Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Get That Inspection….First January 23rd, 2007

Categories: For Sellers

In a previous post I encouraged sellers to have their homes inspected in preparation for a sale.

To drive the point home let me tell you about two sellers right here in Wasilla who just today found out about problems in their home that each wish they had known beforehand. In each case the buyer was having the home inspected as part of their due diligence period before they closed on the home.

In the first case, the inspector found a problem with the foundation.  The buyer and seller were both in tears because it now seems obvious that the transaction will not close.  The buyer made plans to move into the home by the end of February and the seller desperately needs to sell the home to move out of state with her family.  Now it’s back to square one.  If a pre-inspection had been completed the seller would have been able to disclose the problem and perhaps fix it before marketing, or built it into the deal to be repaired during escrow.  It is such a large issue at this stage of the transaction that it is likely the transaction will not close.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Monday Morning Market Memo, 1/22/07 January 22nd, 2007

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Monday Mornings Market Memo for the week of 1/15/07–1/22/07.

This is looking at all the Mat-Su Borough as a whole, not just  Palmer, and Wasilla Real Estate. Using the MLS system here are the statistics for the last week.

There are currently 702 houses on the market, almost exactly the same as last week.  That doesn’t seem to make sense considering the 62 new listings this week.  That is because I am not showing the listings that were cancelled or expired.  

We pended 33 homes and closed 19. Both of these numbers are up from last week. Now that we have two weeks of statistics I will begin a graph starting next week.

An interesting note about the 62 new listings is that exactly 1/2 of them, (31), show built dates of 2006 or newer.  These are apparently brand new homes.  Many of these are “to be builts”, meaning the builder is advertising a home before he begins to build it in hopes of finding a buyer.  Many of these “to be builts” will never be built if a buyer does not come along. 

Another good sized portion of these brand new homes are existing structures that were listed last year and then either expired or were cancelled and then re-entered as new listings.  That is another reason why we had almost twice as many new listings as we had last week with the total active listings staying the same.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Finding Water, Is It Magic? January 20th, 2007

Categories: Wells

Most building lots in the Wasilla and Palmer areas do not have water lines available to them.  So if you buy a lot you are going to have to drill a well.  Where will you put that well?  Is it better in the back of the lot or the front?

Before you even purchase the lot you need to do a little research.  If you go down to the Department of Conservation, (DEC), office on Bogard Road armed with the legal address of your prospective property, you will find some very good information.  The people there will help to find well logs in your area that show the depth of the wells and the amount of water each well produces.  If all the neighbors have good wells you know your chances of getting water are very good.  It’s not a guarantee however, you are always taking chances when you drill.

 In some areas people have drilled two or three wells before finding one with good water.  The dry holes are usually not reported to DEC but are just abandoned.  So it is possible that the neighbors could have one or more dry wells on their property without DEC knowing about it.  For that reason, it’s a good idea to dig a little more. Talking to the neighbors is an excellent way to find out about wells in the area.  They will normally tell you if they had a hard time getting water.  I am a little surprised about buyers reluctance to talk to people in the neighborhood as part of their due-diligence in purchasing property.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Marty Van Diest 4 Comments »

Is It Just A Hole In The Ground? January 19th, 2007

Categories: For Buyers, For Sellers, Getting Ready For The Sale, Wells

Wells in the Mat-Su Valley run the gamut from artesian water that is so pure it should be bottled and sold,?to?mucky stink holes that a dog won?t drink.? Many new-comers to the valley assume that since the water in their home comes out of a tap, it must be good.? This article will be the first in a series of articles discussing how to find out more about the water you drink.

The cities of?Palmer and Wasilla each have their own water systems, but these only serve people inside the city limits of each.? In fact, the Wasilla system only serves some of the city residents.? In addition, many of the?developments in the Mat-Su Valley have their own community water systems.? These city and community systems are regulated and required to test the water on a regular basis.

Most homes in the valley are served by private wells that serve only one house.? There are no regulations requiring these wells to be monitored.? The only time any testing is done is when the home changes hands, and that is usually a minimal test looking for bacteria contamination.?? There are many other contaminants that can be in your water that could affect your health.? Arsenic and other metals can be?found in valley wells. Nitrates and nitrites are sometimes there as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Marty Van Diest 2 Comments »

Sellers, Save The Hassle, Get An Inspection January 19th, 2007

Categories: For Sellers

It is very rare for a seller to purchase a home inspection.  Although it only costs $300 and potentially saves them from future liablity, home sellers seem reluctant to pay for this expense.  I recommend that sellers hire a home inspector when they begin to market their property.  When I sold my own home I took my own advice…that in itself is unusual.  I kept quiet about known problems and the inspector found most of those , he also found some problems about which I was unaware.  He then gave me a written report of the issues I needed to address. 

This gave me time to complete the repairs on my own and hire competent professionals for electrical and plumbing work.  I went through the report and decided that some of the problems were minor and I just wasn’t going to do anything about them.  I then made notes on the inspectors report noting the repairs I completed, planned to complete or planned to just leave as is.  Then I attached this report to the Alaska Property Disclosure Form on which I noted all the other issues with the home. 

A seller inspection accomplishes at least two things. First, it lends credibility to your disclosure which gives potential buyers a level of comfort.  Buyers always wonder whether the seller is hiding anything about their home and sometimes back away from a home partly because of a sparsley complete sellers disclosure form.  To see the seller actually hired a professional to inspect their home and then made it available gives them confidence that the seller is telling them as much as possible about the home.

Second, it speeds up the transaction.  Most of the required repairs will be completed by the time a buyer looks at a home so that they will not need to be done after you are in contract.  It is possible that the buyer may feel confident enough with the provided inspection that they will not get one on the home themselves.  You can cut at least ten days off of the transaction time by completing an inspection up front.

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »