For those of you that have started to receive their 2010 property tax assessments. This may help you fight your tax assessment. Despite what we all have seen in the local market for the last several years assessments continued to increase, despite frustration and yearly visits to the board of review.  Property values continued to rise according to your local assessor.  This is due to current law that allows a home's taxable value to increase each year by either the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. However, this tax year is particularly interesting because Michigan has a negative inflation rate. So, almost every homeowner should see a property tax decrease of at least .3%.  This form may help you be prepared to fight that assessment.  http://www.mirealtors.com/content/upload/... 03/03/2010

For those of you that qualified for the First Time Home Buyer tax credit.  You may be angered to learn that the IRS is reporting long delays and still no ability to e file for your return.  What does this mean to the consumer counting on the money to reimburse for closing costs and repairs?  It means months of delays to get the refund.  The new form was just released http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf   01/19/2010

Before jumping into market data, click on picture for Chelsea, Michigan Tour. As of September 30th, there were 162 active Chelsea homes down from 172 active homes for sale last month: ranging from 1 bedrooms to 6, 1 bathrooms to 7 and priced from $65,000 to $995,000. The average asking list price per square foot was $129.77 down from $137.41 last month. There have been 99 homes sold in Chelsea this year ranging in bedrooms from 1 to 5 and bathrooms from 1 to 6. The largest home sold was 3,800 square feet down to the smallest at 600 square feet. The average list price of the homes that sold in 2009 was $189,904 and the average sold price was $179,684. This represents an average annual sold price per square foot of $97.40. The sellers got an average of 94% of asking price this year. The C... 10/14/2009

Kelley, the Seller praises Kathy Toth Team for executing the sale of her Chelsea Ridge home. The house was listed last year and payments were being made until the seller moved to resume business in another city. The property was rented and when the tenant moved out, payments became impossible. We listed the house on 03/16/09 and had some buyers who decided to walk. Meanwhile, we got in touch with the loss mitigator at Countrywide. We got approval and the new buyer was able to close for full price at $175,000 on 8/3/09. Many sellers think it is better to just go to foreclosure. So I thought I would post the Homeowner Consequences of Foreclosure vs. Short Sale from the Certified Distressed Property Experts. Check out foreclosure-v-short-sale omeowner consequences. My hope is that Ann Arbo... 08/11/2009