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Who would do such a thing... buy a house without seeing it?  Well, I have three stories for you about people who did exactly that.

A few years ago, one of my Crofton MD seller-clients was retiring and investing her nest egg in a home thousands of miles away in Canada - without seeing it, unless the magazine ad counts.  That was before the Internet, and she relied on phone conversations with and photos from the seller.  I thought she was very naive, and her family thought she must have lost her marbles, but that's what she did.  I never heard if her dreams were fulfilled or it turned out poorly.

More recently, a Crofton MD attorney contacted me to list a property for one of his clients in nearby Prince George's County.  He was very adamant that a quick sale would be much more important to his client than top dollar, so I recommended pricing the property $100,000 lower than others in the area.  That was a significant difference, making the property about 30-35% below others in the area.  (No, that photo is not the actual house!  It wasn't quite that bad.)

But the condition was horrible, cosmetically and structurally, with a homeless man occupying the storage shed.  It was unlikely a homebuyer would purchase this property with all its problems at any price, in spite of the fact it was a sellers' market at the time.  I felt we had to appeal to investors, with a property like this.

The strategy worked, because we had a full-price cash non-contingent contract in hand from a real estate broker and experienced investor within an hour of the property going in the MLS.  I presented the contract to the attorney and seller immediately, and it was ratified within hours before a lockbox even went on the property.  I do know the ending in this case:  it was a win-win situation for the seller, whose problem was quickly solved, and the buyer who flipped the property at top dollar a few months later, after it was completely renovated.

Then there is the recent story about a fellow in New Jersey who bought a home for $2.6 million without first seeing it.  Apparently he lived next door to this property, and bought it at a foreclosure sale without bothering to take a look inside.  It turns out that his neighbors were not very good housekeepers, and they had a lot of animals.  While the buyer was on vacation, authorities entered the property on a tip from a delivery truck driver who noticed a strange smell at the house.  They found 23 dead animals, other starving animals, and...  Well, you can use your imagination or read the story in its entirety. 

The buyer must have paid cash, because I doubt he could have gotten a loan if anyone had appraised the property.  I'm guessing this fifteen minutes of fame is not something the buyer expected when he made this real estate investment!  What do you think?

There could be a lot of good blog material in this last story, so you might want to bookmark it for future reference: 

1. Why you should always hire a home inspector,
2. An appraiser can protect you from making a big mistake,
3. There's a buyer for every property,
4. You may not know the neighbors as well as you think you do,
5. Don't overpay for a home 

Have a good weekend, and sell a house!  (But be sure to show it to the buyers first.)  'Hope you enjoyed these stories.

Copyright 2007.  Margaret Woda.  All rights reserved.

Your real estate connection for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Home of Fort George G. Meade, Northrop Grumman, BWI and the U.S. Naval Academy 

Have you ever heard of GRIST?  Don't feel too bad - I never did either, until I read that the University of Maryland has been named to their Top 15 Green Colleges and Universities.  That caught my eye!

According to the GRIST website, it is environmental news and commentary - with personality!  Frankly, it's refreshing to see their approach to a topic that could be very dull.

Regarding the University of Maryland, GRIST reports that "Students at this College Park campus recently sent a loud-and-clear message about sustainability: some 91 percent of undergrads voted to raise student fees in order to pay for clean energy, when tuition and fees are already at record highs. If implemented, the fee increase would eventually raise enough money to make UM the largest higher-ed purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S. UM -- one of the many schools committed to going carbon neutral -- is also doing what it can to reduce energy use: a combined heat-and-power plant completed in 2003 received the U.S. EPA's Energy Star award, and motion sensors that automatically shut down unused office equipment are currently undergoing testing."

GRIST senior editor Lisa Hymas indicated that they "researched, asked experts, and consulted other rankings to get a broad picture of green activities on campuses." Based on the online comments, however, some colleges and universities that are excluded from the list are taking exception.  That's one of the beauties of blogging - the opportunity for feedback from readers!

The University of Maryland is the only Flagship of any State Higher Education System listed by GRIST.  Others are:

1. College of the Atlantic
2. Middlebury College
3. EARTH University
4. The Evergreen State College
5. Oberlin College
6. Harvard
7. University of Britich Columbia
8. California State University, Chico
9. Tufts University
10. Leeds University
11. Green Mountain College
12. Yale University
13. Aquinas College
14. Glasgow University

Photo:  UMD Photo Gallery

For additional information about some of Maryland's sustainability successes: 

• Greening the Campus, the World
• Campus Sustainability
• Complete list of GRIST picks, including Runners-up and a brief description of each institution.

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Relocating to the Baltimore-Washington area?  Check out Your Relocation Package for Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Find a Home and learn about Real Estate Market Conditions in Odenton and Anne Arundel County, Maryland.  Check out Today's Rates, use the free Mortgage Calculator, and watch a brief video about the Power of RE/MAX.  These consumer-friendly real estate tools are provided by Margaret Woda for you to use at your own pace. 

When you're ready to go from "just browsing" to "let's get serious", contact Margaret online or call her at RE/MAX Vision in Crofton Maryland. 410-451-1900 

Why is there such a giant disconnect between perception and reality, when it comes to the VALUE of good real estate agents?

There is more to selling a home than finding a buyer, and more to buying a home than finding a house.  Yet many consumers (and even some real estate licensees) feel that real estate agents are not worth the air they breathe.  Just to start the dialogue, let me suggest these as some of the reasons why consumers may not appreciate or respect the VALUE that real estate professionals bring to any transaction:

1. Becoming a real estate agent is relatively easy and inexpensive (translates to "anyone can do it").  First of all, "anyone" cannot learn the material and pass the licensing test.  Consumers do not know how many real estate licensees FAIL in their first year or two and quickly drop out of the business.  Many of the best agents have years of experience and advanced training, but consumers don't know what CRS, GRI, ABR and other professional designations mean.  And many "rookie" agents bring related skills and training from another career to real estate.
2. Real estate agents drive around in big fancy cars.  Consumers do not realize that a comfortable vehicle is a business expense and tool of the trade, used for chauffering prospective home buyers.  Real estate agents do not have a business vehicle paid for by their employer, such as a mail carrier or an ambulance driver, and a privately owned vehicle for their personal use. 
3. "Million dollar agent" is interpreted as agent income - Consumer perception:  "All agents are millionaires."   This is a misinterpretation of ads and press releases by real estate companies and agents about their sales volume (NOT their income).  A typical agent earns about $15,000 gross for each million dollars in homes they sell.  Talk about disconnect between consumer perception and reality!
4. All real estate companies and agents are alike.  All real estate agents are no more alike than all mechanics, all surgeons, or all relatives...  With limited service and discount brokerages springing up, identifying the VALUE (or not) of real estate agents and companies may actually become easier.  In real estate, as in other situations, you get what you pay for!
5. Real estate agents are greedy.  Real estate fees paid by consumers include the cost of operating an office, technology hardware and software, training, agent supervision, marketing costs (including costs for marketing their home), tools of the trade including lock boxes, signs, desks, phones, computers, taxes, licensing fees... and, oh yes, the agents.  The agents pay out of pocket for their own operating costs including elective training, tools of the trade (business car, computer, website), business expenses such as buyers' lunches, gas for showing property, taxes, licenses and fees.  

Even the U.S. Justice Department seems to think that real estate service should be provided by volunteers who pay for their own training and operating expenses without fair compensation, and that proprietary business tools (such as the MLS) developed by and for REALTORS (at their own expense) should be offered as a public service without any cost to consumers or compensation to those who paid for its development.

How can real estate professionals correct these inaccurate perceptions?

For decades, NAR has failed to communicate the value of real estate professionals to the public, so NAR cannot be relied upon to "fix" this situation any time soon.  And, as Jim Towner ponted out in an ActiveRain post yesterday, price comparison is the new latest/greatest tool for choosing an agent, without regard for the VALUE added to a consumer's real estate transaction. 

It may fall to each individual real estate agent to educate consumers in their own market about the VALUE that professional real estate agents bring to any real estate transaction. 

LINKS:

• If Progressive Insurance can do it, Why not Zip Realty?
• Limited vs. Full Service

 Copyright 2007.  Margaret Woda.  All rights reserved.

CROFTON MD REAL ESTATE: For referrals to Crofton MD or anywhere in the D.C.-Baltimore-Annapolis triangle, contact Margaret Woda at RE/MAX Vision in Crofton MD.  (410) 451-1900.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE -

It's not about life as a real estate agent, but you could interpret it that way...

This day is mine.  It is unique.  No one else in the world has one exactly like it.  It is the sum of all my past experiences and all my future potential. 

This is the closing section of a longer journal entry by Miriam Wolfe:

There are times when the "poor me" mood is upon us; we're overwhelmed by all the troubles we have to face. 

This is especially likely to happen when we have begun to try to change our thinking about ourselves and our relation to others.  We may, at first, become too analytical and try to solve too much at once.

For this frame of mind there is an almost infallible prescription:  to empty our minds of all our thoughts but one - today and how to use it.

This day is mine.  It is unique...

Words of wisdom.  Miriam Wolfe was one of the 270 victims of Pan Am Flight 103 on 12/21/88.  She was a college student who grew up in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, returning home for the holidays after a semester abroad.  Her mother published many of her writings in "Miriam's Gift:  A Mother's Blessings - Then and Now."  My daughter, Susan, won a small scholarship that Miriam's parents establsihed for high school seniors in a children's theater group that Miriam enjoyed for many years.  Susan used that first paragraph as the theme of her high school Valedictorian address and essays for both her college and grad school applications.

I think it very aptly applies to our real estate experiences.  We each are unique, the sum of all our past experiences and future potential.

Photo, with permission, from Sunrise Pictures

WINNER ANNOUNCED 

Are your creative juices flowing today? 

If so, maybe you would like to participate in the naming contest for a new desktop super-computer prototype developed by Uzi Vishkin and his team of researchers at The University of Maryland, College Park. 

This technology uses uses a circuit board about the size of a license plate on which 64 parallel processors are mounted.  To control those processors, Vishkin and his colleagues in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed the crucial parallel computer organization that allows processors to work together and make programming practical and simple for software developers, at a speed up to 100 times faster than current laptops. (I have no idea what any of this means - but it sounds impressive, doesn't it?)

To learn more about this supercomputer and the researchers who developed it, be sure to read the official press release. 

The winner of this super-computer naming contest will earn a cash prize of $500, as well your place in history for the distinction of naming this advance in computing technology.  Click here for the full contest rules and restrictions. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2007, so you have plenty of time to think about this and come up with a winner. 

Additional Information about Vishkin's Parallel Computing Research:

• http://www.ece.umd.edu/Research/spotlight/comp_eng/vishkin/
• http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/vishkin/XMT/spaa07paper.pdf 
• http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/vishkin/XMT/spaa07talk.pdf 
• http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/vishkin/XMT/index.shtml        

Copyright 2007.  Margaret Woda.  All rights reserved.

CROFTON MD REAL ESTATE: For real estate in Crofton MD or anywhere in the D.C.-Baltimore-Annapolis triangle, contact Margaret Woda at RE/MAX Vision in Crofton MD.  (410) 451-1900.

Included in Your Online Relocation Package for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Home of Fort George G. Meade, NSA, Northrop Grumman, BWI, and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Anne Arundel County agencies are scrambling to anticipate the impact of 22,000 new jobs on infra-structure and public services ranging from transportation to education and health care, while REALTORS and developers are concerned about housing this increased population.  Meanwhile, businesses such as restaurants and retailers explore opportunities for growth and profit in and around Anne Arundel County.

To identify and prepare an effective plan for the expansion of Fort Meade, County Executive John Leopold established a BRAC Task Force in March 2007, under the leadership of Robert C. Leib.  BRAC Updates are open to the public on the 4th Wednesday of each month from 7-9 PM, at Anne Arundel Community College.

Map:  http://www.aacounty.org/BRAC/FtMeade.cfm

Now is an ideal time for real estate investors to buy property in Anne Arundel County, since the real estate inventory is up and interest rates are still low.  With 22,000 new jobs on the horizon, housing supply and demand will be heavily impacted - it's a pretty safe bet that housing prices will see increases above and beyond national and regional figures over the next several years.  To search the MLS for homes in Anne Arundel County, CLICK HERE.

LINKS related to BRAC expansion in Anne Arundel County, MD:

• Anne Arundel County MD BRAC Information Center
• Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation
• MD 175 Project Planning Study (PDF)
• BRAC - Department of Defense Official Site
• Fort Meade Enhanced Use Lease (EUL) Information
• Assistance of Department of Defense Civilian Employees
• Army BRAC site
• Maryland State BRAC site
• Maryland BRAC action plan

______________________________________

Relocating to the Baltimore-Washington area?  Check out Your Relocation Package for Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Find a Home and learn about Real Estate Market Conditions in Odenton and Anne Arundel County, Maryland.  Check out Today's Rates, use the free Mortgage Calculator, and watch a brief video about the Power of RE/MAX.  These consumer-friendly real estate tools are provided by Margaret Woda for you to use at your own pace. 

When you're ready to go from "just browsing" to "let's get serious", contact Margaret online or call her at RE/MAX Vision in Crofton Maryland. 410-451-1900 

Your real estate connection for Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Home of Fort George G. Meade, Northrop Grumman, BWI and the U.S. Naval Academy

There is something about living on the water that is irresistible.  Perhaps it's the smells, or maybe the sounds... some folks will tell you it's the calm that encompasses you when you're on the water.  While many people choose to live on the water for the fishing and boating, others simply enjoy the view.

Baltimore City and sixteen Maryland counties border the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in North America.  A search of MRIS (a regional multiple listing system for D.C. and parts of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania) yields nearly two hundred homes on the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore City and eleven counties.  There are hundreds more waterfront homes on the market along the rivers, creeks and streams which flow into the Bay. 

Chesapeake Bay waterfront homes come in all shapes, sizes and prices, ranging from a 2 bedroom 2 bath farm house on Smith Island built in 1900, priced at $89,900, to a 7 bedroom 5 bath home built in 1775 in Chestertown, priced at $6,000,000.  141 of these waterfront properties are detached homes, while the others are townhomes or condos.

If you would like to own a waterfront home on the Chesapeake Bay, here is where you will find them*:

• Anne Arundel County - 70 homes, from $299,000 to $4,499,900.
• Baltimore - 2 homes, $314,999 and $650,000
• Baltimore County - 13 homes, ranging from $499,000 to $1,395,000
• Calvert County - 40 homes, ranging from $399,999 to $6,000,000
• Cecil County - 9 homes, ranging from $399,999 to $998,599
• Dorchester County - 7 homes, ranging from $299,500 to $895,000
• Harford County - 3 homes, ranging from $529,900 to $948,000
• Kent County - 8 homes, ranging from $335,000 to $6,000,000
• Queen Anne County - 15 homes, ranging from $698,000 to $4,750,000
• St. Mary's County - 8 homes, ranging from $394,950 to $798,000
• Somerset County - 17 homes, ranging from $89,900 to $1,300,000
• Talbot County - 3 homes, ranging from $735,000 to $2,100,00008

      *  As of 08/01/2007

For more information about the Chesapeake Bay, contact one of the three Maryland agencies that are responsible for Bay matters:

• The Department of Agriculture directs the Office of Resource Conservation which oversees Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Programs.
• The Department of the Environment works on behalf of the Bay through its Science Services Administration.
• The Department of Natural Resources supports the work of the Critical Area Commission for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays (formerly Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission) and oversees Aquatic Resources.

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Margaret Woda knows the area, she knows real estate, she knows technology, and she brings the Power of RE/MAX to your real estate transaction.  You can contact Margaret online or call her directly (301) 346-2923 or at RE/MAX Vision (410)451-1900.