Perrysburg Blog

I have blogged about basements.

Basement repairs.

And back up power generators.

Which all are predicated by the nasty and deleterious effects of simple dihydro-oxide (aka water) in our basements.

Here – in Perrysburg – on the border of the land once known as the Great Black Swamp.

To recap:

1. A wet basement is not a rare occurrence.   It will happen to you.

2. A wet basement is not something to hide, conceal, ignore, or gloss over.  It needs to be dealt with now (which is cheaper) rather than later (which is equity destroying).

3. A wet basement is generally not something you should make an insurance claim on.   Please believe me on this.   Go ahead.  Make the claim.  Make two claims.   Observe the likely future results: 

A.  Your insurance agent will NOT renew your policy. 

B.  The insurance agents you call will look up your house address on the magical internet roster of insurance claims with predictable results  and

C.  The putative buyers of your house someday will arrange for property and casualty insurance coverage of their new house just before the closing . . . which will cause item “B” above to be invoked with not so good results for all parties.

4.  For homes in Perrysburg and the Township I suggest a good quality sump pump.   A back up water driven-type back up if you have city water.  And a back up generator if you have a finished basement.   (N.B. – I have a finished basement and reside in the Township without city water – we have a primary sump pump, a back up sump pump, a whole house generator, and a back up portable generator . . . with a THIRD back up sump pump, new and in the box – just in case.  Do you think that I have seen some expensive basement hydrological events?).

5. Run the downspouts away – far away.   5 or 6 feet away.  This will cover a multitude of sins.

6. Don’t store anything porous below the water table that you can’t live without – see “sewer backups” on google.

7. If/when your basement floods – act fast.  Very fast.  The enemy is mold.  The enemy will hit hard and fast.  Summer or Winter.  And that is a whole different topic!

Lot’s of buyers are thinking . . .

and planning . . .

and looking . . .

to buy houses.

All well and good.

But for many the operative question is “what interest rates are out there”?

Today’s rates:

1. 30 Year Fixed money is going to cost you 4.125%

2. 15 Year Fixed money is going to cost you 3.375%

3. FHA money is going to cost you 4.00%

4. VA money – 4.00% also

5. Rural money?  None to be had – waiting for more.

6. You want to buy an investment property?  20% down required. 

Notes:  Sellers can contribute 6% back to buyers on FHA loans and 8% back on VA loans and 3% to 6% on conventional loans.

Here is the trend chart, used by permission of mortgage-x.com . . .

These are really historical lows.   I can imagine only a few instances where a buyer will want/need an ARM . . . .  so buyer beware!  And what you REALLY need to be aware and beware of is the dizzying array of constantly changing rules and strictures on loan underwriting and loan approvals and loan appraisals – each deal is both harder to close and taking more time to close.

If you are a landlord in Perrysburg in 2011 you have much to be thankful for.

Your property is most likely rented.

Your tenants are on “good behavior mode” as they know that if they have to look for another 43551 rental house or condo it will not go well.

Your bank account is probably in better shape with rent receipts than if you had to sell and mark your asset to market on the bank/REO depressed current market.

And there are no hassles in Perrysburg from the local constabulary . . . unlike a rather large and more regulatory rapacious city just to the north that I will not mention.

There are – at least according to my Mark 1 Eyeball – fewer for rent signs up in Perrysburg now than in recent memory.   Only 1 of my managed properties and 0 of my own properties has a vacancy.

The WSJ has a nice piece on the situation here.

Implications?

If you are fully invested in the stock market . . . . you must be addicted to risk.   Diversify into some nice multifamily in Perrysburg or Sylvania.

If you are fully rented out . . . now is the time to raise your rents.

If you are looking to get out of the rental market . . . not a bad time to sell your multifamily property in Perrysburg (since values are based on cash flow imho).

Wow.  It snowed last night.   Which caused me to order snow tires.  I am expecting the worse . . . and hoping for the best this Winter.

Which leads me to the current market stats.

I am expecting the worse . . . and hoping for the best in the Perrysburg real estate market.  It SEEMS like things are more “back to normal” . . . but IMO things are not going to go back to what used to be.   There has been too much economic disruption and movement and change.    Values and taxes and employment have changed and shifted.   But every dollop of good news comes with a side order of bad news . . . so please do not accuse me of parroting the NAR line of “now is a great time to . . . .”

Here are this month’s single family and condo sales and numbers in Perrysburg:

Closed Sales: 82

Median Price: $204,500 (that’s the second highest monthly median price in 2 years)

Average Price/Sq. Foot (sold): $95

Sold House Average Days on the Market: 152

October 2011 Number of Houses Listed: 339

Number of Houses Pending: 41

Months Supply of Inventory: 6.6 (which is why the market seems better this month . . . )

So there you have it.   Things are getting more balanced.   But the market is still very price sensitive and buyers are still in the drivers seat.

In that they are NOT in Perrysburg.

But they are back on the market after the prior buyer’s other deal did not close.

And they are a GREAT INVESTMENT!

They are just like Perrysburg 4 unit apartments, except located in Sylvania right off of McCord north of Sylvania Ave.

1. Fully Leased.

2. Great rents.

3. Many long-term tenants.

4. Excellent schools to draw renters in.

5. $3600 to $4600 monthly rental income per building.

Oh . . . and these 4 great 4 unit apartments (they feel more like condos – and one building has units with basements and fireplaces and attached garages) are being offered with OWNER FINANCING.

Since there is no mortgage . . . my out of state client said “why not”?

More details if you email or call me!

You can see my flyer here:

Sylvania 4 Apartment Buildings

Disclaimer:  no snarky comments or inferences in this post should be construed as anything but an endorsement for my Dentist – Dr. Christopher Clark.  I like him.  He is incredibly talented.  He knows the ins/outs and tools/tactics to do any dental procedure with elan and skill and care.

But . . . sometimes selling a house in Perrysburg today IS like going to your dentist and getting root canal.  Which I just did with Dr. Clark.

It takes time.

It takes multiple appointments.

It takes effort.

It takes reasonable skill and training.

The dentist has to have the right tools and facilities.

The dentist has to have the right support staff.

You want your dentist to be . . . actually working full time in and on dentistry.  

All of these things are similar in my pursuit of helping clients sell their real estate and my dentists skill and care at removing dental problems.

(But . . . I sadly note . . . that I cannot give you laughing gas or an anesthetic shot to make your pain fade for a couple of hours).

As with the average root canal . . . in selling a home today there is perhaps going to be some pain involved.

Some emotional conflict.

Some stress and or trepidation.

But . . . if it has to be done and needs to be done and the situation and circumstances tell you to get it done . . .  what else can you do?

You get it done.

That’s the abbreviation for “good news . . . bad news”.

I have seen lots of multiple offers in Perrysburg.

I have seen a seeming “shortage” of good listings priced to market.

But is that good news?  Or is that bad news?

It really depends on where you are sitting and whose side you are on.

A buyer/future homeowner?  That’s often bad news.

A seller/homeowner?  That’s maybe good news.

Now – more GN/BN.

The Case-Shiller numbers just went UP for the first time in a long time – as far as Detroit matched pair real estate numbers go.  And I really do believe that Detroit is now the perfect analog for Toledo real estate numbers and velocity of sales.

So . . . . that’s good news, right? Yes.   I think so.

What’s the bad news?

Mortgage defaults – i.e. future foreclosures – are going up for the first time in 2 years.

It came from a blurb on housingwire.com:

“The national delinquency rate for borrowers who are 60 days or more past due on their mortgages rose for the first time in two years during the recent third quarter, TransUnion said Tuesday.

The delinquency rate for seriously past due loans edged up to 5.88% in 3Q, TransUnion reported.”

Which tracks what I am seeing – lot’s more foreclosures in Perrysburg and Maumee.  

That is the bad news.

I get these calls a lot – it’s my job.

It’s what I do.

But . . . this call was from a far away state.   Let’s call it Oregon.

This was a guy who bought his first “house”.

On the internet.

Without visiting Northwest Ohio.

Without “putting any eyes” on the property before sending his money.

“UFF DA”* as my Scandanavian grandmother would say.

*(when my brother and I were REALLY naughty and she was watching us while my parents were out gambling or worse she would say “UFF DA FEE DA” . . . which was the warning right before the “wooden spoon” came out of the kitchen drawer . . . but I digress.)

So I put some eyes on the house.

I already knew that the plumbing, siding, furnace and more would be gone.  (It was a $4000 auction buy in Toledo).

But in this case . . . . the entire house was gone.  

Which is actually good news for my putative client since then the City of Toledo won’t dun him for tearing the house down (oh, say $9000 . . . )

So . . . what lessons should the wise real estate buyer learn from my little story and how does it relate to Perrysburg?

1. Never, ever buy real property without a property visit.   Ever.  All the time.  Never.

2. A great deal is often . . . not a great deal.  

3. It is very hard to make great returns on a $5000 house when you live one or two time zones away.

4. It is often much safer to spend MORE money and to buy a house/duplex/condo in an area with less crime and vandalism.

5. The seductive rent returns (“I can rent that $5000 house out for $500 a month!) are not real.  They don’t really happen all the time.

6. The investors that I work with who buy $5000 houses have lots of them – to defray their staff and crews and sophisticated management and tenant service operations.   They have a little bit more invested than one house can support.

7. I think that a $50,000 or $75,000 buy in Perrysburg or Maumee is much, much safer.   If I own that (and my wife and I do . . . ) we can rent it, manage it, take care of it without fear of destruction, and have the amenities and schools pull our tenants in.

8. It is very strange . . . but in real estate right now it seems that the simplest investments (see above) and the most sophisticated and complex real estate investments (read this WSJ story and weep . . . ) are absolutely fraught with risk and danger for “average” investors.

I like to buy local.

You want some real estate?  Want to buy in this greatest of all investment markets?   Buy local and buy what you can see and touch.   And if you need professional help . . . you know who to call.

Please just call me before you buy!