St. Paul Home Values 2007 to 2011

These numbers are from a report that I got from the Saint Paul Association of Realtors.  They show a 47% average home price decline in St. Paul and a 36% decline in Minneapolis over the same period.  Median home prices in the metro area have declined by 33% since 2007.

evernote

I love Evernote.  It is where I store my notes and those notes can be searched but thats not all they are stored in the cloud on the interent and on my computer and accessible from my iPad and my phone.  I can store handwritten notes, and pictures and even audio notes.  If I take a picture of a document with text on it with my phone and put it in Evernote the text becomes searchable. 

elephant

There is a little graphic of an elephant on the tool bar of each of my web browsers that I can click and when I do it will clip web pages and I can store them in Evernote for future reference.  I can gather all of the notes I need for a blog post or a presentation in an Evernote note book and then put it all together when I need it.  

If you are one of my clients your file startes out as an Evernote notebook.  I jot down the measurements of your home and add various documents to the note book.  I can take pictures of receipts with my phone and add them and include a picture of the tree in your backyard that looks as though it is hanging over your neighbors fence.   

When I need to look at my notes a document or a photo I can access them from most anywhere.  If you are a buyer I have notes in Evernote they may say that you don't like yellow houses and list the neighborhoods you like.

Evernote is free but I pay $45 dollars a year for a premium account.  With a premium account I can upload a gigabyte of data a month and I can do more.  I can share a note books with others and more.  

I think Evernote would make a great tool for home buyers hunters.  Todo lists  can be stored in it along with photographs of houses. The web clipper can be used to keep pictures and information of homes that are found on the interent and it can all be accessed through a mobile phone while out looking at houses.

Red wool socks

This winter has been pretty mild but it is still winter.  If you are out looking at houses you will probably have to take your shoes/boots off when you go inside.  many of the homes on the market are vacant and they have the heat turned way down.   It doesn't take long for the feet to get cold.  I have been experimenting with ways to keep them warm because I get cranky when they are cold. On Saturday I failed miserably and had cold feet all day.  

The secret is in the socks.  Sunday I wore two pair of socks under my boots.  The second pair were thick red wool socks.   I was able to stay in a cold house for half without getting cold feet.  

I like to remind sellers that they need to have a rug inside the door and it needs to be big enough to hold several pair of boots otherwise they will end up with puddles on the floor and I will end up with wet socks when I step in them which may cause me to encourage my buyers to make an even lower low ball offer on your home. 

I call this a story because I write it every year.  Properly pricing a home before it is put on the market is critical.  

If I were to sell my own home I would want at least half a million for it.  I doubt if it is worth a quarter of a million and I am relatively sure that in todays market it would appraise for less than 200K, but I still need a half million dollars for it.  

The picture below is a screen print from our MLS.  It tells the story of a home put on the market in 2010.    The property has been listed by three different real estate agents.  I said no to this listing in the fall of 2009 and have been watching it ever since.  

If I were to list this home today I would list it for 189K.  If I had listed it in the fall of 2009 I would have listed it for 199K.  It will be interesting to see how much it actually sells for.

pricing it right the first time

I get a lot of spam. There are legions of businesses that sell to real estate agents.  There are also legions of experts on how to be a better real estate agent but that is a topic for another much lengthier blog post.  There is one email I keep getting from these companies that claim to have all of these buyers or sellers in my area that need my help.  There are variations on the email but they all say they need my help right away.

The buyers and sellers that they are referring to are usually people who left there contact information at a third party web site.  We also call some of those sites lead agregators  

The sites have real estate listings on them and when someone wants more information they click a button and they end up becoming a "lead".  Leads are sold to real estate agents for a fee which is really stupid considering the sites get the information about the homes for sale from us in the first place.

The expert agent listed on some sites became an expert by buying a zip code or neighborhood and becoming featured.  There are much better ways to find and agent.  If you are an agent no one had buyers and sellers waiting for you to respond, they have weak leads they want to sell you.   

Don't be an idiot and leave your contact information on a web site that is going to sell you to a real estate agent.  If you need a real estate agent give me a call.  If I am not good enough for you ask your friends, neighbors, family or co-workers for some recommendations.  

Don't become a "lead". 

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. 

porch wm

 According to the Multiple Listing Services (MLS), that big data basewith most of the homes for sale there are 1948 home sales that are in limbo waiting for a bank to say yes or no.  I suspect there are even more than that.  1548 of these homes are located in the seven county metro area. 

These are not bank owned homes.  They are what we call "short sales". The sellers have an offer and are waiting for the bank to approve it because the offer is for an amount that is less than what they owe on the home.  They are "under water" which used to be called "upside down".  they owe more than the home is worth or what a buyer will pay and they need to sell.  

Home sales are good for the economy not to mention those sellers who need to move on.  The banks do not take responsibility for this and real estate agents are very pleased because it has gotten better than it was. 

Home buyers who would like to buy a foreclosure may need to wait a few months for approval which might not be forthcoming.  They can reject the offer after having you wait a few months. 

Short sale experts are becoming more common.  It is sellers that benefit from working with a Realtor that is a short sale expert.   

Also see: Short sale limbo

Who benefits the most from a short sale?