Real Estate Information Archive

Spurred on by the $8000 first time home buyers tax credit, Louisville home sales jumped by a whopping 40 Percent in November when compared to a November 2008! Many of the sales were in the $100,000 to $200,000 price range, the target of first time buyers.  Sellers of those homes moved up as homes in the $200,000 to $300,000 price point also did well.

Not All The News Is Good 

Homes going under contract slowed during the month of November as the original 1^st time home buyers tax credit deadline neared. Early in November the tax credit was extended to the end of April 2010 (to be under contract) and the end of June 2010 (to be closed). The extension took the pressure off buyers and the search for homes by first time  buyers slowed.  Officially the number of homes going under contract was up 11% in November over November of the year before.

Looking Forward To December 

Because of tighter mortgage requirements and slower appraisals of homes, sales in December should be better than expected. Those two factors delayed closings that were supposed to have occurred in November. The slowdown will help boost December 2009 numbers and give a false sense of recovery. Unless we see more buyers come into the market during December and January, Home sale figures for the beginning of 2010 could fall far short of hopes and expectations.

Other Tax Credits

The local and National media have done little to promote the brand new $6500 tax credit for home owners who have owned their home for 5 years or more and buy their next home. Additionally we’re seen little publicity surrounding the $5000 new construction tax credit in Kentucky. 

For more information head to www.weselllouisville.com.

November 2009

November 2008

It’s now estimated that 87% of people searching for Louisville homes are starting online. Search any website like www.weselllouisville.com or www.louisvillehomestoday.com look at the homes on the MLS and you’re bound to see homes priced at 199,999 or 249,999. We call that K-mart pricing. That’s because when you walk through a K-Mart you’ll always see price signs with 9.99 or 12.99 in the aisles. We’re sure management at these stores think their pulling a fast one on us. Gosh we would never suspect something priced at 9.99 is actually 1 penny under the terrible TEN dollar mark!

That may work for K-MART but it doesn’t work for your home and here’s why. Do a search on those real estate web sites and you’ll immediately find the searches are set up in increments of 5,000 10,000 or even 25, 000 dollars. So let’s say for example you're a buyer and set up a search from 100,000 – 125,000. If you price your home at 124,999 you’ll be found in the search. But what if a buyers is looking in the 125,000 – 150,000 price range. In that search you won’t be found. Now get rid of the K-MART pricing and price your home at 125,000 and look what happens. Your home is found in both searches doubling the chances of being found.

Remember, this works no matter what the price range and can instantly increase your chances of being found in a home buyers search.

Want more help in selling your home or buying a home. Contact The Medley Sokoler Team.

I love technology, I always have! I’ve reported on and written countless articles on the latest trends in technology for several Newspapers and Television Stations. Last night a friend of my daughters asked me to add Windows XP to her new Intel Mac Book. I was apprehensive at first. I had read about the process but I remember adding XP to my older iMac, Ouch, booting up through the Mac OS to get to the emulator slowed down XP to a crawl. But, surprisingly I have to admit the process was a lot simpler now that Apple has released its Beta version of Boot Camp ! The process was faster than I expected and could have been even faster if Apple’s download of Boot Camp was faster and I had printed Apple’s directions (I think an outline of the installation directions is a must for first time installers).

A couple of key errors I made that you should make note of include remembering to burn the drivers on the CDR, realizing where the copy of Boot Camp installs to on a Mac (application/accessories folder) and buying a full version of XP (not an upgrade version).

I do think I found a problem once I had partitioned the drive using Boot Camp and starting the XP install process (remember to only install to drive “c”). Early on during the install process the Mac crashed, and rebooted to the Mac side of the drive. Either I missed something in the directions or someone forgot mention that installing XP to the “C” drive should only be done after rebooting the computer to the Windows side of the drive once Boot Camp has partitioned it (remember to hold the option key at start up).

I’m so impressed with the process I’m considering buying a Mac Book in the future. The problem is right now I’m in search of a the best Tablet PC for my Real Estate business www.weselllouisville.com, www.bobsokoler.com, www.welistlouisville.com. All this work with the Mac Book leads me to a question for Apple, hey folks any plans for a Tablet PC in the near future?