Home Finder Service

There are many places to search for new homes in the Mobile Alabama area on the internet. All 4 of my websites: Gulf Region Properties Team, Alabama Best Homes, Baldwin County Life, and Steve Shaw Realtor has such home search tools.

Are you tired of searching everyday to see what is available? Are you afraid that you may miss that new listing that matches exactly the type of home you are looking for? Well I invite you to use our Home Finder Service. Once you are signed up the computer system will be doing the searches for you. Once new homes hit the market that match your needs, you get an instant e-mail or phone call, which ever you prefer. You do not have to worry about missing that special home that hits the market.

There is no cost or obligation for the home finder service. We can remove the search at anytime. Please let me know if you are interested by sending me an e-mail.

Marina and Restaurant For Sale

The Grand Mariner Marina and the Mariner Restaurant located in south Mobile Alabama are available for purchase. This commercial real estate listing is being marketed and advertised by Peggy Knight in our office. Both the restaurant and marine services operations are well known in the Mobile area and are considered local landmarks. Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to put you in contact with Peggy.

For additional information, please click here to see listing information, virtual tour, and slide show on our website.

Things are Really Moving Here. REALLY !!

The Mobile Area Association of Realtors and the Gulf Coast MLS have iniated a marketing campaign to let local buyers and sellers know that regardless of what the national real estate market is doing, things here in Mobile Alabama are pretty good.

We don’t live in a vacuum. We’ve all heard reports in the national news about downturns in the country’s housing market. The effects of this among consumers are predictable: a belief that this is a bad time to buy or sell, a tendency to wait until times are better, and an overall lack of
confidence in the market.

The overall goal of the marketing campaign, Things Are Really Moving Here is designed to clarify the truth between the national story and the reality of the local housing market.

Indeed, while the housing market may be down nationally, the situation in Mobile is far different. The local housing market is holding its own—with a combination of strong sales, low interest rates and great values that make this the ideal time to buy or sell a home in Mobile Alabama.

Did you know that Real Estate sales in the Mobile Alabama are up since January, average home prices up 2.5% and average time on the market down 5%? There are many statistics like this available from the website - Things are Really Moving Here

We urge you that now is the time to get involved in our local real estate market. Click here to here a local radio advertisement that is running in the Mobile Alabama area

1) If you are thinking of buying, please give me a call at (251) 215-9382 or (251) 662-5684 and we can develop a plan for you to purchase your dream home at a great price and take advantage of the choices available.
2) As a seller, it is a good time to have your home on the market. There is a local buzz in our market and their are incentives for buyers (especially first time buyers) to buy their home this year. As the saying goes - "Your Home has to be FOR SALE, before it can be sold." We will be happy to do a Comparitive Marketing Analysis for you that will give you idea of what price your home would go for in today's market and how long it would take to sell. This analysis is free of charge and comes with no obligation. Please send me an e-mail if you are interested in this report.

Please visit our websites www.GulfRegionProperties.com or www.AlabamaBestHomes for additional information about the Mobile Alabama area real estate market.

Today's Mortgage Rates from Midtown Mortgage

We received an e-mail from one of our preferred business partners today. The e-mail is below is from Bill Robbins from Midtown Mortgage located here in Mobile, Alabama.

Government:	Rate - ARP
30 FHA/VA:	4.875%-5.719%
15 FHA/VA:	4.500%-5.635%
203K:	5.250%-6.116%
100% USDA:	5.250%-5.725%
FHA 2/1:	5.500%-6.175%
No Score(USDA):	5.625%-6.111%
Conventional:	Rate - ARP
30/25/20 yr Fix:	4.875%-5.471%
15/10 yr Fix:	4.375%-4.975%
Jumbo Fix(>417000):	6.125%-7.079%
Jumbo 3/1:	5.250%-6.234%
Jumbo 5/1:	5.375%-6.357%

We can do USDA down to a 550 score and no credit scores. We do 203K Streamline and USDA/FHA repair escrows.

All rates and APR’s subject to change, and are based on a sales price of $135,000 (except Jumbo). Rates and APR’s vary based on credit approval, credit score, LTV, loan amount, and purpose.

Bill can be reached at his office at (251) 344-4022 or on his cell phone at (251) 753-0042. Click here to send Bill an E-Mail. Click here to see Midtown Mortgage website.

Mobile and Baldwin County Real Estate Trends and Statistics - May 2009

The latest monthly real estate statistics and tracking trends for sold homes have been tabulated and posted on our sister blog site. For the 4th straight month the number of sold homes have increased in both Mobile and Baldwin counties. There are signs that the market is recovering, but caution is advised when looking at the statistics because the spring months normally are the strongest in terms of real estate sales activity in our area. Please click here to see May's monthly real estate statistics for Mobile and Baldwin County.

Mobile and Baldwin County Real Estate Statistics

We have posted this months report of real estate statistics derived from the Mobile Alabama Association of Realtors and the Baldwin County Association of Realtors MLS data. We are seeing both markets bounce back especially in Baldwin County. Please click here to see the report.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Search for Foreclosed Homes for Sale

The MLS Homes For Sale search engine on our website has been modified. You now have the ability to search for all foreclosed homes for sale. There are a number of buyers that we are working with that are interested in seeing all of the foreclosure homes that are available for sale. Now these buyers have a "do it yourself" search capability from our website. This ability is currently only available for the Mobile County Listings but it soon will be available for Baldwin County Listings as well. If you need information for Baldwin County Foreclosures, please send me an e-mail. I will be happy to set a no cost, no obligation search in the MLS to notify you when new foreclosed homes hit the market.

To test the search engine for Mobile County foreclosures, please click on this link Mobile Alabama area Search MLS Listings.

At the top of the screen you will see that you can search for Active Listings or Foreclosures. Select the Foreclosures button. Then scroll to bottom of screen and select the Go to Search Results button.

You will see the current list of active foreclosure homes for sale. The search engine allows you to save your favorite homes, save the search criteria, e-mail you when new listings hit the MLS market, search in only certain citites, etc.

Please let us know if you need any help.

Sports Complex of the Americas

A few weeks back we were listening to the Uncle Henry Show on WNTM-AM 710. The guest that day was Steve Hanley from the CP Noonan Foundation. Mr. Hanley spoke of the ambitious project to develop the Sports Complex of the Americas on school board land in West Mobile near the I-10/McDonald Road interchange.

If completed, this complex will attract visitors from throughout the country. It will be one of the largest sports complexes in the country. It will also offer the most variety of sporting venues in the country.

The plans for the development include:

1. Navatorium - The swimming complex will inclued and Olympic size swimming pool, lap pools, and diving pools.
2. Baseball/Softball Fields
3. Lit Multi-Purpose Fields for soccer, football, field hockey, etc.
4. Multi-Purpose Fieldhouse for Basketball, Volleyball, Gymnastics and other inside oriented sports matches.
5. Equine/Rodeo facilities
6. 65 Acre Water Park - offering both inside and outside activities
7. Archery/Shooting Ranges
8. 50,000 seat Stadium

The foundation hopes to break ground for the facility by the beginning of the year 2010. There will be more information released in the future and I will pass it along as I learn anything new. There will be a website for the facility that should be online in the next few weeks.

Statistics, Statistcs, Statitstics

I have to admit that I am a little bit different. I love to calculate and analyze statistics. Once a month, I calculate real estate statistics derived from the Mobile Association of Realtors and Baldwin County Association of Realtors MLS data. I then report and graph the statistics in a blog entry on the Gulf Region Properties Team blog. I try to do this around the 10th of the month but depending on what real estate activities I am working on sometimes it may be a week later. Here is an example of such a blog entry. I will post a link on the Mobile Alabama Real Estate Information blog every time the monthly real estate statitistics are posted to Gulf Region Properties Team blog.

Well I hope that you visit the Gulf Region Properties Team blog for statistics. In fact, please feel free to create a folder in your internet browser called Real Estate Related websites. You can bookmark/save as favorites to this new folder this blog (Mobile Alabama Real Estate Information) and the Gulf Region Properties Team blog. By the way, I would not be upset if you also save the Gulf Region Properties website to the Real Estate Related favorites folder :-).

I also wanted to let you know there are 2 other sources for real estate statistics for our area. You may want to save these 2 websites to your newly created Real Estate Related favorite folder:

1. The Alabama Center for Real Estate. This website is affliated with the University of Alabama College of Real Estate. Various newspapers around the state are using statistics from this website. If you visit the website, click on either of these links at the top of the page - Housing Statistics or Construction Statistics. The statistics are listed by county so select the county that you would like data for - either Mobile or Baldwin.


2. Center for Real Estate Studies. This website is hosted by the Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama. Once there, click on either Mobile Market Watch or Baldwin Market watch. You will find all types of real estate related statitistics for these two counties.

Please contact me if you have any questions about any of these statistics. I will be happy to work with you on providing more localized statistics such as areas of the county or neighborhoods.

Thanks for visiting.