The National Association of Realtors® is predicting that 2006 will be the third best year on record for the housing market. Also being predicted for 2006 is a 30-year fixed rate mortgage level of 7% by summer, and a decline in the number of existing-home sales, new-home sales and housing starts.
To read more: May 2006 housing forecast
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
It's a buyer's market
By Mary UmbergerTribune staff reporterPublished May 7, 2006
In the housing market, this is what "normal" feels like:Homes sell in months, not hours. Prospective buyers actually browse. They drift back for a second look at a place weeks later, confident that it still will be available. They want the price cut. And they get it.It's been a long time--at least five years--since the Chicago area's real estate market worked this way.But many agents say the buying frenzy is now over, and "normal" has returned. Prices this year will appreciate less rapidly, and in many cases houses won't sell themselves before a sign has even gone into the ground.That means it's time for a seller attitude adjustment, real estate agents say.
Think about making a mere profit rather than a killing."I tell sellers, this is not the market we used to have," said Gold Coast agent Jeri Dry. "I tell them to be prepared for a six- to nine-month marketing time, and that's if they're priced correctly."It could be a year," Dry said. "Lots of condos have been on the market for 300 days."Agents see no catastrophic shift from the housing boom times, with homes languishing and prices in decline. The volume of sales appears to be running on a par with last year's record numbers, and there are still towns and neighborhoods where sales continue to clip along.What has changed in terms of verifiable statistics is that the inventory of homes on the market has surged, even for the traditional spring selling season. Faced with so much competition, many sellers are being counseled to settle in for a longer wait, and think hard about their asking prices. The North Shore homes in the $2million to $4 million range, which already had been selling slowly in 2005, are getting even less attention now.
Chicago-area market took on about 97,000 new listings of single-family homes and condos, up from 83,000 new listings in the year-earlier period, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois.It is too early in the season for statistics on market times and selling prices to indicate the phenomenon of a return to "normal," but interviews with a dozen agencies reveal a clear change in tempo and expectations.A leading concern, they say, is that while the number of homes on the market is higher, the pace of sales has not changed, resulting in a bigger pool of available stock. That translates into an advantage for buyers."I'm worried about selling," said Chip Wagner, whose home in Naperville went on the market about two weeks ago. Wagner pays more attention to the market than the average consumer because he is an appraiser whose firm compiles studies of home sales throughout Chicago. He said Naperville is a prime example of the market shift."There are 30 percent more listings this year than there were at the same time last year, and 20 percent fewer homes under contract," Wagner said. "I'm at a price that we consider to be strong here. But there haven't been many lookers."His Naperville firm, the Headrick-Wagner Appraisal Group, says Chicago-area homes are piling up. In 2004 there was typically a 2.9 months' supply of single-family homes for sale, meaning that if no others were to come on the market the supply would be exhausted in about three months.
In 2005 that number averaged 3.7 months. At the end of March it hit 4.2. Headrick-Wagner interprets inventory above four months as a so-called buyer's market.Put another way, Wagner says that about 2 percent more single-family homes were under contract April 1 than one year earlier. Yet Chicagoland's single-family inventory is 30 percent higher than last year.
Such numbers do not mean that the Chicago market is in any kind of bubble trouble or that the average seller is on the verge of losing money, said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, which reported that the nation had a 5.5-month supply of existing homes in March."We've been running under four [months' supply] for the last year or more," Lereah said. "Now we're starting to see supply come up. I regard the danger zone--make that the `yellow flag zone,' where I start to be concerned--at above six months' supply."Whatever he calls the zone, Chicago isn't in it, he said.Last year's 8 percent price appreciation here probably will evolve into 3 percent this year, said Downers Grove agent John Veneris, former president of the Illinois Association of Realtors. "At the end of the year we'll see that prices have leveled out, but they won't drop."The change in market tempo is clearly tied to rising interest rates; the average 30-year rate is up a full percent over last year.But some industry analysts see other factors at play.Analysts say that some buyers have gotten skittish--they've heard the word "bubble" so many times that they are holding back, waiting to see what happens. At some point enough people start to think things are slowing down that they behave differently, creating the self-fulfilling prophecy of a slower market.Real estate experts also surmise that when interest rates were at their lows, some people might have been enticed to buy when they might have otherwise remained renters for a time. Thus the market was dipping into its pool of future buyers, resulting in a bit of a slowdown now.Then there are the investors, who in the past couple of years have been credited with a stealth influence on the market, pushing prices higher.
Some analysts credit them with one-quarter to one-third of all home purchases in 2004 and 2005. That market also may be cooling."The rehabbers we had a year or two ago, they all picked up and moved on," said Oak Park agent Donna Karpavicius. "Things changed in a big hurry."Another reason that some properties are on the market longer is that the housing construction boom, particularly in the city, created a taste for new or totally renovated properties."They don't want to do much work," agent Dry said of today's home buyers. "They want to move in, hang up their clothes, and that's it."And so, some sellers in the "fixer" category, which these days is very broadly defined, may get surprisingly low offers, agents say."This is a year when I've had more low-ball offers--people coming in $60,000 to $80,000 below asking prices," said Karpavicius, who recently took over another agent's languishing "needs work" listing of a home in Riverside.She immediately got the price reduced to $429,900 from $489,500 but has received little response, other than a couple of too-low offers around $350,000.Karpavicius and other agents said they are encountering price expectations that defy local statistical norms."There's a type of seller who expects they'll be able to finance their 2-year-old daughter's Yale education on the sale of their two-bedroom, two-bath," said North Side agent Lino Darchun. " They don't understand the concept of `comps,'" or market analyses of comparable previous sales.Mike Malloy took a long, hard look at the "comps" last weekend when he met with Downers Grove agent Veneris to discuss putting his Woodridge home on the market."If this were last year at this time, I'd be telling him to go $10,000 higher," said Veneris.Malloy, who with his wife, Maureen, wants to move to Beverly in order to be closer to family, said he is philosophical about the $10,000 difference that a year can make. He's not greedy, he said.He paid $199,000 in the heat of the boom; the home had been on the market just one day when he bought it in 2003. He figures he'll do well if it sells anywhere near his $274,000 asking price."I've only been here three years, so either way, that's a lot of money," he said.
In the housing market, this is what "normal" feels like:Homes sell in months, not hours. Prospective buyers actually browse. They drift back for a second look at a place weeks later, confident that it still will be available. They want the price cut. And they get it.It's been a long time--at least five years--since the Chicago area's real estate market worked this way.But many agents say the buying frenzy is now over, and "normal" has returned. Prices this year will appreciate less rapidly, and in many cases houses won't sell themselves before a sign has even gone into the ground.That means it's time for a seller attitude adjustment, real estate agents say.
Think about making a mere profit rather than a killing."I tell sellers, this is not the market we used to have," said Gold Coast agent Jeri Dry. "I tell them to be prepared for a six- to nine-month marketing time, and that's if they're priced correctly."It could be a year," Dry said. "Lots of condos have been on the market for 300 days."Agents see no catastrophic shift from the housing boom times, with homes languishing and prices in decline. The volume of sales appears to be running on a par with last year's record numbers, and there are still towns and neighborhoods where sales continue to clip along.What has changed in terms of verifiable statistics is that the inventory of homes on the market has surged, even for the traditional spring selling season. Faced with so much competition, many sellers are being counseled to settle in for a longer wait, and think hard about their asking prices. The North Shore homes in the $2million to $4 million range, which already had been selling slowly in 2005, are getting even less attention now.
Chicago-area market took on about 97,000 new listings of single-family homes and condos, up from 83,000 new listings in the year-earlier period, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois.It is too early in the season for statistics on market times and selling prices to indicate the phenomenon of a return to "normal," but interviews with a dozen agencies reveal a clear change in tempo and expectations.A leading concern, they say, is that while the number of homes on the market is higher, the pace of sales has not changed, resulting in a bigger pool of available stock. That translates into an advantage for buyers."I'm worried about selling," said Chip Wagner, whose home in Naperville went on the market about two weeks ago. Wagner pays more attention to the market than the average consumer because he is an appraiser whose firm compiles studies of home sales throughout Chicago. He said Naperville is a prime example of the market shift."There are 30 percent more listings this year than there were at the same time last year, and 20 percent fewer homes under contract," Wagner said. "I'm at a price that we consider to be strong here. But there haven't been many lookers."His Naperville firm, the Headrick-Wagner Appraisal Group, says Chicago-area homes are piling up. In 2004 there was typically a 2.9 months' supply of single-family homes for sale, meaning that if no others were to come on the market the supply would be exhausted in about three months.
In 2005 that number averaged 3.7 months. At the end of March it hit 4.2. Headrick-Wagner interprets inventory above four months as a so-called buyer's market.Put another way, Wagner says that about 2 percent more single-family homes were under contract April 1 than one year earlier. Yet Chicagoland's single-family inventory is 30 percent higher than last year.
Such numbers do not mean that the Chicago market is in any kind of bubble trouble or that the average seller is on the verge of losing money, said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, which reported that the nation had a 5.5-month supply of existing homes in March."We've been running under four [months' supply] for the last year or more," Lereah said. "Now we're starting to see supply come up. I regard the danger zone--make that the `yellow flag zone,' where I start to be concerned--at above six months' supply."Whatever he calls the zone, Chicago isn't in it, he said.Last year's 8 percent price appreciation here probably will evolve into 3 percent this year, said Downers Grove agent John Veneris, former president of the Illinois Association of Realtors. "At the end of the year we'll see that prices have leveled out, but they won't drop."The change in market tempo is clearly tied to rising interest rates; the average 30-year rate is up a full percent over last year.But some industry analysts see other factors at play.Analysts say that some buyers have gotten skittish--they've heard the word "bubble" so many times that they are holding back, waiting to see what happens. At some point enough people start to think things are slowing down that they behave differently, creating the self-fulfilling prophecy of a slower market.Real estate experts also surmise that when interest rates were at their lows, some people might have been enticed to buy when they might have otherwise remained renters for a time. Thus the market was dipping into its pool of future buyers, resulting in a bit of a slowdown now.Then there are the investors, who in the past couple of years have been credited with a stealth influence on the market, pushing prices higher.
Some analysts credit them with one-quarter to one-third of all home purchases in 2004 and 2005. That market also may be cooling."The rehabbers we had a year or two ago, they all picked up and moved on," said Oak Park agent Donna Karpavicius. "Things changed in a big hurry."Another reason that some properties are on the market longer is that the housing construction boom, particularly in the city, created a taste for new or totally renovated properties."They don't want to do much work," agent Dry said of today's home buyers. "They want to move in, hang up their clothes, and that's it."And so, some sellers in the "fixer" category, which these days is very broadly defined, may get surprisingly low offers, agents say."This is a year when I've had more low-ball offers--people coming in $60,000 to $80,000 below asking prices," said Karpavicius, who recently took over another agent's languishing "needs work" listing of a home in Riverside.She immediately got the price reduced to $429,900 from $489,500 but has received little response, other than a couple of too-low offers around $350,000.Karpavicius and other agents said they are encountering price expectations that defy local statistical norms."There's a type of seller who expects they'll be able to finance their 2-year-old daughter's Yale education on the sale of their two-bedroom, two-bath," said North Side agent Lino Darchun. " They don't understand the concept of `comps,'" or market analyses of comparable previous sales.Mike Malloy took a long, hard look at the "comps" last weekend when he met with Downers Grove agent Veneris to discuss putting his Woodridge home on the market."If this were last year at this time, I'd be telling him to go $10,000 higher," said Veneris.Malloy, who with his wife, Maureen, wants to move to Beverly in order to be closer to family, said he is philosophical about the $10,000 difference that a year can make. He's not greedy, he said.He paid $199,000 in the heat of the boom; the home had been on the market just one day when he bought it in 2003. He figures he'll do well if it sells anywhere near his $274,000 asking price."I've only been here three years, so either way, that's a lot of money," he said.
Realtors® Promote Competitiveness of Title Insurance Industry
Realtors® have a particular interest in ensuring competitiveness in the title industry as title insurance plays an important role in the real estate transaction, the president of the National Association of Realtors®, Thomas M. Stevens testified today at a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.
Real estate professionals assist in nearly all aspects of the home purchase transaction by serving as a valuable source of information and offering their expertise to both first-time and experienced home buyers. When real estate agents, for example, recommend a title company, they know their reputation and livelihood is on the line. Experience, trust, reliability and a commitment to providing quality service are critical to the recommendation. “Realtors® will recommend the provider that they believe will offer the best experience for their client,” said Stevens in regards to choosing a title insurance company.
“The Realtors®’ goal is to build a customer for life and their reputation rests on making the transaction a smooth one rather than protecting an affiliate business arrangement.”“There is no do-it-yourself way to issue title insurance,” said Stevens. “Purchasing a home requires weeks, if not one or two months, of work and there is tremendous liability at stake for all parties.”
Because of the nature of real estate transactions, NAR is committed to promoting competitiveness in any and all sectors of the real estate services industry.Stevens said, “NAR takes seriously any perception that illegal kickback schemes may occur in the real estate transaction. Real estate professionals want to see rogue companies or individuals who engage in unethical practices removed from the marketplace quickly.”NAR pledges to work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on educating Realtors® on how to recognize a sham mortgage or title company. NAR encourages competition in real estate services, and ethical standards, by providing ongoing educational resources to its members through a comprehensive Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act awareness campaign, online seminars, training sessions at meetings, and the Realtors Code of Ethics training.
Real estate professionals assist in nearly all aspects of the home purchase transaction by serving as a valuable source of information and offering their expertise to both first-time and experienced home buyers. When real estate agents, for example, recommend a title company, they know their reputation and livelihood is on the line. Experience, trust, reliability and a commitment to providing quality service are critical to the recommendation. “Realtors® will recommend the provider that they believe will offer the best experience for their client,” said Stevens in regards to choosing a title insurance company.
“The Realtors®’ goal is to build a customer for life and their reputation rests on making the transaction a smooth one rather than protecting an affiliate business arrangement.”“There is no do-it-yourself way to issue title insurance,” said Stevens. “Purchasing a home requires weeks, if not one or two months, of work and there is tremendous liability at stake for all parties.”
Because of the nature of real estate transactions, NAR is committed to promoting competitiveness in any and all sectors of the real estate services industry.Stevens said, “NAR takes seriously any perception that illegal kickback schemes may occur in the real estate transaction. Real estate professionals want to see rogue companies or individuals who engage in unethical practices removed from the marketplace quickly.”NAR pledges to work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on educating Realtors® on how to recognize a sham mortgage or title company. NAR encourages competition in real estate services, and ethical standards, by providing ongoing educational resources to its members through a comprehensive Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act awareness campaign, online seminars, training sessions at meetings, and the Realtors Code of Ethics training.
REALTORS® Bringing Homes, Help and Hope to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
Some 30,000 Realtors® will bring hands-on help to clean up damaged neighborhoods, build 54 new Habitat for Humanity homes, and bring $34 million in badly needed revenue and fresh hope for a brighter future to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast when they convene in the Crescent City, November 10-13.The National Association of Realtors® announced today that it has formed a new partnership with Habitat for Humanity International to encourage each of the nation’s 54 state and territorial Realtor® associations to sponsor and build a new Habitat home in the Gulf Coast region. As part of its ongoing collaborative efforts with Habitat for Humanity to make homeownership a reality in partnership with families in need, NAR and its members have built a Habitat for Humanity house in each of the past five years in the city hosting its annual conference. This year, because of the hurricanes that hit the coastal region and the devastation they left behind, the NAR leadership has decided to increase the build to 54 homes. Realtors® will build the homes.Other opportunities are being developed for Realtors® to help restore the New Orleans area during the convention. These include bringing a school and other public buildings in need of repair back to life, as well as painting, repairing, and restoring community facilities.“Realtors® care about communities and homes. We can set no better example to the nation than by leaving New Orleans and the Gulf Coast better places than they were when we came. NAR’s New Orleans convention will be unlike any other Realtor® convention ever held,” said NAR President Tom Stevens of Vienna, Va.Despite the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, NAR’s leaders announced last December that the association will stand by its commitment to the beleaguered city and hold its annual REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans as originally scheduled. NAR’s convention is expected to bring as much as $35 million-$40 million in convention revenues. As many as 30,000 Realtors® and exhibitors are expected to attend, making the NAR convention the largest such event scheduled to take place in New Orleans this year.The NAR convention is called “NARdi Gras, a Celebration of REALTORS® coming together to REnew, REconnect, and REenergize their careers and the city of New Orleans.” The meeting will feature more than 200 conference sessions, more than 600 exhibitors, and thousands of real estate professionals from the United States and 60 nations.
Realtors®’ support for rebuilding the Gulf Coast began hours after Katrina made landfall. Last year thousands of Realtors® and Realtor® organizations across the country contributed more than $4.6 million to help victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Funds were distributed directly to hurricane victims by the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Realtor® associations. Every penny raised went directly to victims in need.
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
Realtors®’ support for rebuilding the Gulf Coast began hours after Katrina made landfall. Last year thousands of Realtors® and Realtor® organizations across the country contributed more than $4.6 million to help victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Funds were distributed directly to hurricane victims by the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Realtor® associations. Every penny raised went directly to victims in need.
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
More than just a storage area for cars and junk, a showcase garage can help you sell your listing faster and for a higher price.
For many home owners, the garage is the place where you store all the stuff you don't know what to do with, and if you're lucky, the car may fit in there, too.
But as the price of real estate has risen, the room that's often the most neglected and underutilized in the house also has grown in value. Savvy real estate professionals and sellers are now staging the garage along with the rest of the house, and getting higher returns for the effort.In some cases, a home owner's special interest may drive the use of the garage. Gardeners may have special bins built for soil and fertilizer. Golfers may install customized cabinets for their golf clubs. Exercise enthusiasts may outfit the space with workout equipment.Regardless of what the space is primarily used for, practitioners say spectacular garages make listings stand out and sell faster.
A Selling Advantage
A house in Midlothian, Ill., with an amazing garage that sold $2,000 over the asking price within two days of being listed.”It was a house where the wife had wanted a new kitchen, but the husband had won out and built a three-and-a-half-car garage instead,” the garage was heated and had cable TV/VCR, a phone, track lighting, a refrigerator (for beer when friends came over), a loft area for extra storage, and organizational shelving for tools.”At the closing, the buyer husband was talking to the seller husband and said he'd been looking for some place to tinker with his car,” Gage says. “He also had a boat and wanted to be able to have ‘the guys’ over. So what sold the house was the garage.”Men, however, are not the only ones who are attracted to great-looking garages.“We thought it would be a male-intensive market, but we were wrong,” says Marc Shuman, president of GarageTek, a Long Island, N.Y.-based franchise business that sells garage-furnishing systems in 48 domestic markets, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Shuman and partner Skip Barrett launched the company in 2001.“Our systems create a clean, safe, and functional environment in the garage,” Shuman says. “Once the garage becomes clean, it becomes a family room and appeals to women in particular.”Bill West, CRS®, broker-associate and owner of The Group Inc. Real Estate in Fort Collins, Colo., and author of Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage, recently listed a development called Storybook Patio Homes, which offers a finished garage.“The garages have epoxy-coated floors, a wall organizer, pantry-style cabinets, a workbench, track lighting, and they’re fairly insulated,” West says. “[The finished garages] added $4,300 to the list price, and home buyers can incorporate that into their mortgage. The garage is becoming a multi-purpose room, and the trend is becoming more real.”
Basic Fix-Ups
Even if your new listing doesn’t have one of these showcase garages, there are some basic things the sellers can do to make the space more appealing to potential buyers.
Arndt offers these tips to increase the appeal of the garage:
De-clutter the garage just as you would the rest of the house, clearing out whatever the sellers don't need. Get everything off the floor with overhead storage racks that can hang from the ceiling. Use a wall system on which sellers can hang items.Barry Izsak, author of Organize Your Garage in No Time and president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, offers these organizing suggestions:
Take an inventory. Decide what you want to or need to put in the garage, such as sporting goods, tools, or craft supplies.
Sort like things together. You shouldn’t have piles of tools, collectibles, or childhood memorabilia in a number of places around the garage. Keeping similar items in one place makes the space look much more organized.
Reuse instead of buying. If you don't want to purchase an expensive garage organizing system, you can use an old chest of drawers, book cases, desks, or shelving units from the house for a new purpose in the garage.Staging TipsJay Behm, a designer of custom homes and garages in Williamsburg, Va., says garages have gotten larger as vehicles have become bigger in recent years. Buyers now want garages with 9-foot-wide doors and 9-foot ceilings inside to accommodate racks placed atop sport utility vehicles.
Behm says the following will add to the value of any garage:
Garage door openers. Many potential buyers consider this a priority and a necessity.
Lighting and electrical systems. More and more garages are being wired for heating and air conditioning to make the room accessible year-round.
Second stories. Many people are adding second stories to their garages for extra storage space or use as a rental apartment or in-law unit.
A good fit. Most home owners have plain garage doors that don't match their Colonial- or Victorian-style homes, says Behm. Simply giving the garage roof a slope that's similar to the house's roof will make a big difference.
Learn More:
National Association of Professional Organizers Lists information on how to find a professional organizer in your area.
GarageTek Lists products and services from GarageTek.
The Complete Garage Lists products and services for The Complete Garage LLC.GarageZ.comGives virtual tours of remodeled garages and information from Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage.
Behm DesignShows garage plans by Behm Design.
But as the price of real estate has risen, the room that's often the most neglected and underutilized in the house also has grown in value. Savvy real estate professionals and sellers are now staging the garage along with the rest of the house, and getting higher returns for the effort.In some cases, a home owner's special interest may drive the use of the garage. Gardeners may have special bins built for soil and fertilizer. Golfers may install customized cabinets for their golf clubs. Exercise enthusiasts may outfit the space with workout equipment.Regardless of what the space is primarily used for, practitioners say spectacular garages make listings stand out and sell faster.
A Selling Advantage
A house in Midlothian, Ill., with an amazing garage that sold $2,000 over the asking price within two days of being listed.”It was a house where the wife had wanted a new kitchen, but the husband had won out and built a three-and-a-half-car garage instead,” the garage was heated and had cable TV/VCR, a phone, track lighting, a refrigerator (for beer when friends came over), a loft area for extra storage, and organizational shelving for tools.”At the closing, the buyer husband was talking to the seller husband and said he'd been looking for some place to tinker with his car,” Gage says. “He also had a boat and wanted to be able to have ‘the guys’ over. So what sold the house was the garage.”Men, however, are not the only ones who are attracted to great-looking garages.“We thought it would be a male-intensive market, but we were wrong,” says Marc Shuman, president of GarageTek, a Long Island, N.Y.-based franchise business that sells garage-furnishing systems in 48 domestic markets, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Shuman and partner Skip Barrett launched the company in 2001.“Our systems create a clean, safe, and functional environment in the garage,” Shuman says. “Once the garage becomes clean, it becomes a family room and appeals to women in particular.”Bill West, CRS®, broker-associate and owner of The Group Inc. Real Estate in Fort Collins, Colo., and author of Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage, recently listed a development called Storybook Patio Homes, which offers a finished garage.“The garages have epoxy-coated floors, a wall organizer, pantry-style cabinets, a workbench, track lighting, and they’re fairly insulated,” West says. “[The finished garages] added $4,300 to the list price, and home buyers can incorporate that into their mortgage. The garage is becoming a multi-purpose room, and the trend is becoming more real.”
Basic Fix-Ups
Even if your new listing doesn’t have one of these showcase garages, there are some basic things the sellers can do to make the space more appealing to potential buyers.
Arndt offers these tips to increase the appeal of the garage:
De-clutter the garage just as you would the rest of the house, clearing out whatever the sellers don't need. Get everything off the floor with overhead storage racks that can hang from the ceiling. Use a wall system on which sellers can hang items.Barry Izsak, author of Organize Your Garage in No Time and president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, offers these organizing suggestions:
Take an inventory. Decide what you want to or need to put in the garage, such as sporting goods, tools, or craft supplies.
Sort like things together. You shouldn’t have piles of tools, collectibles, or childhood memorabilia in a number of places around the garage. Keeping similar items in one place makes the space look much more organized.
Reuse instead of buying. If you don't want to purchase an expensive garage organizing system, you can use an old chest of drawers, book cases, desks, or shelving units from the house for a new purpose in the garage.Staging TipsJay Behm, a designer of custom homes and garages in Williamsburg, Va., says garages have gotten larger as vehicles have become bigger in recent years. Buyers now want garages with 9-foot-wide doors and 9-foot ceilings inside to accommodate racks placed atop sport utility vehicles.
Behm says the following will add to the value of any garage:
Garage door openers. Many potential buyers consider this a priority and a necessity.
Lighting and electrical systems. More and more garages are being wired for heating and air conditioning to make the room accessible year-round.
Second stories. Many people are adding second stories to their garages for extra storage space or use as a rental apartment or in-law unit.
A good fit. Most home owners have plain garage doors that don't match their Colonial- or Victorian-style homes, says Behm. Simply giving the garage roof a slope that's similar to the house's roof will make a big difference.
Learn More:
National Association of Professional Organizers Lists information on how to find a professional organizer in your area.
GarageTek Lists products and services from GarageTek.
The Complete Garage Lists products and services for The Complete Garage LLC.GarageZ.comGives virtual tours of remodeled garages and information from Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage.
Behm DesignShows garage plans by Behm Design.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Forbes Ranks Most-Expensive ZIP Codes
The list of the 500 most expensive ZIP codes compiled by Forbes.com is based on the highest median home prices in the country.The ZIP code 11962 topped the list, as the median price in Sagaponack, N.Y. — located in the Hamptons — reached $2.8 million in 2005.
More than 50 percent of the 500 priciest ZIP codes were in California, and 20 percent were in New York. The remainder were mainly in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland, and Florida.
A few of the upscale ZIP codes belong to urban areas; but most are on the coast or in the mountains, with breathtaking views, spacious estates, country clubs, golf courses, and other luxury amenities.
The Most-Expensive Zip Codes in IL. - http://images.forbes.com/lists/2006/7/IL_Rank_1.html
Source: MSNBC, Sara Clemence (04/24/06)
More than 50 percent of the 500 priciest ZIP codes were in California, and 20 percent were in New York. The remainder were mainly in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland, and Florida.
A few of the upscale ZIP codes belong to urban areas; but most are on the coast or in the mountains, with breathtaking views, spacious estates, country clubs, golf courses, and other luxury amenities.
The Most-Expensive Zip Codes in IL. - http://images.forbes.com/lists/2006/7/IL_Rank_1.html
Source: MSNBC, Sara Clemence (04/24/06)
Tax 101 for Home Flippers
Near the top of the list of pitfalls for anyone who wants to make money flipping houses is failure to understand and plan for the tax consequences.
The current law allows a seller to keep, tax-free, gains of up to $250,000 (or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly) on the sale of a primary residence if the seller has lived in it for 24 of the previous 60 months.
For investment homes — and those in which the owner did not live for at least two of the previous five years — the Internal Revenue Service assigns taxes according to the length of time it was owned before a sale. Profits from homes owned for one year or more are taxed as capital gains, at the current rate of 15 percent, plus state taxes. Profits from homes owned for less than one year are taxed the same as regular income, according to the bracket in which the seller falls, anywhere from 25 percent to 35 percent.
The savvier approach, of a home sale into another investment property of roughly equal value, a procedure known as a like-kind or 1031 exchange. IRS rules give investors 45 days from the time they sell a property to identify the exchange property and 180 days to make the exchange. Investors can't receive any cash from the sale, so all money must be held by qualified intermediaries, such as a title company.
What home flippers hope to avoid is being labeled a "trader business" by the IRS. Those are investors whom the IRS identifies as making their living off the buying and selling of homes. In that case, flippers will not only have to pay the higher income tax rates, but they also will have to pay 15.3 percent in self-employment taxes.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me.
Thank you, Dave
847-732-7436 or www.davidrigney.com
The current law allows a seller to keep, tax-free, gains of up to $250,000 (or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly) on the sale of a primary residence if the seller has lived in it for 24 of the previous 60 months.
For investment homes — and those in which the owner did not live for at least two of the previous five years — the Internal Revenue Service assigns taxes according to the length of time it was owned before a sale. Profits from homes owned for one year or more are taxed as capital gains, at the current rate of 15 percent, plus state taxes. Profits from homes owned for less than one year are taxed the same as regular income, according to the bracket in which the seller falls, anywhere from 25 percent to 35 percent.
The savvier approach, of a home sale into another investment property of roughly equal value, a procedure known as a like-kind or 1031 exchange. IRS rules give investors 45 days from the time they sell a property to identify the exchange property and 180 days to make the exchange. Investors can't receive any cash from the sale, so all money must be held by qualified intermediaries, such as a title company.
What home flippers hope to avoid is being labeled a "trader business" by the IRS. Those are investors whom the IRS identifies as making their living off the buying and selling of homes. In that case, flippers will not only have to pay the higher income tax rates, but they also will have to pay 15.3 percent in self-employment taxes.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me.
Thank you, Dave
847-732-7436 or www.davidrigney.com