The Minneapolis Real Estate Blog: August 2007

Granted my blog may not be read by all of you, but for those of you that tune in every now and then, you know I just contracted to have a new home built. This is my Pilot episode, so over the next six months, I will be posting on our home building experiences, including photos of the process, along with any rants or grumblings that will come with it. :)

We have been looking since January at the resale market, but could never find what we were looking for. When we did find it, the home was overpriced and the seller was unwilling to negotiate. (One seller was months away from foreclosure, and refused to take anything but full price.) Beginning to burn out, we took a stab at new construction.

Up until a few months ago, builders were also sticking to their guns and refusing to negotiate or offer incentives. But with the Twin Cities Association of Home Builders reporting the worst months for permits in June and July, builders seemed to finally wake up and smell the coffee. Here are some rules we stuck to. You should to if you intend to buy new construction soon.

Rule #1 - Narrow down the areas you want to live in, then look for builders who are currently in that market.

We knew we wanted to live south of the Twin Cities. My husband didn't want to be too far away from work, and South of the Minnesota River looked to be our best bet.

Rule #2- Take into consideration PRICE, LOT location, and Amenities. Know what you want.

In almost every subdivision we looked, we were able to find a lot we could live with. Our goals were to have a big backyard for our growing boys to run around on, and enough square footage for 3-4 bedrooms and an office. (I work from home)

Rule #3 - When figuring out what the cost of the home will be, pile on the amenities. The number will most likely be more than you want to spend.

Once we put in everything we could imagine, the home for each builder was about $20,000 over our planned budget. We then looked at what we could take out, things we could live with out, or projects we could do at a later time. Getting rid of the items we would never use or need also helped.

Rule #4 - It is a Buyers Market. If you don't ask for concessions, you won't get any!

A semi-custom builder we spent three weeks with designing a home, gave us a computer generated "price". Being a Realtor, I knew this was a 2005 number and unrealistic. The builder was offering a $30,000 "off the lot" incentive, but told us to make an offer. We offered $65,000 less than his computer price...he countered at $50,000 off.

Another builder we spent two weeks with designing a home, told us they DON'T negotiate. Then they let us know they were running a special promotion, giving $30,000 off everything, money toward landscaping, and paying a large amount of closing costs. (Hmmm, sounds like negotiating to me!)

SO...who did we go with?

Well, this IS the pilot episode, and I have to leave you with a cliffhanger. So tune in for the next episode of "Confessions of New Construction" in a few days! 

This weeks Historic Home of St Paul is 366 Summit Avenue.

Built in 1928 at a cost of $120,000, this home was constructed for Dr. Egil Boeckman, a St Paul physician at the time. His wife, Rachel Boeckman, was the daughter of the famous railroad tycoon, James J. Hill and was the last home built by a member of the Hill family.

The home is an excellent example of a Georgian Revival design. It has the classic brick quoins on the corners of the home, the broken arch over the door, dentils at the eaves, double hung windows (that look to still be the originals), and symmetrical windows on either side of the front door. The home looks very much like it did in this 1932 photo. The home in 1973 shows you the eight chimneys topped with decorative cornices. It is currently zoned and used as apartments.

The reason this home was built at a later date than most other homes in my Historic Home series is due to a previous home being located on the site between 1884-1924 . The D.R. Noyes residence was a Queen Anne Shingle style home, characterized by the shingle facade on the second and third story. View another photo of the home taken in 1898.

Summer is winding down, kids are preparing to go back to school, and the final hurrah is happening at the Minnesota State Fair. Yes that's right folks, the state fair just began and is sure to not disappoint.

For those of you not familiar with our famous fair, I'll spell is out for you F-O-O-D, and better yet, all of it comes on a stick. The Minnesota State Fair is most famous for the amount of food that comes on a nice little wooden stick, and this year there are about 53 different types to choose.

Here are just a few of the times you can find on a stick:

• Fried Swiss Cheese
• Battered, Deep Fried candy bars
• Chocolate Covered Bananas
• Carmel Apples
• Sloppy Joe
• Pancake wrapped around sausage
• Dixie wings
• Pizza
• Frozen key lime pie covered in chocolate
• Leg of Lamb
• Reuben
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Dill Pickle
• Grilled Pork Chops
• Scotch Eggs (hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, rolled in bread crumbs, deep fried)
• Deep Fried Twinkie
• Vegetable
• Fruit
• Cajun seasoned alligator

And if you still don't believe it, check out the video below from the 2006 fair.

The Minnesota State Fair runs from now until September 3rd in St Paul and has different hours for various exhibits and shows.

H-O-C-K-E-Y

I didn't grow up watching hockey like my husband did, so technically it isn't in my blood. However now that I have been with my husband for some 10 years, I have been subjected to the sport so much that now I do enjoy watching the game. If my boys end up playing hockey in Minnesota some day, I have been told I will end up the "hockey mom". Who knows, maybe they will both be Gophers some day.

Well this week the honor of being the top ice arena in the state went to our beloved Burnsville, just south of Minneapolis. The Burnsville Ice Center received the James Padgett Award which recognizes the constant improvement of ice delivery. The ice arenas recent updates to the concession stand, ice surfacer, etc helped it win the award. Another interesting reason Burnsville won was their dedication to growing Adult Hockey, a sport that is quickly becoming more popular every year. My brother-in-law already plays on a team in Chicago, and my husband hopes to get onto a team sometime next year.

Just to show you non-hockey states how popular the ice is in Burnsville, there are two buildings (pictured above), each with its own sheet of ice. This complex alone attracts over 350,000 visitors each year and has hockey, figure skating, learn to skate programs, youth and adult hockey, and curling. And yes, you can skate on the ice during the summer months!

While the "recommendations" for potential blogs to highlight were much appreciated on Colleen's post about the next contest, I thought I would highlight local Minnesota bloggers here on Active Rain, that aren't always in the spotlight. Sorry Teresa but unfortunately I have to keep you off the list as I only have three spots, and if I included you, you would get all three which would numerically be impossible considering the contest rules. So, in no particular order, here are three bloggers in Minnesota that I highly recommend.

 (Weenie photo? Need I say more?)

1) I just love to read posts from Teri Eckholm. She is a great writer, and adds that faint twist of dry humor to her posts that makes me laugh. Her recent experience sitting in continuing education made me chuckle as I have been in her shoes, as I am sure many of you have. Dumb comments from other Realtors keep the time in class dragging on. It is especially hard on a blogger who is just itching to post about the experience on her Weenie blog.

(I neither admit or deny that those could be Teri's shoes. Legs may or may not be included)

2) If you haven't seen the Codgers, then you are really missing out a great blog that is different then anything else I have seen. The graphics alone by Jay Merton & Jack Boardman make me tune in a couple times a week to see what Jay has created. His post this month on how Realtors are helping write house history is something I had never considered. While I would love to copy one of his portraits he created, they are copywritten and I don't have permission to do so...check it out for yourself!

(for the record, Jay is not the girl in the photo, as I do not have a "real" photo of him)

3) My favorite post of the month comes from Bonnie Erickson. With so many rants on Active Rain, it was nice to finally read a happy post. Bonnie had the privilege of working with a listing agent that showed just how professional our industry should be. Would you act the same way if you were in the LAs shoes?

(I like to think this photo represents how Bonnie felt as she walked out of her closing)

So there you have it. Three great real estate bloggers here on Active Rain that don't get featured 24/7. Up here in Minnesota, we may not get noticed as much as other states, but we have some fantastic down-to-earth people that make reading and blogging worth while. Be sure to say hello and check them out weekly, or better yet, subscribe to their blogs and keep better tabs so you don't lose them in the 40,000+ member shuffle.

After the countless number of viewings of resale homes since January, and three negotiations with different builders, we have finally found the house for us. Yes, we are diving into new construction.

Minneapolis home prices have been steadily declining over the last year. Resale homes in the Twin Cities have been the quickest to fall, and builders have been reluctant to give in to the price reductions. We have looked the last year at new construction but were finding that builders still wanted 2005 prices. It got to the point that the best option for us was to look at resales. Well, of course months went by and we just couldn't find what we were looking for, the most bang for the buck so to speak.

Finally we checked out a couple more builders and saw they were starting to negotiate their prices. Building permits were at their lowest in years and homes have been sitting for over a year.

-one builder came down from his 2005-2006 prices as much as $75,000, but we felt his homes were still too overpriced for this market. The problem was that he purchased the land at a record price in 2004 (the farmer made a killing off this developer) and he still needed to charge high prices for the lots to make up for his purchase.

-another builder wasn't willing to pay our closing costs. On his home, if he wanted us to pay his price, then we wanted other incentives, like paying for a buy-down. But he wouldn't budge...five months later, that lot is still for sale and the builder is trying to sell off the lots to another developer to get out of the subdivision.

-the builder we decided on, just so happened to be having an August promotion on his homes in which they were giving $30,000 in incentives, $5000 for landscaping, and $7,500 toward closing costs. The key was that his homes were never massively overpriced to begin with. We found a lot we liked with trees in the back (for added privacy) and negotiated a couple more items. It was a win-win for both parties.

Amazingly, the first builder called me yesterday and said he was willing to come down another $20,000 if we were still interested. Granted we loved his floor plan the best, and the location was top notch, we had to weigh our options. Go with him for the reasons I just stated, or go with the other builder who was offering a finished basement and a nice deck (both for the same price).  Since we really wanted the most bang for the buck, we declined his offer. Our short term plan is to hold this house for five years, and then move to an area with more acreage. If we get a huge discount on adding the additional finished square feet in the basement now, then we will come out better monetarily when we go to sell. The first builder wasn't offering a finished basement or deck.

Granted we would love to wait until the spring to put a home under contract, (as we feel the market is only going to get worse for builders), we decided to go ahead and get it over with. I mean, we have been looking for 8 months and it is starting to stress us out.

So, get ready for a fun couple of months. I will be writing a series called Confessions of New Construction during the building process, highlighting things that happen and taking photos so you can see the overall process. Building this home is sure to be stressful,especially since it will be built during the winter months, but hopefully I will only have happy stories to tell, and not horror ones. So check back periodically for updates!

This weeks Historic Home in St Paul is 490 Summit Avenue.

One of many homes designed by C.H. Johnston on Summit, this home was built for A.G. Foster in 1883. Foster later became a United States Senator when he moved from Minnesota to Tacoma, Washington, leaving his lumber business behind.

The style is best described as Richardson Romanesque which can be seen in the multiple-grouped windows in the front step gable, the arched windows, and the masonry exterior.

The home originally cost only $23,000 to build. With approximately 8500 square feet, it boasts 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 7 fireplaces. For the last 50+ years the home as been host to catering businesses and weddings. The original carriage house still exists as does the interior decorative woodwork. The glassed in area on the top left of the home was originally an open porch.


The home has been on the market recently for around $1.5 Million, but is currently off the market. View a photo of the home as it appeared in 1888.

If you want to see how you measure up in the wide world of real estate related sites, check out Market Leap. They have a great site in which you can measure where you stand against your competition.

As you can see, you can check out your link popularity, that is, how many links are coming into your site. Also, look at your search engine saturationand see what pages you are showing up in on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. And lastly, see how your keywords are doing in the major search engines. can they even see you?

For fun, I did a link popularity of Active Rain against Wanna Network, obviously both real estate social sites. Here is how the analysis looks:

Wanna Network falls in the "Average Presence", while Active Rain is just with-in the "Above-Average Presence" category. If you look a the bottom of the list, the most popular link site is RealEstate.com. (Realtor.com isn't even the best like site).

You can also run this analysis every so often, then check out the other tab "Trend/History Report". According to MarketLeap, it "gives you a view of how your website's link popularity has performed over time. If you've run your link popularity reports here in the past, sample data from every day you have run a report is already available. This report only includes data from URL's that have been checked by Marketleap's free tool. It does not represent the complete link popularity history of this URL".

So go out there and see where you stand. Needless to say, I doubt any of you are the 900-lb gorilla. But if you do rank high, let me know as I am curious as to who our big men on campus are here on the Rain.

While viewing various landscapes of area homes in Prior Lake this weekend for the Pond and Landscape Tour, I ran into a couple who sprinkled their landscape with art they produce on site.

Called Artscape Lighting, they design beautiful floral sculptures which house lighting for ponds, walking paths, fences, etc. The one pictured above is a fountain into the swimming pond they built. Check out their website for more designs. They have developed a great way to camouflage lighting and make the garden more appealing!

Talking to the owner, she mentioned that the lights are also great for winter landscaping. They can survive the harsh Minnesota winters, especially snowing ones. Not only are they "flowers" in the garden when nothing is alive, they also give great ambient light in the evening and on snow.