Merry Christmas and happy holidays from my family to yours.
The photograph is of the tree in front of the Union Depot on E. 4th street is downtown St. Paul
The cycle of Christmas
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. There is a natural cycle to Christmas. We buy stuff and then we buy more stuff to store our stuff. It is a hard cycle to break especially if people give us stuff for Christmas.
Disappearing houses
Each day the number of homes on the market gets a little smaller. There are actually less than 500 homes on the market in St. Paul right now that are for sale but do not have offers on them. There are also about 80 homes that are for sale but are “Temporarily not available to show”(TNAS)
The TNAS status homes are for sale but the owner wants to take a few days off or maybe even a few weeks off from allowing people to see them. Most of those homes will not show up on the popular web sites that show homes for sale. Under our special Realtor rules homes that are in the TNAS status can not be marketed. Even a for sale sign is considered marketing.
If you have been wanting to buy a home and have been watching them disappear many will re-appear on January 2nd. Watch for it. Local real estate agents who continue to advertise homes that are in our MLS in the “temporarily not available to show” status may actually have to pay a fine if they get caught advertising.
Home owners who have their homes for sale and who would like a little peace and quiet on holidays can just ask to have the status of their home changed to “TNAS”.
The longest night
Welcome to the Winter solstice. Last night was the longest night of the year and today is the shortest day and the first day of Winter . . but you probably knew that already. More importantly today is the first day of Winter.
You may notice that the snow will seem snowier today and the cold will seem more wintery than it did yesterday.
Enjoy the short day!
Timing is everything
Last month I was working with a home buyer who wanted to relocate to Minnesota. He is living here now and closed on his condo last week. He made an offer the day that it was put on the market in the middle of November. The unit is perfect for him and exactly what he was looking for.
Last week I listed a downtown condo. It got an offer after just two days on the market. The owner wasn’t too sure about listing it ten days before Christmas but I told him the same thing I always tell sellers who want or need to sell and that is that their home will sell much faster if it is listed as being for sale than it will if it is kept off the market.
Every year I sell homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I posted information about the condo for sale on our Facebook page it got far more traffic than anything else on the page has gotten this month.
Sometimes people want to wait until spring but what they don’t realize is that the spring market starts in January. There are buyers standing by and waiting for homes to start coming on the market. Traditionally the biggest month for real estate closings is April. Those homes are getting offers in the winter not in the spring.
Right now the inventory of homes for sale is again at an all time low in St. Paul with a couple hundred fewer homes on the market than there were in December of 2015.
This one is for you Hugh
Hugh worked for the NorthstarMLS until he was killed in an accident that involved a distracted driver. Everyone is special but Hugh was extra special to many of us.
My goal for the day is to see if I can get 500 more people to sign up and take the drive focused pledge. That phone call or text message or facebook update just isn’t worth dying for or killing someone else over. Take a moment to view the 90 second videos and remember the children, teenagers, adults and elders who have lost their lives because of a distracted driver.
- Put away my phone while driving.
- Pull over and stop if a call or text cannot wait.
- Avoid all distractions and Drive Focused.
- No exceptions.