Jim Henry - Blog

Want And Easy Way To Check on Fall Colors? WI has an App for that...

jim.henry@results.net — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Here I thought I was the only one who enjoyed those brilliant fall colors, but according to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism travelers spent nearly $3 Billion dollars during last year's autumn season, so I'm not alone, they just take a driving trip up north to take it all in and I simply go climb in a tree stand in the woods.

In fact, the fall colors are so polular, Wisconsin has created "an App for that" so you don't have to risk missing any opportunity to wonder at the amazing show of fall colors. While you're at it, the App and websites also offer local attractions that you can take in while in an area at peak color, with it's fall color report.

If all that isn't enough to satisfy your curiosity, you can also see available homes or cabins for sale by going to my mobile web site and click on "Search Properties," then turn on the "Search Nearby," click Search again and "voila" you'll be seeing properties for sale near your location via the GPS in your smart phone.

Enjoy playing with these Apps and drive safe. :-)

RE/MAX Ranked The Highest in J.D. Power Survey

jim.henry@results.net — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

"Every day, nearly 90,000 RE/MAX agents head to work hoping to make a difference for families whether you're buying your first home or looking to move up. We all know the housing market has been a challenge, but here at RE/MAX we've been working hard to help you meet it head on."

This is a message from RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly to consumers in a new YouTube video you can use about the J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction awards.

I'd like to also thank the many friends, clients and customers who've supported me over the years and ask for your continued support going forward.

Buy a Home on Your Phone???

jim.henry@results.net — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Remember the good old days, when you'd drive thru neighborhood after neighborhood looking for homes that were for sale, and once you spotted a sign, you'd run up to the brochure box on the sign to grab a flyer to see how much they were asking, only to find the brochure box was empty!!! Well, we've come a long way baby.

The use of smartphones has grown exponentially over the past couple years, and with it, their increased ability to provide countless applications. When searching for a home, there's applications ranging from mortgage calculators to apps that let you search homes for sale. Taking that computing power in the palm of your hands and intergrating it with the phones GPS system and the available property databases and you have a killer app that puts your home search on steroids.

Whether you have a iPhone, Android or Blackerry, "there's an app for that." A great app offered by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com provides essentially every property listed for sale in the U.S. and is in a very easy to use format. There's also apps offered by 3rd party companies like Trulia and Zillow, which are also great apps, but may not include all listings, since they only post the ones agents or sellers post to their sites.

The cool this about these apps is, that by activating the GPS on you phone with the application, it uses you location and finds the properties for sale nearest to you and provides a map with pins showing where the properties are located for sale, and once you click on them, you get all the info on it and can even have it give you directions to the home. It's so cool and super easy to use.

Of course most would think that this is stricktly geared towards home buyers, but wait a second, many of the apps also offer sold comps from the last 6 to 12 months, so as a home seller, you could do your very own market analysis from your kitchen table. Pretty cool, huh?

Now if you're concerned about using up storage space on you phone with an app, try my mobile website that accomplishes the sames funcionality, without taking up precious storage space on you phone. With this site, you can search homes for sale and recently sold within the Twin Cities and Western Wisconsin Region. Click here for a quick tip sheet.

Although very fun to play around with, these apps are very usefull and can save you a ton of time and money vs. driving around looking for For Sale signs.

Seller's Guilty of Overpricing? More likely to base asking price on their purchase price than current market value.

jim.henry@results.net — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Probably the most difficult thing I have to do in my business is to tell a homeowner that their property isn't worth what they think it is, and in today's market, I'm having to do that a lot. Most sellers either have not paid close enough attention to the market the past few years or they're in denial and don't want to believe they're included with what's going on in the current real estate market. I often hear; "yeah, I've heard the market's down, but my home has..."

Proof that this is a common phenomenon can be found in a recent Zillow Report that seller's nationally who purchased their home after 2007 have priced their homes 14.1% over market value, those who purchased prior to 2002 priced theirs 11.6% over market value and those who purchased between 2002 and 2006 priced theirs 9.3% over market value.

"Post-bubble buyers seem to believe they escaped the worst of the housing recession, as evidenced by how they price their homes today," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. "But 2006 was just the beginning of the housing recession, and it is continuing in earnest to this day. That means that even people who bought after the bubble burst need to break out the pencil and paper and do serious research into what has happened in their market since they first bought their home, whether it was four years ago or six months ago.

Locally, I've seen where sellers do much the same, which can be evidenced by statistics from the NorthStar MLS for the Hudson area (June 1, 2010 - May 31, 2011) that shows that sellers have had to reduce their asking price an average of 7.5% from original asking price to get in a range to receive an offer from a buyer and then negotiate an average of another 4.4% down from there to put a sale together.

Sellers would be best served to heed the advice of their Realtor and price their property "closer to the true market value" right from the start. By doing this, we're seeing that buyers are informed enough about the property values, that they'll know a good value when they see it and act on it.