Jul

8

Deer Park Real Estate: Market Update

Filed Under Buyers, Deer Park Real Estate, Sellers, Sellers & Buyers | Leave a Comment

I am starting a monthly article about the Deer Park, New York area, featuring the real estate market. I will be posting it monthly and each month will feature an update on the housing market in Deer Park, New York.

According to the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island as of July 8, 2008:

1. 215 = The amount of homes available for sale in Deer Park (11729)

2. 14 = The amount of Closings for the month of June, 2008 in Deer Park.

3. 15.3 = The amount of months of inventory there is in Deer Park - this is also referred to the “absorption rate” which indicates the saturation of inventory in a given area. The absorption rate simply implies that if in the hamlet of Deer Park, if no other homes came on the market for sale, it would take 15 months to sell off the entire inventory of homes currently available.

This is significant analysis of the area. Keeping things simple always works for me, so with that, I only want to add one fact here - interest rates. This month and the coming months we will most like find an increase in mortgage interest rates. Sources such as Yahoo Finance and Goldman Sachs indicate that mortgage rates may rise to 7% by Labor Day, 2008. The trend is definitely up.

What this means to Sellers
Simple - get your house on the market if you need to sell. Now “need” is a relative term. If you’re trading your twilight years for a few thousand dollars of lost equity…okay - it’s not just a “few thousand dollars”, but even if it’s $40,000 - I’ll say this - you don’t take it with you when you leave this world! If you’re faced with a life-style situation whereby you could benefit spiritually, psychologically, emotionally and ultimately financially then the trade off of giving up lost equity may be a prudent choice.

I am simply saying, as objectively as I can to every seller in Deer Park, West Babylon, Babylon, Patchogue, Lynbrook, Remsenberg, Miller Place, Bellport, Massapequa, where ever - if you “need” to sell, get your home on the market, price it aggressively and please interview several agents and don’t just go with the lowest priced commission or the agent who says they can sell your house for whatever you want.

Why now?
Because the market is not going to just “pick back up” in a year. This is the real estate market, not the stock market. See the many articles on my site that speak to this end. And to simply put it, selling now, while not the best time, will net you more money than this time next year or the year after that, or the year after that (most likely). I tend to listen to the experts on this one. I don’t pretend to have a crystal ball, but I can tell you that all the data suggests that once we level off, it will be a slow and steady rise back to normal market conditions.

What this means for Buyers
Please click here and read. I’ve written enough on this subject that it’s easy to find a ton of information regarding the reason it’s a good time to buy now.

As always, I’m a phone call away - for a free market analysis that’s comprehensive and complete, call 1-877-SOLD-123, ext. 51.

(c) Copyright 2008, www.tommcgiveron.com

By Thomas McGiveron

Apr

1

The Real Estate Market: Cutting Prices

Filed Under Deer Park Real Estate, Sellers | 1 Comment

So as a real estate agent, when I go to peoples homes and discuss the market, I get the feeling that the homeowner(s) either doesn’t understand what I’m saying or they just don’t believe me because I’m a lying salesman. The funny thing is, I’m not a car salesman. These aren’t cars I’m selling off of a lot. I’m a real estate professional who has all the numbers, both locally and nationally and my lot is the neighbhorhood.

I have to price homes according to what the market is calling for. The market is made up of buyers. I’m not buying your home and it’s not 2004. The message to most of my homeowners who are hiring me to sell their home is the following:

“If you have to sell, cut your prices aggressively now.”

And that’s a quote from Business Week, February, 2008!

There’s a big problem in the market right now and I see it constantly. Many real estate agents are taking listings that are just blatantly over priced. And some more than $60,000. This is bad for business. Let me explain.

As a real estate agent, I am not going to show a home that is over priced. Why? Think about this. I’m the real estate agent and I would show any prospective buyer anything they want to see. Let me repeat that - I’ll show any prospective buyer anything they want to see. And there you have it. I don’t set the market value, buyers do and they know what they want to pay, period.

When other agents over price a home that bad, it does the neighbhorhood no good, because it indicates to their neighbors the wrong information (i.e. “Well if their house is priced at X, then my house has got to be worth XXXXX.”) Homeowners price their home as high as they can, as they should. However, seeing a neighbor hit the market at a certain price, may give them a totally warped sense of the value of their home.

Owners who attempt to sell their own home, usually get their information from 2 or 3 houses in the area. Their data is 6 months old and they just slap a price on it. Now as a homeowner, that’s fine. Most likely, they’ll get hundreds of calls from real estate agents and after a month or two, will list with an agent, hopefully with me (and thus at a good price).

The bottom line is, we as real estate agents and brokers, need to price our inventory correctly. We need to stop taking listings that are over priced. Currently, I have a listing that is over priced - oddly enough. However, the situation is a little different. The owner is of an ethnicity that is very proud and stubborn and they do not speak english so their daughter translates. The owner is in a position where if he sells, “It’s okay.” If he doesn’t sell, “I rental.”

So we priced it about $35,000 over what the data told me was market value. Now, 2 months later, we’re dropping the price to where we should have been 2 months ago. So we’re “chasing the market.” You do not want to be in this position as a homeowner. It’s no good.

How do we not “chase the market”? Simple, we cut prices now. Right now. Real estate agents stop taking listings too high and then say to other agents, “Hey, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.” Honestly, that’s what an agent just recently said to me when I went to an open house. It was a house in West Babylon that I had an appointment with in February and I priced the home at $379,000. I sat with the owner, followed up with them and gave them all the information they could possibly want. I told her how Coldwell Banker far surpasses all the competition and how I, as an agent, am full-time and provide the best services possible.

Well another agent came in and priced the house at…whatever the homeowner wanted which ended up being $425,000. That’s $46,000 more than my highest price. You see, I gave the owner two options and told her that the highest price she could go was $379,000 and that most likely, a better price would be $365,000 for a quick sale (30 to 60 days).

Unfortunately for the owner in this situation, they chose very poorly and will not sell their home. They will expire six months from now and the day they do, I’ll be knocking on their door. I will not show this house because - no buyers will want to see it because buyers know the prices and the buyers will not want to see it because…it’s over priced. Buyers already know this - I don’t need to tell them.

So cutting prices now is the answer. If you are a homeowner who wants to sell because they need to sell, you must cut your prices now. Call your agent and tell them you want to reduce your price now. With competition high (lots of houses on the market), supply is high and when that’s mixed with a low demand (not as many buyers out there willing to pull the trigger), you must adjust prices downward. It’s simple (and very tough) economics.

I’m not into being the bearer of bad news for people. I don’t like it. And I will fight for every penny I put into a homeowners pocket. Don’t forget, the more they make, the more I make. Everytime I have to lower a price, I make less money…on all my listings. Because when I lower one homes price, I have to go and lower all the rest, or at least try.

If you want a free comprehensive value assessment of your home, please call me at 631.587.1700, ext. 51.

(c) Copyright www.tommcgiveron.com

By Tom McGiveron

Feb

13

Google: Foreclosures Deer Park, NY

Filed Under Deer Park Real Estate, Mortgage Matters, Sellers, Sellers & Buyers | 2 Comments

Shocked! That is the feeling I got when I simply typed in the words, “foreclosures deer park, ny” into google.com, the most popular search engine on the internet. Streets like W 22nd street (where I have a listing now), W 15th street, Glenda Drive, W 18th Street, and many more popped up. They came up as a “lis penden”, which is the initial document filed by an attorney or trustee on behalf of the foreclosing lender that starts the foreclosure process. Scary!

The other scary thing was…there was a total of 92 homes on the list. That’s 92 property owners that are in some kind of trouble with their mortgage payment. Whether you live in Deer Park, NY or not, this should be sending chills down your spine. Oh wait, you live in West Islip, NY? Try 39 homes involved in the foreclosure process. Oh you live in Babylon, NY? 18 Homes. Oh you live out east. Okay. Hampton Bays perhaps? There are 34 homes involved in some type of foreclosure process. In Mastic, NY, there are over 335 properties involved in foreclosure proceedings.

These numbers are scary. To think that in Deer Park and West Islip, there are over 120 homes in financial trouble to the point where they may become a bank owned property, thus decreasing the value of surrounding homes by more than 50% is staggering. Here is a list of some other Towns throughout Long Island that I randomly looked up:

Let’s tally all of these numbers up including Deer Park, West Islip, Babylon, Mastic, and Hampton Bays. The number is 915. Nearly 1000 homeowners in 15 Long Island towns are facing the threat of having their home foreclosed on. Now there is a good chance that most of these homes will make it through a tough time and not face the legal proceedings of being removed from their home. However, if 2 in 10 do, that’s almost 200 properties that will be vacant and destroyed. Probably a majority of these homes will be families, not investors making poor investments. That’s a lot of families in trouble. And this is only 15 towns on Long Island.

If you or someone you know needs to sell their home or is having difficulty keeping their home, call me. I will evaluate how I can help with the situation as a real estate agent. If I cannot, I can certainly help by providing people with information and contacts that can help.

(c) Copyright 2008, www.tommcgiveron.com

by Tom McGiveron

Nov

14

Deer Park Real Estate

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Founded in 1666, by Jacob Conklin, an English settler, Deer Park was originally named for its large deer population (go figure). Deer Park remained unsettled mainly until after the Revolutionary War, when a General Casey developed “Colonial Village”, which is now home to Our Lady of the Rosary Knights of Columbus.

From farming to industry, like most towns across America, Deer Park underwent a transformation in the latter part of the 1800’s. Many famous people have either grown up in Deer Park or made it a place to visit and make home. They include President John Quincy Adams who made Deer Park his favorite vacation spot from 1835 until his pasing in 1848.

With a current population estimated around 29,000 people, the town makes up about 2% of suffolk county’s population. The average asking price of a single family residence (as of today) is $422,500, a decrease of about 3% as compared to this time last year. There are currently 208 houses for sale on the Multiple Listing Service in Deer Park, New York.