Marketing your home for sale is a complex process. 

The first step is researching what your home is worth in today’s market.  The only way to accurately determine the value of your home is to enlist the services of a real estate professional to build a market analysis for your property based on comparable homes that have recently sold in your area.  Please understand that appraisals, assessments, and valuation websites like Zillow are not always accurate and may falsely represent the value of your home.

If you would like a no-obligation, confidential analysis of your home’s value or would simply like more information about the home selling and marketing process, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch shortly

Searching for and buying a new home can be a daunting prospect.  A professional real estate agent will help you through every step of the process:

• Getting to know the town, neighborhoods, and schools
• Choosing and scheduling homes to view that fit your criteria
• Getting approved for financing
• Negotiating the offer
• Managing the closing and inspection of the property
• Making relocation and moving arrangements

Above all else, a real professional is a friend to lean on for advice and support throughout your buying and moving experience

The Skyline Report for the third quarter of 2008 is out and has some telling information about Northwest Arkansas’ Residential Real Estate Market.

This is the eighteenth edition of the Skyline Report for Benton and Washington Counties and has been commissioned by Arvest Bank to provide timely statistical analysis of the Northwest Arkansas Real Estate Market.  While the Skyline Report has some very detailed information about specific cities in Northwest Arkansas, Let’s wade through and find the most relevant data for residential homeowners . . .

Building Permits

There were 325 residential building permits issued in Northwest Arkansas in the third quarter (June-August) of 2008, down form 653 permits issued during the same period the previous year.  Bentonville accounted for 28.3 percent of all building permits issued.

Housing Absorption Rates

802 houses in active subdivisions become occupied from the second to third quarters 2008.  This is a decline from the second quarter with 835 and a significant decline from the third quarter 2007 of 1,017.

Unoccupied Homes

Third quarter 2008 saw a decline in completed, unoccupied homes from 1,594 to 1,343.  Benton County experienced a sharp decrease in inventory; 23.5 percent in available inventory from the second quarter 2008 and a decline of 46.5 percent from the third quarter of 2007.  Comparatively, Washington County experienced a 2.1 percent inventory increase over the past quarter, but a cumulative decrease of 32.7 percent over the past year (since third quarter 2007).

Existing Home Sales

From May 16, 2008 to August 15, 2008, there were 1,662 existing houses sold in Benton and Washington Counties.  That is a drop of 17.5 percent form the same period in 2007.

Average Sales Price

Benton County average sales prices declined 1.6 percent from third quarter 2007 levels while Washington County average price levels declined 4.1 percent.

In addition to its physical symptoms, MS may have profound emotional consequences. At first, it may be difficult to adjust to the diagnosis of a disorder that is unpredictable, has a fluctuating course, and carries a risk of progressing over time to some level of physical disability. Lack of knowledge about the disease adds to the anxieties commonly experienced by people who are newly diagnosed. In addition to these emotional reactions to the disease, demyelination and damage to nerve fibers in the brain can also result in emotional changes. Some of the medications used in MS—such as corticosteroids—can also have significant effects on the emotions. Some of the emotional changes observed in MS include the following:

• Major depressive episodes as well as less severe depressive symptoms
• Grieving for losses related to the disease
• Stress and reactions to stressful situations
• Generalized distress and anxiety
• Emotional lability or mood swings
• Pseudobulbar Affect – uncontrollable laughing and/or crying 
• Inappropriate behavior such as sexual aggressiveness

Depression

“Depression” is a term that people apply to a wide variety of emotional states. These may range from feeling down for a few hours on a given day to severe clinical depression that may last for several months. People with MS and all those closely associated with them should be aware that depression in its various forms is common during the course of multiple sclerosis. In fact, studies have suggested that clinical depression, the severest form of depression, is more frequent among people with MS than it is in the general population or even in persons with other chronic, disabling conditions.   Depression does not indicate weak character and it should not be considered something shameful that needs to be hidden.   Depression is not something that a person can control or prevent by willpower or determination. In its most severe forms, depression appears to be a chemical imbalance that may occur at any time, even when life is going well. The most effective treatment for depression is a combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication. Although support groups may be helpful for less severe depressive symptoms and generalized distress, they are no substitute for intensive clinical treatment.

• Read more on MS and depression

Grieving

Persons with MS often experience losses—for example of the ability to work, to walk, or to engage in certain leisure activities. The process of mourning for these losses may resemble depression. However, grief is generally time-limited and resolves on its own. Moreover, a person experiencing grief may at times be able to enjoy some of life’s activities. Clinical depression is more persistent and unremitting, with continuous symptoms lasting at least two weeks. Grieving is generally related to changes in self-image triggered by the disease—e.g., no longer being able to think of oneself as an athlete. However, this process seems to be evolutionary and, with time and adaptive coping strategies, the individual can develop an altered self-image.

Grief generally resolves with time even without treatment. However, supportive counseling, support groups, as well as an understanding and supportive environment can help the process along.

Stress

Life is full of stress and MS generally adds a hefty dose of disease-related stress to the mix. MS is unpredictable and just anticipating the next exacerbation can be a significant source of stress. MS can also lead to some major life changes such as loss of mobility and interference with work. Thus the person with MS faces significant challenges in coping with a potentially stressful life.

Stress has also been cited as a possible precipitant of the onset of MS or a trigger for exacerbations. Studies of the effects of stress on MS, however, have had conflicting results. It is important to not fall into the trap of trying to “avoid stress,” a nearly impossible task given the realities of life. Moreover, family and friends should not make the mistake of feeling guilty because they think they may have “created stress” in the person’s life. Stress is part of the reality of living and probably the best approach, rather than trying to avoid it, is to learn how best to manage and cope with it.

Stress-management programs are readily available and have become an accepted part of the treatment of many medical disorders. Professional counseling as well as support groups can also help in learning how better to cope with stress.

• Read more on MS and Stress

Video Webcast— MS and Your Emotions The National MS Society and Healthology developed the following video to help you learn more about positive ways to manage the emotional impact of MS. Watch the video webcast

Generalized Anxiety and Distress

MS is a generally disabling, progressive, and unpredictable disease that can cause significant anxiety, distress, anger, and frustration from the moment of its very first symptoms. The tremendous uncertainty associated with MS is one of its most distressing aspects. People with MS never know when and if another exacerbation will occur or how severely they may be affected in the future. They do not even know how they will feel from morning to afternoon or one day to the next. The loss of functions and altered life circumstances caused by the disease are also significant causes of anxiety and distress.    

Professional counseling and support groups can be very helpful in dealing with the anxiety and distress that may accompany MS.

Emotional Lability

Emotional lability or “moodiness” may affect persons with MS and is manifest as rapid and generally unpredictable changes in emotions. Family members may complain about frequent bouts of anger or irritability. It is unclear if the emotional lability observed in MS stems from the distress related to the disease or if it is caused by some changes in the brain. Whatever the cause, emotional lability can be one of the most challenging aspects of MS from the standpoint of family life. Family counseling may be very important in dealing with emotional lability since mood swings are likely to affect everyone in the family. Severe mood swings respond well to low doses of the anticonvulsant medication valproic acid (Depakote®).

Pseudobulbar Affect (uncontrollable laughing and/or crying)

A small percentage of persons with MS experience a more severe form of emotional lability in which there are uncontrollable episodes of laughing and/or crying that are unpredictable and seem to have little or no relationship to actual events or the individual’s actual feelings. These changes are thought to result from lesions—damaged areas—in emotional pathways in the brain. It is important for family members and caregivers to know this, and realize that people with MS may not always be able to control their emotions.   Several medications, including amitriptyline. levodopa, desipramine, fluoxetine, and fluvoxamine, have shown benefit in small clinical trials. Avanir pharmaceuticals has recently completed a successful large-scale trial of Zenvia™, a patented, orally-administered combination of dextromethorphan and an enzyme inhibitor to sustain a therapeutic level of dextromethorphan in the body. Avanir applied to the FDA for approval of this medication as a treatment for people with MS and the FDA responded with a request for additional studies, which are currently recruiting participants.

Inappropriate Behavior

A very small proportion of people with MS exhibit inappropriate behavior such as sexual disinhibition. This type of behavior is thought to result in part from MS-related damage to the normal inhibitory functions of the brain. These behaviors may also reflect very poor judgment related to cognitive dysfunction caused by MS. Such behavior is generally beyond the control of the individual and is not a sign of moral weakness or sociopathic tendencies.

The treatment of these problems is complex. The person with MS may require some form of psychiatric medication, perhaps along with psychotherapy. Family members will probably need supportive counseling since these behaviors are often shocking and disruptive. In some cases, the affected individual may require supervision to prevent the manifestation of the behaviors in question.