I am working with someone looking for land on Lazy Mountain.?I have a beautiful log home listed there, but no land. ?Land is always hard to come by in that area.? Most of the folks who live there know a good thing and hold it tight.? I was searching last night on the Valley MLS system in the PA06 area and found only two active listings in the area.? These two parcels were?listed by Cindy Ziegler, found here and here.

You will notice that she has a nice view photo and that there is some good detail on the listing about how to find the parcels.? I knew exactly where these parcels were from her description.

Since those were the only two active listings and my party was looking for?a larger parcel I searched for expired and cancelled listings on the hopes that these owners may still want to sell.? There were a few listings there but the most recently expired listing caught my eye.? This was a 20 acre parcel listed for $890,000.? That is a pretty phenomenal price and I wondered which parcel it might be so I clicked on the detail.? The detail says that this 20 acre parcel is in Palmer, on map PA06 in fact, which puts it on Lazy Mountain.? It goes on to say that the high school area is Colony High and the elementary school is Fire Lake.? There?were no detailed remarks at all about the parcel except that it said there were no utilities and no road access.? The tax number was listed, however, so I looked it up.? Turns out, this is a prime commercial property only a stone?s throw from the Cottonwood Creek Mall in Wasilla and it actually sold and closed in April of 2006.? Apparently the licensee already had a buyer before the parcel was put into the MLS system so?he didn?t care about the details.??He further didn?t close out the listing and let it run until it expired in Jan of 2007.

So, back to square one. ?I got on the phone to some people I knew on Lazy Mountain.? They in turn gave me other numbers and I finally?did turn up a 2 acre parcel that the out-of-state owners may sell, but it?s not much different than the?land Cindy Ziegler has listed.? I?m still on the hunt.? So far I think I have spent at least 10 hours looking for land for this couple I have only met on the internet. I really have no idea if I can find a suitable parcel, and if I do, whether the couple will even move here.?

Like I have told many prospective clients in the past when they ask me what I charge.? I don?t charge anything, I work for free.? I only get paid if I help the client meet their real estate goal.?

If you know of anything on Lazy Mountain, help me out!? Drop me a note, or give me a call, (907) 232?7900.?

?

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Monday Mornings Market Memo for the week of 1/22/07–1/30/07. 

This is looking at all the Mat-Su Borough as a whole, not just  Palmer, and Wasilla Real Estate. Using the MLS system here are the statistics for the last week.

There are currently 732 houses on the market, up from 702 from last week.  You would expect the inventory to grow as we move into spring.  We would also expect the pending sales to grow as well. There are 45 new listings compared to 62 last week. 

We pended 21 homes and closed 15. 

Of all the residential homes on the market, 47 are cabins which generally means a small structure with no plumbing.  There are 56 condos and 10 mobile homes.  So there are 619 residential single family homes.  The average prices are all based on the single family homes, after eliminating all the rest. 

There were six more “to be builts” added to the market this week. 

A large change compared to last year at this time is the amount of time it takes to close a deal.  Appraisers and inspectors are not as busy as they have been in the past so we have fewer delays.  In fact, it would not be real unusual to close a transaction in 2–3 weeks right now compared to 6 weeks last year.

The graph at the top is a thumbnail click on it to enlarge. It has a one month delay to allow all the data to come in before displaying.  It is from the Alaska MLS System and has this disclaimer regarding the statistics. 

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I took this photo just this morning from my house. Pioneer Peak stands out from Palmer to Wasilla and is a premier landmark for the Valley. This view is worth something to me, and it would be worth something to a buyer of my home.  But exactly how much is it worth?

When you price your home there are so many different and sometimes opposing values to add and subtract from the price it can be confusing.  So which ones are important enough to take into account?  Curb appeal is important, light is important, cleanliness and maintenance are important.  All those will help a home sell faster than it’s competition.  But you can actually add some value for a view. 

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Moving to the Matanuska Valley brings with it beautiful mountain vistas, large lots covered in birch and spruce, quiet neighborhoods and pristine wilderness settings.  Often, we neglect to mention the dreaded MATANUSKA WIND! The photo is of Engstom Road just yesterday taken from my junker Toyota truck as I was on my way to a 1PM appointment.  Click on it to see the wind blowing over the snowberm.

This wind starts at the headwaters of the Matanuska Valley right at the Matanuska Glacier and gradually picks up speed as the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains funnel it right into Palmer and Wasilla.  After hitting the main part of the valley it spreads and diminishes. 

This isn’t a constant wind, it usually lasts a few days and and then calms down again.  I’m sure this isn’t scientific, but I have become accustomed to expecting the wind within a day or two of a fresh snowfall.  However, we have had so many snowfalls this winter that I haven’t been able to keep track of this rule.

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In two previous articles we looked at possible contamination in your well water and at finding water. 

This article will deal with how to use and maintain your well.  Most wells in the Palmer and Wasilla areas are deeper than fifty feet.  I have people tell me every year that a well shallower than fifty feet or forty feet is an illegal well, but I can’t find any regulation that confirms that assertion.  Our well in our last home in Cottonwood Shores off of Bogard Road was only 39 feet.  I tested the water in that well a couple times and found it to be excellent.

If your well is anything but a very shallow well, you will need a submersible pump. A submersible pump is in the bottom of your well and pumps the water up a pipe to your home.  The pipe should come out of the well casing at ten feet below the surface and continue to be 10 feet below the surface until it reaches your home.  When well lines freeze up it is usually because they were not buried deep enough. 

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In a previous post I encouraged sellers to have their homes inspected in preparation for a sale.

To drive the point home let me tell you about two sellers right here in Wasilla who just today found out about problems in their home that each wish they had known beforehand. In each case the buyer was having the home inspected as part of their due diligence period before they closed on the home.

In the first case, the inspector found a problem with the foundation.  The buyer and seller were both in tears because it now seems obvious that the transaction will not close.  The buyer made plans to move into the home by the end of February and the seller desperately needs to sell the home to move out of state with her family.  Now it’s back to square one.  If a pre-inspection had been completed the seller would have been able to disclose the problem and perhaps fix it before marketing, or built it into the deal to be repaired during escrow.  It is such a large issue at this stage of the transaction that it is likely the transaction will not close.

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Monday Mornings Market Memo for the week of 1/15/07–1/22/07.

This is looking at all the Mat-Su Borough as a whole, not just  Palmer, and Wasilla Real Estate. Using the MLS system here are the statistics for the last week.

There are currently 702 houses on the market, almost exactly the same as last week.  That doesn’t seem to make sense considering the 62 new listings this week.  That is because I am not showing the listings that were cancelled or expired.  

We pended 33 homes and closed 19. Both of these numbers are up from last week. Now that we have two weeks of statistics I will begin a graph starting next week.

An interesting note about the 62 new listings is that exactly 1/2 of them, (31), show built dates of 2006 or newer.  These are apparently brand new homes.  Many of these are “to be builts”, meaning the builder is advertising a home before he begins to build it in hopes of finding a buyer.  Many of these “to be builts” will never be built if a buyer does not come along. 

Another good sized portion of these brand new homes are existing structures that were listed last year and then either expired or were cancelled and then re-entered as new listings.  That is another reason why we had almost twice as many new listings as we had last week with the total active listings staying the same.

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Most building lots in the Wasilla and Palmer areas do not have water lines available to them.  So if you buy a lot you are going to have to drill a well.  Where will you put that well?  Is it better in the back of the lot or the front?

Before you even purchase the lot you need to do a little research.  If you go down to the Department of Conservation, (DEC), office on Bogard Road armed with the legal address of your prospective property, you will find some very good information.  The people there will help to find well logs in your area that show the depth of the wells and the amount of water each well produces.  If all the neighbors have good wells you know your chances of getting water are very good.  It’s not a guarantee however, you are always taking chances when you drill.

 In some areas people have drilled two or three wells before finding one with good water.  The dry holes are usually not reported to DEC but are just abandoned.  So it is possible that the neighbors could have one or more dry wells on their property without DEC knowing about it.  For that reason, it’s a good idea to dig a little more. Talking to the neighbors is an excellent way to find out about wells in the area.  They will normally tell you if they had a hard time getting water.  I am a little surprised about buyers reluctance to talk to people in the neighborhood as part of their due-diligence in purchasing property.

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Wells in the Mat-Su Valley run the gamut from artesian water that is so pure it should be bottled and sold,?to?mucky stink holes that a dog won?t drink.? Many new-comers to the valley assume that since the water in their home comes out of a tap, it must be good.? This article will be the first in a series of articles discussing how to find out more about the water you drink.

The cities of?Palmer and Wasilla each have their own water systems, but these only serve people inside the city limits of each.? In fact, the Wasilla system only serves some of the city residents.? In addition, many of the?developments in the Mat-Su Valley have their own community water systems.? These city and community systems are regulated and required to test the water on a regular basis.

Most homes in the valley are served by private wells that serve only one house.? There are no regulations requiring these wells to be monitored.? The only time any testing is done is when the home changes hands, and that is usually a minimal test looking for bacteria contamination.?? There are many other contaminants that can be in your water that could affect your health.? Arsenic and other metals can be?found in valley wells. Nitrates and nitrites are sometimes there as well.

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It is very rare for a seller to purchase a home inspection.  Although it only costs $300 and potentially saves them from future liablity, home sellers seem reluctant to pay for this expense.  I recommend that sellers hire a home inspector when they begin to market their property.  When I sold my own home I took my own advice…that in itself is unusual.  I kept quiet about known problems and the inspector found most of those , he also found some problems about which I was unaware.  He then gave me a written report of the issues I needed to address. 

This gave me time to complete the repairs on my own and hire competent professionals for electrical and plumbing work.  I went through the report and decided that some of the problems were minor and I just wasn’t going to do anything about them.  I then made notes on the inspectors report noting the repairs I completed, planned to complete or planned to just leave as is.  Then I attached this report to the Alaska Property Disclosure Form on which I noted all the other issues with the home. 

A seller inspection accomplishes at least two things. First, it lends credibility to your disclosure which gives potential buyers a level of comfort.  Buyers always wonder whether the seller is hiding anything about their home and sometimes back away from a home partly because of a sparsley complete sellers disclosure form.  To see the seller actually hired a professional to inspect their home and then made it available gives them confidence that the seller is telling them as much as possible about the home.

Second, it speeds up the transaction.  Most of the required repairs will be completed by the time a buyer looks at a home so that they will not need to be done after you are in contract.  It is possible that the buyer may feel confident enough with the provided inspection that they will not get one on the home themselves.  You can cut at least ten days off of the transaction time by completing an inspection up front.

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