Orin Sherman MBA's Discussions

I think a lot has to do with location at this point.  Here in Hawaii you see areas that have stabilized because they dropped in value so quickly and reached the bottom faster.  On the other end of the spectrum you have homes along the coast that are selling for Millions still because demand for oceanfront does not subside as much.  So again, location, location, location.  We all hear it and it appears to be the same in Alabama.  Congratulations.

To be brutally honest, there are agents in the business to help people.  Clients come to agents in search of homes in all types of price ranges, so your home could be a perfect match to someone looking and a broker's job is to match that person with your home.  It is a great feeling to match homes up with buyers which is why many of us are Realtors.  So you may want to talk to some at least to get an idea.  If you don't find a good real estate agent, you can always sell the home yourself.  Get some friends together, fix up the place, have some beers and do a FSBO.

I second the roof.  I had an incident where there were actual plants growing out of the roof from poor workmanship that left a pocket for junk to collect.  In Hawaii you will also want to check for Hurricane straps as well.

I think it is great to have an impartial third party inspector that knows what to look for.  On the other side of the coin, the buyer and seller had be ready to work things out when surprise, something is discovered. 

you can try www.realtyuniversal.com and they do a FSBO and 1% program that helps give the support you need without the cost.

Yes, but be sure to negotiate some padding.

Not to mention some local taxes as in Hawaii, we have HARPTA.

Takes a village to pay for irresponsibility.  Sarcasm aside, it is a bad idea to prop up values artificially by not allowing these homes to go on the market and increase supply and lowering prices.  Now, things will wane for months or years to come.

Staying alive would be good.  North Korea has a .00001% chance of popping a nuke of here in Hawaii for July 4th but the fact they are trying is disheartening.  After that, more community work, suring up a Health Information Exchange system for the state.  Then transacting over 1M in real estate sales would be a nice bonus.

Having read Melody91's comments I think it is fair to say those financially able should be "looking" to buy.  Some areas of Hawaii still have a lot buyers actively purchasing homes at specific pricing points, in fact so much so, that clients of mine are looking to pay more than the market which is a positive sign.  However, that is only because some areas dropped like a lead weight and hit bottom, then once the supply was gobbled up, there is no longer sufficient supply.  So buyers are having to pay more or wait and still compete against 10 other buyers when a home hits the market.  So it is a good time to buy and there are a lot of buyers that know that and so you can expect to bid in hot market areas.