Perrysburg Blog

I’ve already sold 10 houses this week.

My Team and I are hungry for more.

Some random thoughts on the Perrysburg real estate market:

• It’s encouraging to see a lot of buyer activity.  Just had one house get NINE simultaneous offers.  Nine.  Never have seen that before . . . not in 22 years of selling here.
• It’s sad to see Toledo continue to implode.   Good job there Mayor Bell!  The people leaving Toledo are heading for . . . . Perrysburg.
• It will be fascinating to see what happens to our market when the $8,000 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit expires. Buyers must be “under contract” by April 30^th and close by June 30^th to get the credit.
• The upfront FHA mortgage insurance premium will rise from 1.75% to 2.25% on April 5^th. This will result in an extra $1,000 of buyer closing costs on a $200,000 loan.
• Not a very smart move by Perrysburg Schools to get rid of music, sports, etc.  In case you have never heard this before – but one BIG reason people move to Perrysburg and pay the “Perrysburg Premium” is the draw of the schools.   Mess with that at your peril.  Property values will go down.  Then your tax base will pay you less.   You might want to rethink that plan.
• It’s positive to see people buying homes for the right reason (to live in them!) instead of speculating on them and using them as their personal ATM.  It didn’t take long for people to learn and entire mindscapes to change.
• The foreclosure wave continues unabated.  No matter what you read.
• Static analysis of big political decisions is not working.  Case in point – the new health care bill.  It’s actually causing big employers to push thousands of people into government paid drug plans eliminating the supposed tax revenue from one little codicil in the big bill – and that little change was supposed to raise money for Uncle Sam.  Now . . . imagine if we pass a law that allows people to not pay their mortgage or to renegotiate their loan balance?  Think they just might be some unexpected consequences?  Some dynamic market-driven financial human responses?
• Finally:  This is why banks should endeavor to do “cash for keys” or short sales.   A little picture from one of the three houses I had to go and secure for 3 different banks today:

A new upcoming listing on Indiana . . .

An old REO listing on Indiana . . .

And . . . a sharp split level on secluded, hidden, hard to find Carolin Ct.

Which I have written about before . . .

But this is one that I saw recently:

And . . . I must say that I have never seen one in greater distress.

Blame the clay soil.

Blame the gutters and downspouts that are missing or have failed.

Blame the “old school” building technology.

But this one left me amazed.

I once owned a rental house “in the Boundaries”  -  it had walls that moved.  A prior owner had put some steel band-aids on them.  But this house, well . . . it goes to the top of the basement list.   All four walls buttressed.  All four walls deflected.

Amazing.

Since I posted about “jobs, jobs, jobs” being the determinate factor for the hoped for future recovery of real estate values and velocity in Perrysburg some have asked me for a solution.

“Well, what would you do!?” . . . .

First, I would do anything I can to stay out of politics, out of the academy, and out of other peoples business.

But, having just gone through the “college application game” with one of our children, my formerly little boy Matthew, who has now been accepted into UM College of Engineering, Rensselaer, Carnegie Mellon, and Rose-Hulman College . . . I have had some eye opening experiences about the state of the modern US university system.

And what it “takes” to get into a good university to set yourself up to get a good internship to set yourself up to get a great job in 4 or 5 years.

My thoughts?

Jobs will come back when local and national leaders stop terrorizing business.  And when they erect some barriers to predatory trade from overseas slave labor and environmental terror labor.

And . . . when our current generation of children learn that it is not a big, happy “we are the world” stage that they are competing on.

I strongly recommend that you invest six minutes and watch this clip about “Two Million Minutes”.

I despair when I compare the current state of primary and secondary education to what happened in and around Toledo just 40 or so years ago.

I am depressed when I compare the teenage bedrooms of houses that I am selling for first generation immigrant families from countries like India and China and Vietnam with the typical bedroom accoutrements of the typical American teenager.

Games.  Computer games.  Video games.  Sports gone wild.

All found in “American” teens lives.

The teenagers from China?  India?  Pakistan?  Japan?

You have got to be kidding.

They and their parents are focused like a laser on the educational excellence and dedication needed to get into the best college and get the best credential to get the best job and the best income to provide the best for their families.

The typical “American” boy or girl is busy getting piercings, tattoos, and shopping after playing sports and going to Florida for Spring Break.

We want jobs to come back?  In Northwest Ohio?

We better get smarter kids.

Or learn to speak Mandarin.

It seems that every day either I or someone on my team meets a person/family/transferring couple who want to rent and not buy in Perrysburg.

And, there is, in my opinion, a substantial inventory of “hidden listings” that are not on the market but are leased by their Perrysburg owners simply because they cannot sell them in this current market.

The two sides – property owners and property renters – come together and a market is made.

Caution was advised for renters by me in a prior post – - the Craigslist Scam.

Now some advice for homeowners who can’t sell and have been pressed into the often uncomfortable roll of “landlord”:

1. Trust but ALWAYS verify.

2. Check and recheck your deed restrictions.  Some condos in Perrysburg forbid a 12 month lease.  Sometimes your nice new tenant will buy a trailer and you will get into hot water with your neighbors.

3.  Use a lawyer to approve/review/draft your lease.

4.  Never let the potential tenant bring THEIR lease to the party.  This should be a little alarm bell that rings . . . .

5. Trust but verify.  Oh, did I say this before?  Well, you cannot trust anyone anymore.   Sorry.  You have to check the veracity of the phone numbers on the application.   You have to check the ID of the tenant.  You have to check the funds behind their check.  You have to check and check and check.   And the ONE TIME you don’t do it, because you just KNOW that the family moving in, with their little girl Daisy being treated for Hypoemetholema . . . the nice family that is moving here from Heart of Gold Texas where they were pastors and choir singers . . . that family?  That’s the one that will GET YOU GOOD.

6. Lead based paint.  Know the rules.  Embrace them.  Follow them.  Or get ready to get sued into oblivion.

7.  Never, ever listen – and I mean don’t even LISTEN to the excuses and reasons and rationale from a tenant who cannot pay.  Seriously.  Can I call my tenants up and reasonably expect them to listen to me about my problems and my family issues?  At its’ base – the landlord / tenant relationship is a commercial one.  It’s a business transaction.  With multiple payment points.  And a written contract.   Homeowners of the shadow inventory of unsold homes in Perrysburg who indulge in being a professional landlord cannot then ALSO become lenders/enablers/counselors etc. for their tenants.  It does not work.

You can be a landlord.

Just think about it first.

Or, you can hire me.

Just consider my free advice.

“I am an out of town owner, and I want to rent my 4000 sq. foot, river front mansion in Perrysburg.  I will sign a 12 month lease for $299 per month.   I need a deposit of $2000.  Email me back on Craigslist or call 419-260-XXXX!”

Hmm.

Too good to be true?

Yes.  It is.

People are actually out there purporting to rent houses THEY DON’T REALLY OWN.

There have NEVER been more vacant houses in Perrysburg than there are today.

This weekend I had to check on 2 new assigned assets for a bank.  Both in Perrysburg.  Both long vacant.

It is neither hard to find them or to pretend to own/control/rent them.

Here is how they do it – and what it costs.

1.  Get a prepaid cell phone.  Use a false ID.  $120

2.  Find an empty house.  $0

3.  Jimmy the lock – put your own on.  $25

4.  Place a bogus Craigslist ad – $0

5.  Make the “deal” so good . . . that you have multiple takers.

6. Spend one day collecting the rental deposits.

7.  Vanish.

This is happening in many other markets – here is a report from San Diego.

I have experienced versions of this scam in Toledo with foreclosed houses.   But . . . it’s just a matter of time in Perrysburg.

Do not “leave the money on the table”.

Don’t rent from a person who is offering something too good to be true.

Don’t trust anyone who does not have a legitimate business presence in the area.

Verify the actual ownership of the property you want to rent – the Wood County Auditor is free!

Who sells the most homes?

In and around Toledo?

In 2009? Who wins the gold?  The silver?  The bronze?

These guys do!

Congratulations to all of them!

Top 50 Agents 2009:

Includes MLS sales in Lucas and Wood Counties from 1/1/2009 to 12/31/2010 and excludes non-commission HUD home sales, commercial sales, mobile home sales, and cemetery lot sales. So . . . it’s my take on the top agents.