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STEVE:  Hi, this is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog today.  I brought David Knox in today to talk about his consumer video on short sales.  Short sales are a thing that have happened very much in our marketplace and in fact are about 15% of our sellers.  David, what will a person learn from watching your short sale option?

DAVID:  Well, we recorded this video for the very unfortunate situation of someone who is upside down in their equity and behind in their payments, and many people assume that foreclosure is the only way out.  And for some, that is very much true.  But to the sellers who are facing foreclosure, they may have a better option.  And that is the short sale.  And at the end of this video, you’ll have a better understanding as to whether the short sale option is right for you.

STEVE:  Thanks so much for watching this video blog today and be sure to go to my website and watch this video.  It’ll be great; you’ll enjoy it.

STEVE:  Hi, this is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog this week.  Lake area has joined the RMLS of the Twin Cities.  Along with that, they asked for certain things to be added to the multiple listings searches that people can do, and it changes Lake Shore significantly.

So let me let you know what I can do for you in searching for your lakeshore as a Lake Shore buyer.  Number one, many times people know the amount of frontage they want.  Maybe they know that they need a least 100 foot of frontage to be happy or 50 foot of frontage to be happy.  We put that into that.  We also know what the DNR lake number is so that when you go on the MLS you can click and go in and find all the statistics from the Minnesota DNR on your lake.

We also have a place for elevation to find out what the elevation is from the back of the house down to the lakeshore.  So if you’re looking for a very level elevation, you can ask for that.  And so if you want zero to 4 foot or 10 to 15 foot, you can put that type of thing.  If you like the views and sitting higher and having more of an expanse over the lake, you may want to ask for a 25-foot elevation or something on that order where you have a greater view.

It’ll have a few steps down to the lake, but you’ll have a much greater view.  We also have to ask and put in the type of lake bottom.  Well, everybody wants—well, I can’t say that everybody wants sand—but I like sand.  But you can put in sand or gravel or hard or rocky or soft or undeveloped, all those types of things.  Sometimes people like wilderness lakeshore where it’s weedy and really just charming.

Other things that you can put in is like waterfront views, and we can ask specific questions about the waterfront views you want and we can put those in.  I’m excited that I’ve changed all of my listings and put all those types of statistics in for my lakeshore homes, and these are going to become better and better as the months continue and agents begin to learn how to use this.  Give me a call if you want to have a better search for your lakeshore.  Make it a great day.  Bye.

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STEVE:  Hi, this is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog today.  I brought David Knox in today who does consumer videos, which I have on my website.  And the video that I’m going to have him talk about and why you should watch is selecting a real estate agent.  Give us some reasons.  What goes on in your video on selecting a real estate agent?

DAVID:  One of the challenges of selecting a real estate agent is we often don’t have objective criteria.  When you buy a car, you can take a look at things like horse power, torque, mileage, warranty, cubic feet of storage so you can compare one car to another.  In this video, it’ll help you establish the objective standards to evaluate the competencies of a real estate agent.

STEVE:  Well, thanks David.  And be sure you watch this video.  It’ll really help you in understanding how you select a good agent to help you in your real estate process.  Thanks for watching today.  Have a great day!

 Hi, this is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog this week.  This week, I want to talk a little bit about metrics and what metrics has to do with the sale of your property.  We receive reports, and of course when we go to do an analysis on your own specific home, we get down to very specific metrics for your own neighborhood.  But I want to show you some of the charts that we receive that shows what’s going on in the different price ranges.

So the first one is showing you the metrics of what’s going on in pending sales.  For instance, in the pending sales, you’ll see here that under the $120,000 price range there’s been a 43% increase in that area.  In the $120,000 to $150,000 range, a 17%.  But if you go up to the $1 million price range, there’s only been about a 4.5% increase.  And you need to know those types of things when you’re looking at positioning your property in the market.  

Where are the sales happening and where do you see more of the properties going off the market?  The next metric I want to show you is where we look at supply of the inventory that’s out there.  Interesting, before I was showing you how there was this huge increase in the sales that had happened under $120,000.  But you’ll note now that instead of there being a year ago 7.7 months’ supply, there is now only a 3.2 months’ supply.

That kind of means that in three months, if no more houses came on the market under $120,000, we’d be out of inventory.  To the other side of the metrics, it shows that at a $1 million houses or more a year ago, we had a 22-month supply, and yes, it’s dropped slightly.  But we’re still at a 19-month supply, which is almost two years.  That’s another metrics thing that we look at, and we get very specific to your marketplace when we’re looking and doing an analysis for you.

The next metric that I want to talk to you about is a metric of looking at traditional sales versus bank owned versus short sales.  Many, many months ago or years past, for the last three years, about 40% of sales were traditional sales and then the other mixes were the bank owned and traditional sale.  You will now see from this that we have moved up to, in the traditional sale area, 50% of the sales that are happening are in the traditional market versus you’ll see quite a drop in the lender owned from 45% to 36% and the short sales remaining right about 12%.

The last metric I want to show you is a great and positive thing that’s going on in the market.  That even though the inventory of homes that are dropping, the thing that we’re looking specifically to is when are the bank owned going to be less and less in our marketplace?  And you can see back in March of 2010 we had 4,000 properties for sale that were lender owned.  In 2011, we had 4,600.  And right now, we have 2,500.  That’s a 45% decline in lender-owned properties on the market.

This will help our traditional sellers going into this year and future years as we continue to see the metrics change in the foreclosed area of properties.  Thanks so much for watching this week.  Make it a great day.  Bye!

Updated rambler on treed lot. Fully fenced private rear yard with large deck. Oversized asphalt driveway (3 cars wide) for ease of turning to have easy access on to Winnetka.

New stone floored foyer opens to formal living room with wood burning fireplace and new carpet that extends into formal dining room. Adjacent 4 season sun room with new carpet, tongue & groove paneling and door to deck.

Updated kitchen with painted cabinets, new countertops, updated appliances and travertine stone floors. Efficient eat in area and door to private rear deck.

New carpet in the 3 main floor bedrooms. Main level bath redone in 2010.

Spacious lower level with large family room that has fireplace and bar, 4^th bedroom and ¾ ceramic tile bath.

Amenities include: 90+ efficient furnace, newer central air (05), 50 gallon water heater (10), 100 AMP service, Aprilaire humidifier, new roof (08), new vinyl siding (08), oak millwork & doors, 2 car attached garage and asphalt driveway that is 3 cars wide.

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Steve reviews what is currently happening in the real estate market.  He'll talk about inventory, closed sales, price per square foot, and other positive signs in the real estate market!

Update walkout rambler on nearly an acre wooded lot just 1 minute to 394 & Hopkins Crossroads. Ridgedale area, park & ride, plus neighborhood park across street with tennis courts. Quiet residential street in a great family neighborhood in the Hopkins Schools.

Oak floored foyer opens to living room with gas (01) fireplace and adjacent dining room with mirrored wall. Sliding glass door from dining room to beautifully landscaped deck area. Vaulted family room addition off rear of home with beamed ceiling.

Updated kitchen with custom birch cabinets, new sink, and Pergo flooring. Appliances include stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, disposal, hood& fan, and microwave. Great pantry and planning desk area. Large enough for eat in space. Three bedrooms on main floor and a full ceramic tile bath.

Walkout lower level has large amusement room with wood burning fireplace and Berber carpet. Den area, vinyl floored laundry room with washer & dryer, ¾ ceramic tile bath and great workshop.

Amenities include: New furnace & central air conditioning (02), 40 gallon water heater (04), humidifier, 125 AMP service, Culligan water softener (04), new roof (06), aluminum siding, Beaver system drain tile, oak millwork & doors, combination windows, oversized 2.5 car garage with opener, asphalt drive way and spacious asphalt driveway.

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Click here to watch video on Pricing Your Home to Sell!

STEVE:  I’m bringing David Knox in, a very well-known consumer video person, who is on my website in fact.  And today, we’re going to talk about one of the videos that he does for me and it’s called “Pricing Your Home to Sell.”  David, what are the reasons why people should watch this video?

DAVID:  Right now, the market has gone through significant changes, as I think everyone knows, and it’s become very price sensitive.  So this video will address those critical issues and it’ll show you the silver lining of buying up in this down market.

STEVE:  Thanks so much for watching this video blog today and be sure to go to my website and watch this video.  It’ll be great; you’ll enjoy it.

Click here to go directly to Steve's Consumer Video Library

Hi, this is Steve Westmark, Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog today.  I brought David Knox in today to talk about his consumer video on preparing your home to sell.  David, why should a person watch this video and learn how to prepare their home?

DAVID:  Well, in the markets that we’ve been facing lately, inventories vary.  But there’s one critical thing that a homeowner can do to stand out from the rest.  And that is to improve the condition of the property.  It’s the one thing you as the homeowner controls.  And this video will show you how to appeal to sights, sound, taste, touch, and smell to make your home stand out.

STEVE:  Well, thanks David for coming in today and I appreciate it.  And be sure you go to my website and watch this great video on how to prepare your home for sale.  You know it’s a price war and a beauty contest.  Make sure you make yours a beauty.

Freshly updated Foursquare on oversized corner lot in King Field. Great off street parking from 38^th with good space for a 2 or 3 car garage. Low maintenance exterior and new windows throughout home. Charming covered front porch.

Oak floors throughout most of the home. Enter foyer area with formal living room and dining room to left. Beautiful pillars between rooms set off the space. Great family room space to the left. Brand new kitchen with custom cheery cabinets, new stainless steel appliances (refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, microwave) and new stone floors.

Upper level has four bedrooms with hardwood floors and a newly updated full bath. Doorway from this level opens to 3^rd level with stairway to unfinished area for expansion.

Amenities include: Furnace & central air (2004), humidifier, updated circuit breaker electrical, new roof (2004), vinyl exterior, vinyl windows, beautiful natural woodwork, 2 apple trees & 3 cherry trees, great driveway space.

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Updated two story on private cul-de-sac that is set on a hillside with views of Wing Lake. Beautifully landscaped yard with mature trees and expansive lawns, great yard for children to play.

Double entry doors open to ceramic tile foyer. Brand new carpet in formal living room and dining room. Custom oak cabinets in u-shaped kitchen with new granite countertops and hardware. Built-in desk, pantry and an extra closet for great storage. Appliances include double oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave and disposal. Ceramic tile flows into breakfast area with sliding glass door to 35 foot deck overlooking private rear yard. Main floor family room with built-in bookcases and wood burning fireplace. Adjacent sun room addition with vaulted ceiling, 3 walls of glass and access to deck. Main floor laundry and storage, new granite in main floor ½ bath.

Upper level has a king size master suite with walk-in closet and updated ¾ bath. Three additional bedrooms on upper level and a freshly updated ceramic tile full bath.

Spacious lower level with amusement / theatre area with wood burning fireplace, large billiards area and an L space used as a den. Updated ½ bath adjacent to workshop area.

Amenities include: forced air natural gas furnace and central air (2004), 50 gallon water heater (2012), 150 amp service, humidifier, invisible fencing, in ground sprinkler system, new roof (2011), cedar and brick exterior, six panel doors and Princeton millwork, 2 car attached garage with opener, asphalt driveway.

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Click here to go directly to Steve's Consumer Video Library

STEVE:  Hi, this is Steve Westmark of Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog this week.  David Knox, a very well-known person on consumer videos, which is on my website, has a video, “8 Steps to Buying a Home.”  What will a person learn by watching the video on eight steps?

DAVID:  Well, if you’re a first- or second-time buyer or someone who hasn’t purchased in a while, this video will lay out a complete and accurate plan on how you can go through the steps of purchasing a home, everything from house hunting to financing to closing.  So I think it’s a great way to plan your house-hunting process.

STEVE:  So take an opportunity to watch this video at the bottom of this blog.  Click on it and go and watch the “8 Steps to Buying a Home.”  Thanks for coming in, David.

DAVID:  You’re welcome.

STEVE:  Hi.  This is Steve Westmark, Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog this week.  Many times, we have people in the marketplace that are struggling to be able to purchase.  It may be that they went through a short sale, they went through a foreclosure, or maybe they’re only going to be in the Twin Cities for a year or two.  Or maybe they don’t have the down payment yet to purchase. 

Recently, within the last 12 months, are Northstar MLS system has now began to put online properties or rent.  So if you have a property that you own and you would like myself or a realtor to market that property online, it could be put out on the multiple listings system as a rental, by price, with pictures, and all the information that you can get also that you see from homes that are on sales. 

But the positive thing also for the renters that are out there is that we have one of these instant systems that allow us to send out to you as a new rental comes on the market in your rental range and according to the statistics that you want, if you want at least a three bedroom or if you only need a one bedroom or you have a minimum/maximum rent that you want to pay.  We can set you into a system like that to let you know what’s going on in the marketplace.

It’s a new and creative way that we’ve looked as realtors to try to help our clients in this changing industry that we’ve had over the last several years.  So if you’re interested in finding out more about putting your property on the market for rent if you’re a landlord or if you’re a person that has had certain things going on in yoru life and you can’t purchase right now, give me a call and we’ll show you how we can find rentals for you.  Make it a great day!

STEVE:  Hi.  This is Steve Westmark, Counselor Realty.  Thanks so much for watching my video blog this week.  I’m going to give you an update on the statistics of what’s happened in the month of January and kind of give you an idea of where the marketplace is going.  Very, very positive things are happening in our marketplace in the Twin Cities, and here are a few graphs to look at.

One is the areas of pending sales.  Our pending sales over the last 90 days are up by 27.3% compared to last year at this time.  The next graph will show you where the pending sales have increased.  But the greatest increase in our pending sales by over 50% is under the 120,000 marketplace.  So if you have a home in the 120,000 price range or less, there’s lots more sales going on there where all the other price ranges seem to be about the same in the year prior.

The next graph I want to show you is the inventory of homes.  This is another positive indicator.  In fact, these two indicators have not come together in this type of situation since 2005.  So our inventory right now is down as you can see by 22% and has been over the last three months significantly less as far as homes for sale.  The next chart shows you what that means for buyers that are out looking in the marketplace.

If you look back in January of 2010, we had a 5.8-month amount of inventory of homes for sale.  There were enough homes for sale that would last with the amount of buyers coming through for 5.8.  Last year, in 2011, we were at 7.2.  Now, this year, we’re at 4.6.  The industry tells us that you’re in about a balanced real estate market when we have about a 4- to 5-month inventory.  And if we have a 2- to 3-month inventory, we’ll be back into a seller’s market.  So in the past, we’ve been more in the buyer’s market.  We are now more in what we would call a balanced real estate market in the Twin Cities.

Now the first graph I want you to just look at is what’s happened in the median sale price.  Even though the sales have been increasing, our median sales prices have dropped, though slightly.  In 2010 to 2011, the median price dropped by 6%, and in 2012, it dropped by about 3.4%.  Now part of that you need to look at is if you remember the statistic I showed you before, that there was a 50% growth in the sale under 120,000.  We may be seeing in the next few months some increases in housing prices.

The last graph I’m going to show you is in the area of housing affordability.  And what this graph shows you is that we have grown in the past years from 216 housing affordability index to 235 to 256.  You may wonder, well why has that happened?  Two things that have happened is number one, the prices on properties have remained very affordable.  And as you saw in that last graph, they’ve continued to drop slightly.

The other thing is that we’re at record 60-year low interest rates in the high 3 percents.  If you’re thinking of buying real estate and wondering when is the market going to turn, I think these statistics are showing you that the market has turned.  Make it a great day!  Thanks so much.  Bye.

Meticulous! New appliances & cabinets in kitchen. New bathroom ceramic and glass block window, sun room off master, new roof, windows, exterior paint and more!

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http://www.TwinCitiesUSA.com/agent_files/rpsAdmin/2011%20Annual%20Report.pdf

STEVE:  Hi.  This is Steve Westmark.  Thanks again for watching my video blog.  And this week, we’re going to do the second part of the Annual Report on the Twin Cities for 2011.  This part I’m going to talk about what’s going on in lender-mediated sales.  And what that means is sales that banks sold or the thing that you probably heard in the market called short sales.  That’s where sellers sell their homes and they have more in mortgage against it than what they can pay in the bank or gives the difference.

This first graph that I’m going to show you is in the area of distressed homes and to see a review.  And what you’ll see over the last three years, in 2009, 10, and 11 is that 50% of the sellers, 50% in the Twin Cities, were some type of lender-mediated sales.  And that is why we’ve seen such a price pressure on properties in the market.  If you’ll notice on the graph that in 2010 we were at about 10%.  And in fact, if you go back to 2004, we were down around 2% for lender-mediated type of sales where they’re bank owned.

This has all come about because of the decline in prices, because of the mortgage crisis that happened in our marketplace.  The next graphs I’m going to show you are going to show you what goes on in the median sale prices according to the different types of sale.  So for instance, the traditional sale.  The owner who just sold outright was not involved with a bank, was not involved with a short sale, in 2008, the median sale price was 224,000.

We have seen a decline in the traditional sale so that in 2011 it was 200,000, but it’s nowhere near the amount of value that dropped.  Wherein short sales in 2008, they were at 175,000 and in 2011, they dropped to 31,000.  So a much more significant drop in price, so that even between the 2010 price on the traditional sale, which was a -8% about and under the short sale it was a 12%.

Well, the last graph I’ll show you on the median sale price in the area of foreclosure.  And in foreclosures back in 2008, the foreclosure homes were at 135,000, and this year, the median sale price is 108,000.  We saw a decline of over 14% from 2010 to 2011 in the median sale price in bank-owned properties.  Now the last thing I want to talk about, and you’ll want to download on my website this whole report, it does by city both area overviews and area median sale prices.

So depending on the area you are in the Twin Cities, it breaks it down to Bayport, Arden Hills,  Chanhassen, Dellwood, Wayzata, Mound, Montrose.  Whatever the city you live in, you can see what’s going on in your city.  Now I’m just going to pick one city and I’ll just pick one that’s close to me like Eden Prairie and show you what’s going on in Eden Prairie.  In 2011, just to go back, total sales in the Twin City marketplace were 41,400.  In the city of Eden Prairie, they had 755% of those sales.  That was an increase of total sales for Eden Prairie last year of 11%.

The percentage makeup of the sales, 2.5% of the sales in Eden Prairie were new construction; 35% of them were townhouses; and 35% of the sales were some type of lender-mediated sale.  That’s either a short sale or a bank-owned property.  The days on market for the city of Eden Prairie was 156, and the percentage of the original list price to sale price in Eden Prairie was 91.3%.  So if a person was asking 100,000 for their original sale price, it was negotiated down to about 91,000.

The next thing you’ll be able to download and look at is the median sale price.  So for instance, in the area of Eden Prairie, over the last five years going back to 2007, in Eden Prairie the median sale price in 2007 was 135,000.  And this year, the median sale price in Eden Prairie was 257,000.  The change it shows from 2010 to 2011 was about 3% and from 2007, it shows about an 18% decline.

Now each area has a different percentage in how it was hit.  But then there are other specific areas that maybe our third or fourth-tier suburbs like Albertville or Andover, and so for instance in the area of Albertville, they saw in a decline of price over the past five years of 35% versus the 18% that happened in Eden Prairie.  Now this is why when I meet with sellers we go through the statistics.  We look specifically to their area, their type of property, whether it be townhouse, condo, single family, and then you also look to see how much of the properties are lender-mediated sales and how did that affect the value.

Now I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to hear about some of these things.  Do take the time to download the information from my website on these different areas.  You’ll find it very interesting.  And if you’d like to meet with me more specifically on your property, please give me a call.  Thanks so much and make it a great day.  Bye.