Tara O'Brien's Minneapolis Real Estate Update

Minneapolis Real Estate Blog

Most people who are getting ready to sell their home need a place to start. Here is what you can do to make your house stand out from the rest. A clean home shows. There are things in your home you most likely dont see anymore and this list will help you make sure you dont miss a thing.

• Remove and donate unwanted items, reorganize and clean closets,attic, basement and garage
• Power wash exterior walls, porch floors, deck, patio, driveway and sidewalks
• Clean outdoor furniture, umbrellas and outdoor light fixtures, wash windows (inside and out)
• Clean out gutters
• Clean out refrigerator and freezer, making sure to vacuum the grill and coil
• Remove lint from the hose attached to back of clothes dryer
• Vacuum baseboards, walls and ceilings, wipe down walls to remove all cobwebs
• Steam clean carpets and area rugs and upholstery
• Reseal natural stone surfaces (travertine, granite, etc)
• Reseal and repair grout in bathtubs and showers
• Clean window treatments, dust and clean blinds and shutters
• Remove items from all shelves, dust and clean
• Oil hinges

As always, I would be happy to come over and go over the rest of the items you will need to do, each home is different and each listing is important in its own way. Call today for a free market analysis or to get started selling your home.

www.taraobrien.com

Minneapolis officials said Wednesday they are confident there will be no snow emergencies declared this season, a first for the city since 1987.

The official snow season ends on April 1, but the officials say they can make their judgment based on the forecast for above-average temperatures for the rest of the month.

The emergency-free winter of 1986-87 saw only 16 inches of snow. This season's tally stands at 22 inches.

The city says its savings from having no snow emergencies won't be known until the end of the year. The snow and ice control budget is about $9 million.

In the winter of 2010-11, however, snowfall of nearly 99 inches quickly pushed the city over budget and required eight snow emergencies. This season's spending is coming in about $2.8 million below the previous winter.

In neighboring St. Paul, there was one snow emergency called this season and nine the previous winter.

Snow emergencies are declared to allow for the orderly movement of parked vehicles along curbs so crews can plow the full width of streets.

Paul Walsh, Star Tribune Columnist.

Labels: buying and selling a home, home buying process, home for sale, minneapolis real estate, minneapolis realtors, minnesota real estate, real estate sales

In a world where the Internet makes marketing miracles possible and home data seems to flow free, every once in a while you’ll hear of someone attempting to buy or sell without an agent.

While some stories speak of success, they also reveal the time, expertise, and energy that go into a sale and the indisputable benefits of having an agent. Marketing and managing a home is a time-consuming undertaking and why now, more than ever, smart consumers need to use a real estate agent.

1) Online marketing takes time and expertise
Online marketing works, however, it takes hours of effort and knowledge of the successful websites to use in order to maximize exposure. It is also good to know the difference between third party aggregators and broker reciprocity in order to be using the most accurate and true data from the real MLS source in your area. Most sellers don’t have this level of expertise or the time to spend on the effort.

2) A home’s information alone is not enough – every home lives in a market
Most sellers think this, “I know my house better than any agent. Who better to sell the house than me?” This comment is typical of someone who doesn’t realize that knowing about a home is just the first step. The real key to moving a listing is knowing how that home fits into the market – and only a professional brings that kind of focus and real experience.

3) Showings and connections sell homes
Most real estate agents are already tapped into a network of people buying and selling. They are also constantly in contact with other professional real estate agents who they know in the same area that may have a buyer or seller that may match as well. Some real estate companies like Edina Realty have a network of homes that are not listed on the public MLS and can only be seen by and sold to other Edina agents who have access to them pre-market.

4) Even the smartest use an agent for expertise
There are many more factors that come into play when selling a home. Marketing a home is only the beginning. There are multiple forms needed, inspections required, title work that needs to be done and many more things. Realtors are the people in the transaction that make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. They will get you all the way through closing to make sure nothing is missed and you are taken care of.

If you are a buyer and wondering the same thing, "should I use a real estate agent?" The answer is still YES!!! Buyer agents in Minnesota work for you at no cost to you. You should have someone in your corner with expertise in negotiation, inspection and paperwork so you dont have to be the expert yourself. You will want someone working for you in your best interest, after all, the seller has someone working for them, shouldn't you?

www.TaraOBrien.com

To avoid losing homes to foreclosure due to long response times for short sale transactions, three senators introduced legislation to speed up the short sale process.

Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed the bill addressing the issue of short sales timelines on February 17. A short sale is a real estate transaction where the homeowner sells the property for less than the unpaid balance with the lender’s approval.

“There are neighborhoods across the country full of empty homes and underwater owners that have legitimate offers, but unresponsive banks,” said Murkowski. “What we have here is a failure to communicate. Why don’t we make it easier for Americans trying to participate in the housing market, regardless of whether the answer is ‘yes,’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe?’”

The legislation, also known as the Prompt Notification of Short Sale Act, will require a written response from a lender no later than 75 days after receipt of the written request from the buyer.

The lender’s response to the buyer must specify acceptance, rejection, a counter offer, need for extension, and an estimation for when a decision will be reached. The servicer
will be limited to one extension of no more than 21 days.

The bill will also allow the buyer to be awarded $1000, plus “reasonable” attorney fees if the Act is violated.

According to a release from Short Sale New England, short sale homes do not bring down neighboring home values like foreclosed homes do, and 83 percent of short sale buyers are satisfied with their purchase, according to a 2012 Home Ownership Satisfaction Survey conducted by HomeGain.

“The current short sale process can be time consuming and inefficient, and many would-be buyers end up walking away from a sale that could have saved a homeowner from foreclosure,” said Moe Veissi, president of the National Association of Realtors. “As the leading advocate for homeownership, realtors are supportive of any effort to improve the process for approving short sales.”

Equi-Trax released a survey last year on the issues real estate agents face when completing short sales. Guy Taylor, CEO at Equi-Trax, said 71.9 percent of respondents reported that a short sale can take four to nine months to complete, and they think that is simply too long.”

The survey also found that 18.2 percent of deals require less than three months to complete, with 10 percent requiring more than 10 months.

When agents in the survey were asked to how the short sale process can be improved, 57.6 percent said lenders should take less time to close transactions, 14 percent said borrowers should be better educated about short sales, and 40.4 percent said both of these changes are necessary to improve the process. By: Esther Cho

MinneapolisRealEstateTaraOBrien

In April 2011, a similar bill was introduced by Reps. Tom Rooney (R-Florida) and Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey), but this version requested a response deadline of 45 days instead of 75 from lenders. The legislation never came up for debate before a House committee.

Labels: homes for sale in minneapolis, minneapolis condos, minneapolis market, minneapolis real estate, minneapolis realtors