St. Louis Real Estate - Radon Testing A-B-C’s

Filed under: Building Inspection News, First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News, Relocation Buyer, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

RADON TESTING by Harry Morrell, ASHI Certified Inspector, #203651

Radon Testing and presence should be a concern to both home owners listing their home for sale and home buyers making a purchase. As for sellers, getting ready to list their home, Radon Testing, should be included with a full building inspection and termite inspection, when your inspector provides you with a pre-listing inspection. If these three roadblocks are addressed before listing your house, it is highly likely that the transaction will go through smoothly. It is also recommended that home buyers obtain a Radon test with their full building inspection and termite inspection.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water. Air pressure inside your home is usually lower than the pressure in the soil around your home’s foundation. Because of this difference in pressure, your house acts like a vacuum, drawing radon in through foundation cracks and other openings at and around the foundation and slab floor. Throughout the United States, Radon gas in the soil is the principal source of elevated Radon levels in residential homes.

Radon is estimated to cause thousands of lung cancer deaths each year. The Surgeon General of the United States has warned that Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths. Smokers and young children are the highest at risk people for lung cancer caused by high levels of Radon.

Since you cannot see or smell Radon, special testing equipment is used to measure levels of Radon in your home. There are many self tests in the market place that untrained people can use. However, trained Radon professionals are highly recommended to conduct testing during a real estate transaction to limit your liability. Typically, a 48 hour test is recommended for real estate transactions. If high levels are detected a mitigation system must be installed to remove the Radon gas. This mitigation system uses a mechanical venting system that runs 24/7. The installation is simple, but can only be performed by a qualified contractor. Once the system is installed and operating properly, the Radon gas is always reduced to safe levels.

Call your ASHI certified inspector for further details and any concerns you may have about Radon in your home.

Harry can be contacted at harrymorrell@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

To learn more about Radon and Real Estate continue reading here:

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   2 Comments »   |   08.30.2007

St. Louis Real Estate - Turn Hundreds of Dollars into Thousands in Profit!

Filed under: For Sellers, Real Estate News

St. Louis Real Estate Home Staging expert and Interior Designer Natalie Pinson puts in her two cents about “How hundreds of dollars can translate to thousands in profit.”

Does this sound familiar? It’s been years since you’ve updated and now you’re moving on to the next phase of life…you’re selling your home. All of a sudden, what you’ve been living with seems unacceptable to a potential buyer. You notice some big changes that need to be made, and little ones too. But where to start??

Enter the Home Staging expert. Real Estate Staging is the new interior design initiative quickly gaining popularity among sellers and agents alike. It takes a designers eye and market knowledge to know what buyers are looking for. Often it’s a matter of rearranging existing furniture and using your art and accessories effectively so that potential buyers can envision your home as theirs.

Most designers and Home Stagers will give you a “Resale Redesign Plan”. This is customized to your budget and your home. It should include cost-effective ideas (such as removing certain window treatments, painting a room a new color or adding foliage to a corner) that can be implemented quickly to enhance the profit of your property. Most Stagers will lead you in the right direction or provide the service of arranging your possessions themselves.

The strategy behind Home Staging is to make the most of what you already own. Granted, there are some areas that may need more significant funding, (i.e. a rusted faucet or broken commode) but in many cases there are affordable ways to improve the appeal of your home. Staging and small changes or repairs can typically range $500 to $5000. Think of Staging as a “refinement” if you will. It is a way to create a spacious and inviting home that doesn’t dig deep into your pockets.

When it’s time to get your home ready for resale it is always the best course of action to call in experts. Expert plumbers, electricians, Real Estate agents can all make a difference in the outcome of a sale. Home Staging experts are no different. A Staging professional will create a resale plan, help you implement it, and transform your home into someone else’s dream!

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   2 Comments »   |   08.29.2007

St. Louis Real Estate-A Great Time to Buy…

Filed under: First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News, Relocation Buyer, St. Louis Market Reports, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch 
August 25, 2007
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and St. Charles County Market Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome! 

This week’s St. Louis County and St. Charles County Market Watches look a lot like last week’s. There are small fluctuations in the numbers, but the over-all averages in all categories are fairly constant.  One note though; our average month’s inventory numbers are above 7 months of inventory.  This is due mostly to the higher priced homes primarily in the $600,000 and up ranges in St. Louis County and in the $500,000–$549,000 range and the $650,000 and up ranges in St. Charles County. The price ranges that typically move the St. Louis Market and the St. Charles Market are still mostly under 7 months of inventory.  Ignoring some of the higher-priced ranges, it appears that we are still in a balanced market, with some indication of trending toward a buyer’s market.   The difference this year over last year is the “days on market”, which is about 30 days longer than this same time last year.  To buyers, this may be a negotiating tool, and to sellers it should be motivation to price their home correctly at the beginning of the listing.

On another note. Thank you to all who are reading our blog, and finding this information useful.  Please do us a favor and take a minute to send us a comment, good or bad..or ugly. Let us know what you think and tell us what else you would like to see here. No promises, other than we will respond to your comments in some form.

Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch August 25, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch August 25, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report July 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category. 

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year. 

The Market Analysis includes data on: 

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM
           
Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!  

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

• Single Family Residence
• Ranch Style
• 1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
• 3 Bedrooms
• 1.5 Bathrooms  

Tags: St.+Louis+Real+Estate, St.+Louis+Real+Estate+Market+Watch, St.+Louis+Real+Estate+Blog, MLS, Buyers, Sellers, FSBO, Relocation, First+Time+Home+Buyer, Real+Estate+Investors, For+Sale+by+Owner

Posted by art   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.25.2007

St. Louis Real Estate - What the Hell Happened to the Mortgage Industry?

Filed under: First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, Mortgage News, Real Estate News, Relocation Buyer, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

Everybody out of the pool! The St. Louis Real Estate Buyer pool that is. When the mortgage industry finishes shaking out, the pool of qualified buyers will certainly look different than it has for a lot of years. Sellers better start putting the pencil to the paper and re-doing their home value calculation to get the pricing correct. There is mounting pressure to shrink the “buyer pool” and it’s working!

What the Hell Happened? by Chris Scheer, First Integrity Mortgage

As the dust of the collapse of the 10th largest mortgage company in the United States starts to settle http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/03/news/companies/american_home.reut/index.htm the mortgage industry is being faced with its greatest change in lending policies in years. As fast as you can hit send/receive, investors are sending out e-mails with changes for their product guidelines. Rate locks are being cancelled as investors realize there is no one who wants to buy the loans that they want to sell. . . or if they want to buy them. . . they don’t want to buy them for the price the investor has agreed to pay the originating lender.

So what loans are changing and disappearing? It is the liar loans. For years the mortgage industry has fed its growing appetite for originations with increased products for people who don’t make the taxable income needed to qualify for the home they wish to purchase or refinance. Now I am not saying that some of these people don’t have the cash flow to handle their obligations, but what I am saying is that they don’t declare taxes on that income or they are self-employed and find ways to write off expenses so that they don’t have to pay taxes.

What happens when a self-employed person has a rainy day?

They start robbing Peter to pay Paul and then their mortgage and other obligations become jeopardized. The same has happened to the mortgage companies that make these loans.

Countrywide, the self proclaimed largest lender in the United States has now fallen on the same woes as the rest of the industry, http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/17/business/mortgage.php

The entire industry has been built upon the hope that there never will be a rainy day. Now that it has started to rain we can watch as the poorly built straw houses wash away. When it is all over what will be left is a base of traditional lending values, income, assets, collateral, credit and equity. In the meantime, for those wanting to borrow, that don’t have all of the previous 5 keys, you will pay a significantly higher interest rate than the market if you can find a loan at all.

Chris Scheer can be reached at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Anyone out there have a “mortgage nightmare” they would like to share with us? Comment away. . .

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.18.2007

St. Louis Real Estate - Too Funny, but Too True!

Filed under: For Buyers

No editorial necessary. . .

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.15.2007

St. Louis Real Estate - Take the Mortgage Fitness Test!

Filed under: Mortgage News, Real Estate News

Here is a great idea if your St. Louis Real Estate is financed with a home mortgage. Take the Mortgage Fitness Test!

When was the last time you had a “Mortgage Fitness Checkup?” by Chris Scheer

For most people, their house is the single largest investment that they will ever make. In most cases it is also the single largest amount of money they will ever borrow. In addition to that, each and every day they are bombarded with advertising from companies trying to get them to refinance their first mortgage, second mortgage and in some cases even a third mortgage. Why is it that the majority of these people don’t invest the time to visit with their professional mortgage banker or broker to review their mortgage. If life happens, and it does for most of us, don’t our plans, goals and family situations change on a regular basis? All of a sudden the spouse wants a pool in the backyard. They want the basement finished. They want to go back to school to get a better job. Their company is planning on moving its headquarters and that may mean a career change. No longer are we dealing with people getting a 30 year fixed rate loan and paying all 360 payments to pay the loan off.
Most people are keeping their mortgage for an average of 3-5 years, even after the last refinance boom that ended in 2003, over 65% of the people who refinanced or purchased during 2002-2003 have refinanced or will refinance all or part of their mortgage in the past 12 or the next 12 months. Why is that you ask? Two reasons: the first being that many of those people took advantage of the historical low interest rates and financed into adjustable rate mortgages which are now coming up on their first adjustment period. The rest are people that I have previously mentioned, life happened to them and they decided to act. It is that simple.

So what are the benefits of a “Mortgage Fitness Checkup?”

1. Determine clients’ current financial goals pertaining to mortgage payment.
2. Review interest rate with current market.
3. Discuss new programs that have been introduced in last 12 months.
4. Educates borrower to help them from falling prey to the “Dark Side”.
5. Prepares potential buyers for upcoming opportunity to purchase.
6. Prepares potential investors for the opportunity to build wealth through real estate.
7. Prepares current homeowners for possible moves,
   including assisting in developing strategies to maximize equity in current home.
8. Provides credit theft screening.

How long does it take to complete? Depending upon the clients’ questions, a Mortgage Fitness Checkup can take as little at 10 minutes or up to 1 hour if the client wants to spend time strategizing ways to create wealth by using their mortgage as tool. For more information on the Mortgage Fitness Checkup, contact Chris Scheer at chrisscheer@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.15.2007

St. Louis Real Estate - This is one Oops you can’t make!

Filed under: Appraisal News, For Sellers, Real Estate News

When you’re selling St. Louis Real Estate, what’s the biggest mistake you can make? It’s the price! Today, more than ever, getting it right from the beginning is the key to getting it done. Here’s a summary from our newest contributer Jim Croak, an appraiser with A&C Appraisal.

Request several CMA’s from qualified Realtors. If the data is very close, you’re finished with the pricing scenario. If not, you should call in an appraiser for a “unbiased” opinion. They will typically come at the problem from three different approaches, sales comparison, income approach and the cost approach. After an inspection, a market analysis and a review of the three approaches to value, a final value conclusion is reached.

Next you should review the local market. The St Louis Real Estate Voice weekly market analysis is a great place to start. In your price range, how many homes are you competing against (Active Listings)? What is the Days on Market (DOM) in your price range? What is the ratio of listing price to selling price for your price range? Finally, what’s your time line for “getting it done”?

With an independent appraisal in hand you have a great negotiating tool. It’s an independent opinion of value. A bonus is achieved when you use a seasoned appraiser, one that is approved by a broad range of area lenders. What’s the bonus? Your buyer may be able to use this appraisal with their lender, saving them some money. What’s the bonus for you? You get to sell your home, sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference.

Jim can be reached at jimcroak@stlouisrealestatevoice.com

Posted by doug   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.14.2007

St. Louis Real Estate-Aug. 11, ‘07 You’ve Got to See This…

Filed under: First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers, St. Louis Market Reports, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

Filed under: Real Estate News, St. Louis Market Reports, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO), For Buyers, For Sellers, Relocation Buyer, First Time Home Buyer

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch
August 11, 2007
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and St. Charles County Market Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario. Your questions and comments are welcome!

St. Louis Real Estate in the Dog Days of summer! This week we are actually seeing triple digits for temperatures. The high temperatures haven’t stopped the real estate agents…OR the buyers and sellers in the market. Our numbers fluctuacted a bit up and down this week compared to last week, but nothing to indicate any additional slow-down of the market. On the other hand, there is nothing to indicate an up-turn either. Pretty much status quo for the week. In the past week, we saw our total listing numbers drop by only 2, and we saw many more homes than that sold this week. Sellers are still selling and buyers are still buying. One interesting point-after talking to sellers this week, the impression that has been expressed to me is that after Labor Day, the prime selling season is over. They couldn’t be more wrong. From Labor Day right through Thanksgiving is still a great time to sell a home. In some respects, maybe better, with milder weather and the fact that buyers seem to be more aggressive as the holidays approach. We’ll comment further on buying and selling during the holidays in future reports, SO…stay tuned.

The St. Charles County market is showing a bit of improvement this week with average pending ratios this week at 13.8% against last week’s pending ratio at 12.8%. Listings in St. Charles County decliined somewhat this week to 3108 from last week’s total of 3418. It looks like current inventory is getting sold. Check out the report to see all the numbers!

Thinking of buying or selling a home? Contact Us for additional information tailored to your specific needs.

St. Louis Real Estate St. Louis County Market Watch August 11, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate St. Charles County Market Watch August 11, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report July 2007

The report begins by breaking the market into 17 distinct price ranges. Then we show current listings and current pending listings which creates a pending ratio, which is helpful on a week to week basis to see if activity is increasing or decreasing in a price category.

The report also shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year.

The Market Analysis includes data on:

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)1
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Average List to Sales Price %
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)
Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM

Notice that you’re paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. .it’s a fact!!

Tags: St.+Louis+Real+Estate, St.+Louis+Real+Estate+Market+Watch, St.+Louis+Real+Estate+Blog, MLS, Buyers, Sellers, FSBO, Relocation, First+Time+Home+Buyer, Real+Estate+Investors, For+Sale+by+Owner

Posted by art   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   08.12.2007