St. Cloud, MN - Real Estate Blog

I would like to take this chance to thank Todd Fritz and everyone at the Sprint store in St Cloud MN for all of their continued help.

I had heard about the new Samsung Instinct Phones from the TV ads and Todd Fritz told me at a Friday morning Chamber Connection meeting that I should check one out.  I did and ended up buying it in early November.  It has been a phenomenal phone for my business and the Live Search feature is outstanding.

My second thanks goes to the Sprint sales staff, in this case it was Kira, for telling me to get an insurance policy when I bought my new phone.  I'm not real big on buying insurance for electrical components, but I am definitely glad I was told to get this policy.

Last Friday evening, my youngest daughter Vivian (not quite 2 years old) was being cute and playing with my phone.  I just watched as she was causing no harm.  A short time later, I head a "Sploosh" accompanied with a young voice saying "Uh-oh."

Sure enough she had dropped my phone in the toilet!

Thanks to the Sprint Warranty I had my new phone up and running by the next day.  The coolest part was that all of my contacts, important voice-mails, and settings were instantly transferred to the new phone without me doing anything (I think that is a part of the Instinct's service only, but I'm not sure).  All I had to do was turn it on and the phone did the rest.  Crazy easy.

If you are in the market for a new phone, give the folks at the Sprint store on Division St. a try.  I doubt that you will be disappointed.

Sprint Store in St Cloud - 126 W Division Street Waite Park, MN 56387 - (320) 259-0907

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN.

http://StCloudEdina.com - Search homes for sale in Waite Park, MN.

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis on-line home value estimator.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I wanted to say a quick thanks to Rachel and Tony Thoennes of Birchwood Electric in St Cloud, MN.  I have known Rachel for several years from the St Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce and used her for basic knowledge of electrical work, price estimates, and electrical work to be completed on several homes that I have sold in the past 5 years.

Examples of some of the work Rachel and Tony have performed include:

1) Pricing out running electrical power to a detached garage.

2) Provided information on how to properly install a GFCI outlet in a property that had no ground wires.

3) Replaced an old and hazardous Federal Pacific Breaker Box.

 4) And just today they provided me with an estimate of the cost to change from 60 Amp to 100 Amp service in a home. 

There have been many more things, but this is all I can remember right now. 

Rachel and Tony have always been very timely and accurate in their estimates and I can always count on the work they perform to be done by proper professionals.

If you would like to learn more about Rachel and Tony Thoennes and Birchwood Electric in St Cloud, visit there website or give them a call.

Birchwood Electric of St Cloud - http://www.birchwoodelectric.com/index.html - (320) 282-5225

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud, MN.

http://StCloudEdina.com - Search homes for sale in St Cloud, MN.

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis on-line home value estimator.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I get phone calls and e-mails every now and again for people looking for high end homes and lakeshore properties that are bank owned.  Unfortunately, I have to tell them these high end homes are much less likely to be available in the foreclosure market.  Most (but not all) owners in these higher price points had enough equity to weather the storm through this correction in the real estate market.  It seems they were even better off if they bought lakefront property.  For example, there were 13 bank owned properties sold last year on the St Cloud MLS that were located on a lake.  That accounted for just over 1% of the total number of foreclosed properties that we sold in 2008 through the St Cloud MLS.

So where are the great deals?  What price range?  I think the statistics for the 4th quarter 2008 show pretty well that the screaming deals we are seeing are more prominent in the first time home buyers bracket:

1) Bank owned homes made up 59% of all sales on the St Cloud MLS under $150,000.

2) Bank owned homes made up 19% of all sales on the St Cloud MLS over $150,000.

3) Bank owned homes made up 42% of all sales on the St Cloud MLS regardless of price.

*All data pulled from the previous total residential units sold on the St Cloud MLS as of 01/30/2009

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN.

http://jasontangen.edinarealty.com - Try the e-Market Analysis free home value estimator.

http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of all the bank owned homes located on the St Cloud MLS.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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A couple of big things should stand out to home owners as we bid adieu to 2008.

1) Median and average home prices did drop about 12% in the St Cloud area for 2008.

2) Homes are still selling at a pretty good rate.  In some areas, we saw good increases in units sold.

Click on the file below to see the overall real estate sales statistics for St Cloud, Waite Park, Sartell, and Sauk Rapids Minnesota.  Please note that this file is intended for personal knowledge.  If you are planning on using any of the information contained herein, please acknowledge its author (Jason Tangen - e-PRO, GRI - Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud) properly.

Download file

If you would like to view previous Tangen reports, visit http://stcloudedina.com/blog/the_tangen_report/.

If you would like me to break down the statistics for your specific neighborhood or area in Central MN, please post your request here for everyone to see and use in the future.

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real estate broker associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud Minnesota

www.StCloudEdina.com - Try the e-Market Analysis free home value estimator.

www.StCloudEdina.com/blog - REAL ANSWERS for REAL ESTATE in St Cloud MN

Posted by Jason Tangen at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I read that in Southern California home prices were down 30+% in 2008. 

I also read that there was a huge increase in the total number of homes sold last year in Southern California.???

That makes for a lot of people trying to buy up all of the great deals.  I know of a couple of old military friends from out there who had to make offers on multiple homes just to get into one.  They kept getting stuck in multiple offer situations with other buyers wanting the same great deal.

So what do you need to know if you are looking into buying one of these great bargains?

1) If you want the home and there is a lot of demand for it, you may have to write over their asking price.  As crazy as it sounds, this is happening quite frequently on homes that have been priced to move.

2) Have your pre-approval ready to go.  In the past year I have had 3 people lose out on homes because they didn't want to go to the bank before they started looking at homes.  All three of them found the great deal... and lost it because their loan officer wasn't in until Monday.  Tough breaks.

3) Be prepared to move.  The good homes sell fast.  I'm not talking within days, I'm talking hours.

4) If the home you wanted gets sold, write a back-up offer on it.  You'd be surprised how many home deals are falling apart these days because of financing reasons.  You could get a second shot at the home of your dreams.

5) Hire a buyer's broker to work on your behalf.  Make sure that you have someone looking out for your best interests and that can get things done in a timely fashion.

I received a call from a potential home buyer today that was quite enlightening.  He wanted to see a home that was back on the market because the buyer couldn't get financing thanks to some of the recent loan changes.  Not everyone has an extra 5-10% to put down on a home above what was needed in December.  I know this because It was my clients who had the financing fall apart.  I told the potential buyer that I needed to check what the current status was on the home.  I wanted to check because there were at least 4 interested buyers back in December when my clients wrote their offer.  It could have already sold again.

It turns out the home had already been re-sold.

This isn't good news for me as I could use the sale.  The potential buyer tells me that he was ready to buy the home back in early January.  Unfortunately, they hadn't sought out proper representation at the time and lost out.  Now, they have lost out again because they didn't have someone write a back-up offer for them back in early January.  My recommendation to them - get proper representation and write a back-up offer now.  Who knows, this offer could fall apart too. 

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud.

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search homes for sale in Sartell, MN and surrounding areas.

http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the bank owned homes on the St Cloud MLS.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Whew.  I noticed late tonight that the total number of active and pending foreclosed properties on the St Cloud MLS.  That is a huge increase from roughly 200 that we had at the start of 2008.

This surplus of foreclosed properties is making for some phenomenal buys!  For example:  I had one buyer just pick up a 6 BR, 4 BA two story home in Sartell's "The Wilds" development for just over $180K.  Crazy.

So go ahead and take a look.  With interest rates floating around the 5.5% range, this might be the perfect time to buy.  I can't guarantee that we are at the bottom yet, but I do know that this influx of foreclosed properties should stabilize and start to deteriorate as the year progresses.  Therefore, the last of the great flood of bank owned properties should be hitting us this year.

Happy house hunting.

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud.

http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the foreclosed properties listed on the St Cloud MLS.

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Try the e-Market Analysis free home value estimator.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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A big thank you to Mark Timpane at Edina Realty Mortgage for putting this to print:

Thinking about refinancing into another conventional?  There might be another option for you.  Fast forward three to five years from now.  The real estate market correction will be behind us and you decide that now is the time to move onto a newer home.  But what if rates are at 6.5 % or more and your home is valued at or a little higher than you bought it.  Is there an option that can make you home more attractive?  If you refinanced today with an FHA loan at 5.0% for example, when you go to sell, your buyer would be able to assume your mortgage (only $500) and take advantage of today’s lower rates.  The general rule is that for every 1% decline in interest rates a buyer gets 10% more purchasing power.  So the cost of assuming a $172,500 home has the same monthly payment as buying a $150,000 home at future interest rates.  So you have now positioned your home against homes with fewer amenities, and other $165,000 homes cannot compete on a costs basis.

Need to refinance-call me today

Mark Timpane

Edina Realty Mortgage

320.240.6157

www.markthemortgageguy.com

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud

http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the bank owned properties on the St Cloud MLS

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Find out what you home might be worth if sold.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I was speaking with Mark Timpane (Edina Realty Mortgage Home Loan Specialist) the other day about the recent spike in loan refinancing applications.  With the rates under 5% for most loan products, it only makes sense that people would want to get the better rate.  Two main points came out of our discussions:

1) Of the last 30 people he had requesting a refinance, only 3 qualified with the equity and/or cash to actually get the refinance done.

2) Many people were willing to add 8 years to their mortgage in order to save 3/4 of a point on their interest rate.

The first point sure makes it seem like that $750B economic bailout package is working perfectly as expected (please note my dripping sarcasm with that statement).  With all the talk about helping out the home owners to get out of these bad mortgages, it sure seems like we are missing out on a golden opportunity to get them out at good rates.

The second point makes me wonder when it is that they plan on actually saving money if they keep extending their loan to a 30 year mortgage again.

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (Free Home Value Estimator)

http://StCloudEdina.com - Get a free list of the bank owned properties in Sauk Rapids MN and the surrounding central Minnesota areas

Posted by Jason Tangen at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I am wrapping up some of the initial numbers for the real estate sales from the St Cloud MLS and one stat jumped out at me recently.  It looks like the average payout that home sellers are willing to give to an agent who finds them a buyer (Compensation to Buyer's Broker) has gone up quite substantially in the past few years.

According to the St Cloud MLS, commissions paid to a Buyer's Broker for a real estate transaction have gone up 15% in the last 4 years. 

What does that mean?  People are more willing to pay a premium in order to get their homes sold.

It kind of goes against the ordinary flow of business during a recession.  Most people flock to the Walmarts, McDonald's and other quality (but cheap) businesses during tough times.  In real estate, they flock to who does the job best.

It makes sense.  If selling real estate is tougher than ever, you would want to use the real estate agent who is the best.  If that means spending an extra percent or two, so be it.  It is better than making payments on a home you no longer want and getting less for your home when it does finally sell.

Look for my year end "Tangen Report" to be posted here in the next week.  For those of you who don't know, the "Tangen Report" is a quarterly breakdown of the real estate activity in St Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, and Waite Park in Central Minnesota.

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud

http://StCloudEdina.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (Free home value estimator)

http://JasonTangen.EdinaRealty - Search homes for sale in St Cloud MN

Posted by Jason Tangen at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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This is the second time that I have been bit by using the company that the bank and listing agent would like to use when it comes to buying a foreclosed property.

Most banks are willing to purchase the owner's title insurance policy so long as you close with their title company.  The problem is that their title companies are so overworked that they can't get anything done.  I just spoke with the closing agent for a home that I was supposed to close on over a month ago now and she told me that she has given up.

Do you want that when you are trying to purchase a home?  A title agent that has just given up on trying to get you into your home?  My clients don't like it either.

Unfortunately for both parties in this case, my buyer is slated to leave for Iraq this coming Friday and has decided to no longer sign any extensions to this agreement.  He doesn't want to leave his wife to deal with the entire purchase on her own.

So what can we learn from this situation?  Use a title company that you respect and trust when representing the buyers.  Don't go to the bank's choice as it will cost you more in the end.

Best Agent on the Internet for Real Estate St Cloud MN

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real Estate Broker Associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud

http://StCloudEdina.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (Free on-line home value estimator)

www.StCloudEdina.com/blog - REAL ANSWERS for REAL ESTATE in St Cloud MN

Posted by Jason Tangen at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Here are the numbers of total residential homes that were sold in each area during last month.

North St Cloud - 15

South St Cloud - 7

East St Cloud - 4

West St Cloud - 7

Sauk Rapids - 14

Sartell - 24

Waite Park - 2

St Joseph - 2

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.

Posted by Jason Tangen at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I just wanted to start off the new year with what will probably be the biggest tip that I can give anyone who is looking to sell their home in 2009: "Price it Right!"

Above anything else, price has become more important to buyers in today's real estate market.  They are willing to overlook just about anything - so long as the price is right.

A good example.  I showed one of the best staged properties that I have seen in some time (Curt and Pam Carls' listing in Lake Henry).  Even though it looked great and was priced well, my buyers decided to write on a home in Melrose that was in much worse condition, but it showed much more upward equity potential and was priced below its local comparables.

So what can you take from this? 

First of all, we need to let go of 2005 for a little while longer.  While it is getting tough to accept that home prices have been on the skids for nearly 4 full years now, we need to accept it.  The prices we saw at the top of the market will come back, but it won't be in 2009 or even 2010. 

Second, homes are still selling.  If you need to unload a property it isn't impossible in this market.  As a whole, there were over 2500 residential properties that sold on the St Cloud MLS in 2008.  Of those 2500 properties, approximately 1600 were owner occupied units that were not bank-owned.

Next week I will start doing my final tally's for the Central Minnesota real estate market in 2008.  I think that we will get some really interesting statistics as to average prices, type of property bought, and even commissions.

Jason Tangen - GRI, e-PRO - Real estate broker associate with Edina Realty in St Cloud MN]

www.StCloudEdina.com - Home of the e-Market Analysis (Free online property value estimator)

JasonTangen.EdinaRealty.com - Search homes for sale in Rice, MN

Posted by Jason Tangen at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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