IT'S OFFICIAL!

April will be a month with more contracts than April of 2008. Throughout the Outer Banks agents are talking about an increase in inquiries this spring. A few things still have to happen before prices rise. First, this statistic must continue for a signficant period of time. One month does not make a trend. Second, we must sell off the some of the current supply. Some markets still have years worth of supply available even at the current pace of properties selling. However it sure is nice to report something good about real estate for a change!

Is the market turning?

One of the market indicators I track at least once a month is the number of contracts written in the local MLS system. For the last five years, I have been tracking how many times a month a buyer and a seller have agreed on a price. If you've seen the market report in the window at Scott Team Realty you have seen this chart. As of this morning we are only 13 contracts shy of beating April of 2008's total number. This should certainly happen in the next few days. When it does, it will be the first month since August of 2007 where more contracts were written than the same month in the prior year. In a couple months we'll know if this was a fluke or the beginning of a market rebound on the Outer Banks. I have my finger's crossed!

Short Sales Continued

Having patience is the key to a successful short sale. Probably the most common reason for a short sale falling through is the buyer getting tired of waiting. Paragraph 3 of the short sale addendum to the offer to purchase approved by the North Carolina Association of Realtors and the NC Bar Association allows the buyer to void the contract prior to the lender's approval.

One plan of action a buyer may employ in today's market is to write an offer on a short sale property while watching the remainder of the market. If another acceptable property comes on the market, then they can void the contract on the first property and go after the second.

More On Short Sales

Last week's educational semiar on foreclosures and short sales was very informative. Probably the most important thing I learned about these distressed sales is that there is very little that buyers and agents can count on. No two transactions are handled the same by the lender. Compound that with the fact that there are numerous lenders and local Realtors are beginning to understand that flexibility on our part and the part of our buyers is crucial to any successful sale. My most recent example of the necessity of flexibility is a contract on a short sale in Corolla. The seller signed the contract almost three weeks ago. This one had been under contract with another buyer before so I thought that we would be able to get a quick response from the bank. We are still waiting for approval from the bank's negotiator and then it still has to go through the approval process with a board of bank officials! Flexibility is the key to a successful short sale.