Milford Michigan Home Buying

Ann Arbor Real Estate Eyesore Coming Down

2009-06-29T12:31:00.001-05:00

The old Ramada Inn building on Jackson Rd. Is being taken down. Good
news for the neighborhood

This is a big job and I saw three different excavators over there
getting the job started including a big Link Belt LS-5000.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent picture of that because of the
fence.

Here is a little Cat unit

Blogged from my iPhone.

Top of The Park in Ann Arbor

2009-06-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

ToTP is an annual thing in Ann Arbor where there are a bunch of free
evening concerts and performances and it is a lot of fun.

This is the first night this year and a band called NoMo is playing a
great set.

Bad electrical work

2009-05-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm out at an inspection today and it isn't a big deal, but this looks
like some typical homeowner wiring.

At least the actual joints are in wirenuts. It would have been a lot
worse if the had just been wrapped together and then electrial taped.

However any electrical joints like this should have been put in an
electrical box.

Buyers on a roof during an inspection

2009-05-05T14:07:00.001-05:00

I think it is a good idea for someone to be on the roof with the home
inspector.

If the buyers don't want to go up I will.

You can learn a lot about your home.

Pulte and Centex, America's two largest builders, merging

2009-04-09T08:57:00.004-05:00

Pulte and Centex, the two largest builders in the country, have decided to merge.

Both builders have been active in this area. Centex has a line of entry level homes and Pulte has targeted homes a little higher on the size scale. We've helped many buyers purchase home from both builders over the years.

This economic thing is really creating some unusual mergers.

If you would like a real estate company to help you buy a Milford or South Lyon home and actually be on your side, call us.

The Home Buyer's Agent, helping Western Oakland County home buyers for 15+ years.
1908 W. Stadium Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-662-6240

Milford has a lot of nice nature

2009-03-28T19:57:00.003-05:00

Milford does have a lot of nice nature. In studying nature I just ran across a site I wanted to share. (Not Milford or Michigan related, but nature related.)

http://www.mountainstewards.org/

Specifically interesting is the Trail tree project. These are trees that were used to mark trails at some point. http://www.mountainstewards.org/

Let me know what you think.

A different way to mount a Dish antenna

2009-03-16T13:57:00.000-05:00

How well do you understand how furnaces work?

2009-01-31T12:44:00.002-05:00

Hundreds of people see this at a local bank in the winter.

Now I'm not a furnace expert but I am a home buying expert, and I
think there is something wrong here.

Do you recognize the problem?

Update:

I looked up some installation instructions for the bank service person:

http://www.htproducts.com/literature/lp-166.pdf

Here is another:

http://www.dnmech.com/lit/good_dcvk_IO-619A.pdf

Download Suze Orman financial book for free till the 15th

2009-01-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to pass this on.

Suze Orman is a top financial advisor who has a very informative TV show. (She also recommends home buyers talk to Exclusive Buyer Agents if there are any working in the buyer's area.)

Here is the link:

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdownload

(This is courtesy of Oprah, Thank you Oprah!)

Jon Boyd

Broker/Manager, CEBA-Master, CBA, CBR, GRI, e-PRO
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc. 1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-662-6240, 888-566-2693
Helping Home Buyers Locate, Evaluate, and Negotiate
http://www.buyersagentannarbor.com

The governments suggested New Year Resolutions

2009-01-02T18:41:00.002-05:00

The Us government has a list of popular and worthwhile New Year's resolutions.

Resolutions

My only issue is I don't see one on getting a great deal on a Milford home purchase in 2009. What's up with that??

Here is the finished tree!

2008-12-21T22:22:00.001-05:00

Smaller lot bit nicer Christmas trees

2008-12-21T11:36:00.001-05:00

These next posts are on the same subject. The pictures were just posted directly from my iPhone and you can't send multiple pictures on the same email yet with that, so, three posts.

For about sixteen of the last seventeen years my wife and I have gone out and cut our own trees for Christmas. But, we've been unhappy the last few with tree farms in Washtenaw County.

Since we have a buyer's agent in our office who is very familiar with the Milford / Hartland / Brighton areas we asked Laura Degiovanni for her recommendations.

She suggested we check out the farms off M-59 near Hickory Ridge Rd.

The first we went to was Middle Rd. Farm. All their trees were priced at $40 and they seemed like very nice people, but we didn't really find one that was the right shape for us.

We then stopped by a large farm called Broadview that was actually closed. (We heard that they normally just sell cut trees and they were basically sold out for the year.)

Our third stop was Conrad Rader's farm at 3400 Tipsico Trail. This farm is actually in Holly and is smaller that the others. But, Conrad takes much better care of his trees and even though there were fewer trees, we gound that there were a lot that were very nicely shaped and in nice condition.

We ended up with an eight foot spruce that is one of the nicest trees I can remember having in our home.

Christmas Charlie

2008-12-21T11:35:00.003-05:00

This is Christmas Charlie. He was at the the Conrad Rader farm ready to help and play with any visitors. (If I heard it right, Charlie is a little girl dog.

Christmas tree shopping in Milford

2008-12-21T11:32:00.002-05:00

This is my wife next to the tree we picked out. (She has a big smile because there was more than one nice tree to pick from!

Home Buyer Alert site has good stuff!

2008-11-16T15:35:00.002-05:00

A home buying expert in Charlotte North Carolina has a bunch of interesting stuff on her blog. I just saw a post on asbestos removal.

Charlotte real estate buying advice

Search Engine Curiosities

2008-10-06T16:14:00.001-05:00

Today I was doing some search engine inquiries to see how our webpages faired in the big three search engines "GYM". (That is SEO guy speak for Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The three big players left in web searches.)

I found that our Ann Arbor buyer agent web site came up in the first place on one of the search engines as one might expect. But when I did the same search on another machine in the office the site wasn't in the first two pages of results.

Very strange!

By next month I should be doing optimization for South Lyon Real Estate searches!

Jon Boyd, Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
Member office of http://naeba.org
734-6620-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!

Website for Good Mortgage Fraud Information

2008-08-25T10:38:00.002-05:00

FlippingFrenzy.com (linked above) is a great site for information on mortgage abuse and mortgage fraud.

There are many examples of home buyers and home owners who have suffered from bad advice. (Sometimes from family members.)

In the last 20 years of helping home buyers we have never had a buyer tricked into one of these bad loan situations.

Helping Home Buyers Locate, Evaluate, and Negotiate great home deals!
Jon Boyd, Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
http://buyersagentannarbor.com/
734-6620-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!

Turkey buzzards come with this 1.1 million dollar home

2008-07-23T08:00:00.002-05:00

This has got to be one of my stranger blog posts, but, I was previewing homes today in a very upscale neighborhood and saw this million plus Ann Arbor home with a family of turkey buzzards sitting on the roof.

I just snapped this picture with my iphone camera so you have to look pretty close, but there are four buzzards on the peak of the roof. There are also three more visible in the tree above the home.

Very weird!

Loan officer from Ann Arbor Lender pleads guilty

2008-06-12T07:37:00.003-05:00

The Columbus dispatch ran an article today about loan officer Kenyatta Johnson who worked for ABN Ambro in Ann Arbor.

Seems Kenyatta admitted she approved fraudulent mortgage-loan applications for Columbus Ohio home in return for kickback money.

If you click on the article linked above and go to the last sentence you see there are two other defendants in the case who have not yet pleaded guilty. One of them is named Jonathan Boyd! (My name!)

Glad he is in Columbus and not here in the Milford - Ann Arbor area.

Important Inspection Tip for Milford Home Buyers

2008-05-11T12:37:00.003-05:00

This link goes to a story about a home in Ann Arbor, but the principle also applies to homes build in the last 13 or 14 years in the Milford Michigan area.

The specific concern in homes with an exterior finish of Drivit or EIFS or Exterior Insulation Finishing System or .... Stucco. These are all basically the same and even though they work fine in many commercial buildings, they can cause tremendous issues for homes.

Here again is the link: Stucco Problem on Milford homes

What the "buyer agent" from the traditional company won't tell you

2008-04-18T14:09:00.002-05:00

There is an interesting post on Trulia that I ran across recently from a "buyer specialist" who works for a "team" at a traditional real estate company.

Remember the idea of having a buyer agent is that they will give you:

1. Unbiased exposure to homes
2. Negotiate in your best interest
3. Be loyal to you and your needs
4. Keep your confidential information confidential

Well at that large local company the "buyer specialist" gets paid 25% more if she sells you an in-house listing. How is that for "unbiase expose to homes"???

Buying a Milford home built from the 40's to the 60's?

2008-04-14T09:16:00.002-05:00

If you are buying a home in Milfor Michigan built during the late 40's, 50's or early 60's, you want to know what kind of sewer line the home has.

Here is a video inspection of a sewer line that turned out to be "Crock" type pipe. I'll be posting videos of some of the other sewer material we find in homes of this age.

What you really want to be careful about is "Orangeburg" type pipe.

Prudential broker writes laws in one state, breaks in the next

2008-03-26T16:46:00.001-05:00

I Just heard from an Exclusive Buyer's Agent out west who noticed something from their professional licensing bureau that caught her eye.

The Iowa licensing bureau fined a Nebraska broker and 5 of his agents $7,500 for practicing real estate in Iowa without an Iowa license. The company, a Prudential franchise, was licensed in Omaha, they were just doing business in Iowa.

Here is the interesting point:

The broker that was guilty in Iowa is a member of the real estate commission in Omaha! The guy helps write laws in Omaha and he breaks them in Iowa!

Good Insights For Negotiations With Builders

2008-03-17T00:15:00.002-05:00

Here is an article based on interviews with 6 toop exclusive buyer agents from across the country on negotiation with builders.

Negotiation with builders article

Exclusive Buyer Agent - now being faked by regular agents?

2008-03-10T08:35:00.003-05:00

If you have been researching homes and home buying you may already know that the definition of "Exclusive Buyer Agent" is a company who only represents buyers, never sellers. They never take listings.

In Michigan there are some real estate agents who are falsely advertising "EBA" in hopes of tricking uneducated buyers. Well it turns out Michigan isn't the only place this is going on.

Home buying expert Julie Tuggle recently posted an article here that goes into some detail:

Will the REAL Exclusive Buyer's Agent Please Stand Up?

Nice writing Julie!