My friend in the mortgage biz at Prime Mortgage sent me the latest news on the first-time home buyer credit:

Senators agreed Wednesday to extend a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.

The tax credit provides up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers but is set to expire at the end of November.

Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time home buyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The tax credits would be available to home buyers who sign purchase agreements by the end of April. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes, said a congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the deal.

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When you decide to sell your home, you need to do your homework before selecting a Realtor.  It’s a good idea to interview three of us before making your choice.

Here are the top ten “must haves” your Realtor should provide for you:

• Top-notch integrated website that allows lead capturing and detailed information about your property.
• Massive coverage of all real estate internet websites with your home’s information and lots of pictures.
• Hold a Realtor open house as soon as possible to obtain price and condition opinions of other Realtors and to allow them to preview the home for their potential buyers.
• Make sure to obtain feedback from the buyers’ agents to provide to you on a timely basis.
• Make suggestions as to what needs to be repaired, cleaned or removed from the home before listing.
• Price the home properly right from the start.
• Strong and firm negotiating when receiving an offer from a buyer.
• Communication, either by phone or email, on a consistent basis…even if there is nothing new to tell.
• A strong real estate brokerage to back up your Realtor’s administrative needs, which includes an excellent appointment coordinator.
• Confidence, trust and integrity are crucial to a good working relationship between you and your Realtor.

In order to sell your home, you and your Realtor need to agree on a sound working relationship to get the job done.  By the way, if I, as your Realtor, didn’t think I could live up to these “must have” provisions, I wouldn’t have written this post!

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Finding just the right home to fix up and resell can take time. There are many things you must consider before you buy. There’s been a real surge of homes sales to people who got caught up in the Flip This House craze.

Here’s how to make sure your flip doesn’t flop. (more…)

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This is one of my listings that I sold this summer in just 35 days!  3209 Florida Avenue South in St. Louis Park.

It’s always an exciting moment for me when I have a listing appointment with a potential seller.  I love to sell homes and I really love to discuss with my clients the different aspects of what it takes to sell their home, examining the comparative market analysis that I have prepared and what to expect during the selling process.

BUT WAIT!   Once in a while, the seller seems to think that they know what the price of their home should be (or wants it to be)!  This makes it a bit difficult for me to proceed when they already have a pre-conceived notion in their heads.  I continue with my listing appointment, none-the-less, and look at all of the aspects of what will go in to the pricing decision.  Most of the time, we will agree to price the home properly and all’s well that ends well.

Inevitably, there are sellers who resist and insist on pricing it higher than what the market will bear, or,in other words, what the buyers are willing to pay.  This sets both the sellers and myself up for disaster.

What are the objections of the sellers when I advise them to list their home lower than they believe it should be?

• The neighbors down the street sold their home for the price that we want to list ours at and it’s even not as nice.
•  We have to get this much, or we’ll be upside down.
• We put a lot of money into this house to fix it up.  Just look at the bathroom!
• We have our eye on a new house up the road and it will take this price for us to be able to do it.
• We’ve lived here for ten years and we expect lots of equity by now.
• We want to price it higher so that we have some wiggle room if a low offer comes in.

These are actual comments that I have heard.  So, if I don’t make it clear as to what the market is doing and they won’t listen, I have a choice to make.  I either take the listing at the price my sellers want to sell it at, or advise them that I will not list their home at the price they want and risk losing the listing and subsequent sale.

To be frank, I’ve done both.  In either scenario, I’ve never been wrong about where the price should be when it was originally listed.  It’s a matter of whether my clients will cooperate.  I have taken listings at too high a starting point and I have walked away from potential listings where I knew that it would never sell at the high price.  At some point, I let the sellers know that I cannot sell their home at the current price and it has to be lowered.

If they don’t want to or can’t, then it’s time for us to part ways.  This happened to me twice this summer.  Both times, the sellers went with another Realtor and immediately lowered the price to where I had suggested!  What!!!???

Are the sellers just saving face by making such a seemingly illogical decision? I have mentioned this phenomenon to fellow Realtors and they have gone through the same thing with their buyers, too. I have not figured it out yet, but I will persevere to get the answer.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwdCVLCS82A

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It’s summer and here, in the Twin Cities, it’s very short.  I have decided to pretend that I am on vacation all summer and will sprinkle in my wonderful Realtor job during this time.  My clients are extremely important to me, however, I know that they want to be relaxed, too.  We have a good time together and it doesn’t seem like work to me!  Here is a great article from wikiHow, one of my favorite bookmarked sites.  I aim to follow these steps!

How to Be Laid Back

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Whether you’re a worrywart, a perfectionist, an overachiever, or a workaholic, you’ve probably envied people who seem to float through life gracefully, never concerned (like you are) about what might happen if they don’t do this or don’t do that. Perhaps they’re not the most motivated or accomplished people you’ve met, but they always seem content. If you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum–always doing, never satisfied–here’s how to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride that is your life.

Steps

1. Do one thing at a time. The world’s greatest achievements were made by people who gave the task in front of them their undivided attention. Tackling multiple activities at once might feel efficient, but is it really productive? Is giving each task 30% of your attention for three hours as effective as giving each task 100% of your attention for one hour each? If something doesn’t deserve your undivided attention, maybe it’s not worth doing at all.
2. Slow down. Why the rush? If what you’re doing is important enough to warrant your time, you might as well enjoy it. Cleaning the house for an hour with your favourite music playing and your bottom shaking is better than cleaning the house in half that time but in a frantic state of mind. Plus, if you’re having fun with your chores, maybe other people will be tempted to join. Don’t just “get it over with”–find a way to make every activity something that you look forward to doing.
3. Stop being a perfectionist. High standards have their place–when performing surgery, for example, or designing a building–but when applied to other areas of your life (your appearance, your home’s appearance, your hobbies, your handwriting, whatever) you’re practically inviting anxiety into your life. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any standards at all; it’s when you start stressing out about the details that you need to ask yourself: “Will doing this right now make me truly happy? Will it make me a better person? Will it make the world a better place?” Usually, the answer is no. Don’t allow perfectionism to become the enemy of your potential.
4. Step aside. When you close your eyes and imagine your role in the world, do you see yourself as Atlas, the mythological Titan, holding the weight of the world on your shoulders? Do you feel like you want to relax, but worry that if you do, everything will fall apart? If so, you need to delegate some responsibility. You might think other people won’t do as good a job, but that’s the thing: they’ll never do it just like you do. So give them responsibility, give them advice, and pass the reins. Don’t be surprised if they make mistakes; just be there to support them, and let them fix (and learn from) their mistakes. Not only will this take some weight off of your shoulders, but it can be very fulfilling to watch someone grow and mature as a result of your guidance.
5. Remember that it’s not the end of the world. Many people spend their entire lives trying to prevent bad things from happening. But guess what? They happen anyway. And life goes on. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take any kinds of precautions in life, but if the majority of your thoughts are consumed in contingency planning, you’re not enjoying life. You’re preventing it. When you’re feeling threatened by things that haven’t happened yet, remember these words by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
   Some of your hurts you have cured,
   And the sharpest you still have survived,
   But what torments of grief you endured
   From the evil which never arrived.
6. Focus on what you have, not what you have to do. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking I have to straighten this up.. I have to correct him.. I have to stop her..” but truthfully, we don’t have to do anything. You can walk away from any task, at any time. Try replacing every “have to” with a “want to” and see if the statement still holds. Meaning, is it something that you’ll look back on when you’re in your deathbed and be happy you did? Most likely not. So appreciate what you have, while you have it.
7. Learn meditation. Some systems may be quite involved, but most are relatively simple, and all of them will help you achieve all of the above.

Tips

• When bad things happen (and they will, no matter what) shrug and smile. Remind yourself that:
  • Life goes on.
  • Don’t let things make you upset or angry. Remember it’s your choice to get bent out of shape. Learn from the experience. Focus on the big picture.
  • You win some, you lose some.
  • This too will pass.
  • You can’t please everybody.
  • We live and learn.
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff.
  • Remember that sometimes bad things lead to the best things.
• Shift your mindset so that you concentrate on what makes you feel happy, not on what makes you feel safe.
• If it seems like something is bothering you, just convince yourself that you don’t find it annoying at all. Although hard to get into straight away, when you put yourself into this mindset it’s amazing what you can live with.
• Don’t worry if you can’t follow these instructions perfectly at first! It takes time to learn to let go.

Warnings

• Don’t confuse being laid-back with being lazy. The goal is to be happy.
• Showing a laid-back attitude in the workplace can have risks. Many employers may confuse “laid-back” with “lazy” and think one does not take the job seriously. It is important to show that this attitude can actually be very productive, often even more so than others which demand greater stress.
• Many environments prefer a cool, calm demeanor over an extreme results driven approach. Be sure to identify your role and pick your battles very carefully.

Related wikiHows

• How to Be Optimistic
• How to Be Patient
• How to Live a Simple and Peaceful Life
• How to Create a Calmer Household

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Be Laid Back. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for May alone was 7.2% above last year’s average sale price.

What this says to me is that Plymouth homeowners are digging in and not allowing their homes to be undersold.  This signifies that the market is becoming more balanced.  If home owners can’t sell their home for what they want, they’re not going to list in the first place.  CLICK ON THE CHART FOR A LARGER PICTURE!

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Lucky for a few, my client, Jennifer, aka, Flipper Girl, makes dreams come true.  Now, I’m not a Pollyanna-type blog writer and, trust me, Jennifer isn’t the Pollyanna type either, but she is all over making dreams come true.

This week, I had a reporter from the Star Trib call me for some info about a house that Jennifer rehabbed.  Turns out, it was the very first house that was given up by the Greater Minneapolis Housing Corporation.  That’s no easy feat.  I had a few discussions with the powers-that-be over there.  I had to send pics of the other homes that Miss Jennifer had rehabbed to make sure the they would accept her work on the FIRST EVER TJ WACONIA property to be turned over to the public.

They said, “OK”.   That’s a BIG DEAL!

Here’s the story of the woman who purchased it from Jennifer that was written by the Star Trib in  yesterday’s paper…

Program helps heal wounds of North Side housing fraud

The house sits on a quiet street across from a fire station. The gray stucco looks freshly painted and the front windows are framed by black shutters. Inside, hardwood floors gleam in the morning sun as Jackline Mukiibi, 25, shows off her home, the first home owned by anyone in her family.

Daughter Ava, 3, is away at day care, but her photos sit atop a shelf. Over by the stereo is evidence of a fledgling modeling career, a Target ad featuring the toddler.

It doesn’t look like a house with a notorious past, but it is. Mukiibi’s tidy home was part of the TJ Waconia real estate scam that washed through the North Side. Over a three-year period, developers Jonathan Helgason and Thomas Balko of TJ Waconia bought and resold houses for inflated prices to straw-buyer investors, triggering a foreclosure crisis that left many homeless and many homes abandoned. In April, Helgason and Balko were sentenced to eight and seven years in federal prison, respectively, for their crimes.

Mukiibi represents an effort to reclaim that part of the city, one house at a time. Hers is believed to be the first of the 141 homes from the scam to be sold.

Working through City of Lakes Community Land Trust and taking savvy advantage of several other programs that encourage home ownership, Mukiibi cobbled together a mortgage loan and down payment and moved from her tiny apartment in February.

Mukiibi paid $703 a month for her apartment. Now she lives in a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a finished basement, family room and a fenced yard for $728 per month.

Born in Uganda, Mukiibi came to the United States with her parents when she was 2 years old. “I dreamed of owning a house when I was a little girl,” she said. But she got pregnant at 21, which seemed to limit her ability to buy in the near future. Mukiibi works for a nonprofit and goes to school full time at Metropolitan State University, where she is earning a degree in ethnic studies.

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