Recent Posts

A Green Choice in Paint

Paint has been around for a long time. But when it comes to environmentally friendly paint, what choices do you have? One company has come out with what they call a “premium quality, eco friendly latex paint.” This paint is made from suplus paint that’s collected at hazardous materials collection points. That means it’s not putting any more resources to create new paint, while keeping existing paint from being thrown out. At about $12 per gallon, it’s also not very expensive. They do have a limited range of colors, 12 to be exact. Visit them at: http://www.amazonpaint.com  Read More →

Traditional Neighborhood Design

Hi, this is Minna, and I will be your guest-blogger for the day.  Today’s topic is Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND).  If you haven’t heard the term before, pay heed because it’s a fresh outlook on how to deal with suburban sprawl, and I have a hunch it’s going to be around for quite some time.  Let me explain what Traditional Neighborhood Design entails. First of all, when I say the words, “community” and “neighborhood”, what comes to mind?  I think of taking a stroll through my neighborhood and waving hi to my neighbors who are outside grilling or something equally outdoorsy.  There is a feeling of vibrancy in the air.  I can walk to the grocery store and pick up a few things I might need that day, and then I can stroll back home at a leisurely pace. I live in the ‘burbs, and this is not always possible.  One of the reason people live in the suburbs is because there is so much more space than in the cities.  The houses... [Read more of this review]

Homeowner Consequences for a Successful Short Sale Vs. a Foreclosure

I have written previous articles defining short sales and foreclosures.  I will now compare the consequences to a homeowner of a foreclosure versus those of a successful short sale. Future Fannie Mae Loan–Primary Residence  A homeowner who loses a home to foreclosure won’t be eligible for a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage for 5 years. A homeowner who successfully negotiates and closes a short sale will be eligible for a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage after only 2 years.  Future Loan with any Mortgage Company On any future 1003 application, a prospective borrower will have to answer YES to question C in Section VIII of the standard 1003 which asks, “Have you had property foreclosed upon or given title or deed in lieu thereof in the last 7 years?”.  This will affect future rates. There is no similar declaration or question regarding a short sale. Credit Score With a foreclosure, a person’s credit score may be lowered anywhere from 250 to over 300 points.  Typically,... [Read more of this review]

A Brief Explanation of Foreclosures

These days, you can’t read the headlines without noticing that there are many foreclosed homes around the country.   Since it is so prevalent, we thought it would be best to offer a brief explanation of how the foreclosure process works.  First of all, a little clarification.  ”In foreclosure” is the process that leads up to being foreclosed.   In addition, we are offering an outline of the process, and the actual timeline will vary from bank to bank.   As you know, there are monthly mortgage payments when you buy a house.  If you miss a month, you will get a notice reminding you that you missed a payment.  You will get a similar notice if you miss the next month as well.  If you miss another month, you’ll receive a stern notice.  The fourth or fifth month missed will net you a packet of legal documents that explain the foreclosure process to you.  You will also receive a notice of a Sheriff’s sale  that will take place two to three months out.  The... [Read more of this review]

A Brief Look at Short Sales

These days, in real estate, the term short sales is frequently heard.   What is a short sale, you may wonder.  Well, let me explain it to you by giving you an example.  Let’s say you bought a house two years ago with a mortgage of $200,000.  Let’s say you’ve paid of $5,000 of the mortgage.  I’m just using random numbers, so don’t worry about the math.  Fast-forward to now.  Your boss is offering you a job in California.  It’s more of an order, really, and you take it.  You have to sell your home, and it’s now worth $175,000 due to the recession.  So, after all the fees, you recoup $165,000.  You are still $30,000 short on your mortgage, and you don’t have the money or assets to pay down the mortgage.   This is a short sale.  You and your agent will have to enter into short sale negotiations with your bank.   So.   How do you know if you are a candidate for a short sale?  First of all, you have to be experiencing a hardship.... [Read more of this review]

How to Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor

You’re selling your house.  It’s a big process, and you aren’t sure where to start.  You need to price it correctly; you  need to get it in tip-top shape for all the showings; you need to fix up a few things.  Now, many people think of the last item last.  In fact, many people put off the last item until after they have the house sold (on contigency, perhaps).  There are several reasons why people put off making the necessary updates and fixes to their house, e.g., buying new appliances, sealing the windows.  First of all, it’s time-consuming to fix up the house.  If the house doesn’t sell, it may seem for naught.  Secondly, it takes money.  Again, if the house doesn’t sell, it might feel like money that wasn’t well spent.  Why put in the time, effort, and energy if the house isn’t going to sell anyway, the thinking goes. Think of it this way instead.  If you are going to put in new appliances and spruce up the house, shouldn’t... [Read more of this review]

The Benefits of a Professional Opinion

Selling a house is time-consuming and hard work, especially in today’s market.  If you are thinking about selling your house, you might feel a little overwhelmed by it all.  That’s why it is helpful to have a professional by your side–one who can guide you every step of the way.  In this blog entry, I am going to give you a brief overview of how a realtor will help you sell your house.  This is just an overview, so if you would like to discuss it in more detail, feel free to contact me.   Pre-listing:  This is the first meeting between sellers and agent.  This will be an interactive interview in which both sides get to discuss what they want and need from the relationship. Discuss and explain what are agency relationships.   Obtain a signed Agency Relationships in Real Estate Transactions form. Find out what the seller’s experctations are, as well as his/her wants, desires, motivation for moving, price, marketing plan, etc.   Find out what the sellers... [Read more of this review]

Monthly Market Update

Here is the latest statistics from Minneapolis Association of REALTORS. The short of it is that we have increased pending sales by 7.4% over last February, but keep in mind that over 60% of these sales were “lender mediated” sales, or foreclosures and short sales. Also the number of new listings has decreased by 19% compared to last year. This means there are less homes on the market See the whole video here.  Read More →

What are Agency Relationships?

There is a term in real estate that describes what type of relationship a buyer or seller could have with an agent.  This term is agency.  Each state has different agency relationships, and Minnesota state law requires us to disclose the types of agency relationships that usually occur in our state.  This agency relationship form should be presented to you upon substantive contact with an agent.  You can download a copy in PDF format by clicking on the image to the right.  Read More →

11 Must-Inspect Items During the Final Walk-Thru

You’re excited because you’ve agreed to buy the house of your dream, and you are about to sign the closing papers.  Before you sign, there is one last thing you should do:  The final walk-thru.  This should be done a day or two prior to closing so that any problems can be spotted before you sign that contract. Start in the Kitchen.  If kitchen appliances are included with the sale, then you want to start your inspection in the kitchen.  This will give you time to operate the dishwasher while you’re inspecting the rest of the house.  You’ll also want to turn on the oven to determine that it works. Test the Water Heater.  You can determine if hot water is being produced by checking the faucets.  You should also visually inspect all the connections, valves, and the tank itself for evidence of obvious leaks. Ask about the Water Softener.  Question the homeowner regarding the usage of the water softener.  In addition, check the unit itself and all connections... [Read more of this review]

Wonderful Richfield Rambler

Here’s a house for sale that’s ready for you. Located in the heart of Richfield, this 4 bedroom / 2 bathroom rambler, updated and ready to move in. Desirable and picturesque Wood Lake Neighborhood. One block to Wood Lake Nature Center with walking and cross country ski trails, wildlife and educational nature programs. Private Well for watering lawn.  Read More →

$8,000 Free Cash!!!

That should get your attention.  The government is giving cash to home buyers! Now, there are some stipulations, but if you meet the criteria, you can get $8,000! This is part of the Economic Stimulus package that was signed into law this week by President Obama. First-time home buyers can claim an $8,000 tax credit on their tax return. A tax credit is different from a tax deduction in that a tax credit is basically money in your pocket. Let’s say that you owed $6,000 in tax liabilities but you had your employer take out $7,000. That means your normal refund would be $1,000. But if you were a first time home buyer, and if you made less than the income restrictions, you would gain an additional $8,000 in refund, making your total refund $9,000.  The article on CNNMoney.com was incorrect in the fact that the got the amount of the refund in this scenario wrong. They seem to have corrected it today. The basics: 1. First time home buyer (not owning a home in the past 3 years) 2. Purchase... [Read more of this review]

2 new listings

We’ve got 2 new listings in the same condo building. This building is a senior highrise for 55+ with lots of amenities. In addition to the usual party room, there is a dining room with commercial kitchen available, a game room, exercise room, beauty salon, woodshop with tools, 24-hour security, and more. Of the 2 listings, one is a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom unit on the 8th floor, while the other is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom on the 2nd floor with a view of Woodlake Nature Center. You can find out more information on my website http://www.StevenHong.com  Read More →

New Home Search Available

We’ve made some system changes to bring you the best home search on the market.  We welcome you to sign up for free and to look at houses on-line.  You can: Save favorite homes Reject properties Take notes on individual houses Send notes to significant others, spouses, and friends from within the system Much more Just sign up at http://StevenHong.ListingBook.com and see how powerful this search engine really is.  If you have any friends, relatives, or coworkers who are about to buy a home or who are thinking of buying a home, please have them contact me.  I would love to help them find their dream houses.  Read More →

HDTV, Digital TV, ATSC….Confused Yet?

Unless you are ready to throw out the old TV and buy a new one before February 17, 2009, you’ll  need  to do something to continue watching your favorite television shows. That’s the deadline when the FCC will make TV stations turn off the old analog channels such as channels 2,4,5,9,11.   This will make our older TVs and VCRs obsolete unless we do something soon.  The easiest solution would be to get a converter box. These converter boxes are basically a Digital Tuner (ATSC tuner) that you hook up to your existing VCR or TV. This will allow you to watch  Unless you are ready to throw out the old TV and buy a new one before February 17, 2009, you’ll  need  to do something to continue watching your favorite television shows. That’s the deadline when the FCC will make TV stations turn off the old analog channels such as channels 2,4,5,9,11.   This will make our older TVs and VCRs obsolete unless we do something soon.  The easiest solution would be to get... [Read more of this review]

Our Office Has Moved

This may come as a surprise, but even Real Estate Offices move once in a while.  Our office had been at its previous location for the past 18 years, and it was time for a change.  We have moved to new office space one block away. The new office space is a wonderful space and will be an ‘all-new’ build-out.  This building is easy to find and has plenty of parking–unlike our last office where parking was at a premium.  Since we won’t have a private street-level entrance, we will have a secure way of communicating with clients to open the door for after hours access.  We are so happy to be settled into the new space, which happened at the end of last year.  OUr new address can be seen below, but mail sent to the old address will be forwarded for a while, anyway.  If I were to write a description of the building, it would read something like this: “Lovely top floor, 12-office / 1 kitchenette space with conference room and reception area.  Wonderful views... [Read more of this review]

2008 Market Review

We’ve all read the negative news about the Twin Cities housing market.   Star Tribune reported that Twin Cities’ home prices have dropped accumulatively 16% over the last year.    Many people think that the reason for the price decrease is that there are more homes on the market than ever, and they are just sitting there.  This isn’t true.  There are actually LESS houses on the market than in the past, but the problem is that there are even less buyers .    Another big reason for the average price drop is because there has been  large uptick in the number of lender-mediated homes (which include bank-owned, i.e., foreclosures, and also short sales) .  Of course, this will skew the prices of the average downward. Looking at the graph above, we can see that the number of sales for homes in the under $150,000 price range more than doubled (128%) while the number of sales for houses in the $190,000 to $350,000 decreased 22%.    These numbers show that much of the decrease in... [Read more of this review]

The Ideal Time to Buy

If you have been mulling over the idea of buying a house, you might want to stop mulling and start looking. We have discussed this in several past blog articles, and I hope I am preaching to the converted. Now is the ideal time to buy a house. I am not mincing words because truly, there is no better time. Why am I so firm about this? For three reasons. One, the interest rate on mortgages is at a historic low. It’s been more than thirty years since we’ve seen interest rates this low. Obviously, this means that your monthly mortgage payments will be less as well, appreciably so. A house mortgage is good debt because a house is an investment which will appreciate over time. Granted, there times like these as well, but for the most part, houses gain value. Two, the goverment is offering a first-time buyer tax credit worth up to $7.500 if you buy a house by July 1, 2009. If you are part of a married couple and buying a house together, you can get up to $15,000 in tax credit. The... [Read more of this review]

Top 10 Real Estate Agent Fears when Showing Houses

Which house is it? 10. Getting into a car accident on the way to a showing. 9. Running out of gas with a client in the car. 8. Getting lost on the way to meet clients at a house. 7. Not being able to distinguish one house from another. 6. Discovering that the house isn’t quite as the buyers imagined. 5. Finding no key in the lock box. 4. Using the bathroom, and find out that the water was turned off. 3. Setting off the house alarm and having the police show up. 2. Walking in on people that are sleeping, or using the bathroom, or that are naked. 1. Standing on a deck, opening the lock box, and dropping the key and watching it fall through the slats of the deck rendering it impossible to reach. Not Exactly What I Had in Mind!  Read More →

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Slow Problem Resolved

I’ve been dealing with a slow Outlook 2007 for about a year now. By slow, here’s what I mean: when clicking on Send/Receive, the process takes perhaps 4-5 minutes to download 75 messages totalling about 400k. I have high speed internet, and have spent much time troubleshooting Outlook. My PST file size is 300MB, not large by any means. Looking online, I found several people touting the virtues of: reducing pst file size, turning off RSS feeds, turning off add-ins, compacting, cleaning, updating service packs, autotuninglevel, safe mode, or turn off indexing, but none of these did anything to help my problem. What did solve my problem? The skinny answer? Delete Sent Items. I send lots of attachments, mostly pdf documents, or photos. By getting rid of any e-mails in the sent items folder that were larger than 500k, Outlook immediately sped up. Now the approx 75 messages at approximately 400k takes 15 seconds!! That’s a healthy improvement. Now, I just archive the sent folder... [Read more of this review]

How You Search For Your Dream Home

How do people search for a new home?  I am a tech person, so I use technology for almost everything.  However, I realize that many people may not want three different maps of the houses on their wish list, nor want to look through a hundred ‘just for you’ houses that really may or may not just be for them.  They think in terms of how a house will support and bolster their way of life, and that is not something that the internet can measure. If you are passionate about gardening, the backyard of your potential home is going to be very important to you.  If you love to cook, then you most likely want a kitchen that is updated, roomy, and has all the newest gadgets.  Likewise, if you are an inveterate reader, you’d probably like a sun room with plenty of natural light. This is where I come in.  During our first interview, I sit down with you so we can converse at length as to what you want in a home.  Once you tell me what is and isn’t important to you, I can... [Read more of this review]

First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

It’s a great time to buy a Minneapolis house.  I know, I’ve said this several times before, but I really want to emphasize the point.  Interest rates are at an all-time low, and even better, the government wants to help first-time home buyers with a tax credit.  Here’s the deal. If you have bought a new home on or after April 9, 2008, or are thinking of buying a new one, you have until July 1, 2009 to make your purchase if you want to qualify for the tax credit.  A first-time homebuyer is defined as someone who has not purchased a primary residential home in the past three years.  If you are married and are applying for the tax credit, then the ownership histories of both spouses are taken into account.  You apply for the credit when you file your taxes, and the maximum credit for an individual is $7,500–$15,000 for a couple.  First, the money pays off your taxes, then you get, in hand, the remainder of the money.  Most people pay off their taxes, so if... [Read more of this review]

Looking to Sell Your Home?

We’re experiencing some serious pangs here in the Minneapolis real estate market as, of course, are most markets around the country.  As a result, it’s a great time to buy a house, but it’s not such a good time to sell a house.  The market is soft, and people are tightening their belts.  In addition to that, it’s almost winter time in Minnesota, and house sales tend not to be as robust during this season.  However, if you are thinking of selling your Minneapolis house, you needn’t despair.  Just because it’s not the opportune time to sell doesn’t meant you shouldn’t sell your home.  If you are looking to sell your home, there is one major factor you have to keep in mind:  In tough times like this, you have to have the best possible priced house in your competitive market.   There are a plethora of houses available with less and less people buying, so your house has to shine.  Simply put, your house has to be priced competitively... [Read more of this review]

HPDL Minneapolis Real Estate Market in Review, 2008 Y-T-D

    Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update As you know, the Minneapolis real estate market for 2007 was in flux.  America, as a whole, was experiencing what felt like a recession, even if it didn’t fit the technical definition of the term.  The fundamentals of the economy may or may not have been strong, but the housing market began to slow down.  What you may not know, however, is that the housing market in the Hale Page Diamond Lake (HPDL) Minneapolis neighborhood experienced a comeback of sorts in 2008, after taking the expected hit in 2007.  Of course, it is November of 2008, so we don’t have data for the full year, but here’s what we know for the first three quarters of 2008.  The average price of a home sold in the HPDL area rose from $274,000 in January, 2008, to $286,000 in September.  That’s an increase of 4%.  In addition, the average days on market (DOM) decreased from 102 days in January to 94 days in September.  Finally, the percentage of... [Read more of this review]

Relaxing At Home

Chaotic Minneapolis Life This is Minna again, and I’m here to talk about the economy.  No, actually, I’m not.  I know, the economy is dire, and I know that the government has given beaucoup bucks to try to jump-start it, and I know that the sky is falling down, but I would rather not focus on that right now. I am also not going to talk about the debate, though I hope you watched it.  We need to make an informed choice come November 4th.  Instead, I would like to discuss how in this chaotic world of us we can find some respite.  It’s not irresponsible to take a break from the news-it’s imperative.  There is only so much a brain can process before declaring, “Enough!  I need chocolate!”  Inner Respite In times like this, we need our friends and mutually-supportive networks.  However, we need more than that-at least I do.  I have recently started taking tai chi classes, and more often than not my shoulders are in knots from the tensions of the... [Read more of this review]

Pep Up My Minneapolis Home!

Minneapolis House Curb Appeal This is Minna, blogging about renovations for your Minneapolis home.  If you are trying to sell your house, you’ve no doubt been told to renovate on the inside.  Redo the kitchen, paint the walls, put in new carpeting-these are all mantras of the eager-to-sell set.  These are good ideas that will add value to your house.  They also will increase the attractiveness of your home, thus in turn engaging more potential buyers. What many sellers forget, however, is that you need to get the potential buyers in the door first.  Too many sellers neglect to spruce the outside of their houses which means many potential buyers aren’t even stepping into the house to see the awesome interior renovations. Outdoor Sprucing for Your Minneapolis Home I can hear you thinking (no, really, I can), “I’ve already updated the bathroom and the kitchen and the floors and the walls; I don’t have the time or the money or the will to tackle the outside... [Read more of this review]