Kansas City North Real Estate Blog

What's My Home Worth in Kansas City North?

Ron Henderson & Associates

Keller Williams Kansas City North

816-268-4404

http://www.kansascitynorth-realestate.com

WHAT'S MY HOME WORTH IN KANSAS CITY NORTH?

Do you have a home to sell in Kansas City North? Are you looking for a top Realtor to sell your Kansas City home? We have sold or put under contract 20 homes since January 1 this year! The AVERAGE Realtor only sells 3-5 per YEAR!

How are we so successful? Give us a call and we'll tell you why. 816-268-4404

You can also fill out the form below and we will send you a property analysis explaining the value of your home. We can also tell you how much money you will receive once your home closes.

Author: Ron Henderson

This is What a Kansas City Home is Worth

Ron Henderson & Associates - Keller Williams Kansas City North

816-268-4404

http://www.kansascitynorth-realestate.com

Kansas City could be headed for a Housing Shortage?

Sliding inventories and price increases could lead to overheated markets

OCTOBER 2012 | BY LAWRENCE YUN

The market is looking much improved today, with home sales and prices heading up. But within this improvement are the seeds of a long-term challenge: falling inventories.

The inventory of existing homes is at its lowest level in seven years, while newly constructed home inventory has hit a 50-year low mark. Falling inventory is causing home prices to shoot up higher and faster than most analysts anticipated. The national median price of transacted homes was up 9.5 percent in August. Other price measures, like Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency price index, which look at price changes in sales of the same properties over time, have been rising as well, at double-digit annualized rates in recent months. Of course, not all markets are this robust. Phoenix is looking to notch a 25 percent gain for the year, while Chicago is just emerging from negative territory.

As winter approaches, inventory will slide further. Few homes are newly listed after Thanksgiving. Historically, inventory tends to be 15 percent lower in winter than summer. Last year’s seasonal decline was even more dramatic, at 25 percent. We hope we won’t see an inventory decline of that magnitude this winter. Home values rising much faster than income growth will markedly cut into housing affordability.

But that may well be what’s in store. Distressed home listings will continue to fall because fewer borrowers are now seriously delinquent. Home construction is up, but only reaching half of the historic average of housing starts. Even the many pent-up sellers—those normal, nondistressed home owners who’ve been holding back for better market conditions—will not help the net inventory situation, because most of them will be selling to buy a trade-up property.

Slight seasonal relief should come in March, just as the spring buying season gets underway. But a deeper and longer-term issue to watch out for is the increasing possibility of a housing shortage across many parts of the country.

 

via realtormag.realtor.org

10.5 Home Features Buyers Want In Kansas City North Homes for Sale

Here are some items that I often hear buyers talk about when I show them Kansas City North homes for sale. If you are a seller, some of these are easily accomplished while others are things out of your control. In those cases, just remember that pricing the home right is the key to selling.

1. New Carpet – buyers want to SEE what the home will look like and they can’t imagine new frieze carpet, nor do they want to foot the bill for new carpet.

2. Warm, earth tone colors – Sherwin Williams Taupe Tone (SW7633) and Modern Gray (SW7632) are great suggestions for just about any home.

3. Good schools.

4. Granite counters – almost everyone loves granite and it’s still considered a big upgrade in the mind of a buyer.  If you’re selling a home that’s over $300,000 in the Kansas City area buyers will expect granite counters in the kitchen.  If it’s over $400,000 they will expect it in the master bath too.

5. Lots of custom trim.

6. Larger kitchens.

7. Stainless steel appliances – white appliances are out under any circumstances. If you don’t go with stainless steel, at least go with all black appliances.

8. New or newer (less than 10 years old) furnace, air conditioner, and roof.

9. Updated light and plumbing fixtures.

10. Extensive landscaping to give the home good curb appeal.

10.5 Something different – most buyers do not want to look out their front window and see the exact same home across the street or next door.  They want to feel like their home is special. Adding a unique kitchen island or a bar in the basement rec room, a beautiful framed mirror in the master bath, or an outdoor living space are all great "something different" ideas.

If you are thinking about putting your Kansas City North home for sale, please call me, Ron Henderson, at 816-651-9001. I can tell you what changes you could make that will help you home sell quickly. I also pay for a professional stager to come to your house to help you with the detail and I pay for a professional photographer to make your home stand out from all the other Kansas City North homes for sale!

 

Why the Photographs Are Critical When Selling Your Kansas City Home

When you are looking for a home for sale in Kansas City, you expect to find a lot of photos of the home...both interior and exterior shots. Some agents however, don't seem to think about how buyers make decisions on which homes to look at in person.

For example, I just took a listing that had expired with their previous agent. That previous agent had put up only four photos of the home and to be honest, they weren't that great.

Here's the before and after:

"Before" is on the left and "After" is on the right. Can you see the difference? The home looks much warmer and certainly more spacious.

And the previous agent only had these 4 shots...nothing else! See the listing on my website by clicking Kansas City North Real Estate.

And if your home is currently listed, make sure your agent has at least 20 good photos. If they don't, then call me! Ron Henderson 816-651-9001

When You List With Me, I Pay For Your Staging

 

What's the difference between homes that are "just okay" and homes that "WOW?" STAGING Regardless of market conditions, professional home staging can ensure that your home "WOWs" - which translates into more money in your pocket! Contact me today for a free consultation on the upgrades that are most likely to have the biggest impact on the sale of your home. And if you know anyone looking to buy or sell a home, I can certainly help with that too!

RON HENDERSON http://ronhenderson.kwrealty.com ronhendersonATkwrealty.com 816-268-4404 (Office)

 

Keller Williams Northland Partners 7915 N Oak Trafficway Kansas City, MO 64118

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated

Gracious Living in Tremont Manor

Here's your opportunity to own a home in a beautiful part of Kansas City known as Tremont Manor. School age children attend the following schools in the Park Hill School District: Park Hill South High School, Plaza Middle School and Lakeview Middle School, and Southeast Elementary School.

Housing prices for real estate in Tremont Manor, like everything else, has taken a slight tumble, so it is possible now to own more home for less money than you could just two years ago. Which means now is the time to buy luxury if you were ever considering doing so. Homes for sale in Tremont Manor range from $350,000 to $850,000.

Here are two homes for sale in the Kansas City Northland Tremont Manor that may be of interest to you!

6151 N Hull St, Kansas City, MO 64151  and  5310 NW 60th St, Kansas City, MO 64151

Clicking the links above will take you to 30 photos of each home plus more information. If you'd like to contact me about buying or selling a home in Kansas City, talk to Ron Henderson at 816-651-9001 or email ronhenderson@kw.com

How Rising Interest Rates Will Impact Your Ability to Buy a Larger Home in Kansas City

In a recent Forbes blog post, multimillionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson declared that today’s record-low interest rates made this the best time to buy homes in fifty years. “If you don’t own a home, buy one,” Paulson said. “If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.”  Why should we care what Paulson thinks? Well, he was among the few to accurately predict the subprime collapse and, while no one has a crystal ball, a closer look at the numbers supports his call to action.

Historically low interest rates are the key…and they aren’t likely to hang around for long.

As we wrote in SHIFT, buyers who “choose to wait until prices come down more” are gambling that interest rates will hold steady or drop. The truth is even a 10 percent drop in home prices is nullified by a 1 percent increase in interest rates. The figure below illustrates how this works for a $250,000 home purchase and the relative likelihood of each scenario.

To figure out which was a smarter bet–counting on home prices to fall further or interest rates to rise–our research department took the last ten years of monthly home price and mortgage interest rate data and ran the numbers to see which was more likely: an increase in mortgage rates or a further drop in home prices. Here’s what we found:

1. A one percent increase in mortgage rates is ten times more likely to happen than a ten percent drop in home prices.
2. A one percent rate increase more than offsets a ten percent reduction in home prices.
3. When interest rates fall by one percent, the total interest paid is almost three times more than the interest savings from a ten percent drop in home prices.
4. The probability of both happening at the same time is ridiculously small, and homeowners would still pay 15 percent more in interest over the life of the loan.

Read the rest of the article here 

When is the home legally mine?

When The Home Is Legally Yours

When is the home legally mine?

When it comes to buying a home, the home itself legally transfers to the owner at the point in time in which the clerk downtown in the County Assessors Office, takes the deed with the new owners name on it. This is called "recording" as they record the deed. They use the Official County stamp and at the moment they stamp that document, ownership has transferred.

When do I get the deed to a new home?

When it comes to buying your home, you don't actually get the deed to your home; you get a copy of the deed. The actual deed is recorded in the county assessor's office, which is a good thing. It's a note of public record, meaning that everyone knows that you are the rightful owner of that property.

How does my deed get recorded when purchasing real estate?

The recording of the deed is a fairly simple process that happens at your local country assessor's office. Once all the obligations and commitments have been met, the clerk is thereby empowered and authorized to go ahead and pull out that official seal and stamp it. At that moment, recording takes place on a “ship now” transfer.

What if I lose the deed to my home?

When it comes to buying a home, if you lose the deed to your home in reality you would have only lost a copy of the deed, not the actual deed. The actual deed is on record at your local county assessor's office and that's where you want it to be, because that shows to everyone in the community that you are the legal and rightful owner of the property. To answer the question, a simple call to a title insurance representative would result in you getting an additional copy of the deed.

When can I move into my new home?

When buying a home, the date you can move into your new house is agreed upon what's called possession. There is the close of escrow, there is also possession. This means, you can close on Monday but the agreement calls for you to take possession and move in on Thursday.

What if I discover defects in my new home that the seller should have disclosed?

OK, so you've moved into the property and you found a couple of material defects that concern you. First thing I would do is call your real estate agent. I certainly would consider that well within my job description. Although I do defer to the guidance and counsel of a real estate attorney on what the next steps might be, I would hope that there would be an amicable path of least resistance solution with the seller. That would be my first hope.

 

The Ultimate Guide to Moving to a New Place

Being in the real estate industry, I read a lot of articles related to home ownership. I found this one to be particularly interesting. Moving your entire household can be a huge ordeal, probably only just a little easier than planning a wedding! And if you're getting married AND planning to move, I hope you carry a bottle of aspirin with you wherever you go.

This is a great article from Adam Dachis over at lifehacker.com. If you've never visited their site, you should. A lot of it is tech related, but they do have some practical, hands-on advice as well.

Check out the article here. Got any great stories about moving? Be sure to share them with us!