I am wondering if anyone markets Ann Arbor as a destination city.  We hear of destination resorts all the time.  When I attend one of the sessions at the National Association of Realtors convention, one of the speakers was talking about demographics and the future buying population.    The statistics were emphasizing the interest of "boomers" in places with lots of activity and university communities are a growing draw for those buyers.  I haven't seen anything from AA2 that targets this population.  Is this something the real estate community could get behind? 12/10/2007

An appraiser alerted me to this website and I was amused at the concept.  I uploaded my business card photo and made an elfin' fool of myself!  Quite silly and probably not something you want to share with your more serious friends or clients.  I sent my elfin' self to my college daughter.  I hope she LOLs all week - it's finals....  http://www.elfyourself.com 12/09/2007

Miracles are happening in Ann Arbor, that's for sure...  For starters, I will have closed three December deals by Wednesday, had a verbal offer on another of my listed properties today and also turned down another offer - TURNED DOWN AN OFFER that was close to asking price since the sellers felt they could do better - and I think they are right; there were too many uncertainties and conditions in the deal for it to feel right to them or to me.  Another one will come along soon; we're not worried.  Besides that, the two deals of today were for the same sellers and they would have been instantly homeless without time to look since they are leaving the country for Europe for nearly a month.  (I'm driving them to the airport - please see my "real estate whore" blog...)  I did a second showi... 12/09/2007

This week we were lucky enough to have Jeff Swimmer attend a book signing for his very clever book:  A Field Guild To Household Bugs.  This is a very typical type of event for Ann Arbor area.  We love our books and authors and this presentation by Jeff was really great with wonderful, engaging questions from the Jeff and answers from the audience.  The prizes Jeff provides for the answers are lollipops but in the middle is a captured bug.  Talk about cool.  The kids just loved him and the adults who were lucky enough to attend, were intrigued as well.If someone is interested in getting published he will answer questions and he has a willingness to share that is wonderful.   Who would have guessed there are so many interesting facts about bugs?  If Jeff Swimmer comes to your area I highl... 12/09/2007

Just before THanksgiving I did an update on lake activity for 2007 in the areas that I focus on at my web site, www.annarborlakeliving.com  At that time there were 178 active listings and 78 sales for the year.  In addition, 6 pendings were indicated.  Of the sales, 13 were over $500,000.  The challenge with these numbers is not knowing how long each of these properties was on the market and some are listed under realcomp and AAABOR.  My general observation would be that cottages are still of interest to buyers, perhaps because the cost of gasoline has increased so much that driving north is not as attractive.  Most of the highest priced properties were more the McMansion style on all -sport  lakes or on smaller "pond" type settings.  It will be interesting to see if this trend continue... 12/07/2007

Today is our only son's eighteenth birthday.  How did we get here so quickly?  I remember the day we sent him off to kindergarten, having completed the crying the night before, wondering if the kids would like him despite his speech impediment.  We wondered if that meant he wasn't intelligent, wouldn't be able to socialize properly, wouldn't have a "normal" life.Here we are in his senior year of high school, and...he is wildly intelligent, he is wildly sociable, and he DOES NOT have a normal life.  That speech impediment?  Yeah, he still has that, but they dismissed him in eighth grade from speech therapy with the only thing left to do being to remove the British accent he acquired while we lived in England for two years.  It was impossible, they eventually decided.  A British accent is... 12/04/2007

I have been stuggling with a huge dilemma this year in that we cannot afford to pay our daughter's college tuition - believe me we can't - despite the fact that we had told her we could and never doubted we could.  My income was meant to cover that.  Michigan real estate is not currently making me wealthy though I know I am better off than many in my office.  We have promised to help pay the student loans when they come due, if we can afford to - we have another child entering college in 2008 and the third following in 2010.  Time will tell.To make matters worse, there are to be additional expenses this year that will be debilitating to her and even more impossible for us, a $10,000 study abroad program that she applied for, was accepted into, and will in her words, "make up for the Uni... 12/02/2007

Boy, I would love to write a great blog tonight.  Like the one I wrote last night that disappeared into thin air when I was playing with the images of turkey, chili, soup, and "abundance of bowls" that I was trying to insert into the blog.  I have a lot to learn....Tonight I am going to keep it really simple and talk about the Fiddlers ReStrung concert that is going to held at Saline, Michigan's state-of-the-art community theater in Saline High School on Sunday, December 2nd.  I spent about 7 hours there today doing stage setup while the musicians did sound check.  We yelled over each other, tiptoed among the wires, poinsettias in hand, and debated where the Saline Fire Department "Toys For Tots" donations should be placed.  There will be actual US Marines there to accept the donations;... 11/30/2007

Kathy Toth & Team is Being Featured on House Hunters!Episode HNT-1901AIR TIMES:February 15, 2008 10:00 PM ET/PTFebruary 16, 2008 2:00 AM ET/PTTune in to view the Larger Place, Same Neighborhood episode!With a young baby growing fast, Dexter, Mich., residents Julie and Steven Wineman have decided it's time to move to a larger house. They hope that their real-estate agent Kathy Toth will be able to find them a four-bedroom home that is in their price range and located in the same neighborhood they have grown to love.If you know anybody who is a buyer, we have been asked to appear in two more episodes... call us and we can have them audition. 734-216-7845.Click here to search all listings in Michigan with pictures and tours - FREE!Kathy Toth and Teamwww.kathytoth.comReal Estate One 11/30/2007

This is why the media is wrong......in Ann Arbor, MI. and I suspect YOUR market area's too. Here is an email I got from one of my Buyer Agents yesterday in Ann Arbor, MI.  Besides this update she has 3 pendings. XXXXX wrote again tonight, fax it tomorrow. The house is in Fenton, its closer to his work than anything else we have looked at. 185k with 3 back, but the home is listed at 200k and its Sev is 139k.   They can only go up to 188k comfortably. I doubt it will fly but doing my very best to make it happen. They want to be in before Christmas and if this one doesn't fly that won't happen. XXXX AND XXX  are coming into town this weekend but there is nothing new to show them and they don't have that big of an interest in Overbrook because of the road. They talked about the crappy marke... 11/29/2007

I blogged earlier about Ann Arbor real estate, the low, the high, and the most high.  I also wished Michgan good luck in the OSU game - is it bad luck to say good luck in football, sort of like saying, "break a leg" to the theater group?  Maybe it was me who jinxed them.   I hope not.Anyway, two of my three deals I mentioned that day look like sure things and my third deal I am going to salvage if it kills me.  The listing agent knows they have an interested buyer and a difficult lender who doesn't understand local real estate.  We are going to approach local lenders - problem solved, we hope.My most high deal became sweeter upon inspection.  The verdict was that the property was very sound, despite age, and had some repairs needed but not astromical.  Buyers were not scared.  In fact t... 11/24/2007

For years the question, "Do I recommend that my seller clients have a pre-home inspections done on their home? For me, I always recommend it because it saves time! How does it save time? First, when a buyer is considering a home and they have a comprehensive report showing all the know problems in the house, they can make an offer based on all the known problems. Thus it eliminates the need to do it later after the inspections. Second, if my seller is financially able, we can repair the problems so we don't have to replace anything. Repair costs are ALWAYS cheaper than replacement costs.Lastly, In a market which has many clients are stretching to either buy or sell, Getting hit with additional costs after the original contract is signed is very hard to deal with and can sometimes break ... 11/21/2007

                           According a Michigan Daily News flash, I just received, Head Coach Lloyd Carr is retiring. He announced it to his players this afternoon when he met with them. A press conference is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10:00 in the Junge Champions Center on the campus of the University of Michigan.Lloyd Carr, had been Head football coach at the University of Michigan since 1995.He is the third winningest coach in U of M football history and has been here 13 seasons. Carr has a 121-40 record as head coach, winning 5 Big Ten Championships and one National Title Championship. For more information you can read the Michigan Daily report. The Detroit Fee Press also has more details of Carr's retirement.I hope the fans of U of  M football will appreciate his great legac... 11/18/2007

Working in Ann Arbor as a realtor has its ups and downs these days but the highs definitely outweigh the lows.  Witness today's events.1) LOW:  A "sure thing" deal fell completely apart and though I am confident the buyer will buy, it won't be this property that he loves and now it won't be until the spring.  It's a long story but suffice it to say, the fiasco was not due to buyer or seller capabilities or the appraisal figure; those darn lending restrictions can sometimes kill deals leaving the group of us with incredulous eyes and gaping mouths.  I pity every one of us involved in this deal and can't wait to make it right again one day. I'd sing that Coke jingle right now about how I'd like the world to live in perfect harmony but this story is painful enough already.2)HIGH:  A bankru... 11/14/2007

Myspace Countdowns What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Michigan?Michigan vs. Ohio State........this Saturday in Ann Arbor, where we both once again play for the Big Ten Championship.Thursday night, Banfields West Sports Bar in Ann Arbor is sponsoring a Chili Cook contest. My daughter entered with my Southurn Chili. Every area of the country has its own flavor of chili. Where I grew up in Paducah, KY my mom always added noodles and not beans.The first time my daughter ordered chili in Ann Arbor and it was served without noodles, she looked at the server and said, "Where's the noodles?"  The server told her you're talking about spaghetti. LOLThe Michigan and Ohio State football teams have been playing each other since 1897. However the rivalry didn't explo... 11/14/2007

I look at my photo and though I hated it when I finally settled on this shot and have come to accept it, I know I can do better.  But what is the ideal?  I want to look like myself.  I do not want to use a photo of me from my college graduation in the dark ages and pretend that is me now as some agents do.  Nor do I want to do one of those airbrushed, head flung back and sideways looks with the Oscar-worthy makeup and unreal hairstyle.  My clients are going to meet me as I am, imperfect, dressed but casual, definitely not Hollywood.   I don't want black and white though my daughter, as our Keller Williams receptionist for a year or so a while back, had a fabulous one that elicited responses from the high school boys who never asked her out, practically stalking her it was so sexy when s... 11/06/2007

ChristianRealEstateAgents.net is a website that connects buyers and sellers of real estate together with real estate agents that are believers of the good Word.A Better Referral Company LLC that runs the networking site has just added a Realtor agent in Ann Harbor Michigan to its team of Christian professionals. Washtenaw County, MIThanks for reading and participating in the growth of this Christian network where you can find Christian Realtors and loan officers that offer honest and reputable service.     Find Christian Realtors in Michigan and 49 other States.    10/25/2007

                           After a three year study by Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, on the energy saving use of LED lights, Ann Arbor announced that they would go forward with installing the LED Street lights. Not only does installing these LED lights save electricity but it also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions by 2,425 tons or in layman's terms it's like taking 400 cars off the road a year. The City of Ann Arbor's mission statement is: The City of Ann Arbor is committed to providing excellent municipal services that enhance the quality of life for all through the intelligent use of resources while valuing an open environment that fosters, fair, sensitive and respectful treatment of all employees and the community we serve. Other cities utilizing the LED lights are Raleigh, N.C an... 10/19/2007

We have updated our community and Ann Arbor real estate blog called www.AnnArborTalks.com This is a great place to find all kinds of information about Ann Arbor as well as local communities like Loch Alpine.  Come visit us and hey - if you don't see something you think would be a great addition to the site, let us know!  We'd love to hear from you! Visit us often as we are constantly updating the site!Kathy Toth and Teamwww.KathyToth.comKeller Williams RealtyClick here to search all listings in Michigan with pictures and tours - FREE! 10/15/2007

We read so many posts here on Activerain, about the market, the inventory, the lack of buyers, frustrated sellers, the economy, and the sub-prime mortgage industry, foreclosures, and the media.  There is tons of finger pointing.........the buyers signing things they didn't understand, the lenders for selling mortgages to uncredit worthy people, the appraisers for appraising houses higher than they should have, Realtors pricing too high. We have seen and read it all. As a licensed Broker, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, we saw the market turn back in summer of 2001. Yes, I said summer of 2001, before 9-11. For example, I had a client who had purchased a home in Saline, Michigan in 1998, the market was HOT. They made several offers on homes and weren't able to get them. or they were gone when the... 10/13/2007