….Been a pretty decent November (mostly setting up December, actually) Many of the decent cash-flow purchases have all been picked up. Deal timelines are slipping as some of the underwriting has become slightly unstable. (or highly volatile, whichever term you’d like to use…)

I continue to be surprised at the high variability in appraisals. Distance to comparable, age of comparable and our market size make things pretty challenging. Mind you, I can appreciate the variability of any pricing model (which is why they call it negotiation, buddy…….) but the qualification margins are so razor thin these days (partly because of our ability to stretch as far as humanly possible, and the ability for the pricing of a home to pace it) that often a slight difference in opinion of value on the appraisal becomes the last straw that unravels a deal.

This last month, besides all the sub-$250,000 properties being sold (most of them, anyway) there were a couple of the last of the downtown properties that moved through, further lowering our inventory in the downtown core. I’m still looking for overall inventory months to get to 10…..mostly as a matter of professional pride, mind you, but I bet that in some areas (362, which is downtown) that number is already below 10 months of inventory…….

In other news, we are seeing more and more offerings with owner financing, which is nice, but continue to have large negotiating gaps, which means a fair bit of wasted paper. Some Sellers wont (or cant) go below a certain range, and some of those “perma-listings” will be with us for a long, long time.

Outlook for 2012? Choppy, uncertain, but the bias is positive. I really think that we can live in this band of volume and deal complexity for a fairly long while, as long as there is the promise of better days ahead….For this month, December, we can certainly live with where we are at, which makes us happy! Next year, 2012, there will most likely be another Realtor contraction, which helps keep those of us who are alive….well, alive.

See you next month! THANK YOU to all of you who have been reading this year, Thank you for using the site, thank you for liking us on FB, and following us on twitter. I’m very grateful to have a few moment of your month to share our story. You’ll really love what we have in store for you next year, as we grow!