By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
The housing market around here is in our version of Winter. Slow, gray, and really not much happening. Or is it?
Local news is starting to talk about the improvement in the market in 2011. Tacoma has been ranked as one of the projected growth spots in 2011. Here is a video from KOMO TV 4 where they discuss housing and how it is looking upward for the Seattle/Tacoma area.
I hope you will enjoy
By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
Have you thought about dropping out and getting away from it all? I know good luck with that. Yet, in Pierce County that’s right Pierce County you have an opportunity that you most likely have not thought of. Anderson Island.
Anderson Island is the southern most island in the Puget Sound. A 20 minute ferry ride from the mainland. 30 minutes from JBML and 45 minutes from Tacoma. At this time (2/12/11) there are 37 homes for sale on Anderson Island with a median price of less than $185,000. Imagine living on an island for less than the median price of a home on the mainland. How can this be possible?
Anderson Island has its’ charms that is for certain. It does not have a lot of development. There is a small general store that has a couple of gas pumps. There is a coffee shop that serves sandwiches and pastries. There is a 9 hole golf course and a restaurant. The elementary school goes to grade six. There is no big box retailer, no home improvement super store, no theater showing the latest 3d movie. There is an abundance of peace and quiet, community, and calm
Could Anderson Island living be for you? I don’t know but if you want to look at a couple of homes for sale I would love the opportunity to show you the island and help you find out if island living is right for you. Take a look at the featured listings page. I have 2 listings for sale right now on Anderson Island. I am always happy to answer questions and to help you make a decision on what is right for you. And since it is considered rural USDA financing is a potential! That’s right zero down loans!
Take a look at Explore Anderson Island to find out more about the community and the island itself.
By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
The steps, outlined in a “white paper,” are likely to mean higher borrowing costs and more-limited access to home loans for consumers. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said establishing a new system could take five to seven years.
“This is a plan for fundamental reform of the housing market,” Mr. Geithner said, cautioning that “we’re going to proceed on this path of reform very carefully.”
What will this mean to potential home buyers? At this point I doubt it will mean a whole lot. Interest rates will rise and we will see the end of government supported pressure on rates. This will not happen over night so I do not feel it will make a significant impact. In our market in the short term.
It will make for a lot of chatter and noise in the media as it does make for a topic that creates headlines and sells advertising.
Listen to your local market. You will see that real estate is beginning to make a move back to less of a national sensation and more of a local conversation. This in my opinion will make the overall health of the housing market improve over the next 5 to 10 years.
Listen closely to your local news sources and fact check the media outlets that cry out from the headlines. If you want to follow the conversation on a national real estate site that does not pull punches visit this article on Bloodhound Blog and see where the conversation goes.
By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
One of the benefits of having a home inspected prior to going on the market is that it allows the sellers to know the overall condition of their home. If there deferred maintenance then the potential issues have been identified and the sellers can make the decision to repair the problem or to adjust the asking price to reflect the condition of the home. This is just about the only drawback to having a pre listing inspection. However, if there are problems with a home in my opinion it is always better to know sooner rather than later.
Buyers and their agents can look at the pre listing inspection and see what issues if any were discovered. If the issues have been resolved then the buyers can see that the repairs have been done and how well they have been completed. From there the buyers and their agent can make a better informed decision to make an offer and at what price. This information can be helpful to help reduce buyers potential concerns about the condition. Certainly a buyer should have their own home inspector do a complete home inspection after mutual acceptance.
Sellers can make repairs using vendors who they are comfortable with. Having a buyers home inspection call for repairs often times requires the sellers to make repairs as quickly as possible to keep the home under contract. This can potentially reduce the availability of choice when it comes to vendors to do the work. Having a pre inspection done allows the sellers to contact vendors who they know and trust to do the work without having to worry about a “getting it done yesterday mentality.”
By having the home in tip top condition the home will show better to prospective buyers. Having your home shown in the best possible light sends a message to anyone who is looking at homes that this home has been well cared for. This is a pleasant change from the many bank owned properties that are on the market. Everything that can be done to make your home show better is important in today’s market.
Taking the time before the home is on the market to make sure that it is in as good of condition as possible will make the time that the home is on market shorter. This reduces the costs of sale and allows you as the seller to move on as quickly as possible. Having a pre listing inspection gives you the opportunity to make a better informed decision on pricing your home for the market. When you are thinking of selling your home in Tacoma it is important to make sure that you and your agent are doing everything you can do set your home apart from the competition.
When you are ready to begin a conversation about selling your home we will be ready to meet with you and to help you position your home to sell as quickly as possible. Call us we will be here.
By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
What came out of the experiment was that six hours a day for me at this time is not a realistic expectation. As a single dad of 2 teenagers and candidly not willing to work 14 hours a day I cannot expect myself to prospect six hours a day. I did however learn that prospecting is Job One and that without prospecting daily I will not make my income goals for 2011.
Since Prospecting is Job One here is how I am going about prospecting each day in 2011.
I use Microsoft Business Contact Manager and I find it to be an excellent CRM for the way that I work. I have spent quite a bit of time dialing the tool into how I go about work and it is now keeping me focused on the tasks that I must do each day.
An example is that I will hold 36 Open Houses this year.
To be fully transparent here the Open Houses are for my benefit more than they are for the benefit of the home seller.
36 Open Houses with the goal of 360 contacts made, and 6 transactions completed directly related to the Open Houses. In 2010 I closed 4 deals directly related to Open Houses. 3 from one house alone. Open Houses have worked well for me and I enjoy holding them. This works out to over $800 PER OPEN HOUSE is my assumptions are accurate. This is very important for me to understand. My scheduling weekly my efforts to plan Open Houses have been entered into BCM and I am provided with an updated task list daily that I use to keep me focused on prospecting and the actions that generate the best return for my investment in time. My time blocking my schedule for the activities that produce the biggest return on my investment I am securing a better financial and professional future.
Another thing I learned while working on prospecting six hours a day is that my time is valuable. It was made apparent to me that I give away too much of my attention and my time to activities and things that do not return a fair return for the investments I made in them. For example Facebook and other social sites can be an amazing consumer of time and of attention. Can they be useful? absolutely but they can absolutely be a complete waste of time and energy. I now very closely monitor my time and energy spent on social sites. I have a much better understanding of the value of my time now. I have with the help of a good friend created a spreadsheet that shows me in black and white just what the monetary value of my prospecting activities are worth. This has been a very valuable exercise. I strongly recommend that you take the time to go through the process of knowing your numbers as they pertain to prospecting. If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet contact me and I will send it to you to use.
Time and energy are two closely related but very different aspects. Time is simply put time. Break it down by the day, hour, minute etc. it is static. Energy is very different and something that I am now just getting a handle on. My energy levels vary greatly during the day. I need to make sure that when my energy levels are highest I am working on those tasks that require my energy. When my energy levels are lower I need to be working on tasks that do not require as much of my energy. This simple concept has been an eye opener to me. I am structuring my days differently now as to take advantage of my natural energy levels. This effort is already paying huge dividends in my productivity and prospecting efforts. I do not need to put in six hours a day to be successful. I need to prospect with a purposeful mindset daily and the results will be better than if I simply prospected for six hours daily without any other considerations. The key is to be purposeful and mindful.
By raising my efforts to prospect I have raised my awareness of myself and this makes the experiment a complete success but for completely different reasons than I set out to complete. I actually think that I succeeded on a greater level than if I only successfully prospected six hours a day. By raising my awareness of myself I am now a better person than I was six months ago. If that is not success I do not know what is.
Here’s to a successful 2011!
Best wishes,
Scott Cowan
By Scott Cowan,
,
Post Archive,
Finishing touches are being completed on the last of the units and 4 units are currently rented. Parking for 6 cars behind the property. This can make an outstanding investment for an investor who is looking to add to their portfolio. The cap rate is 7.87% Close in location to UWT, Wright Park, hospitals and Downtown Tacoma.
For more information on this property or any other property currently listed for sale in Tacoma please call Scott at The Narrows Group (253) 229-4975
Classic Homes Northwest is my personal real estate site and I am a member of The Narrows Group. I will be cross posting listings between the 2 sites.
Best-
Scott
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