News you can use from Michael Saunders & Co.

From the company’s special section in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 michaelsaunders.com
Licensed Real Estate Broker

Last week we suggested that the unprecedented wave of
new foreclosures had to be drastically reduced before the
region’s real estate market could fully recover and resume
normal, healthy appreciation. No sooner had we committed
these thoughts to print than we were presented with a classic
good news/bad news update, courtesy of California-based
RealtyTrac and its latest nationwide report on new foreclosures
for the month of August.

First the bad news:
Another benchmark was established last
month. Nationally, foreclosure filings grew 12 percent from July to
August, and were up 27 percent compared with the same period
last year. This was the highest number in any single month since
RealtyTrac first began issuing reports in January, 2005.

Now the good news for us locally:
The pace of foreclosures filed in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties for the
month decidedly bucked the national trend, as reported by
the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in parsing RealtyTrac’s results
for Southwest Florida. All three counties posted noteworthy
declines from July to August, although each is still ahead of last
year.
The biggest drop in foreclosures took place in Charlotte
County—with a 22 percent decline—followed by Manatee
County with a 12 percent decline and Sarasota County with
a 9 percent decline. For all of Florida—the fourth leading
state for foreclosures last month—the rate dropped by 4.11
percent. So at least for August, Southwest Florida can take
comfort in experiencing a better rate of decline than the state
as a whole and far better than our Gulf Coast neighbors in
Lee and Collier counties.
Obviously, it’s way too soon to heave a collective sigh of relief
that the spike in foreclosures is behind us; just as surely as it
comes as no small comfort to sellers not facing foreclosure,
who are now forced to compete in the same pricing arena as
the epidemic of foreclosed properties.
Luckily there are two ways in which non-foreclosed properties
can assert themselves competitively against foreclosed
properties. First and foremost, the property must be priced
with equal amounts of realism and aggression. Price must
reflect only what today’s market can bear, not what was paid
for the property in a by gone market.
Secondly, the property must show in absolute mint condition.
The more choices buyers have, the more critical it
becomes for your home to be priced to perfection; and show
even better. The objective of course is to demonstrate that
yours is a nicer, better-maintained home than the typical
foreclosure, in which attention to anything other than basic
upkeep often takes a backseat to minimizing maintenance
costs in order to maximize proceeds from the sale.
Now, as never before, expediting the sale of your home means
working as closely as possible with an associate who can
not only draw on his or her own focused expertise, but also
has the ability to tap into the human resources and knowledge
base of an organization whose longevity, stability and
in-depth understanding of the local market is unparalleled
in Southwest Florida. Success is as close as collaborating
correctly when positioning your home against torrents of
competing properties, assuring its fair and accurate price
and making it ready for optimal showings.
If you must sell your home in today’s market, you have a clear
choice between good news and bad news: Good news when
buyers recognize your home as the best value in its competitive
set; bad news when you overestimate its worth and end
up selling someone else’s house instead.