May 06, 2017
April 21, 2017
March 2017 real estate market update... average sale price is 98.1 percent of list
New listings are up on 1.3% over last year but pending sales are actually down 3%. That said, you can see in the charts below how closely they are tied together. If we had more new listings, I would expect pending sales would also be higher. But don't expect potential buyers to jump at every new listing... they are very discerning in their choices.
Total inventory, however, continues to fall behind previous years, this year 19.9% below last year. Ten years ago, in March 2007, there were a total of 29,285 homes for sale... a 6.8 month supply. This year there are only 10,213 homes for sale... a 2.0 month supply. That is about a 65% drop in the supply of homes for sale over the last 10 years!
Although the months supply of homes for sale is up from the 1.8 months it was December-February, it isn't by much. It would take only 2 months for all the homes to be sold if no new listings came on the market. It should come as no surprise that days on the market are also down, 14.1% below last year at 73 days. If you talk to buyers, they will likely tell you it feels more like 73 hours rather than days for the good listings!
Don't expect to get a deal on price... often, the deal is securing the winning bid! Median sales price went up 7.0% to $237,500 and average sale price was 98.1% of list price. That means average sale price for a home listed at $225,000 was $220,725.
The figures above are based on statistics for the combined 13-county Twin Cities metropolitan area released by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
Never forget that all real estate is local and what is happening in your neighborhood may be very different from the overall metro area.
Click here for local reports on 350+ metro area communities
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email - Minneapolis - St. Paul Real Estate Market
HomesMSP Team- Sharlene, John, Angela - Minneapolis-St. Paul Realtors
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April 20, 2017
Money for closing - the big question
One of the biggest questions when buying a home is how much money do I need? It will depend on your down payment and closing costs. For many, you may only need 3-5% for a down payment (unless you want to put more down). Plus you will need money for your closing costs - I usually tell clients to figure roughly 3% (more for smaller mortgages, less for larger mortgages) - that includes your closing costs and prepaids (prepaids are interest, insurance and taxes, including setting up your escrow account).
The issue isn't always the money - but where does the money come from. Underwriting will require that we document where all the money came from for closing. In some cases it is very easy - it comes out of your checking or savings account. Maybe it's coming from the sale of your current home. Maybe it's a gift. How do we document this? It depends!
If you are selling your home, we will get a net sheet from your realtor that gives us an estimate of what you should get when you close on the sale of your home. Then we verify that at closing (or right before) with the actual numbers. As long as you are getting the same or more than we estimated, you are good! If it's less, we may have to adjust numbers and that may delay your closing.
For those getting gift money, we need to get a gift letter and document the transfer of the gift. The documenation depends on whether you are using a conventional or FHA mortgage. FHA requires us to document that the person giving the gift had the funds to give you the gift.
One issue that happens frequently is paying off debt to qualify -that works as long as we can show that you have the money to pay off the debt. Maybe you paid off a credit card during the processing of your loan, that's great - we need to document it. We need bank statement that shows the account was paid off.
Does your bank statement have cash deposits on it? If so, we are going to have an issue - typically it means backing out that deposit. That can affect how much money you have for closing. Do you have deposits that may be hard to verify? Keep copies of the checks you deposit so you can provide them to the underwriter. We need to document a 60 day history (typically 2 months of bank statements). Look and see if you have any large deposits - if so, we have to document where those funds came from. I just had a client that received money from an inheritance, I needed to get a copy of the will showing she was getting that money. If you are self employed and deposit money into your account, keep copies of the deposits and the checks you are depositing -that way you can easily provide the documentation an underwriter will want.
Money for closing tends to be one of the biggest underwriting issues - we need to show where it came from to make sure there is not another loan that could affect your ability to make the mortgage payments, or that there is not fraud involved in the transaction. We need to be able to show that the money did not come from the seller or anyone else involved in the transaction. It seems painful for many homebuyers, but due to past issues, it is important! If you can document the deposits, it's easy!
Leslie Vanderwerf, NMLS ID#335509, American Mortgage & Equity Consultants, Inc, An Equal Housing Lender, NMLS#150953 - Email - Website
April 19, 2017
Wednesdays Unplugged - Brenda's Breaded Fish
"Advice from friends is like the weather. Some of it is good; some of it is bad." ~ Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad
NOTE: I spend my Wednesdays Unplugged from appointments. It's my day to stay home, enjoy cooking and welcome our kids and grandkids for dinner in the evening. We end our meal with quotes from the Norwegian 'Quote Cup' passed on to me from my grandmother. I share a quote and a recipe here each week, and sometimes some photos of family fun. I love trying new recipes...and love getting recipes you would like to share!
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
This recipe came from a cookbook about 25 years old, NO RED MEAT by Brenda Shriver and Ann Tinsley. I had this recipe tagged for many years, used it for the first time a few weeks ago. Recipe notes say their grandson loves fish prepared this way... so did I! I used a whole egg instead of only egg white and butter instead of margarine. Forgot to take a photo!
BRENDA'S BREADED FISH
- 3 fillets white fish, about 12 ounces
- 2 cups loosely packed fresh bread crumbs
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper
- Dash of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- Parsley sprigs, lemon wedges to garnish if desired
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email - Minneapolis Realtor Who Cooks
April 18, 2017
Four simple things for sellers to do before the home inspection
This is a home inspection checklist for sellers, to help make sure that the home inspection can be completed once, the first time, without any hitches. It’s extremely frustrating for everyone involved in a real estate transaction if a full home inspection can’t be completed during the first trip, especially if it’s because of something that could have been easily avoided.
When my company schedules a home inspection, we send out a home inspection checklist to the listing agent for the property asking them to pass this list along to the home sellers. This list ends up being followed by sellers approximately 5% of the time, but my goal is to get that number much higher. Here's a slightly wordier version of the list that we send out:
Make sure everything is accessible.
This is the most important part. If we can’t get to it, we can’t inspect it, and that means an incomplete inspection. Here are the most common things that home inspectors need access to:
- The attic. I just wrote a blog post/letter to home sellers last week, specifically addressing this: Dear Home Seller, please let me into your attic.
- All electrical panels. If there are paintings, refrigerators, stored items, air compressors, or similar obstructions that prevent the inspection of the electrical panel, they should be moved. If the electrical panel cover is caulked in place or has drywall mud covering over the panel, this needs to be made accessible.
- The furnace, boiler, water heater, and other similar mechanical equipment.
- The crawlspace, if applicable.
- The garage. If it's a detached garage, keys or a garage door opener should be provided.
Make sure the utilities are on.
Gas, water, and electricity should all be on. If any of these are off, this will mean an incomplete inspection.
Secure any pets.
Pets that may run out of an open door should be secured or brought somewhere else.
Open curtains, blinds, and window shades.
Opening blinds, shades, curtains, and other window treatments takes time but is an important step to inspect windows. Brackets and cords deteriorate over time. When they fail under normal operation during the home inspection, can you guess who gets blamed for 'breaking' them? Not only that, but I think that houses with unobstructed windows are simply more inviting.
I've seen larger and more comprehensive lists, but everything else after these four items starts to get into the obscure and uncommon stuff. I prefer to keep the list short and sweet. I have more to say on this topic, but I'll wait until next week to share that info. I don't want to muddy this week's message with my opinions. Yet. Stay tuned.
Author: Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections
Subscribe to Reuben’s Home Inspection Blog
April 17, 2017
New Construction Teardowns... and where to find them by price range
Pent-up demand and low interest rates, combined with increased demand for desirable neighborhoods and school districts have been driving a teardown craze which has been going on for a number of years. Two neighborhoods at the epicenter of this craze are the Minneapolis Linden Hills neighborhood and the city of Edina.
My experiences with teardowns in both of these neighborhoods as well as the Minneapolis Longfellow neighborhood last week made me curious to dip in deeper into teardowns listed on the MLS built since 2015. Red markers below are sold, orange pending, and green active and available for sale.
Although they are scattered throughout the metro, the highest concentration is still in the Edina and Linden Hills neighborhoods. As I was chatting with a builder in the Linden Hills neighborhood, he said they get contacted regularly by homeowners wanting to sell their home but the market is starting to slow down as it gets saturated... not surprising given how many have already been built and sold in recent years. I was amazed that 67% of the comps I pulled for a coming Edina listing were built in the last 3 years... my listing will be in the historic Country Club district, the only part of Edina NOT marked by teardowns.
Thinking you might like to buy a new house in an established neighborhood? They actually are available at different price points, but $400-$500k is the really price point for 'affordable' new construction homes in the city or in new developments. In the higher price ranges, most builders no longer do 'spec' homes but custom build to suit their buyer.
Check the maps below to see where to find new construction teardowns by price range... then contact us if you would like to learn more or take a look! Interesting to see the concentration of new construction teardowns in the Longfellow neighborhood, as well as some clusters in St. Paul Mac-Groveland neighborhood.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Walkable Neighborhood Realtor
HomesMSP Team - Sharlene, John, Angela - Edina Realtors
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April 16, 2017
Celebrating Easter at the epicenter of Lutheranism in the Land of 10,000 Choirs
Minneapolis has been called the 'Vatican' of the Lutheran Church... and Minnesota the Land of 10,000 Choirs. Both are thanks to the many Scandinavian Lutherans who settled in the upper Midwest when they immigrated in the late 1800s. To give you an idea of how prolific the Lutheran church is in Minneapolis I just did a Google search of Lutheran churches in Minneapolis and it came up with a list of 144 churches!
If Minneapolis is the 'Vatican', Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis is 'St. Peter's'. When it was founded in 1919, most Norwegian Lutheran congregations still conducted services in their native language, but Central was founded as an English only congregation and it quickly grew... reaching over 6,000 members at its peak in the late 1960's. Its towering stone structure at the edge of downtown Minneapolis reflects its importance as a symbol of the significance of the Lutheran Church in America. When we stopped there this morning, music from their carillon bells were ringing out over the city.
The first wave of Lutheran immigrants were mainly Germans settling on the east coast, and they brought with them the music of Bach and pipe organs. But it was the Scandinavian Lutherans who later settled in the Midwest who expanded on that to influence the establishment of the American choral tradition.
Because the official Lutheran Church in Scandinavia required that all children be taught to read and write, immigrants arrived with a high level of literacy. Those roots led them to found church-sponsored institutions of higher education, and their social singing clubs fostered a strong choral tradition which lives on today in Lutheran colleges and churches alike. As a result most Lutheran churches have a choir, regardless of size... and many congregational members are also schooled in choral singing resulting many congregations still singing in the traditional 4-part choral tradition in addition to newer musical styles and traditions.
Our church, University Lutheran Church of Hope near the UMN campus, is one such church that has a strong music tradition... one that pulls together many music styles and traditions from throughout the world. A singing tradition that ended today's festival service with the congregation joining the choir in singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Arts Realtor
The HomesMSP Team - Sharlene, John, Angela
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April 15, 2017
What Do I Do With All These Easter Eggs??
If your house is like mine was as a kid....there are hard boiled colored eggs everywhere come the evening of Easter Sunday. There is that special time of dying the eggs with your kids, then there are all the egg hunts where more are collected (they used real eggs when I was a kid, do they still do that?). So you could end up with more eggs than you bargained for.
You hate to throw them away but you can only eat so many hard boiled eggs. So what else can you do?
Egg Salad sandwiches are a given but I love this recipe that takes it a step further. The recipe is from Whole Foods (so I'm sure it's healthy, ha). Curry powder is fabulous enough but then add in the crunch from the pistachios and a slight peppery flavor from the arugula and you have a variation of a classic.
Stuff it into a Pita instead of ordinary bread and YUM!
Here's what you need to know:
Curried Egg Salad with Arugula & Pistachios
INGREDIENTS
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoons chopped pistachios
- salt and black pepper
- 2 cups baby arugula
- 1 pita
DIRECTIONS
-
Mix together the mayonnaise, curry powder, and pistachios in large bowl. Peel eggs and chop. Combine with mayonnaise mixture. Toss well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
-
Split the pita in half. Stuff some arugula inside each half, then spoon in egg salad.
Okay....I really have to try this next recipe. I love Egg McMuffins from that fast food establishment with the arches but I know they are so bad for you. These look better and much healthier.
English-Muffin Egg Pizzas
INGREDIENTS
- 4 English muffins
- olive oil
- tomato slices
- 2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
- grated mozzarella
- oregano
- kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
- Toast 8 English-muffin halves and place on a cookie sheet.
- Drizzle each with olive oil, then layer on tomato slices, hard-cooked egg slices (½ an egg each), and a little grated mozzarella. Sprinkle with oregano and kosher salt.
- Broil 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.
SUPER EASY and it's a pizza for breakfast. Or lunch or dinner.
I hope that gives you some new ideas for all those easter eggs or that it inspires you to make your own variations. Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Easter!
Shar Sitter, owner Rooms With Style Home Staging and Redesign Minneapolis MN.
CHSE and APSD Home Stager Pro Trainer
www.RoomsWithStyle.com
952-567-1124
April 14, 2017
Featured in Habitat for Humanity blog post...
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity recently asked if they could do a feature blog post on John and me... and of course we had to say yes! Imagine my delight when we got together and learned that the post was to be written by a fellow Cobber, Blake MacKenzie! He created a great post... thank you, Blake!
Below is an excerpt...
"I think of home as a sanctuary," Sharlene said. "Comforting, welcoming, warm, where you can be yourself. Home should be nurturing to your soul. A house is just a house, but the people in it make it a home."
Sharlene and John have created a weekly sanctuary for their family in their home. As realtors, they know how a family’s life can be changed for the better when they finally own a home of their own. That’s why they support Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. By donating and volunteering, they are helping families build homes – and sanctuaries – of their own.
...read the full post at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Blog... it even includes a connection with one of our clients!
Sharlene Hensrud, REALTOR
RE/MAX Results HomesMSP Team - Sharlene, John, Angela - Twin Cities Realtors
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April 13, 2017
Getting a mortgage for a rental property
Are you thinking about buying a rental property or maybe buying a new home for yourself and keeping your home as a rental? It happens frequently. Sometimes a friend mentions that they have a rental home and make money every month, sometimes someone you know says investing in real estate can be a great way to make money. So the big question - how to start? Should you start?
For some, it's an easy answer - they can advertise for tenants, have the ability to make repairs, don't mind phone calls to fix things - at all hours! Others may not want to take those calls and decide to hire a management company. Whatever you decide, the most important thing is to make sure the property you are buying has the potential for a rental. You need to calcuate expenses and figure out if the property will make sense after paying the mortgage, taxes, insurance, expenses and allowing money for repairs. Make sure you allow extra to set aside for potential repairs or if the property is empty between tenants.
How do you buy a rental home? Most people will either turn their current home into a rental or take out a mortgage on a new property. If you decide to turn your current home into a rental and buy a new home for yourself, you will need to qualify for both payments - without the help of rental income. If you can do that, it's a great way to get started. You can also take out a conventional mortgage for an investment property. Plan on needing at least 20% down - ideally 25%. Rates are slightly higher for investment properties than an owner occupied home. Some look into duplexes - living in one side and renting out the other. That is a great way to get started - you are occupying the property, get rental income to help qualify and have rental income to offset your mortgage payment. You don't need quite as much of a down payment - since you are living it the home, you can use FHA financing also, if that works better in your situation.
Are you thinking you want to flip homes - buy them, fix them up and then sell them? That can happen but most people use cash to buy the homes or "hard" money lending. Hard money lending has different terms than a regular mortgage, typically higher rates and shorter terms. For most getting into real estate investing, it may make more sense to plan on the long term - buy the home to keep for several years and use the rental income to help purchase more homes or towards saving for retirement. I know some people have bought investment homes planning to use them towards their children's education - that may work for you also. Buy them, keep them for several years and sell if you need the money for college educations or retirement. Just remember, the market can change as we saw several years ago and you may not make as much money on the investment as you had hoped. Or you may neeed to sell sooner than you planned and may not make any money.
Educate yourself, look at the properties you are buying and make sure they are in good rental areas. Talk to others that have rental homes and decide if it's a good move for you. Once you decide you want to do this, talk to your loan officer and find out what you can qualify for and start looking!
Leslie Vanderwerf, NMLS ID#335509, American Mortgage & Equity Consultants, Inc, An Equal Housing Lender, NMLS#150953 - Email - Website
Sharlene Hensrud
Realtor with RE/MAX Results, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
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