« September 2008 | Main | November 2008 »
I want to commend the Secretary of State's office here in MN as they have created a great website where people can find their specific polling locations. It doesn't matter where you live in Minnesota, all you have to do is add your address to their database and they will tell you where to go and vote.
Jason Tangen - "I have never voted for the wrong person"
I have seen or heard about 10 different endorsements for Barack Obama as the next President of the United States recently. The obvious ones included Colin Powell and the New York Times. The less obvious include former Governor Arne Carlson.
What got me thinking was this: I haven't heard of anyone endorsing John McCain recently.
It could be that I am not in the right place at the right time. But I watch a lot of news programs, read a good amount of news articles, and listen to probably too much talk radio. I would like to think I would have caught one somewhere.
It could also be that it is the norm to see endorsements for McCain and therefore it isn't news. Somehow I don't believe that as the polls state that only 40% of people support McCain and that would lend to the idea that he shouldn't be getting the majority of endorsements.
So here is the question I pose out to everyone: Who was the last major endorsement John McCain received? I want a major endorsement from an influential person that has been in the national news - no, not "Joe the Plumber."
Jason Tangen- GRI, e-PRO -Real Esate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the bank owned properties listed on the St Cloud MLS
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search for open houses in St Joseph MN
I wanted to take the chance to "toot my own horn" for a second:
Search term: real estate st cloud mn
Woo-hooo! If you are looking to sell a home, use the real estate agent who can guarantee that people will find your home listed for sale on the Internet.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://StCloudEdina.com - Best on the Internet for Real Estate St Cloud MN
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search Open Houses in St Cloud MN
While I am no "Joe the Plumber," I do enjoy me a good debate every now and again (in a deep red neck accent).
This year's Presidential Debates have not disappointed at all. I watched the greatest people available to run our country speak very affluently about a bunch of nonsense. The best is that we all know that they will never deliver on anything they are saying, but we still drink the Kool-Aid. Politics as usual.
My favorite moment of all three debates was in the second "town hall" style debate. Obama was first asked to state what could be done to help correct or save Social Security. To which he promptly did not answer. Then comes McCain. In grand fashion he enters with his rapier wit and quickly points out that Obama did not answer the question... but he will. He then proceeds to not answer the question.
Neither of these two characters have a single clue how to balance the budget, reform health care, social security, or really fix any of the problems facing our nation. Once again, politics as usual. Change would be someone who can run a business effectively or maybe just balance a checkbook.
So what do you do? Vote for your lesser of two evils. For me, I'm thinking that Jerry Tangen (my Dad) might be a good vote as a write in candidate. What's your thoughts?
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN.
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search open houses in St Cloud MN and surrounding areas.
http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the foreclosed properties listed on the St Cloud MLS.
I have to give Coldwell Banker Burnet a little credit for trying anything to spark sales. Their 10 day sales event has gotten a ton of publicity and gotten people in the twin cities looking at real estate again.
My personal thoughts on this promotion, what an ingenious way to basically trick your sellers into a price reduction.
Most all real estate agents know that once you drop the price on a home it is nearly impossible to get that money back. Think about it: if you saw a home listed for $180,000 two days ago and it is listed for $190,000 today what will you offer them? $190K? I thought so:)
In the grand scheme of things, the price reductions are more than likely a necessity in order to get a lot of homes sold that are currently listed. I congratulate Coldwell Banker on trying new things to get people into the market, but what's next? A "blue light special?"
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN
www.StCloudEdina.com - See all the bank owned properties listed on the St Cloud MLS
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search open houses in Sartell MN and all of Central MN
I was asked to see what percentage of first time home buyers are purchasing bank owned homes with the recent flood of foreclosures on the market. I was unsure at first, as first time home buyers can come in any price point. But I did pull together this little statistic in regards to foreclosed properties on the St Cloud MLS:
50.4% of all homes sold on the St Cloud MLS under $150,000 were bank owned (Data from St Cloud MLS for the time period of 01/01/2008-10/13/2008).
That means for all of you in Central Minnesota that are trying to sell your home within this price range, over 1/2 of your potential buyers are buying a foreclosed home instead.
In contrast, only 19.0% of all homes sold on the St Cloud MLS over $150,000 were bank owned.
That means if you are looking to purchase a home in the $150,000+ price range, you might be doing yourself a disservice by looking at only foreclosed homes.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://StCloudEdina.com - Search Real Estate in Sartell Minnesota and surrounding areas.
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Find Open Houses in Sauk Rapids MN and surrounding areas.
For those of you who waited too long and now don't have a home and still don't have the down payment saved, here's some hope.
If you are looking to purchase a home with $0 down, check out this website:
http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do?NavKey=home@1
This is a link to the United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development. The great thing about this website is that it allows you to punch in any address and find out if it qualifies for 0% down Rural Development loans.
Check with your lender to see if a Rural Development loan is something that you want to look into more seriously. If you are unsure of which lenders are reliable and trustworthy in these crazy times, give me an e-mail at mailto:jason@stcloudedina.com.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - With the new foreclosed property search feature you can see all foreclosed properties listed for sale on both the St Cloud and Minneapolis MLS systems.
http://StCloudEdina.com - If you want ultimate in Internet advertising for your home, use the REALTOR that knows how to utilize the Internet to sell homes.
So much is said about the real estate market and how it is in the tank. I thought it would be nice if everyone got to see Edina Realty's (and their parent company Home Services of America, Inc.) plan during this downturn in the real estate market.
http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2008/10/06/story1.html?b=1223265600%5e1710589
It is nice to be a part of a company that is growing and strong when so many real estate companies around us are having such problems. We are the "PacMan" of the real estate industry; gobbling up the competition.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-Pro - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://StCloudEdina.com - Search homes for sale in St Cloud MN and surrounding areas.
http://StCloudEdina.com/blog - REAL ANSWERS for REAL ESTATE in St Cloud MN
I've noticed a slight increase in the number of active and foreclosed properties that are available on the St Cloud MLS. For the majority of the year, we have had approximately 330 foreclosed listings that are either active to purchase or are pending a sale. We now have just over 370 such listings on the St Cloud MLS.
Obviously this creates some problems. We need to continue to buy out the foreclosed properties at a pace that keeps up with the rate at which they are becoming available.
Now we get to see what our fearless leaders in Congress have actually accomplished with their new bailout bill.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-Pro - Real Estate Broker Associate
Here are the numbers of total residential homes that were sold in each area during last month.
North St Cloud - 19
South St Cloud - 18
East St Cloud - 8
West St Cloud - 9
Sauk Rapids - 22
Sartell - 9
Waite Park - 3
St Joseph - 8
If you would like more data for real estate sales in central Minnesota, give me a call at (320) 492-2667 or post your requests here. I can pull together just about any real estate related data that you would like from specific office sales to average sales prices and more.
Jason Tangen, GRI - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN
http://StCloudEdina.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (free home value estimator).
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search real estate in St Cloud MN.
Well, we are entering the fourth quarter of what has been a truly crazy year for both the real estate community and the financial community as a whole. Here are some of the preliminary numbers that have come off the St Cloud MLS:
2007 3rd Quarter in St Cloud, Waite Park, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and St Joseph
2008 3rd Quarter in St Cloud, Waite Park, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and St Joseph
While sales numbers are strong, we are definitely seeing a decrease in average sales price that is reflecting the increase in the number of foreclosed units sold. While it is good to be getting rid of the foreclosures that are available, they do create an unwanted strain for everyone else that is trying to sell their home.
Look for the full Tangen Report to come out in just a few weeks. Look over previous issues of the Tangen Report at http://StCloudEdina.com/blog.
Jason Tangen - GRI, e-Pro - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud
http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search All Homes for Sale on the St Cloud MLS
http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the foreclosed properties available on the St Cloud MLS
