Condo at the beach

This UnReal Deal is for a condo that overlooks the sandy Beulah beach on Crystal Lake. The downtown location puts you within walking distance of pretty much anything you need, and with the public beach across the street, tennis courts, playground and a park next door it'd made for play.

Great spot to enjoy the fireworks on Independance Day and during Beulah's Winterfest, soak in summer sunsets, or watch waves of snow roll down the 7 mile length of Crystal Lake in the winter.

The seller just knocked $70,000 of the price to make

sure this sells...now. At $229,000 you're getting a 2400 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath condo with a full basement and 2 car garage. Oh, and it comes mostly furnished!

Here's the link to the listing. Thanks to John Czehowski from my office for mentioning this to me.

Give me land, lots of land

My newest UnReal Deal is all about the acreage.

2 Bedrooms, 1 bath, 1232 square feet, plus a 58x 60 horse barn and 66.9 acres. That's right SIXTY SIX acres. How much would you pay for all this? For a limited time, it's yours for only $145,000.

Here are the listing details

Average price per acre for parcels 5 acres or larger is $3261, indicating a land value alone well in excess of $200,000. This proprety was just listed, by Tim Reid, RE/Max Bayshore properties, and while I haven't toured it yet, it hit my radar and caught my attention.

5 acres, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2k square feet= 1 great deal

Lots of deals are getting picked off before I get a chance to write about them, and the rate at which new bank-owned listings are hitting the market has slowed. But I did find this sweetheart of an UnReal Deal this week, listed by Carolyn Lalas of Real Estate One in Beulah.

It's a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 bedroom home in nice condition. The 5 acre parcel is mostly open, with corrals and paddocks (?) for horses, as well as a large horse barn. It has a one car attached garage, plus a detached 2 car garage. All for $107,900? That was unheard of not long ago (like when I was looking for a house!)

The house was originally listed at $229,000, and dropped to $185,000 before the bank took ownership.

Here's what has prevented it from selling in my opinion:

First, it's layed out upside down. Really. All but one bedroom is on the main level, along with a family room, laundry room, and a mud room. Upstairs is a living room, another bedroom, and THE KITCHEN. Strange, but there's loads of room to relocate the kitchen to the main level in the future.

Second... I got nothin'. At this price, it should have sold by now.

What can I get for...

This UnReal Deal isn't about a particular property.  Rather, it's about what you can get for your money.  I was playing around with some numbers the other day, and in doing so found that I'd illustrated to myself some of the reasons it makes sense to consider buying now.

What got me thinking was a conversation with the renter of one of the homes I'm selling, who is looking for a new rental home.  They're not prepared to buy right now, but it got my gears turning.

Let's say that they are paying around $750.00 for the house they are renting now.  That house should sell for around $65,000.  So by renting, they get a $65,000 house for $750 a month.  A house something like this.

I checked rates with both SRC Mortgage and Honor State Bank and found that 30 year RD (Rural Development) rates are around 4.75%.  This is a 100% loan product (requires seller contribution to buyers closing costs.)

Based on those rates, $750.00 a month would get you $143,775 in mortgage.  Now, I don't advise anyone spend all that they can afford, and you've got to figure in ownership costs like insurance and taxes, so let's back that down to $600 a month.  That gets you $115,020 in mortgage purchasing power.  Something more like this

So in this example, our hypothetical renter could buy, thereby investing in their own home (not their landlords), take advantage of mortgage interest deduction on their tax return, build equity, get an $8000 tax credit (if they haven't owned a home in the last 3 year), and live in a lot more house!

Let's look at this another way... imagine the buyer who qualified three years ago, based on a monthly payment of $500.  Back then, interest rates were around 6.5%, giving them $79,105 in purchasing power.  Now, at 4.75%, that same $500 would get them $95,850 in purchasing power!

Now put those numbers to work and make them real- search out some listings on my website and see how much house that buys you.  I think you'll be suprised, maybe even amazed.

If I haven't lulled you to sleep, and you want information specific to your situation, you can contact me using one of the tools in the sidebar, or leave a message below.

The deals are back...

The long hiatus in UnReal Deals postings hasn't been for want of great deals, but rather because I've been too busy selling them to write about them.  I've had two properties that I've been starting to write up, only to get an offer before I could get to that point.

Today's UnReal Deal is one that I'm itching to buy myself.  If it was about 10 miles farther north, closer to my office and my kids school, I'd have my current home on the market today.

Here's the rundown:  Located near Bear Lake, 2210 square feet, Chalet style with a huge loft (like 700 square feet!) and a wall of windows looking out toward orchards to the north.  Hilltop setting, but not too high, 2 bedrooms on the main level, main floor laundry and a beautiful bathroom with jacuzzi tub and walk in shower, finished in tile.

Walkout basement also has an egress window opposite the walkout, making it prime for finishing.  Two car attached garage, deck of the back, river rock (cultured stone I believe) chimney, vinyl siding.

Built about 2006, appears to have been hardly lived in, some trim was left unfinished, but the bank that now owns it attended to much of that, plus installed carpet where it was missing, finished grout and tile work in the bathroom, and installed a range.

It's on 7.57 acres, mostly older orchard, very attractive (especially when the blossoms come out in spring.)  And the bonus?  At the rear of the property, set away from the house, is a 40 x 100 pole barn.  That's 4000 square feet of open space for whatever toys you fancy.

I thought it was a good deal at $189k.  A great deal at $164,900.  Seller just dropped the price to $159,800- an UnReal Deal!  

Here's a link to more info and photos, or connect with me using one of the tools to the right.

UnReal Deal on newer home on 5 acres

I'm always happiest when my UnReal Deals feature one of my own listings. That means I'm doing a good job positioning my listings in the market, and my sellers are truly motivated to sell and have priced accordingly.

That's the case this time, as I've selected a house I just listed. It's a six year old BOCA modular home (big step up from a manufactured, stick built quality) with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths that's in exceptionally good condition for a bank owned (foreclosed) property. There's 5 acres of land, a 24 x 30 pole barn and a storage shed.

The house was offered as recently as October for $159,900. It just hit the market at $85,000 and the calls have started coming in already.

Here's a link to more information and additional photos. As always, you can use the resources in the sidebar to contact me, or visit http://www.benzierealestate.com/ to search inventory throughout Northwest Michigan.

Deal on Platte Lake

My latest UnReal Deal is another brokers listing on Platte Lake. It's been a while since I've seen a cottage available on this wonderful lake at a price like this. It's a true seasonal cottage, not some grandiose resort property, but with 51 feet of private frontage, 3 bedrooms plus a bunkroom above the garage, there's a lot of fun being offered for less than $250,000.

Click here to see more detailed information

Platte Lake is about 3 miles by 2.5 miles, a great all sports lake, and the Platte River flows through it. Median sale price on the lake for the past 2 years was $453,500, and median price for active listings is $585,000, with several listings over $1,000,000.

If you're interested in learning more about this listing or any others on Platte Lake, let me know! You can email me or use one of the tools on the sidebar to contact me via social networks or send me a text.

Listing courtesy of ReMax Bayshore Properties, 500 S Union Street Traverse City, Mi 49684