My Blog

Greetings!

Have you been wondering how many homes are for sale in South Jordan that are actually short sales or pre foreclosure properties?  As of today there are 113 active listings that are short sales. That is an amazing number considering there are only 434 single family homes on the market in South Jordan.

If you are thinking of taking advantage of the typical below market price on one of these homes, plan on being patient. It is not uncommon to wait as long as six month only to have another offer come in higher than the one you made and then you don’t get the home.

However, sometimes an offer goes in and the bank takes forever to agree to the purchase price. By then the buyer has moved on and bought a different home. Then the property is sitting there with an approved price and no buyer. In this situation, you could get a quick response on your offer and not be in competition with other buyers allowing you to get the home at a great price.

If you want to see some of the homes that are in this situation, let me know. You could walk into a great home with instant equity. That said, keep in mind that many times homes that are short sale listings are in a pretty ugly condition as the seller was in financial trouble and likely did not maintain the property very well. Sometimes the home is missing appliances or other items.

It becomes critical to have a home inspection by a trained home inspector to ensure you know exact condition of the home. If you find, after the inspection, that you are not prepared to put all the money into the property that it will need to make it livable, you can withdraw your offer. However, if you love the location and the home is structurally sound, there are loan options that allow you to include repairs in the mortgage. You can contact Daniel Kitches at Wells Fargo (see info on the side of my blog) for more details about this type of loan. It is a great way to buy a home at below market value and get the necessary improvement paid as part of your loan.

Greetings,

QUESTION: How is the Real Estate Market doing in South Jordan?

As of today (10/12/2009) there are 471 properties on the market in South Jordan.  430 of these are single family homes. When you look at the total number of properties in South Jordan, that is a very low per centage of homes for sale.  In Salt Lake County there are 7,396 properties for sale, not counting vacant lots or commercial properties.  Just over two years ago we were tracking at just over 2,000 properties at any give time. From this you can see that buyers have much to choose from.

One rather sad note on this number is that of the 7,396 homes for sale, 1,481 are short sales or preforeclosure properties. I’ll talk about foreclosures in another blog.

If you are a patient buyer, this can be good news. In my mind it is a rather sad indication of our current economic conditions. At the first of the year close to 1/3 of all homes listed were preforeclosure properties so our numbers are getting better. Unfortunately, many of these were new construction.

All communities that our Wasatch Front Multiple Listing service lists have a combined total of 20,400 residential properties for sale. Are you looking for a new place to live? If you are, this should be a great time to find the perfect home.

Greetings, 

Welcome to my blog.  This is a new communication media for me. I have had many people encourage me to blog as they know I love to share what I have learned about Real Estate.

So, with some reservations, I will begin to share information that I hope you will find of value as a home owner, buyer, seller, investor, or landlord. I have worked for people that have had questions in all areas.

If you have any questions about any aspect of Real Estate, please ask that question. You may have the same question that others have. I will answer your question or find someone that knows the answer and post it on my blog.   My goal is to make this a forum where anyone can come to get honest answers to their Real Estate questions.

If you have questions about Real Estate in our area, I will be happy to help you find the answer.  Our market has had a bumpy ride over that past two years. We are now starting to see a settling of our market.  I’m still not seeing a lot of consumer confidence however.  I think we are in for a slightly bumpy ride while consumer confidence and our economy stabalizes.