Crazy about Real Estate!

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – Sept 21, 2011

Homes for sale:   1088
Homes Pending:   391
Rate of sale:   2355/12 = 196/mo.
Inventory:   5.5 months
Type of Market:   Seller’s/Balanced Market

Condos for sale:   466
Condos Pending:   115
Rate of sale:   877/12 = 73
Inventory:   6.4 months
Type of Market:   Buyer’s/Balanced Market

Income Props for sale:   132
Income Props Pending:   50
Rate of sale:   266/12 = 22
Inventory:   6.00 months
Type of Market:   Balanced/Balanced Market

As you look below, you’ll see the trending to a buyer’s market in all aspects of the real estate marketplace - however, there are many aspects to the market that would change (adjust) your buying or selling strategies depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Set up a meeting with me and I’ll show you.

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – June 30th, 2011

Homes for sale:   1101
Homes Pending:   428
Rate of sale:   2209/12 = 184/mo.
Inventory:   6.00 months
Type of Market:   Balanced Market

Condos for sale:   526
Condos Pending:   162
Rate of sale:   850/12 = 71
Inventory:   7.4 months
Type of Market:   Buyer’s Market

Income Props for sale:   140
Income Props Pending:   56
Rate of sale:   249/12 = 21
Inventory:   6.67 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Buyer’s

As you look below, you’ll see the trending to a buyer’s market in all aspects of the real estate marketplace - however, there are many aspects to the market that would change (adjust) your buying or selling strategies depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Set up a meeting with me and I’ll show you.

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – June 4th, 2011

Homes for sale:   1029
Homes Pending:   402
Rate of sale:   2243/12 = 187/mo.
Inventory:   5.50 months
Type of Market:   Balanced  - Seller

Condos for sale:   502
Condos Pending:   160
Rate of sale:   875/12 = 73
Inventory:   6.87 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Buyer

Income Props for sale:   131
Income Props Pending:   52
Rate of sale:   264/12 = 22
Inventory:   5.95 months
Type of Market:   Balanced Market

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – MAY 11, 2011

Homes for sale:   942
Homes Pending:   393
Rate of sale:   2267/12 = 189/mo.
Inventory:   4.98 months
Type of Market:   Seller’s Market

Condos for sale:   495
Condos Pending:   160
Rate of sale:   923/12 = 77
Inventory:   6.43 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Buyer

Income Props for sale:   127
Income Props Pending:   59
Rate of sale:   262/12 = 22
Inventory:   5.77 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Seller

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – APR 11 2011

Homes for sale:   877
Homes Pending:   344
Rate of sale:   2303/12 = 192/mo.
Inventory:   4.56 months
Type of Market:   Seller’s Market

Condos for sale:   463
Condos Pending:   153
Rate of sale:   956/12 = 80
Inventory:   5.79 months
Type of Market:   Balanced Market

Income Props for sale:   111
Income Props Pending:   57
Rate of sale:   267/12 = 22
Inventory:   5.04 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Seller

SNAPSHOT of REAL ESTATE – Anchorage, AK – MARCH 24 2011

Homes for sale:   847
Homes Pending:   348
Rate of sale:   2325/12 = 194/mo.
Inventory:   4.37 months
Type of Market:   Seller’s Market

Condos for sale:   457
Condos Pending:   163
Rate of sale:   976/12 = 81
Inventory:   5.64 months
Type of Market:   Balanced - Seller

Income Props for sale:   122
Income Props Pending:   47
Rate of sale:   278/12 = 23
Inventory:   5.3 months
Type of Market:   Balanced – Seller

Ken Jelinek has been licensed in the State of Alaska since 1994 and has been with REMAX since 1997.  He is uniquely qualified for and focuses primarily on First Time Home Sellers - but is equally enthusiastic in helping First Time Home Buyers.  Click here for current info: http://www.OneGoodRealtor.com.

1)      Take full use of free Craigslist with the 4 most flattering pictures and descriptive details.

2)      It’s better to show the rental after it is vacated and cleaned up. Otherwise, you risk your departing tenants & their stuff poisoning your potential tenants. Vacancy eats up your annual cash flow faster than even repairs, so it is better to suffer it when it’s fixed and looking its best.

3)      Spend more time & money filtering through tenants and you’ll spend a lot less time & money in vacancies, turnover & repairs.  You didn’t destroy the home & not pay your rent when you rented, right? Tenants who are at least as responsible as you are all over the rental world.

4)      Run credit, criminal, and rental background checks on every adult that will be living in the home – and have their names on the lease. Marginal tenants will take a hike when they hear this.

5)      Charge an application fee and take a fully filled in application for each adult that will be living in the home. It’ll cost you time & money to process them, but the good ones rise to the top.

6)      Don’t accept cash payments – especially over the weekend in a desperate rush by the tenant.

7)      Require rent payments to be automatically deposited into a bank account set up only for your rental property. You can check it online and deal with any issues immediately. No chasing down rents after working hours will be necessary.

8)      Require a security deposit equal to one month’s rent. Explain that this is not last month’s rent.

9)      If you accept pets, require a large pet fee. Why a fee?  Because pets make costly mistakes and few landlords accept pets. It’s a privilege people will pay for. What does it say if they won’t pay for that privilege? A refundable pet deposit unwisely spreads risks from tenant to landlord.

10)   Explain you’ll strictly enforce late fees & delivery of Notices to Vacate, according to local law.

11)   Find a reliable handyman to do some of the miscellaneous work which will be required on occasion. You will need to be able to rely on their judgment as to why something broke. A good example is the garbage disposal. You provide one and it works at move in – but then it stops working. If you send your handyman to fix it, then he/she will determine what caused it to break. If you find toys and dinnerware inside, then the tenant will be charged for the repair. Sometimes it requires only pushing the reset button.

12)   Have accounts set up for necessary systems in the home - Plumbing & Heating, for example. Your replacing heater filters a lot, with regular cleaning & servicing is cheaper than new systems.

13)   Spell out everything both you and your tenants are agreeing to – use extra paper and handwrite it if necessary – and get all adults to sign it.

14)   Assign a “Head of Household” – usually the one with the better credit. Deal with only that person for communications between you and the household – it keeps things clear & reliable.

15)   Charge what your rental is worth, for sure, but minus $25 or $50/month – tenants stay longer.

16)   Absolutely keep the lines of communication between you and your tenants open, but they should keep it all during business hours. Emergencies should be called into emergency services.

17)   List everything, in detail, that comes with the rent. I had a clause stating “I include the washer & dryer for tenant use, but if they break & don’t work anymore, then I will remove them – and tenant is free to install and use their own washer and dryer in the premises.”

Ken Jelinek has been licensed in the State of Alaska since 1994 and has been with REMAX since 1997.  He is uniquely qualified for and focuses primarily on First Time Home Sellers - but is equally enthusiastic in helping First Time Home Buyers.  Click here for current info: http://www.OneGoodRealtor.com.

ONIONS — Who Would’ve Thought?

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people, there was a Doctor who visited many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it, and many died.

The doctor came upon one farmer, and to his surprise,  everyone in the household was very healthy.  When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different, the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home (probably only two rooms back then).  The doctor couldn’t believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope.  She gave him one, and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion.  It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ.  She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop.  To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work… (And no, she is not in the onion business.) 

The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home.  If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere..  Try it and see what happens.  We did it last year, and we never  got the flu. 

If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better.  If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case..Whatever, what have you to lose?  Just a few bucks on onions!!! 

Now there is a P.S. to this, for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues.  She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:  Thanks for the reminder. I don’t know about the farmer’s story…but I do know that I contracted pneumonia, and needless to say I was very ill.  I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion.  Put one end on a fork, and then place the forked end into an empty jar…placing the jar next to the sick patient at night.  It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs.  Sure enough, it happened just like that..the onion was a mess, and I began to feel better. 

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago.  They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties. 

This is the other note:  LEFTOVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS!  I have used an onion which has been left in the fridge.  Sometimes I don’t use a whole one at one time, so I save the other half for later.  Now with this info, I have changed my mind.  I will buy smaller onions in the future. 

I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, makers of mayonnaise.  Mullins is huge, and is owned by 11 brothers and sisters in the Mullins family.  My friend, Jeanne, is the CEO.  Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to share what I learned from a chemist.  The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed.  He’s one of the brothers.  Ed is a chemistry expert and is involved in developing most of the sauce formula.  He’s even developed sauce formula for McDonald’s. Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz.

During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise.  People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil.  Ed’s answer will surprise you.  Ed said that all commercially-made mayo is completely safe.  “It doesn’t even have to be refrigerated.  No harm in refrigerating it, but it’s not really necessary.”  He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment.

He then talked about the quintessential picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the table and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick. Ed says that when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials look for is when the ‘victim’ last ate ONIONS and where those onions came from (in the potato salad?).  Ed says it’s not the mayonnaise (as long as it’s not homemade mayo) that spoils in the outdoors.  It’s probably the onions, and if not the onions, it’s the POTATOES.

He explained, onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions.  You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. He says it’s not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator.

It’s already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put on your hot dogs at the baseball park!)

Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you’ll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put it on your sandwich, you’re asking for trouble.  Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.

So, how’s that for news?  Take it for what you will.  I (the author) am going to be very careful about my onions from now on.  For some reason, I see a lot of credibility coming from a chemist and a company that produces millions of pounds of mayonnaise every year.

Also, dogs should never eat onions..  Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions.

Please remember it is dangerous to cut onions and try to use it to cook the next day.  It becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and creates toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of excess bile secretions and even food poisoning.

Please pass this on to all you care about. Also, please note that Ken Jelinek is not the author of this email - but am only passing it on as it presents some very interesting information.

Ken Jelinek has been licensed in the State of Alaska since 1994 and has been with REMAX since 1997.  He is uniquely qualified for and focuses primarily on First Time Home Sellers - but is equally enthusiastic in helping First Time Home Buyers.  Click here for current info: http://www.OneGoodRealtor.com.

Well, the Shimmy, of course, but maybe just some HOT LATIN ballroom dancing! But then, maybe some Aikido lessons?  =)

Who’s the Boss in Real Estate?

Guys, we all know who’s the boss at home, right? A recent study I just invented for the purposes of this Blog posting - is that 75% of all housing decisions are made by the woman of the house, while the remaining 25% of the housing decisions are made by the man of the house waiting for the woman’s approval!  Ok, while that is obviously just a joke, this Post is not so much.

When buying customers are trying to choose a real estate professional to work with – to help them find a home and negotiate the myriad details - it is usually best to choose someone with a number of years of experience. If a real estate licensee’s only experience is from a really good, fast moving market, they will often lack the negotiating skills or know the peculiar nuances of the current trends necessary for maximizing their clients’ best interest in a slower market. Ideally, in Anchorage, that would mean a licensee should have been practicing real estate since somewhere around 2001. This is NOT to malign those with less experience – as the individual may be bringing some major expertise from another industry into their new real estate profession. Sometimes, the fact that a new licensee is NOT bogged down with the long list of stereotypical baggage that a more experienced person can have, can be their greatest asset for you!

Having said all of that, I want to press on to the more important matter of “Who’s the Boss” in real estate.  Our real estate laws, for the most part, are all designed around the concept of protecting the unsuspecting and inexperienced customer. The customer is to be protected always, and they are the boss of the real estate licensee they have chosen to work with. In fact, in Alaska, all real estate licensees are required to have a conversation with, and get the signature of all of their potential buyers and sellers on, a disclosure of who’s the boss before proceeding with any pursuit in real estate. Even assistants and staffers of those licensees advertised on the “For Sale” signs – and who are not licensed themselves – are not allowed to give any specific information regarding the home or the market.

But this is where it gets dicey for a guy like me who is posting a Blog to his own weblog which is about “All Things Real Estate”.  Many times, it’s the “Other” licensee or Lender or the Title Company who becomes confused over who’s the boss of your licensee!  Sometimes, your licensee needs to get downright belligerent with another party just to re-establish boundaries and protect your best interests.  But rest assured, YOU are the boss of your licensee and your licensee is required to work on your behalf – sometimes at the expense of his/her working relationship in the community.   But then, this is the tightrope a licensee has to walk because while you’re the boss, he/she is the expert with all the market information, negotiating skills & system in place to help you get what you want. In a nutshell, at minimum, this means simply to choose an experienced licensee whom you KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. That way, you’ll know you’re getting the best guidance and direction.

Ken Jelinek has been licensed in the State of Alaska since 1994 and has been with REMAX since 1997.  He is uniquely qualified for and focuses primarily on First Time Home Sellers - but is equally enthusiastic in helping First Time Home Buyers.  Click here for current info: http://www.OneGoodRealtor.com.