A St. Charles County family was awarded $472,000 after suing the former owners of their home for failure to disclose a brown recluse infestation
2. SELLER’S remorse does exist and it is pretty expensive.
Per the SLAR “Residential Sale Contract” buyers have several opportunities to mutually release from a contract while performing their due diligence. However, once a seller accepts a contract, that’s it. If they decide they don’t want to sell, they can be sued for non-performance.
3. What often sounds like old news to me is front page material for some clients: Buyer Representation is FREE!
Additionally, tax abatement can save you up to $150-$200 on your monthly payment. Which means you can shop in a higher price range and keep your monthly costs the same.
4. SHORT sales are anything but short, and closing one is a gamble.
Closing two back-to-back in a move-up buyer situation is a MIRACLE . But it can be done.
5. On a 4-star rating system Zillow only gives itself 1 star regarding its Zestimate for homes in St. Louis.
Seller’s Market? Maybe not. But an appropriately priced clean, well updated and nicely appointed home in a desirable location will get A LOT of attention.
7. In terms of helping my clients understand the market whether on the buying or selling side of things, my undergraduate in Education is just as valuable as my Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development.
8. Non-owner occupant rehabber financing is back and that means we are going to start seeing certain neighborhoods take off again.
9. The perfect house exists but it’s just in someone else’s price range.
Whether you are shopping in the 100k price range or are closer to the million dollar mark, the available housing stock will not live up to your every expectation. Inevitiably you will wish House A’s floor plan had House B’s kitchen. But, with a little patience and fair amount of looking you will find the right place to call home.
10. Sweet baby girls can really soften up a city inspector.
Yesterday I went out with one of my new clients to look at rehab possibilities. I always think the first day out with a new client is interesting. It’s a learning process for both of us. It can be a little overwhelming especially if you are unprepared for how badly some of the places are in need of repair.
This particular client has experience with renovation as he has worked with several developers as a general carpenter. He is able to buy a place with cash, then slowly over time put the home back together using his own funding. In that regard he is very fortunate. But there are loan options out there for people who need to borrow the funds for purchase and renovation.
Here are a couple shots from our tour yesterday. This is the second floor of a mixed-use building. The rooms are spacious and much of the original molding is present. Still, this place needs to be completely gutted.
The pine floors were in pretty bad shape. A small portion of the home was open to the elements so there is some water damage that needs to be taken care of. In addition to all of the cosmetic work, this space will need all new plumbing including the sewer lateral line and new water supply service, new electric and HVAC including ductwork.
This is a photo of the rear of the building. Obviously there’s some brick work that needs to be done in addition to all new windows and doors. The floors in this room were shot as well.
And here is the third floor. It is missing an entire section of wall! Needless to say this project was a bit too overwhelming for my client. The good news is we looked at 7 other properties yesterday and he found two homes that were more his speed.
So the moral of the story is–Yes, you can rehab, but it may take some searching to find the right place.
For those that are not yet familiar, Pecha Kucha has officially arrived in St. Louis. Pecha Kucha draws its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.
Typically all of the presentations focus on ‘Big Ideas & Creativity” in the region, it’s a great way for people in the area to share their ideas and work.
The next event is this Saturday night at 7pm at the Foundation at 1004 Locust, underneath the new Bridge bar next to Left Bank Books downtown. This next event is unique because it’s part of a global event on this night to raise money for Architecture for Humanity’s rebuilding efforts in Haiti.
I’ll be one of the many speakers for the evening, talking about ArtFix and Rebuilding-Together St. Louis. Stop by for what should be a great night.
Interesting clip form Marketplace today about young families reconsidering a move to the suburbs to stay in the city. In this audio clip, it talks about owning in the suburbs vs. renting in the city. This may make more sense in a city like Chicago where owning a home in the city may be harder to afford for many people, but in St. Louis homes are less expensive.
As more middle-class families choose to stay, new models arise. BRUEGMANN: The experimentation is really vigorous. We have all kinds of new options in charter schools, in magnet schools, in parochial schools, so that there’s no longer this feeling of hopelessness. Now, at least, you have a lot of choices on what you can do.
But even those choices can be a tough sell for parents who mostly grew up in the suburbs and in small towns.
It’s proving to be a pretty exciting and jam-packed spring so far. First of all, I now have a new site and blog! I wanted to simplify the content overall and it’s now a bit easier for me to update the site. My old site had been up almost as long as I have been a Realtor, so it’s time for a change. Special thanks to Geoff who spent a Saturday afternoon taking pictures for the site… and let me use his front porch for the set. Up next, look for some local advertising as well as some updates to the individual property pages, which I set up for every new listing.
Speaking of which, I have many new listings I’m pretty excited about. They’re all in awesome locations and each one has something great and unique about them. See my listings page for more information.
And of course, pardon the dust while there’s some clean up and tweaking happening to the site in the coming week or so.
We use Craig’s List all the time to advertise our FOR SALE listings. Most times its a great tool. In the MLS we are unable to advertise the individual property website because of the agent rules governing IDX, but on Craig’s List and Backpage we can re-direct people to the home’s individual website which has much more information (floor plans and disclosures) than the brief post.
HOWEVER, last weekend someone stole one of my posts. They took the photos and description of my listing for 2631 Nebraska and posted a FOR RENT ad. Then they proceeded to correspond to inquiries using an email address yahoo email address. dawngriffin94@yahoo is NOT my email address. Most people figured it out quickly and contacted me personally (Thank you!) And someone forwarded me the correspondence so that I could report it to Craig’sList. Below is a bit of the message.
–
Hello,
How are you? Thanks for the interest in my House,my house is still available for rent and is located at :2631 Nebraska Ave St Louis,MO 63118,quite and safe I only need someone that can take good care of the house at my absence because right now am not around i just secured a contract in London .of which i will not be back until after 2years. And am here with the house keys and document, i tried to look for managent before i left but couldn’t get any in time.If you know that you have a good reference and a good crediential you can email me back to secure and occupy my house at my absent.
– I believe they were trying to get people to submit their personal info in the form of an application. Possibly they were trying to collect deposits as well. I guess the lesson is to be VERY VERY careful when responding to posts for rent and insist on meeting someone personally at the property before giving up any of your personal info.
P.S. 2631 Nebraska is UNDER CONTRACT after only 45 days on the market. A testament to what an amazing house it is!
At Circa, one of the things we get the most compliments on are the photos of our listings. Photography is one of the most time consuming aspects of putting together a listing, but it is the most important. Statistics show that the more photos attached to a listing the more time a consumer will spend on the web looking at that listing. Buying a house is a process of elimination. So you want to make sure that the photos of your house place it in the “view” pile not the “skip” pile.
When interviewing agents ask to see examples of the photography they did for their other clients. Of all the sites on the web you want your house to appear on, this is not one of them. Lovely Listing, is a tutorial in what not to do when photographing a house for sale.
BTW: Circa got called on this site once too. Damn toaster oven!
2 bedrooms, 1bath, 1500sf with a sun porch, alarm, laundry, central a/c, fenced yard and 1 space in garage. Rent is $1000/month with additional deposit for pet. Call Kim at 314-443-1091
How cool is this? I see a lot of old radiators in city homes, but nothing quite like this. This would be great in a loft space. However, it would also be great if this wasn’t the price of a down payment!
I’m an experienced Saint Louis Realtor specializing in St. Louis City as well as neighborhoods like Webster Groves, Maplewood, Clayton, University City and Ladue. With an undergraduate degree in Education and Master's in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development — I have the heart of teacher.
I have been immersed in Residential Real Estate, helping home buyers and sellers understand the market, manage the ambiguities and negotiate the best terms for themselves. I am consistently voted a 5-Star Agent by clients and featured as one of St. Louis' Best Agents in Saint Louis Magazine.
