Fritz Pfister

Welcome to “Real Estate from the Heartland, Lincoln’s Hometown”.

About the author of this blog. Fritz Pfister is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Illinois, affilliated with RE/MAX Professionals. A full time Realtor since 1987, Fritz founded “The Pfister Success Team, inc.” in the year 2000. Fritz’s area of specialization is residential real estate and ranks among the top 1% of residential agents in North America in closed residential transactions, has earned the prestegious RE/MAX International Lifetime Acheivement Award, and the RE/MAX International Chairman’s Award ,the highest award given for annual sales, three consecutive years. Fritz hosts a weekly live call in radio program “Let’s Talk Real Estate” on AM970 WMAY Staurday mornings at 10am, Springfield Illinois., and has completed over 500 programs. Fritz hosts 6 Home-Buyer, and Home-Seller seminars annually, produced DVD’s and videos of the seminars distributed as a free rental at the Schnucks on Montvale store in Springfield. Fritz will surpass 1600 closed real estate sales for his career in the year 2005.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as an educational, and informational news source regarding real estate. You can link to Fritz’s website SpringfieldHome.com to ask your real questions. The purchase or sale of a home is, or should be a very serious decision for most families. We hope to help with advice regarding the purchase process, or Fritz’s favorite, the selling process.

The first bit of advice is don’t believe real estate agents and companies are interchangeable. They are not. The average agent, in this the greatest real estate market in history, closes about 9 or 10 home sales a year. An agent in our market is considered a top producer if they close 30 or more sales a year. The systems Fritz has created produces about 150 sales a year. RE/MAX Professionals in Springfield outsells the next 4 companies combined, and has led the market as the number one brokerage 16 consecutive years, with Fritz Pfister as the company’s top producer for 7 of those years.

Regardless of the great differences in the production levels of real estate companies and agents, you are going to have greater success in the purchase or sale of a home with professional guidance. Just be aware of the vast differences in experience, services, and performance of agents and companies. Don’t do as most folks do, work with the first agent they meet. Interview 2 or 3 agents from 2 to 3 different companies before selecting an agent. Go to www.SpringfieldHome.com to find questions to ask agents. In my opinion there are only 2 types of agents, agents who’s primary concern is your interests, and agents who’s primary concern is their commission. I don’t begrudge anyone earning a living, however not at the future expense of a home buyer or seller.

Illinois is a designated agency state, meaning both buyers and sellers have the right under law to be represented in the market. The listing or buyer agreements have you and the real estate company as the principals to the contract, with an agent designated as your representative. Your designated agent is your representative, while all other agents, including agents working at the same company, represent other parties. This creates an opportunity for ‘dual agency’, a situation that can only occur with your written permission, and when a designated agent represents both buyer and seller to a transaction. Many problems arise from dual agency, mostly as a result of non-disclosure. Another reason to carefully select a reputable, and experienced agent. You may be from a state with differing laws regarding real estate sales, such as sub-agency(now illegal in Illinois), transaction brokerage, and others. Once again the purpose of this blog is to help you. Regardless of the laws of your state, the home buying process, and home selling process have the same basic fundamentals, which when followed will allow you to succeed.

For you in the Alan Greenspan locals enveloped in specualtive fervor, with prices that can’t be sustained, be careful! In my opinion these markets are a house of cards waiting to be tumbled when interest rates rise. There are going to be many speculators caught with properties that drop faster than a prom dress when rates increase. I don’t worry about speculators because it’s just money to them. The real worry here are the families that need a place to live but are forced to pay exhorbitant prices due to the speculators driving up prices. A recent study published in U.S.A. Today by National City Bank using historical sales data, income, and other factors determined that hundreds of local markets are overvalued, and some as much as 62%. How would you feel if tomorrow the market corrected and your homes’ value dropped 62%? Hope you don’t lose your job, and can stay in that home for the next real estate up cycle to raise the value to at least what you borrowed on the home! The only bubble in the Springfield Illinois housing market is created by people who purchase an overpriced home. Believe it or not the median price of a home in Springfield is $102,500. Yet through my years of experience, having lived through several real estate cycles, even in an affordable market you can lose a substantial amount of money!

How would a person over pay for their home? Take the overheated markets, overvalued due to demand exceeding supply, and supply being purchased by speculators in lieu of families, causing everyone to pay too much. In markets like Springfield where there is a 6 year high of inventory of homes for sale, and interest rates below 6%, and with 4.6% unemployment the only reason a person overpays is because they either purchased without representation, or purchased with a commisssion driven agent representing them. If you want to protect yourself hire a reputable, experienced agent. In Springfield my best guess would be that 70% of the homes listed with brokers, and 90% of homes listed by owner are over-priced. If you purchase on your own without representation, odds are better than good that you will be purchasing an overpriced home. How can that be? Having represented scores of buyers on exclusive representation contracts to purchase, we have had the opportunity to contact dozens of by owners on behalf of our clients. Only 1 in 10 were priced at a level worth showing. Why? By owners usually price where they want, or need, and neither of those bears any relationship to market value. Or the by owner has had 2 or 3 agents out for a market evaluation and told the seller a price below what the seller wanted or needed. Purchasing a by owner is one of two things, either the best buy you’ll ever find , or the worst. Nine times of ten it’s the worst. The buyers will never know which it is, until they go to sell the home. A piece of advice; if you buy an overpriced home, someday you’ll have to sell an overpriced home. Why take the risk?

I hope this first posting is found suitable. For any real estate topic you would like discussed on this blog visit www.SpringfieldHome.com or e-mail fritz@springfieldhome.com. Please e-mail Monday thru Friday between 8am & 3pm. I’m an old fashioned kind of guy, my staff prints my mail, I write my response and staff then e-mails you in return. So don’t expect quick response outside regular office hours!