Now May Be A Good Time To Sell Your Home In Dakota County

November 23, 2009

The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors published their Weekly Market Activity Report for the week ending November 23, 2009 and the numbers continue to point to signs that it may be a good time to sell your home in Dakota County.  These are the Top 5 reasons why this may be a good time to sell now:

• Home Inventory Way Down – As their report shows, the number of active listings is down significantly in the past year and this is especially true of single family homes.  A balanced market is considered 20,000 active listings and we are approaching that now.  The full report also shows Days On Market declining and Percent of List Price Received increasing which are positive for sellers.
• Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit – The extension of the Homebuyers Credit will continue to artificially pull buyers that may have bought later in 2010 into making a home buying decision before the April 30th deadline.  In addition, the expansion of the Credit to go beyond First-time Buyers opens up a new demographic of buyers that may be moving up into a larger home.  Many expect that home prices will stagnate and possibly drop in price once the Credit expires and almost no one expects another extension.  Home Buyer Credit Details
• Interest Rates – With 30 year fixed rates hovering close to 5.0% we still have very cheap money out there to help purchase homes (for those that can get financing).  Almost all economists are expecting rates to increase at some point.  Keep in mind that for every 1% rise in interest rates it cuts buying power by 10% so these low rates are allowing buyers to get into more expensive homes.  Wall St. Journal – Fed Not Quite Ready To Raise Rates
• Move Up Buyers Benefit – While the prices of homes has definitely fallen in the past 3 years, this actually benefits buyers who are looking to move up to a more expensive or larger home.  Since the prices on larger homes has fallen both on a dollar basis and percentage basis further than any other category, the gap between a starter home and move up home is a lot smaller now.  This makes it a lot easier to justify vs. looking at how much less your own home may be worth now.
• Foreclosures - While we saw a bit of a lull in the foreclosure rates in 2009 the pace of foreclosures is expected to increase again into 2010.  This time the foreclosure increase is being driven by all those people without jobs instead of bad loans.  There are also a number of people just walking away from homes because the value has declined.  If there are more lender owned homes it certainly won’t help home values for traditional sellers.   LA Times – Foreclosures Keep Rising in 2010

I offer a free Comparative Market Analysis for anyone that wants to look at getting an idea of their home’s value if they want to consider selling their home in Dakota County now.  Contact Me For Free CMA

Choosing Pilot Knob Elementary – Interview with Principal Tom Benson

November 21, 2009

On Thursday November 19th I had a chance to spend an hour with Pilot Knob Elementary principal, Tom Benson, to discuss his school and why parents would want to choose them as a great place to educate their children.  He had called me because a listing of mine (1632 Ashbury – Eagan) included a marketing line that suggested that even though the listing was in School District 197 that you could open enroll into District 196 and he wanted to get the chance to tell me about all of the great things going on at his school.  It sounded like a wonderful learning opportunity for me.

Pilot Knob Elementary, located at 1436 Lone Oak Road  in Eagan, is one of 5 elementary schools located in District 197 (West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Eagan).  The school has approximately 300 students in grades K-4 along with 20 teachers and support staff.   Some of the interesting things about the school that parents should consider include -

• They have a great relationship with local employer, Lockheed Martin, who supplies engineers for math enrichment programs.  In fact, the school has around 100 volunteers each week across different academic areas and highly encourages volunteer & parental involvement.  Of the 300 students 70 of them were Academic All-stars last year participating in enrichment programs.
• The school has a number of remedial programs for kids at the other end of the achievement spectrum and has extra help and assistance programs for students that need to catch up.
• They view themselves as a place that needs to be open to the community after normal school hours and sponsors drama club, chess club, community education, book clubs and boy scouts.
• Pilot Knob and District 197 have worked hard to stay current on technology by providing laptops to all teachers, multiple mobile laptop carts for all students to use in classrooms and new interactive blackboards that tie into new media opportunities.
• Low class sizes are always a great thing for student learning and with class sizes as low as 12 in Kindergarten and 23 in 4th grade each child gets lots of individualized attention.
• One of the school’s teachers (Jennifer Parker) was among 11 finalists for Teacher of the Year in Minnesota in 2008

Test Scores

While certainly many schools offer similar programs one of the best ways to judge a school’s success is to look at test scores.  The 2009 MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) test results for 3rd & 4th grade math and reading have just been released and Pilot Knob took a pretty big step upward.  These compare very well with other nearby schools in District 196 -

Additional Resources

There are a number of additional links and tools that a parent might want to use in helping them pick the best school for their children including -

• The Minnesota Department of Education website which has all kinds of data including school overviews of Pilot Knob Elementary and similar close schools like Deerwood Elementary in District 196
• The Great Schools website compares all K-12 schools in the state with test scores, comparisons and parent ratings
• School Matters does similar comparisons for parents to evaluate the different options available for their students
• Finally, go check out the Pilot Knob Elementary website for photo’s, e-news, community calendar and Principal Benson’s Web Page

My thanks to Tom Benson (along with all the enthusiastic students I met) for the information and tour of one of Dakota County’s fine educational institutions!

Dakota County Advertising Itself On YouTube

November 16, 2009

A story in the Thisweek Newspaper caught my eye this week as it talked about Dakota County producing videos to advertise itself and was posting them on YouTube. 

Dakota County Parks

This first video discusses the activities available at Dakota County’s Parks which include things like canoeing, kayaking, flying kites, hiking, snow shoeing and even holding your wedding in the parks.  I’ve previously written about all of the great activities residents can find at Dakota County’s largest park – Lebanon Hills Park

Dakota County Libraries

The Dakota County Library has also gotten into the video creation mode with information about the activities available at the Library.  The video below shows that the Library is more than about loaning out books as they have computer access, story time, pre-school activities, video game playing and even a program to read to your dog (not sure about that one).

Lessons From A Fast Sale – Eagan Listing Sells in 2 Days & Above List

November 14, 2009

On Wednesday this week I listed a house at 1632 Ashbury Place in Eagan (Ashbury Place Blog Entry).  On Thursday we had 3 showings.  Last night I presented 3 very nice offers to my client and they accepted a very solid offer above the asking price!  Needless to say, they are thrilled with the offer and how fast it happened.

Lessons Learned -

• Staging Matters – Our team hires a staging consultant at our expense to come in and advise our clients on how to stage their home for the quickest sale.
• Professional Photography Matters – The photographer did a fantastic job of showing off the special characteristics of the home.  One of the biggest draws for this house is the pond in back.  As you can see in the pictures below, not only did the pictures capture each room but did a great job of showing the pond through the windows.
• A Pre-Inspection Can Help – The seller hired an inspector to review their home prior to listing to identify problems ahead of time that they should deal with.  This allowed them to proactively address issues ahead of any showings so that the house looked its very best.  A number of the issues were small cosmetic changes that were easily done by the homeowner at little expense but could easily have been noticed at a showing.
• Cooperative Sellers Matter – I believe that this is the #1 reason they got a fantastic offer.  The sellers took the advice of their Realtor, staging consultant & inspector to get their house into amazing showing condition.  They worked hard, even taking a week off before going on the market to clean and touch up.  This resulted directly in successfully showing an incredible move in ready home and more money in their pockets.
• The Market Lacks Quality Homes – Finally, the Twin Cities market actually has a lack of high quality, move-in ready homes in the lower price points.  The inventory of homes has been steadily declining to a point that there’s actually an opportunity to sell for people that have homes that show well.  In talking to the buyer’s Realtors (and a few others that didn’t offer) there are lots of multi-bid situations for the few nice homes going on the market.

Yes, the Twin Cities market is down from its peak, but for those sellers that want to sell it may actually be a good time to get out there and get a feel for the market.

1632 Ashbury Place, Eagan, MN 55122 – New Listing

November 12, 2009

Yesterday my newest listing at 1632 Ashland Place in Eagan, MN 55122 was listed.  It’s a 2 story home in northwestern Eagan with easy access to Minneapolis & St. Paul.  It’s also very close to the Town Center area for abundant shopping options.

The home is in fantastic condition and is located on a really beautiful pond lot on a very quiet street.  Here’s the view out back -

We will having open houses at this home on Saturday November 14th from Noon – 2pm and Saturday November 21st from 1pm – 3pm. 

For more details -

My RE/MAX site with details from MLS – 1632 Ashbury Place details & pictures

Our Postlets marketing site – 1632 Ashbury Place Marketing Piece

Houselogic.com – Major New Consumer Real Estate Site Coming November 12th

November 10, 2009

The National Association of Realtors will be releasing the public beta of their new consumer real estate website, www.houselogic.com, on Thursday November 12th. 

What is Houselogic.com?

The website will have free information and tools that allow homeowners to make smart and timely decisions about their home, typically a consumers largest personal investment.

What does Houselogic.com include?

It has content covering home improvement, maintenance, taxes, finances, insurance and even ways to make your community better.  It’s primary goal is to help consumers protect and increase the value of their homes by helping them make confident decisions.

What are some of Houselogic.com’s features?

The website will features a number of great features including:

• Right out of the gate the website will have over 120 articles by leading consumer writers on home ownership topics. 
• The ability to save interesting articles to your own “Binder” to read later
• A Home Project Finder feature to help you find the best investments to improve your property
• Create your own “To Do” list and track your progress toward completion
• A feature called “Badges” which rewards you as you complete projects and allows you to share your accomplishments with other website users or with social media sites like Facebook
• The ability to collaborate with your local Realtor to answer questions about real estate

How will Houselogic.com be publicized?

The website enters formal beta on November 12th but won’t be officially launched and marketed until February 15, 2010.  Feel free to take advantage of all it has to offer now and let me know what you think.

Newly Expanded Homeowner Tax Credit Becomes Law

November 7, 2009

The newly expanded homeowner tax credit has been signed into law.  This should be a big short term help to the real estate market in Dakota County. 

The previous homeowner tax credit was only available to first time homebuyers.  It proved to be a big boost to the sub-$200k market but didn’t do a lot to spur move up buyers.  By expanding the credit to include a much larger group of home purchasers we should see much more movement, especially in the $200-400k space.  We were already seeing some good signs in places like Eagan, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Rosemount & Lakeville so this will be very welcome, both to buyers who qualify for the credit and sellers who might find more buyers out there.  The quantity of single family homes on the market right now is actually in a pretty good balance for the first time in 2 years.

Please call me for details if you have any questions but the chart below and Frequently Asked Questions link should help -

Frequently Asked Questions about the tax credit – National Association of Realtors FAQ

Choosing A Home In Dakota County Based on High School Extracurriculars

November 4, 2009

A guide for parents looking to buy a home based on which high schools have the best extracurricular programs in Dakota County Minnesota for their students.

Yesterday, I published a story about which Lake Conference schools have the highest performing sports teams if you are looking to buy a home based on your high school athlete – Best High Schools For Sports

Besides athletic teams there are a number of other competitive extracurricular activities that feature championships that are managed by the Minnesota State High School League.  Many high school students spend just as much time or more than an athlete does to prepare themselves for these competitions. 

While I intended to cover all 7 high schools from the Lake Conference that are in Dakota County, this list will look a lot like a focus on School District 196 since those 4 schools dominate the list.

(where it says Eastview/Apple Valley it’s a combined team)

Resources

• Minnesota State High School League – Has information on each extracurricular including detailed yearbooks and record books going back to the beginning of each activity

Choosing A Home In Dakota County Based on High School Sports

November 3, 2009

A guide for parents looking to buy a home based on which high schools have the best sports programs in Dakota County Minnesota for their student athletes.

While some people will think it’s ludicrous, many parents of high school athletes go to extreme means to get their student athletes into the right school boundary area in order for them to be on just the right high school team.  For some that means getting into the best programs with the teams that have the best chance of winning.  For others, it may be better to be at a program that is less competitive to allow for more playing time.

One thing to keep in mind, the reason that many of these programs are competitive is that their respective Athletic Associations have built up the athletes through their Kindergarten-8th grade years to get them ready to compete at the high school level.

This article examines the schools in the Lake Conference that are in Dakota County to identify which athletic programs have had the most success over the past 3 years.

Resources

• Game Face MN – The Star Tribunes high school news/scores/standing site
• Minnesota State High School League – Has information on each sport including detailed yearbooks and record books going back to the beginning of each sport’s history in MN
• Lake Conference Website – Not much in the way of scores/standings but there are upcoming schedules and prior year all-conference and honorable mention awards listed (keep in mind that all of these schools are leaving the Lake Conference next year to form the South Suburban Conference)

Staging Your Home – Hiding The Kids Things

November 3, 2009

I found the following video that does a great job of giving helpful tips to home sellers about how to come up with unique storage solutions so it’s easy to hide the kids toys when you are trying to sell your home.  Having a clutter free home makes a huge difference to buyers when they come through for a showing.  You only get one chance to make a good impression.

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