Chris & Stephanie Somers's Discussions

In watching The Dave Ramsey show the other night, he mentioned that this is the best time to purchase a home in the last 24 years - the caller that called in was 24 years old.  If ones goal is a 5 year plan this is a great opportunity for a buyer - there are many houses to choose from, a great opportunity to negotiate not only a great deal, but repairs prior to settlement as well.  Obviously, there are a lot of opinions out there, but the ones advising against it I am not sure what they are basing their opinions on other than what they hear on the news.  The fact of the matter is is through home ownership is one of the best ways to accumlate wealth over the years. Your situation is ideal as you have a very affordable mortgage payment and someone to help you pay the mortgage as well !  That is beautiful.  Congrats on your strategy.  I think 3 to 5 years from now, those potential buyers that were too scared to buy will regret their decision. For more helpful hints, visit our website and blog below: [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

Philadelphia is a great place to live and work !  Obviously now the city is abuzz with energy with the Phillies !  My wife and I live in Northern Liberties and love it.  They are so many great places that we can walk to such as restaurants, coffee shops and boutique stores.   There are a lot of great neighborhoods.  Unfortunately, every area will still have its crime incidents.  I would inquire with your sister and friends in terms of what area they like best. If you are thinking of purchasing, having a strong buyers agent will help you find the neighborhood you are looking for depending on your goals, price range and so forth.  Further, the Philadelphia real estate market has been resilient and strong in comparison to what is going on nationally.  Northern Liberties was just ranked in Business Week as one of the top 15 neighborhood to purchase in the United States !  If you like the riverfront area, other options would be Pennsport, Queen Village, Society Hill, Old City, Northern Liberties, Old Kensington and Fishtown. [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

The local banks in Philadelphia that I would reach out to would include Hyperion Bank, Beneficial, 3rd Federal Bank, and perhaps Earthstar Bank and Tioga Savings. You will have the most success with the local banks.  I would also try Wells Fargo and look into their 203K program.  I have a number of people I work with at all of these banks I can refer you too.  The other option would be to try a mortgage broker to search for the construction loans as well.  Obviously, the standards and the guidelines for these types of loans are much more tighter now than they used to be (understatement of the day : )  ) . [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

Your question is 2 fold I presume:  whether to do a short sale and if you can cancel your contract with the realtor ?  If you are uncomfortable about the process of have changed your mind regarding selling your property, you can reach out to the realtor you met with and ask not to move foward.  Sometimes the more successful realtors will not try to strangle-hold you into a contract as they are busy and are looking foward to helping the clients that want and value their services.  At least that is our approach...    As far as the short sale, we just had a settlement this week that was a short sale and have several others that are under contract and others that we are currently marketing.  If this is the direction you are going, it is imperative and critical that you work with a realtor who is an expert with short sales.  I have written many blog entries on the subject. Good luck with your situation [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

I guess the question is what are your goals in selling this property.  If you just need to get rid of it, well then it has to priced very aggressively for another investor to purchase the property - as prior posters said, the investors will just look at the potential cash flow of the property.  Further, investors have many many properties to choose from now so their offers will end up being low as they are looking for a deal.  Lastly, it is hard to get financing for investment properties now as well so that shrinks your buyer pool even more. If you need to get fair market value for the property, I would recommend selling it after the tenant moves out - that way the property can be marketed to a homeowner.   Good luck with it ! [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

I think the motto is perserverance.  Keep tryiing.  The good news is I am sure that you will have many other opportunties in the near term.  These properties are obviously in demand.  For a property we recently purchased, we were competing with 5 other offers - ours was the winning bid as we offered $1,500 more than the listing price.  The big picture is that we also got the property approximately $30,000 below market !!!!  So I would not always look at just the listing price but more so what the other properties recently sold for.  For a super deal do not be afraid to offer more than the listing price... Of course, you must know the market inside and out to do that and I would recommend having a strong buyers agent to help in that capacity. The other example I give sometimes is that one may get a property $50K to $100K below the listing price which sounds great but what if that price is still above what the others have sold for ?  Thus... it is an illusion of a deal, but not a good deal at all ! [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

These types of companies offer limited services and typically work better in sellers markets where it is much easier to get a house sold... in these markets, it is common to have multiple offers, home inspections are waived, appraisals are coming in fine, etc... In challenging markets where the inventory is so massive, contracts are tricky and appraisals are tight it is that much more important to get a house sold AND to settlement to have an experienced listing agent price and market the property, navigate through the contract (inepsection, appraisal...etc).  Things are much more trickier now - the discount MLS services do not provide the extra services for marketing and consultation.  Thus, unless one is a super expereinced seller with a real estate background, in this market, I would recommend going with a full service brokerage firm.  [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

Tiffany said it well.  If ones time frame is 3 or 5 years or greater, than all this talk about the best or the worst itme is irrelevant.  What is also important is ones quality of life and personal goals.  The other option would be to pay rent for 5 years and have no equity built, no tax deductions, no $7,500 first time homebuyer credit and perhaps quality of life much less in a smaller apartment somewhere ? I have personally purchased several investment properties in Philadelphia in the last year which were teriffic opportunties.  Properties are now rented out and am generating positve cash flow each month.   Now homeownership is not for everyone such as the case with klarek the realist.  If one truly believes the sky is falling and home ownership is the worst investment in the world, than by all means, invest somewhere else and wait until the "time is right".  Unfortunately, by that time, prices will probably already will be going higher, there will be less properties to choose from, sellers will be less likely to do repairs and so forth.  Another important note is obviously know the local market.  Our Philadelphia market is much different than Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona and the like... [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

I have read in many parts of California, the bank owned properties, short sales and the like are receiving multiple offers and are beginning to sell quickly.  It will be the savvy investor and potential homebuyer that will stabliize the market and take advantage of these deals. It is impossible to determine what will happen in the next year or two, but the big picture is the opportunity is great.  I would consult with a strong buyers agent to help in regard to this process.  There are great deals to be had and the better deal you get the more of a foundation you have is things continue to dip a little bit.  A lot of it will be a case by case basis and your choices for your quality of life. My wife and I continue to purchase properties as investments and are very busy in our Philadelphia Market place.  If your time horizon is at least a couple of years, you might be in a position to make the best investment in your lifetime.   Cash is king and is now going to work in both the real estate market and the financial markets as well.  [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]

Believe it or not, some flips are still going on - obviously just not as many. Savvy investors know that their money is made when they purchased, not when they sale. So if an investor gets a super good deal substantially below market, he/she can still flip it for a profit, sometimes without doing any rennovations other than just clean it out !  We have helped several investors do this strategy in Philadelphia in the last year.  Others are still assigning properties as well. Obviously the day of purchasing a property, doing an average rehab and reselling is basically over.  In most of these cases, investors overpaid for the property, overimproved the property or had faulty expectations of their out number. Either way, do not kid yourself, there are still opportunites to be had ! [content removed by moderator for being self promotional]