I don’t really post here anymore. I now have a self hosted Word Press blog at Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk.

I also blog on Activerain, a network of Realtors, Lenders, Stagers.

Ann Arbor Undressed is where you can also find good information on Ann Arbor.

So visit me at any of these other blogs, to get the latest scoop, market reports and things happening around Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan.

This is a site you will love to search homes from with Google Maps, Google Satellite Images and multiple photos.

Search Ann Arbor Houses

We guarantee your privacy and respect that at this point all you may be wanting to do is to check out our area. When you are ready to look seriously, we want to ask you to keep us in mine. The Missy Caulk TEAM, has four Buyer Agents to help you in a professional way.

  The Ann Arbor, MI market is is fluctuation. It is changing almost daily.

Pricing a home right is THE MOST important thing I do.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, buyers don’t care what you “need” to sell.

Mr. and Mrs.Seller, It is not wise to “test the market for a month.”

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, Yes, they can just “make and offer” but they won’t.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, The buyer is looking at all the homes in the price range you have priced the home in. Your home just does not compare in that price range.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, Your home is helping to sell the other homes listed in your price range, because it looks like they are getting a good value on the other ones.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, All the marketing of your home will still not sell an over-priced home.

Mr.and Mrs. Seller, get it right the first time.

A Comparative Market Analysis is only what a house is worth in a certain location, in a certain condition and at a given point in time, within a 30-90 day time period. In the Ann Arbor, Michigan market homes need to be re-evaluated every 30 days. Your realtor should stay on top of what is listed, what has sold and what has been reduced. A market value is always changing so you must change with it and price accordingly.

My website offers lots of great tips for selling your home.

Search other homes and see on-line how your house stacks up to the competition. Look at location, size and ammenities. Be brutely honest with yourself. Put on your buyers hat. Would you buy your house or another one?

Listen to your realtor who sells hundreds of homes, who see’s the competiton, and sells homes every day and lives and breathes the market.

What?

People that live in residential communities are usually governed by HOA (Home Owner Association) rules and regulations. In Michigan, on our Purchase Agreements Realtors check the box that the buyer will review the HOA Documents, or their attorney will review the association documents within so many days.

Not a problem, it is a standard business practice here. People want to know what the rules and covenants are prior to proceeding with the purchase of a new home. Can I have a pool? Does it have to be in the ground or can it be above the ground? How many pets can I have? If I want to add a garage, can I? Who approves any design changes? Etc…

In most of the nicer subdivisions you have to get permission from the board for any improvements.  My experience in my own subdivision is the people who run for the board, have no pets and no kids. They take it upon themselves to police the neighborhood. Why don’t they go volunteer at a non-profit if they have so much time on their hands ?

Tonight I had a call from one of the board member in Hunters Ridge Subdivision. It was ironic as I was going to be writing a post on HOA anyway. She called to ask, “What is the ramp in your front yard?”

So I told her about Allyssa and that is was temporary. I said do you really think I would have put up a ramp like THAT, if it was really not necessary? She was very nice about it, but give me a break! I’m not that stupid. Maybe I should have mentioned the Handicapped and Disability Act, and that it is a protected class in Michigan. I asked her if anyone had complained and she said one person had called her to ask about it. But, our annual meeting is coming up in September and she wanted to be prepared to answer if it came up again.

Several years ago, one of my neighbors was going to use brick pavers in their drive-way and they were at the end of their drive-way too long. So they slapped a big lien on their house. I also had a neighbor that her husband was with Ford. He was transferred shortly after they built their house for a year. They had a friend living there to take care of the place. He moved out about a week before they returned and the HOA had a lien on their house, because the grass was too long. Welcome Home Neighbors!

I know rules and regulations are good, they keep people from putting farm animals and trailers on the property. We all want our neighborhoods to look good. But, give me a break.

HOA rules are only as good and as gracious as the people who enforce them. See what I mean by a love-hate relationship?

I bought a condo for my two sons, a couple of years ago in TN. I kept asking my realtor for the Association By-laws, and she said I would get them at closing. Had a read them I would not have bought the condo. Two sons, who like to play guitar and sing at night. Needless to say, I sold the place after a year. Too many letters telling me they were too loud. No electric equipment, just acoustic guitars and in Nashville!

Last year I had a client from Maryland. She asks me to please not show her houses in a neighborhood where the neighbors were nit-picky. Now how do you deal with that?

What is your experiences been with HOA?

Case in point, I closed on a home purchased my Pfizer employees for 512,000 in Sept 2006, and my buyers were able to get the home for 425,000.

The average list price for July, for all the homes in Washtenaw County was $270,870, up 1% from July of 2006. This includes data for Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, Whitmore Lake and Ypsilanti, MI. More great news !!

The average sales price for homes in Washtenaw County was $264,404. in July. That is up over 1.5% compared to July 2006. More great news !!

This last chart is the number of listings to sales. We added another 2.95 months to the inventory. However, at this point this data does not weed out the re-listings for a new MLS number or the sellers changing agents.

So although not a glowing report, an improving report. I’ve got my fingers crossed. We can not control the market, but we can and must work in it.

Market data compiled from the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors data, and the hard work of Big House Data, LLC.

To search for all homes in Washtenaw County, this is the best site. NOW is a great time to buy, who knows with the fallout our of sub-prime lending and stated loans what is going to happen. So take advantage of the current market conditions.

It was HOT !

We lost our air conditioner, 2 TV’s, the refrigerator, microwave, my new 8 day old washing machine, Select Comfort air pump, Bose Speakers, my Dell power source, CD’ counter mount player, water cooler, electric garage door opener, H2O heater and shall I go on ?????????

What a big hassle. Since, I had to replace so many items, we decided to “go green” where possible. Making a home more energy efficient can’t take place over-night but in shopping for a refrigerator we bought one with the “Energy Star”. The U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency suggests replacing appliances over 10 years old with the “Energy Star” logo and using 10 to 50% less energy.

The Dept.of Energy also has raised the standard on air conditioners, so we increased from 10 seers to the mandated requirement of 13 seers. (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) This change of raising the SEER represents a savings of 30 % energy during normal annual usage period. I’m sure it is shorter in Michigan than in many Southern States.

 Having just bought a new washer and only having it for 8 days, we had already bought one with the “Energy Star”. We are now using only 18-24 gallons of water per wash instead of the older model of 40 gallons. Living on a septic system, we will be also prolonging the life of the septic field.

A few other ways to save energy is to replace all your light bulbs, putting an aerator on all household faucets, ( which cuts water consumption by 50% ) installing low-flow toilet to save up to 2.5 gallons per flush.

Granted………this was a big hassle and we are still negotiating with our insurance company on the settlement. I found out through all this that if we had a H 15 rider on our insurance policy this would have covered everything even the T.V.’s, CD players, 2 line phones that will not be covered. Thanks for telling me AFTER the fact. Did you all know about this ?

We are also having a whole house power surge protector installed on our electrical box to hopefully prevent this in the future.

So in the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, we are doing what we can to take the opportunity to make our house more energy efficient.

P.S. Did I mention my 13 year old freezer that I paid 75.00 for in a garage sale in fine ? (Plugged into the same outlet as my new garage door opener.) Go figure………

This post is inspired by Jeff Turners post on Like A Dark Cloud, When Comments Get Ugly and Personal. That post has been rumbling around in my mind all day. So I was thinking………..

I use Google Alerts to keep up with what is being said About Ann Arbor Real Estate, Saline Real Estate, Missy Caulk, Blogs about Ann Arbor and other topics on the World Wide Web I want to be aware of.

Here is how it works:

1) Go to Google and sign up for an account if you don’t have one.

2) You will have a menu of The Services you can subscribe to. For instance: Google analytics, Google calendar,  Google base, Google adwords,  Gmail,  and Google alerts to name a few.

3) Click on the Alerts logo and start to add anyting on the web you want to be alerted to, especially do your own name so you can see when anyone mentions you. The alert will come straight into your email.

In this exponential growth in blogging, it is good to see when you are mentioned or the cities we work in are mentioned.

Here is an example of a few of the Alerts I have received:

Tech Savy Realtors
By Missy Caulk GRI, e-PRO (RE/MAX Platinum)(Missy Caulk GRI, e-PRO (RE/MAX Platinum))
I was walking through Walmart a few years ago and I overheard this girl talking to her mom, in a Southern accent, “I’m gonna get me a real estate license”. You can get it for 240.00″. I died laughing (to myself of course). …
Ann Arbor and Saline Michigan… – http://activerain.com/blogs/missycaulk

Saline Farmers Market Opens Saturday
By Missy(Missy)
A master gardener from Michigan State will also be on hand to answer any questions about gardening. Spend a little time visiting all the merchants in Charming Saline, MI. ann arbor, real estate, university of Michigan, houses for sale, …
Ann Arbor and Surrounding Area… – http://ann-arbor-real-estate.blogspot.com/

Even when other people blog about you, it will get picked up.

Ann Arbor Michigan Real Estate Expert
By Thesa Chambers, REALTOR®, Sunriver, OR…(Thesa Chambers, REALTOR®, Sunriver, OR…)
Missy Caulk is the real estate expert for the Ann Arbor, Saline, and Ypsilanti Michigan areas. Missy’s web page actually talks to you. She offers professional services for the buyer and seller alike. …
Central Oregon Real Estate Information – http://activerain.com/blogs/thesa

Just about everything I post I get an Alert on ( even Localism ) so I know Google is picking it up. This was a post written by Thesa Chambers of Activerain.

Any listings you post will also be picked up.

ALERT me so I know how it works out for you. I love this feature of Google.

Washtenaw County which includes Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, Manchester, Ypsilanti, and Ypsilanti Township is experiencing 17 months of inventory. The 17 months is determined  by the number of houses sold and the number of active listings on the market and how long it will take those houses to sell.

The homes moving the fastest are those homes priced between 100,000 and 199,000. There is only 11 months of inventory for those homes, which bids well for the First Time Home Buyers wanting to move into Washtenaw County. Lincoln Schools which is in Ypsilanti Township has the lowest inventory with Manchester having the most at 48 months.

The slowest market is the million dollar market with 75 months of inventory. Pfizer post buy-out homes are selling well and the buyers able to pick up those homes are getting tremendous values. They are beating out the competition in just about every sub. The long term effects of this for values across Washtenaw County is unknown at this time, but in a few months appraisers will be using those homes to justify sale prices throughout the county.