Monday, October 12, 2009

Lake and Waterfront Appraisers Take Advantage of your expertise and HVCC

Since the inception of the HVCC in May, one thing has become clear, AMC's (Appraisal Management Companies and Banks are starting to require expertise, experience and close proximity to the subject property appraised.


Why? Because Realtors, Buyers, Sellers and Mortgage Brokers are demanding this! So if you are an appraiser who specializes in Lake or Waterfront Property Appraisals, capitalize on your expertise by getting listed in a directory where Banks and AMC's WILL find you from across the Country... www.lakefrontappraiser.com

I know, because I too (as an appraiser) am getting emails every day practically to join a new appraisal directory, they are a dime a dozen and they are coming out of the woodwork, but there is NO directory like this one out there period! This is a specialty directory that GUARANTEES appraisers will come up in Google search first page, usually in the first 3 returns that YOU will come up under your Lake's search within 30 DAYS of being listed on www.lakefrontappraiser.com

** Don't believe me well just go to Google now and type in Lake of the Pines Appraiser, Lake Fenton Appraiser and Lake Lanier Appraiser and see that either LakefrontPros or Lakefront Appraiser (same site) comes up on the first page of your search because they are listed on this directory!

So get listed, and use LAKEFRONTPROS in your email to us and you will get a 10% discount from now until the end of the year.

All other Lakefront Pros, you also should be listed and you too will get a 10% discount. www.lakefrontpros.com

Have a great day and start taking advantage of your expertise TODAY!

Lake Lanier Sales Report for first half of 2009.

Here are the long awaited Lake Lanier Sales Statistics for the first Half of 2009. These include only those homes that have individual boat docks or permits in place. They do not include community docks, shared or platform docks.

1/1/09-6/30/09: There are 479 current listings that range from a high of $4,875,000 to a low of $155,900. **Remember WAY back many years, when you could find a LAKE home under $200,000. Well there are some to be had again…..But not for LONG!

** Average listing price is $829,000 out of the 479 listed.

** Average list price last half of 2008 was $722,000 so we are up 13% there.
There are 24 pending or contingent sales of lake home sales that range from $169,000 to $1,799,000.

*Average pending price is $600,000. This is up 20% compared to last half of 2008 with average price of those pending at $477,000

1/1/09 – 6/30/09 – There was 48 sales that ranged from $309,000 to $1,265,000.
** Average sales price was $478,594. Average Days on Market was 162 (however this number is actually higher as many homes were listed and then re-listed at new prices and the counter for days on the market started over again) Many homes on the market for well over 6 months and many were on the market over 1 year.

** Compared to 2008 during the same time there were 145 sales from low of $150,000 to a high of $2,500,000 and the average sales price was $578,372. OUCH! That is an almost 18% decline in average sale price. Even worse when compared to the last half of 2008 with an average sales price of $671,000.

**Average list to sales price ratio for first half of 2009 was 14%. Average list to sales price ratio for first half of 2008 was 10%. So sellers are taking more of a hit off their list price to get their homes sold.

FORECLOSURE SALES: There were 16 foreclosures in the first half of 2009 compared to 8 foreclosures in the first half of 2008. This means 33.3% of the 2009 sales involved foreclosures. Only 5.5% of sales in first half of 2008 were foreclosures.

NOTE: These numbers could be a higher as the search was for Corporate or Foreclosures noted in the Special Circumstances field of FMLS.

What does all of this mean? Well it means that 2009 was one tough year on Lake Lanier! This is really no surprise to most of us when you consider the entire country had the worst year ever in 2009.

It also means people are willing to cut their loses, but not to a great degree. Fewer sales tell me 2 things. People are not buying AND people are not willing to sell at these rock bottom prices.
We have finally seen a rise in the lake up to 5.0 feet below full pool from 20 feet below in December, 2008. Recently it has dropped to almost 7.0 feet below summer pool. We are getting some much needed rain this entire week so we may just get that number back up to 5.0 feet by the end of this week, maybe even knocking on the 4.0 feet below full pool door!

In October, 2009, the last of the dock permits are planned to be issued. If the lake continues holding water, our deep recession (I really think we are in a depression) starts to ease a bit and the fact that we have more pending Lake sales than last year, I truly believe we have hit the bottom and there is nowhere to go but UP!

It is imperative that if you are thinking of selling or buying that you get your Lake Lanier Home appraised so you know what the CURRENT market is for the home and you do not make a huge mistake by either leaving money on the table as a seller or as a buyer, over paying for your new dream home!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

2008 Lake Lanier sales statistics reveals great news.

I have the news on Lake Lanier Listings and Sales for the second half of 2008. These are based upon FMLS stats for homes that were coded as being Lakefront or Lakeview properties with at least a single slip boat dock in place. Figures will not be exact, but they are a good representation of activity on Lake Lanier.

I have the news on Lake Lanier Listings and Sales for the second half of 2008. These are based upon FMLS stats for homes that were coded as being Lakefront or Lakeview properties with at least a single slip boat dock in place. Figures will not be exact, but they are a good representation of activity on Lake Lanier.

Listings:

1. There are 394 CURRENT Listings with an Average Listing Price of $722,000. This is a 13% decline in average list price since first half of 2008. The number of listings was 368 so about a 7% increase in number of listings.2.

There are 11 pending properties with an Average List Price of $447,300. There were 12 pending sales first half of 2008 but average was much higher at $870,00. This number is really not as significant as this number is much smaller and you cannot control which homes happen to go under contract at a given time.3.

Out of the 394 listings, 181 properties were listed from 7/1/08-12/31/08 with an average list price of $895,000. This is up just slightly from the fist half of 2008 of $870,000.

Sales:

1. There have been 31 closed sales. The average sales price is $671,000 with the average Days on Market at 107 (Listing prices range from $152,500 to a high of $2,350,000). The average list to sales price ratio was 6.7%. The average sales price is 22% higher than the first half of 2008! Days on market was essentially the same (109 first half of 2008). This sales price average brings us closer to the average sales price we saw in the first half of 2007 at $623,000. So great news here!

** In the second half of 2007 there were 72 closed sales with an average sales price of $681,000. Average list to sales price ratio was 9.4% and average days on market was 117. So we are not far off other than number of sales from these figures.

Please Note: There are many homes that have been on the market much longer than this. The days on the market number is skewed if the home was listed for many months and then relisted after the first listing expired, with a new FMLS number and date. The days on market is only calculated from the last time the home was placed on the market with a new listing number and date. Many homes fall into this situation, so in reality days on market is likely much higher.

**This has been our experience when appraising lake property and checking to see how many times the home was listed with new dates and FMLS numbers.

Expired and Withdrawn Listings:

In 2008, there were 531 homes that had expired listings with average list price of $847,000. Average Days on Market was 145. Again this number may be skewed. Many have been relisted and currently back on the market. The number of expired listings is 38% higher compared to the first half of 2008. The average list price is 13% higher.

There were 127 withdrawn listings in all of 2008. Average list price was $1,086,000. Many of these were relisted.

What does all of this mean?

The bad news is there are loads of listings for more competition between properties and the number of sales is less than the same time last year. The GOOD news, there were more sales in the second half of 2008 than the first half of 2008 and the average sale price is 22% higher bringing us closer to sale averages of the first half of 2007! Fantastic News!

Also, the average list to sales price ratio has decreased by 1.3%.Other than the over abundance of Lake Lanier Listings, if the average list price stays stable, then it would stand to reason that our average sales price for the first half of 2009 will increase. It did the second half of 2008 so we expect that trend to continue.

**What appears to be happening here is that people are reducing their listing prices and there is a narrowing between the average listing price and the average sales price. The home sellers are getting realistic on the current market of their lake homes and the buyers are starting to increase in numbers, exactly what we need to start turning this market around!

The average sales price was only slightly lower than this same period last year.

Also the other great news is that the lake is just over 14.0 feet below full pool which is 4 feet higher than it was this time last year.....

With all the doom and gloom in the news about the real estate market, we have something to celebrate here! It may not feel that way to many lake home owners trying to sell, who have had to reduce their prices to remain competitive, but we are heading back in the right direction and that is a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

Enjoy the good news and I will be back with you in the summer for the first half of 2009 Lake Lanier Sales Stats. In the meantime subscribe to my blog and you can stay abreast of the Lake Lanier News on a regular basis.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Happy New Year Everyone!

It's a new year and time to review your marketing plans. Times have been tough and that is an understatement. But when times are tough you have to get out there ahead of your competition and be seen.

Many have cut back on their advertising and marketing budget in 2008, but did that really help you make money or get more clients? You really have to analyze this for yourself.

The other question you have to ask is should you specialize in something this year, pick a niche market and go with it? If you ask anyone who has focused on being an expert in any field AND advertised themselves as such, I bet they will tell you it has worked for them.

So why not specialize in high end properties like lakefront homes? We specialize in lakefront homes as appraisers and I can say without a doubt that we are considered lakefront experts, however a large part of this was because we decided years ago that lakefront was going to be our specialty, we learned it and we advertised ourselves heavily as such.

Go ahead and Google Lake Lanier Appraiser...I dare you! If Mary Thompson Appraisals is not all over the 1st page of the search results, I will pay for your first year of advertising on this site.

This is exactly what we can do for you and your business! There is no other directory out there on the Internet that only spotlights lakefront professionals. So go ahead, make your new years resolution to come out ahead of your competition.

Sign up today and we will give you your 2nd year free!

Let's see if you are really reading this all the way thru...your 2nd year is free if you sign up in the Month of January 2009.

Contact us today and may you prosper in 2009. Happy New Year!