Chance Gates' Blog

Market Report Commentary

Summary
– “November sales are up 22% over last year and year-to-date unit sales have exceeded 2010 by 10%,” said Kevin Sigstad,
2011 president-elect of the Reno/Sparks Association of REALTORS and a REALTOR with Re/Max Premier Properties. “We have also seen relative stable prices for the past seven months. These are positive indicators for the residential housing market.”

Median Sales Price
– November 2011 median price was up less than 1% to $149,506 compared to $149,000 in October 2011.
– Median price is defined as the mid-point, where, for the time period identified, the price for one-half of the sales are higher and
one-half are lower.

Price per Square Foot Solds
– Price per square foot is at $88.30.
– Price per square foot by area groups, as provided in the Detailed Report, is a good way to compare similar homes for current
value.

Number of Units Sold
– November ended the month with 488 sold transactions, down 1% from the prior month.
– Sales are up 22.3% from the same period last year. November 2011 is the second month of comparing year-over-year figures
without the influence of tax incentives.

Average Days on Market
– The average days on market are 146 days, slightly down from October 2011.

Days on Market (DOM) by Special Conditions
– Short sales continue to influence the average days on market at 222 DOM.
– Properties with no special conditions, and Other are comparatively close at 117 and 113 DOM respectively.
– REO properties average days on market remain level at 96.

New Listings
– 499 new listings were taken in November compared to 516 in October, a 3.3% decrease and an 8% decrease from November
2010.

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

A friend of mine, that I had known for some time, came up one day with an old guitar. I don’t know where he got it, I don’t know how long he’d had it, but he knew about two chords on it. He proceeded to teach them to me, and then we proceeded to go crazy over music.
Charlie Daniels

Any accolades that anybody puts toward this band really makes me feel good, because I have devoted such a big part of my life to this band, making it what I want it to be.
Charlie Daniels

Country music has changed tremendously, so what now is considered country was not considered country at that time. We were doing stuff that probably could have been called country music today, but would certainly have not have fit in at that time.
Charlie Daniels

I had been on the road for a long time and was not really getting anywhere. Bob Johnston, a friend of mine, had taken over Columbia in Nashville. He asked me if I wanted to come down. I did – thank God I did.
Charlie Daniels

I just thank God I can make a living doing something I enjoy as much as I do playing music.
Charlie Daniels

I should be the one to say what I do. It’s just not done that way anymore in Nashville, and I can’t do it the other way. That’s how our record label came about.
Charlie Daniels

We can get rid of red tape.
Charlie Daniels

We didn’t have a garage to rehearse in. We had to aggravate the folks in the house. But I got a chance to play in a beer joint, and that’s how it started.
Charlie Daniels

Churchill was one of the few men I have met who even in the flesh give me the impression of genius. George Bernard Shaw is another. It is amusing to know that each thinks the other is overrated.
David Low

Here lies a nuisance dedicated to sanity.
David Low

Making a cartoon occupied usually about three full days, two spent in labour and one in removing the appearance of labour.
David Low

Some critics of my work took the view that a satirist should defer to the finer feelings of his readers and respect widely held beliefs.
David Low

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

RENO, Nev. – The Nevada men’s and women’s exhibition games scheduled for next week at Lawlor Events Center will be free to the public this season.  The men host Chico State on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. and the women take on Notre Dame De Namur Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

The men host Missouri State in the season opener on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. and the women’s first regular season game is Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.

The 2011-12 basketball schedule posters will be available the night of the exhibition games.  The men’s poster will be available on Tuesday and features sophomores Kevin Panzer, Deonte Burton, Devonte Elliott and Jerry Evans, Jr.  Fans may pick up a women’s poster on Wednesday night.  The women’s poster has all 13 members of this year’s squad in uniform above the schedule.

Prior to the men’s game on Tuesday there will be an open house in the Silver & Blue Room starting at 5 p.m., with both head men’s basketball David Carter and women’s head coach Jane Albright making appearances.   All fans are invited to come and learn about open seats and various ticket packages.  Fans may select their seats for any season or partial packages.

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Capitalism inevitably and by virtue of the very logic of its civilization creates, educates and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Democracy is a political method, that is to say, a certain type of institutional arrangement for arriving at political – legislative and administrative – decisions and hence incapable of being an end in itself.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

For the duration of its collective life, or the time during which its identity may be assumed, each class resembles a hotel or an omnibus, always full, but always of different people.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Marxism is essentially a product of the bourgeois mind.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

The ballot is stronger than bullets.
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.comhttp://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Fences should not be considered an indication of property boundaries. Legal property boundaries are demarcated by surveyor pins or stakes. These are typically 1/2″ to 3/4″ round iron pipes flush or buried slightly below land surface. Newer pins might have yellow or orange caps that indicate the surveyor’s license number.

Locating property lines can be challenging. Older surveyor pins tend to erode. Older property markers could be metal posts, rebar, pipes or car axles. Those having difficulty locating their surveyor pins, also called corner pins, should contact their city or county government and get a copy of their plat map.

A plat map will identify each specific lot located in a subdivision — as well as the shape and dimension of the lot — and where the surveyor pins are located.

If a plat map is not available, or no pins are found, the next step is to contact a registered land surveyor to locate the property lines and set new surveyor pins. The boundary surveyor will thoroughly research city and county records relating to the land and all adjacent property. After research, the field work begins, reconciling the research with the onsite analysis on the property to determine the final boundary lines.

Boundary surveys might also include property improvements, fences, power lines and any encroachments crossing the property lines. Costs of a boundary survey can vary depending on property size, terrain, vegetation, location and season.

A survey is strongly recommended before subdividing, improving or building on land. Building beyond property lines could result in being forced to alter or remove a structure, fines and lawsuits.

Special thanks to my friends over at Prospect Mtg. http://www.myprospectmortgage.com/yfoster

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.comhttp://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

A new law passed by Congress and signed yesterday by the President  provides protections for tenants whose landlords fall into foreclosure. Under the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, tenants have the right to stay in their homes after foreclosure for 90 days or through the term of their lease. The bill also provides similar protections to housing voucher holders. The protections go into effect immediately and expire at the end of 2012.  The new federal protections do not preempt city and state laws which remain in full force.

It is highly advise you consult with an attorney to answer any legal questions.

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.comhttp://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2011/09/26/beware-legal-pitfalls-foreclosures-short-sales?cid=WR09292011:30262&ed_rid=1698691

Short sale and foreclosure transactions can be fraught with potential legal problems for real estate professionals. And as the number of these transactions continues to skyrocket, agents need to be careful, Stella Ling, managing senior counsel of the California Association of REALTORS®, told a crowd at CAR’s REALTOR® Expo last week.

Short sales success rate is only about 50 percent, Ling said, so “the best thing to do is to prescreen the short-sale listings.” For example, she encouraged agents to look for home owners who have refinanced in the mid-2000s and to avoid listings where a second trustee lender can come back for a deficiency through a judicial foreclosure or might not agree to a short sale. Ling also recommends checking to see if the seller has considered a bankruptcy.

Another danger she points to is “reverse staging.” With reverse staging, sellers trash the property in order to devalue the property. Ling says real estate professionals should ensure sellers don’t do any damage and if they suspect any, they should reconsider proceeding with the transaction.

“If a seller does reverse staging, destroying their own home, what else are they going to do? What other misrepresentations are they going to make?” Ling told the crowd of real estate professionals.

Ling also suggests when handling REO transactions that real estate professionals read the REO addendum carefully that lenders often add to the purchase contracts. Oftentimes, these addendums make buyers give up a lot of their rights, she notes.

Source: “Avoiding the Legal Pitfalls of Distressed Real Estate,” Inman News (Sept. 23, 2011)

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

http://www.almanac.com

During the chilly months of winter, no matter what heat source you use—oil, gas, electricity, or wood—you can cut costs by adopting temporary measures to keep the thermostat turned down. Here are some money-saving tips for cutting the cost of cold snaps.

• Temporarily close off heat to some rooms by shutting doors. (This requires a heating system that can be controlled room by room.) Shut the doors to unheated closets, the pantry, and the basement and attic.
• Hang blankets over the windows at night. Tape or thumbtack the sides and bottom of blankets to the walls or windowsills to maximize the insulation value. (Press the tacks or tape under the bottom of the sill and over the top of the frame to hide any damage to the finish.) Remove the coverings on the south side of the house during the day.
• Cover cracks around doors and windowsills with rugs, newspaper, towels, or other insulation.
• Use electric space heaters in living or work areas. These are more efficient than the furnace for localized heating, and they will allow you to set the thermostat lower for the whole house.
• Put on a sweater.
• Cook a hot meal.

What do you do to save money on heat in your house during the winter? Comment and let us know!

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.comhttp://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Thanks to my friends at Prospect Mortgage http://www.myprospectmortgage.com/yfoster/

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending September 9 rose 6.3%. Refinancing applications increased 6%. Purchase volume rose 7%.

The producer price index, which tracks wholesale price inflation, was unchanged in August after a 0.2% increase in July. For the year, seasonally adjusted wholesale prices are up 6.5%. Core prices — excluding food and fuel — rose 0.1% in August.

Retail sales were unchanged in August after a downwardly revised 0.3% increase in July. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales rose 7.2%.

Total business inventories rose 0.4% in July to $1.526 trillion, up 10.6% from a year ago. Total business sales increased 0.7% to $1.197 trillion in July, up 12% from a year ago. The total business inventories/sales ratio in July was 1.27.

Consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in August, following a 0.5% increase in July. For the year, seasonally adjusted consumer prices are up 3.8%.

Industrial production at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities rose 0.2% in August. Compared to a year ago, industrial production is up 3.4%. Capacity utilization rose to 77.4% in August from a revised 77.3% in July.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for September’s preliminary reading rose to 57.8 from 55.7 in August. The August reading had been the lowest level since 55.3 set in November 2008.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 11,000 to 428,000 for the week ending September 10. Continuing claims for the week ending September 3 fell by 12,000 to 3.7 million.

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.comhttp://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable For a free copy of my report   “5 Steps For Reno/Sparks Homeowners To Prevent Foreclosures” go to my about page http://chancegates.com/about and ask for more information on preventing foreclosures. or   to request a modification.  If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.