Visit our New BLOG Home

December 4, 2009 @ 12:29 pm

Filed under: Uncategorized

CLICK HERE to view our New BLOG Home

It’s Hurricane Season For Seahawks In Charleston

November 20, 2009 @ 1:29 pm

Filed under: Events

CHARLESTON, S.C. - It’s one down, two to go as the UNCW men’s basketball team seeks its 10th in-season tournament championship this weekend at the Charleston Classic.

The Seahawks, who stunned defending NIT champion Penn State on Thursday, face ACC member Miami today at 3 p.m. in the semifinals of the eight-team event at Carolina First Arena.

South Carolina and South Florida tangle in the other side of the bracket, with the two winners playing Sunday at 6 p.m. for the title.

Will the Seahawks beat the Hurricanes?

One week only, special pricing REDUCED $10,000 to $479,000.

@ 1:17 pm

Filed under: New Listing

3960 Island Dr
N Topsail Beach

This home will be entered into the MLS system on 11/23/09 at $489,000. Here is your opportunity to get it at a significant price reduction. Great home, established rental.

Tim Taylor
tim.taylor@prulaney.com
Prudential Laney Real Estate
803-G South College Road, Wilmington North Carolina 28403
C: (910) 612-7992

www.TeamTaylorHomes.com

Surf City Annual Christmas Tree Lighting

@ 12:51 pm

Filed under: Events

You are cordially invited to the Town of Surf City ’s Annual Christmas Tree Lighting

Saturday, November 21st, 6:00pm, Soundside Park

Visit with Santa Enjoy hot chocolate and cookies

Homes are more affordable

@ 12:39 pm

Filed under: News

The typical American family, making the nation’s median income of $64,000 a year, could afford to buy 70.1% of all homes sold in the United States during the third quarter, according to a quarterly report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500.) That’s down slightly from the previous quarter, when 72.3% were considered affordable, but way up from the third quarter of 2008 when only 56.1% qualified.

The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area’s median income could buy it if they devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs. The affordability pushed many buyers into the market last quarter. Plus, they wanted to take advantage of the $8,000 homebuyer’s tax credit that was scheduled to expire on Nov. 30.

Source: CNNMoney.com

Green-building Growing, More Jobs, More Buyer Interest

@ 10:50 am

Filed under: green building

According to a new study from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Booz Allen Hamilton, construction in the green-building industry will support 7.9 million jobs over the next four years while pumping into the American economy $554 billion.

Currently, 2 million American jobs are supported by the same industry and more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages is generated.

Full Story: http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20091120_greenbuilding.htm

The Launch of the Virtual Office Website (VOW)

November 18, 2009 @ 11:29 am

Filed under: Virtual Office Website (VOW)

Prudential Laney Real Estate agents now have a powerful new marketing tool at their fingertips

Brokers who are members of a MLS can now provide more comprehensive information to their customers than any non-REALTOR® website can feature. They can now offer a data feed of all MLS listing information to their clients via a Virtual Office Website (VOW).

What is a VOW?
The simplest definition of a VOW is a broker website that allows consumers to access all of the non-confidential information in the MLS after registering with a REALTOR®.

Virtual Office Websites are really not much different from the websites that brokers offer to consumers today. There are only two significant differences - more data fields and a registration requirement.

How will VOWs change the agent-customer relationship
With the evolution of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and literally millions of real estate websites, the consumer has had access to a significant number of sources of property information. VOWs will allow brokers, and possibly agents in markets where agents have been included in VOW policies, to once again place themselves at the center of the consumer’s property search experience.

A broker’s VOW will offer consumers the most comprehensive, accurate and timely real estate information available.
Because of the quality of information offered to consumers through VOWs, customers will be less likely to spend much time on non-broker websites offering less listing information. In mature VOW markets like San Francisco, more than 50% of all transactions were to registered VOW consumers.

WAV Group Consumer research uncovered a very strong desire for consumers to participate in VOW websites. Both buyers and sellers value the depth of information available to watch market trends and find the right home Home sellers using VOWs are pricing their homes more realistically. Buyers using VOWs are working closely with their agents reviewing listings that match their search criteria all under the supportive hand of their real estate professional.

The new challenge will be to stay attuned to the behavior of your client as they perform their research using your VOW.

Historically agents have prepared a specific set of information for their buyers and sellers to review in their decision making process. The new process will be more conversational - online and offline. The customer is likely to be doing as much or more research as their agent. This will challenge agents to be as well informed as their clients. A good VOW product will support the agent by providing visibility into the behavior of their customer.

Virtual Office Websites are one of the most valuable tools a real estate professional can use today to provide the depth of information today’s real estate consumer is looking for.

First-time Homebuyers leading market back

@ 10:46 am

Filed under: Tax Credit

Propelled by the first-time homebuyers tax credit, nearly half of home sales are now being made by first-time purchasers, according to an industry report released Friday. In fact, 47 percent of all Americans who purchased homes this year had not owned one during the previous three years, according to a press release Friday from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was up from 41 percent of sales in 2008 and 36 percent in 2006.

The tax credit boosted markets by giving first-time buyers a credit of up to $8,000 they could deduct from their income taxes. The credit is fully refundable: Even a buyer who pays less than $8,000 in income tax gets the full amount of the credit back.

NAR forecasts that existing-home sales will total slightly over 5 million in 2009, a 2 percent increase compared with 2008. Next year, they predict a gain of 13.6 percent to 5.69 million units. That should draw down inventory and prop up home prices, according to Yun, but he cautioned: “Risks, such as unemployment, remain.” Critics of the tax credit call it a poorly targeted method of boosting sales. The credit added, by nearly the most positive evaluations — including NAR’s — fewer than 400,000 sales to the total this year, about 20 percent of all first-time purchases.

Since all first-timers get the credit, whether it persuaded them to buy or not, that would mean about $40,000 was spent by the government for every extra sale, critics say.

For more information, visit our Tax Credit website @ prulaney.com/taxcredit

2010 Sales to Rise 15 Percent

@ 10:28 am

Filed under: News

Home sales will increase 15 percent to about 5.7 million units and REALTOR® income will be up 20 percent in 2010, according to NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun at the 2009 NAR Conference & Expo.

Yun credited the homebuyer tax credit with unleashing sales on the lower-end of the housing market this year, bringing up to 400,000 first-time buyers into the market who wouldn’t have bought otherwise. That influx tightened inventories of starter homes, shored up prices, and helped reduce households’ fear over continuing price drops. This virtuous cycle will continue now that the federal government has extended the credit to mid-2010 and expanded it to make a smaller credit available to repeat buyers and to households with higher incomes. “Yun predicts the supply of homes to stabilize at the historic norm of six to seven months. Homes above $500,000 will remain elevated in the near-term, but a hefty drop in starter-home inventories, which are running at about a five months supply, will offset that weakness.

The tightening inventory at all price points will help improve market performance by bringing supply into better balance with demand, but the added sales, particularly on the higher end, will also increase the number and quality of the market comparables used by appraisers to assign valuations. Once appraisals improve, foreclosures will ease, blunting their drag on the market and making it less likely that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and even FHA will need help from the taxpayer. New-home sales, which comprise about 10 percent of the market, will continue at suppressed levels–about 550,000 units, down from more than a million during the boom–mainly because builders have scaled projects way back, in part because financing isn’t available.

Even under the most positive economic scenario, unemployment will remain elevated through 2010. Yun is predicting unemployment to stay near double-digits going into 2011, qualifying this recession, as some economists have, as the “Great Recession.”

5 Reasons your home hasn’t sold

November 10, 2009 @ 3:56 pm

Filed under: Seller Tips

1. Price. If your home is overpriced in thereal estate market - you are fighting an uphill battle that you may never win. By pricing your home too high your home will likely sit on the market longer and may eventually sell for a lower price than you originally hoped. Pricing your home more competitively in the market will lead to early interest and a greater number of offers.

2. Location. The location of a home can play a large part in the desirability by future buyers. If your home is situated near an “incurable” such as a busy road, commercial area or power lines you may want to adjust your property’s price to account for a less desirable location.

3. Market Conditions. While we cannot change the real estate market, it is very important to take current conditions into consideration when selling. By making your home stand out amongst the neighborhood competition in both features and price you will attract the most interest in your property. To do this make sure the unique features of your home are highlighted and that all small projects are completed to create a shining example against which all other homes will be measured.

4. Staging. A house that is overly cluttered and not staged properly will likely turn away many potential buyers who cannot see past your possessions. A professional Home Staging Service will recommend removing unnecessary furniture, pictures and personal items, so your home will appear larger and more appealing to a greater number of buyers. After staging, the unique features of your home should be the focal point, rather than your family photos and oversized couch.

5. Agent and Marketing Plan. After your home has been retouched, staged, and priced competitively your agent must implement a great marketing plan to get the word out about your home. When hiring an agent ensure they are not only knowledgeable, experienced, friendly, and hard-working, but also have great marketing skills to effectively promote your home to all potential buyers.

Archives:

Pages:

Categories: