Nice small home in Talent that has had mechanical upgrades. In the middle 1990’s: double pane windows, roof, new siding, kitchen cabinets. 2008 new HVAC system and gutters.

Single car garage but could park two normal sized cars end-to-end. RV dump and hookups on the west driveway area. Great back yard. Very private with an enormous beautiful old tree for shade.

First time on the market since the 1970’s. Lots of character, French doors in living room, wood floors. There is a second toilet and shower but the sink has not been hooked up so it is being called a one bathroom at this time.

The two building sites here are located with end-of-the-road privacy as the biggest selling point! Located on a county maintained road for good year-round driving conditions these two adjacent properties are the perfect get-away place.

Both properties have a homesite and septic approval in place. The owner is a geologist and would be happy to work with the future buyer on where to best locate a well.

Both properties have homesites that sit well up above the road for a nice view of the heavily timbered mountains surround the area. There are hiking trails all around and the Little Applegate River runs through the foot of the property.

Although there is no place to build along the river banks you can enjoy fishing and summer picnics down by the water during the summer.

Both properties have been surveyed and the seller is ready to sell! Buy one or both parcels for a package deal!

10628 Little Applegate Road is 10.65 acres and is offered at $121,000.
10254 Little Applegate road is 6.45 acres and is offered at $99,000.

These properties are not considered ‘horse property’ but are more for a secluded homesite away from it all.

The property does not have a for sale sign on it so the listing agent needs to be present to show it fully. Great spot for recreation. Hunting, fishing, and hiking!

Gorgeous views of the entire southwest valley from this knoll top location. 7.88 acres of gently sloping pasture, 2040 sq ft home built in 1993 make this a very special property. The entire south facing portion of home has decking to enjoy the wonderful views and cool afternoon breezes. Water features with Koi to relax you. Great room w/vaulted ceiling and views of the Table Rocks. Nice large kitchen with hardwoods;informal and formal dining areas. Master has hot tub on the deck overlooking the valley lights.

You look out over the south valley all the way to Pilot Rock and Mt Ashland. Your immediate view is of the Table Rocks. Off to the west there is the pastoral view towards Grants Pass. The large country kitchen has hardwoods, tons of storage and a pantry. There is a breakfast nook just off the kitchen with a slider to the deck. The living room windows look to the south and take in the great views. The ceiling is vaulted and there are sliders out to the deck here. The wood stove is certified and the sellers say it is very efficient to use. The master bedroom is large with a large bathroom with a Roman shower.

There is a series of three small ponds that are all tied together and are located just past the deck. The sound of the water rushing between the ponds is soothing and relaxing. The ponds support a thriving Koi population. The seller has planted extensive gardens and has all the plants on drip systems. The area around the house is fully fenced with deer fencing. The property used to have a medical hardship approval which can be reused in the right situation. A buyer could build a shop where the medical hardship used to be as there is a septic and water storage there to service it already. The well is strong and also has a holding tank as the seller loves to garden!

The past two years have shown weak growth in the economy. Although there has been population growth there has been no housing demand growth. Builders incomes have dropped 70-90% and have been constrained by the lack of construction loans. Yun stated that is possible that in 2-3 years there will be a housing shortage due to the lack of new construction. He did state that housing starts are stable; but at a very low level.

According to Yun economists think that the recession ended last summer as we as a nation are beginning to produce more goods. The first signs of new jobs being created are out there. It will likely take more than 4 years to regain the 8 million jobs lost and from 6-8 years for us to recover from this recession. With the over-correction that took place on housing prices it has created a negative psychology among the people. He stated that this over-correction needs to be halted so the collateral damage of negative emotions is stopped. Only then will people begin to jump back into the market. As a rule, people don’t buy homes with cash. Rock bottom interest rates along with rock bottom pricing indicates an over-correction. The economic trenders, Case-Shiller data shows that we are currently at the zero line having returned to ‘normal circumstances’ regarding home
prices and the ability to buy homes by those that live in the area.

Medford has had 10 straight years of job losses while Washington DC has had the same number of years of job growth….likely driven by government jobs he said. He stated that to keep foreign investors confident in our growth we need to have a credible plan to reduce the debt. If they loseWeight Exercise their belief in us, rates will likely rise to between 7-9%. The government is trying to chip away at some of our tax deductions for home ownership such as mortgage interest and property tax deductions and having a capital gains tax for all sales. The National Association of Realtors are fighting these on your behalf. It is a proven fact that homeowners perform better in social
standards such as test scores,, juvenile delinquency and other standards. Artificially boosting the ability to be a homeowner is what created the housing bubble that eventually sunk the economy. Yun predicts that the mortgage rates will rise to approximately 6% at about this time next year.

The commercial real estate market follows the housing market by 12-18 months. This market is following the same bubble even though the bubble was not driven by  sub-prime loans. At this time since the loans are not government backed the now-profitable banks don’t want to let go of the money for commercial loans. Look for foreclosures and great prices on commercial sales and leases in the next few years. Fannie Mae has played a huge roll in keeping the interest rate low on home loans. They created a hedge fund that bet on the rise of the housing market which increased their profits. When the housing market crashed, the public took the hit.
NAR is advocating in Washington DC that Fannie Mae would never be allowed to do this again. Take the profits and ask the public to pay for them.

To sum it up Yun said that the increase in stock market activity was indicative of economic action by the wealthy where economists watching the housing market to take the pulse of the middle class. He was cautiously hopeful although the going is much slower than normal in a recovery. Be on the watch for political moves that take away the tax credits for homeowners.

Let me know if I can help you buy or sell your home….I am in it for the long haul!

Well, the numbers are out again for the sales in the area. I have downloaded the whole file so that you can see them all. It appears that some things look promising…the number of ‘normal’ sales which are
the ones that are not bank owned or soon to be bank owned such as a short sale. These seem to be a large number of the sales at first glance. For existing homes they add up to 51% of the sales where REO’s or properties commonly called foreclosures are only 38.8% of the sales.  Click on this link to see the stats in detail. stats may 2010

The most telling number…the short sales. These constitute 10.2% of the sales. When you add up the short sales and the REO’s which are basically transactions controlled by banks, it is approximately 50% of the market. Of properties on the market foreclosures are only 6.6% of the total. That tells me the banks are doing a good job of unloading their properties. In order to unload them they have to price them ‘to move’. What this means is that all other properties are in need of the same kind of pricing. If you want your home to sell or get looked at, the market demands you are at the same price as a foreclosure.

Consumers tend to believe that a foreclosure is a ‘great house at a great deal’. In some cases this is true. Generally a foreclosure is a home in which the seller lost all hope and let it go in more ways that one. They let the yard go, general maintenance on the home, sometimes the home has been stripped of appliances and even fixtures such as cabinets, lights and other removable items. When you purchase a foreclosure, you get what you get.

In a deal I recently closed my buyers got a great price on a house in East Medford. It was a foreclosure and it needed work. After the whole house inspection there were FIFTY items that FHA required to be repaired before the transaction could close. These weren’t minor items either. The buyer ended up having to raise the price of the property to cover the repairs. The repairs ranged from a HVAC system that actually worked, to ducts that weren’t full of water and mold, to a range/oven that turned on, and then a whole host of other repairs including a new shower that wasn’t covered in mold and held together at the drain by duct tape. Fortunately for us the buyers were well connected with contractors and got the whole thing done for an amazingly low price.

As you look at foreclosures, just remember, when the bank says ‘as-is’ that is generally exactly what that means! It appears that the banks are holding a bunch of properties off the market in order to not flood it with foreclosures and thereby driving up home prices a bit as people are competing over the available properties. That does not change the fact that there are whole flood of foreclosures yet to come!

On a final note, the stats show that home prices in our valley have dropped as a whole by 30.2% over the past five years. Talent and West Medford have lost over 40% of their value. It appears the pricing is stabilizing and with the lenders expecting a 1% increase in rates over the next year it might be somewhere close to the bottom in pricing. But then, my crystal ball could be a bit cloudy…..

These are the stats for the year-end of 2009. If you would like me to email me a copy just drop me a line at jan@valleysavvy.com or call me at 541.944.6040 and tell me your mailing address. Here’s to an even better 2010! Just click on the link above to see the stats as provided by the Southern Oregon MLS.

Honestly, 15 photos don’t even begin to show this home off! Check out the virtual tour for more details! This home is one of the last homes built in this subdivision. It is on almost 1/2 acre with so much RV parking that you can have any toy you want! The three-car garage has two double bays making it a 5 car garage! There is a work bench in garage also.

The floor plan is big and open and spacious and light and bright! The great room opens off the kitchen and informal dining area. You can enter the guest quarters from the great room area also.

The kitchen has tons of cabinet space and an island stove. The sun room area off the informal dining area and family room overlooks the in-ground pool and back yard.

Southern Oregon is an amazing place to live and this home is in one of the nicest neighborhoods in the Rogue Valley. Don’t miss it!

The side yard has a huge area for RV parking and on the other side there is a driveway to the back of the property where you could build a huge shop. The 5-car garage has a shop area in it also.

Located just a few minutes from Rogue Valley Memorial Hospital, Rogue Valley Country Club, RoxyAnn Winery and downtown Medford you can really settle into this home!

Recently I have written multiple offers for multiple first-time home buyers on different properties as each property had competing offers at the same time. The standard response from the listing broker is that ‘the seller has countered everyone to come back at their highest and best offer.’ Now while this seems at first blush to be a ‘fair thing’ to do but honestly I sometimes wonder if my clients’ offer wasn’t already the highest and best and the seller is just hoping to get a few thousand more dollars out of a panicked buyer who is afraid that they will loseWeight Exercise out if they don’t come up.

Real estate is very much a game of poker. What do I tell my clients? Raise your price, come down on your closing cost requests, hold at the price you are…? Really it all depends on the client and how they feel about the situation. When teaching first-time homebuyers about the ins-and-outs of a transaction it is important for them to understand every aspect of that transaction.

I will use the example of a property I was working with my clients recently. It was a small house in an outlying area. It was on a cul-de-sac, several other properties on the street looked distressed also and this one was purchased very likely at the courthouse steps by this investor. I know he is an investor based on the name on the listing. I also know that he just recently purchased it because the deed still isn’t showing up in his name on the county records yet.

My first thoughts were…priced well, couple of days on the market, competing offer, investor owned, needs work. My clients wrote an excellent offer and requested closing costs. The counter offer was increased to include the closing costs. This is where we had a long talk about an appraisers role in the selling process. We discussed what kind of a red flag the appraiser would have with that counter offer. I explained to the clients about the fact that they could loseWeight Exercise not only their inspection money but also their appraisal money if the appraiser didn’t like the fact that closing costs were added on top.

I ran comparable properties for my clients to show them that the value was likely there even in the counter offer, but I couldn’t tell them how an appraiser might respond. We talked about the response to that offer being different if the property had been on the market more than 60 days. The listing agent stated they felt it was priced to sell and that they felt confident they could get their price in a short time even though ours was the second offer that they did not come to terms with. My clients decided to stand their ground and leave their offer at what was felt to be a fair price.

The offer died and we moved onto another property. Guess what! The offer we wrote on this one, is one of three offers. The listing agent has said that ‘they are all pretty close in price’ and wants us to come back with our ‘highest and best’. On this offer, we came in high to start hopeing to have a better chance from the beginning.

They know about appraisers, they know about future value, they know about what else is on the market, they know this is one that hasn’t been on the market too long… they are as educated as they can get. This one comes down to whether they ‘love’ the house and have to have it. We will see how this one plays out after I meet with the clients tonight. We can see how they fare in this frenzied market!

Step 1 Selecting a REALTOR®

No single decision you make will be more important than the REALTOR® you choose to help you. It will be their knowledge of the market that can guide you to the perfect home for you and your budget. Choose carefully. Often a referral is the best way to find one. Ask around to see who has one that they have used and really like. Find out what they liked about them and what they felt made them stand out. The brokers in our area all have access to the MLS with all the listings excluding For Sale By Owners (FSBO). Your broker is able to work with FSBO owners also so don’t hesitate to ask us if you see a FSBO you like to find out more about it! Interview the REALTOR®. Be sure that you feel you can communicate well with them and that they have your best interest in mind.

Step 2 Selecting a Lender

Your lender is the next business partner that you must choose. It is very important that your lender and your REALTOR® can communicate well with each as they will be working hand-in-hand to make your dream of home ownership come true. A good lender will listen carefully to you, they will ask lots of questions and they will also give you ideas and options that will work for you. A lender you want to stay away from is one that you feel is trying to force you into a loan product that makes you feel uncomfortable. It is always a good idea to talk to your REALTOR® if you have questions. If your REALTOR® is on top of their game they will be able to trouble shoot problems with you and help you find the very best fit with a lender.

Step 3 Selecting Properties to See

In our Southern Oregon Region most REALTOR® belong to the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service). This affiliation allows you to work with your REALTOR® and look through all the properties listed on the MLS to find the perfect property for you. Your Realtor will sit down with you and create a search criteria for homes based on what your lender says you can afford and what you are comfortable paying. These criteria will range from the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, to whether you want a specific school district and of course, price. The MLS gives your REALTOR® access to all the listings currently posted on the MLS.

Step 4 Viewing Properties

Now that you have a list of properties selected it will be time to go and look at some of them. You and your REALTOR® will be able to pick some of the more appropriate properties for you and schedule showings to look at them. Many properties are what a REALTOR® might call a ‘call, show, keybox’. This property is one in which the seller has said that you just need to call and let them know you are coming and then use the keybox. There are other properties that will be ‘by appointment only.’ Some reasons for an appointment only listing might be due to pets who might need to be removed during the showing or small children who might be napping. Your REALTOR® will work with the seller to find a time that suites both of your needs. And finally there will be ones that require ‘24 hour notice’. These are tenant occupied properties. The State of Oregon landlord tenant laws protect the tenants’ rights by requiring that someone wishing to enter the property must give them a 24 hour notice. That notice doesn’t mean the tenant will agree to show it at that time. These are the most difficult properties to show. Your REALTOR® will be working with the other agent and the tenant to set a good time for the showing.

Step 5  Selecting the Right Property

When you head out to look at all these properties you might want to think about taking notes. Your REALTOR® can give you a printout of the property and its features. On that print out you can make brief notes about what you liked or didn’t like about the property. Honestly, if you see too many properties they all begin to run together in your mind and you will be glad you wrote things down! If you see more than 5 or so properties in an outing with your REALTOR® it becomes very difficult to remember what you saw. Looking at property is a hard business as you are trying to make a major financial decision based on what you are looking at so your mind is hard at work doing this! It can be very tiring!

Step 6 Negotiating the Offer

Writing and negotiating the offer is what your REALTOR® does best! We have extensive tools and knowledge of the market that will help you write an offer that represents what you would like to pay and is one that the seller will look at as a viable offer and one that is worth negotiating on. Your Realtor will guide you as to what an appropriate price might be and what sort of sellers concessions, such as closing costs, might get the seller to see things in a positive light. Remember, very often the seller has an emotional tie to the property and you need to negotiate around both their emotions AND their financial position. This can take several days and is a very nerve-wracking time for most buyers. Everything that is done during this time is very time-sensitive so be sure that you stay in constant contact and are readily available to meet with your REALTOR® if need be during this time.

Step 7 Closing the Deal

Closing on the deal is a hectic time. It usually takes between 30-45 days to close on a property. The first two weeks are spent finishing the paperwork, having an inspection of the property and the under structure, negotiating any repairs that might be needed, having an appraisal, talking to your insurance agent to secure insurance, addressing paperwork sent by the title company and meeting with your lender. After that whirlwind of activity it is generally a ’sit and wait’ time for the next couple of weeks as everyone completes their jobs from the insurance and escrow person right down to your REALTOR® and lender. As you can see it takes a team to make all of this happen. Once everything is complete your REALTOR® will schedule a signing appointment to meet with at the title company to sign your papers. This appointment will be over an hour long usually and you will be signing LOTS of paperwork related to your loan and to the escrow. your Realtor should be at the signing with you to answer any questions that might come up and to troubleshoot last minute issues that sometimes arise. A couple of days after that depending on the lender, you should get a call from the title company saying they ‘recorded on the property’ and that means that YOUR name is now on the deed as the owner! Congratulations!