Overland Park KS Homes for sale & Johnson County Real Estate Blog: November 2010

Are you interested in foreclosure properties in Johnson County Kansas? Mortgage giant Fannie Mae announced a new incentive program to help sell off their growing inventory of Foreclosed homes. The Fannie Mae Homepath program allows you (the Buyer) to purchase one of their foreclosed homes with only a 3% down payment. Not only that but they will give you 3.5% of the purchase price to use for your closing costs. They have also added extra incentives if you close before December 31st 2010, which is no Mortgage insurance (a big monthly savings) and no appraisal required. This is a great program and should not be easily dismissed.

Right now Fannie Mae has 51 available properties for Johnson County Kansas and many more for the Kansas City metro area. If you would like a free list of all of the available Fannie Mae foreclosures in Johnson County or Kansas City call the Russell Home Team at 913-735-7104.

Are you looking for the easiest way to search for Overland Park Kansas homes for sale? Our search is already broken down by price for you. Super simple, just click on your price range and all of the Overland Park Kansas homes for sale will appear.

Overland Park homes for sale $50,000 to $100,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $100,000 to $200,000

Overland Park Homes For Sale $200,000 to $300,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $300,000 to $400,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $400,000 to $500,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $500,000 to $600,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $600,000 to $700,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $700,000 to $800,000

Overland Park Homes for Sale $800,000 to $900,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $900,000 to 1,000,000

Overland Park Homes for sale $1,000,000 or more...

Not looking for Overland Park Homes for sale? visit our website www.Johnson-County-Homes.com

For information on all Johnson County Kansas Homes for sale contact the Russell Home Team at 913-735-7104

********************* Just Announced ***********************

New bond fund offers down payment and closing cost assistance for Johnson County Kansas First time homebuyers. The Sedgwick and Shawnee County bond fund offers qualified homebuyers up to 4% of the first mortgage amount to be used towards down payment and closing costs.

This program does have income limits and price restrictions.

For more information on the Sedgwick and Shawnee Bond fund and other first time buyer programs, contact the Russell Home Team today at 913-735-7104

One of the biggest questions every buyer and seller wants to know is, Where's the bottom? Finding the bottom in any real estate is extremely hard to predict. One of the reasons is lag time in data reporting, by the time the media reports that the market has bottomed out it is usually 3 months have past. So we are stuck with trying to predict the bottom. 

In the last 3 years we have hit several false flats, where prices stabilize or even rise for a short period of time, only to start to move downward again. What most want to know is when we will truly stabilize for good and even see true appreciation. 

When a buyer start to think about buying a home they go through 3 stages. In stage 1 they get curious and start peeking at homes on the internet, driving through some neighborhoods and thinking of when buying may be a possibility? 

In Stage 2 that curiosity  turns into maybe we should look at a couple of properties. While it is a move towards home ownership, it is a timid one.

It is in Stage 3 where they start to seriously look, get fully qualified for a loan and really get down to researching neighborhoods, school or whatever else is important to their home search. This is when homeownership becomes a reality.

For the last 4 months we have seen a lot buyers in Stage 1, some buyers in Stage 2 but very few in Stage 3. Well that is changing, for the last 2 weeks we have seen more buyers step up to Stage 2 and the former Stage 2 buyers are now Stage 3 buyers.

What does that mean, contract to purchase. Yup, buyers are making offers. Post Election bump? Maybe, but whatever it is my sellers are very happy.

Have you been waiting for a bottom? Well this just might be it. But if it is, you won't hear about it in the media for 3 months and then it may be too late.

Don't look now but interest rates have risen for 2 straight weeks and are now at a disgustingly high 4.375%. I have absolutely no idea how anyone will be able to afford to purchase a home at these rates. To make matters worse, the average home price has fallen by over 10 percent in the last 2 years. 

How in the world will we ever reconcile this.  I know personally that I was waiting for 2% interest rates and at least a 30% drop in home prices, that way I could buy back a home that I sold in 1993 for the same price.

Oh well, I will get over it. I really didn't want to buy a house anyway.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you would have contest to see who could hold their breath

the longest? Well when it comes to real estate we seem to play the same game. Buyers are holding their breath in anticipation of sellers drastically lowering their listing prices. Not to be outdone the sellers are holding their breath even longer. 

For most buyers they don't have a clear cut time frame to make their purchase, while most would like to 

make their move by a specific date. They

 are more than willing to hold out if they can reasonably expect that it will net them a serious discount.

Now for the sellers, they just plain and simply don't want to lower their prices. Most are willing to consider a lower offer but they have drawn a line in the sand as far as their listing price goes. They simply have a price range in mind and don't care how long it takes to find absolutely the right buyer.

So what is your story, are you holding you breath? 

Where do you think price will go?

Where do you think interest rates will go?

How about jobs?

There might be 500 million registered facebook users but are you an active participant or are you a facebook window shopper? 

If answer yes to any of these questions you are probably a facebook window shopper.

You might be a facebook window shopper if have considered joining but haven't.

You might be a facebook window shopper if you have joined but never added a profile or picture.

You might be a facebook window shopper if go there to play farmville or fishville of whatever.

You might be a facebook window shopper if pass a facebook friend on the street and don't realize it.

You might be a facebook window shopper if you never comment on anything.

You might be a facebook window shopper if you think just being on facebook will bring you business

You might be a facebook window shopper if, please feel free to add your own.......

In the age of Social Media, how social are we? If you want facebook to become part of your business, then you need to become a part of facebook and not just a window shopper.