When you’ve been in the real estate business as long as I have, you start to develop your own language. In my new book, Flipping Houses For Dummies (ISBN: 0470043458 / John Wiley & Sons / November 2006), I cover how the housing market follows the law of supply and demand, and why its important for flippers to pay close attention to supply and demand-related trends.

I also introduce readers to the “Dontwanner”… a property that the owners don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want so much that they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re willing to do anything to get rid of it, including offering it for sale at a deep discount. Think of a dontwanner as a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìYour Trash Is My Cash?¢‚Ǩ¬ù opportunity. As I tell my readers, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

If you look hard enough, you can find dontwanners in nearly every town in the United States. Locally, in the Warren/metro-Detroit area, we have more than our fair share of dontwanners. For more information on dontwanners–or any other type of home for that matter–give my office a call. Our talented agents and staff are ready, wiling, and able to make your next sale or purchase a fast and pleasant experience.

The National Association of Realtors?Ç¬Æ today announced that nationwide, existing-home sales for July were down 4.1 percent, while home prices here in mid-west are 10.1 percent lower than they were last summer. For homebuyers, this is very good news.

Higher interest rates are clearly dampening sales, but that’s good news for the housing market because it’s also drawing in new buyers. For years now, potential home buyers have been sitting on the sidelines, some ?¢‚ǨÀúkicking the tires,?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ but mostly waiting for sellers to compromise on prices and terms. Now, sellers in many areas of the country–including here in Michigan–are setting their home prices to reflect current market realities, which generally tends to benefit price sensitive buyers.

Earlier today I was interviewed for a segment that appeared on this evening’s ABC’s World News Tonight (click here to view the segment online). ABC’s camera crew followed me around as I showed them a $200k home that recently sold for $140k, and another where the buyers chose to slash $40k from their original selling price.

Existing-home sales here in the Midwest fell 5.9 percent in July, while the median price of a home in the Midwest was $178,000.

Did you know that you can become the envy of your friends and neighbors by creating a tax-free business out of buying and selling fixer-upper houses? It’s true, and Ralph Roberts Realty can show you how!

According to real estate expert Robert Bruss, by buying houses, fixing them up, and occupying them for at least 24 months before selling, you can earn upwards to $250,000 in tax-free profits (or $500k for a married couple where both spouses meet the occupancy test and file a joint tax return) for your hard work and efforts. Bruss says this process can be repeated over and over again, without limit, but not more frequently than once every 24 months. The same technique, he says, can be used on vacation and second homes that become your principal residence in order to meet the 24-month ownership and occupancy test.

For more information, start with the article located at this link, and then contact our office for more information.