The Minneapolis Real Estate Blog: February 2008

Located in Eagan, Minnesota, this custom built home is nestled among two acres of woodlands, sitting just up the slope from Acorn Pond.

The unique boulder lined driveway was featured in the 2007 Corvette calendar and provides privacy for the property from Cliff Road.

Wildlife abounds on the property with a family of wild turkey and a herd of deer that play and eat with each other. With the large window wall in the Great Room, one can see the nest of a large owl. Don't forget that in winter, the pond can be turned into a mini hockey rink!

Priced at $1.1 Million, the home boasts almost 5000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and a walk out basement. The master suite is located on the main floor, with two bedroom positioned upstairs, as well as a large bonus room over the garage. The lower level includes a sunken living room with 11 foot ceilings, billiards room, and forth bedroom and full bath.

The gourmet kitchen features a Wolf gas range, two center islands, prep sink, granite countertops, convection oven, drawer style dishwashers, and more.

To view more photos and home highlights, please visit the property website at www.965CliffRoad.com, or contact Jennifer Kirby at 651-785-3400 for an appointment.

...at least this is what I am finding out, and I don't understand why.

A few weeks ago I went on a listing appointment. I had already walked through the home, so I knew what needed to happen in order for the home to sell quickly. The owners asked me to be very honest about the condition of their home, and wanted me to be brutally honest. I don't sugar coat listings, so being completely upfront and blunt about their home was not a problem for me.

During the appointment, they wrote down all the things that needed to change to get top dollar for their home. Here are a few things I saw:

• the fruit wallpaper in the kitchen had to go - replacing with neutral color paint updates the home and make it look more modern
  
• the ceiling fan in the kitchen had to go - ceiling fans not only distract buyers when looking at a kitchen, they are usually ugly, and dated. No one puts ceiling fans in kitchens anymore, and buyers hate them.
  
• the carpet needed to be replaced - the new carpet they told me about over the phone was in fact 10 years old and hadn't been cleaned in 10 years
  
• the home needed to be painted inside and all child damages to walls fixed
  
• the aromatherapy scent had to go

The sellers believed their home was a certain price, in its current condition. I told them that their home would not reach that price unless they changed the things I mentioned.They were comparing their home to other homes, that no appraiser would use as comparables. While the price that I told them to list at was $10,000 below what they had hoped, they said they understood and would fix the items on the list. Before the seller left, he asked me if it would be possible to list higher. I told him he could do anything he wants, but that I would be coming back to him in a month for a price reduction.

I thought things went well, but when a week passed of no returned phone calls or emails, I knew something was up. Finally I got the call that they were hiring another real estate agent to represent them. Through sources, I found out that the husband was offended and thought I had told him his home was crap.( If memory serves me right, he told me he wanted me to be brutally honest.) I also found out that the agent walked through his home, telling him:

• his home was beautiful and not a thing needed to be changed
  
• his home was worth $10,000 more than I told him - the magic number he wanted to hear

I guess what he really wanted was for me to lie to him, and give him a lot of fluff. Sorry, but that is just not my style. See, I believe that if you really want to sell your home, then you need to do things to set your home apart from all the other junk out there. Trust me, there are so many homes on the market that are average, that buyers find it hard to choose. So the only solution is to make your home look as good as it can. Painting is one of the cheapest ways to add value to your home. Removing anything that dates your home, like tacky wallpaper, or gold colored light fixtures, is a good thing, and relatively cheap to fix, too.

There are also a lot of desperate agents out there that will tell a seller anything they want to hear, just to get the listing. These are the mediocre agents that plague our industry. They will take an overpriced listing knowing full well that in a month, they will be asking for a price reduction. My question is, if the first month of a new listing is the most crucial time of the entire listing, why would you start by overpricing it?

Buyers, and their agents, KNOW when a home is overpriced, and instead of taking a look at it, they will pass it buy. Like I said, there are just too many homes for sale in the Twin Cities to choose from, so the easiest way to eliminate homes is to throw out those that are overpriced. Bottom line, if you want to be lied to, at least admit it to yourself before the listing appointment. And if you let the agent know as well, then you may not waste their time, by having unrealistic expectations.

Today the Residential Real Estate Activity Report for 2007 was released by the Minnesota Association of Realtors. It tells us what we all knew was happening here in the Twin Cities. Listings stayed high, while closed sales took a nose dive. To put it in numbers, over 105,000 listings were for sale, but only 40,055 closed. That's roughly a sale rate of 38%.

In the last few months, I have had people ask me about the market. I have always told them that while the market is down, we are back to 2002 sales levels, which in itself wasn't too shabby of a year. Low and behold I was right on the money! We all new the roller coaster ride had to end sometime. Now we can look back the last five years and follow the trends. Trends typically follow a sine curve, so it will be interesting to see if 2008 will be the year we hit bottom.

With record sales the last five years, we can also see what areas of the Twin Cities sold the highest volume of homes. NO big surprise but the Lake Minnetonka area tops the list. Homes around the lake have sky rocketed, with older homes being torn down and being replaced with mansions. Other areas have seen the same trend, especially in Edina. There have been a couple controversial tear-downs the last two years.

The next installment will look at appreciation levels and housing affordability.

I just discovered, through track-backs, that my blog content is being scraped and placed on this site http://luxuryrealestate.castlemainefringe.com/.  Since I did not give this "blog" permission to take my content, then it is infringing on my copyright. Now I can see that he is linking back to my post, but when my name is not even attributed to the article, but instead reads "unknown writes", then I have a major problem with this. If you visit this "blog" you can see my name on articles written by other authors. What's up with that?

Of course the author does not provide any contact information. The only way I have been able to find out who the site belongs to is tolook up the domain name registration information in GoDaddy.com. I sent the man, David, an email to cease and desist. His phone number is available and I will try that later. I also let him know that I will be contacting as many people as possible, who's content is also being used on his site. So far I have written and email to six people.

Obviously, the site is only there to generate ad revenue, but is using our great content to do so. Don't think I will be seeing any revenue from this illegal use of my content.

So, since my blog is being stolen, does that mean that I am now famous? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the thief thinks that us bloggers are so stupid that we don't check up on our trackbacks. I have noticed that some of those I have contacted do not utilize track-backs. If you don't see who is linking to your posts, then you will never know who is taking your content.

I know many here on AR have had their content stolen, even by Active Rain members. Any suggestions you can add on how to stop my content from being used on this guy's site, is greatly appreciated. I have heard of reporting the issue to Google, but don't know how to do it.

If you would like to read more articles about stolen blog posts, check out these written by fellow AR members:

A public service message to real estate and mortgage bloggers- Teresa Boardman

Local10.com Miami Steals Blog Content - Scott Slocum

Who Owns What You Write? *UPDATED*  - Sarah Cooper

and from the Queen herself PLAGIARISM, COPYRIGHT AND GOOGLE JUICE- Lenn Harley

I recently sat down with a Twin Cities luxury home owner and discussed listing their property in the next few weeks. When it comes to selling a luxury home, I usually do what is called a "two-step" presentation. The first meeting is a chance to tour the home, listen to the homeowner's wants and needs, and get an overall idea on the scope of the property and its relationship to the market. Either the next day, or a few days later, I meet with the owners again, and give my presentation on the state of the market, my recommended listing price range, and the marketing plan I have developed specific to their home.

After I list the home, I come back into the home, without the owner present, and go over every detail, like a home inspector would, and find any flaws that a buyer might object to. I have found things like worn carpet, dirty walls, missing caulk, nail pops, broken drywall seams, etc. With an expensive home, these things really need to be repaired. If they aren't, a buyer could get so fixed on these small flaws, that they forget to see the bigger picture...the home.

Listing a high-end home takes time and is not something that happens over night. Here are a few things that take more than a day to process, and sometimes a few weeks to deliver:

• For one, I use a professional photographer and it could take, at a minimum, of five days from photo shoot to processing to get the finished product.
• It also takes time to write good ad copy. A successful luxury home ad will invite the reader in and turn a description of the home into an emotional experience which will make them WANT to see the property right away. Sadly, I cannot write these overnight, but need a few days of brainstorming to come up with something I deem worthy. It also helps to have the photos so I can get a good visual of what prospective buyers will see.
• Gathering information on the home takes time as well - Taking measurements, building a floor plan, getting various documents etc.
• Once everything is available, I then sit down and create a luxury website for the home. Pointing buyers to the website is a great way to cross market and give them all the information they need to make a decision. Affluent buyers can be quite picky, so putting everything in one place creates one less hassle during their home search. It also sets a seller's home apart from all the other high-end listings and shows how this home is special.

There are of course other details that go into marketing a luxury home, but I won't go into those here. The biggest thing to understand is that marketing a home in this category takes money. And that money comes out of the agent's pocket, upfront. So it is important to realize how much of a commitment a luxury home agent is making to you, their client. If they don't sell your home, they could be out thousands of dollars.

*Helpful Hint: if you interview an agent and through their marketing plan find a lack of high-end exposure, then you might want to rethink hiring that agent. Too often I find expensive homes for sale that have a lack-luster agent. One big clue is the agent taking the photos themselves. Luxury homes need luxury photography, not second rate shots. Many times I find that the photos themselves are the reason for no showings.

It definitely take time, energy, and money to work in the luxury market.

***********************************************************************

To learn more about the Luxury Home Market in the Twin Cities, visit my outside blog.

Six years ago I married into a Catholic family, knowing full well that one day I would convert into the church. Now this post isn't about religion, but religion is going to help me write this post.

This Sunday I celebrated my Rite of Election at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. I had been in the church before during the last Ramsey Hill Home Tour, and knew it would be a great opportunity to test out my camera. The church is stunning, to say the least, and would provide some beautiful photos. But I knew I would have some major lighting problems, because much of the church is in low light.

Some photos came out really well, and of course, those were the ones with the most natural light coming in through the stain-glass windows. The photo to the left looks good, but there is some glare.

When I tried taking photos in lower light, the fun really began. I don't have any experience shooting in low light because lets face, how many places to you go now a days that are not flooded by light? So this would be a good learning experience.

I took this photo on the Aperture Setting, and adjusted for Exposure.

The first shot is at +1 exposure , but is too dark. So when I let in more light with the second at +2, the photo came out blurry. It would have been perfect if on a tripod, but I don't think the Arch Bishop would have approved.

I think what I also should have tried, was messing with the Aperture, or f-stop. Maybe the photos would have turned out different if I had used a smaller f-stop, increasing the depth of field. Most likely, but I honestly forgot to do it. After two hours, my husband was ready to leave, and thought I had had enough fun for one day. :)

 I was able to get some good shots and of course those had better lighting.. ie, the sun.

Overall, it was a good learning experience. I came home and re-read some photography books to help me better understand where I went wrong. I am by no means, a pro, and have alot to learn. I am getting good at landscape shots, but I have a long way to go in low-light interiors, like old churches. 

The city of Excelsior is in such a dilemma. Sitting on Lake Minnetonka, Excelsior has a great downtown district, mostly because anyone can enjoy the lake view and stand at the water's edge, without a building obstruction in the way. One of the best features is an open park, an area I have enjoyed during the summer months with my kids. But during 1904-1922, the pavilion pictured above stood near the same spot.

A developer is currently petitioning the city to allow him to reconstruct the pavilion, in the same spot it used to stand on the shoreline of Excelsior. There are many residents who do not want to lose the lake view that draws tourists to the area. For 80 years, the site has been open, and many want to keep it that way. But there are also residents of Excelsior that like the idea and think the new pavilion would add to the historic nature of the town.

But who should win? A pavilion that predates the open view park, but hasn't been around since 1922, or the open space, which has been enjoyed by residents and visitors for 80 years? When does a historic building need to bow out gracefully and, for a better phrase, stay dead?

I guess the stand I would take on this issue would be on the side to keep the site as is. I don't believe that it is in the publics best interest to build a new pavilion, that in this case would be used as a town hall, with some public access. No matter how great the developer can make the site, it still will be taking away an open space which can be currently be enjoyed by all. To me, the pavilion is a great part of Excelsior history, but it does not have a place in the town's future, especially since it hasn't been around for so long.

Could the developer be pushing the historic button of residents to get his plan approved? Maybe, but he does have a history of restoring old buildings in Excelsior. I have no doubt he has good intentions, but sometimes it is best to just leave well enough alone. His plan is putting an unfair burden on local residents, making them decide between a view they have enjoyed for a long time, or restoring a building that helped create the town itself.

The photo above is of the current view from Excelsior, looking out to Lake Minnetonka. I think I like this view much better. What do you think?

_____________________________________________________________________

Visit my historic home blog to learn more about architecture in Minnesota.

559 Forest St, St. Paul, MN

Walk into this wonderful historic home located in Saint Paul, Minnesota and you will soon call it home.

Built in 1884,  the original hardwood floors greet visitors upon entry as does the main living room. With the numerous windows throughout the home, natural light is easy to come by and gives the home a natural warmth.

Sit down to family meals in the formal dining room, or enjoy breakfast in the large kitchen, which offers plenty of space for a small table.

Take a stroll up the original stairs to the living area where the three bedrooms are located. The master bedroom is located toward the front of the home and has an attaching bedroom which can also be used as a large sitting area.

The third bedroom has new carpet and makes the perfect baby room, or use it as your own personal home office. Enjoy the full bathroom, also located on the second floor, which features an antique claw foot tub. 

Visit www.559ForestStreet.com .

Make sure to include this historic property on your home tour. You will be sure to enjoy it as much as the current owners have. To schedule a showing, please call Jennifer Kirby at 651-785-3400 or email JKirby@ExitRealtyEP.com .

Recent Updates Include:

• New Roof, Fall 2007
• New Electrical
• Updated Kitchen
• Refinished Hardwood Floors
• New Carpet
• Fresh Paint

Times have changed. No longer can you just stick a sign in the yard and get a home to sell. Agents and home owners have to come up with innovative ideas that will spark interest in a buyer's mind. For some homes, this is a relatively easy task, but there are those rough gems out in the world that need all the help they can get. So if you have a tank, you might enjoy the following property.

My father-in-law has a brother that lives in Montana. If you have ever been to Montana, you would know that it is a very vast space of land, where remote locations could be only ten miles out of the nearest town. It is also a state that doesn't have a large caravan of relocating buyers coming across the border. Anyway, I was sent the web addressfor my relative's remote property that he has for sale.

The first photo is of the drive way in winter. He states, " This is truck country - 4 wheel drive only certain times of the year. If you don't plow the last mile you will probably be snowed in for a few months every year. The road is 3 1/2 miles long - the first 2 1/2 miles is a mostly unmaintained forest road - the last mile is a private road. The road is gravel, dirt, rock, and at certain times of year mud. If you like mudding - this road can be an absolute hoot. There are certain times of year that 1000 feet of this road can be little more than a mud bog. Well, maybe I'm overstating a bit, but there have been times and I hope you get the picture. If you do not have to go anywhere this road can be the perfect isolating mechanism for your own private retreat. Got a Hummer or tank, not worried about the road, take your best shot".

Now does that paint a picture of what you are getting into if you like this property?

I love the fact that the entire description of this property is telling people what to fully expect and paints the reality of living on this land. He lets you know up front that this home is not for the city slicker hoping to move out to the wilderness, with no remote living experience, to rough it in retirement. He even write "This spot is not for wimps, those that are fainthearted, or those that are weak".

Did I mention that you have to produce your own electricity, as this property is not on a grid?

After portraying who this property is not for, he goes directly into who the property would be perfect for, a writer, someone seeking solitude, etc. He also highlights the wildlife, and the amazing mountain views. He mentions that the land could be great for a summer cabin, or a hunting retreat. But I love the ending:

"I dare you to live there year round; however, be aware you could be risking your life or your sanity."

Do you think he will sell this home, using such an unconventional way of attracting a buyer? What do you think of his approach?