What’s in Your Pocket?

Out on the road attempting to locate certain properties for your client sometimes become a game of hide and seek.  With low inventories on the market there is not a whole lot of choice in starter and beginner homes let alone properties that are very specific in nature.

Many Realtors that list homes often come across that one seller that isn’t ready to take the step of listing their home for various reasons.  They may not list the home at all unless “The Right Buyer” comes along.  These are called “Pocket Listings”.  This is my definition because I don’t think it is a Real Estate term. 

They are usually not under any form of a contract with the Realtor and are only known if you have a conversation with someone that has one.  Every agent has pocket listings of some form.  My real definition would be a property that is going to be listed at some point and the seller may be doing fixes or getting the home ready for the market.  They usually come on the market in a very short time. 

So what does a Pocket listing mean to you as a Realtor or home buyer? Nothing unless it becomes one of the many other properties listed on your MLS or for sale by owner.  So the next time you hear of a Pocket Listing encourage the seller to come out of the pocket.

Virtually Tour Our Listings

Trying to get a little pizazz to the blog page by the addition of our YouTube virtual home tours for your viewing pleasure. I will soon have all of our broker listings under the virtual reality of eye candy for the people who love pictures.

Stroll through the bedrooms, bathrooms and check out the yards.  You can of course still click on my website links to search every one of the currently listed homes and property on the MLS.  There is something about listing with lots of pictures that aid the homebuyers with the decision to at least tour the property in person.

Give it a shot and if you have any questions or wish to personally see one of the houses on the tour, then just drop me an email or the old fashioned phone call!

In the Eyes of the Beholder

As you travel through the happy road of home choices, people often come to the fork in the road that have signs that give you their all kinds of information about homes for sale.  What do these signs mean and how do they work.

When you are driving by a home that has a sign in the front yard, if it is for sale this usually means the house is for sale right?  Not all signs are alike, some are from, yes real estate brokers, and these are usually homes for sale.  Then there are the signs that building remodelers use to advertise their work currently being done on the house.

Getting back to the Realtor signs, again many do not say for sale on the sign themselves, but it is the reason the sign is in the yard.  There are those types of signs

that have a telephone number to call for information on the property.  These are different systems the Brokers use to connect with buyers and sellers via your cell phone.  Most of the Realtors that want to sell homes will place their cell number on the sign, or have their office numbers go to an on duty agent.

Finally what is with the flyers in the box, it is never full.  Most Brokers will keep the informational flyers available for the first week of the listing.  When that period is done they will use only the telephone system of contact.  Flyers are taken out of the box for various reasons but are only useful for a short time.  There you have it.  Sign, Sign Everywhere a sign. 

What Makes Your House Sell!

Marketing your home to today’s buyer is an exercise in housekeeping. There are ways to make your home stand out from the rest of the crowd.  Just start with the obvious, clean the house well and make it sparkle.  When buyers come through your pad the first appearance is what they will remember.   It will have that old adage of curb appeal if you follow a few common sense:

• Vacuum and sweep the floors and Carpet.  If needed shampoo the carpets

• De-Clutter the house, don’t make your kitchen appliances the focus of the eye.

• Clean the bathrooms inside and out.  Make sure the shower has the discoloration removed use some elbow grease.  Clean the toilets and for goodness sake replace the missing toilet paper.  Clean and shine the mirrors and a take the bulbs out and clean them.  Light bulbs show all dirt when the switch is on.

• Clean the kitchen and get the sink.  Vacuum up all of the toast crumbs and mop the floor. Get rid of stains in the dishwasher, use an available water treatment do this a couple of times if needed.  Get the mop and bucket and go to work on the floor. 

• Clean all of the windows do a good job and get all of the spots

• Dust every day, make it easy a Swiffer or equivalent.

• Keep the lawn green and mowed and weeds wacked, clean oil and other stains from the driveway.

• Always keep the entry to the house clean and swept.

These are just a few things that will give you the edge and all it takes if time and effort.  If you have a home that is vacant and a budget, have the home staged with just a few objects or some furniture.  Good luck with the sale and stay calm.

A Tale of Two Days.

As I am into my second day of open houses for a new client of our company, I am assured that you can never be assured of what the day brings.  Yesterday was a little slower and didn’t seem to have much interest in the beautiful home!

Fast forward to now.  Have been here for my regular half hour ahead of time and I am directing traffic in the middle of the house.  I think that there are no yard sales today and the weather is perfect.  Oh and one couple came back today with their Realtor and spending some quality time here.

So two days and two different scenarios that goes to show in the real estate business location is only one part of the deal.  You also must have good weather and a great product!

Garage Sale Weekend in the Neighborhood!

While getting ready for my open house today in Southeast Boise, I drove the main streets and arrived in the neighborhood scoping out places to put my signs.  The time for the event is 11 am but when I got to the home all of the neighbors were already a buzz with group yard sales.  This is a once or twice a year event and there are steady streams of cars.

In the effort to get that special area to put my signs to direct the most traffic, I noticed that the area of Federal Way is to be shut down for the Iron Man national competition.  This is a big event that Boise hosts this portion of several though out the year.  All in all the weather is magnificent and everyone is in a great mood for one of the nicest weekends that we have had all year.

Oh, and by the way the garage sale folks are going to keep me busy today also.  I seem to be getting much of the traffic just from the overflow!

Bazinga! What do you think of a virtual Realtor?

Facebook is an everyday thing now to hundreds of people all over the world.  I certainly have spent my share of wasted time and energy trying to figure out what people is saying with only half of their thoughts.

It was surprising to lean today that Zynga was laying off a large percentage of its workforce due to sliding numbers of players of their games particularly Farmville.  Now I have been a farmer for a few years now and it is still a daily ritual.  I do have to say however, I am not getting any commissions when I sell my crops or my cow barn.  I do have over 200 million dollars in farm coins, no not farm cash, but coins.  (You see you have to pay if you want farm cash).

This is why the thought raced through my head today that I would become a “Virtual Realtor”, a new character that you could change clothes and dress up.  The boy Realtor would have options to buy pdas, ear pieces, nametags and loafer shoes.  The girl would have choice of makeup, seven inch spike heels and business cards.  I could sell and sub-lease the farm houses and barns, (are floating buildings considered real property?)Of course you could sell enough buildings to get a Mercedes in your gift box and can trade up for the jaguar.  You can make more farm coins if you ask others on your farm to participate, the more circles you get the more commissions. And then I woke up!

This just reminds me that there are no real ends to the means; I hope that I do not make it to the 400 million mark that would mean I have put more into Farmville than my own life!

Was it just a short phase?

More and more home buyers are not accepting the time limits associated with bank short sales.  It might just be the same with the banks.  Is everyone getting tired of the consequences of sellers deciding to sell short.

Just a few years ago the boom was fast and it seems like it took over the entire real estate industry.  You couldn’t view homes without half being one such property.  What did this do to the housing industry?  It certainly change home values from the start.  Taxes went down; buyers were acquiring homes for rock bottom.  It developed into its own niche.

The flustering part of negotiating short sales was the lack of protocol and procedures that banks needed to follow.  The real estate industry quickly conformed to perhaps a sideline of activities that really needed specific training.  Thus the Short sale and foreclosure designation was born.  MLS groups needed to change contracts and who knows what happened to the appraisal profession!

Zoom forward to 2013; most buyers would just as soon pass on the short sale listings.  The buying public has faded back into the business end of purchasing real estate and backing off of the hassles that are associated with short sale transactions.  It is refreshing to work with what is now called “Fair Market” sales or everyday sales.  Yes no bank and no other 3^rd party.  Breaths of fresh air!

Back to the future! Going Old School

I remember when I was looking to purchase my first home back in the late 70’s; my Realtor took me to the house that I would purchase.  I didn’t know anything about it until we arrived to view it for the first time.

I did purchase the house and was very happy.  My Realtor had already gone out to view and preview some homes and chose only two to look at.  This is much different from today’s way of high tech.

I mention the above experience because I am currently working with a couple of clients that do not use the real estate high tech, i.e. a computer and car to preview homes and write offers.  One client does not drive

and has no way to email or preview my listings. 

This is the way it was done in the baby boom years.  I have to admit I find myself when I speak with the client using terms of the current way of doing things such as I will email the latest listing and you let me know if you would like to view it.

In a way when my Realtor sold me the first house, it probably took only a week to write an offer after I looked at the two homes.  Now days the clients have so many more options and so many more homes with just a click of the mouse.  I do have sort of feeling that maybe old is less stressful and more efficient. Ok maybe not!

See the USA in a Chevrolet

Probably only a few baby boomers will remember the old Chevrolet TV ads that were gracing our homes back in the 70s.  But it was a time that we were out checking out different parts of the country and driving the big block cars all the way.  Sure there were gas problems you could see the long lines in some states.

Today people are still moving and pursuing the freedom that your car would take you.  Some are moving to different Location either out of necessity of a new job opportunity or they are retiring and looking for that special place. 

Whatever the scenario Things are not the same as they were two or three decades ago.  Now you can scope out almost any place that you would like to explore by using Google maps and earth.  You can actually view the trees on some of the forest land. 

Moving to a new city or state used to be kind of a wonderment of the not knowing.  Take for instance enrolling your kids in a new school, now you can get instant school statistics to determine the area you are looking to buy a home.  The neighborhood safety data is also available.  Relocation and moving to a new area or completely different part of the country is somewhat easier now days.  The only problem seen is that a virtual move is still a guessing game with lots of factors. 

So take the old car out and travel throughout Idaho or surrounding states. There is still no better way to see the USA!

Yay the Tax assessments are out!

It is the time of year that everyone owning property in Ada County received the tax assessments.  What does this mean to the average home owner?  It probably will make their home mortgage go up to compensate for the increase.

When you purchased your home back at the closing company you saw what your monthly payment would be and you placed this into your budget.  Now what do you do when your taxes have risen in some areas 10% or higher?  At the same time the taxes in Ada County have increased, the amount of the homeowners exception have decreased, this causes a wider increase in money out of your pocket.

This year with all of the School problems it has become a year of government getting back some of the money lost with the great depression.  Yes I said depression. 

The tax assessor will give his reasons for the property values to go up, but it doesn’t take into consideration the individual homes value.  He still gets his information off of the neighborhood houses that have sold in the area.  (If you think he is out looking at your house you are wrong).

So we go along the merry way and pay for all the governments’ services and beyond.  It looks like the assessor will be busy with lots of folks not agreeing with his assessment of things.

It all Depends on Location, Right?

Most of my clients and property inquiries have for the most part decided what areas they are interested in living.  They come with their shopping list of homes that they have driven by and decided that they would like to pursue further investigation.

Some know the areas and the prices and others are hoping to make their budget work for the neighborhood that has sparked their interest.  When showing buyers the homes they have chosen, it sometimes becomes very apparent from the start that pricing may make them take a second look at the listings they have place great importance.

Here is where it makes the value of a Realtor abundantly apparent.  Sitting down with your Realtor from the start will save you time and heart ache.  Relocation buyers are different from the home grown folks that have an idea of what purchases in certain areas make on the ol pocket book. 

If you work with a real estate professional that has grown up in the area you will better know the values of the areas.  What affects the bottom line?

Here are some of my thoughts that the buyers must take into account above and beyond the scope of what they want their monthly payment to address.

Ø  Was the home a rental? If it was an investment property the taxes are going to reflect a cost and increase of the monthly mortgage for is some cases up to a year until the owner exemption kicks takes effect.

Ø  What taxing districts do you have?

Ø  If you are in a historic district you will have to adhere to the districts restrictions. 

Ø  The age of the home may require new fixes that need to be addressed on sale.

Ø  Some of the higher priced homes may not have a lot of square footage, these needs to be taken into consideration if you have a family. 

Ø  Cars and parking may have rules as to the number that can be parked.

Probably half of the clients that come to me decide on a different location than where they began their search.  This takes time to decide this point and communication is very important so they get the full use of your time to show the correct location for their family and pocket book.

Boise Home Shop and Acreage

8210 Gantz Ave  Boise, ID 83709

6 Bedrooms
4.00 Bathrooms
2704 sq. ft.
MLS #: 98515109
Offered at: $369,900.00
Type: Single Family w/ Acreage
Community

Planning for your retirement home

Growing up for the teenage years in Boise Idaho, I lived in the home that my parents purchased in 1972.  It was a well-constructed two story 4 bedroom home that sat on a half-acre.  I have lots of memories that date from junior high though high school.

The house served its purpose and gave our family shelter and holiday memories of my parents welcoming all of the new family members.  The home was not exceptionally large; in fact it was only about 1900 square feet.  It did however give the feeling of not being crowded. 

As I moved out of the home on my own my parents lived in the home by themselves with frequent family visitors.  My father’s retirement lasted over 30 years.

As the years went on my mother and father became elderly and it was frequently discussed to move to a more senior friendly home.  This met with a brick was with my mother and as they approached their 80s and 90s it was a noted more difficult job to get up stairs and take care of the big yard. 

My parents both died in the last couple of years, but it brings back thoughts of what should be planned for getting elderly.  When you get older you slow down and really don’t want to or don’t feel like doing the same house cleaning and yard maintenance.

Make a plan for retirement to include downsizing and ease.  Get into a single level home, townhome or condo.  Making the plan will ease the thoughts of seniors not have the family memories get in the way of safety and comfort.  Have the talk with your parents and family, above all makes this your parent’s decision.

Thoughts of those that lost so much!

As we go into the Memorial Day weekend, my thoughts are with all that have lost so much even in the last year.  Oklahoma is crawling from the devastation as we speak, yet it isn’t all doom. 

 You see the interviews on the TV and all of the news media coverage, but just think in another couple of weeks it will only be a side note except for those living the disaster.

Stop and think about what we have and send your prayers and thoughts to all of the people of the Midwest and east coast and all of the man caused terror outbreaks.  Most of all pray for our broken government and all that we elect, their damage will only be noted in paper!

New or Used What do I do?

Now that home sales are fast and furious deciding what to purchase either a re-sale, new or to be built.  The choice will probably be made with your pocket book. 

Having a brand new home is a feeling of accomplishment and ego booster.  That feeling is generated with all types of homes whether you build or buy used.  The decision will probably come down to what you are willing to pay for the same home that has either been lived in or still has the new home smell.

Looking for a used home will generally suffice for most.  They are already established have yards of varying degree and have been proven.  Most sellers of re-sales will more than likely keep up on all maintenance and upkeep, if they don’t they will pay with the bottom line dollar at sale.  Re-sale of a used home will have the kinks worked out and for the most part be a great home for most buyers.  Just remember Re-sales are not new homes and shouldn’t be considered new. 

Buying a home brand new not lived in will have all the perks of no repair and can just move in. Costs for a un-lived in home could be slightly higher than its used counterpart depending on the builder.

Having a home built is for the owner that wants to have control of every aspect of the purchase including the lot, style, size and accessories.  Building or having a home built will probably cost you more in the long run do to building cost going up.  The cost will be included in the final price.

In the end it just all depends on your personal taste and pocketbook!

What have you heard?

I have my listening ears on and the talk of the community is that our Real Estate market is doing very well.  What are some of the thoughts I hear?

First of all the buyers out there are still looking for a great deal on the home and interest rate.  The competition of the buyer pool is very intense since there are not enough listings to go around.  I still hear from those that are waiting for the next bubble to burst.  I have come to the conclusion that no-one knows what is going to happen in the game of Realty.

Home starts are up, resale’s have a very short time on market and unless you have priced your home very high you can depend on multiple offers within a couple of days.  What can you do to purchase a home without multiple rejections?

• Make sure you are qualified for your loan with a qualification letter in hand
• If the home meets your criteria then offer the market value (don’t lowball)
• Be alert to what is on the market, if you pick up on a great home two days late you are not in the ball game.
• Make sure you and your real estate professional are on the same page.  Tell them everything you are looking for in a home.
• Buying a resale home is a second hand home, it is not new make your vision to adapt and understand the seller is not going to make the home new.

The bottom line is be proactive don’t let your dream home pass you by.

HUD Buying Made Simple Part 3

The final part of buying a HUD is what to do after you have been chosen and your bid won the process.  Usually HUD has at least a 45 day close period so you can get everything done that needs to be done.

The work begins with getting the inspection completed.  HUD just as any other bank owned or short sale will not pay for any fixes.  The inspection is for your information only to determine if you want to go through with the sale.  It is up to the buyer go get all of the utilities turned on in order to get the complete picture.  The buyer pays for everything including the turning on and turning off.

Once the inspection is done, and you are going to continue with the sale, you must follow all the regular processes for a real estate sale.  Make sure you keep up with any questions that the BLB asks of your clients.

Buying a HUD is not hard, but it is a lot of work.  Knowing what your bid price should be is something that you and your Realtor need to determine if there is any bid up amount.   

HUD Buying Made Simple part 2

Working with HUD offers are the same process as a normal purchase at first.  The difference in the process is the way that the offers are written and submitted.

HUD homes come on the market at different levels as I stated in the first part on this blog.  The homes are brought on with a 10 ten day viewing time to give the buyers time to review the homes and determine if it is the right property for them. It is then a silent bid process submitted online. 

The Earnest Money amount the any HUD home is $1000.00 (one thousand dollars).

Having a Realtor that has done HUD bids is defiantly an advantage.  Knowing what to write and how to write it is a must or the buyer faces rejection from the start. 

Enlisting the help of an experienced Realtor is a “need to” factor at least the first one.  Have your Realtor contact one of the HUD listing agents for their advice.

Now if your offer is accepted, you must have all of your paperwork ready to mail to the HUD BLB (the HUD contractors that do the work) within 24 hours. 

We will get into what happens when your offer is accepted in part 3.

HUD Buying Made Simple part 1

Purchasing a home that is government repossession is about the same as buying a “Fair Market” home. Fair market home is a sale that is not a bank owned short sale or anything other than the way it used to be.

First of all what is a HUD Home.  HUD stand for Housing and Urban Development, this is the government backed home loan backer.  When buyers get an FHA loan it is backed by HUD.

When a HUD home comes out on the market they are given to several different Broker agencies.  These are real estate companies that have relationships with the agency. They go through a process to bring them on the market and they are then listed. There are several ways the homes are listed:

·         As an Owner Occupied only (buyers that are going to live in the home)

·         Good Neighbor (only buyers that are certain employment types such as Fire, Police or teachers)

·         Municipality owners (cities or non-profits can buy to renovate for resale or rental programs for sometimes low income.

·         Finally if the homes are not sold within the first month or so they are opened up to investors

HUDs goal is to make the homes available for owner occupation.  They are not like short sales or bank owned homes that most of the time sells below market value.  They are in fact listed and sold usually at market value taking into consideration the condition of the home.

Part 2 will take you through the offer process.

Display your home

Thinking of selling? Most homes listed will only last on the market for a short time.  In most cases you get multiple offers within the first week of placing your house on the MLS.

What are the factors that will determine a quick sale for the most money?

ü  Get the price correct; make sure you have your price set at the optimal point!

ü  Make your marketing plan work for you; ask questions what services will be offered to sell your property!

ü  Increase your curb appeal; fix the things on your home that you have put off!

ü  Hire a professional to market your investment!

These very simple easy tasks may be the difference in getting into the multiple contract zone.  Be pro-active with your marketing along with your Realtor.

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Need Houses Fast!

If you are out showing homes on a regular basis, you tend to see the number of available homes go up and down.  It seems that at times all buyers out there are looking for the same homes.  You can see the popularity of certain house listings by the number of lookers that follow you though your tour of homes.

This time of year the inventory is at its lowest of the year.  This is due to several factors:

• Holidays are a big factor of sellers not wishing to go through the showing process while they are having family and decorations.

• Many home sellers are waiting for the new tax year to begin. 

• School year is only half over, many sellers have a time held feeling that many of the buyers are waiting for school to be over before they move.

• Weather makes it more challenging to show have people come through your home.

• Some sellers just think there is a “selling season.”

Whatever the reason for the low listing rates, it will take probably 30 days to build back up.  In the meantime hang in there because this year will be better!