Macomb County Real Estate - Macomb Michigan Homes for Sale

These are the words we heard from our 25 year old son Mike, after spending 5 years at Central Michigan University.  First we said "Are You Crazy"? We knew he did some drinking at Party Central but he must have killed a ton of brain cells to want to be a real estate agent in Macomb County, Michigan NOW.

But Mike thought about this long and hard and figured being a REALTOR would be a great way to get his feet wet in sales, business, real estate investing and honing his people skills.  Yea right. Now Mike is no dummy he graduated Magna Cu Lade with 3 degrees. But becoming a real estate agent with everything that is going on! OMG.

Well after the shock wore off, we signed him up for the 40 hour course and yesterday he just passed the state exam. Yeah! Not patting our selves on the back but he will have two very good mentor's, that have been real estate agents since he was 4 years old. Now it's time for a little real estate agent reality check.

1. We do not get by the hour so you will do a lot of work with NO pay and Long hours.
2. It may take 30,60,90 days or more to get your 1st pay check.
3. But just so you know the broker/owner (us) will still give you a bill every month.
4. Then you need to realize you have to Get Up every morning, even if you have no appointments.
5. Oh yea nights, weekends, holidays keep those open cuz that's when people meet with you.
6. You will also need to up your cell minutes and be prepared to have your gas tank full at all times.
7. No more playing video games or fantasy anything. You'll be spending your time in the MLS now.
8. We will give you some leads but they will be the Low paying leads. We'll keep the big ones ourselves.
9. Be prepared to be a fireman, cuz you never know when someone will want to see a home.
10. BTW we hope you took lots of psychology classes cuz you will surely need them.  
11. and we forgot to tell you or the winter vacations to Florida, you will be staying here in Michigan now holding up the fort.

Over the past few weeks we have taken Mike on several listing appointments and have also had him do a few mock BPO's. He said he has realized that real estate is not about selling...it's is about getting people to like you and trust you. They need to feel comfortable with you. He's also learning how hard it is to tell a seller that it does not matter what they want, what they need or what they think their home is worth because they have used heavy duty nails. It all about the market.

After spending most of his life as a kid of a REALTOR, he does actually know a lot of this already. We have also informed him, that he may need to get a part time job at Micky D's, till he gets a few sales. But all in all we think Real Estate is a great job and he will do fine. It's all about your work ethic in good times and bad. 

Over the past few years we have all seen our share of foreclosers. But it is very frustrating when a seller tries to do the right thing only to get shut down by the bank.

Here's an example of just how the banks refuse to help homeowners. Why they should not be working in the real estate industry. How much money is really lost. And how they totally screw up the rest of the market.

• M/M seller build a new home in 2005 in a new sub in Shelby Township Michigan - total investment $320,000 mortgage balance $236,000 and $59,000
• 2 years later Mr homeowner loses his job But finds work outside the state and continues to make payments. So the family can remain together they list the home Jan of 07 (they have a baby on the way)
• Market continues to drop, owner agrees to continue reducing price and come to closing with money
• Sept 07 owner no longer able to hang on and misses a payment and requests short sale. Price now $275,000
• Nov 11, 07 1st offer $245,000 bank drags it's feet 1st buyer walks Jan 25, 08
• We fight bank on BPO they get Freddie Mac to reduce to $250,000
• Home Back on market
• Mar 15th sheriff sale owner has 6 month redemption
• Mar 26, 08 2nd offer $240,000 bank dragging feet again
• Finally May 6, 08 bank approves short sale on 1st and 2nd but owner must bring money to closing
• June 9, 08 buyers lender unable to approve home due to FHA guidelines of "site condo" (that's another story) 2nd buyer gets cold feet and walks
• Home Back on Market
• July 13, 08 3rd offer $240,000- bank promises they will work much quicker this time
• Calling or emailing bank 3-4 times a week
• Customer service missing documents from previous file, new person on every call, no ability to talk directly with negotiator. We realize these people are totally incompetent
• Aug 29. 08 buyer needs to get kids in school - bank moving to slow - 3rd buyer walks
• Home Back on Market but seller has now moved out of home and out of state (it's been one year)
• Sept 4th negotiator calls and states "I will place this file on my desk and if another offer comes in I will personally handle it". She gives us her direct e-mail. 
• Sept 5th 4th offer $240,000
• Calls and emails daily to negotiator, calls to customer service, calls to supervisor of negotiator -  no call - no email nothing.
• Then on Sept 19 we are told by customer service they Can Not accept the offer due to redemption time expiring.
• Sept 22, 08 call from REO agent requesting information about home and seller.
• Oct 6, 08 REO agent for Freddie Mac lists home for $224,500.

They had $240,000 4 times and now it's on the market at a Give Away Price. This is totally unfair to the seller who now has a foreclosure on his credit, the 4 buyers who had their time wasted, the 3 co-op agents who lost commissions, us as listing agents who did our job and brought them 4 offers, spent hundreds of hours on the phone over the past year ended up with NO PAY and most important - the tax payers who will now foot the bill for the difference.

This was not a sub-prime mortgage, people with bad credit or someone that lied about how much they made. Just a young couple building their dream home and Trying to Do the Right Thing.

As long as Capital Hill is unaware of exactly what is going out there on Main Street, we will continue to see prices fall. I think NAR should step up and get these stories heard by congress.

I found a $300,000 home for $150,000.This seems to be all we hear nowadays. But the fact is ...the home IS NOT a $300,000 home, it's a $150,000 home. It was only worth $300,000 at the top of the market. Of course, the seller, government, wall street, builder, banker, real estate agent and tons of stores all benefited when it was $300,000. Tons of money was moving in and out of the economy and everything looked So Bright! Everyone was enjoying the ride going up. We all felt Rich just like the movie stars. Spending was at an all time High. 

STOP those days are over. So how did we get here? Where are we going? and Will there be a "Bail Out" number two?

We all have read about how the Big Bad Bank took advantage of the Little Homeowner. But the fact is the government told the banks "Lighten Up". So they did. Everybody liked the banks and there was a buying and selling frenzy. Until the market was no longer climbing. Then people no longer liked the banks and said "You can have my house back". But banks don't sell homes they only loan money. So they hired a few bank agents and said "Get it sold and Quick". So the agents did and the market began to fall. More and more foreclosures came and the prices fell faster. Now the banks were really in trouble. So the banks went back to the government and said "It's your fault so Bail us Out". The government agreed passed a huge "Bail Out" bill H.R.1424 with lots of Pork added. Now the government will buy the bad loans with money they will borrow from the banks and we'll all pay the difference. The sad thing is the government doesn't have any experience selling real estate either.

So where does that leave us? Well, we just may see the market drop a bit more. The once $300,000 home may drop a bit more But hold on do not foreclose. Don't walk away. Fight for what you have it will come back. You have to live somewhere. If you are having trouble making your payments in the state of Michigan visit Save the Dream. Otherwise visit the HUD site . Contact a local real estate agent and see if they can help.

Americans need to stand up and fight. Unlike the government we the people may need to tighten up our purse stings... cut cable, cut vacations, stop wasteful spending, sell the stuff we don't need, cut utilities ect. Some may need to get a second job (yes there are some available). If we don't fight we will end up with Bail Out number two.