Pricing Your Home

An appropriately timed price adjustment can be the best move to make in many situations. In a declining market you must be both aggressive and cautious.

If your price reduction does not "get under the market" then you will find additional reductions necessary as you "chase the market."

This is to be avoided as you will repeatedly lower the price of your home, only to find that the market also fell below your new asking price. If the adjustment is not big enough, the cycle will repeat! By the time you reduce again, you may find no opportunities to sell because the market has declined again at a similar or greater pace.

KeithMaki.com - Central MN Local Real Estate Expert.

Making a Good Offer

A good offer is one that achieves the goal of getting the best house at a great price. That means paying at or below market value for a property. Your realtor will be able to assist you in determining value.

The market value is simply what the average buyer would be willing to pay for the house given the current market conditions. This is usually calculated/estimated by looking at comparable homes.

The best way to find a home's value is to know the market by seeing lots of similar homes in the areas you are most interested. This can be accomplished by looking at homes your agent emails to you and then selecting the most attractive homes to tour.

Many homes are priced right for the market. Those are the ones you should be offering on. However, if the home is priced for the market, a low-ball offer (less than 10% below asking price) is almost a complete waste of time. If the house is that far overpriced, you should be focusing on better priced homes to maximize the potential for success in the market.

KeithMaki. com - Get the best info available on a daily and weekly basis.

Make Offers Early

The current buyer's market heavily favors non-contingent buyers who can close in a hurry.

With no home to sell, the ideal buyer can move forward quickly and put "pressure" on the seller to accommodate the terms offered.

One caution is that waiting for the price to drop on the home you have your eye on tends to backfire. I have seen it happen more times than not. Once the home gets to the market price. Everyone jumps.

A multiple offer situation does take much of the leverage from the buyer. This has put a premium on speed and accuracy of market information.

KeithMaki.com - See all the new homes and foreclosures.

Getting Pre-Approved

One of the very first steps towards home ownership is getting pre-approved. This is where you set the groundwork for a successful purchase.

Start by getting a recommendation from friends, family, or preferably, your realtor. He or she will know the best places to get financing and who is working hardest to help their clients.

The process is free and enlightening. Not only are your ready to find a house, you also have the comfort of know exactly how much you want to spend to stay well within a comfortable budget.

KeithMaki.com - get quality advise from Your First-Rate Realtor!

Competing in a Multiple Offer Situation

Many buyers are feeling frustrated by losing in multiple offers. The thing to remember is that a multiple offer situation changes the balance of power from the buyer to the seller. The rules of the current "buyer's market" no longer apply.

The way to win a multiple offer is by making your best offer. The offer where you are comfortable getting the home at your price and also comfortable losing the home to someone else who is willing to pay a little bit more. Other important ways to make your offer more attractive to the seller are:
- make the closing non-contingent
- have the closing date as early as possible
- make your earnest money as large as you can
- keep extra requests and conditions to a minimum.

If you do those things you greatly increase your chances of success in a multiple offer. Most importantly, you will be confident that you did everything you could to buy the home at the price and terms that made sense for you and your family.

KeithMaki.com - Get the advise and expertise you need!

Getting the Best Price

When negotiating with a seller, buyers seem to be making low offers. That is the reality of the market. However, a low ball offer can end up hurting a buyer more than helping. Why? Because selling your home is an emotional thing. Those who have done it know exactly what I am talking about.

My advise for people looking to negotiate the purchase of real estate is to offer a price high enough so that you are not offending the seller. This is less of a concern when dealing with a bank, especially when there are no other offers on the table.

KeithMaki.com - Daily Updates for hot listings and new foreclosures!

Personalized Service

Many people recently have been impressed by my willingness to follow up with them as new properties come on the market. Timely updates from your realtor can make a bid difference. I don't rely on automatic searches exclusively. I also personally review the market daily and send relevant listings, pendings, and solds to my clients and people I meet at open houses.

KeithMaki.com - Learn how you can succeed in real estate!

New Homes Daily

There are about 25 - 30 new homes coming on the market daily. Of these, there are usually 2-10 foreclosures. I check the market daily and would be happy to send you email updates daily as homes of interest come online. You too can be the first to know about homes of interest. All you need do is ask and provide some specific search criteria.

KeithMaki.com - Get the latest news and notes from the best site in town!

Making An Offer

This is one area where even experienced buyers and sellers tend to look for expert advise. There is a very good reason for this. This is where the rubber hits the road. What happens in a day or a week will have a huge impact on the lives of everyone involved.

One good way to get leverage in this situation is to understand a basic principle of real estate negotiation. You must want the deal less than then other side in order to maximize leverage. To put it another way, you must be willing to let go. Also, you should know exactly what your plan will be before beginning the negotiation process.

KeithMaki.com - Daily Updates, Timely Info!

For Sale By Owner

Just a few thoughts about people selling their homes themselves. If you are successful, please let me know what you did. It is a known fact that only a small percentage of for sale by owner homes sell before they are eventually listed with real estate. The ones that do sell (about 1 in 14), usually had a buyer lined up, or they priced the home 10% - 20% below the market price and a buyer happened upon the property and took advantage.

My recommendation: You will most likely benefit from selecting a personal realtor to help you find the property that will best serve your needs. Why? Because your realtor should be able to help you determine the going market price for any property you are interested in. This will help you get a good value, and more importantly prevent you unknowingly paying more than you should.

KeithMaki.com - Check it out, learn something good.

DOM - What does that Mean?

DOM stands for Days on Market. This is the stat that many people find interesting but few truly understand. It is not profound in and of itself, rather, it can give us a clue as to how the market has been behaving recently. Ideally, this will put us in the best position to negotiate on a purchase or sale with maximum results!

Here are last weeks stats taken from KeithMaki.com:
Average Days on Market for New Pending Listings: 125 DOM
Average Days on Market for New Closed Listings: 123 DOM

However, these stats are somewhat misleading because there are a small number of homes that have been on the market more than a year that just sold or went pending. Here is a more detailed breakdown:

Pendings from Last Week: 40 - This is what the market is like (last 7 days).
0 - 30 DOM: 13 - this is the biggest by far! About 1 of 3 went pending in 30 days or less.
31 -60 DOM: 3
61 - 90 DOM: 3
91 - 120 DOM: 4
121 - 180 DOM: 7
180 - 270 DOM: 4
271+ DOM: 6

Closed Last Week: 23 - This is what the market WAS like (one to two months ago)
0 - 30 DOM: 3
31 -60 DOM: 4
61 - 90 DOM: 2
91 - 120 DOM: 7 - This is the biggest by far.
121 - 180 DOM: 2
180 - 270 DOM: 2
271+ DOM: 3

KeithMaki.com - Expert research and market analysis!
View the Edina Realty eNewsletter

Be Picky

Right now in the Central MN residential real estate market the inventory is growing. I update my website weekly and daily with the latest data about the market and what is actually selling and coming on the market.

Last week 106 new homes were added to the 2500 existing listings for sale. Only 38 actually sold last week. So the trend right now is for buyers to have more and more choices as the weeks go on. That being said, the good houses do sell first.

KeithMaki.com - See the good houses daily!

Know the Market

When it comes to winning at real estate, you must know the market. How can you do it? Well, you could spend hours a day researching the market through the commercially available websites like EdinaRealty.com, Realtor.com, and others. Or you can hire a realtor to do all the research for you.

Most people end up with a realtor after spending significant time themselves. This is both good and bad. The good is that they do get the benefit of a real estate expert (at least some of us are experts). Today I was told that most realtors are "lazy." I don't know how true that is, I suspect it is the case with some and not with others.

My website: www.KeithMaki.com is a hybrid, you have all the do-it-yourself functionality of the big websites (I utilize the same technology as EdinaRealty.com), with the added benefit of expert research and market stats. Check my site out if you want to know what is really happening in the market.

KeithMaki.com - Know your stuff!

Passion or Money?

There is a famous study that was conducted on 1500 people in the 1980s. The question was simple: Will you pursue money first or will you pursue passion first in you work. The answers were not surprising: of the 1500, 1250 people said that they would pursue money, the other 250 said passion would be their goal.

The results of the study were staggering! Only one of the 1250 people that said they would pursue money first was a millionaire 20 years later. While that may not be so surprising. . .101 of the 250 people that said they would pursue passion first were millionaires 20 years later!

So if you love what you do with a passion, you are far more likely to succeed on a BIG level!

KeithMaki.com - Find out how much I love what I do (and how I can help you)

Know Who You are Working With

It is important to select the right Realtor for you. I believe strongly in the positive impact I make in the lives of those I come in contact with on a daily basis. Any good agent should be able to articulate exactly what makes them special and worth doing business with. So if you have been working with an agent, why don't you ask them why their clients choose to work with them and see what they say. Here is why my clients work with me.

KeithMaki.com - Know your stuff!

Buying a Foreclosure

The current buyer's market has been the result of many factors including the high number of foreclosures present in the market. The corporations that own the foreclosures are pricing the homes for the current market environment, and are therefore selling them (sometimes at huge discounts to the previous sale price).

One of the major issues with buying a foreclosure is the need to have clear title. This is sometimes difficult because banks rarely have the property's abstract (the history book about the property since it's beginning). There is significant expense to have an new abstract produced, so many times the bank is unwilling to pay the cost for a new abstract.

How then do you ensure that you are to be the only owner of the home, and that others will not come to later with a claim against your home? The answer is to simply get owner's title insurance. That is a one time fee (usually in the range of $200 - $500) that is paid at the time of closing. Then if someone comes to you with a claim (lawsuit), you will have the title company to take care of any problems. The title insurance will either pay or fight the claim at no additional cost to you.

(today's new featured listings)

(today's new foreclosures)

KeithMaki.com - Get the facts about buying and selling homes in Central MN.

Know Your Local Market!

Do you want to succeed in Real Estate? You must know the market inside and out if you want to take full advantage of opportunities, and there are plenty of them. Many people are too busy with their own areas of expertise and family to invest the time and energy it takes to be a true market expert. This is o.k. The next best thing is to have the services of a true market expert close at hand.

There are between 24,000 and 26,000 Realtors in Minnesota, depending on whose numbers you use. The Governor said 24,000, I'm going with that one. So out of 24,000 options, I would suggest only about 2,000 - 3,000 really know what is going on in the market. The reason is because the vast majority (more than 20,000 agents are not up to date on the latest twists and market turns).

Moral: Find someone you trust and ask them the right questions: How many properties sold last week? How many of them were foreclosures? What is the average listing price-to-sale ratio? How many months (years!) of inventory are currently available in may areas of interest?

KeithMaki.com - Todays new featured listings, eNewsletter, Market Stats, and more!

The Buyer's Counseling Session

The buyer's counseling session is one of the most valuable experiences for first-time home buyers. The buyer gets to learn in a 30 to 60 minute session the basic outline for the entire real estate purchase transaction. This can set up a smooth and successful home buying process.

The buyer learns what to expect and is therefore not surprised when things like earnest money and home inspections are discussed when an offer situation presents itself. Other topics include making offers and negotiating, choosing a closing date, getting a pre-approval letter, and many more.

I encourage many people I work with to take a few minutes in the beginning to get their expectations in tune with the realities of the market. This will benefit them greatly by giving them the information and knowledge they will need and rely on when its time to make the offer on their first home.

P.S. - Many people who have purchased homes in the past never had the benefit of a buyer's counseling session, they may still benefit from going over topics they have heard of, but don't have a clear understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with specific aspects of a purchase transaction.

KeithMaki.com - Find the latest foreclosures, hot listings, market trends and more!

Be Smart when Choosing A Home

Finding a home can become one of the greatest experiences of being an American. That said, we all have heard about the rash of foreclosures saturating the market. Take a few moments and discuss with your realtor or lender about how much you expect to be able to pay on a monthly basis, not just now, but in the future. Consider things such as job loss and having a growing family. Today, expenses seem to keep multiplying and they do so even faster than most of our incomes will grow.

Home ownership is still a solid investment, but it is time to get back to basics. Save for a down payment, find a good agent you feel comfortable with, and ask the tough questions. First-time home buyers should be extra careful in selecting an agent who specializes in helping their specific market.


KeithMaki.com - get daily updated info about hot new listings and foreclosures.

Mister Keith Achieve's Orange Belt

Last night was the test for the Orange belt for Mister Keith and Mister Dale at Little Falls Taekwondo. By all accounts we did well and did receive our Orange belts from Master Bryan Schoenberger. Please take a moment to view the video of the testing and see Mister Keith demonstrate basic safety, combination kicks and punches, and break a board with a side-kick.

KeithMaki.com - Get more details on the Mister Keith's Taekwondo page and get the latest info about the Central MN Real Estate market.

New Featured Listing

I'm excited to present the latest feature of Your First-Rate Real Estate Blog. Keeping with the purpose of providing timely and relevant information to my clients. Each time I post I will provide a link to that day's new listing that catches my eye as an exceptional property given the current market conditions.

Today's featured Listing is a remodeled rambler in St. Joseph.

KeithMaki.com - Focused Representation, Continuous Updates, Convenient Service.

eNewsletter - Fantastic for Homeowners and Buyer's and Seller's.

How Close Does a Property Meet Your Needs?

One of the most important decisions we make is what home to live in. It still surprises me when clients look at homes and make little conscious effort to express how close each property meets there needs. This is especially important when you have two or more people deciding on a property to serve them both.

I suggest a simple system that rates each property as you see it on a scale of 1 to 5. A 1 or 2 is not worth much further attention. A 3 to 4 would be a stronger contender and could be a property to revisit at a later date if you are still struggling to decide which home to choose. If you happen across a 5, be grateful and make an offer.

I offer a Free Buyer's Counseling session. Fill in and submit this form to schedule a time that works for you. Some of the topics discussed are: What is earnest money? How long does it take to find a home and move in? What is involved with a home inspection? Many other topics will be discussed in detail in about a 30 to 60 minute appointment.

KeithMaki.com - Start here if you are interested in buying or selling a home or property.