We already put a couple of our old sofas in the barn, and the former mangers have been transformed into teenage-party-proof seating.
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Amy Hoak's Home Economics
Dec. 27, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EST
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — If your New Year’s resolution involves selling a home in 2011, you’ve got some work to do: There’s lots of inventory out there and in a buyer’s market like this one, getting an offer on a home can be challenging.
Still, for the committed seller willing to do some prep work and come to terms with the current value of his or her home, locking in a buyer isn’t impossible.
“If you hit the ground running and you’re a fresh listing that has done everything right, you’ve got the best shot,” said Cammarosano.
Consider the following tips to give your home the best chance to get noticed — and sold — in 2011.
Many sellers suffer from attachment bias, said Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator for real-estate website Trulia.com. They believe that their home is worth more than they’d pay for it in another context. While it’s always a bad idea to overprice a home, it’s especially dangerous in times like this because there is so much competing inventory in many local markets.
Nelson’s advice: Give yourself a reality check by looking inside comparable homes during open houses. That can help you get a clearer idea of your home’s value.
You might even consider interviewing a few real-estate agents to get more than one take on how the home should be priced, Cammarosano said.
The longer something sits on the market, the more price reductions you might have to make and the more potential buyers will assume that there’s something wrong with the home, he said. So more often than not, it’s best not to try testing the waters with a higher price, he adds.
Don’t be afraid to advertise in the listing and marketing materials that it’s not a foreclosure or short sale, Nelson said. In markets where distressed sales are plentiful, there are buyers who simply don’t want to deal with the extra hassle and uncertainty of a short sale or bank-owned property, she said.
Most sellers know they need to declutter, paint in neutral colors and generally stage the home as best as they can to help buyers envision themselves in the home. Often, this is done on the advice of a real-estate agent or professional stager.
The closer you can get your home looking like a photo from a Pottery Barn catalog, the better off you will be, said Beth Jaworski, a real-estate agent in the Milwaukee area.
And make sure that your cabinets and refrigerators are cleaned out and decluttered, too. “You want to have a minimum of ‘stuff’ in the house. The less stuff you have, the larger the closets, basement and garage will look,” she said.
Have energy bills and a list of updates available for buyers to see, Jaworski said.
“Buyers are always curious what the utility bills are, how old the roof is, how many layers it has, how old the major mechanicals are and when that addition was added,” she said. “The more information you can provide on the house, the better.”
Consider providing a floor plan with listings as well, Cammarosano said. That way the prospective buyers don’t have to keep making return visits to determine how their furniture will fit in the space — they’ll have the dimensions in hand.
The more available you can make your home for showings, the better, said David Welch, a broker/associate in Orlando, Fla.
Make it easy for your real-estate agent to access the property and keep the place clean.
“You want your home to be easy to show because you don’t know if you will get a second chance,” Welch said. “Trust me, the buyer wants to like your house. Keep it in show-ready condition,” he said, so they aren’t turned off by a first impression.
Buyers are in the driver’s seat these days, and they know they can make all sorts of unusual requests without risking the deal. Be ready.
“Buyer wants to see the house at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, OK,” Jaworski said. “Buyer wants to bring 10 family members and an inspector to check out the house for three hours this weekend, OK. Buyer wants you to include the kitchen table and chairs, the painting over the fireplace and your snow blower, OK.”
“The more flexible you are,” she said, “the better off you will be.”
Amy Hoak is a MarketWatch reporter based in Chicago.
At the signing of the bill to repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" last week, the sense of history and enthusiasm was palpable throughout the audience. While we were there we had a chance to talk to Captain Jonathan Hopkins, who was discharged under the policy, as well as Rep. Patrick Murphy who led the charge in the House of Representatives, and Melody Barnes who played an integral role here at the White House. The video gives a glimpse of what it was like there:
Home prices dropped more than forecast in October, a sign housing will remain a weak link as the U.S. recovery accelerates into the new year.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values fell 0.8 percent from October 2009, the biggest year-over-year decline since December 2009, the group said today in New York. The decrease exceeded the 0.2 percent drop projected by the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
A wave of foreclosures waiting to reach the market means home prices will remain under pressure in 2011, representing a risk to household finances. Federal Reserve policy makers this month said “depressed” housing and high unemployment remained constraints on consumer spending, reasons why they reiterated a plan to expand record monetary stimulus.
“We’ll remain in negative territory for several more months,” said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, who forecast a year-on-year drop of 1.3 percent. “The housing market does remain weak and none of the recent data suggest a substantial pickup.”
After retreating briefly, stock-index futures remained higher after the report as a jump in holiday sales boosted the outlook for consumer spending. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in March rose 0.2 percent to 1,255.5 at 9:23 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 3.36 percent from 3.33 percent late yesterday.
Survey Results
The median forecast was based on projections of 17 economists surveyed. Estimates ranged from an increase of 1.4 percent to a decline of 1.3 percent. Year-over-year records began in 2001. Prices rose 0.4 percent in the year ended September.
The gauge fell 1 percent in October from the prior month after adjusting for seasonal variations, matching September’s drop which was larger than previously estimated. Unadjusted prices decreased 1.3 percent from the prior month.
Eighteen of 20 cities showed a decrease in prices in October, led by a 2.1 percent drop in Atlanta, and decreases of 1.8 percent in Chicago and Minneapolis. Denver and Washington were the only two that posted gains.
Six markets, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Seattle, Tampa and Portland, Oregon, reached their lowest levels in October since prices started to retreat.
“The double-dip is almost here,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P. Sales aren’t “giving any sense of optimism.”
Since 2006
The 20-city index was down 30 percent in October from its July 2006 peak.
The year-over-year gauge provides better indications of trends in prices, the group has said. The panel includes Karl Case and Robert Shiller, the economists who created the index.
The Case-Shiller gauge is based on a three-month average, which means the October data was influenced by transactions in September and August.
The drop in prices represents a setback for housing after values recovered earlier this year, thanks to an $8,000 homebuyers’ tax credit that lifted purchases.
Reports earlier this month showed the housing market is stuck near recession levels even as the broader economy is recovering. Housing permits fell in November to the third-lowest level on record, while starts rose for the first time in three months, the Commerce Department reported Dec. 16.
Sales of new and existing homes last month rose less than projected by the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, reports from the Commerce Department and the National Association of Realtors showed last week.
Price Outlook
Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA Inc, which builds and sells single-family starter homes in the southern part of the country, projects prices will not increase.
“We expect new-home selling prices to be somewhere between flat and down 3 percent in 2011,” Beazer’s Chief Executive Officer Ian McCarthy said on a conference call last month. “While there are clearly risks of further home-price declines, we believe that new homes are well positioned relative to non- distressed existing homes.”
Today’s report may be a reminder why Fed policy makers, who met Dec. 14 for the final time this year, say housing is lagging while the economy rebounds. They cited declines in home values as one of the constraints on consumer spending.
“The housing sector continues to be depressed,” Fed officials said in a statement after the gathering, at which they reiterated a plan to expand record monetary stimulus and said economic growth is “insufficient to bring down unemployment.”
Even so, economists in the past two weeks have boosted projections for fourth-quarter growth, reflecting a pickup in consumer spending and passage of an $858 billion bill extending all Bush-era tax cuts for two years. The legislation also continues expanded unemployment insurance benefits through 2011 and cuts payrolls taxes by 2 percentage points next year.
The following table shows the historical price change
according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices. Cities are
ranked by largest monthly gain using non seasonally adjusted
data.
============================================================
1-months 3-months 1-year 2-years 3-years
earlier earlier earlier earlier earlier
============================================================
US Composite-20 -1.32% -2.39% -0.80% -8.08% -24.70%
------------------------------------------------------------
Washington DC -0.20% -0.28% 3.65% 1.00% -17.97%
Las Vegas -0.21% 0.06% -3.57% -29.26% -51.61%
Denver -0.57% -1.65% -1.79% -1.90% -6.98%
Los Angeles -0.75% -1.26% 3.34% -3.21% -30.24%
Tampa -0.90% -2.19% -3.61% -18.27% -34.48%
Miami -1.11% -2.60% -3.39% -16.95% -41.06%
Phoenix -1.11% -3.93% -4.28% -21.61% -47.21%
Dallas -1.13% -3.83% -3.13% -3.68% -6.66%
Charlotte -1.14% -2.54% -4.19% -10.90% -14.87%
============================================================
1-months 3-months 1-year 2-years 3-years
earlier earlier earlier earlier earlier
============================================================
Boston -1.23% -2.82% -0.23% -3.03% -8.85%
Seattle -1.34% -2.66% -4.11% -16.03% -24.61%
Portland -1.48% -4.16% -5.15% -14.59% -23.20%
San Diego -1.50% -3.05% 2.97% 0.55% -26.28%
Cleveland -1.52% -4.76% -2.64% -6.03% -11.83%
New York -1.61% -1.99% -1.67% -9.58% -16.56%
San Francisco -1.91% -3.07% 2.23% -0.43% -31.28%
Minneapolis -1.91% -4.35% -2.80% -10.79% -25.18%
Chicago -1.99% -3.08% -6.48% -15.95% -25.04%
Detroit -2.45% -3.25% -5.52% -20.02% -36.33%
Atlanta -2.90% -6.11% -6.19% -13.77% -22.83%
============================================================
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
Mayor Michael B. Coleman issued a statement Thursday paying tribute to Fred Holdridge, the German Village icon and pioneer who passed away that morning at age 86. Tomorrow would have been Fred's 87th birthday.
Sorry we didn't get a chance to include the mayor's words in Michael Grossberg's story from Friday's paper. Here's what Coleman had to say:
"Fred Holdridge was part of the fabric of German Village, every bit as much as Schiller Park and Lindey's restaurant and the brick on Mohawk Street. He lived life with joy and purpose and was beloved by everyone he knew. He was an institution in Columbus.
"Fred and his partner, Howard, were the embodiment of family values in Columbus."
From Friday:
The unofficial mayor of German Village died yesterday morning after decades of service to his neighborhood and the central Ohio arts scene.
Fred Holdridge, 86, died at home.
With his life partner - Howard Burns, who died in 2001 - Holdridge operated Hausfrau Haven, a landmark German Village shop at 769 S. 3rd St., until 1996.
Fred and Howard, champions of the village, were so well-known that locals referred to them by their first names only.
"Fred's real legacy was that he molded a lot of people to be good citizens of this community," said David Schooler, a close friend and president of Town & Country Travel.
Holdridge, a Lima native, served in the Army in France during World War II. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1950, arriving in Columbus with Burns in 1959.
Holdridge and Burns were major patrons of several arts groups - most notably, CATCO (formerly Contemporary American Theatre Company), which developed into the region's leading professional Equity theater company. Both served as CATCO board presidents.
"Fred was down-to-earth, funny and one of the most generous souls I know," said Geoffrey Nelson, who co-founded CATCO in 1985.
"It wasn't just that they gave money to various causes," Nelson said. "Both Fred and Howard were so personally supportive of the arts and of people. That made a great deal of difference."
Holdridge and Burns established an endowment fund for CATCO in 1994; and, in 2003, when the company faced financial crisis, they offered a $100,000 line of credit, a loan that Holdridge later forgave, said Bruce Harkey, executive director of the Franklin Park Conservatory and also a former CATCO board president.
"They were visionary in recognizing the importance of professional theater in contributing to a vibrant quality of life in central Ohio," Harkey said.
In 2008, the Village Singers honored Holdridge as a champion of German Village with an original musical revue, What's Poppin'? The Life and Times of Fred Holdridge.
"German Village residents feel such an admiration and appreciation for Fred," Wayne Owens, a co-founder of the Village Singers, said that year.
Holdridge and Burns spent the 1970s, '80s and '90s as community activists, newspaper columnists, radio movie critics and world travelers.
During their decades running Hausfrau Haven, they presided over the cluttered store as a pair of bon vivants and philosophers.
Signs in the store read: "Unattended children will be sold!" and "We will not be taken over by The Limited."
They sponsored an annual international mail-in postcard art show and a national photographic competition for cemetery art.
In 2001, Holdridge and Burns were asked to be guests of honor in the 20th anniversary Gay Pride Parade but declined. Four months later, on their 50th anniversary as a couple, the pair spoke openly in a Dispatch interview about the challenges they'd faced as gay men.
"We've always had the feeling that you don't flaunt it," Holdridge said. "You're part of the community, and you should be accepted for who you are, not what you are."
Holdridge is survived by a niece in St. Paul, Minn.; a nephew in the Detroit area; and a nephew in Colorado.
Visitation hours will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Schoedinger Midtown Chapel, 229 E. State St. The funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the German Village Meeting Haus, 588 S. 3rd St.
mgrossberg@dispatch.com
Visitation:
Another harsh winter day wind and snow |
This is the foam plywood built up roof ststem |
Full log dormers with beam rafter porch roof system |
Early Nov. snow fall is taller than the truck |
Beam post and beam rafters |
The sunroom is held up with the big beams and posts what a great look from their basement walkout |
The rustic stairs before the spindle and handrails |
The bay window was installed on the second floor of the garage |
Elegant log home with plenty of space |
rustic staircase |