buyers he'd throw in his peacock.

Read More......

Tips on working with an agent - BE CHOOSY ABOUT YOUR AGENT

Interview several agents to find out who will serve you best, says Charlotte buyer's agent Julie Tuggle. A buyer's agent is contractually obligated to represent your interests, not the seller's. A dual agent also can represent your interests, but if you choose a house listed by that agency, your agent also might be beholden to the seller's interests. Ask what the agent's policy is for those in-house listings.

Read More......

Homebuyers in the dark?

Over the past two years, the Observer has reported extensively on the foreclosures afflicting a crescent of new development west, north and east of uptown Charlotte. The reporting has focused on the role of builders and mortgage companies who helped some lower-income families buy homes they could not afford.

Realty Place delivered many of those buyers.

N.C. regulations leave potential homebuyers vulnerable to having their search guided by their real estate agent's financial interests.

Real estate agencies are typically paid commission, or a share of the sales price. Some sellers, particularly home builders, also pay agencies a bonus for finding buyers.

State rules don't require agents to notify customers in writing if a seller offers them a bonus.

Read More......

Promises upfront, deals on the side

The stores sat facing the food court at Eastland Mall, near the Sears at Carolina Place, just down from the movie theater at Concord Mills. "Realty Place," said the blue-and-yellow signs. "Your Home Superstore." It was 2002, the middle of the subprime mortgage boom. A young real estate agency was fishing for customers in an unlikely place.

Realty Place was, its principal owner says, the most progressive and aggressive agency in Charlotte. It targeted people with modest incomes and ragged credit, many of whom had been shunned by other companies.

Inside its stores, agents signed contracts with customers promising to represent their interests exclusively.

Read More......

Banks Help Charlotte, North Carolina, Buck Housing Downturn

New York financial consultant Archie Luna will escape a 90-minute commute when he moves next month to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he's buying a $350,000 house that triples his space.

``My work-life ratio has really been pretty sad,'' said Luna, who takes a train daily from Long Island to Manhattan. ``We can get a house we really want in Charlotte

Read More......

Agent Disclosure Worse Than Ever

Although agency disclosure is required by state law that homebuyers are told the role of their real estate agent in the sales process, and most importantly, whom the agent represents, less than one-third of real estate agents comply, according to the National Association of Realtors' 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Agency disclosure compliance has been on a downward trend since 2000, when 38 percent of homebuyers were disclosed at first meeting,

Link to article here:

Read More......

Dual-Agent Roles Cloud Some Home Sales

Question: If a selling agent neglects to inform a homeowner that a higher bid has been made and chooses instead to sell the house to a person he's also representing as a buyer's agent, what rights do the seller -- and the higher bidder -- have?

Can this agent be reported to anyone for unethical practices?

-- Natasha, Yorba Linda, Calif.

Natasha: It sounds like your agent is double-dealing. But your rights -- and your ability to collect damages -- could depend on which state you live in.

Generally speaking, real-estate experts caution buyers and sellers against using the same real-estate agent because of the conflicts it can create. Negotiating a final sales contract involves lots of give and take on both sides, and if your agent is also representing the other party in the transaction, that immediately puts you at a disadvantage. How will you know if the agent is doing more to serve your interests -- or the interests of the other party?

Despite the potential for trouble, it's still common for agents to represent both the buyer and the seller, especially since doing so greatly increases the agent's commission. In most states, such arrangements are legal, according to the National Association of Realtors, though these so-called "dual agents" have to get the consent of the buyers and sellers first.

The law gets trickier when two agents within the same real-estate company represent both sides of a transaction. In theory, that situation can lead to big conflicts if the two agents, who probably work in close proximity to one another, share information. But in some places, such arrangements are allowed without consent of the buyers and sellers, though local laws might still prohibit the agents from sharing information.

If you think you've been wronged, first contact your local realtors' association or your state real estate commission to find out what applicable laws exist in your state, and to report the possible abuse. If your agent didn't get consent for a dual-agent arrangement as required, for example, or broke some other law, you could immediately have grounds for a claim. In many cases, mediation can lead to a workable settlement; for example, you might be able to collect the difference between the sales price and the other, higher bid that you were not informed about. In other cases, mediation won't do the trick, and you'll have to sue.

If your agent did follow local laws, you could still have some recourse, but it will be harder to make your case. Although real-estate agents have a fiduciary duty to their clients to give them the best possible service, if they're acting within a sanctioned dual-agency arrangement, the agent could argue he or she was fulfilling obligations to the other party-an outcome you essentially agreed to in advance.

Obviously, it's often wise to avoid a dual-agency relationship from the get-go. No matter how you handle your sale, be sure to keep all the correspondence between you and your agent, and don't be afraid to snoop around to learn more about other possible bids -- and more about your agent's reputation. In many cases, sellers don't even know they've been taken advantage of, so it pays to know a lot about your local market, including the recent sales prices of nearby homes, before you get far along in the home-sale process. Doing some research on your agent and on recent nearby transactions can make you a more informed seller -- and keep the agent honest.

-- Mr. Barta is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His "House Talk" column appears every Friday exclusively on RealEstateJournal.com. Click here to e-mail him your questions about the residential real-estate market. Please include your first name and city and state. If your question is answered and posted, we will show your first name and city.

Originally published at Wall Street Journal.

Return to Home Buyer Alert main page

Read More......

How and When to Bid Low on a Home

With stagnant prices and elevated inventory in many markets, home sellers are no longer automatically turning up their noses at offers that come in far below their asking price.
But buyers who do ask for deep discounts still risk offending sellers to the point where they quash any deal. So before making an aggressive offer, some homework is in order, real-estate professionals say. And buyers will need to effectively explain why the price of a home should be lower.
Pat O'Heron was able to negotiate a steep discount with a seller who relocated for a job, in a neighborhood in Ann Arbor, Mich., that had two year's worth of inventory on the market.
Mr. O'Heron says before he even made an offer, the asking price had already dropped by about $80,000. He eventually bought the home for $270,400, with about $11,000 in other credits. The price ended up being $115,000 below the initial asking price.
Mr. O'Heron was able to take advantage of a market in which buyers decidedly hold the upper hand, with its excessive for-sale inventory due, in large part, to job losses in the area.
But even though housing is in a slump in many parts of the U.S., those tactics won't work in markets that remain healthy. And there's always an inherent danger in going too low. A low offer could insult the seller to the point that they'll refuse to counter, Realtors say. And the seller could easily make the assumption that the buyer isn't committed to making a deal.
"When you're making the offer," says Jon Boyd, Mr. O'Heron's agent and president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, "if you justify that offer with outside data, then it's much less likely to be perceived as being an insult or [the buyer] not as serious."
Here are three guidelines on how -- and when -- to make an aggressive bid:
1. Learn how motivated the seller is to make a deal.
Certain sellers are going to be more willing than others to negotiate a low offer -- and there are several giveaways that might indicate more leeway on price.
For instance, if the sellers have already purchased another home and that sale has closed, they're likely to be more willing to make a deal, says Dick Gaylord, president elect of the National Association of Realtors and a broker with Re/Max Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif.
If the property has been on the market for a long time, sellers will be interested in entertaining any offers, he adds.
Mr. Gaylord says he talks to the seller's agent to get as many details as possible about how motivated the seller is.
Overall local market conditions also play a role. The housing market in which Mr. O'Heron bought, for example, was sluggish. The home he purchased had been on the market for about a year.
Because of the job relocation, the seller needed to move and wasn't in the position to take the home off the market until conditions were more favorable, Mr. O'Heron says.
2. Make your case with hard facts.
When putting together an aggressive offer for a client, Mr. Boyd doesn't just hand the seller a purchase agreement with the price the buyer is willing to pay -- he creates a cover letter explaining exactly where that number came from.
In addition to citing comparable sales in making the offer, it also could be important to include details regarding the amount of inventory in the immediate surrounding area, he says.
"If we just looked at the relative values of the houses that sold, we would end up paying too much for that house because we know that the values are going to fall," Mr. Boyd says. "If we see two years' worth of inventory, we should be buying 5%, potentially 10% less than what houses have sold for in the past year in the neighborhood."
Buyers may even personally write a letter to the sellers to make their point, as they did when the market was hot and they aimed to stand out from the crowd, Mr. Gaylord says. That way, they can detail what they like about the house but express their fear of future dropping values.
3. Prepare for the possibility of rejection or negotiation.
Ultimately, a real-estate agent working on behalf of a buyer needs to honor and facilitate the offer that the buyer wishes to make -- even if it seems to be too low.
Mr. Gaylord warns buyers making very low offers that the seller might refuse to negotiate. On a "super aggressive offer," Mr. Boyd says he might tell a client "there's a one in five chance there will be a positive response."
Still, there's that potential for a seller to make a counteroffer, especially if there haven't been many other bids.
Danielle Kennedy, a real-estate sales coach and author based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., advises sellers not to think of a low offer as an insult but as "a sign of interest."
It "begins the dialogue regarding the purchase of your house," she says.
Not all hope is lost even if a seller doesn't bite immediately.
Sometimes after time elapses, the seller comes around and decides to negotiate, Mr. Boyd says. New information -- such as the sale of a comparable home at a lower price -- also can nudge a seller to give an aggressive offer a second look and open the negotiation process.
Originally published at http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118748897500002119.html
Return to Home Buyer Alert main page

Read More......

Fuzzy Distinction, But Clear Conflict of Interests

In May, 2004, I began interviewing real estate agents to assist me in purchasing my first home. I interviewed Julie Tuggle, an exclusive buyer's agent, and two other real estate agents (who represented both buyers and sellers). During each interview I asked the agent what they would do if I liked one of the homes that they were listing. I was shocked when the two dual agents replied that they would be able to represent both sides. I am an attorney (licensed in Florida) and I could not fathom how this was not a blatant conflict of interest. When I stated that I was uncomfortable with such an arrangement they suggested that they could turn over either the buyer or seller to someone else in their real estate firm (and how do they determine which client to drop?) -- as if this would resolve the conflict of interest! To me, that would be like one partner in a law firm representing a husband and another partner in the same firm representing the wife. In law, conflicts of interest are strictly regulated, but in real estate it seems that the conflict is often pushed under the rug. Also, one of the interviewees kept saying that she was often a "buyer's agent" - and suggested this was the same as an exclusive buyers agent. I think that the general public does not understand the concept of an "exclusive buyer's agent", and until a definition is created, real estate agents will have the ability to keep this distinction fuzzy.

Thank you,
Danielle Eckelt

Read More......

Making Double the Commission for Half the Representation

Dear Julie,

Julie, as you and I have been discussing your work as a real estate broker here in Charlotte, I thought I might share with you a situation that I experienced in the summer of 2005.

My wife and I had owned a condominium since 1996 at Surfside Beach S.C. Like most every other piece of coastal property, the appreciation in value was such that we decided to sell.
We engaged the real estate agent that had previously arranged the purchase. This was done as we felt comfortable with her real estate skills and demeanor although we had not spoken to her in eight years. Upon my verbal agreement to hire her, she immediately told me she had an anxious potential buyer for our specific condo. That evening after I engaged her as our agent, she faxed the contract to me. I read it and we did discuss briefly why I should or should not authorize her to be a co-broker.

Quite frankly, I do not recall receiving any information highlighting the advantages or disadvantages of a co-brokerage arrangement as a seller of real estate. Nevertheless I signed it and we ended up with a dual agent agreement. All went well until that anxious buyer didn’t like a couple of loose outlets and cancelled their signed contract after the inspection. At that point when I began to ask questions, she informed that because she was also representing the potential buyers, she couldn’t answer certain questions I was asking. In addition, when her boss later purchased our property, the attorney handling the closing also informed me when I asked a question, that he couldn’t answer it as he represented both buyer and seller.

Julie, I am a relatively sophisticated person in business matters, etc. but this one took me by surprise. I was wrong for not asking more questions as to what were the upsides and the downsides of authorizing my agent, who is engaged in selling my property, to act as the agent for both me and the purchaser or potential purchaser.
I can see no reason why anyone selling real estate should allow a dual broker arrangement. I paid a large commission to a real estate agent for selling my house. Unfortunately, while I felt the price I received was fair, I have no idea as to whether I should have received more. She made commissions on both sides, by not sharing any with a separate broker representing the buyers.

My concern in relation to others selling property is how many or few are aware what they are giving up when authorizing a co-broker agreement. I cannot imagine even one benefit to anyone in this type of arrangement except for the broker.

Whatever information is required to be given to clients by Realtors and other brokers (if there are any?), it should clearly spell out the disadvantages of this type of buy/sell arrangement. Extensive information is required to be given mortgage applicants as to their rights, what the terms of the contract means, etc.

All real estate brokers should be required to provide similar factual information, so the parties to a transaction can be well informed as to what the terms mean when they sign an agreement, and consequently, no one benefits except the broker.

Regards,
Larry Widis

Read More......