When you are selling your home, second only to pricing your home correctly, staging your home to sell, is one of the biggest things a person can do to sell not only quicker, but studies indicate homes even sell for a higher price!
Here is a good video from Susan Botticelli, a real estate and home staging expert in San Diego. If you can see past the obvious geographic and construction differences between San Diego homes and Anchorage homes, you’ll pick up some great points.
This youTube video is a real inspiration. If you never fail, you never live.
Similar to many other professional groups, real estate agents commonly have some “alphabets” behind their name. Assuming the agent values advanced education, the longer they are in business, the more alphabets they might acquire. Some of the common initials behind a real estate agents name are CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), GRI (Graduate of the Real Estate Institute), and AHS, Accredited Home Staging Specialist.
I became a Certified Residential Specialist in 1987 after taking the CRS courses for several years, which really helped me focus on the different facets of the real estate business. You might ask, first what is a CRS? Why would you want to be one?
Basically the National Association of Realtors sponsored the “CRS Chapter” to begin developing real estate training that helps REALTORS® achieve a higher level of success than they normally achieve on their own, without structured education. CRS classes provide systems and strategies that can boost your productivity so you can be more effective for your clients. The subjects include listing and servicing listings, selling property and caring for buyers, better pricing, advanced technology, focused marketing, referral generation and more.
Here’s the deal. There are over one million real estate agents in business today. If you want to find that “one-in-a-million” Realtor, you can narrow your search by looking at the 34,000 who hold the Certified Residential Specialist Designation. Because the training is consistent around the country, you tend to find a higher standard of agent when you find a CRS member. CRS is the symbol of excellence in residential real estate. Our members have proven they have the experience, training and commitment to be among the best in their profession.
When you see CRS behind a name now, you’ll realize this person has invested time and money into becoming more professional in their chosen field of real estate and is trying to set themselves apart from the average.
The YouTube video below was made to be directed to real estate agents. Watch it and you’ll get the idea of the designation.
Fresh Snow Blankets Country Field
There are 60 elementary schools in the Anchorage school district alone! There are ten middle schools and eight high schools! In addition there are 10 charter schools under ASD’s covering.
There are approximately 50,000 students enrolled in Anchorage School District in the 2010 school year, or roughly 20% of the area population!
Click here to access the 2008-2009 Profile of Performance (the district’s report card). On the Anchorage School Districts website you can read each schools’ performance records and student test scores.
In addition, there are at least a dozen private and Christian Schools in the Anchorage area.
A handy detail to bookmark on your home computer is the school district calendar as well as the main page. When particularly bad weather occurs such as deep snow or a winter ice storm, it is good to check here for school closures.
This video is hilarious! Maybe you have to be in real estate, or be a Realtor, to appreciate the attitude of the big-shot lenders agent in the video. I’ve seen a few of these sort of agents in my day and it’s really sad. When they have a ton a business happening, they quickly forget their customer skills.
Check it out and get a laugh!
Have you seen the website www.Alaskaseconomy.org? The site has been advertised in the newspaper and I recently saw the site published in the First National Bank of Alaskas’ newsletter.
Are we standing at the Crossroad?
The front page of the site, called the “index” page, appropriately says:
”Alaska’s businesses and households are only as strong as the economy that supports them. Like the three-legged stool, it takes all three legs to support and sustain our economy. For 20 years now, Alaska’s prosperous and growing economy has enabled us to successfully operate private businesses. In today’s uncertain times, it is essential that each Alaskan learn, understand and actively support our economy—the “three-legged stool”—and what it will take to keep it strong.”
In “The Alaska Journal of Commerce“, February 3 editorial, “Oil Industry is changing, but it may not be for the better,” the Journal notes that Alaska “now has fewer standing rigs than any other oil producing state, that we now produce less oil than any other oil producing state, and that exploration in Alaska is coming to a halt.
Tellingly, in a recent survey of international oil executives, Alaska ranked close to the bottom of states to invest in, surpassed only by California and Colorado as least-desirable.
In short, the Journal sees a change taking place in the Alaska oil industry, but it’s the change of decline. And while global demand is down in these recessionary times, other oil producing states and nations are taking advantage of the shake-up to reposition themselves. According to the Journal editorial staff, our state leadership seems to lack a sense of urgency, however, which puts Alaska’s future at stake.”
We need to get some of things fixed! Feel free to share these comments, website and the Journal links to everyone you know!
I found a demographics site that is pretty interesting. It’s called www.ZIPskinny.com, as in “what’s the skinny on the people living ?” After you log on the site, go to the top right corner and put in any zip code you are interested in. Then click on “Get It!”
A Quaint Orthodox Country Church
in this area
You will see a column for social and economic indicators such as education, marital status, family income and occupation as well as race, age and sex of the people in that zip code.
The information on the website comes from the U.S. Census. I’m sure it’s accuracy is “relative“, the last census was in 2000, but it’s still pretty interesting and fun.
I got a kick out of comparing the stats in my zip code to places I wouldn’t mind living. It’s interesting to make the comparison.
OK, can I be totally honest with you? I love it when people start conversations in this manner 
To myself, I always think “do you usually have conversations where you are less than honest with me?“
A frozen meadow with Pioneer Peak Mt in background
What is my point here? Well, I want to tell you, like most businesses, I like the market to be robust. The market moved up gradually here in Anchorage for nearly 20 years. Things work just fine when each year is a little bit better than the previous year. Obviously, fast growth isn’t sustainable or good for the market as we’ve learned the hard way.
I am looking for signs, however small, the market has bottomed and is on the path to recovery. So check this out.
Sales of home in municipality of Anchorage have been declining each year since 2004. Look at these numbers:
Single Family Home sales (excluding condo’s) municipality of Anchorage:
2004 Annual number of home sales: 3333
2005 Annual number of sales 3272 <down 61 sales from previous year (<1.8%)
2006 Annual number of sales 3069 <down 203 sales from previous year (<6.2%)
2007 Annual number of sales 2962 <down 307 sales from previous year (<10%)
2008 Annual number of sales 2499 <down 263 sales from previous year (<9.5%)
2009 Annual number of home sales 2421 <down 78 sales from previous year (<3.12%)
This past year was the smallest decline of sales in the past four years – and the decline is marginal! Other related good news is that the inventory of existing homes seems to be declining, meaning there aren’t as many homes on the market for a buyer to slog through in their quest to buy a home.
Keep watching here for more news. If you see other signs of a market recovery please let me know.
Icicles Hang From a Roof
If you have been thinking about getting a energy audit done at your house, you should get after it! The program has been in effect for quite a while and you never know when it might run out of funds to contine or possibly restrict the program to a smaller group.
The Alaska Housing Financing and the State of Alaska will reimburse you the major part of the report. Click here to check out details on the energy rebate program and to sign up to get one done.
I signed up for an energy audit back in October. It took about two months until my turn for an audit came around. Alaska Housing assigns the energy auditor. I didn’t know who the auditor was going to be until I received a call to schedule it. The inspector was very professional and thorough. From start to finish, my inspection took about two hours.
Two inspectors came out. One person explained what was going to happen and asked to review my utility bills for the past year. The other inspector opened my window blinds and measured each window for size. They measured the outside walls, all the while entering data into their computer. They accessed the attic and crawlspace areas to check for insulation and venting. Then they shut off the furnace and turned down the hot water heater and installed a “blower door” on the exterior door.
The blower down is an air-tight gasket with a large fan in the middle. The fan gets turned on and decompresses the house by blowing inside air outside. The blower door is hooked up to an array of gauges and dials. The inspector takes careful readings at intervals while the blower is running. Because the home turns into a vacuum, every air leak your house has becomes very evident at this time. In my case, cold air was rushing into the home through exterior wall outlets and even under the base plate of the wall (where the wall and the floor connect).
I have to tell you, it was a sobering experience because I thought my house was pretty well insulated. My house was built in 1999 and I figured built pretty well. The energy inspection cost $500 dollars. You have to pay the inspectors bill, and then you submit to Alaska Housing for a rebate of up to $325.
When you receive your report (mine came via email a week after the inspection), you will get your actual rating and then many things you can do to improve your homes efficiency. You can choose which things you want to do (or not). Save your receipts for things you purchase! You have up to 18 months from your initial energy inspection to choose and make energy improvements. When you are done, you have another energy inspection done, called a post inspection.
If you move your home up a “star grade”, say from a 3 star to a 4 stars you can submit for reimbursement of up to $10,000 dollars! Talk about a gift that keeps giving! You will have lower monthly utilities bills and a more comfortable home, and the cost of the upgrades will be reimbursed from Alaska Housing! How could it get any better?
Copyright 2011 Dan Wolf, Realtor
All rights reserved.
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