DOES THE DISCOUNT, DISCOUNT YOUR CONFIDENCE??

Does The Discount Discount Your Confidence?
I was driving away from a re-inspection today and I saw a little trailer with ladders and equipment attached.
Now that you have seen the view from my vantage point, let's take a look at the sign or billboard.
I know that successful marketing is often fueled by discounts, especially at department stores and super markets where we might get name brands at discount prices. Heck, even some local dentists advertise discounts and, early in my career, I used a few modest discount coupons. But when I see a 50% discount for services that require hard labor, that does not instill confidence or a desire in me to buy.
It could be wrong thinking on my part, but I worry that a person advertising a service at 50% off is cutting corners. We consumers like discounts but I think that many of us get nervous about committing to what seems to be way too good of a deal.
In my view, this discount ad does not make me want to buy. It has the opposite effect and it discounts my confidence in the service provider.

Steven L. Smith, Home Inspector.

Is it worth it to use a DISCOUNT REAL Estate BROKER where they put your house on the MLS for $ 200. or $ 350. with a menu of discounted services?

A house in my neighborhood had a discount broker for more than 6 months. Did the house sell? No. There may be a lot more to this story but if the owner was in a rush to move or downsize or take advantage of the tax incentive - they were the loser. They paid all those additional mortgage payments on a house they did not want and lost out on the $ 6500 tax incentive. What a waste of time. Consider a full service professional broker and don't waste your time and money...

Wilmington NC MARKET DATA UPDATE - APRIL 2010

Listing Inventory
In April we saw an increase in listing inventory of 43 units. We are about 137 units over May 2009. We have 5,620 single family homes for sale in our MLS. The average list price of $385,600 is up by $4,625 from last month. The average list price has increased by 3.8% from February 2010. If you look back over the last three years you will see our low point in listing inventory to be about Dec/Jan time frame.

Monthly Average Sold Price
Our monthly average sold price is up by .8% from last month and up 3.5% from April 2009. Our average sold price is up by $1,728 from last month. April average sold price ($223,344) shows a decrease of 4.7% from year end 2009. Our average sold price is down 8.9% from April 2008.
Monthly Sold Units
The number of sold homes is up 20.7% from last month and up 37.6% from April 2009 and we are 5.6% over April 2008. April saw an increase of 124 sold homes over April 2009. This is our eighth monthly increase in year over year sold homes since September 2005. You can notice that all of our big dips seem to occur on or about December. I believe we will continue to see the next couple of months with unit sales over and above the previous year. No doubt in my mind the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit has contributed to this increase in sales units and I would anticipate it to continue until the June 30th deadline.
Average Sold Price Year to Date
Year over year our year to date numbers have dipped a little.
2003 year end average sale price $ 186,137
2004 year end average sale price $ 210,048
2005 year end average sale price $ 254,080
2006 year end average sale price $ 264,498
2007 year end average sale price $ 273,408
2008 year end average sale price $256,498
2009 year end average sale price $234,379
While our current year to date numbers are lower than Year End 2009 they do show promising signs that our sales are on the upswing. The first four months of 2010 has a 257 sold unit gain over first four months of 2009. The average sales price is 1.3% higher for the first four months of 2010 than the first four months of 2009. Our median sales price is just 10.0% behind 2008 and 1.6% behind 2009.
Rolling 12 months
Another bright spot is the rolling 12 month numbers. When we look at May 1st, 2009 to April 30st, 2010 we have 4,617 sold units and when we compare May 1st, 2008 to April 30st, 2009 we have a 337 unit gain (4,280 sold units). When we look at the same rolling 12 months for average sold price we see that we are only down by 5.9%. So the dates of 5/1/2009 to 4/30/2010 we have an average sold price of $234,406 while from 5/1/2008 to 4/30/2009 we had an average sold price $249,013.
Median Sold Price
Our Median sold price is up 7.3% from last month, about $184,000. While we have not dipped as low as the National Median we seem to have turned the corner while the national median is showing a slight increase. I would anticipate over the next couple of months to see this median increase.
Pending
Pending Sales - A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed. Sales are typically finalized within one to two months from signing. I look at the total pending units on a regular basis and this is how they chart out. We saw our pending index turn back to its upward climb about the first week in January. Over the month of April we saw an 11.9% increase and we are 15.8% ahead of 2009 this time. In 2009 our index only hit the 900 unit range a couple of times. As I write this we are at 984 units that are pending right now.
Market Absorption rate - The number of homes sold in April, 454 divided by the current listing inventory, 5,620 gives us a 12.3 month supply of single family homes. This improved by 3 months from last month and moving in the right direction. With rates where they are and plenty of inventory; we can get this number down.
List to Sold price ratio - the average list price of the sold properties is $235,959 and the average sold price is $223,343 for April which gives us a 94.7% list to sold price ratio - a increase of .7% from last month. We have now managed to stay under 95% for over a year, but this is the closest we have come to 95% list to sold ratio.
Seller Concessions - We had 30.0% of sold properties report a sales concession for April, an increase of 3.0%. We want this number to go lower.
Days on Market - The average days on market for the sold properties is now at 123 for April. That is almost 5 + months to keep a property on the market. Only 17.8% of the properties were placed under contract in less than 15 days for the month of April.

Supplied by David Flory of Cunningham Mortgage

Obtained from the Wilmington MLS and the Wilmington Board Of REALTORS.

Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, NC April 2010 Real Estate Stats

Carolina & Kure Beach
There are currently 533 single family homes for sale and this represents a 5 unit decrease over April 2010 and 9.5% of our total WRAR inventory. The average list price is $419,797 an decrease of about $11,136 from March. In April there were 29 homes sold, divide that by the homes available and you have an 18.3 monthly supply of homes in Carolina and Kure Beach. The monthly supply of homes continues to come down. The average sold price for the month of April was $291,873 and is up from last month. In April 2009 we had 25 home sales at an average $297,475. When we look at our rolling 12 months May 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010 we have 290 homes sold at an average price of $290,678. While May 1, 2008 to April 30, 2009 we had 251 homes sold at an average price of $349,145.
This data was pulled on May 9, 2010, based on information from the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS Incorporated, for the period Jan. 1, 2005 through April 30, 2010.
Carolina Beach Real Estate
Wilmington North Carolina Real Estate
Wrightsville Beach Real Estate
Kure Beach Real Estate
NC Azalea Festival
USS NORTH CAROLINA BATTLESHIP
Wilmington Downtown Real Estate
Cape Fear Area
Downtown Wilmington NC
PPD, INC.
GE NUCLEAR, WILMINGTON, NC

WILMINGTON NC TREAT FROM MOTHER NATURE

Usually in the Springtime I plant both of my planters in front of my house with flowers but upon closer examination of my planters I saw a little clump of twigs. It was a tightly formed circle and inside were 5 little blue eggs. I couldn’t disturb this hardworking Mom so I just waited. It was easy to watch the goings on as I hid behind the window at my front door and watched the mother sitting on her soon to be brood undetected. I watched and waited and soon enough along came these tiny babies. They were scrawny and all bones. But in a matter of a few days feathers started to appear. They were there 8 days growing, with mom coming in with food and tending to the babies. Then one day one jumped out and started moving around the planter. I must have missed the flying lessons because the very next day the nest was empty. They had flown the coop. But these chickadee babies survived and are now flying around my yard enjoying this gorgeous spring day. Thanks for the Treat Mother Nature!!!

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING, SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD. WELL . . . YOU'LL LOVE THIS ONE;

MY NAME IS ALICE , AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST. I NOTICED HIS DDS DIPLOMA ON THE WALL, WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME. SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK-HAIRED BOY WITH THE SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SOME 30-ODD YEARS AGO. COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN? UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT. THIS BALDING, GRAY-HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS WAY TOO OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE. AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK HIGH SCHOOL .. 'YES. YES, I DID. I'M A MUSTANG,' HE GLEAMED WITH PRIDE. WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE?' I ASKED. HE ANSWERED, 'IN 1975. WHY DO YOU ASK?' YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!', I EXCLAIMED. HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY.
THEN, THAT UGLY,
OLD,
BALD,
WRINKLED FACED,
FAT-ASSED,
GRAY-HAIRED,
DECREPIT ,
SON-OF-A-B---H ASKED,
'WHAT DID YOU TEACH???