Charm City Baltimore Real Estate: Baltimore, Maryland Real Estate & Homes

No one has been more affected by the last few years of real estate devastation than my old friends, the Sellers. If its been more than five years since you’ve sold property, then you really need to forget much of what you thought you knew about the process. Its a new world out here. So as we approach the beginning of the Autumn selling season, here are four points that every Seller needs to take to heart.

1. You were never as rich as “they” said you were. Who are “they”? Appraisers, bankers, even the algorithm at Zillow… but its not their fault. In most cases (except probably Zillow) they were giving you valuations on your home based on what was current market price. Unfortunately, most property owners took this inflated value and carved it in stone under the heading of “Personal Net Worth” and — even to this day — are having a difficult time adjusting to the fact that those monumental numbers just are not true. But if you own a stock and you want to sell it, you ask the question, “What is Triple Y Corporation stock selling for today?” Not last year. Not in 2007. If you try to place a sell order on Triple Y that is based on what the stock sold for in 2007, your stock broker will laugh you out of the office.

Selling your home works exactly the same way. And just like the stock market, that valuation is different today than it was three months ago, as values have continued to go down in most markets. If you list your home for sale today, you need to think about what the value of it is TODAY, and kiss farewell to what you thought it was worth yesterday. You’ll also likely have to re-think the asking price if you should be on the market in two months, because the market may continue to decline.

2. You are selling a product and a lifestyle — not just a house. You need to find out what the competition looks like. Get your Realtor to take you through the properties that you’re going to compete with in the marketplace — certainly every one of your potential Buyers will have seen them, so you need to see them too. The Buyer doesn’t really care how you’ve lived in the house, they want to see how they might be able to live if they bought your house. By comparing your home to the competition, you get to see the competing visions that are out there, and you can craft your product presentation to outshine the rest. This is the basic philosophy of staging, and you can use it to varying degrees, but if you’re not actively trying to change the way you think about and look at your home and trying to see it through the eyes of the Buyers who tour it, your home will likely be one of those that sit on the market for awhile, with multiple price reductions, and a sales price much lower than you had hoped.

3.  Some of your competition isn’t trying to turn a profit. Now, this is a tough one to wrap your head around if you’re a Seller. Every individual Seller approaches a real estate transaction with visions of finally-realized equity with which they will fund something, whether its a bigger house purchase, a downsizing with money left over for a new toy or a beefed up IRA, or at the very least, a clean balance sheet with debts paid off. In this market a significant number — if not a majority — of your competitors have already given up on making a profit. These could be residents approved for a short sale, or banks and mortgage companies — even the government — selling foreclosures, or people who have been on the market so long that they are desperate just to get to that new job in another city. This is yet another argument for getting to know your competition, and if you can’t compete with their prices, then figure that out before you list and save yourself a lot of heartache.

4. Buyers don’t shop for homes the way they used to. The process that Buyers use to become educated on the market has been completely revolutionized in the last few years. The National Association of Realtors conducts a study every year that asks successful homebuyers questions about the process of buying their home. The results are important because they point out the most successful ways to market a home — and marketing a home is THE most important task that a listing agent performs. In just the last decade, the percentage of Buyers who found the home they purchased on the Internet has skyrocketed from 8% to 37%. Those who found it in print advertising, such as newspapers, has gone from 7% down to only 2%, and if you look just at those slick homebuyer magazines, the current number is below 1%. Even the trusty yard sign, which accounted for 15% of discoveries in 2001 has declined to just 11%.

So, what does this mean if you’re the Seller? It means that among the most important qualities you need to look for when selecting a listing agent is that agent’s comfort level with mobile technology and the Web, because that is where most homebuyers are hanging out, looking around, and eventually deciding on which homes to visit. And don’t doubt that you DO need an agent. If you combine the Buyers who found their homes on the Internet and those who found them through the recommendation of their agent, you account for 75% of successful home purchases in 2010.

That’s a chunk of the marketplace that you must be able to access if you wish to sell your home in 2011.

Every real estate agent I know is thankful that 2010 is nearly over. When the year began there was a lot of hope that the housing market would begin to recover by year’s end, and the Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit was stirring people to buy — boosting that hope.

But when that credit expired, hopes for the recovery began to expire as well. One of the hottest summers in memory kept people inside, and the economic news kept us all sweating. Late summer and early autumn sales numbers retreated back to levels that were equal to the worst of the housing slump.

Never mind that housing prices continued to fall and started to look like good values again, or that mortgage interest rates had fallen to levels that hadn’t been seen since our grandparents had been buying homes. No amount of good news could convince the buying public that it was time to make a purchase.

One of the most important trends of 2010 is only now beginning to become plain: the huge number of properties in distress — either 90+ days late on the mortgage, listed as a short sale, in pre-foreclosure, or actually foreclosed upon and bank-owned — was creating a large “shadow inventory” of homes that lenders were not listing for sale because buyers were not absorbing the distressed properties that already were on the market.

There are a couple of sources for this information. In late November, CoreLogic released a report on the large increase in the “shadow inventory” in 2010. As of August, there were 2.1 million units of housing classified as being in that shadowy group, up more than 10% from the previous year. When added to the 4.2 million “visible” units currently for sale, that constitutes a distressed property glut that isn’t moving. According to CoreLogic’s report, Maryland has a two-year supply of such distressed properties; the figure for Baltimore-Towson is only slightly better, with an 18-month supply.

While the sharp and rapid rise in the number of properties included in this category is alarming, at the same time overall sales figures were falling, and the proportion of distressed homes within the number being sold also fell. According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2010 Homebuyer Survey, only four percent of buyers purchased a home that would be categorized as “distressed.” Nearly 40% of those buyers did not even consider a distressed property among their home choices. Of the remaining 60% who at least considered such a home, one-third decided against it because the process of dealing with the lender as seller was too difficult or complex. One-fourth decided against it because the house was in poor condition; the remaining buyers just couldn’t find a distressed property that they liked.

What does this mean? Different professionals will come to different conclusions about this data, all of which was just released at the end of November, but here are two things that I believe are clear:

1. Buyers are learning that purchasing a distressed property, especially a short sale, is not easy and the vast majority of them are opting not to do so. Since half of all homebuyers in 2010 were first-time homebuyers, it might be that the uncertainty of how long it will take to settle such properties makes them impractical. While these first-time buyers don’t have a home to sell, they do have a landlord who requires a set amount of notice to get out of their lease — give notice too soon, they might become homeless; give notice too late, and they might be required to pay extra rent. If lenders want to make these distressed properties more attractive to these buyers they have to standardize the short sale process and get it done in a predictable amount of time.

2. Lenders may have to hold back millions of dollars worth of ‘shadow inventory’ well into the future. That means maintaining these properties in liveable condition for an extended period of time. Most lenders are NOT good at this. While they want to get their money back on these properties, they cannot flood the market with them all at once. Not only will that drive down the price on the properties for sale, it will also drive down the values on the neighboring properties, putting more homeowners “under water” and destabilizing the neighborhood. Since that lender may also hold the mortgages on a significant number of properties in the vicinity, flooding the market with bank-owned properties just drives down the values of the rest of their investment portfolio. So, while they won’t like the idea of holding on to these properties, self-interest will demand that they do.

There are many indicators that actually give hope for a much better 2011. I’ll cover those in January’s post.

I hope all of my readers have a peaceful holiday season, and best wishes for a prosperous new year!

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This month its time to answer a couple of the questions I’ve been getting from readers.

Q. My brother graduated from college five years ago and got a great loan to buy a house, using 100% financing and settlement assistance programs to pay most of his closing costs. Now I’m graduating in December, have got a sweet job lined up, and I’m being told no one can help me. What’s the deal?

A. Well, you’re a victim of the real estate meltdown. The generous financing programs that fueled the real estate boom of the last decade were one of the first things to go after it all came crashing down. The current market is on a different planet than the market of five years ago: some of the largest lenders in the country then have disappeared today, or been absorbed into bigger companies, and we’re going back to the “good old days” when you had to have some skin in the game.
There is some good news. FHA loan programs still allow you to buy a home with just 3.5% of the purchase price as a downpayment. Also, many of the settlement expense loan programs are still out there for qualified buyers. Try to keep your debts down (including student loans and credit cards) and save some money, and you should be able to purchase a home before you know it.

Q. I bought a house in Baltimore with something called a Ground Rent, but it was one that no one has been collecting. I’ve heard that there was a major change in the law that might allow me to get rid of it altogether, and I’ve also heard that wasn’t happening. I’m confused.

A. Ground rents confuse everyone, so you’re not alone. A ground rent is, literally, a lease payment for the right to use the land your house is on, like the old ‘quitrent’ you might have learned about in medieval history class! In Maryland, they generally are collected by someone, and can be bought out by a homeowner for a small payment and legal fees after which the deed is changed to Fee Simple (where you own the house and the land together). Some Maryland ground rents, you’re correct, are so old that no one is actively collecting them. Also, some were not redeemable at all.
After a small scandal a few years ago where someone actually lost their home for non-payment of the ground rent, the legislature tried to modernize and reform the ground rent system by creating a registry, and setting a deadline by which all ground rents had to be registered by the owner, or else they would become void.
Ground rent holders, however, have challenged that reform in court. So everything is on hold until that case is heard and judgment is rendered.

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This neighborhood — a little slice of Mt. Washington tucked in between Falls Road and Falls Run — is a hidden gem that the residents say is a great place to live. Turn onto this dead end street and you can see why! The tidy cottage style homes, each with their front porch, invite you to put up your feet and stay awhile. This three bedroom, two bath house has large, open main rooms, warm natural wood cabinets in the kitchen, and newly carpeted bedrooms. Shoot a round of pool in the basement recreation room or, on colder days, warm yourself in front of the wood stove. Easy access to Falls Road, Interstate 83 (JFX), and the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) makes this a great commuter’s home. The stores and cute shops of Mt. Washington Village are just a short distance away.

Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2

Available at $157,000!

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This property has a WalkScore ranking of 57 (Somewhat Walkable).
Click here for more information and the location of local resources.

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Everyone has read or heard of the problems in the housing market. But most of the news articles and commentary have focused solely on the single family home situation, whether townhouse or detached. The economic recession and foreclosures have created significant problems for condominium owners and buyers that have not been as widely publicized. So if you own a condo, or think you might like to, you should pay attention to these issues before you want to sell or buy.

Condominiums became popular as the price of owning a single family home grew, giving first-time buyers an option to become homeowners. Owning an apartment in a larger building, however, brings a secondary player into the process: the condominium association. The association is in charge of caring for the building itself, for the benefit of each individual unit owner. When a buyer goes to their bank to buy a condo, the bank not only has to approve the buyer for the loan, they also have to look at the condo association to make sure that its being well run, and is doing a good job of looking out for the property in which the bank will be investing the buyer’s mortgage.

For that reason, lenders and the Federal Housing Administration maintain lists of “approved” condominiums for which they will approve mortgage loans. The criteria for this approval are important, and should be examined by every condominium association Board of Directors and considered — along with their condo bylaws — as an important guideline for their operations. When your association falls off of these approved lists, it becomes much more difficult for your unit owners to sell their homes, which means prices fall and you have a group of unit owners who are not very pleased with your stewardship of their investments.

So, what are these criteria? Here are some of the items that can severely jeopardize your association’s ability to be approved:

• pending litigation against the condo association, or by the association against the builder/developer.
• 15% or more of the owners being delinquent on their condo fees, even by just one month.
• a high percentage of investor-owned units, or one entity owning more than 10% of the units.
The exact percentage varies, depending upon the type of loan or the lender, but in general terms
an association should keep a watchful eye on the number of investor-owners, and make sure that
the public record is correct as it classifies which units are owner-occupied and which ones are not.
• lack of a reserve fund equal to at least 10% of the annual budget.
• lack of necessary insurance coverage, both property and flood insurance.

If your condo association has issues with any one of these bullet points, it could mean that buyers will have a difficult time getting financing to move into your building, and that your current owners are unable to sell quickly and for the best value.

One other item for condo associations to consider: are your condo fees themselves becoming barriers to buyers? For instance, if a typical buyer interested in your building can afford a total monthly payment of $1,500 — including taxes, condo fees, insurance, principal and interest — they most likely can’t afford to purchase a unit and live in your building if the condo fee is $500 a month. Yet, I’ve seen the number of non-luxury condo buildings in the Baltimore area with condo fees far above $500 per month growing in number, squeezing out the buyers in need of financing that they rely upon to absorb units for sale. With those buyers no longer in the picture, your building now has to rely upon cash-rich buyers and investors as purchasers, prices have to fall to reduce the cost of financing, or the units may go unsold and your current owners move out and rent their property, becoming investor owners. If your condo association hasn’t submitted its subcontractor agreements or management contracts to competitive bidding in a few years, its time to do it. Saving money and lowering condo fees — while still maintaining and caring for the property — will be essential exercises for every condo trustee!

** Richard Pazornik of SunTrust Mortgage provided essential lender information for the writing of this article. He deserves my deepest thanks for sharing his expertise.

Nobody can tell you for sure what happens on May 1. No, that’s not the day on the Mayan calendar when the world is supposed to end. That’s still two years away, so you can relax (a little!) about that.

May 1 happens to be the day after the Federal tax credit expires for home purchases. As a Realtor, I’ve paid a great deal of attention to the various predictions — because its my livelihood — but it has great implications for the health of the financial sector, for the economy in general, and for how quickly the country can climb back out of the hole created by the Bush Administration and the Great Recession. Most pundits I’ve heard or listened to seem to think that the housing market will slow down again, but they seem to divide into two camps based on their reasons.

Borrowing Buyers

The first group of gloomy pundits advance the idea that because of the tax breaks, we’ve been borrowing buyers from the future; sucking them into the process sooner, rather than later, and so after April 30 we will have a vacuum of buyers for some length of time. This is the group of people who felt that the automobile program, “Cash for Clunkers,” would do exactly the same thing for the auto market — cause buyers to jump in before they were planning on it. Now, if you look at the recent auto sales and the current stock prices of Ford and GM, you’ll see that simply didn’t happen.

It won’t happen with the housing market, either. Homebuyers do not buy homes on a whim. Its a major investment and it can’t be rushed. This has been true especially because the IRS refused to bow to pressure to make the tax credit available to buyers at the settlement table. That meant the buyer had to have their own cash in hand, qualify for the financing to buy, pay all the normal expenses, and then wait for the tax rebate later. I can’t say that I know of anyone who suddenly decided to accelerate their homebuying schedule because of the government program. I believe the tax credit did coax out buyers who had been on the sidelines for the previous three years, watching home prices slide, and who then — like savvy investors — were poised to come out and land a bargain.

Unhappy Rabbits

The second group of gloomy pundits might be compared to Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve, when she surveys a room and asks, “Why do they all look like unhappy rabbits?” This group believe that homebuyers are skittish, and as soon as the tax credit disappears, they will all hop back to their rabbit holes and hide.

The latest economic data says otherwise. March consumer spending rose much more than expected, consumer confidence is rising, and the stock market exudes the robust energy that led Newsweek to declare on their cover that “America is Back.” Now, we still have major problems to overcome: unemployment needs to come down, a second wave of foreclosures needs to be effectively softened by Federal programs to help homeowners stay in their homes, and who knows what else might be lurking around the corner. However, I am already working with buyers who knew from the beginning that they would not be able to qualify for the tax credit, and they are buying on their schedule, not the government’s.

Pundits in the early 1990s predicted that the recession we were experiencing then would be long, and deep. They predicted that the entire decade would be swallowed up by slow economic growth and higher than normal unemployment. They were wrong, totally and completely, and the Nineties turned out to be one of the most prosperous decades in our history.

I have no reason to think that today’s pundits are any more qualified or accurate as fortune tellers. So, what can I do for you today?

Home buyers, especially first time buyers, need to break away from the confusion of the daily news cycle about real estate. Here’s a longer range view.

For a transcript of this podcast, please email me at .

Real estate news is saturating the business media lately, because so many people realize that the health of the real estate market is crucial to the nation’s economic recovery. The problem is the news can be confusing. One day you hear that foreclosure activity was down (which is good) but still much higher than one year ago (which is bad). The next day you hear that pending sales for last month were down (which is bad) but much better than one year ago (which is good). So, what do these confusing news reports do to your attitude if you are thinking about taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit and buying a home this spring? Are you choosing to focus on the good news or the bad news?

Well, here are four items that are not getting a lot of coverage. Taken together, these four facts should leave no doubt in your mind that this is possibly the best time to buy real estate in at least a generation.

1. Prices are down, and in many areas are still falling — although more slowly than last year. If you’re a buyer of real estate in this market, you are definitely seeing lots of inventory and you’re seeing it at lower prices than you are accustomed to. The fact that the rate of decline is slowing means we’re near or at the bottom, and in some areas prices are actually stabilizing and beginning to make very small advances. Generally speaking, your dollar buys you more house now than at any time in the last five years, and it might not get any better than this.

2. Interest rates are at historic lows. The cost of borrowing the money you need to buy your home is incredibly affordable right now. And the fact that we can actually say both of these things at the same time is itself historic. In the last fifty years we’ve had many periods of time where either prices were low or rates were low, but its nearly unheard of to be able to say both at the same time. So, not only does your dollar buy more house, the interest you’ll pay on that dollar is very cheap by historical standards.

So, we have these two incredible opportunities existing — three, counting the $8,000 tax credit available until the end of April. But, I hear you ask, “How can we be sure that this situation won’t go on for awhile?” That’s where the last two of my four facts come into play.

3. Interest rates won’t stay this low for long. Most economists agree that when the economy starts to gain real steam, fear of inflation and the national debt will force the Federal Reserve to increase its interest rates to banks, who will then pass that increase along to consumers. We could be looking at substantial increases over time, which will leave you kicking yourself for not acting while the cost of borrowing money was so low.

4. Statistics point to a potential housing shortage in a few years. There are a couple of things at work here. First, new home builders have cut way back on their building to “ride out” the recession. It will take awhile for them to get construction back underway and lay out and design new housing developments once they see buyers coming back to their model homes. Second, there is a new wave of homeowners beginning to search: the “echo boomers,” or the children of the Baby Boom generation. This generation is estimated to be 50% larger than the original Baby Boom itself, and they are now roughly in the 18-31 age range: prime first-time homebuying years. Basic supply and demand will rule the day: housing will be in short supply and prices will rise.

There you have four very good reasons to step back from the day to day news cycle and take a long view about home ownership. So, what can I do for you today?

I recently asked Richard Pazornik of SunTrust, one of my recommended loan officers, to sit down and walk through a Question and Answer session with me so that we could fully explain the new 2010 housing credit for homebuyers. As you probably know, the initial tax credit from 2008 was beefed up in mid 2009 when Congress increased the amount of the credit and stopped requiring that it be paid back over time. That program was supposed to expire at the end of November, 2009.  But last Fall, the housing and mortgage industries pushed to have the credit extended.  For a while, Congress seemed to be willing to let the credit expire, which would have had a devastating impact on the housing market which was struggling to stand up again.

Fortunately, Congress and the President were eventually persuaded that extending the credit was in the best interest of the economic recovery.

W: So would you go over how the tax credit works?

R: For first-time homebuyers, which means someone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years, you’ll get that same $8,000 tax credit if you sign a contract to buy a home before midnight April 30th, 2010 and you have to go to settlement before midnight June 30th, 2010.  Hopefully, we will be very busy those two days!

The new Tax Credit also sets a maximum income at $125,000 for a single person and $225,000 for a married couple.  Above those limits, the credit is phased out.

W: Now, Congress has expanded the credit to “move-up” buyers. What does that mean?

R: A “move up” buyer can now get a tax credit of $6,500, if they’ve lived in their home continuously for 5 of the last 8 years as their primary residence.
The same income limits and phase outs apply to move up buyers as applied to first-time homebuyers.

W: Can someone buy any house on the market?

R: They can buy any house as their primary home so long as it’s priced less than $800,000.  So here in Baltimore, this covers about 96% or more of all the homes listed in the Multiple Listing Service.

The government sweetened the deal by allowing taxpayers to go back and amend their prior year tax returns to claim the tax credit quicker and if your above the income limits in 2010, go back an look at your 2009 income, you might be better off!

W: What’s the difference between a Tax Credit and a Tax Deduction?

R: Well, a tax credit is a lot better than a tax deduction.  A credit is a dollar for dollar reduction of your tax bill and a tax deduction only saves you a portion of the amount based upon your actual tax rate.  Now, I wouldn’t turn either down, but I’d much rather have an $8,000 tax credit than an $8,000 tax deduction.  And here’s why, if you’re in a 20% tax bracket an $8,000 deduction would save you $1,600 in taxes but the $8,000 tax credit actually saves you $8,000 in taxes.   That’s why this credit is so good! But, there’s a warning I need to give.  If you sell the house within three years then you must repay the $8,000.

W: So, let’s say I’m a regular wage-earner who has taxes deducted from my pay. How would this tax credit work?

R: It means your tax bill is actually decreased by $8,000.  So for example, if you had $5,000 deducted from your salary for your Federal Income taxes and your tax bill computed to be $2,000, normally, you would’ve received a refund of $3,000.  But, if you sign a contract to buy a house before April 30, 2010 and it settles before June 30, 2010, when you file your taxes in April of 2011, you’ll not only receive the refund of $3,000, but you’ll also get an additional tax credit of $8,000 making your total refund $11,000.

W: That’s a nice piece of change! So what is your overall impression of this new program?

R: Overall, I’m thrilled that the Homebuyer Tax Credit was extended and expanded and here are the 3 keys to remember;

• Income, $125k single, or  $225k couple
• Home Price, $800000 or less, and
• Contract, signed by April 30, 2010 for settlement by June 30, 2010.

While the market has been flooded with good news in the last few weeks, an end of the year reflection still shows we have lots of work to do in the new year.

For a transcript of this podcast, please email me at .