Frederick Md Homes For Sale – The Historic District

DOM – Days on Market

When you see listing information presented on various websites and in printed forms, you’ll more than likely see some real estate terms that we Realtor’s take for granted.   Here are a few explanations for some terms you may not be familiar with:

DOM or DOMP:   Days on Market or Days on Market Proper.   DOMP is the total number of days the property has been listed, including listings with a previous agent or broker.   DOM is the total number of days of the most previous listing agent.   If a home is temporarily taken off the market, the DOM resumes when it is put back on the market. If a home is off the market for 3 months or longer, the DOM resets to zero and the home gets a new listing number.

What does this stat tell us?

The average DOM for Frederick County has been about 110 days.   The average home takes about that many days to get a contract.   The average is different for various communities; in the City of Frederick, the average is about 95 days, Urbana about 70 days, and in the smaller communities in the outskirts of Frederick County it has been taking 150 + days to sell a home, over 200 days for Walkersville.

When you see a home that has been on the market for a time that is double the average for that community, you start to question what is going on with that home… is it overpriced? is it in poor condition? is it a short sale that has been in negotiation for a long time?  

Buyers will want to use DOM statistics to be a part of their negotiating strategy. If the seller is just unrealistic about their price, keep moving on. If the condition is less than desirable, you might be able to get a price concession.   If the home has been on the market for less than the average and the seller has given 2 or more price reductions, that is usually a sign that they are motivated.   Whatever the outcome, DOM is a statistic worth noting.

Sellers will want to keep an eye their time on the market.   As time marches on, your home will get “stale” on the market and will cause buyers to ask the questions above.   Don’t let time slip away from you and put you in the stale bargain basement.

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The Highland Group – Real Estate Teams

Chris & Karen Highland *
Frederick County MD Real Estate Agents

301-831-9947              
  Real Estate Teams, LLC
Karen@highlandrealestategroup.com

There are some things you should do while in the loan process:

• Do join a credit watch program.   Your bank, credit union or credit card company may be able to direct you to a free credit watch program that can alert you to any changes in your credit report.   This way, if something pops up, you can intervene before an underwriter sees the problem.
  
• Do continue to use your credit as you normally would.   Red flags are easily raised within the scoring system.   If it looks like you are changing from your normal spending patterns, it could possibly cause your score to go down.   Example:   if you’ve had a monthly service for internet access billed to the same credit card for the past 4 years, there’s really no reason to drop it now.   Again, make your changes after the closing.
  
• Do stay current on existing accounts.   Late payments on your existing mortgage, car payment, or anything else that can be reported to a credit reporting agency can cost you dearly.   One 30-day late payment can cost anywhere from 30 to 75 points on your credit score.
  
• Do call your loan officer.   If you receive notification from a collection agency or creditor that could potentially have an adverse affect on your credit score, call your LO so they can try to direct you to the right resouces and prevent any negative reporting to the credit bureaus.

information provided by:   www.creditresourcecorp.com

Related Articles:   Do’s and Don’ts During the Loan Process

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The Highland  Group “ Real Estate Teams
Chris & Karen Highland *        301-831-9947
                                                                        Real Estate Teams, LLC
email us: isell4u2@msn.com
TEXT US:   301-401-5119

Between the time your offer on a home is ratified, becoming a contract, and the time you go to close on the home, this is the time your loan is in process.   You should not do anything that will have an adverse affect on your credit score.  

What kind of things have an adverse effect?   Glad you asked:

• Don’t apply for new credit of any kind.   No credit cards or lines of credit.   No new car loans.   None of that.
  
• Don’t pay off collections or charge-offs, unless  your lender asks you to.   This is a hard one for people to accept.   Generally, paying off old collections causes a drop in your credit score.   When you do, it brings that particular account to the forefront of your credit.   In most cases, it counts as less of a negative, the older it is.
  
• Don’t close credit card accounts.   If you close an account, it will affect your ratio of debt to available credit which has to be under a certain ratio.   This accounts for 30% of your credit score.   If you really want to close an account, do it after you close on your home.
  
• Don’t max out or over charge existing credit cards.   Running up your credit cards is the fastest way to bring your score down; it can drop up to 100 points overnight.   You should try to keep your credit cards to below 30% of the available credit limit.
  
• Don’t consolidate debt to one or two cards.   Again, you don’t want to change your ratio of debt to available credit.   You also want to keep your good credit history on the books.
  
• Don’t raise red flags to the underwriter.   Don’t co-sign on another person’s loan, or change your name or address.   The less activity that occurs while your loan is in process… the better.

Next Article:   The Do’s of the loan process.

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The Highland  Group “ Real Estate Teams
Chris & Karen Highland *        301-831-9947
                                                                              Real Estate Teams, LLC
email us: isell4u2@msn.com
TEXT US:   301-401-5119

Before I was a Real Estate Agent, “Fair Housing” was one of those  terms I really didn’t think much about.   Realtors are very aware of what it means, but we probably toss it around like lots of other jargon without realizing most people don’t always understand the meaning as it applies to them.

I’ll try to explain in the  most concise  way I can:

This month marks the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968.   This was a follow up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964  and 1966, which prohibited discrimination but had no federal enforcement.    

The Fair Housing Act states that people may not be discriminated against on the basis of 7 things:  

• race
• color
• religion
• national origin
• gender, as of 1974
• diability, as of 1988
• families with children, as of 1988

It is illegal to discriminate against anyone of these classes in the practice of:

• the sale or rental of housing or residential lots
• in advertising the sale or rental of housing
• in the financing of housing
• in the provision of real estate services
• in the appraisal of housing
• Blockbusting is also illegal

Violators of  the Fair Housing Act can be fined an amount up to $11,000 for a first offense, up to $27,000 for second, and up to $55,000  for further violations, if found guilty in criminal court.   Civil action may also be brought in Federal court with amounts of $50,0000 to $100,000.  

 This is the Fair housing Logo:

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                                                                 The Highland Real Estate Group                                            
                                                 Chris & Karen Highland *        301-831-9947
                                                                                Real Estate Teams, LLC
                                                                    email us: isell4u2@msn.com
                                                                    TEXT US:   301-401-5119

I like to watch several series on HGTV.   “House Hunters” is one of them.   I like to see the different home values in different cities across the country.     One of the things that always makes me scratch my head, though,  is when they use the price-per-square-foot calculation.

In the real world, no one really does that.   At least in the world of Frederick real estate.   It’s rarely ever an apples to apples comparison.   There are several reasons…

• First of all, a home with lots of high-end upgrades is going to command a higher selling price than a similar sized home with basic features.   Buyers just aren’t going to pay the same amount for a house that needs every kind of renovation compared to a similar sized home with all the bells and whistles.
• The other reason is that square footage doesn’t always mean that you have that amount of actual floor space.   Take for instance, a two-story colonial.   You take the dimensions of the first floor, and double that amount for the square footage.   If one house has a 2-story foyer or a 2-story great room, it still has the same square footage as the colonial without the 2 story rooms.   The two don’t completely compare.   You might pay more for the dramatic 2-story rooms than you would for the basic home, even though the basic home had more actual floor space.
• The last flaw in overusing the square foot measurement  in direct comparisons is that we often find the tax record is wrong.   The tax record often doesn’t reflect any renovations done on the home after the initial sale.   And sometimes, its just wrong for no apparent reason.

Buyers should always make it their responsibility to check the square feet of a home they are interested in themselves, and not rely on the owner, the agent, or even the State tax record.

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Buyer Agency really means the buyer has representation.   Their best interests are being looked out for by the agent.   Agency came about in the late 90′s, and in my opiniion its one of the best changes we’ve seen. Before that, all agents worked for the seller, and buyers had no one looking out for them, legally.   Because Maryland is a strong consumer advocacy state, we have been on the forefront of agency issues.   It’s something that buyers need to be educated about, because it is a great advantage to them.

People who like to point out that real estate agents are always biased towards higher prices and more money, don’t understand the business.   Buyer’s agency binds me as an agent to a feduciary relationship with my buyer client.   I am bound by laws and ethics to represent his or her best interests, which include the best price, best terms and  his or her  protection.   I don’t want to be brought before an ethics committee because, for a few hundred dollars, I didn’t fully represent my client.   Besides that, I would really hope that my client would not only choose to do business with me again, but would refer me to friends and family.   I believe most real estate agents are good people who feel as strongly as I do about their integrity and good name.

Contact us if you™d like more details about your neighborhood.   Or use our free MLS property search:  
                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                  The Highland Real Estate Group                                            
               Chris & Karen Highland *  Frederick County MD Real Estate Agents
                                                               Specializing in Frederick County Real Estate  
                                                                                                               301-831-9947                  
                                                                                           Real Estate Teams, LLC
                                                                                            isell4u2@msn.com