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January 19, 2012

How Are Property Taxes Paid in Anchorage Alaska?

Filed under: Financing,Price & Value,Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Dan @ 8:34 am

In Anchorage, the way real property taxes are billed and paid to the Municipality is a little different than in some other places.  I get asked about real property taxes a lot during the home sale process, prompting me to talk about it here.

Our real property taxes are paid annually.  You recieve a notice from the City Tax Assessor early in the year informing you of what your property is assessed, or valued, at. I recieved my assessed valuation the third week of January this year.

 Around May 15th, you’ll receive your tax bill which shows the value the city has put on it (assessed value), multiplied by the latest  “mill rate” or the multiplier the assembly and the Muni Budget has put in place.  This gives you the amount of tax due on the property that you own.

The taxes are due for the calendar year, January through December.  In Anchorage, they can be paid in two installments, but the installments are close to each other.  The first installment for the first half of year is due June 15th.  The second half is due August 15th.

If you pay the tax yourself, which you would be doing in you own your property “free and clear“, you’ll need to pay on the schedule above.  If you have taxes being escrowed and collected each month with your monthly payment, the lender will get your tax bill and you will get a copy mailed to you for your files that says “Do Not Pay”; that’s because the lender will pay it for you.

If the amount of money the lender has built up in their escrow amount is short, your monthly payment amount could be increased so their is enough money in the escrow account when taxes are due.  If your assessed value hasn’t changed in several years, that could happen.

When you sell the property, the taxes are generally pro-rated for the year by the title company closer so that the buyer pays the taxes going forward from closing and the seller pays the part of the year they owned the property.  If their is an escrow overage at the bank, the money is returned to the seller.

It all works out!  If you have any questions or comments on the process, just ask!

 

October 16, 2011

Real Estate Internet Fraud

Filed under: Internet Web Sites,Price & Value,Uncategorized — Tags: , — Dan @ 7:44 am

In the Internet and digital world we live in, there always seems to be someone willing to to scam or defraud someone else through the amenity the Internet provides.  Through the Alaska Association of Realtors and the Anchorage Multiple Listing Service we hear various stories of questionable people and suspicious situations to watch out for. 

When something seems too good to be true - be suspicious!

A real common fraud happens when a party goes into a real estate listing on line listings and copies (steals) the photo’s, virtual tours and the home details; then, they post a rental ad in craigslist for a large house with a very low rental amount.  They start out with a story like “I’m Father Smith and while on a mission to Africa, hard times have fallen on my family.  We are forced to rent our vacant 2,400 sq. ft. home in Anchorage while my wife is getting needed medical attention.  We are only asking for enough rent to cover our house payment during this time of family crisis.  We can rent the house to a deserving family for $1,200.  If you are interested, please wire first and last months rent to _____”.  Of course the house being advertised is For Sale by a real Realtor and not at a discounted rent amount which is being being sent to a ”scammer” off shore! 

It’s funny, well, not really funny, interesting to me that a situation that sounds too good to be true can still find suckers who will wire money to someone they haven’t spoken with.  My office has been contacted in such a situation with a request for the keys, only to learn they’ve been taken advantage of. 

Real estate agents know to ask lots of questions if the buyer is from China, Japan, England, or Canada (really any foreign country where the buyer is suddenly relocating and buying real estate sight-unseen), or if the initial emails contain typos or poor grammar; or the email address comes from @asia.com or some other generic email

I guess the my point is that when you work with me, I will be paying attention to what’s going on and asking questions to cover my back and yours!

August 25, 2011

Sell Your Home Faster and for More Money

Filed under: Preparing Your Home,Price & Value,Uncategorized — Dan @ 8:38 am

In any real estate market – a buyers market or a sellers market – there are things you can do to insure you sell your home sooner than other homes and sellers that you are competing with, and for more money than other homes with similar “specifications” as your home has.

Here is the basic principal “Given two otherwise identical houses, all other factors being equal, the cleaner, less

Before we cleaned up

This is how most of us live in our house

cluttered house with better curb appeal will sell aster and for more money.”

For most people, it is very difficult to look objectively at your own house.  The way you LIVE every day in your house is different from the way you SELL your house.  You are busy living in it day-to-day and you don’t see it the way a stranger (or prospective buyer) would.  For example, the garbage container next to the garage may be such a fixture that you don’t even notice it when you drive up, but it could be the first thing the prospective buyer sees when he drives up.

As a real estate professionals, my team and I looked at and evaluated thousands of homes, most of which were in the process of being bought and sold.  Our experience has taught us that there are relatively easy, inexpensive things you can do so your home shows better, and you will sell your home sooner and for more money.

Neat and clean!

Less furniture, no rugs and doilies

Now, let me clarify this a bit; getting your “best foot forward” isn’t necessarily easy, and you may not enjoy the process, but in the end, you’ll be happy you took this advice.  And it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg!

Here’s the deal; Clutter distracts prospective purchasers.  Clutter makes it difficult for them to see and appreciate your house.  It makes it almost impossible for them to visualize their own things (the buyers furnishings),  in your house.  When “Mr. buyer” looks in the closet and see your collection of board games dating back to the 1950′s and a jumble of shoes and boots , he may miss the fact that there is a spot to one side that would be ideal for storing his golf clubs.  When “Mrs. buyer” looks at the dining room, she is so overwhelmed by your “Plates from around the world” collection she completely misses the fact that her hutch would fit perfectly against the far wall.

Don’t get me wrong!  It’s your house and your stuff that you’ve worked hard to collect and pay for, its just those things probably should be stored away while your house is on the market.

This is how we live in our kitchen

Clean houses sell better for several reasons: 

A clean house smells good.  Never underestimate the sense of smell.  When a buyers smell dirty socks, a fish smell or even old cigarette smoke, it can be a turn off to them!

A clean house helps put the prospective buyer at ease so they can focus on the features of the home.  A clean house sends the message “We were expecting you.  We are glad you are looking at our home.  We hope you like it as much as we do.”

A clean house represents work the prospective buyer doesn’t have to worry ab out doing.  When they are looking at your house, they are plagued by the thought, “There sure is a lot of cleaning to do before we can move in!”

Lighting plays an important role in selling your house, too.  The interior of the house should be bright and inviting.  If your house is clean, the bright lighting won’t  illuminate any dust and grime.

clean and sparse!

Look at the *real* photo’s I used to illustrate this blog post.  None of the photo’s are necessarily bad – which do you think look the best if you were to walk into the house?

Of course, when you get down to selling your house we will bring objectivity to the process and make suggestions to you to help neutralize your home for selling.

 

 

 

July 29, 2011

What is a “Strong Offer?”

Filed under: Price & Value,Property Values,Uncategorized — Dan @ 2:48 pm

Every once in a while, you hear a realtor say “We got a really strong offer”.  Every once in a while a “special” property hits the market and there are more than one offers submited on it.  Do you know what it takes to compete in that environment if you really want to buy the property and be the best offer?

 Well, if you had the horsepower and can do it, the best offer would be all cash.  I’m not talking about the kind of cash where you get a loan and pay cash.  I’m talking the kind of cash you can put your hands on in a couple weeks and hand over certified funds to the title company.  There aren’t too many people that can do that.  It happens and it’s the strongest offer of all.
If you can’t do cash, or don’t want to, and your offer is going to be a new loan there are still things that you can do to make a strong offer.  You might try some of these ideas:

Show your confidence with a strong earnest money

1. Put up a really strong earnest money.  In the Anchorage market, if a house is listed for $400,000, it’s common to put about 1% up as earnest money, $4,000.  As you know, earnest money is the thing that is supposed to keep your attention and keep you purchasing even if you start getting cold feet or see another house you like better.  Since the money all goes towards your down payment and closing costs anyway, why not make a large earnest money deposit, say double?  $8,000 might show the sell you are really serious.

2.Make a full price offer.  I’ve had buyers say to me “No one pays full price!”  Really?  Actually, buyers do all the time!  In fact, when there is more than one offer, you might have to increase your offer over asking price. It only makes sense to assume the competing offer is full price.   I’ve seen language in purchase and sale agreements that say “buyer will pay $1,000 over any competing offer.” Not every seller will play that game, but it’s not a bad thought.

3. Don’t put a bunch of extra “subject to” verbiage in your offer.  I see offers that say “Buyer to have a walk through prior to closing” or “Seller to steam shampoo the carpet and turn over the keys.”  I wonder if those things are necessary to put in your contract at this point.  Aren’t they pretty standard anyway?  The more words the seller has to think about or possibly change, the easier another offer might be to accept.  Don’t give the seller the impression you are too picky or might be difficult to deal with.

4. Are you flexible on when you close?  Say so!  Maybe the seller wants to wait to close to get past some event.  He needs to sell the property, but didn’t think it would sell this fast.  Express the closing time is the seller’s choice.

5. Let the seller know if you are willing to take the property “as is.”  I don’t recommend it commonly, but if you want the property and don’t think it’s necessary to haggle over a CO detector or a missing GFCI outlet, let the seller know you are buying “as-is” and won’t be requesting any repairs. 

 In short, most sellers prefer to take the fastest, cleanest and easiest offer.  Most transactions aren’t this easy, but when faced with more than one offer, they generally will take the one with the most money, the fastest time and the least amount of hassle!

July 16, 2011

Contingent Offers – I Will Buy Your House When I Sell Mine

Filed under: General Real Estate Industry News,Price & Value — Tags: — Dan @ 7:33 am

When someone wants to buy a new house, but needs to sell the one they currently have,  it’s called a “contingency“. 

Real Estate is like the game of Monopoly - it's your move

Buyers usually like the idea of a contingent offer much more than the sellers do.  The reason is because the seller can’t really make any real plans or move forward with his life once he gets the offer, even if the price is good – because the offer is contingent upon a house selling and no one can be in control of when that will happen.   Most of the time, the time line cannot be established until the first ”domino” in the chain sells, or the first house sells, so the next one can sell. 

One of the ways sellers handle contingent offers is by using a ”48 Hour First Right of Refusal”.  

How this works is that the seller negotiates the price of the house with his contingent offer, but says he wants to keep his house on the  market even though he has already negotiated with the continent buyer.  If a new buyer brings an offer that does not have the contingency, he tells the first buyer he has received another offer that he wants to entertain.  He invokes the “48 hour” clause which means “buy my house” or I’m going to abandon you and take this new offer.

This way the seller isn’t damaged if the contingent property never sells. He is, in effect, keeping one buyer tethered to the dock, while he continues to market the house.

It’s not such a good deal for the buyer who didn’t sell his first house and has been dreaming of the new house he was expecting to buy.  In fact, it’s really discouraging most of the time.  They’ve been telling their friends about their new house and thinking about all the things they intend to do once they get into the new house.  Then, out of the blue, they are told to “move ahead” with your purchase or we are jumping to the new buyer.

So the first buyer gets his feeling hurt, but there isn’t anything they can do about it.  The seller moves ahead with his new contract and life goes on.

My recommendation to buyers is that you get your sale first, then go find the house.  It is a lot less stress than having the rug pulled out from underneath you.

June 21, 2011

Looking For an Investment?

Filed under: investment,Price & Value,Property Values,Uncategorized — Tags: , — Dan @ 9:59 am

Fairly regularly I have people tell me “if you see a good deal, keep me in mind!”  I really appreciate hearing this and I do really try to keep them in mind but the days fly by with a thousand details that need attention immediately, it’s easy for me to let something

The time to buy is now with low interest rates and a strong rental market

Make Money the old fashioned way, buy an investment and rent it!

slip by me. 

Here is a way to help me, your Realtor, be a little more proactive and work together to get a good investment.

First, it’s a great time to buy investment real estate!  Prices have been flat for  5 or 6 years.  There are some foreclosures in some areas and some of them are distressed and in need of fix up.  This is one area that people can make money at, providing they can see beyond the current distressed property mess and envision the property cleaned up and in good shape.  Sellers that want to sell, have to price their properties in line with the competition of other similar property being offered for sale.  There is plenty of “active” property on the market so a buyer doesn’t typically have to move fast on most properties.  There is time to shop and compare.

Interest rates are good.  This means if you keep the property and rent it, your payments are going to be lower with today’s rates than they would have been a few years ago when rates were higher.  Our tax laws allow investors of real estate to write off interest and taxes as well as the costs of improving and maintaining the property.  You are also allowed to depreciate the property on your taxes, which is allowing you to write off some loss every year on your taxes, a big tax benefit to many investors. 

Rents haven’t declined, in fact, they may have increased some because builders aren’t building any competing units and our population has increased, therefore less supply and more demand.  This means it’s not hard to “pencil” your investment to break even or even make some money each month.

To really put a point on looking for an investment, the best thing for me would be for you to figure out what it is you would be interested in owning, such as a small condo that would be easy to rent and not have much maintenance?  Or a single family house?  Or a duplex or four-plex?  Maybe you are ready to go to the “big league” and get a building with 15 or 25 units in it? 

Once you’ve got that part in your head, a visit with a lender, or two, will help give you some money guidelines so you can have your cash goals set.

Then, you can have me send you specifically the sort of property you are interested in exploring.  Then, you start by driving by the locations to get a feel for the area, the neighborhood and if you feel it would be convenient place for people to rent.  Once you narrow it down a bit, it’s time to actually get inside some property and start working through the selection process.

For me to keep an eye peeled for a good deal is too broad of a criteria for me to focus on.  Over the years I’ve told people when I saw a good deal, but because they haven’t been educating themselves along the way, they don’t know a deal when they see it.

I was at lunch yesterday with a friend who commented that “if I don’t buy something in this market, I’ll be kicking myself in the future when prices recover, always wishing I would have bought when interest rates were low and the market was lower.”

When you are ready to take advantage of the market and invest in real estate, let’ s form a game-plan and start working that direction!

May 31, 2011

Improve your Curb-Appeal and Love Your House More

Filed under: Maintenance,Preparing Your Home,Price & Value,Saving Money — Dan @ 11:57 am

Asphalt Driveway settling away from concrete slab

One of the things that wears out on many homes in Alaska is the asphalt driveway. 

First, it’s important to know if you are reading this from outside the Anchorage area, very few homes have concrete driveways in central or northern Alaska.  That is because during the freeze – thaw cycle, the ground gets wet, when it freezes, ice expands. 

Concrete doesn’t flex, but asphalt does.  This is why asphalt is the most common of driveways – the concrete will crack and break up over time in most driveways.

Many asphalt driveways hold up for 10 to 15 years, but most of them begin to fail at some point in the life of a home.  You can prolong the life of your driveway by sealing the cracks so water doesn’t penetrate and black topping the surface, but if the ground heaves through the thaw and freeze seasons, ultimately you’ll see large cracks, heaving or asphalt pulling away from the concrete pad inside the garage.

The same driveway after being filled and sealed

When your driveway fails, as the one in the first photo, you don’t have to live with it – you can repair it without breaking the bank.  There are companies that specialize in filling cracks and surfacing, or if even more severe repair is required such as overlaying the driveway or replacing it.  Call or email me for names and numbers of contractors that Iwould recommend.

May 25, 2011

Invisible Dog Fence

Filed under: Just for fun,Price & Value — Dan @ 2:39 pm

You can’t see what I talking about here – because it’s invisible!  I listed a house this past week that has an invisible fence to contain the dog you see in the picture. 

This dog won't leave the sidewalk because of the owner installed an invisible fence

Invisible fences are buried underground so you can’t see them.  Your dog gets a special collar.  When the fence is activated, the dog will get an electrical shock if it tries to cross the parameter where the underground wire is buried. 

Most dogs learn very quickly where the line is and they make no effort to pass the invisible spot in the yard!  The dog in this picture will not leave the porch onto the driveway.

I sold a house a few years ago where the seller had put an invisible fence up under the floor inside his house.  He didn’t want the dog to leave the kitchen area, so the fence, installed from the crawlspace, kept the dog from going into the living-room or up the stairs to the bedroom.  Of course, it was totally invisible under the floor, so it appeared to guests that the dog was just very well trained!

Neat pet idea, huh?  These things aren’t very complicated or expensive.  If you are interested, “Google” invisible fence or go to YouTube to see a video demonstration.

March 25, 2011

A Garage To be Proud Of!

Filed under: Just for fun,Life in Anchorage,Price & Value,Property Values,Saving Money — Tags: , , , — Dan @ 10:06 am

A paint made especially for garage floors - with sprinkles in it!

To most people, I supposed, a garage is just a place to park your car. In Alaska, at least in the winter-time, its practically a necessity, right?

There are a few guys, like me, who like to hang out in their garage and have it be nice. To some guys, it’s their man-cave, work-shop, place you can listen to “your own” music, whatever your “thing” happens to be.

If you are that sort of guy, your garage is part of your house, correct? You might as well have it be as nice as you possibly can. Here are a few things that I have done to my own garage and, I can tell you from experiance, don’t cost much and are worth the investment.

1. Paint The Entire Interior of the garage; Many garages are basic sheetrock which yellows over time. You put a good coat of two of white paint on your walls and ceiling and you garage will feel 100 feet larger than it did before!

2. Add Florescent Lighting. You might even have to bring in an electrician buddy to add some outlets. Builders are notoriously stingy on garage ceiling lighting and extra garage outlets. You don’t want to see your shadow in this garage when you are done with your lights!

3. Paint the floor. I’m talking with the really good, hard surface, garage floor paint. There are a lot of colors of it. You can add the colored sprinkles or whatever you like.

A painted garage will look larger and be easier to keep clean

When you are done, you can arrange your tools and stuff anyway you, or your wife, likes. Even if you don’t necessarily hang out in the garage, you’ll feel like the garage is part of your house. A bonus is when you can walk into the garage to get something out of your car, and do it in your stocking feet!

December 20, 2010

Your Property Isn’t Selling? Here Is The Reason…

Filed under: Financing,General Real Estate Industry News,Marketing,Preparing Your Home,Price & Value,Uncategorized — Dan @ 11:36 am

1) Your property won’t sell be cause it is overpriced.  When you sell your own property, you

Crunch your numbers! Price well if you want to sell!

need objectivity.  A buyer is looking for the best property they can find at the best price.  You need to be able to see your property from the eyes of the property buyer.  Maybe you should ask your realtor to show you a few of the top competing properties.  Yes, look at “short sales” and foreclosures too.  Your buyer will be checking those out too.

You have your work cut out for yourself.  You can drop your price, or improve your homes condition.  If you can’t afford to lower your price, it might mean you need to update your kitchen and/or bathroom;  It might be as easy as removing old wallpaper, painting and replacing carpeting. 

2) Your property won’t sell because it shows poorly.  This could mean just about anything, from the 80 pound Rottweiler barking and drooling, to the smell of old cigarette smoke aging inside the home for years.  Maybe your carpet is showing wear patterns down the hallway or stairs. 

3) Your property won’t sell because your photos aren’t quality.Most buyers start their home search on thee Internet, so you property had better look good on the web.  This day and age, an Internet view is the same as a “virtual showing”.  If your home passes the the web-view, you just might be seeing an appointment to get inside the home to see it in person.  You might consider the “in person” viewing as your SECOND showing!  Today’s online buyers expect good quality photo’s and plenty of them.  You can’t get top quality with a cell phone camera either!

4) Your property can’t sell if it’s unavailable to show!  I know this is personal, but it is “real world.” You have a baby and it needs a nap at 2pm. You told your real estate agent that you won’t

You can't sell the house if you can't show it!

accept any showings between 1:30 and 3:30; and no showings on Sundays either because it is your family day.  After all, you reason, “we live here!”  Guess what, if they don’t see it, they don’t buy it.  Every realtor know that when I buyer wants to look, they are thinking about their own schedule, not yours.  That’s why many Realtors are frustrated when they lose a buyer when they aren’t avable when the buyer wants to look.  If your home isn’t available when the buyers are going looking, they just may move on to the next property on the list. 

5) Your property won’t sell because you are invisible.  Buyers today’s start shopping on the Internet.  You need to listed on multiple sites where buyers are looking; that means Trulia, Zillow, Craigs List, Google Base and Realtor.com, to mention a few.  If your agent isn’t getting your house listed in multiple sites, you are probably missing important exposure.

6) Your property listing is tired and stale on the market.  Here’s an example; you overpriced your home last year.  You said “Our house is better for this reason and we only need to find ONE buyer that can see that.”  You reduced your price a few times when you either weren’t getting regular showings, or the buyers feedback was that you were overpriced.  Unfortunately, you “followed” the market down, as buyers cherry picked the houses that were priced the best. 

Remember those showings you had 6 months ago?  You’ll never get them back when you reduce your price later on.  The reason?  In the buyers mind, they remember there was something about your house they didn’t like and you can’t get them back to look.  You know what it was?  It was the price.  Take your house off the market for a month or two so your home enters the market as a new listing.

7) Your property won’t sell because your house won’t appraise.  You got an offer, but the appraisal came in $15,000 low.  There isn’t a chance you can win contesting that appraisal.  Your buyer is already concerned this might not be a good time to buy.  What are your options?  Figure out a way to make it work.  If you don’t, you may find yourself with no buyer and be back to this place again the next time you find a buyer.

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