Sellers or buyers market? (Huntsville, Decatur: landscaping, motel, houses)

[Southernatheart]

Sunshine Girl -- my, did you get the wrong realtor. Let me tell you our experience at house hunting in Alabama. Like you, we were doing our research for retirement. A couple of years ago, we were planning a trip to Nashville when we got a mailing from the Shoals Chamber of Commerce. My husband was very interested, but I was reluctant. I was under the impression Alabama was a depressed area. Anyway, he insisted and we took a side trip and I fell in love.

We stopped by a realtor's office to get some books. The agents couldn't have been nicer. We told them we were almost three years out from retirement and were just feeling out the area. They gave us their cards anyway. The next day we decided to look -- just to see what was out there. We told the realtor the truth, but she gave us her whole afternoon anyway. We return nearly a year later and our realtor had houses lined up and took us around. She never thought we would buy since we were still a couple of years out. Neither did we, but we did. Again, we fell in love.

My point? I asked my realtor why she devoted so much time to us when she didn't think we would buy. She said, "It's my job." Well, she was good at her job and it paid off for all of us. We still have another year to retirement, but we will be visiting our home on Memorial Day weeking and spending some time there this summer. I can't wait.

Suneshine Girl find another realtor. It's a lovely area to live and the people are wonderful!

[harry chickpea]

HsvMike, you might want to elaborate on Buyer's agent, seller's agent, and broker. IIRC, if you walk into a realtor off the street, looking to buy, the default relationship is that of a broker.

When we were doing our extensive looking, we had about five agents that we had contacted in various parts of the state. Ultimately, it was a short list I compiled from ValleyMLS and a lot of serendipity that led us to our property.

[sunshine girl]

Thanks all. I tend to agree with all of you really. The right house in a "hot" neighborhood should sell quickly and the dogs will languish. I think we need to do more research on our own first before interviewing the next realtor. We just kind of wanted to do a what you get for your money kind of trip last time. I guess we did get that. If Huntsville is so hot a market, it might not be for us. While we do need to stay near an urban area, I am an obstetrics nurse, we are also mindful of my retirement (10 more years whoo hooo). Hubby is already retired. We can literally go anywhere in the good ol USA due to my career, but are partially restricted to more youthful areas since I want to stay in my field. Hence, we are not really looking at the shoals area too much. Or itty bitty towns. We are "interviewing" several cities, wanting to stay below 200K and are not crazy about developments. Will stay southern in location. Also comparing states for taxes in retirement. Lots of research done, more to do. Huntsville is a wonderful place, but if it's growing that much, perhaps it will become too big? Rejected Nashville because of that. Lots of jobs for me, but I could feel the urban related stress on the folks the entire time we were there. Don't need that, thanks. Same thing w/Birmingham. Life is too short and there are other places we can go.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by rnc76

Make a yahoo or hotmail account solely for that purpose. That way your inbox won't be clogged with that stuff from now until eternity.

Ya, I have a gmail account specifically for that (and writing reviews of businesses)....just found it is pretty easy to find the addresses of these houses using multiple sources.

Back to the original thread, I get Huntsville real estate information pushed to me from google alerts. One piece of info I acquired pretty much illustrated what the original poster is asking for. The table in the URL below illustrates buyers vs sellers market broken down by price range. It factors in supply, demand, and inventory:

Madison Feb-2008 Absorption Rates | Huntsville Real Estate

[Southlander]

Come across the Tennessee River and take a look at Decatur. Much smaller than Huntsville, but close by. 2 hospitals. The river's right here. Homes cost less. Plus, we have the hot-air balloon race!

[TimG]

Originally Posted by Charles

I get Huntsville real estate information pushed to me from google alerts.

Charles,

Um ...An interested link ...I moved to Huntsville from Seattle in 2002 and looked for property all over and then chose Madison over Hampton Cove in making my final decision. ...Madison was just more house for the money. ...at least at that time. ...I could have really used some information such as the article you pointed out.

Anyway, the Google Alerts sounds very interesting and I've never used them. Is it difficult to narrow the topic so you don't get flooded with email?

Tim

[HsvMike]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

HsvMike, you might want to elaborate on Buyer's agent, seller's agent, and broker. IIRC, if you walk into a realtor off the street, looking to buy, the default relationship is that of a broker.

When we were doing our extensive looking, we had about five agents that we had contacted in various parts of the state. Ultimately, it was a short list I compiled from ValleyMLS and a lot of serendipity that led us to our property.

Hi Harry, I would be happy to elaborate.

When you just meet a Realtor or just walk into an office and talk to someone, the Realtor is technically a transaction broker. That basically means he/she can show you properties, assist in writing offers, and take you through closing but the Realtor takes on less responsibility by doing this and cannot give you their advice or guidance throughout the process.

Now if you are a buyer and you want the Realtor to be your agent, single agent, which is looking out for you and only you, then you would sign a buyers agency agreement and then you would hire that Realtor as your agent. The buyer does not pay the buyers agent, the seller does through the proceeds of the sale. The Realtor does take on more responsibility because they take more care, give their advice and expertise taking you from the first step all the way to closing.

A sellers agent is being a single agent for the seller looking out for their best interest from listing, marketing, and all the way through to the closing of their home.

I hope that helps.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by TimG

Charles,

Um ...An interested link ...I moved to Huntsville from Seattle in 2002 and looked for property all over and then chose Madison over Hampton Cove in making my final decision. ...Madison was just more house for the money. ...at least at that time. ...I could have really used some information such as the article you pointed out.

Anyway, the Google Alerts sounds very interesting and I've never used them. Is it difficult to narrow the topic so you don't get flooded with email?

Tim

Go here:

Google Alerts

Enter terms in the google logic (sort of boolean). Choose "comprehensive" (includes blogs, news and web), choose "as it happens"

For example, I have google alerts set up for (quotes means exact phrase):

"Huntsville High"
"Grissom High"
Madison Alabama
"hampton cove"
"bob jones high"
huntsville brac

Those are about six of 21 alerts I have set up; I get about 30-40 emails a day, most of which are informative.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by HsvMike

Hi Harry, I would be happy to elaborate.

When you just meet a Realtor or just walk into an office and talk to someone, the Realtor is technically a transaction broker. That basically means he/she can show you properties, assist in writing offers, and take you through closing but the Realtor takes on less responsibility by doing this and cannot give you their advice or guidance throughout the process.

Now if you are a buyer and you want the Realtor to be your agent, single agent, which is looking out for you and only you, then you would sign a buyers agency agreement and then you would hire that Realtor as your agent. The buyer does not pay the buyers agent, the seller does through the proceeds of the sale. The Realtor does take on more responsibility because they take more care, give their advice and expertise taking you from the first step all the way to closing.

A sellers agent is being a single agent for the seller looking out for their best interest from listing, marketing, and all the way through to the closing of their home.

I hope that helps.

Thanks. That was a point that we did not understand at first, and your explanation can help a lot of others.

FWIW, if I don't continue to post, don't be concerned. I have issues with one of the ways the TOS is being enforced, and rather than go against that rule, which CD has a right to enforce, I'll remain silent. PM me if you think it important.

[sunshine girl]

thanks again. And Charles, that was a great posting about the absorption rates and the Huntsville/Madison markets. We have not looked around Decatur yet, as a place unto itself. That's a possiblity also. Research not done yet....