Greater Cleveland Real Estate Blog

Have a great weekend, happy and joyful Holiday season!

С наступающим Новым Годом!

Sincerely,

Svetlana Stolyarova, Local-n-Global Realty

Dear Frustrated Owners of the expired houses and condos in Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Mayfield, Pepper Pike, Solon and other neighborhoods of Greater Cleveland!

There are Just Two Simple Reasons Why Your Listing Expired

•   Wrong Marketing Analysis = Wrong Pricing
• Insufficient Marketing by Your Previous Agent

Your house in Greater Cleveland did not sell. You can not afford to try the market any more.

Don't be frustrated! It happens mostly because you were not aware of the Real market condition in your neighborhood. We can only wish that miracle happens and all our houses will get their value back overnight. Realistically speaking, it's time to re-assess the market and develop the new marketing strategy for selling your home.

Before extending your existing listing agreement or hiring another Real Estate agent to market and sell your house in Solon, Pepper Pike, Mayfield, Twinsburg or other suburbs of Greater Cleveland, please review your previous marketing strategy first.  

Most houses do not sell because sellers and their agents do not do the right assessment of current market.

In order to do it right, you need to:

1)                      compare your house with the other Cleveland houses offered for sale, especially  in your immediate neighborhood. In order to sell, your price should be in a low 25 % of the list of comparable properties

2)                      analyze which properties are getting the contracts - compare your house with those which are contingent or pending on sales, including bank owned properties and short sales

3)                      be honest about the condition of your property in comparison with those which were sold or getting the contracts.

 GOOD NEWS!

In order to start making this assessment, please sign for Market Snapshot. This great non-invasive service may help you understand how market is really doing in your neighborhood.   Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or for professional interpretation of the data. Call me directly  216-548-4663.

Please do not forget that on today's competitive market price itself does not sell the houses. We sell houses in Greater Cleveland today only by combination of right pricing, ready-to-show condition and aggressive marketing.

Happy Holidays and a better, luckier New Year!

I am glad that the sellers of homes in Richmond Heights, condos in South Euclid or any Real Estate in Cleveland Heights do not pay much attention to NAR's public awareness campaign of 2008. Especially that Ad where young lady says that value of Real Estate doubles every ten years. Duh...

Yes, that's true that homeowners in many neighborhoods of Greater Cleveland can hardly sell their houses for less than they paid 15 years ago! That's sad and discouraging unless you look at the things from the other prospective.

Is there free housing anywhere in the world? What is alternative to homeownership for the family? Apartment for rent? Renting the house or condo? What else?

Let's say there are two hypothetic families in South Euclid, OH. Let's imagine, it's New Year of 1993. One family bought a lovely condominium at The Lofts for $110,000, another one preferred to rent an apartment. 

In 15 years the first family needs to sell their condo. I agree, that's not the best timing for sale. Prices are going down, financing is not available for those who might be ready to buy, foreclosures are flooding the market. However, people sell and buy not when it's good but when they need it.

So - the other family still rents the apartment. The first one sells for less than $110,000. Wow! Where are our friends from NAR? I feel sorry for the sellers but I feel much more sorry for those who rented all these years. Both families made comparable monthly payments during all these years but - the first family received about $100K from sale of their property. The second family gets nothing. Even financially homeownership is more beneficial than rent! Even on awful market of 2008.

There are much more  benefits of homeownership.  Sense of stability and settlement, bigger space which you organize as you wish, flowers which you plant, love to your Home which you feel.

So, if you are making a decision Is it good to buy or  better to rent, please think bigger than money. Even moneywise homeowners win. Be reasonable. Make responsible decision. And buy. Now.

Your Greater Cleveland Real Estate consultants will help to find the best home for you and your family.

Call 24/7 :  877-770-5551 or 216-548-4663 during business hours.

E-mail to: Realty@Local-n-Global.com

I like to explore new widgets and tools to promote my client's properties for sale in Greater Cleveland.

I've already posted about benefits of using Listings on map provided by RealBird.com.

I also gave my credit to an exciting marketing tool to promote our Greater Cleveland listings offered for free by Propertypreviews.com in my post:

Another great marketing instrument to promote our listings. My condo at Mayfield Rd. is a movie star!

Today I want to introduce you my new discovery: animoto.com. Please preview my first video created at Animoto.

Need to sell your home in Aurora, Solon, Beachwood, Pepper Pike, Mayfield? Need a knowledgeable, creative, responsible agent to market and sell your Greater Cleveland Real estate?

Please call Svetlana Stolyarova 216-548-4663

Realty@Local-n-Global.com.

Good relationship with past clients is crucial for building a strong basis for repeat business. Repeat business is very good for Real Estate professionals as it secures the stable, less stressful income and makes business itself shine like a star. Agent's repeat business is also beneficial for another clients of this agent as it brings a lot of very decent and even exciting opportunities otherwise to be hidden or non-existing.

Here is one option which I am glad to share with you. The good old client of mine is offering a very nice office space on the main floor of his own office building conveniently located just a block away from major highways I-480 and I-271, right across the street of the SouthGate Plaza. Good tenant needed to share this nicely remodeled building with the Medical transportation company which occupies the lower level.

Links Let's talk Greater Cleveland Real Estate Start MLS Search Photo Gallery Description Nice, light and bright office space is offered for rent for just $750/month. Great location - right on the intersection of Libby Rd. and Warrensville Center Rd., block away from I-480, I-271, I-422. 750 sq. ft. of nicely appointed space on the main floor of newly remodeled office building. All new energy saving windows, new roof, remodeled interior, nice entry. Additional space available. Please call Svetlana Stolyarova 216-548-4663 for more details and for appointments. Features Square Footage: 750 # of Private Offices: 4 Located on Floor #: main Floors in Bldg: 2 Parking Spaces: 6 Location 21821 Libby Rd. Bedford Heights OH 44146 Powered by vFlyer.com vFlyer Id: 2110056

Please contact Svetlana Stolyarova, Local-n-Global Realty at 216-548-4663.

You may call our Local-n-Global Real Estate Hotline 877-770-5551. It is available 24/7.

Ten years and three days ago the airplane with my family landed in Chicago's O'Hare airport. We entered the United States with eyes wide open, open minds and desire to explore and absorb the American spirit. We came here from Moscow - the capital city of Russia, former USSR. We were neither too young, nor naive. We lived under Communists, we enjoyed the freedom of the first years of romantic post-Soviet capitalism followed by not-that-enjoyful power of bureaucratic state oligarchy. We believed in America. We still do.

I earned my Real Estate sales license in less than a year after arrival to the United States. My choice was clear: we needed to explore and understand the core rules of American life. The core was in the homeownership - genuine American Dream.

I was always fortunate to meet right people in my life. My new American friends and colleagues were all the right people. My neighbors Jean and John welcomed us to our first neighborhood (we still live on the same street). Annual neighborhood parties held on the third Sunday of August by friendly neighbors. Beauty and magic of Holiday decoration created by regular people not because the City officials demand it (like it was back in Russia) but solely because of love and joy.

My first office and my first broker - amazing Barbara Antonelli who taught me the REALTORS' Basics and encouraged my creativity. Patience of my first clients who appreciated my enthusiasm, professional habits and ability to learn  while suffering from my not so perfect English. Thanks to all of them, I made it to become a Millionaire Club member that year.

I remember very well that many of MLS descriptions said: Pride of homeownership! Pleasure to show! It was then - in Before-the Crisis life. It was custom to be proud homeowner. It paid well to be proud homeowner.

Not now. Few days ago Liz Pulliam Weston from MSN Money published the article Is your home worth keeping. Normal for today's crazy world article with "sound" advice on how to not only abandon your American Dream but also capitalize on this!

Author writes: "I was furious the first time I read about homeowners living for free while their lenders foreclosed, a process that can take up to a year. It seemed dishonorable to stay in a home you weren't paying for. But again, in purely financial terms, it made sense, since people could save up the money they had been spending on mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance."

How come that "purely financial terms" are overcoming pride, honor, dreams? How's come that Big Brothers - whoever they are - banks, Wall Street rulers, or government,  started encouraging people to take unreasonable loans against artificially overappraised properties while easing the process of bankpupcy. How it became possible to allow lending to these bankrupts in 24 months (!) after bankrupcy discharge?

What's behind the banks' decision to allow the short sales mostly on the properties with delinquent payments? What about one of the "Stimulus" gems - right to restructure the loan ONLY if you are 3 months late on payments? Looks like more and more people are asking the same question: Are we idiots to make mortgage payments? See how many benefits and help come to those who don't make it. The whole system works to assist those who don't pay! 

Happily for this great country, not everyone is thinking "in purely financial terms."

I do believe in America! I am blessed to know and work for many, many people who are proud to be responsible, honor-bound homeowners. I do believe that honor and pride are not extinct, not even eroded despite the efforts of those who used to think and act "in purely financial terms".