People never believe me when I tell them they have a good choice of houses for sale for less than $10,000; many below $5000.  Looking for a deal?  Check out these from the Memphis Area Assoc. of Realtors MLS:

Some investors buy houses like these by the dozen. If you have some cash, some of these, or others like them could be quite rewarding to you urban pioneers out there.

[Note: This slide show is dynamic and will update as properties come on the market or are sold.]
Also added a cheap house page on spake.com http://spake.com/memphis-cheapest-houses/

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

Don’t miss this outstanding, well-maintained traditional home tucked away in one of the most charming East Memphis neighborhoods.  Three very large bedrooms, all with built-in bookshelves, updated kitchen, formal LR and DR, den (could be 4th BR), plenty of closets and storage, and 2-car garage. Hardwood throughout, NEW roof and all new, energy-efficient windows!  Private, fenced in backyard with deck and children’s playset make this a great family home.  Convenient to schools, shopping, restaurants, and the University of Memphis.  Owners have found another home and are motivated to sell.

For lots more info go to 4399Fairmeadow.com.  Contact me directly for showings.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

I got a call from a reporter a while back doing an article about the practice of burying a St. Joseph statue in your yard to facilitate the sale of your home. While I have never tried this myself, I did post about the purported power of St. Joseph in December, 2007.

It was fun to re-read the post from Ardell at Seattle’s Rain City Guide that prompted that post 2 years ago.  It tells the long story of the tradition.   I was thinking about St. Joseph today and what he could do for today’s real estate market.  Perhaps it will take divine intervention to turn things around, but I would really like to know what the Church’s position is on the St. Joseph-buried-in-the-yard procedure.

Amazon.com offers 11 different St. Joseph Home Selling kits, ranging from $6.95-14.99, with even more in the sponsored links (some as low as $3.69).  I guess I should order some for testing purposes.

I was especially attracted to EcoJoe, the Original Eco-Friendly Saint Joseph Statue Real Estate Home Selling Kit, billed as “The Hardest Working Saint in Real estate.”  Hmmm, the packaging and marketing message certainly reaches out and grabs you.

So what do you think?  Is burying a religious icon in the yard a good way to get a house sold?  Can a friendly Eco-Joe bring in buyers for my listings?  Or can a real estate broker named Joe get the job done all alone?

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

Here’s another installment of the Memphis Windshield Tours series.  These little videos are not intended to be travel guides.  I am making them to give you a drive-through taste of the character of Memphis’s neighborhoods.

The South Main Historic District:

Be sure and check out  “Neighborhoods”  under the “About Memphis” tab for  neighborhood information as we build it.  I welcome your suggestions for future tours.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.

I can always depend on my friend Bill Wendel to have a new and radical perspective on anything that has to do with the real estate consumer.  His post on expired listings made me wonder why expired and withdrawn listng numbers are not reported in the media.  If stats like pending sales (vs. actual sales, I guess) can make real estate headlines, why not also use expired, canceled and withdrawn listings, let’s call them FAILED listings as Ardell Of Rain City Guide does in her posts on the impact of failed listings on the overall real estate market.

The graph above shows the number of sold listings vs. the number of failed listings for the entire Memphis area  for 2009 up through 12/29.

But where do the failed listings g0? Looking at the graph, the number of failed sales, equaled or exceeded the number of completed sales in the above $200,000 price range.  Sure, some of these owners renewed their listings,  re-listed with another agent, or maybe even tried the for sale by owner route.  This may look normal under static conditions, but new listings are being added to the mix every day.  If the failed listings just went away, everything would look dandy for the market, but they are out there somewhere.

Here are the numbers that generated the graph:

Let’s look at the at the $300,000-500,ooo price range.   853 properties sold, 844 current listings, and 1104 Fails.  Even if all those completed sales had, at one time- which seems highly unlikely, been classified as Fails, that still leaves 251 properties unaccounted for, unless we roll that figure to current listings.  So we know we have the shadow market of  the properties that the banks have already foreclosed but are not putting on the market, but what’s to be said of the failed listings, and how do we know what their status is in the overall market?

Also,  the spreadsheet shows the absorption rate, based on months supply.  6 and below indicates a strong seller’s market.  Above 6 months favors buyers.  Since there are so many more properties priced below $200,000 the average rate for the overall market would be skewed downward, but, bottom line, if you are on the market with $Million property, there is a 3.5 year supply to compete with.  Prediction for 2010:   The shadow market will lead to continued decreasing sales prices in most areas.

Once again as I always say, all markets are micro.  Drill the stats down for your area and price range to the smallest, closest, and most comparable areas to see where you really stand in this market.

For an interview to anlyze your Memphis property’s marketability, and to review my Web 2.0 marketing tools call for an interview at 901-214-5563.  Sometimes listing your property is not to best course of action.  Let’s talk.

Joe Spake is a Memphis, Tennessee based Consultant, Real Estate Broker, and Blogger. Call 901.214.5563 for a consultation or click to make a social connection.
If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to the RSS Feed. 

If you use Google+, I have just started a brand new business page. Visit it HERE.