Home Prices are Up…..

Home prices climb an average of 8.9 percent in Central Indiana
Overall year-to-date pended home sales dip slightly

INDIANAPOLIS – The average sales price for homes in the nine-county Central Indiana region is up 8.9 percent year to date, because the mix of sales has changed, according to sales statistics compiled by F.C. Tucker Company. More homes at $300,000 and above have sold, reflecting the uptick in prices. At the same time, however, pended homes sales are down slightly at 2 percent lower for the year compared to 2009.

Central Indiana homes sold for an average price of $148,649 for the first seven months of the year, a healthy increase of $12,102 over the 2009 year-to-date sales price. Shelby County reported the biggest home price gain at 21.6 percent, while Marion County also posted double digit gains at 13.2 percent.

On a monthly basis, pended home sales were off -27.4 percent in July 2010 compared to July 2009, although Shelby County posted an increase with a 17.2 percent upsurge. Year-to-date pended sales figures are tracking more in line with 2009, with Boone, Hancock and Shelby counties all registering positive gains in pended home sales, while Hamilton, Johnson and Morgan counties’ pended sales are on par with pended sales from the same period in 2009.

More homes were listed on the market last month compared to July 2009, with 17,276 homes for sale, up 5.8 percent. Four counties experienced above average inventory increases. Hendricks County experienced the greatest increase in inventory at 14.2 percent, followed by Hamilton County at a 7.2 percent increase in listings.

“The overall market is still absorbing the sales rush precipitated by the Federal credits. The incredibly low mortgage rates are spurring some home owners to re-enter the real estate market, causing inventory to rise, while other homeowners are staying put and refinancing,” said Jim Litten, president of F.C. Tucker Company. “Home prices are stabilizing and even increasing, and the selection for buyers is growing.”

If you or anyone you know is interested in selling please call Chris at 317 271-1700

203K Loan…….what is it?

Traditionally when a homebuyer wanted to purchase a home that needed work he would have to go through a complex set of steps including multiple loans, possibly high interest rates and ultimately a permanent loan to pay off the interim loans acquired to pay for construction as well as the original home price.

The section 203K program was designed to address this situation.  The borrower can get just one loan with this new program, it can be a fixed or adjusted rate loan and can be used for the acquisition as well as the rehab of the property.  To determine the amount of the loan the lender will consider the value of the property after the work has been completed.

For more information on this new program click on the Renovation Generation link below or give Chris a call at 317 271-1700

Renovation Generation – 203K Loans FAQ

Would you like to know where your house stands in today’s market?

Considering putting your house on the market? Wondering what today’s market means to a home seller…in particular YOU? When was the last time you had a market analysis on your house?

Do you know what your home is worth and if not are you interested in getting a FREE market analysis before putting your home on the market?

Chris Castetter is a Top Real Estate agent with FC Tucker in Avon Indiana. he has been a Realtor in Hendricks County for over 16 years! He is a great source of Real Estate information and a professional you can count on.

If you are considering putting your home on the market and would like to get the process started, give Chris a call at 317 -271-1700

Social Media and Real Estate

Social Networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are used widely as marketing tools in  business.  How is it used in Real Estate? Do YOU use it and if so , how effective is it for you and your clients?

Attending a seminar these days you will hear mention of Twitter and Facebook, among other things, as a way to market your business.  So just how effective can these 2 networking sites really be for your business?

Twitter.com is a site that anyone can join and create a profile. After which they can update their status as many times in one day as they like. It is basically micro-blogging!  You can “tweet” about  anything as long as it is in 140 characters or less!  Thus the “mico-blogging” !  The beauty of Twitter is that  as you Tweet and others Tweet and you follow them and they follow you then eventually your status updates or “Tweets” are being seen by more and more people. They even have a “Follow Friday” which, if you are privy as to how it works, can add many more followers each week to your followers list, which in turn grows your field of readers or your reach to other cities and states, therefore giving you more potential clients!  Whew!

Now what about Facebook?  Well, facebook is another animal completely! While Twitter is just a micro-blog which you can update with little one line updates a few times a day, Facebook is an entire community! You can create a “group” on Facebook and invite friends and have friends invite friends and so on, which after awhile will get quite a bit of exposure for your “group” and all you have to do is maintain this “group” with relevant info and hopefully enough interesting data to cause people to start talking about you and visiting your group more often. There are many things you can do to grow your group and get more exposure for your business and for your clients homes. And again….growing your busienss exposure and getting more clients…at least that is the hope.

I guess the bottom line here is do you think getting more exposure for your clients homes as well as for your business, in general, is a good thing? And do you think it is worth your time? How much time, you may ask? I would post, at a minimum, 1 status update a day on Twitter and a relevant article, picture or status update daily on FB. That may turn out to be 30 minutes, MAX a day! It should be alot less if you do not become addicted to doing it. Yes,yes,yes……I KNOW! Facebook can get you a bit distracted, this is where some self discipline will have to be exerted!  JUST DO IT!

Do you think it is worth it? I do.  Whether your selling Real Estate in Hendricks County, Indiana or in San Diego, Californina everyone wants the same thing! We, as Realtors, want good clients and Clients want good Realtors! Social Marketing sites is one way to get that.

OH! and probably the most important thing to remember in any type of Social Marketing is, it is NOT about you! It is about your CLIENTS. And you need to be real….your readers need to hear things Real Estate specific but interesting. And if it is not necessarily about Real Estate but is interesting to others, that is ok too! Make people want to come back and read what you have to say, make people feel as though you care about others…No, it s not a game, you need to be genuine. You really do need to make it about others needs and let it show in your updates. Attraction marketing is a whole other ballgame, which I will talk about in a later blog!