Archive for the 'Twin City Sellers' Category
Things Your Burglar Won’t Tell You
February 2nd, 2010 Categories: Real Estate News, Twin City Sellers
THINGS YOUR BURGLAR WON’T TELL YOU:
1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.
2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.
3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste…and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.
4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it.
5. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.
6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it’s set. That makes it too easy.
7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom-and your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.
8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door-understandable. But understand this: I don’t take a day off because of bad weather.
9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it.)
10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.
11. Here’s a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.
12. You’re right. I won’t have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But, if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it with me.
13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. (Find it at faketv.com.)
8 MORE THINGS A BURGLAR WON’T TELL YOU:
1. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook.
2. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.
3. I’ll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he’ll stop what he’s doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn’t hear it again, he’ll just go back to what he was doing. It’s human nature.
4. I’m not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?
5. I love looking in your windows. I’m looking for signs that you’re home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I’d like. I’ll drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.
6. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It’s easier than you think to look up your address.
7. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it’s an invitation..
8. If you don’t answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.
Sources: Convicted burglars in North Carolina , Oregon ,
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10 “Must Haves” Your Realtor Should Provide for You
October 11th, 2009 Categories: Keller Williams, Real Estate News, Twin City Sellers
When you decide to sell your home, you need to do your homework before selecting a Realtor. It’s a good idea to interview three of us before making your choice.
Here are the top ten “must haves” your Realtor should provide for you:
- Top-notch integrated website that allows lead capturing and detailed information about your property.
- Massive coverage of all real estate internet websites with your home’s information and lots of pictures.
- Hold a Realtor open house as soon as possible to obtain price and condition opinions of other Realtors and to allow them to preview the home for their potential buyers.
- Make sure to obtain feedback from the buyers’ agents to provide to you on a timely basis.
- Make suggestions as to what needs to be repaired, cleaned or removed from the home before listing.
- Price the home properly right from the start.
- Strong and firm negotiating when receiving an offer from a buyer.
- Communication, either by phone or email, on a consistent basis…even if there is nothing new to tell.
- A strong real estate brokerage to back up your Realtor’s administrative needs, which includes an excellent appointment coordinator.
- Confidence, trust and integrity are crucial to a good working relationship between you and your Realtor.
In order to sell your home, you and your Realtor need to agree on a sound working relationship to get the job done. By the way, if I, as your Realtor, didn’t think I could live up to these “must have” provisions, I wouldn’t have written this post!
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Twin City Sellers, Price Your Home Right - Right From the Start!
September 7th, 2009 Categories: My Listings, Real Estate News, Twin City Sellers
This is one of my listings that I sold this summer in just 35 days! 3209 Florida Avenue South in St. Louis Park.
It’s always an exciting moment for me when I have a listing appointment with a potential seller. I love to sell homes and I really love to discuss with my clients the different aspects of what it takes to sell their home, examining the comparative market analysis that I have prepared and what to expect during the selling process.
BUT WAIT! Once in a while, the seller seems to think that they know what the price of their home should be (or wants it to be)! This makes it a bit difficult for me to proceed when they already have a pre-conceived notion in their heads. I continue with my listing appointment, none-the-less, and look at all of the aspects of what will go in to the pricing decision. Most of the time, we will agree to price the home properly and all’s well that ends well.
Inevitably, there are sellers who resist and insist on pricing it higher than what the market will bear, or,in other words, what the buyers are willing to pay. This sets both the sellers and myself up for disaster.
What are the objections of the sellers when I advise them to list their home lower than they believe it should be?
- The neighbors down the street sold their home for the price that we want to list ours at and it’s even not as nice.
- We have to get this much, or we’ll be upside down.
- We put a lot of money into this house to fix it up. Just look at the bathroom!
- We have our eye on a new house up the road and it will take this price for us to be able to do it.
- We’ve lived here for ten years and we expect lots of equity by now.
- We want to price it higher so that we have some wiggle room if a low offer comes in.
These are actual comments that I have heard. So, if I don’t make it clear as to what the market is doing and they won’t listen, I have a choice to make. I either take the listing at the price my sellers want to sell it at, or advise them that I will not list their home at the price they want and risk losing the listing and subsequent sale.
To be frank, I’ve done both. In either scenario, I’ve never been wrong about where the price should be when it was originally listed. It’s a matter of whether my clients will cooperate. I have taken listings at too high a starting point and I have walked away from potential listings where I knew that it would never sell at the high price. At some point, I let the sellers know that I cannot sell their home at the current price and it has to be lowered.
If they don’t want to or can’t, then it’s time for us to part ways. This happened to me twice this summer. Both times, the sellers went with another Realtor and immediately lowered the price to where I had suggested! What!!!???
Are the sellers just saving face by making such a seemingly illogical decision? I have mentioned this phenomenon to fellow Realtors and they have gone through the same thing with their buyers, too. I have not figured it out yet, but I will persevere to get the answer.
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That Little Gray House With The Black Shutters…With a Big Past!
June 11th, 2009 Categories: North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Don’t get me wrong, I like nothing more than to tell a “feel good” story without a past. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always swing that way.
Lucky for a few, my client, Jennifer, aka, Flipper Girl, makes dreams come true. Now, I’m not a Pollyanna-type blog writer and, trust me, Jennifer isn’t the Pollyanna type either, but she is all over making dreams come true.
This week, I had a reporter from the Star Trib call me for some info about a house that Jennifer rehabbed. Turns out, it was the very first house that was given up by the Greater Minneapolis Housing Corporation. That’s no easy feat. I had a few discussions with the powers-that-be over there. I had to send pics of the other homes that Miss Jennifer had rehabbed to make sure the they would accept her work on the FIRST EVER TJ WACONIA property to be turned over to the public.
They said, “OK”. That’s a BIG DEAL!
Here’s the story of the woman who purchased it from Jennifer that was written by the Star Trib in yesterday’s paper…
Program helps heal wounds of North Side housing fraud
The house sits on a quiet street across from a fire station. The gray stucco looks freshly painted and the front windows are framed by black shutters. Inside, hardwood floors gleam in the morning sun as Jackline Mukiibi, 25, shows off her home, the first home owned by anyone in her family.
Daughter Ava, 3, is away at day care, but her photos sit atop a shelf. Over by the stereo is evidence of a fledgling modeling career, a Target ad featuring the toddler.
It doesn’t look like a house with a notorious past, but it is. Mukiibi’s tidy home was part of the TJ Waconia real estate scam that washed through the North Side. Over a three-year period, developers Jonathan Helgason and Thomas Balko of TJ Waconia bought and resold houses for inflated prices to straw-buyer investors, triggering a foreclosure crisis that left many homeless and many homes abandoned. In April, Helgason and Balko were sentenced to eight and seven years in federal prison, respectively, for their crimes.
Mukiibi represents an effort to reclaim that part of the city, one house at a time. Hers is believed to be the first of the 141 homes from the scam to be sold.
Working through City of Lakes Community Land Trust and taking savvy advantage of several other programs that encourage home ownership, Mukiibi cobbled together a mortgage loan and down payment and moved from her tiny apartment in February.
Mukiibi paid $703 a month for her apartment. Now she lives in a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a finished basement, family room and a fenced yard for $728 per month.
Born in Uganda, Mukiibi came to the United States with her parents when she was 2 years old. “I dreamed of owning a house when I was a little girl,” she said. But she got pregnant at 21, which seemed to limit her ability to buy in the near future. Mukiibi works for a nonprofit and goes to school full time at Metropolitan State University, where she is earning a degree in ethnic studies.
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - March, 2009
April 10th, 2009 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin City Sellers
This month’s report about the housing statistics in Plymouth shows that the number of homes listed on the market has dropped 22.7% for single family homes and 16.7% for town homes and condos. Meanwhile, new listings are only down 2.1% this year over last year at the same time. That means that many of the homes that were listed last year are not re-listing this year.
Why would that be?
One reason is that folks realized that they couldn’t get the price that they wanted for their home last year, and would probably have to sell it at a loss. Not many of us can afford to do that. Therefore, they’re going to sit tight for a while.
The other reason is that some of last year’s listings are now bank-owned properties. The banks are notorious for being slow at returning these homes to the market for sale. They are burdened with bureaucracy and inept employees. Sorry, banks! Just speaking from experience!
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Minneapolis Area Real Estate Trends for 2009 Revealed by Mark Allen, CEO of MAAR
January 13th, 2009 Categories: Mortgage Stuff, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
The market is what you make of it. There are always opportunities in every economic situation. History demonstrates that real wealth is made in the worst of times.
I read that somewhere and copied it. I keep it in my desk drawer whenever I start feeling down about the recent real estate market.
Yesterday was a learning day for me. I was fortunate enough to hear Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, give us Realtors his take on the market for 2009 and beyond. The following are a few key points made by Mark. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Secret to Marketing a Home on the Internet
December 31st, 2008 Categories: Minneapolis Home Buyers and Sellers, My Listings, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin City Sellers
As a Realtor, I need to be one step ahead of my competition and always on the ball when it comes to marketing my listings. It is a known fact that 87% of potential home buyers now cruise the internet real estate websites before they call their Realtor. I make sure my listings are in tip-top marketing shape before I present them to the world.
One way that my clients can find out what’s been happening out there in the market besides actual showings of their home is to have me send them some statistics from these websites. We call these “hits”.
I do this every Monday so that it gives them an idea of the traffic that visits their actual listing on line. Since I supply many pictures of the interior of the home, people will “stop by” and take a closer look at the property. I also supply a bold headline and other various marketing tools on Realtor.com. Click here to see this home on Realtor.com so that you know what I mean.
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“TJ Waconia House” Rehab - Big Love!
November 23rd, 2008 Categories: North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin City Sellers
Looking for the best rehab is very, very difficult in North Minneapolis. My client and I spend quite a bit of time scouring the neighborhoods. Let’s not make any mistakes. There are plenty of homes on the market that will not meet our needs.
We are not interested in homes that have neighbors who appear to be crack dealers. We basically stand in front of the home before we put a bid on it and just take good hard look. Right flank, left flank. Okie dokie. When we see a good block, we go for it.
Further, my client drives up and down the hoods to make sure that drug deals and other issues are not happening. Yes, she even drives by at night. She’s a gutsy chicky and that’s why we get along. I love it!
When we go in to a house and we hear noises, she goes first. One time, recently, we walked in to a boarded up house and we heard a noise that sounded like a rat or maybe a big, bad scary squatter or maybe a crack dealer….I screamed and ran out the door and she called me a “scared, LITTLE girl”. Hee hee!
When you buy one of her homes, you can be pretty sure that things are “good to go”. That’s more than just a hunch.
Here’s a snapshot of what will be the latest TJ Waconia-scary house-turned-beautiful, fabulous-not a house, but a home-rehab!
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - October, 2008
November 19th, 2008 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Here are the latest statistics from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for Plymouth. The chart explains itself, but in a nutshell, there were a whopping 8.4% less single family homes on the market by the end of October this year than last year.
The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for October alone was 9.5% below last year’s average sale price.
Ready, buyers?
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - September, 2008
November 2nd, 2008 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Here are the latest statistics from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for Plymouth. The chart explains itself, but in a nutshell, there were a whopping 8.4% less single family homes on the market by the end of September this year than last year.
The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for September alone was 3.6% about last year’s average sale price.
Ready, buyers?
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