The Koitz Group's Blog: All Categories

If you’re a home seller in this current market, you may find yourself in a position of having to make a price “correction” (that’s realtors’ lingo for “reduction”) if your property doesn’t sell in a reasonable amount of time.  But, how do you know when to make that reduction…and how much to reduce?

The answer lies in knowing what’s happening around you and, to a certain extent, in personal motivation.  As many of you know, I am currently selling my own home.  This is something that real estate agents should have to do every once in a while…just to keep us humble and more empathetic.  Today, we took a big bite of the bullet and reduced our asking price by about 6%...this, after setting an initial asking price (about a month ago) that was already about 6%…

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“Everyone around here is too scared to look out the window and see that it's not raining”

I’d love to take credit for coming up with that statement, but I can’t take ownership.  It is a quote from a lender concerning his organization and he used it after telling me that his underwriters had refused a loan that would have been a legitimate “gimme” a year ago and should have been the same today.  I don’t want to use his name, or the name of his organization, but it’s probably important to let you know that he works for an extremely well-recognized national lender. 

The day after hearing this wonderfully observant analysis on today’s lending market, I happened to meet with extremely well qualified clients who have outgrown their current home and are trying…

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When, as part of the Economic Stimulus Package, it was announced that the FHA would raise their loan limits, members of both the housing and the banking industries rejoiced.  With the tightening of lending regulations (some justified, some an over-correction) this would help “free” up money and stimulate home buying.

Like every other real estate agent across the country, I was faced with the task of (re) learning the rules of FHA mortgages…but it was a relatively easy task because opportunities abounded for refresher courses.  Even with the initial uncertainty of the amount of the rate increase (which was determined by regional economic indicators), lenders went into high gear and provided as much information as possible.  In the Washington, D.C. area we…

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Dear MRIS, I’m writing this letter in regards to your new “SafeMLS Token”.  You know, the oval shaped piece of plastic with the LCD that looks like it came straight out of a 1980s digital wrist watch – the one with the button I push that gives me a new passcode that’s required every time I need to log into my MRIS account.  The “Token” that I therefore have to have with me at all times in order to do my job.  Yeah, just wanted to thank you for making my job that much more complicated.  Further, I appreciate your short-sightedness and continual bureaucratic ideologies -- punishing those who follow the rules with another layer of red tape. 

I’m not sure how other Realtors across the country log into their MLS systems for property searches, tax records,…

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So, lately I’ve been reading the business section of both the Washington Post and the New York Times.  With the real estate industry so tied to the economic news, and more specifically to the banking news, it just seems that it makes sense to stay up on what’s happening in that sector. 

On Tuesday, the front page of the Business Day section of the New York Times has a story about the JPMorgan purchase of Bear Stearns.  A photo accompanies the article.  It shows two men in white shirts, ties and suits walking side by side.  One is identified in the photo as James Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan and the other gentleman is not identified at all.  It becomes clear, as one studies the photo, that this unnamed gentleman is there for a specific reason. …

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I guess anyone who’s been involved in an occupation for over 20 years has stories…but I do think that being a real estate agent exposes you to the potential for some really great stories.  I’ve decided to occasionally share some of my favorite stories.  Although the names have been changed to protect the innocent, you have my word that all of these stories are true.

I was probably in about my 6th or 7th year of business when, one evening, I got a phone call from a teacher at one of my son’s elementary school.  She explained that she and her husband, both of whom had been married before, had just written their last tuition check.  All of the offspring were now totally on their own and this couple, who had rented their entire married life, now wanted to…

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), today published the new single family loan limits for conforming and FHA loans.  These new, increased loan amounts were mandated by the Economic Stimulus Act, but we were awaiting the actual numbers to be released.  Congress had given HUD 30 days to publish these new loan limits and they managed to get them out over a week early.  The increases are local in nature and are based on the housing costs in various parts of the country.

The good news for what appears to be (on quick glance, I must admit) the entire Washington Metropolitan Area is that the new conforming loan limit and the FHA loan limit will be increased to the maximum amount of $729,750.  This is a HUGE benefit to our area, given that the…

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Washington DC & Bethesda Luxury Real Estate Sales Report

So this leap year gave me one extra day to compare January sales in a specific “micro-market,” but the day ran away from me so I’m giving myself one extra day before we start comparing February data. In an effort to go out with a bang (!), I decided to take a look at the Washington DC area luxury home market. I define the luxury niche as a property with a sales price of over $2M. This market report centers on data from most of NW Washington DC west of Rock Creek Park. The Bethesda area data includes all Bethesda zip codes plus Kensington, Potomac, and Chevy Chase...just for fun! Here's the review and breakdown:  

  Jan. 2007 Jan. 2008 …

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