Dave & Lisa Webber

The answer is, it depends. Severna Park is always a sought after area the neighborhods are nice and schools are highly rated. The difficulty right now is there are about twice as many homes on the market as we would like to see. Some sellers are less serious than others and have their houses priced higher than market value so they are sitting and making it appear that nothing is selling, which is not the case. Is the market booming? Certainly not, but it is not bad. Prices are down from 2005 in most of Severna Park, as they are everywhere. Homes are staying on the market longer than in the past for the most part. Homes that are priced well, below others, and are staged to sell will sell quicker and for more money than the average home. A really nice, neutrally remodeled home will always find a buyer at a good price. Those that are not "staged" or updated will need to be priced accordingly. There is a lot of competition in the area. We're going into a slow time of year and if you are considering selling, you may want to take this time and work on doing any upgrades or fix-ups to get your house ready and put it on the market after Christmas. It's amazing what you can do with a small amount of money and some time. Fresh paint and flooring (or carpet) are minimum "musts" if you want top dollar. Last January was actually fairly busy as we had really nice weather and a lot of buyers came out after the holidays and were already doing their "spring" house shopping so those sellers who had their houses on the market and the houses were model home fresh, really lucked out. We were actually seeing multiple offers on the nicest homes. You may want to call an agent and have them come out and give you a comparable market analysis to give you an idea of what homes like yours are selling for. Make sure to analyze the statistics carefully and pay closer attention to "solds", rather than active listings, which will give you a much more accurate idea of the price you are likely to actually get if you were to sell. If you have a good agent, they will also be able to go around your house like a home stager would and they will tell you what all you'll need to do to have your house ready. Just putting up a sale sign doesn't work anymore in this market. The house has to look as close to a model home as possible, be priced very well and marketed aggressively, especially on the internet, in order to sell for the highest price in the shortest amount of time. I hope this helps! - Thu Nov 8 2007, 18:00

No one can predict whether homes in a certain area are going to increase or decrease in the near future. I wish I had a crystal ball! Many people were surprised that homes in many areas have gone down in market value 2005 - a lot of people didn't expect that. If you look at real estate historically, home prices have gone up over time tremendously. Sometimes we'll go through periods of time where homes decrease or values stay the same for awhile as the market stabilizes. Many advisors feel that if you are going to be living in a house 5-7 years, it is usually a good idea to buy. Over time home buying is usually a very good investment if you plan on living in a home for awhile. You'll be able to take advantage of nice tax breaks and have pride of ownership in the meantime. - Tue Nov 6 2007, 07:35

I agree 100% with Diane. Realtors who have the money and can afford to buy are investing now. Some, especially newer agents that don't have the capital may not be in the position to, but many of the agents who have been around for awhile see the opportunity and are capitalizing on it. Most are turning them into rentals though and planning on keeping them for awhile. - Tue Nov 6 2007, 07:31

Oh my, what a pickle. You really need to have a written contract for anything like this as it is very difficult to enforce a verbal contract. You don't have anything to go back to, not even a list of things to be done? Your realtor should not have gotten involved in a predicament like this as it smells. To protect themselves at a very minimum the agent should have demanded a written estimate be given to you and they should not have been the middleman for the contractor, taking money like that and giving it to the contractor. If I were a broker, I would want to know if one of my agents was involved in a project like this. As far as unethical, that would be an opinion, is the work being done as it should be? Is the agent giving all the money to the contractor or pocketing an undisclosed fee for acting as general contractor if that is what they are doing? I believe if the Realtor is acting as a general contractor, he should be licensed as a general contractor. Illegal? I don't know, you don't have a contract so it will end up being your word against theirs as far as what was expected for how much money. If I were in your shoes, I would first of all demand a written receipt as of today as to what has been done, what you have already paid for, what still needs to be done and how much that will cost. It is not unusual for contractors to have cost overruns or for a project to end up costing more than the original estimate, but the big problem is you really need to all be on the same page. This needs to be a written contract. Get something on paper and decide where you want to go after that. If you feel that the agent is being dishonest, you are able to file a complaint with the real estate board. You can also speak with the broker for the agent. The Realtor put himself in a position that he really shouldn't have as now his ethics are being questioned. I wish you well with this! - Mon Nov 5 2007, 15:16

I do work with 2 brokers and we work together with clients. I send them to the broker and when the broker has them qualified, they send them to us. It's a good partnership when you have a knowledgeable broker to work with. Many times the buyer isn't qualified right away so they have to work on their credit or other aspects so the broker keeps in touch with them and lets you now when they are ready. - Mon Nov 5 2007, 14:47