Tara O'Brien's Minneapolis Real Estate Update

Edina Realty and Tara OBrien have this beautiful Grant Park Townhome for sale.It has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 2 car heated parking. Very exquisite upgrades throughout this home. Stainless steel appliances, granite countertops in kitchen and bathrooms, marble and slate custom shower with spa jets, cherry flooring and cabinets, gas fireplace in living room and more. Huge finished square footage with high ceilings and custom paint that is very tasteful. This is turn key and ready for a new buyer.

MinneapolisCondosTaraOBrien

Labels: buying a home, condo for sale, condos and lofts, homes for sale in minneapolis, homes for sale., minneapolis condos, minneapolis market, minneapolis real estate, minnesota real estate

Beautiful condo overlooking the pool and courtyard. Completely updated throughout. Kitchen has granite countertops, new cabinets, stainless steel appliances, undermount sink, new fixtures. Condo has all new carpet, custom paint, slate flooring, open floor plan. Bathroom has slate tile shower, new cabinetry, new sink, updated light fixture and more. This is a must see condo central to everything. 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, parking is additional. $124,900.

This unit can also be rented for $1150 per month.


MinneapolisCondosTaraOBrien

Tara O'Brien, Edina Realty
612-810-7728

Labels: condo for sale, minneapolis condos, minneapolis market, Minneapolis Neighborhoods, minneapolis real estate, minneapolis realtors, minnesota real estate, the towers condo

You’ve found your dream home. Make sure missteps don’t prevent a successful closing.

1. Be truthful on your mortgage application
You may think fudging your income a little or omitting debts when applying for a mortgage will go unnoticed. Not true. Lenders have become more diligent in verifying information on mortgage applications. If you fib, expect to be found out and denied the loan you need to fund your home purchase. Plus, intentionally lying on a mortgage application is a crime.

2. Hold off on big purchases
Lenders double-check buyers’ credit right before the closing to be sure their financial condition hasn’t weakened. If you’ve opened new credit cards, significantly increased the balance on existing cards, taken out new loans, or depleted your savings, your credit score may have dropped enough to make your lender change its mind on funding your home loan. Although it’s tempting to purchase new furniture and other items for your new home, or even a new car, wait until after the closing.

3. Keep your job
The lender may refuse to fund your loan if you quit or change jobs before you close the purchase. The time to take either step is after a home closing, not before.

4. Meet contingencies
If your contract requires you to do something before the sale, do it. If you’re required to secure financing, promptly provide all the information the lender requires. If you must deposit additional funds into escrow, don’t stall. If you have 10 days to get a home inspection, call the inspector immediately.

5. Consider deadlines immovable
Get your funds together a week or so before the closing, so you don’t have to ask for a delay. If you’ll need to bring a certified check to closing, get it from the bank the day before, not the day of, your closing. Treat deadlines as sacrosanct.

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who wanted a successful closing on a Wisconsin property so bad that she probably made her agent rethink going into real estate. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.

Labels: buying a home, buying and selling a home, condo for sale, home buying process, home for sale, minneapolis condos, minneapolis real estate

When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix.

1. Decide what you can do yourself
TV remodeling shows make home improvement work look like a snap. In the real world, attempting a difficult remodeling job that you don’t know how to do will take longer than you think and can lead to less-than-professional results that won’t increase the value of your fixer-upper house.
Do you really have the skills to do it? Some tasks, like stripping wallpaper and painting, are relatively easy. Others, like electrical work, can be dangerous when done by amateurs.
Do you really have the time and desire to do it? Can you take time off work to renovate your fixer-upper house? If not, will you be stressed out by living in a work zone for months while you complete projects on the weekends?

2. Price the cost of repairs and remodeling before you make an offer
Get your contractor into the house to do a walk-through, so he can give you a written cost estimate on the tasks he’s going to do.
If you’re doing the work yourself, price the supplies.
Either way, tack on 10% to 20% to cover unforeseen problems that often arise with a fixer-upper house.

3. Check permit costs
Ask local officials if the work you’re going to do requires a permit and how much that permit costs. Doing work without a permit may save money, but it'll cause problems when you resell your home.
Decide if you want to get the permits yourself or have the contractor arrange for them. Getting permits can be time-consuming and frustrating. Inspectors may force you to do additional work, or change the way you want to do a project, before they give you the permit.
Factor the time and aggravation of permits into your plans.

4. Doublecheck pricing on structural work
If your fixer-upper home needs major structural work, hire a structural engineer for $500 to $700 to inspect the home before you put in an offer so you can be confident you’ve uncovered and conservatively budgeted for the full extent of the problems. Get written estimates for repairs before you commit to buying a home with structural issues.Don't purchase a home that needs major structural work unless:
You’re getting it at a steep discount
You’re sure you’ve uncovered the extent of the problem
You know the problem can be fixed
You have a binding written estimate for the repairs

5. Check the cost of financing
Be sure you have enough money for a downpayment, closing costs, and repairs without draining your savings. If you’re planning to fund the repairs with a home equity or home improvement loan:
Get yourself pre-approved for both loans before you make an offer.
Make the deal contingent on getting both the purchase money loan and the renovation money loan, so you’re not forced to close the sale when you have no loan to fix the house.
Consider the Federal Housing Administration’s Section 203(k) program, which lets qualified purchasers wrap up to $35,000 into their mortgages to upgrade their home before they move in.
6. Calculate your fair purchase offer
Take the fair market value of the property (what it would be worth if it were in good condition and remodeled to current tastes) and subtract the upgrade and repair costs.
For example: Your target fixer-upper house has a 1960s kitchen, metallic wallpaper, shag carpet, and high levels of radon in the basement.Your comparison house, in the same subdivision, sold last month for $200,000. That house had a newer kitchen, no wallpaper, was recently recarpeted, and has a radon mitigation system in its basement.
The cost to remodel the kitchen, remove the wallpaper, carpet the house, and put in a radon mitigation system is $40,000. Your bid for the house should be $160,000.
Ask your real estate agent if it’s a good idea to share your cost estimates with the sellers, to prove your offer is fair.

7. Include inspection contingencies in your offer
Don’t rely on your friends or your contractor to eyeball your fixer-upper house. Hire pros to do common inspections like:

Home inspection. This is key in a fixer-upper assessment. The home inspector will uncover hidden issues in need of replacement or repair. You may know you want to replace those 1970s kitchen cabinets, but the home inspector has a meter that will detect the water leak behind them.

Radon, mold, lead-based paint
Septic and well
Pest

Most home inspection contingencies let you go back to the sellers and ask them to do the repairs, or give you cash at closing to pay for the repairs. The seller can also opt to simply back out of the deal, as can you, if the inspection turns up something you don’t want to deal with.If that happens, this isn’t the right fixer-upper house for you. Go back to the top of this list and start again.

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer whose parents bought and renovated a fixer-upper when she was a teen. A regular contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.

Labels: buying a home, buying and selling a home, condo for sale, condos and lofts, home for sale, homes for sale., minneapolis realtors, minnesota real estate

Paying for more homeowners insurance than you need is a waste of money, but it can prove even more costly to get caught without enough coverage.

Trying to get just the right amount of homeowners insurance for your house and possessions may leave you feeling a bit like Goldilocks searching for a chair, a bed, and porridge that are just right. If you underinsure your home and suffer a devastating loss—flood, fire, theft—then you risk not being able to return to the lifestyle you’ve worked hard to achieve. Yet if you overinsure, you’re throwing money away every year on unnecessarily high premiums.

What you need is coverage that’s just right. Here’s how to get it, and it shouldn’t take more than 4 or 5 hours of your time spent reviewing your homeowners insurance policy, talking to your agent, and doing a little research.

Look before you leap into a policy
All homeowners insurance isn’t created equal. That’s why it pays to review your coverage every year to ensure your policy meets your evolving needs. Begin by understanding the types of coverage available.

Actual cash value coverage reimburses you for the value of your home based on its current condition, explains Marjorie Young, senior vice president at E.G. Bowman Co., a New York City insurance brokerage. If your home was built 10 years ago, you’d receive only the depreciated value of decade-old windows, cabinets, appliances, and so on.

Most insurers recommend the more comprehensive replacement cost coverage. With it, says Young, you’ll be reimbursed for the amount it will cost to rebuild your home like new with the same kind and quality of materials. Depreciation doesn’t factor into the settlement equation.

To get the full benefit of replacement coverage, you need to purchase enough insurance to cover the total cost to rebuild your home, excluding the value of the land. Many people make the mistake of insuring at the market value, says June Walbert of USAA Financial Planning Services in San Antonio. But the amount you could sell your home for today isn’t necessarily the same as how much it would cost to rebuild.

Construction costs play big role
Look to current construction costs in your local area for guidance. If you’ve purchased a newly constructed home in the past year, you already have the answer. The same is true if you’ve refinanced within the past year. You almost certainly paid for an appraisal during that process that likely includes three valuations: replacement cost, market value, and actual cash value.

If you’re determining replacement cost without those head-starts, Walbert recommends calling several local homebuilders and asking the average square-foot construction cost in your area. If the going rate is $175, and your home is 2,000 square feet, you’d purchase $350,000 in coverage. For just a few bucks you can also order a valuation report online at a website like AccuCoverage ($7.95) or Home Smart Reports ($6.95).

Remember that any time you spend at least 5% of your home’s value on a remodeling project—or $5,000, whichever is less—you should contact your insurer to increase your coverage. Young recently did that after she revamped her own kitchen. An additional $40,000 in homeowners coverage raised her annual premium by about $40.

Don’t neglect valuables, liability
Be sure you’re also insured at the right value for your home’s contents and for personal liability. Most insurance polices provide only actual cash value on contents, says Lisa Lobo, vice president of underwriting operations at The Hartford in Southington, Conn. To get replacement cost coverage, you’ll need to purchase an endorsement. If you have valuables not covered by your policy—silverware, jewelry, furs—purchase endorsements for those, too.

Many people pay no attention to the liability coverage limits in their policies, but Walbert says that’s a mistake. If you have a dinner party and a guest falls down your front steps, you don’t want to be underinsured. In recent years the average liability claim for bodily injury and property damage has been $15,854. Walbert recently increased a homeowner’s liability coverage by several hundred thousand dollars for just $6 more per year.

If you’re concerned about increasing your premiums by adding endorsement after endorsement, ask whether you can save money by splitting your deductible, paying a higher amount for certain claims and a lower amount for others. Bundled endorsements can save you a few bucks, but only if you require them all. Take a pass on unneeded riders. Why spend $8 to $12 a year for $500 worth of refrigerated property coverage when you eat takeout every night?

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who has been involved in insurance litigation. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR(R) Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, personal finance, and legal topics.

Labels: buying a home, buying and selling a home, condo for sale, home for sale, real estate sales

Make your home warm and inviting to boost your home’s value and speed up the sale process.

Warm, neutral-colored paint is key when staging your home.

The first step to getting buyers to make an offer on your home is to impress them with its appearance so they begin to envision themselves living there. Here are seven tips for making your home look bigger, brighter, and more desirable.

1. Start with a clean slate
Before you can worry about where to place furniture and which wall hanging should go where, each room in your home must be spotless. Do a thorough cleaning right down to the nitpicky details like wiping down light switch covers. Deep clean and deodorize carpets and window coverings.

2. Stow away your clutter
It’s harder for buyers to picture themselves in your home when they’re looking at your family photos, collectibles, and knickknacks. Pack up all your personal decorations. However, don’t make spaces like mantles and coffee and end tables barren. Leave three items of varying heights on each surface, suggests Barb Schwarz of www.StagedHomes.com in Concord, Pa. For example, place a lamp, a small plant, and a book on an end table.

3. Scale back on your furniture
When a room is packed with furniture, it looks smaller, which will make buyers think your home is less valuable than it is. Make sure buyers appreciate the size of each room by removing one or two pieces of furniture. If you have an eat-in dining area, using a small table and chair set makes the area seem bigger.

4. Rethink your furniture placement
Highlight the flow of your rooms by arranging the furniture to guide buyers from one room to another. In each room, create a focal point on the farthest wall from the doorway and arrange the other pieces of furniture in a triangle around the focal point, advises Schwarz. In the bedroom, the bed should be the focal point. In the living room, it may be the fireplace, and your couch and sofa can form the triangle in front of it.

5. Add color to brighten your rooms
Brush on a fresh coat of warm, neutral-color paint in each room. Ask your real estate agent for help choosing the right shade. Then accessorize. Adding a vibrant afghan, throw, or accent pillows for the couch will jazz up a muted living room, as will a healthy plant or a bright vase on your mantle. High-wattage bulbs in your light fixtures will also brighten up rooms and basements.

6. Set the scene
Lay logs in the fireplace, and set your dining room table with dishes and a centerpiece of fresh fruit or flowers. Create other vignettes throughout the home—such as a chess game in progress—to help buyers envision living there. Replace heavy curtains with sheer ones that let in more light.
Make your bathrooms feel luxurious by adding a new shower curtain, towels, and fancy guest soaps (after you put all your personal toiletry items are out of sight). Judiciously add subtle potpourri, scented candles, or boil water with a bit of vanilla mixed in. If you have pets, clean bedding frequently and spray an odor remover before each showing.

7. Make the entrance grand
Mow your lawn and trim your hedges, and turn on the sprinklers for 30 minutes before showings to make your lawn sparkle. If flowers or plants don’t surround your home’s entrance, add a pot of bright flowers. Top it all off by buying a new doormat and adding a seasonal wreath to your front door.


MinneapolisCondosTaraOBrien

Labels: buying a home, buying and selling a home, condo for sale, home buying process, home for sale, home staging, homes for sale in shakopee, minneapolis realtors, sell my house, staging your home for sale