Milford Michigan Home Buying

Turkey buzzards come with this 1.1 million dollar home

2008-07-23T08:00:00.002-05:00

This has got to be one of my stranger blog posts, but, I was previewing homes today in a very upscale neighborhood and saw this million plus Ann Arbor home with a family of turkey buzzards sitting on the roof.

I just snapped this picture with my iphone camera so you have to look pretty close, but there are four buzzards on the peak of the roof. There are also three more visible in the tree above the home.

Very weird!

Loan officer from Ann Arbor Lender pleads guilty

2008-06-12T07:37:00.003-05:00

The Columbus dispatch ran an article today about loan officer Kenyatta Johnson who worked for ABN Ambro in Ann Arbor.

Seems Kenyatta admitted she approved fraudulent mortgage-loan applications for Columbus Ohio home in return for kickback money.

If you click on the article linked above and go to the last sentence you see there are two other defendants in the case who have not yet pleaded guilty. One of them is named Jonathan Boyd! (My name!)

Glad he is in Columbus and not here in the Milford - Ann Arbor area.

Important Inspection Tip for Milford Home Buyers

2008-05-11T12:37:00.003-05:00

This link goes to a story about a home in Ann Arbor, but the principle also applies to homes build in the last 13 or 14 years in the Milford Michigan area.

The specific concern in homes with an exterior finish of Drivit or EIFS or Exterior Insulation Finishing System or .... Stucco. These are all basically the same and even though they work fine in many commercial buildings, they can cause tremendous issues for homes.

Here again is the link: Stucco Problem on Milford homes

What the "buyer agent" from the traditional company won't tell you

2008-04-18T14:09:00.002-05:00

There is an interesting post on Trulia that I ran across recently from a "buyer specialist" who works for a "team" at a traditional real estate company.

Remember the idea of having a buyer agent is that they will give you:

1. Unbiased exposure to homes
2. Negotiate in your best interest
3. Be loyal to you and your needs
4. Keep your confidential information confidential

Well at that large local company the "buyer specialist" gets paid 25% more if she sells you an in-house listing. How is that for "unbiase expose to homes"???

Buying a Milford home built from the 40's to the 60's?

2008-04-14T09:16:00.002-05:00

If you are buying a home in Milfor Michigan built during the late 40's, 50's or early 60's, you want to know what kind of sewer line the home has.

Here is a video inspection of a sewer line that turned out to be "Crock" type pipe. I'll be posting videos of some of the other sewer material we find in homes of this age.

What you really want to be careful about is "Orangeburg" type pipe.

Prudential broker writes laws in one state, breaks in the next

2008-03-26T16:46:00.001-05:00

I Just heard from an Exclusive Buyer's Agent out west who noticed something from their professional licensing bureau that caught her eye.

The Iowa licensing bureau fined a Nebraska broker and 5 of his agents $7,500 for practicing real estate in Iowa without an Iowa license. The company, a Prudential franchise, was licensed in Omaha, they were just doing business in Iowa.

Here is the interesting point:

The broker that was guilty in Iowa is a member of the real estate commission in Omaha! The guy helps write laws in Omaha and he breaks them in Iowa!

Good Insights For Negotiations With Builders

2008-03-17T00:15:00.002-05:00

Here is an article based on interviews with 6 toop exclusive buyer agents from across the country on negotiation with builders.

Negotiation with builders article

Exclusive Buyer Agent - now being faked by regular agents?

2008-03-10T08:35:00.003-05:00

If you have been researching homes and home buying you may already know that the definition of "Exclusive Buyer Agent" is a company who only represents buyers, never sellers. They never take listings.

In Michigan there are some real estate agents who are falsely advertising "EBA" in hopes of tricking uneducated buyers. Well it turns out Michigan isn't the only place this is going on.

Home buying expert Julie Tuggle recently posted an article here that goes into some detail:

Will the REAL Exclusive Buyer's Agent Please Stand Up?

Nice writing Julie!

Bought a new home and are having problems?..

2008-02-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

When a new home buyer has problems with their builder and they didn't use a buyer's agent sometimes they feel all alone.

They don't have to. There is a consumer group that can help.

Here is a link:
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings

On the other hand if you are thinking about buying a new home and want to try to avoid these kind of problems upfront, you might want to contact our office.

The Home Buyer's Agent 734-662-6240 The Home Buyer's Agent, South Eastern Michigan's most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Agent

Choosing a lender because of another banking relationship

2008-02-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

In one of our recent staff meetings the topic of home buyers using lenders because of previous banking relationships came up.

As a exclusive buyer's agent we discuss all our purchases to leverage all of our experience. (No traditional real estate company could do this because they represent buyers and sellers at the same time and the conflicts of interest are huge.)

Anyway, we recommend only using "credible lenders". And we define credible lenders as a lender that either the buyer someone the buyer knows personally or our office has had a recent positive mortgage experience with. (Positive being the lender did everything they said they would do.)

So with that background -

We had one relocating buyer who did banking with ING and the got a good quote from the ING lending division. We haven't had other experience with them and the buyer never used them for a mortgage so they didn't qualify as a "credible lender". But the buyer decided to use them anyway.

The result:

A generally good experience except that there was a quirk in the closing documents that was to the buyer's benefit. We thought the lender might have a problem when they did their final review and we were a little nervous about there being a delay. In the end the lender either wasn't bothered by the quirk or they didn't notice it and the purchase closed smoothly.

We had a second relocating buyer who used Wells Fargo for their banking so they got connected to a local mortgage office of Wells to provide their loan.

Now understand that Wells Fargo is the largest mortgage lender in the country and there are a lot of different people working for them. And, they lend wholesale and retail. And, I've personally probably been involved with over a hundred Wells Fargo mortgages. BUT - this buyer used a loan officer and loan office against our recommendation and that we have no positive experience with.

The result:

A totally frustrating experience for the buyer, along with costs close to $3,000 more than they could have paid if they had followed our agent's advice.

Oh well...

Milford Is Doing Well

2008-02-01T10:08:00.000-05:00

I read this article about Milford Township and how it is doing in these challenging days.

It really shows why Milford is a nice place to live compared to many areas, even with the financial struggles that South Eastern Michigan is faced with.

As the only Exclusive Buyer's Agent that is active in Milford Michigan we always try to make buyers aware of the negatives of a community. Here it is nice to see some real positives.

Good post on problems buying Milford foreclosures

2008-01-15T13:56:00.001-05:00

The link above takes you to Norm Werner's site and a post he wrote about the challenges in buying a foreclosure.

As an exclusive buyer's broker with a lot more experience I don't agree with everything he says, but his major point is very good. You can spend a lot of money on a foreclosure and still not end up buying it.

I mentioned some of the other challenges buying foreclosures in a report I wrote for NAEBA.

That is a free download and is available on this page: http://naeba.org/challenges/

Nice work Norm!

Update on Oakland County Home Sales

2007-12-13T13:52:00.000-05:00

The Oakland Press ran an article (link above) reporting that the home prices in Oakland County dropped 9% from a year ago.

Our view: yes and no.

What they actually say is that "median price of homes sold in November fell from $184,000 a year ago to $167,500. The median price means half the homes sold for more and half for less"

There is no question that values have fallen. But it is also important to realize that even though luxury home prices have fallen more than first time or move-up home prices, often luxury home sellers can wait longer to sell. So you also need to look at inventory and absoption rates for any specific sub-set of the market before you can make accurate estimates of value changes for specific homes.

But, it is still an interesting article.

Fun Blog on Milford Real Estate

2007-12-03T13:19:00.000-05:00

As I recover from the national spotlight and restart my local blogging efforts I run across some other interesting bloggers.

The link above will take you to Norm Werner's blog. He he is relatively new to real estate but he seems to have some good insights into the Milford / Western Oakland County market. (He is primarily focussed on the listing / sales side.)

I found some of his stuff quite entertaining!

Dumb things home sellers have done

2007-06-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

Oh the things I've seen viewing homes for sale!

This article is based on a survey our national organization did about obnoxious things home sellers do.

Enjoy: http://www.klfy.com/global/story.asp?s=6696517

My own Executive Profile in the Business Review

2007-04-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

I've posted elsewhere that this year I'm the President of our national non-profit group called the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. http://naeba.org

We are the standard setting organization for real estate agents who actually work for the best financial interest of home buyers. (There are over 500 of us, but that is really a small number compared to about a million REALTORS.)

Well, a reporter from the Ann Arbor Business Review noticed a press release on me being selected as the president and she wrote a nice executive profile about me here:
http://blog.mlive.com/ann_arbor_business_review/2007/04/executive_profile_jon_boyd.html

I just wish she had put in a link to either our organization of to our office web site.

Real Estate REAL slow in Milford for real estate

2007-03-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

Despite the nice weather we've had the last two weekends the Milford market hasn't taken off like what we've experienced in previous years.

In the first-time buyer and move-up buyer markets there are about 213 homes on the market.

And in all of last year there were about 138 closed purchases in that market.

More than a year of inventory.

So the current inventory of homes priced from about $100K to $550K is more than a year's supply.

In the luxury home market (Prices about about $550K) we see there were about 10 homes that sold last year in Milford.

Now there are 50 luxury homes on the market here. (Many lots & custom builds.) So that is about 5 years worth of inventory.

It is certainly not a good time to sell your luxury home in Milford. On the other hand, it is a potentially great time to buy one. If, you have a real estate company on your side.

If you want a real buyer agent in Milford Michigan

2007-03-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

As I was driving up Pontiac Trail to Milford last Friday I had an interesting thought. I think that our office might be the only major firm that provides buyer agency for Milford real estate buyers.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of real estate people who say "I can be your buyer agent", but what they really offer is designated buyer agency. That is a different animal.

If someone wants to tell you the difference it is really fairly simple:

In buyer agency the brokerage and everyone in the brokerage is on your side. Anything anybody knows about the seller or the property is shared with you.

In designated buyer agency only the individual licensee is on your side. Often the more experienced people in the office are representing sellers. Often the seller of the house you want. (In this case the company and all the supervisory brokers are acting as a dual agent, but that is another story.)

It bothers me that so many real estate agents misrepresent their role to consumers!

Brother-in-law built house

2007-03-06T22:28:00.000-05:00

I had a brother-in-law build a house for his family in Milford about ten years ago.

He was a bit loony but he had a lot of money and it was about a 3,500 square foot home with lots of brick. He ended up selling it to move into Livingston County.

I often wonder if I will end up going through that house again someday and noticing his strange "quality" of work

Video introduction to home buying

2007-02-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

If you want to get a good understanding about home buying and real estate agents and you only have four minutes, here is a great 4 minute web video: http://www.buyersagentannarbor.com/video/

The most important thing is knowing who is on your side and who isn't.

Does Milford have a lot of electrical dropout problems?

2007-02-26T10:32:00.000-05:00

I've heard that a lot of homes on the South side of Milford have problems with electrical dropouts.

On the North side things don't seem to be as bad.

Any feedback from the locals?