How Has the Outcome of the Election Affected Our Market?

Our market has changed since the election, but it’s also remained the same in many respects. Interest rates are up, but they are still historically low.

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We’re over a month removed from the results of the presidential election, so today we’re discussing how the outcome has affected the real estate market here in the Brainerd Lakes area. There is good news and bad news, so let's start with the bad news first.

Interest rates have gone up since the election. In early November, the rate for an average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 3.47%. Now, it has increased to 4%. Historically, rates are still very low, but the increase has made homes more expensive than they were.

Our market is still healthy.

The good news is that there seems to be a renewed sense of optimism that the market will continue to be healthy. There is a good sense of optimism that President-elect Trump will cut taxes. We hope that by following through with that promise, a lot of luxury home and lake home buyers will come back in the market to purchase vacation homes when those taxes do go down.

One way or another, the election is over. The stock market is hitting nearly 20,000, which is unbelievable. If you’ve been thinking of buying or selling in this market, we would be glad to help. Give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.

Happy New Year!

Why Should You Sell Your Home in the Winter?

If you are looking to sell your home, consider these five facts that suggest you sell during the winter.

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Should you sell your home in the winter? This is a question many people ask this time of year. Get the answer by considering the following facts.

1. Homes listed in the winter sell at least a week faster than homes that are listed during other seasons.

2. They sell for 1.2% more money and are 9% more likely to sell than homes that are listed during other seasons.

3. There is a lot less inventory in the winter, and the buyers are much more serious. We don’t get a lot of looky-loos. These are people that have to buy.

4. Interest rates are going to go up in 2017. This will affect the amount of buyers that will be qualified to buy your home.

5. You have to be closer to the correct market price, because you will have less showings. This forces you to start with the correct market price, which will get your home sold faster.
   Interest rates rising in 2017 will affect the number of buyers for your home.

Considering those facts, I would say winter is a great time to sell your home. If you have any further questions about the winter market, or if you are looking to sell your home, please give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help.

The Chad Schwendeman Real Estate Group Is Hiring

If you’ve ever thought about a career in real estate, I’d like to share an exciting opportunity with you.

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The Chad Schwendeman Real Estate Group is on track to have our best year ever this year. Due to our success and explosive growth, we’re now in the process of hiring new agents to join our team.

If you’ve ever considered a career in real estate, we’d like to help you in every way we can. We offer fantastic training, paid real estate education, and we’re willing to pay you a salary to make the transition from your current job to real estate.

We need you to help us continue our success into 2017!

Check out www.joinchadsteam.com if you have any interest in joining the Chad Schwendeman team. There, you can upload your resume and take our quick personality profile test. After that, we’d love to visit with you.  

2017 looks like it’s going to be a fantastic year, and we need you to help us continue our success.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

3 Reasons to Sell Your Home This Fall & Winter

Most people make the mistake of thinking they need to wait for spring to put their homes on the market. However, there are three reasons why now is a great time to sell.

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Should you put your home on the market in the fall and winter? My answer is yes. Why? It all boils down to supply and demand.

Inventory drops dramatically in the fall and winter because many people think they need to sell their homes in the spring and summer. However, since so many people put their homes on the market in April and May, a lot of those sellers end up taking their homes off the market in the fall.

What does that mean? You will face less competition by putting your house on the market in the fall or winter.

You will face less competition by putting your home on the market this fall.

Another benefit to selling in the fall and winter is that buyers tend to be more serious this time of year. A lot of buyers have to move because of a job relocation or tax ramifications. Other buyers really want to get into their new home before the holidays. The number of showings you get may go down, but the quality of your home showings will go up.

Finally, interest rates are still incredibly low right now. It looks like the Fed will raise the rates at their December meeting. By selling now, you will have a wider buyer pool than you will if you wait until after rates go up. The lower interest rates are, the more buyers will be able to purchase your home.

Ultimately, now is a great time to get your home on the market. If you have any questions about preparing your home for the fall market, just give me a call. I would be happy to help you!

What to Keep in Mind When Buying a Fixer-Upper

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When buying a fixer-upper, get a home inspection, verify that your remodel plans meet all zoning restrictions, and look for any tax advantages.

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What should you look for when buying a fixer-upper? There are a few things you need to keep in mind.

The first is getting a home inspection. We recommend this to our clients because we often see other buyers spend less than a half an hour walking through a home and overlook things that could be wrong with it.

The home inspector will spend between two and three hours going through that home so you’ll know exactly what you’re buying and you won’t have any surprises down the road.

There are great tax incentives in buying a fixer-upper.

The second thing you should do is talk to the city or township and verify that you can do the necessary remodeling in order to fix the home up Sometimes there can be zoning restrictions—especially on lakes—that prohibit any additions from being made.

Lastly, look for tax advantages. There are some great tax incentives for people buying fixer-uppers. Reach out to your accountant and see if there are any available monies in the marketplace, whether it’s county or state funds, or if there are any other tax incentives that would make sense for you to buy a fixer-upper.

If you have any other questions pertaining to finding the right fixer-upper, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would be happy to help you in any way we can.

Home Renovations You Should Avoid

Home renovations that don’t pay off usually happen when people try to renovate according to their specific taste.

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There are a variety of home renovations you can make that don’t actually pay off, and it’s important that you don’t fall into this trap.

Many times, sellers make the mistake of renovating to their specific style and likings, and this doesn’t always translate well when it comes time to sell the home.

Here are some of the things you have to watch out for:

• Too much wallpaper
• Lavish light fixtures—being gaudy about lighting can turn off potential buyers in today’s marketplace
• Textured wall coverings—many people prefer smooth wall coverings
• Having the wrong flooring
• Too much carpet in high-traffic areas
• Picking bold wall colors instead of neutral
• Installing a swimming pool or hot tub—nobody wants to take on that maintenance

It’s important to appeal to the largest pool of buyers possible when selling. I hope you found this list helpful if you’re thinking about selling your home.

If you have questions about this topic or about our real estate market in general, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you in any way I can.

How to Maintain Your Deck in Minnesota

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If you have an outdoor deck at your home, it’s important to keep it maintained, especially this time of year. The winters can be brutal and the spring and summers come with their own kind of inclement weather. Whether it’s a foot of snow or a bad thunderstorm, you need to know how to keep your deck protected. If your deck gets wet and develops moss or mold, it tends to rot much quicker.

You want to make it a point to restore the old wood so you don’t have to replace your entire deck. Staining and sealing your deck are crucial in Minnesota because of our climate extremes. This may be a yearly thing for you to do.

Replace old nails or screws that pop up if and when the deck shifts, because you’ll see that happen from time to time. Lastly, make sure any deck posts are properly maintained. If you’re having a party with a number of people on your deck, you don’t want anything bad to happen.

Now is the time to check your deck.

Now is the time, heading into fall, to make sure you are maintaining your deck for the harsh winter ahead. If you have any questions for us, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.

Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Selling in Brainerd

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Are you having trouble selling your home in the current Brainerd market? The one thing you have to keep in mind when you sell your home is that you have to outshine 90% of the listings on the marketplace. For that reason, staging is critical. In today's market, buyers will make a decision on whether or not they like your home within 20 seconds.

The second crucial aspect when it comes to shining in the Brainerd real estate market is aggressive marketing. There are a lot of homes for sale in the area, and the old way of selling when the market was so strong back in 2006 was to put a sign in the yard and put it on the MLS, and pray that another agent sells it. In today's environment, it takes an extensive marketing plan to get the homes the maximum amount of exposure.

I'm proud to say that my team spends just over $35,000 a month advertising our listings, so we can ensure our sellers get the maximum exposure to sell their homes. We also have a full-time professional photographer on staff for high-quality photos of our listings.

Lastly, the pricing is so important. Many sellers think they can list their home above market value and leave themselves some "wiggle room," but in today's market, we're seeing that if homes are priced correctly, you shouldn't have to drop the price at all. We're able to negotiate and hold firm to our asking prices.

Have you or someone you know struggled to sell your home in this market? Maybe you're on the fence about selling, or just have questions about real estate in general. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you have. Let's talk soon!

How Brexit Affected the Brainerd Lakes Market

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Britain leaving the European Union is having an impact on real estate here in the United States, and that includes the Brainerd market.

In the short term, we've actually seen interest rates drop. Last year we saw that rate for a 15-year mortgage fall to 2.5%, and the rate for a 30-year mortgage dipped below 3.5%, which is unheard of. In the long term, a lot of the so-called experts say they anticipate interest rates to increase because of Britain leaving the EU. Obviously, that's not the case right now in the short term.

With rates this low, a lot of buyers who have been on the fence are locking in their interest rates. I mean, a 2.5% interest rate is simply unheard of! So we're seeing a lot of buyers enter the market who were on the fence, and especially lake home buyers looking for a second home here in the Brainerd Lakes area.

If you've been thinking about buying, now might be the best time to lock in your 30-year rate at an extremely low percentage. For any additional information, I'd be happy to speak with you. Don't hesitate to reach out to me with questions. Let's talk soon.

The Election’s Effect on the Minnesota Real Estate Market

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A recent topic that’s been coming up with a lot of my clients is how this election will affect the real estate market. Typically, what we see during an election year is a market slowdown. The market doesn’t like uncertainty. Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, not knowing who’s going to be president greatly affects consumer confidence.

That being said, this year’s been a different cycle because interest rates are so low and the Fed has stated that they will raise these interest rates after the election. This has spurned a lot of buyer activity that normally would’ve been dormant to get back into the market and purchase their homes and get those 30-year fixed rates.

In our real estate market, what we’re seeing is that inventory levels are down 19% and sales are up 8%. This has shifted the market firmly into the seller’s favor. If you’re thinking of selling, now would be the ideal time to take advantage of these low rates.

If you have any questions about the real estate market or the trends we’re seeing, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or reply to this email.

How Accurate Is Your Zestimate?

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Brainerd home sellers ask me all the time about how accurate Zestimates are. This is Zillow’s online home valuation tool and from what we’ve seen, you shouldn’t place too much emphasis on it.

By Zillow’s own admission, they are only accurate 7% of the time. This means they are off 93% of the time, which is a horrible success rate. The problem with their algorithm is that it’s written by a statistician, who doesn’t look at specific homes or change the valuation based on any other factor outside the algorithm.

If you have a $500,000 home and the Zestimate is off by 10%, you could be in trouble without even knowing it. If it’s 10% too low, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. If it’s 10% too high, buyers will figure out you’re overpriced and likely avoid the home.

Zillow's Zestimate is a fun tool to use but as far as being accurate, it’s anything but. For a truly accurate home valuation for your property, give us a call or send us an email. We have a much better grip on the market and can look at your home’s unique features to determine your home’s actual value.

Three Issues to Avoid When Building New Homes in Brainerd

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Today I want to speak about the advantages of buying a resale property over purchasing a newly-constructed home in Brainerd. Buying a new home is always nice, but there are certain advantages to purchasing a resale property.

Here are some challenges that might occur when you decide to build new.

1. You have to find a reputable builder.
2. You have to spend time on the development and design in the home.
3. Change orders are huge profit-builders for construction companies.

My advice to you when building new is to go out and pick out your light fixtures, your carpets, countertops, etc. Know exactly what you want in order to budget for the new home purchase. It can be painstaking, but you need to know every detail about the new home you’re building.

I’ve heard a lot of horror stories where a buyer will totally underestimate the costs and they have ended up not being able to build a new home. If you want to build a new home, please contact me and we can strategize in order for you to get exactly what you want and for the exact price that you want it.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The Importance of Proper Pricing in Brainerd

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Today we’re going to discuss the importance of properly pricing your home in the current marketplace. This is critical, especially coming into the spring market here in Brainerd.

We’ve had a lot of sellers come to us in the past and tell us that the agent who previously listed their home didn’t do much research, and simply asked the homeowners what they would like to price it at. This is a big mistake. What happens oftentimes, is the home is priced too high. When the home is priced too high, it will sit on the market. The more price reductions you go through, the longer it takes the home to sell.

Buyers are sophisticated in today’s market and when a home has been on the market for six months, it starts to create doubt in the minds of buyers. It also takes away any sense of urgency, as they don’t think a home that’s been on the market so long will be going anywhere anytime soon. It also encourages low-ball offers.

Proper pricing from the get-go is critical. What we do is come in and give you a realistic price, pushing the high side just a touch, so we can get your home sold in the first 60 days it’s on the market. That’s where you’re going to get the maximum value.

You also don’t want to underprice, because you’re not maximizing your home’s value. We can get you the most amount of money possible for your home through marketing, proper pricing, and home staging. With spring right around the corner, give us a call or send us an email if you’re thinking about selling. We would love to hear from you, and answer any questions you may have!

How to Avoid a Costly Surprise When Buying in Brainerd

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There is a lot that goes into purchasing a home, and many people are unaware of the many hidden costs often associated with the process. When buying a home, you need to look closely to see if it is move-in ready. Are you going to need to buy new carpet? Do you need to paint the walls? Are you going to need to purchase new furniture to fill the home? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask when viewing a home.

One big thing you need to pay close attention to is the cost of utilities. If you’re going from a gas-heated home to and electric-heated home, you need to account for the additional expense. We encourage our buyers to figure out what the last 12 months of utility costs were of a home before they purchase it.  

Another thing to take into account is insurance. Many people tend to think that their insurance rate will be the same as the their current home, but there is a lot that goes into the final insurance rate. One serious factor is how far away the home is from the nearest fire station. If the home is outside 20 minutes, insurance will typically be significantly more. This is because, if there is a house fire, the home will take on significant damages or even burn down in 20 minutes time.

Finally, the last thing to think about is real estate taxes. Whether you’re in Brainerd, Baxter, on water, off water -- all these various factors play into what you’re paying in real estate taxes.

In order to know whether you can truly afford a home, it’s crucial to work with a professional who can help you sort through all these additional expenses. My team and I do a free buyer consultation to help our buyer clients make informed decisions. Our goal is to ensure you’re not house rich, but cash poor.

How Can You Avoid Making a Costly Buying Mistake in Brainerd?

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Do you need to do a home inspection when you purchase a home? When clients ask us this question, ten out of ten times we tell them an inspection is absolutely necessary.  

Your home is typically the biggest investment you ever make, so having a professional go through it and ensure there are no costly defects is the least you can do. An inspector is going to look at the roof, the siding, the foundation, the furnace, all the mechanicals, and much more.

The inspector will point out costly issues that you wouldn’t be able to identify yourself, so it’s the best couple hundred dollars you can spend. It’s a simple and inexpensive way to protect yourself when buying a home, whether it’s new construction or an older property.

If you have any questions about this process or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!

Prepare Your Brainerd Home for the Market

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When I go on listing presentations, most homeowners ask me, “What can we do to improve the sale of our home without breaking the bank?” Today, I’ll go over the best and cheapest ways to get your home ready for the market. 

First, replace your cabinet hardware.  Many homes have outdated brass hardware on cabinets. Replacing the hardware with silver or bronze will really upgrade the look and make the cabinets look brand new. 

You should also focus on lighting.  Even changing out the light bulbs can set the mood for a room, and light bulbs are inexpensive. Buyers tend to focus on light fixtures, so update that globe from the 1980s and watch your home transform. 

Paint earns the best return on investment. You might like your bright blue living room, but buyers won’t. Paint in neutral earth tones. When a buyer walks in, earth tones offer a warm welcome that draws the buyer in. 

Finally, pay attention to carpet. Remove the blue frieze carpet from the 1970s and put down a new earth tone frieze. Buyers do tend to prefer frieze carpeting over Berber, as frieze carpet is a little warmer. 

Buyers today are extremely visual, and they want turnkey homes. You can’t just give the buyer a carpet allowance anymore. Your home needs to be move-in ready. My team and I can tell you everything you need to know about staging your property in order to have a successful home sale. These are just a few things you can do now before you get on the market.

Where Are the Best Valentine’s Dinner Options in Brainerd?

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Today we are excited to discuss the best restaurants in Brainerd to take your significant other to. It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and if you’ve been debating about where to make reservations this year, we’ve got you covered. There are plenty of great restaurants in and around the Brainerd Lakes area, but these three are our favorites.

1.  Prairie Bay

This restaurant, located in Baxter, has a delicious and diverse menu. Everything from steak to seafood to fresh vegetables and delectable desserts. 

http://www.prairiebay.com/

2. Madden’s Restaurant

We love Madden’s so much that we had our Christmas party here just last month! They have great food, great service, and a great atmosphere. This is one of the best restaurants in the area.

http://www.maddens.com/dining.html

3. Bar Harbor

This has been a staple in the area for years, but has become even more impressive with a completely remodeled space. 
http://www.barharborsupperclub.com/

These are our top 3 picks. If you happen to make your way to any of these places, tell them Chad sent you, and have a wonderful evening out with a delicious meal. If you have any questions for us, don't hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you!