Threats to Your Home’s Value

Yes, you need to know!  If you are considering marketing your home, you must be realistic about your property’s value.  From location to lack of updates to neighborhood foreclosures to major system structures to curb appeal and more, Leah L. Culler of MSN Real Estate outlines threats to home value in her slide show, 13 big threats to your home’s value.

 Take a peek, because there are some threats you can remedy and some you can’t~  Rosemary, Atkinson-Thompson Group

Messy Neighbors: Suggestions for Dealing with Them!

Can a messy, unkept home near your home hurt your home’s value and its marketability?  Absolutely!  I’ve seen it happen.  I’ve had clients love a home that was on the market, but not purchase it because the backyard of the home next door was, well, a mess…overgrown shrubbery; a deflated, leaf-filled childrens’ pool; yard tools all over the yard; a broken-down swing set; falling-apart patio furniture; etc.  Yes, messy neighbors can kill the value of your home.  There are too many homes to choose from right now to expect a buyer to put up with messy neighbors!  If you or someone you know is dealing with a messy-property problem, check out Liz Weston’s article for MSN Money,  Neighbors hurt your home’s value?, for some suggestions on how to approach the problem and get it solved!

To maintaining your home’s value and marketability~                                 Rosemary, Atkinson-Thompson Group

Home Price Stabilization

Home price stabilization seems to be occurring; this is a good thing!  It will take time, but at least there are indications that stabilization is the trend.  Home prices in about half of metropolitan areas rose in the last quarter of 2010.  Most importantly, the trend towards stabilization is resulting in removing inventory from the real estate market,  including distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales).  Lessening of inventory is necessary to recovery of the housing market.  For an explanatory article on the stabilization trend, check out RISMedia’s article, Home Price Stabilization Seen in Most Metro Areas during Fourth Quarter 2010.

To real estate recovery and the overall economic growth it will bring~                    Rosemary, Atkinson-Thompson Group

Home Appraisals…Tougher-Than-Ever Standards

Due to often-unethical appraisals in the past (“in the day”, as we call it), investors have gotten, and continue to get, even more picky about home appraisals.  Although most appraisers are honest and always have been, investors were stung in the past by less-than-honest home appraisals by less-than-ethical home appraisers.  Yeah, there are more than a few home appraisers in jail!  Gone are the days of an appraisal sailing through an investor’s underwriting process.  Investors have gotten a lot more cautious in the appraisal arena.  More and more additional comps are being asked for from the appraiser, as are more and more do-overs (starting the appraisal process from scratch).   Home appraisals come under more scrutiny by Marcie Geffner of Bankrate.com outlines the “whys” of tougher appraisal standards and what you might experience when an appraisal is ordered on your home. 

Good stuff to know~  Rosemary

Big drops in housing prices…here too?

Although we, in Kansas City, have experienced some depreciation in our home prices, we are not experiencing the huge double digit depreciation numbers like those on the coasts.  They experienced unprecedented and largely unwarranted appreciation in their home values and they are now feeling the opposite end of that pendulum.

So much of the “bad housing” news that we hear on the nightly news is slanted because of the extremes of the coasts.  On average, the Midwest has lost 5.6% in home values since their peak while the West Coast is down 21.6% and the Florida is down 31%.

Check out the entire article here on MSNBC. If you would like to know how your home value has changed during these crazy economic times, contact us today!  We can help.

-Betsy