Yes Virginia, There Really are Multiple Offers

I know many of you won't believe this, but the dirty little secret that the local media isn't reporting is that homes in the lower price range are flying off the racks. Yep...just like a bridal store having a super cheap sale on gowns with women knocking each other out of the way as they try to snatch up the latest deal, so too are investors and first time home buyers trying their best to win that little cottage home, out doing each other with above list price offers.

Like I said, you don't believe me, do you?

Last month I experienced this phenomenon first hand with a duplex I listed. With-in five days, I had five offers, all above asking price. There must have been some telepathy in the air because almost all of them were around the same price. I actually had to tell them to resubmit their "highest and best" offer. Who ever did the best, gets the house. Let me tell you, it was competitive bidding and I was truly surprised at how high some of the offers got.

Even better, I know an investor couple who are snatching up dilapidated foreclosures and rehabbing them to flip. Not only do they have to bid against other offers each time they find a home, but when it comes time to sell the property, they have to deal with multiple offers from first time home buyers. (They do fantastic rehab work by the way!)

So yes Virginia, there are some segments of the real estate market that are doing quite well. Multiple offers do exist and are getting more common.

It makes is hard to explain to a buyer why they need to offer above listing price if they want to get a home, especially when all they hear about is how cheap homes are. But if you want to purchase a home in decent shape and at a great price, be prepared to pay for it because in this market you'll be just like those brides you see on television...pushing and yelling your way to that perfect find.

F is for Photo - Church of Saint Agnes

Built in 1887 and located in Frogtown of Saint Paul, the church steeple

is literally a beacon for the surrounding neighborhood.

This Weeks Most Expensive Homes

New construction homes were the top real estate hitters to close this week. At the condo development in Minneapolis, The Bridgewater, two units were combined to make a 4000 square foot space, with four bedrooms and sweeping views of the Guthrie and Mississippi River....all for a measly $1.789 Million.

Not to be beat, in the private community of North Oaks just north of Saint Paul, TJB Homes recently completed a luxury home in Rapp Farm. Since the sold price of $1.656 Million looks to not include the lot price, the home's value is somewhere near $1.9 Million.

As always, random homes across the Twin Cities have sold above the one million mark, but I only highlight some of the top ones each week. Tune in next week to see you tops the list in luxury home sales for Minneapolis and St. Paul.

In Honor of the 4th of July

I thought I would post some quotes from one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, in honor of the 4th of July.

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

"Never spend your money before you have it."

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

Call Your Agent Back

I can't tell you the number of times that I have called clients, only to have my phone calls either returned two days later, or sometimes never. I hear plenty of excuses, the most common being "I am too busy". But nothing irks me more than contacting a client regarding an important item, or better yet, a looming deadline, only to hear crickets as my messages go unanswered.

See, real estate is its own beast. Things can fall apart in a hurry if people don't communicate. Sometimes I feel us real estate agents earn our money best by chasing people around for signatures and approvals. Why is it that if a client leaves me a message or email, they expect me to call them back with-in 30 seconds, but for me, some clients feel no need to hurry up and do the same. I believe the door should swing both ways. Oh, but that's just my opinion.

No I am no saint, and have had my moments when I have failed to reply quickly. But I tell all those that know me that I usually respond the same day, if not in 24 hours.

I guess the moral of the story is to pick up the phone, or tippy tap away on the keyboard, and at least acknowledge your agent's existence. If you fail to, please don't ask them why the deal has fallen apart and the other party is walking away.

F is for Photo - Wildflower

The beautiful purple flower was just begging to have its photo taken the other day. I am not sure what it is as I cannot find it any my wildflower book. If you know, let me know!

Being All Things to All People

The one thing I have learned from my time in real estate is that to be a true professional, you cannot be all things to all people. What I mean is that I truly believe that in order to be successful and give your clients your best, you have to be a specialist in a certain market area. Now an agent's market area can literally be an area/city, or it can be a type of real estate. I know agents who specialize in Saint Paul, downtown Minneapolis condos, South of the River real estate, etc. But there are those of us that approach things a little differently.

As you can probably tell, the niche markets I have chosen consist of luxury real estate and historic homes, including waterfront/lakefront properties. I don't really concentrate by city, instead choosing to specialize in properties on various lakes, and historic home districts in the Twin Cities. By limiting the markets I concentrate on, I am able to keep better track of market trends and homes for sale. If I was like most agents out there, who do anything they can get their hands on, my head would be spinning.

For sellers and buyers, it is important to select an agent who specializes in what you are looking for, especially if you are in the market for a home that is not an average home. For historic homes, go with an agent that knows about historic home construction and the costs that come along with an older home. For expensive homes, go with an agent that understands the luxury market, the types of loans that go with it, and the marketing funds to support such a listing. There are many agents who would love to list high end homes, but just don't have the ability to sustain them.

While I do list and sell homes out side my niche, I don't actively seek them out. People find me from my website, blogs, and past clients, and ask me to help them out. I'm all for selling homes, no matter the type, but choose to concentrate overall on a type of real estate. Next time you are looking for an agent, don't forget to find out if that agent has a real estate speciality.

This Weeks Most Expensive Homes

It looks like this past week saw a high end luxury home sell in minutes. Well, not literally. But the home sold "before print", which in Realtor speak, means the home sold before it was placed into MLS. Us Realtors, when a home is sold this way, place it into the MLS database to not only supply information about the home's amenities, but also get credit for the sale.

The home, located at 1695 Hunter Drive, in Medina sold for $1.85 Million. What land lover would hate this home, especially since it sits on almost 10 acres?

As for the most expensive home to be placed onto the market? Well, the winner of that award goes to a Wayzata home, 722 Widsten Circle, for a cool price of $3.2 Million (Remax listing). Clicking close on its heals is a Shingle inspired home built in 1940, 1446 Delaware Ave, in West St. Paul, coming in at $2.995 Million (Coldwell Banker listing).

Twin Cities Luxury Home Tour Starts Tomorrow

If you've got some time over the next few weeks, make sure to check out the luxury home tour presented by Midwest Home Magazine. There are 15 new construction homes on the tour found from Stillwater, across the Twin Cities, to Lake Minnetonka. Estimated prices of the homes range from the low $1 Million to as high at $3.59 Million. Tickets can be purchased at Caribou Coffee locations.

Twin Cities Luxury Home Tour
June 12-14, 19-21, 26-28, 2009
Friday 1-7pm
Sat/Sun 12-6pm

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have plenty of Luxury Homes

While the rest of the nation neglects to even look to the northern states for any reason at all, (you would think we lived in Siberia according to some southerners) we here in the north realize we have a good thing going. Not only are we home to some very large Fortune 500 companies and their corporate offices (UnitedHealth Group · Target Corporation · Supervalu · Best Buy · Travelers · 3M · U.S. Bancorp · CHS · General Mills · Medtronic · Xcel Energy · Land O'Lakes · Ameriprise Financial · C. H. Robinson Worldwide · Hormel · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · The Mosaic Company · Ecolab) we can also boast having great luxury communities to feed those executives high end life style.

In and outside Minneapolis and Saint Paul, you can find numerous options for luxury homes. Many times, luxury homes are also historic, as the cities are well stocked with 70-120 year old grandiose homes. If you don't believe me, visit my historic home blog where I photograph these homes and their stories. In Saint Paul, the place to go for higher end historic homes is the Summit Hill, Ramsey Hill, Crocus Hill areas. In Minneapolis, you can find most of them surrounding Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, and Lake of the Isles.

If you want to look at newer construction luxury homes, just north of Saint Paul is the City of North Oaks, a private community that has large parcels for sale. Yep, you can still find some areas that offer acreage. Some other beautiful areas near Saint Paul with high end homes include Mendota Heights, Sunfish Lake and White Bear Lake.

Of course you can't get too far away from lake living here in the Twin Cities as there is a lake about every 50 feet. (Just a joke by the way) Every town seems to have their own lake. Needless to say, but the most desirable place to live in the Metro area is on Lake Minnetonka, just a few minutes west of Minneapolis.

Lake Minnetonka is surrounded by small towns which were settled well over a hundred years ago. Most of these have a full range of various architectural styles to please any luxury home buyer. On the eastern shore, towns like Greenwood, Wayzata, Excelsior, and Deephaven are closer to downtown Minneapolis, but if drive time doesn't bother you, then venture further into the Lake Minnetonka area and look for fine homes on Tonka Bay, Mound, and Minnestrista. Obviously I cannot list every little nook and cranny on the lake as there are dozens of bays for your luxury home pleasure, but please know that currently there are 252 homes for sale in the Lake Minnetonka area priced above $1 Million.

Want new construction? Well, let's leave it at "the sky's the limit"...and a post for another day.

It's a Busy Time for Real Estate

The last few weeks I have been extremely busy, thus the reason for no recent posts. In all honesty, I can't believe it is a week into June. I have been negotiating a short sale, showing homes to a buyer, negotiating an offer on a listing, and excepting multiple offers the last four days on a duplex I recently listed. Yep, that's right, multiple offers. Contrary to what the media reports, multiple offers are quite common in today's market.

You see there are not a ton of fantastic properties out there. So when one comes along that is priced very well, buyers can see the value, and many times, they will bid over the asking price to get the home. Agents see the value you too, and point out properties to clients who might be looking for a deal. I know that one client of mine has been looking for low priced homes to flip, and most of the time, there are five or more offers on the home by the time they submit their offer. They most likely lose more than they win, but at least it goes to show you that buyers are competitively competing at the lower end bracket.

Copyright on my Minneapolis Luxury Blog

(I placed this post originally on my Historic Home Blog today, and thought it best to bring it on over to my other blogs, as an FYI about copyright and not stealing my photos and content.)

A recent incident that is now recurring is forcing me to write this post about copyright of photos used on this site. (Notice the "Do not Copy" notice on the leftside of this blog.) To some people, it is ok to go onto the Internet and lift photos of other peoples work. They then use these photos on their websites without permission. They either do not care or don't know the law, but either way, what they are doing is stealing....oh, and Copyright infringement.

As a visitor to this blog, I am sure you can easily see that I travel around the area taking photos of historic homes (and other places around the Twin Cities), then post them to my blog with a story about the home. It's what I do, and the whole reason for this blog, which is to educate locals and others about the great historic resource we have in Minnesota through our homes and buildings. Taking these photos takes time, energy, patience, and creative thought.

What many people fail to realize is that even though the Internet is public domain, the content is not free for all to use. The general rule of thumb (in this instance) is that once a photo hits a hard drive, it is considered copywritten. The photo does not have to have a copyright notice on the photo, nor a big C. In order to use a photo, one must obtain permission from the source. So for those people out there that "right click and save" and then use the photo, you are committing copyright infringement.

Any excuse you give does not matter. Taking something created by another without permission is wrong.

I could go into greater detail, but I don't want to clutter up my nice blog with a post such as this. I just want you to know, that I work hard to write this blog, so please do not steal my stuff. Simple as that.

If you want to learn more about Copyright law as it pertains to blogs and websites, please visit a great lady's blog regarding copyright law, Lenn Harley, for in depth articles on the subject.

Stone Arch Bridge

I was up late last night photographing the Minneapolis skyline with my new camera. This was taken on the banks of the Mississippi River at the base of Stone Arch Bridge. There are tons of great places to shoot Minneapolis and Saint Paul. You just have to go off the beaten path sometimes!

Luxury Real Estate Magazine No More?

The one and only luxury real estate magazine, Prestige Homes Magazine, appears to be suffering from the housing downturn in the Twin Cities. I had noticed that over the last few issues, the number of real estate agents advertising homes for sale had decreased. This past month, I tried to buy ad space for two of my high end listings, but received an email from the advertising department that they would not be putting out any more issues. No word on if this is permanent, but if it is, it is a great loss to the luxury homes out there looking for a little home of their own.

First Tulips of Spring

My tulips opened up today for the first time. I bought a bag of bulbs from the Breck's catalogue and all of them appear to have bloomed.