I was reading some real estate advice on one of those big national real estate web sites.   I thought that some of the advice was good but who ever wrote it doesn't know much about Minnesota real estate.  Real estate is heavily regulated at the state level and the rules and laws are different in each state.  Some of the differences are huge.

Minnesota real estate is regulated by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.  The Minnesota attorney generals web site had excellent consumer information for persons who want to buy, sell or rent property in Minnesota.  These guides are far better than the generic information I have seen on the big real estate web sites that sell homes and advertise refrigerators all on the same page.  

Even the terminology used during a real estate transaction is different in say California than it is in Minnesota.   

The Attorney General's office  doesn't sell anything not even refrigerators.  

Check on these guides for Minnesota real estate information:

Home Buyers Handbook

Home Sellers Handbook

Landlord and Tenant Rights

If you still have questions send me an email or call.  I can probably answer them.  

 I hang my head in shame for putting the word recovery in the title of a blog post.  As near as I can tell the housing market has been recovering since 2008.  There have been many articles about recovery and I hear it on the news almost every time new numbers are published.  The housing market is great for first time home buyers with good jobs.  Interest rates are still very low giving first time buyers great opportunities. 

The housing market isn't so great for the large group of people who owe more on their homes than they are worth.  Short sales are becoming very popular.  People who owe more on their homes that they can get for them are allowed to sell for less than what is owed on them and the banks take the loss as does the home owner.

There isn't a week that goes by that I don't see some article about housing market recovery.  There won't be any recovery because recovery implies that it will get back to what it was and that can not happen.  However the housing market could heal if all of the foreclosures and short sales were sold or if banks could do loan modifications and let people stay in their homes and keep paying.  I suspect in the long run some reductions in interest and even in principle would be better for all parties than a foreclosure.  

Just my two cents worth but . . there is no housing market recovery, that is my story and I am sticking with it and it is what it is. 

Tomorrow I 'll publish some real numbers because data is even better than opinion. 

 Small dogs that come out of nowhere and alarm systems that I can not disarm fast enough are occupational hazards. 

I have set off quite a few alarms in homes over the years.  I am not proud of it and I do the best I can to deactivate the alarm but just finding the keypad fast enough can be a challenge. If I can find the keypad I only find it fast enough about half the time.  

Even if I find the keypad as hard as I try I don't always press the right buttons fast enough. Last time I messed up because there were actually two keypads and I found the wrong one. Go figure.  It used to worry about setting off alarms now I don't let if bother me.   The noise can be painful but it is all just part of the job and I suck it up.

When I trip the alarm the noise may prevent my buyers from staying in the home long enough to really have a good look.   Setting off a home security system almost never results in anyone investigating why the alarm was tripped.  

I guess I don't understand the point of security systems.   Buyers get the message that the neighborhood is so unsafe that the home can never be left without the security system set even though the security system doesn't do anything except make a lot of noise.  

 You can't really use street view for house hunting but it can be a big help.  Maybe you just saw a house on the internet that you would like to look at.  I always encourage people to drive by and check the house out before making an appointment to see it. 

Google Street view makes it possible to do the drive by or the walk by over the internet.  Go to Google maps, type in the address and the drag the little yellow man onto the screen.  Here is a link to the instructions.  This can be a great way to weed out houses if you don't want to live right on a freeway exit ramp or next to a power station.  I have worked with buyers who would rather not live anywhere a cemetery.  You can definitely see nearby cemeteries on street vew.

street view

porch

If you are buying a home you need to make your offer inspection contingent and have a complete home inspection.  If the inspector finds a major problem it can be dealt with before the purchase or the buyer can cancel the agreement with no penalty.Lenders and Realtors have to be licensed to do business in Minnesota but home inspectors do not.  They can belong to ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.  When looking for an inspector consider hiring one who is a member of ASHI. 

How do you find a good inspector?  Ask for a recommendation from friends or Realtors.  I like to use the City of St. Paul list of Truth-in-Housing list of inspectors.  I know many of the inspectors, most of them do home buyer inspections and they know there way around older homes.

Sometimes buyers hire the wrong inspector.  The job takes experience and the older the house the more experience it takes.  

Usually buyers wait until they have made an offer on a house before they look for an inspector.  The inspector that is available or the only one who answered the phone on the first call may not be the best person for the job.  Do some research ahead of time and know who to call when it is time to have a inspection.

Home sellers need to understand that the home that they raised their children in and took care of will suddenly become a hazard and a death trap in the eyes of the home buyers.  Try not to take it personally. 

The weather this spring isn't normal.  My lilac bushes should not be in full bloom.  

The spring real estate market is more "normal" than it has been the last couple of years.  First time home buyers seem to be out in full force which used to happen when the lilacs bloomed.  

Home buyers love  to look at all of those pretty web sites with real estate listed on them and I totally understand I like to look at them myself but buyers need to know that just because they saw it on the internet doesn't mean it is true.. .unless you found it on this web site.

I found one web site that shows 2441 homes for sale in St. Paul which is nice but right now there are only 1144 on the market and over 240 of those have contingent offers on them.  There maybe some homes on the market not listed in the MLS but the number is not nearly large enough to account for 1400 homes for sale.  Part of the problem is boundaries. The large national sites tend to include surrounding suburbs and call the St. Paul because they don't know any better and it doesn't matter to them. 

There are web sites with accurate data on them.  The most accurate sites are those of the local brokerages, agents and even the local newspapers.   Sadly they are not as pretty as the national sites and you won't find homes for sale in say Utah.  

Broker reciprocity means that each brokerage can have everyones listings on their web site.  That means that if you find a listing on the home search on my web site it may not be my listing but that doesn't mean I can't help you buy it and you will find my listings on the Edina Realty web site and on all the local brokerage sites.  That is what broker reciprocity is all about.  When  a seller lists a home every agent in the area can sell it.

I was looking at one national type web site this morning and right next to a home listed in St. Paul some "expert" agents were pictured.  I read their bio and they specialize in:  "Excelsior, 55331, Chanhassen, Minnetonka, Victoria, Eden Prairie, Chaska, Hopkins, Bloomington, 55364, Plymouth, Maple Grove, Waconia, Saint Louis Park, Golden Valley, Edina, Minneapolis, 55359, 55356, 55391, Saint Paul"  Really?  Believe me when I say an agent can not keep up on market conditions in all of those areas are understand each neighborhood.  

If you are looking for an agent that knows St. Paul your best bet is me because I write the St. Paul Real Estate Blog and I am with Saint Paul Home Realty and I live in St. Paul.  I don't think I could find Hopkins without my GPS but does that really matter? 

Square footage, location and condition are the big three when it comes to determining the dollar value of a home.  Getting the correct square footage using existing records on the home is not easy.  I can look in the tax records and find one number and then go in the MLS and see that the Realtor is using another number.  

Our MLS shows the measurements for homes that are on the market. Including room sizes, which floor the room is on, the foundation size, the total finished above and below ground square footages.

There are some things buyers should know:

1.   Not everything you read in the MLS is accurate, which is why if you read the fine print it will say the information is "deemed reliable but not guaranteed".  If you need accurate measurements you might want to take your own.  If you need to challenge an appraisal or a price start by taking measurements.  

Generally agents do not deliberately misrepresent room sizes or square footages but sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they just use the last set of measurements that were in the MLS without verifying them. 

2.   Finished Square footage is not equal.  What I mean by that is that below ground square footage is not as valuable as above ground square footage is so when looking at the totals check to see how much is above ground and how much is below.

3.  Property tax records do not always show an accurate square footage and the square footage is used in the record to calculate the value of the home.  Sometimes buyers like to use tax records as a source of information about property values.  If the square footages are wrong the value could be just as wrong.

There are rules about what can be inlcuded in finished square footage. Certianly closets, halways and bathrooms are included even though we don't see measurements for them seperately in the MLS.  If there is a finished room that is surrounded by unfinished space we can not include it in the finished square footage.  Sometimes there will be one room finished in the basement but the space outside the room is unfinished.

It isn't always easy to get accurate measurements.  Some rooms have irregular shapes and we are only allowed to put two measurements in the MLS for each room.  The accepted way to get the total square footage for a home is to measure the foundation.  Unfinished spaces are subtracted to get the finished square footage. . . well there is more to it than that but you get the general idea. 

**real estate is local if any of these rules apply outside of Minnesota it is purely by chance.  

Also see Legal Bedroom