Lauer Flats Western Avenue St. Paul MN

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released some some results from the most recent home buyer and home seller survey.  Here are some of the findings: 

First time home buyers make up 37% of all home buyers this is down from 50% in 2010. 

Seventy-eight percent of recent home buyers said their home is a good investment, and 45 percent believe it’s better than stocks.

The median age of first-time buyers was 31 and the median income was $62,400, up from $59,900 in the 2010 study.

The typical repeat buyer was 53 years old and earned $96,600, notably higher than the $87,000 median reported in the 2010 profile.  

The median downpayment for all home buyers was 11 percent, ranging from 5 percent for first-time buyers to 15 percent for repeat buyers.

According to the survey buyers searched for a home for a median of 12 weeks and visited 12 homes.  

The typical home seller was 53 years old and their income was $101,500 and had lived in their home an average of 9 years.   First-time buyers plan to stay for 10 years and repeat buyers plan to hold their property for 15 years.

The one thing that surprised me in the survey is that 51% purchased in a suburb and 18% purchased in an urban area.  

I wasn't surprised to learn that 40% of buyers found their home on the internet, followed by 35% from an agent and 11% from a for sale sign.  

"Commuting costs continue to factor strongly in decisions regarding location, with 73 percent of buyers saying transportation costs were important"

The buyers I worked with this year were mainly first time home buyers and they all bought homes in the city . . could be because I mostly work in the city and it is a national study but real estate is local. 

House

Are you having trouble finding an agent who can show you a home today or even right now?  

There are some buyers out there that must be getting frustrated.  Those buyers often have cash and are looking to buy real estate that is listed for less than 50K.  We have plenty of property like that in the Twin Cities and this year the under 60K properties have been the best sellers.

Where the frustration comes in is that these buyers wait until they find a home that they would like to see and then they wait until the day that they would like to see it and on that day they wait until a couple of hours before they can see it to call a Realtor to show it to them.

The buyers find an agent that they don't know and have never worked with and are surprised when the agent says they can not show a home right now.  Usually these buyers call agents until they find one who will help and if they chose not to buy the property they find yet another agent to show then the next home that they find. 

I for one am happy to show my clients homes in any price range most any time.  I will always show homes that I have listed for sale it is part of my job but my buyers usually want to see homes listed by other agents which is a good thing because that way they get a lot of choices. 

Buyers who want to see homes in most any price range on a moments notice should start by finding an agent to work with.   We are not just door unlockers and openers or sales people.  We can help you find the right property and share a wealth if information and experience that we have gained through hundreds of real estate transactions. 

There are plenty of us and most of us do not have enough work right now and we are happy to share our time and expertise.  The last minute showings with buyers who did not plan ahead rarely if ever generate any income for us because we work on a 100% commission basis.   There are also safety issued associated with showing vacant homes to people that we do not know which is often what we are asked to do.  

Buyers that do not want to work with an agent of their own and don't mind working with the sellers agent should contact the sellers agent for those last minute or what I call emergency showing.  To find the agent either call the number on the for sale sign or if you found the listing on the internet read the fine print.  It will say "broker reciprocity" and then:  "listing courtesy of" followed by contact information for the listing agents contact information.  Showing the properties we have listed is part of the job. 

Tie

 I remember telling a lender that I liked his tie.  That was back when I worked through one of those big box brokerages that promoted the idea of being full service.  A home buyer could get a home loan, a real estate agent and title work all under one roof.  They called it one stop shopping.  In some cases buyer would start with the lender and the lender would throw in a "complimentary Realtor" along with the loan application.  I wanted to be that complimentary Realtor so I worked hard to impress upon the lender how complimentary I can be. 

Buyers did not understand that real estate agents are independent contractors and we work for free until someone buys a home and the sale closes.  The buyers agent is paid for by the sellers if those sellers have their home listed through a Realtor.  I should muddy the waters and point out that real estate fees are in the price of the home that the buyer is paying for. 

It is important to shop for a lender and a real estate agent and the right title company for the title work and closing.  There is no advantage to a buyer or seller in having it all under one roof because chances are you won't even go to that place or ever be under that roof anyway.  The system is just a way for the big companies that provide what we call "ancillary" services to sell those services. 

If you are looking for a complimentary Realtor I would like to point out that you look marvelous today.  Have you lost weight?  Who does your hair?  I like your shirt and that color looks amazing on you.  

If you are looking for a Realtor . . . LOL I crack me up . . give me a call or ask your friends, neighbors or family members for a recommendation.  You do not need to just go with the complimentary agent furnished by the mortgage lender.   

A real street sign in Austin MN

 Just some random thoughts about spam.  In general people don't like spam.  I am referring to "junk" email not the Hormel product that people eat. 

It has gotten to the point where most people would rather give out their social security number than their email address yet there are buyers that want me to email new listings to them.  Realtors can do some pretty sophisticated searches, I guess membership has it's privileges and I can probably find a needle in a hay stack because I am THAT good.   I can search for a brick house with central air and a fenced in yard on a north south street if you like but if you use Yahoo or Aol for your email the email I send from out multiple listing service will probably end up in that place where the junk email goes.

If you want my help fining a home you may need to add me to your "safe senders" list.  I am safe . . well as safe as any sales person who works on a 100% commission basis can be.  

Sellers have a different attitude about Realtor spam.  My sellers want us to blanket the planet with advertising about their home up to and including sending solicitations to uninterested parties in the form of emails. 

Would you like to be me?   For a day even?  I didn't think so.  

It has been years since I have written anything about Zillow.com.  Zillow is the real estate web site that Realtors love and hate.  It is a good place to advertise our listings and over the years they have collected enough data so that they have some credibility with us and with the news media when it comes to trends in the housing market. 

The site is the home of the famous "zestimate".   Anyone can look up most any home and see a "zestimate" which is an educated guess at the value of the home.  Zillow never claimed that the prices are accurate and there are plenty of disclaimers on the site.  Yet it is not at all unusual for one of my buyers to tell me what a home is worth based on the Zestimate.  There are also times when I get a doe in the headlight kind of look when I mention Zillow to sellers and explain to them that their home may end up being listed for a price that is significantly different than the Zestimate and usually it doesn't matter. 

zestimate

There is an explosion of information on the internet and I am here to tell you that it isn't always true or accurate.  It is wonderful to be able to get so much information so easily over the internet but there are times when it is really hard to separate fact from fiction.  Use the Zestimate as a starting point but don't tell me or anyone else that a home is worth a certain amount because you read it on Zillow. 

Just to mess with your minds I will point out that your home really doesn't have an exact value but we are forced to take the appraisal seriously because that is what will determine how much money the lender will lend the buyer so that the buyer can buy the house. 

Sometimes people call or write and ask me to explain a Zestimate.  Honestly they do a great job explaining it on the Zillow.com web site.

Also see:  The Price of a Home 

How Much is it Worth?

An oldie but a goodie: Who asked for Zillow? - I have since learned because Zillow told me . . consumers demanded Zillow. 

coneflower 

In Minnesota our real estate contracts remind buyers and sellers that we require s__x offenders to register and there  is a web site anyone can go to for information. The whole point of the level 3 s_x offender registry is so that people know where offenders live and to warn neighborhoods when an offender is moving in. (I can't write the word because even my spam blockers are not that good)

We have a web site for locating registered offenders The Level 3 Predatory offender search. The same page has details about the neighborhood notification process right below the search boxes.
This can be taken into consideration when purchasing a home but the offenders move around and they have cars and another can be released from prison or supervision at any time.

There isn't any place on the planet that is safe from all types of crimes against persons and against property and St. Paul, MN is no exception. Our crime rates here are fairly low. Crime statistics are computed by city grid and can be found on the St. Paul Police Department's web site. There is also safety information and more.

You can't ask your Realtor if a neighborhood is good or bad and we can't comment on crime rates. Even writing a blog post like this carries some risk. Steering is against the Federal Fair Housing law and steering is any time we recommend in favor of or against a neighborhood. The laws make sense but the rules are not easy to understand . . I guess that is why they make us take a fair housing class every two years.

closed sign

It is likely that some Realtors will take some time off over the up coming holiday weekend.  I will be around but I have plans for Labor day and even though there is not such thing as a real estate emergency I will handle a few of them.  

Sometimes buyers agents don't do a good job of explaining exclusive agency to buyers and sometimes buyers don't listen.    If you are working with an agent and that agent is out of town but you want to see a home that is on the market you may have trouble getting another agent to show it to you.  It would be best to wait until your agent can show it to you. 

If a buyer that is another agents client contacts me to see one of my listings I find out who their agent is and let the agent know that the buyers want to see my listing and that I can show it to them.  Most of the time the buyers agent talks to the buyers and they show my listing.  They don't want me to show it to the buyer because if the buyer decided to buy I can take most of the commission even if the other agent does all the work.  Normally I won't do this but I can do it and I have done it. 

When buyers contact me and ask to see any listing I ask them if they are working with a real estate agent.  If they say yes I won't show them homes. What buyers don't understand is that I don't get paid when another agents client buys a home. Sure I can show homes all day long for free with no hope of ever getting paid but why would I spend a holiday weekend that way?

Buyers who have agents need to contact that agent anytime they want to see a home that is for sale. They also need to understand that we do everything we can to accommodate our clients schedules but we can never gaurantee that we will be availabe anytime and all the time to show houses.