There were 64 closings in St. Clair Shores for January, 2011. The average sale price was $60,574 and the median sale price was $56,900. Of the 64 closings, 30 of them were Bank Owned! As of February 7th, 2011 there are currently 318 single family homes on the market, giving St. Clair Shores a 4.75 month supply of inventory.   For more info on St. Clair Shores Real Estate or the surrounding Macomb County Real Estate Market, give me a call or email and I'd be happy to assist you. To start searching for homes for sale, sign up for a free Listingbook account.    Information deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed. Information taken from MiRealSource multiple listing service. Above sales were sold by agents and/or brokers. These statistics do not include for sale by owners. Selling pric... 02/07/2011

If you are a St. Clair Shores home owner and you disagree with the assessed value, taxable value or state equalized value (SEV) on your 2011 tax assessment you may appeal to the St. Clair Shores Board of Review.   There are only 4 available dates scheduled so if you want to try and appeal your tax bill you will need to make an appointment. For more information or to call an schedule an appointment call (586) 447-3355 Board of Review Meeting Dates Tues, March 8th from 9 am -5 pm                                        Thurs, March 10th from 1 pm - 9 pm Mon, March 14th from 1 pm - 9 pm Tues, March 15th from 9 am to 5 pm   Tip: make sure you show up for your appointment on time and be prepared! Do not walk in there with no data to back up your argument. Do your homework and bring in compara... 02/03/2011

  Earlier this morning, February 2nd, 2011 the Prognosticator of Prognosticators, Punxsutawney Phil came out and ............  No, He didn't See His Shadow! Punxsutawney Phil predicts an Early Spring!  Spring sure seems a long way off here in southeast Michigan. Last night we received 8 - 12 inches of snow. If you don't have to go out, stay inside and Enjoy your Snow Day!   Ground Hog day Fun Facts   If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate in St. Clair Shores or the surrounding Macomb County area, give me a call or email and I'd be happy to assist you. To start searching for homes for sale, sign up for a free Listingbook account.           02/02/2011

 Q.   What's this highest and best? If you are considering purchasing a bank owned home, an REO as we call them, sooner or later you will hear " the seller is requesting your highest and best offer"   This usually happens when there are multiple offers on these bank owned homes. They usually give a deadline, something like ......... multiple offers, highest and best due by Friday the 28th at noon. Then they will look over all of the h & b offers, and choose 1 to work with. Meaning they may accept the one they chose or they may sometimes counter it. I have even seen where they have rejected all of the h & b offers because none of them were what they were looking for.   Requesting H & B is pretty common in our market right now. Now here's the thing ........ how bad do you want this partic... 01/26/2011

Many times sellers have already moved out of state or out of the area and ask the question ..... Do I have to make the trip to attend the closing?   The answer is no you do not. There are several options that you have and I've had clients do all of them at one time or another. Of course if you want to attend the closing, yes you are more than welcome to! You can have a friend or family member attend the closing for you and sign the documents for you with a temporary real estate power of attorney. I can help you attain this temporary p.o.a. through the title company. I can have the title company overnight you the closing documents. You can then pre sign the closing docs, and then overnight the package back to the title company. This is the method I usually prefer, but sometimes there is... 01/18/2011

  Earlier I posted the St. Clair Shores Lakefront Homes Market Report for 2010, now here is the market report for Canal Front Homes sold in St. Clair Shores for 2010. There were 29 canal front homes that closed in St. Clair Shores throughout 2010. average list price = $195,241 average Sold Price = $180,993 average days on the market = 159 The highest sale price for the year was $390,000. This was a completely updated 3 br, 3 ba, 2800 sq.ft. home, located just 2 houses from the lake. LOCATION! The lowest priced sale was a little 2 br bank owned cottage for $34,900             There are currently 12 St. Clair Shores Canal Front homes on the market as of today which is almost a 5 month supply of inventory. That would be considered a stable market. If you would like more info on buying or s... 01/11/2011

                                                                                                                                                                                               O.k. water lovers ..... lets take a look at how the Lakefront real estate market did in St. Clair Shores for 2010. There were 8 homes sold with frontage on Lake St. Clair last year. Let's take a look at how this compares to last year.                          Lakefront homes closed in 2010             v             Lakefront homes closed in 2009            * number of homes closed = 8                       * number of homes closed = 8          * average list price = $346,925                       * average list price = $393,550         * average Sale price = $301,000                     * average Sa... 01/11/2011

Q.  Mike, could you give me the lock box code or the key so I can start painting my new house.   A.  No I cannot! I understand that you're excited about purchasing your new house, and I know you can't wait to get in there and start making it yours. I also understand that the house you purchased is a bank foreclosure and is vacant. I know your thinking what's it going to matter if you get a head start on things, we're closing in just a few days anyways. Sorry, but my answer is still absolutely, positively, NO.   If the bank finds out, they can and will terminate the contract. You could lose your earnest money deposit The house is not yours until you close. You would technically be trespassing. What if something happens to the house while you're working on it? What if something happens t... 01/07/2011

CURB APPEAL!!! While I was out showing homes for sale to my buyer clients, one of the homes we saw was a flip. You know what a flip is. An investor buys a home cheap and fixes it up / rehabs it and turns around and sells it or flips it! Anyways it appeared that they actually did a pretty nice job inside. New kitchen cabinets, new ceramic, new ceramic bath, new carpeting, etc. But for some reason and I see this quite a bit. They do all of this work inside and completely ignore the outside. Mike's Flip Tip #1 - you have to have curb appeal! This particular one didn't have the snow shoveled or ice removed from the driveway, and it didn't just snow, this was days or even weeks old. There was litter and debris scattered across the lawn, in the front and the back. Also, under the snow, you c... 01/05/2011

Many times in the real estate world we forget that most consumers don't know what the acronyms we use stand for, and why would they. We use these terms everyday. One of the common ones that I tend to rattle off is EMD. So what is an EMD? EMD stands for earnest money deposit.   O.k. so now that we know what the acronym stands for, what exactly is an earnest money deposit?  When a buyer submits an offer to purchase real estate they also put down an earnest money deposit. This deposit is a sign of good faith, something to show the seller that the buyer is serious about purchasing their home. Once the buyer and seller both agree to a purchase agreement (offer) in writing, the emd is deposited in an escrow account for the buyer. In MI the escrow is typically held by the buyers agent in an es... 01/04/2011

                          Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in 2011!   If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate in St. Clair Shores or the surrounding Macomb County area, give me a call or email and I'd be happy to assist you. To start searching for homes for sale, sign up for a free Listingbook account.     photo credit freedigitalphotos.net     01/02/2011

 To all of my friends, family, clients and fellow active rainers ......      Have a safe and wonderful holiday!   ~ Mike       12/25/2010

Our cold Michigan winter has begun and if you have your house or condo on the market there are a few things you need to remember.                                                                     * Very Important! If your house is vacant, you need to take some precautions so the pipes don't freeze and burst! I've seen this happen before on more than 1 occasion and trust me, it's a mess and if it goes unnoticed it can do some serious damage! You have 2 options to try and prevent this from happening.   Leave the heat on! It doesn't have to be blasting, you can set the thermostat for like 55 degrees and that should keep it from freezing. Also, if you're going to keep the thermostat low, open the cabinet doors under all of the sinks so the heat can reach the pipes. This is especially impo... 12/08/2010

The St. Clair Shores Goodfellows organization is a non profit volunteer group formed in 1926 to ensure that no child goes without a Christmas. The Goodfellows are supported entirely by donations from the community.                                         Their only fundraiser is their annual newspaper sale. This past Saturday more than 150 volunteers hit the street corners of St. Clair Shores, braving the cold and trying to dodge the traffic, to sell newspapers for the S.C.S. Goodfellows. Many different groups also donate their time including the St. Clair Shores Fire Department who generously donate some space at their firehouse for the Goodfellows to set up their headquarters for the day!                            This annual event helps approximately 125 St. Clair Shores families. ... 12/07/2010

  Thanksgiving traditions Turkey dinner! Americas Thanksgiving Day Parade Football! First game our Detroit Lions host the New England Patriots with the half time show featuring Kid Rock! Of course the Dallas Cowboys always host the second game on Thanksgiving taking on the New Orleans Saints. The night game this year will be the N.Y. Jets hosting the Cincinnati Bengals.     God bless our troops who are over seas for the holiday and cannot be home with their families.   Happy Thanksgiving! .......... and Goooo LIONS!       clip art courtesy of Web Weaver     11/24/2010

Hud homes are now being run by a different asset management company, with that there are some changes with the rules and procedures for purchasing hud homes.   The biggest changes that I have noticed that affect the consumer are: The Owner Occupant period for insurable and insurable with escrow bidding is now 30 days, it was previously a 10 day period. What does this mean? For the first 30 days of the listing only owner occupants can bid on them. Investors cannot bid until the 30 day period has expired. During the 30 day owner occupant period, the first 10 days will be a simultaneous bidding period. Meaning hud will collect as many bids that are submitted and review. If none are accepted after the 10 days, then the listing will go to daily bidding for the remaining 20 days For uninsurab... 11/18/2010

There's been a lot of statistics released this past week. Here's a summary of those statistics 151% increase in New Construction in Macomb County (according to a report released by Housing Consultants Inc) a 24% decline for Macomb County in existing home sales from this October compared to last (stats from Real Comp II LTD) The median home price fell 9.7% in Macomb County to $70,000 (stats from Real Comp II LTD) Michigan Foreclosure Rate 5th highest nationwide for October. About 1 in every 235 housing units in MI received a foreclosure filing. (according to Realty Trac Inc.)   So those are the stats that have been floating around this week. The decline in sales from this October compared to last.... in my humble opinion is mainly from the first time buyer tax credit from last year. Many... 11/16/2010

REMINDER ~ It's a little later in the year than in the past, but it's time to Fall Back!  Day Light Saving Time begins officially Sunday, November 7th at 2 a.m. Don't forget to turn your clocks back 1 hour.       Enjoy that extra hour of sleep tomorrow morning!     Also, don't forget to CHANGE the BATTERIES in your Smoke Detectors and CO Detectors.   If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate in St. Clair Shores or the surrounding Macomb County area, give me a call or email and I'd be happy to assist you. To start searching for homes for sale, sign up for a free Listingbook account.     pictures courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net     11/06/2010

Seems like it wasn't that long ago that I posted about this but .... It's that time of year again! Michigans big in state college football rivalry game is at The Big House this year in Ann Arbor. The Michigan / Michigan State game is always an exciting game, but this year both teams are currently Undefeated! Kick off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and it is televised on ABC The Spartans are ranked 17 in the AP and U of M is ranked 18 in the AP poll The Spartans won the matchup the last 2 years The Wolverines have won 6 of the last 8 meetings. This will be the 103rd match up between the 2 teams.     Go Blue? Go Green, Go White? Who are you rooting for?                  If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate in St. Clair Shores or the surrounding Macomb County area, give me a cal... 10/06/2010

Here's the latest update on the HUD home inventory in St. Clair Shores for September 10th, 2010. There are currently 7 HUD homes available on the market.                address                        price              bed / bath                       bid deadline 22928 Doremus                  $72,000              3/1                              9/19/2010 205 Pineview Ct (condo)     $56,000             2/2                               9/14/2010 22038 Lanse                      $15,000              2/1                               9/14/2010 28100 Ruehle                     $53,000              2/1                               9/12/2010 23120 Recreation                $45,000              3/1                               9/12/2010 30140 Maplegrove               $21,000              ... 09/10/2010