This home at 2465 East Broad Street will be one of a dozen or so open during March's Third Thursday open house event in the Bexley area.

A few years back, some of the Realtor associations inside I-270 had an idea  about Open Houses.  Holding an open house on a day other than Sunday wasn’t a new idea but all agents, working together across brokerages to promote an additional opportunity to showcase listings was new. It wasn’t an idea that orginated from the local Board of Realtors, but in the field.

Fast forward to a week from tomorrow, the third Thursday in March, and the only open houses will be in one zip code -43209- Bexley, Berwick and Eastmoor.  In fact, the last I saw, there were 25+ homes (listed below but still time for others) in Bexley and Eastmoor open.

It didn’t stick in Clintonville, it didn’t stick in the Short North or in German Village or Upper Arlington. Why has the idea not only survived but thrived in the Bexley, Berwick and Eastmoor area?

• It’s a smallish area, approximately 9.3 square miles.
• Between Broad Street, Main Street, Livingston Avenue and James Road, a large amount of cars pass by the Open House signs every month.
• Affiliates of the local real estate association help to underwrite a full page ad in the Bexley News the week prior which details the homes to be held open.
• In Bexley, a relatively small number of agents have many of the active listings at any one time and they urge the homeowners to participate.
• I believe that the last informal tally I heard indicated that 12 homes sold in 2009 where the buyer first saw the home on a Thursday in Bexley, Berwick or Eastmoor. Success begets more chances.

From last count, these are some of the homes that will be Open Thursday March 18 from aprox. 5-7 PM.

Buyers like peace of mind. Give it to them.

>>improvement list for your for sale Columbus home <<

Your home is for sale. You want to make a good impression on would-be buyers and stand apart from the crowd. You want to convey as much meaningful information as possible without getting emotional and you want buyers to know that your house is better/more sound/more improved than the rest of the homes for sale in Columbus, Ohio.

Do this. Make a list of improvements you’ve done to your home since you’ve owned it. Put the big improvements at the top. Don’t be shy, put the associated price tag. Buyers want to buy your home for the least amount of money possible and when they see the money you’ve put into your home, they’re less likely to hold your list price against you. Better yet, they’re going to feel great about purchasing your home because they know when the roof was put on, when the air conditioning unit was installed, when you updated the electric lines to that portion of the house and they know you paid real money for it. Even if your cousing Larry did the improvements, you paid him money and you should document it.

You don’t have to have receipts, just a line item list like this one goes a long way to putting the buyer at ease. Especially if you haven’t been in your home long and especially if your asking more than the competition because, darn it, your home is better. Prove it.

By providing the actual costs you go a long way toward transparency and Read the rest of this entry »

Call Delicious Real Estate (614-358-5515) to discuss your 2010 home purchase.

A quick review of National Association of Realtors’ Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s 2010 preview looks positive. I would caution it as maybe even being a little optimistic and would suggest a 12-15% uptick over 2009 first quarter sales here in Central Ohio. I think over the Holidays a lot of Columbus singles, couples and families will have long discussions about home buying and hit the new year resolved to buy a home in 2010. I think once the tax credits expire and interest rates start to creep up, the second half of 2010 will be slow here in and around Columbus.

As for the rest of the country, this is what Yun has to say….In all, 4.4 million Americans look to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit before it expires by the middle of next year. From the enactment in February of this year through October, NAR estimates 1.8 million households would have qualified to claim the first-time home buyer tax credit. Now with the tax credit deadline extended till the end of June 2010 (for closings, with contracts signed by the end of April, 2010) and also available to many move-up buyers, an additional 2.6 million families would likely claim the home buyer tax credit.

The expected boost to existing home sales by more than 20 percent in the first half of 2010 from comparable period one year before will sufficiently trim away inventory such that home values will begin to show increases by the middle of next year in many parts of the country. The median existing home price could rise by 2 to 4 percent in 2010. New home sales could jump by nearly 50 percent, though from very depressed levels to figures that would be less than half the pace as during the peak sales year in 2005.

One assumption underlying the home sales forecast is Read the rest of this entry »