Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Title Insurance…Why You Need It April 29th, 2008

Categories: For Buyers, For Sellers

I often have people question the need for title insurance.  They feel that they can easily go down to the state recording office and find out any thing they need about a property.

I would never want to purchase a property without title insurance.  There are so many ways to cloud a title that I am constantly learning about new ones.  After 17 years in the business, I still find out about new title issues. 

Here are some of the possible problems that title insurance will protect against:

• Invalid Deeds…I once talked to a couple who purchased a property as husband and wife even though they weren’t married.  They did not go through a title company and did not have insurance.  Of course, I declined to list that property knowing that the only way to clear the title was for them to admit to fraud. 
• Unknown Easements:  Often easements will be granted across a 160 acre homestead that is later subdivided.  Will you recognize that the 50 year old easement now runs along your one acre lawn if you do the search yourself? 
• Incorrect Legal Description: It is not uncommon for a property to transfer with an incorrect legal description.  A title company will catch that and help to correct it.

Those are just a few problems, there are many potential pitfalls in the transfer of title that a title policy helps to avoid.  Here is a list of 27 possible nightmares.

Mat-Su Title in Wasilla has an informative website.  They also include some helpful forms.

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

Monday Morning Market Memo for April 28, 2008 April 28th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News Statistics for this week show a little life in the real estate market.  I have been waiting all spring for our normal jump and it started to show up this week.

Most of us have been experiencing more calls, more showings, and generally more activity in the market for more than a month but this has not been showing up in the statistics.  Just because people were looking, there wasn’t an increase in pendings and closings. 

This week both of those categories are up more than 30% over last week and over most of the previous 6 weeks.  If this new level of activity continues we will have a pretty healthy market.

I expected to see the total inventory top 800 this week, but with fewer new listings, and and increase in pendings the inventory actually dropped…a little. 

Foreclosure activity does not appear to be driving the market.  I just sent out my new Motivated Sellers list to the subscribers and was surprised at the small amount of foreclosures.  There are only 18  this week out of the 795 total listings.  But those foreclosures are selling.  The lenders are experiencing pain in some outside markets and they don’t want to hold on to foreclosures.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Hello world! April 25th, 2008

Categories: For Buyers

Welcome to realestatetomato.net. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

I Still Say It’s Spring in Palmer April 25th, 2008

Categories: Alaskana

Dave Johnson of Fishhook Realty questions my weather forecasting abilities in his comments on my last post officially announcing spring.  Look at them, the geese, cranes and ducks are still there under about 4 inches of fresh snow on the Palmer Experimental Farm fields.  It really is spring!

If that doesn’t mean it’s spring, I don’t know what does.  But I will admit that I’m glad I still have my studded tires on.  By the way, we are supposed to take our studded tires off by May 1.

I could barely see this flock of geese glide in for a landing through the snow.  They must be flying on instruments, no VFR for them.  I’m always impressed by the amount of migratory birds that appear each spring. I haven’t seen the swallows yet.  They usually arrive right after the cranes.  Hopefully they don’t go off course in this snow storm. 

So, buck up, this has got to be the last snow fall of the year………doesn’t it????

You have to love living in the Mat-Su Valley, we are so close to Alaska…We get to see things like these two moose munching on the willows in my front yard Tuesday morning…when it still felt like spring.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate Monday Market Memo April 21st, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for the week ending April 21, 2008.  This includes Palmer and the rest of the Matanuska Susitna Borough.

It is amazing that this week is almost identical to last week.  We had almost the same amount of everything except total active listings.  Those were up by about 20 and will probably go over 800 by next week.

I keep expecting to see a surge in sales for the spring.  That would be a surge in pending and closed listings.  But this hasn’t happened.  They have stayed almost steady at 30 and 20 respectively. 

The average price for pending sales is down this week primarily because of about 4 places that sold for 50–60 thousand.  Don’t worry, they weren’t screaming deals, they were worth just about what they sold for.

I did notice several from the Motivated Sellers list on the pending sheet today.  Some of the motivated sellers haven’t become motivated enough to get their price right yet.  They will, they are going to sell eventually.

I wrote and offer today on a house and received an offer on one of our listings.  There is still a market, we just have to be “in the market”…not “on the market”.  You will know you are “in the market” if you are getting showings.  If you aren’t getting very many showings…you are only “on the market”. 

Just remember, there are about 30 houses selling per week.  And the average price is in the low $200s.  The vast majority of homes that are selling are under $300,000.

If your house is in the $300s or more, you are fighting with over 240 other sellers over 3 buyers a week.  You need to be the among the best 3 out of 240 other houses.  Sorry for the tough news, but you might as well know the truth.

We had one of our $300+ homes pend last week.  These sellers got serious about selling and lowered the price down to where there were finally people looking.  We went from almost no showings to several a week and finally an offer.  That is what motivated sellers do, they get it sold.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.