Edwardsville and Glen Carbon Real Estate Chat

Thirty existing homes were sold in Edwardsville, Illinois during June 2009 at an average sale price of $178,187. Resale homes that closed during the month had been on the market an average of 119 days.

New home sales in Edwardsville continue at a low pace with just three sold in June. The average new home price for those sold during the month was $298,333 and they had been on the market an average of 322 days prior to closing.

In July 2009, no new homes were sold in Edwardsville and 33 existing homes closed. The homes that closed during the month had been on the market an average of 139 days prior to selling and sold at an average price of $176,356.

Currently, there are 214 active resale homes on the market in Edwardsville and 20 new construction homes. At July's sales pace, that means there is more than 6 months worth of existing home inventory available in Edwardsville. 

What does this information tell a seller in the current market?  That your home should be priced correctly and be presented in the best possible condition to rise to the top of the choices in your price category. Don't "test" the market with a price higher than recent comparable sales to "see what happens." What will happen is this: buyers will turn to properly priced properties and write offers while your home lingers on the market.

Questions about what your home could sell for today? Email, call or text me and we'll set an appointment to look at your property.

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About the Author: Nancy Milton, GRI, is a Realtor with the Just Ducky Homes team at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Edwardsville, Illinois. She and Kristina Pratt help their customers buy and sell homes and investment properties in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs of Madison and St. Clair counties with special emphasis on real estate in the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Troy. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.JustDuckyHomes.com or e-mail Nancy at Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com. 

 

Determining the proper price for your Louisville Home

Now that you understand Why Pricing Your Home Correctly is so important, the next step is to actually understand the process.  Determining the proper list price for your home is a lot like constructing a puzzle.

Start with the Outside

The process starts by constructing the framework.  Your real estate agent --that's me of course:)-- will review information from you, past and current homes for sale, tax records, and Google Maps to determine the basic characteristics of your home.  Among other things, I am looking for

• Style
• Square Footage
• # of Bedrooms
• Number of Baths
• Presence of a Garage
• Presence of a Basement
• Features (Hardwood, Granite, Tile, Deck, Fireplace, Pool, etc)
• Lot Size and Description
• Surrounding Amenities that help values (golf course, parks, playground) and,
• Those which hurt (cemetaries, highways, and prisons).

Gathering and organizing all of this data is equivalent to assembling all of the edge pieces.  The borders are now defined, but a lot of work still needs to be done before the picture is clear.

Working on the Big Picture

The next step is to start filling in the center.  This is often best accomplished by gathering similar pieces that define large or unique sections of the puzzle.  Likewise, your agent researches the homes in your area of Louisville that have been on the market in the last 6-12 months.  As I look at each home, I try to determine whether it is related to yours or if it needs to be set aside and worked into the puzzle later.  The most similar properties are studied in attempt to determine why they sold (or didn't sell) for a given price.  Your home is then compared versus each of the similar properties to identify strengths and weaknesses.  After some time, a very large section of the puzzle is defined.

Filling in the Fringe Details

Neighborhood data comes next.  During this portion of research, my main concern is to see how the market is doing.  Louisville real estate is hyper-local and one neighborhood may be flourishing while the next is floundering.  I'll look at how long it takes homes to sell, number of homes on the market, recent sales, number of foreclosures or short sales, etc.  Most likely, I'll drive through the neighborhood and past your house to make sure I understand why the data is what it is.  Once these trends are understood, the puzzle is 95% complete.  I am now able to see enough to determine a fairly accurate price range and am ready to visit your home.

The Final Pieces

The puzzle comes together during the tour of your home and our subsequent conversation.  No CMA can completed accurately without seeing the home.  (This is why I have such disdain for "Automated CMAs," but that is the subject of another post).  The condition of your home is a major factor in determining whether you will be able to sell at the top of the price range or whether an Arsonist would be a more appropriate hire.

After touring your home, we'll discuss your motivations and schedule for moving.  Any items that need to be corrected will also be discussed.  These are the last pieces of the puzzle.  I can now recommend a sales price and listing price that will give you the best chance to get your house sold.

Special Note

At no point in the process do I consider what you owe, need, or want to get out of the house when determining price.  Simply put, the market doesn't care whether you own the house free and clear or are so far underwater you can't even tell which way is up.  I, of course, care deeply about making sure you get every last penny you can.  Later in this series, I'll discuss a few tips that will put a few coins in your pocket but pricing unrealisitically is not one of them.

This the 3rd post in a 7-part series.  For more, click the following link...How to Sell a Louisville Home

 

*Photo licensed via Creative Commons from Jared on Flickr.

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Erik Hitzelberger is a licensed REALTOR with RE/MAX Alliance in Louisville. If you need a Louisville Real Estate agent please email me or call 502.921.3989.

I specialize in the following areas of the Metro Louisville Area: Prospect, Middletown, Jeffersontown (J-Town), Fern Creek, Okolona, Shepherdsville, Mt Washington, Hillview, Brooks and Pewee Valley.  Click the following links to learn more about Louisville and Bullitt County Real Estate or to Search for Louisville Homes 

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When you're looking for the right Real Estate Agent to market your home for sale or to help you through a confusing maze of important homebuying decisions, do you want to pull into a Motel 6 or would you prefer to arrive in style at the Ritz-Carlton?

As a winner of the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, countless Mobil 5-Star and AAA 5-Diamond awards and long recognized as the gold standard in the hotel industry, the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain (now part of Marriott Hotels) has a motto that should resonate with everyone working in the real estate industry and with our customers:

"WE ARE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN SERVING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN."

Wow!  What a simple-yet-great concept. Treat each other with courtesy, dignity and respect and you will receive courtesy, dignity and respect in return. Anticipate each other's needs and fulfill those needs to the best of your ability.

Here are a few ideas on how to make this Ritz-Carlton concept work in the client/Realtor relationship:

Realtors -- Counsel your clients to make sure they understand the process of buying or selling a house and what your role will be in helping them. Listen to what your buyer clients want in a new home and do everything you can to find good matches. Give your buyers a clear sense of the pros and cons of the houses they're considering. Tell the truth about home prices in the current market even when sellers don't want to hear it. When you promise to follow up with additional information, do so as quickly as possible.

Clients -- Treat your Realtor the same way you treat your doctor, your dentist, your accountant, your lawyer and other professionals with whom you want a good working relationship. Get to know each other and develop a relationship of trust. Keep your appointments. Don't hop from one professional to the next and then expect them to drop everything to serve you. Don't disregard your Realtor's professional advice and wonder why your home won't sell or your target house gets bought out from under you. Tell your Realtor the truth about your financial situation so they can give your their best possible professional advice.

It's essentially the Golden Rule, isn't it? Treat others as you would like to be treated and watch the great professional relationships bloom. The result will be happy clients, happy real estate professionals and wonderful buying and selling experiences on both sides.

The Ritz-Carlton refers to it as "mystique" -- that undeniable feeling they've created that makes you return as a customer to their properties again and again. Maybe these rules can help you create your own real estate mystique that keeps clients coming back and referring their friends and family members to your gold standard real estate business.

Home for Sale: 51 Red Bud Lane, Glen Carbon, Illinois. This immaculate three-bedroom ranch offers you a chance to live in desirable and convenient Glen Carbon for less than $180,000.

The 2,205-square-foot home is filled with extras. From gleaming hardwood floors to a vaulted ceiling in the living room and dining room, 51 Red Bud been updated from top to bottom.

A tasteful color pallet has been used throughout and new tile accents the sunny kitchen where you'll also find an island, a large eat-in space, plenty of cabinets and counter space and a door to the deck.

The soothing master suite includes its own 3/4 bath and dual closets.

In the lower level, which is open to the main floor, two large and flexible rooms can be used as family rooms, game rooms, office space, a media room or anything else that meets your individual needs.

Outside, two decks and extensive landscaping complete the package. Birds and butterflies love the back yard which is adjacent to the Country Meadows subdivision's common land filled with mature trees and peaceful greenspace.

Located near IL-159, just north of I-270, 51 Red Bud Lane is a commuter's dream home, approximately 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis, St. Louis County and all parts of Madison County.

The home is located in the Edwardsville School District and is just minutes from the campus of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, SIUE.

Learn more online and see additional pictures on the Just Ducky Homes web site.

About the Author: Nancy Milton, GRI, is a Realtor with the Just Ducky Homes team at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Edwardsville, Illinois. She and Kristina Pratt help their customers buy and sell homes and investment properties in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs of Madison and St. Clair counties with special emphasis on real estate in the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Troy. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.JustDuckyHomes.com or e-mail Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com. 

Once apon a time, Glen Carbon, Illinois was just a small coal-mining village on the east side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis. 

But today the thriving town is ranked as one of Money magazine's 2009 Top 100 Places to Live. Learn more about Money's ranking here.

The village's children attend schools in the Edwardsville School District or a variety of private institutions. The award-winning Glen Carbon Centennial Library is one of the country's top small libraries and Glen Carbon's covered bridge is a well-known symbol of the village.

This is one of a series of blog posts that will take a look at the neighborhoods of Glen Carbon.

The popular Savannah Crossing neighborhood is located along Old Troy Road on the southeast side of the village. Homes in Savannah Crossing are noted for their charming Craftsman-style details, including stonework, pillars, porches and high-end features both inside and out.

A variety of new and existing homes are currently for sale in Savannah Crossing, including 3111 Alexandria, pictured to the left. It's a four-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot charmer with great features including nine-foot ceilings throughout and a family room finished on the lower level. It's the only four-bedroom home currently for sale in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood is conveniently located for commuters who need access to IL-159 and Interstates 55/70, 270 and 255. Shopping -- from Wal-Mart and Target to Best Buy and Borders -- is nearby and dining options in Glen Carbon and neighboring Edwardsville have exploded recently, much to the delight of foodies in the village.

For a complete list of current homes for sale in the Savannah Crossing neighborhood or addition information about the Village of Glen Carbon, Illinois, send me an e-mail at Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com

Want to drive by for a look? Here's a map to the Savannah Crossing neighborhood.

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About the Author: Nancy Milton, GRI, is a Realtor with the Just Ducky Homes team at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Edwardsville, Illinois. She and Kristina Pratt help their customers buy and sell homes and investment properties in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs of Madison and St. Clair counties with special emphasis on real estate in the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Troy. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.JustDuckyHomes.com or e-mail Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com. 

As regular readers of this blog know, one of my favorite things to do here in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs is to drive along the Great River Road from Alton, Illinois to the towns of Elsah and Grafton, Pere Marquette State Park and beyond. The combination of the mighty Mississippi River flowing alongside the soaring limestone bluffs is magical.

Today we'll take a closer look at Elsah, a charming enclave tucked among the limestone bluffs on the Mississippi River. The entire village was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s.

Elsah's site along the Mississippi River north of Alton, Illinois was first settled in the mid-1840s as a riverboat landing and the village was officially founded in 1853. Many of the area's historic residences are built of limestone quarried nearby. 

Today between 600 and 700 residents live in the village's historic area, contemporary subdivisions and rural roads. Midwest Living magazine has called Elsah, "The town that time forgot." 

Active visitors can reach Elsah via the bike trail that follows the Great River Road. Bed and breakfast inns provide cozy shelter for travelers who would like to get to know the town. Advance reservations can be made online at the Maple Leaf Cottage Inn, the Green Tree Inn.

Elsah is also home to Principia College, a liberal arts college for Christian Scientists. The institution, perched on the bluffs above the town, began as a home school in St. Louis in 1897 and the higher education campus at Elsah dates to the 1930s. The beautiful site has been named a National Historic Landmark.

If you would like to live in or near the historic village of Elsah or if you would like to find a weekend getaway house along the river, get in touch with me at Just Ducky Homes. We can keep track of listings that are new to the market and make sure you are informed as soon as homes become available. 

Because Elsah is so small, there aren't always active listings available, but right now two homes are active in the village and two are pending. The active listings include a bi-level on the market for $84,900 and a raised ranch listed for $274,900.

The pending listings are for an historic stone home built in 1860 with one bedroom that had been priced at $129,900 before going under contract and a 1970s ranch foreclosure listed for $33,600.

Commercial property is also available on the village's main drive.

If you'd like to call Elsah home, send an e-mail to me at Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com for an appointment to discuss available listings. 

View Larger Map

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About the Author: Nancy Milton, GRI, is a Realtor with the Just Ducky Homes team at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Edwardsville, Illinois. She and Kristina Pratt help their customers buy and sell homes and investment properties in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs of Madison and St. Clair counties with special emphasis on real estate in the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Troy. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.JustDuckyHomes.com or e-mail Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com. 

 

If you've read anything about purchasing a home in Macomb County MI over the last few months then you've certainly come across many articles detailing the difficulty in getting the mortgage loans through the processing end of things. 


Some of the areas in which your buyers agent (you do have one don't you?) needs to provide their expertise and help to ease the stress are with the inspections that you will have, and the appraisal & appraisal review process:

Your home inspection:  As a buyers agent in Macomb County MI , I will provide to you a list of home inspectors that I would personally choose to inspect the homes of family members or my own home.  However the last 2 buyer clients that I have worked with have asked family members, co-workers and friends for recommendations and hired wonderful professionals for their inspections.  You may use anyone you wish as long as they are insured.   Both of these home inspectors did fabulous jobs for their clients and one of them had a recommendation for an environmental inspector that also did a great job. 

Your buyers agent should also pay close attention to the contract dates for the inspection time  period  and ask for an extension should you need any follow-up inspections or time to clarify something before you make your final decision on whether to proceed or not with the home purchase.

The appraisal and appraisal review process:   Before you sign the offer to purchase the home your buyers agent should provide you with the last 90 days of sales for similar homes within a one mile radius as well as within the same school district.  I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of this prior to writing your offer.   The home you chose may seem worth the asking price, but with the declining values in Macomb County as well as the high number of bank owned homes that have sold, that "asking price" may be tens of thousands of dollars higher than it should be.    If your buyers agent does their homework you should have made an offer on the home that was well within the recent (less than 90 days) snapshot of the real estate sales in your target area.

If you have made a fair offer to purchase the home that was based upon an accurate view of the recent
market and similar homes that have sold then you should have no problems when it comes to the appraisal.
Of course we can never be certain how an appraiser will view the home and how much value he or she will place on it, but we can certainly try to analyze the market and get a good feel for what the market value is for that particular home prior to you placing an offer on it.

You don't have a buyers agent to help you and represent your interests?    Get one.  You absolutely need your own advocate throughout this process. 


~Kris Wales~  A partner for your real estate needs in Macomb County MI

 

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One of the best real estate sales weapons in our arsenal at Just Ducky Homes is the common suburban Storage Unit.

It's amazing how much clutter can accumulate in a home over the years. Before you know it, you and your family are outnumbered by the toys, clothes, furniture and other household items that are just part of life.

We have a solution that has worked wonders for our sellers: Just temporarily rent a storage unit until your home sells. To this day, our customer, and now friend, Meaghan says it was the best decision ever.

This tactic gives you the opportunity to clear some wide open spaces and show buyers how great your home's floorplan is. 

And it takes a lot of pressure off you as a seller.

By using a storage unit, you can go through your possessions more slowly and carefully when it is time to move them into your new home. You won't accidentally throw away a family heirloom that you're trying to get out of the way and you can make the important Three D decisions -- Do Move it, Dump it or Donate it -- much more easily from the unit instead of from your house.

Make sure you're renting in a facility that offers you 24-hour access and that has good security procedures so your possessions remain safe.

One of the best units in our Edwardsville, Illinois area offers units starting at 5 x 5 and continuing all the way up to 10 x 30.  The deposit is just $25 and the unit costs are pro-rated based on which day of the month you move in. Prices begin at $31/month for the smallest units and run to $111/month for the largest.

Outside parking spaces also are offered at many rental facilities. Think about using them if you have a few too many cars or perhaps a boat or RV that isn't exactly enhancing the view of your home during the sales process.

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About the Author: Nancy Milton, GRI, is a Realtor with the Just Ducky Homes team at Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors in Edwardsville, Illinois. She and Kristina Pratt help their customers buy and sell homes and investment properties in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs of Madison and St. Clair counties with special emphasis on real estate in the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Collinsville and Troy. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.JustDuckyHomes.com or e-mail Nancy@JustDuckyHomes.com.

The rush is on.  The deadline for purchasing a home using the $8000 tax credit is November 30, 2009.   You might be surprised to find out how quickly the remaining days left to take advantage of the "free" money from the government will click away.

Let's take a look at how you might use up your time remaining.

Before you even head out the door to look at houses you need to have made contact with a lender and start the pre-approval process.  The further you get along in this process before you get in a car to look at a home the better.  For timing we will say that this process will take you a week because you are super organized and have all of the documents on hand that your lender needs.  (7 Days Gone)

Now you are ready to actually head out and look.  With lower inventory (below $250,000) than a year ago, it would be realistic to think that it will take you 30 days to find a house.   Then there is the contract ratification process.  If you are lucky and you have focused on seller owned properties you may be able to get a ratified within 7 days.  (37 Days Gone)

With the new appraisal rules (HVCC) and the new lender rules (HERA) going into effect you can expect that getting your final loan approval will be 30-45 days.  For our calendar we will take the longest number just to be safe. (45 days Gone).

How are we doing so far?  Looks like we have knocked 89 days off the calendar leaving 49 days left until the deadline.  Whew looks like you have plenty of time to get this done.

Wait we forgot to add in the days that FHA is going to require for a second appraisal (it is happening more and more) or the processing time at the settlement company.  So let's pad those 89 days with an extra 7 to be on the safe side.  Now we have taken a total 96 days off the calendar.  Leaving you 42 days to move in and enjoy your new home. 

If you take longer to find a home, if the lender takes longer to approve your loan or you think you want to buy a short sale....then you may have waited to long!

Are you still thinking about whether the market might decline a bit more making your dream home just a bit more affordable?  Or are you waiting for the interest rates to come down to 4.5% again?   If you are then every day you wait is one less day that you have to deal with any issues in your schedule.  If you are serious about buying a new home this year and are eligible for the $8000 tax credit then time is of the essence.  Don't sit on the fence much longer or you may find yourself looking at the calendar on December 1st and wondering what you were waiting for.