Mike Heath - Blog

Enjoy a 9x advantage over non-Schmidt listings in Gaylord!

Mike Heath — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:44:52 GMT

A large part of being a successful listing agent is marketing to other Realtors since listing agents don't usually find their listings' buyers, instead another Realtor, usually local, brings the buyer to the sale. While there are many competitive advantages to having Schmidt list your Otsego County home, here is one of the most compelling factors. At Schmidt Realtors, all our Realtors meet at least weekly to review new listings, tour selected properties, reviewing other selling or buying opportunities - like open houses, price changes, what's been bottomlined, etc.

When a seller has a Schmidt Realtor as their listing agent, their listing is being discussed in these meetings with the set of Realtors enjoying the majority of sales in our county. While most of the local Realtors communicate their listings through the local MLS, including all Coldwell Banker Schmidt listings, Schimdt listings are also discussed in person with the subset of the local Realtors selling 56% of the property in Otsego County, 9X more than 2nd and 3rd closest competitors!

So if you are a potential seller, you'll have a statistically significant advantage to selling your Otsego County merely by your Realtor's business association with the other Schmidt Realtors and their buyer clients.

Video: Treetops Dir. of Golf on this year's tournament and golf school

Mike Heath — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:34:59 GMT

Director of Golf's Kevin McKinley is interviewed at a golf show this past winter. Best quip: Jason Guss has been named one of America's 20 best instructors under 40 years old by Golf Digest.

Time to re-evaluate your selling price

Mike Heath — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:02:55 GMT

Comparative selling prices on sales 6+ months ago need to adjust to local market changes over the past three months. In a 20 city survey, the WSJ reports that housing prices have declined at a annualized basis of 25%. That doesn't mean the Otsego/Gaylord market has declined that much for our listings, but it should motivate us to use more recent sales data or adjust older comps used to calculate our current prices to median market price changes for your category home.

Big interest savings on jumbo loans

Mike Heath — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:50:45 GMT

Fortune/CNN's Allan Sloan reports great news on a real GDP stimulus policy enactment. The federal government has raised the ceiling on loan amounts that "conform", i.e., loans that lenders can sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This allows buyers purchasing homes with loan balances greater than $500,000 to save thousands of dollars annually on interest expense. This effect should provide upward price pressure for all homeowners because it allows high-end buyers to purchase more home given lower interest rates. This enactment alone won't turn this buyers' market into a sellers' market, but it certainly helps.