Whoops.  I missed this on Monday.  So this is the Monday Memo done on Friday.  The statistics are for the correct days, however.

We certainly had a surge of new listings.  The total inventory increased and pending and closed sales held about steady.

It looks like a lot of people have decided to sell before winter.  That’s a little surprising to me, they should have put their houses on the market earlier. 

There have been some good deals again this week.  A log house on Cottonwood Creek sold for $185,000, several brand new houses sold for less than $175,000, and a couple of good lots sold for the mid-$30s price ranges.  Let me know if you want to be set up for auto-alerts if a property that meets your criteria hits the market.

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This house came on the market just last week for $148,500.  This is a house that Hall Quality Homes built in 1998.  He still builds this model for about $230,000 or so.

This is a VA foreclosure that for some reason was listed at a lower than expected price.  The listing price is not determined by the listing licensee, who was Elizabeth Macmullen, but by the asset manager for VA.

If you were on my motivated seller list you would have been notified of this fantastic deal.  …by the way…just drop a line if you want to be on it….

There was a lot of interest in this house as you might imagine.  In fact, by yesterday there were thirteen offers on the property and of course the seller accepted the highest bid. 

I’m not sure what the final price was but it was likely at least $20,000 higher than the asking price.

So there are a couple lessons to be learned here.

• First…If you want to sell your house right away just underprice the market by about $50K
• Second…There are a lot of ready and willing buyers out there right now, they are just waiting for a good house at a good price.

If you are looking for a good deal…I have at least two houses in mind right now that will likely sell before a week is up.  Give me a call on my cell 907 232–7900

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Here are the statistics for the week of July 21–28, 2008 for Wasilla, Palmer, and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

This was a pretty good week for new pending sales hitting 49 in total.  The overall inventory dropped and I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a trend as we move into late summer.  The 24 closed sales is about average for the year so far.

Of the 49 pendings, 14 of them are new construction and 5 were foreclosures.  This is an interesting mix that shows that our real estate market is certainly not dead.   Builders are still providing a good product for the money.  Buyers have a chance to look at the existing homes including the foreclosures and a healthy percentage of them are choosing to build a new home.

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The Anchorage Daily News says that Alaska’s Housing Prices dropped the fastest in a year. They were quoting the  Arkansas Democrat Gazette, reporting on the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

A misunderstanding of how to use statistics led to the erroneous headline.   While it is true that the average sales price dropped significantly in Alaska this year, it is not true that the value of the average house dropped much…if any.

What is going on is that people are buying the less expensive homes.  The lower priced homes are selling at a higher rate than the higher price homes.  That is bound to put downward pressure on those higher priced homes, but we aren’t able to show that they have dropped significantly in value…yet.  If this situation continues we will have to see the values actually drop.

What is true is that many sellers have an inflated idea of the value of their home.  Many times they look at the borough assessed value and assume that thier value is 20% higher than that.  The truth is that the borough is often higher than the true value.  That fact can come as a shock.  We are currently seeing many houses sell for less than the borough assessed value. 

It is important to have an objective assessment of the value of the home so that you know where you stand when you go to sell.

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Wasilla Real Estate statistics for the week of July 14–21, 2008.  These are the numbers for the whole Matanuska-Susitna Borough. 

It looks like we closed some of the spurt of pendings from a few weeks ago because the closed sales are up a little.  Pending sales remain mediocre and total inventory climbed again for the week.

New construction was still a significant part of the sales.  Of the closed sales 5 were new construction.  Builders are still fairly competitive in this market.  But new construction is not driving the market like it was in 2005.  In 2005 30 percent of the closed sales were new construction. 

Other markets in the country are driven by foreclosures but ours isn’t.  There are foreclosures out there and they made up 3 of the 32 closings for the week. 

I have an automated list of new foreclosure listings.  If you would like to be on that list just send me an email.  You will be notified the day a foreclosure listing hits the market.

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Wasilla Real Estate presents the weekly statistics for residential real estate sales for Wasilla, Palmer, and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

It was a  pretty steady week this week, pendings at 30 and closings at 23 is about average.  It doesn’t appear that we are setting any records.  Usually August is a more active month than July, so we will have to wait and see.

The average price of closings this week is high.  Four homes over $400,000 closed this week which  probably is a record for the year, so I could be wrong in my in assessment of the week.  Many of the higher priced homes are now appearing to be a good value for people who shop in Anchorage. 

Speaking of a good value…here is one.  The sellers want this house sold so they have lowered it to $309,900 which is much lower than it’s real value.  I expect it to sell this week.  I am holding an open house there Tuesday, (7/15/2008), evening.  The public is welcome to come between 5–7:30 PM. 

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Motivated sellers and motivated buyers are the key to a good transaction.  They both keep their eye on the larger goal of a successful transaction.  They don’t let small disagreements blow up their deal.

How do you identify motivated sellers?  Read This

I have automated a motivated seller search.  This auto search will send you new foreclosure listings, relocation listings, and recent price reductions within 24 hours of the new listing or price reduction.  If you would like to be put on this list just let me know.

Please indicated if you would like all the motivated sellers or indicate:

• Foreclosures
• Relocations
• People that say they are motivated…indicated in the comments
• Price reductions

If you would like a specific search just for you.  Just drop me a line with your specific needs and I will set it up.

It’s important to realize that the realtor access to the mls system is much more detailed than the public access.  I can search on hundreds of different fields to ensure that you are not scrolling through pages of listings to find the needle in the haystack.

The image above left is just one page of the realtor MLS.  There are 7–8 pages with literally hundreds of choices on each page.  Just drop a line itemizing your price range, location and any other detail that is important to you and I will set it up for you.

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I have an Uncle Bill who sold his home and real estate investments in southern California about 25 years ago. He moved to to northwestern Arkansas and reinvested.

Of course, with the difference in prices he was able to buy a LOT of houses.  I always joke that he bought up half the town.  Maintaining and managing those homes has been a full time job ever since, but they provided him a good living.

He is about the most productive person I have ever known.  I rode with him for a day on a maintenance run of some of his properties.  He could get more done in less time than anyone I ever met.  I had a hard time keeping up with him even though I was only holding the ends of the boards.

So now he has decided it’s time to sell most of his houses.  And he is selling them one by one and doing it easily.  He knows it’s a slow market so here is how he does it.

• He makes sure the home is vacant.  These are rental properties and it is always harder to sell a property with a tenant in it than if it is vacant.  This is not necessarily true of owner occupied homes. 
• He catches up on all the maintenance.  Nothing is left half-way done.  If it needs to be fixed, he fixes it.  If it needs to be replaced, he replaces it.  He does a good job on everything and then repaints.
• He makes sure the lawns are mowed.  He and his grandson make the rounds regularly to make sure the houses look good from the outside.
• He prices them to sell.  He doesn’t have an inflated opinion of value.  He looks at all the competition and then prices his house about $10,000 below the lowest competitor. 

So his homes are in better shape, are easier to view, and are priced better than the competition. 

And guess what?  They sell…quickly.  It is rare for him to have a home on the market more than a couple weeks  Buyers look at the competition and the choice is obvious.

We could all learn a thing or two from Uncle Bill.

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Here are the Mat-Su real estate statistics for the week. 

The total inventory dropped for the second week in a row.  With 37 pending and 32 closed for the week we are seeing relatively healthy numbers.  Mid-summer sales are usually a little slower than spring and fall sales but this years seems to be a little different.

Most people that are interested in getting into a house before school starts should go into contract within the next two weeks.  People will be trying to do that so the pending sales will probably remain at a higher point for the next two weeks.

Take a look at tomorrows post on how one investor is successfully selling his inventory very easily and quickly even in a slower market.

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Wasilla Real Estate News residential sales statistics for the Mat-Su Borough.  This report includes the sales in Palmer, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Willow, Big Lake, Houston, Sutton and all the other communities in the Borough. 

Over 80% of the real estate activity is in the Wasilla and Palmer areas with the outlying areas occupying only a small fraction of the business.

Sales activity was definitely up this week.  I think the pending sales are the highest so far this year.  Closed sales hit 32 so that is healthy as well. 

I believe that many buyers that were waiting in the wings have seen the higher interest rates on the horizon and decided to step in now rather than wait. 

It is not uncommon to see a slight drop in sales activity during the mid-summer months was people entertain out of town guests, fish and generally enjoy the short Alaska summer.  But it seems that serious buyers are definitely still out there.

Buyers that want to be in a house before school starts really need to make their choices now.  School starts in just over 6 weeks and that gives just enough time to complete a normal transaction.

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