Today we take time to say Thank You to all the men and women who have served our country since it was founded.

God Bless America!

For about 60 days now, I have been incredibly frustrated.  Every day I show properties or put in offers on properties only to find out that they were sold yesterday.  I had a property this week that had been on the market only a couple hours.  My customer saw it and we put in an offer immediately.  Although only 5 hours old, when we submitted our offer, they already had 6 offers in front of ours!

Absorption rate is at 4.5 months …total swing from 11.5 months a year ago…inventory is stable but will slowly increase with the foreclosure moratoriums being lifted… Hang tight – but let your buyers know that with absorption rates under 6 months, you can’t be picky and must act quick

Now it just seems to be a running joke amongst my group.  We need to book 5 times as many showings to just get enough to see.  If you want a house, bring your pen cause we are writing offers on the spot if you like it.

I happened to be exchanging an email with a senior REO agent today about a property (that again was sold), in my frustration, I asked him: ”What is up with the multiple offers and properties gone in less than 1 week? Is this going to get easier (for me) anytime in the near future?”  Here is his response:

Absorption rate is at 4.5 months …total swing from 11.5 months a year ago…inventory is stable but will slowly increase with the foreclosure moratoriums being lifted… Hang tight – but let your buyers know that with absorption rates under 6 months, you can’t be picky and must act quick -

Although I understand his answer, it doesn’t make me feel instantly better.  I guess it further confirms the “Foreclosure Wave 2” theory.

I have written about evictions often in the past.  It is a necessary part of being a landlord.  It is neither pleasant nor often fruitful, but necessary.  As I was down at the Hennepin County courthouse today filing several evictions (one for me and one for a customer of mine), I was told by the desk clerk that the cost of evictions is increasing.  I have been unable to confirm this via anything on the County websites or anywhere else, but according to the clerk, the costs are going to rise from $252 to $340 on July 1.

I guess it is just another example of how the government thinks that all of us “rich” landlords have money to burn.  My recommendation is that if you have any tenants on the fence, get your evictions in during June to save the cash.  I am going to check in Ramsey County also to see if this is a state change or just Hennepin County.

The Carnival of Real Estate stopped by the Minnesota Investment Property Blog this week.  With past carnivals that I have hosted here, we have seen 10-15 entries.  This time it was 26 entries about every different part of the real estate business.  I spent hours and hours reading each one (just kidding, it didn’t take that long).  Here are my top picks in no particular order, but distinct areas of interest.

Real Estate Business/Realtors

• Jay Thompson at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy posted an account of one inept agent threatening to sue her customer over a commission despite the agent’s complete failure at customer service.  I can’t imagine either being that bad of an agent or as Jay says, suing your customer over your failure to provide excellent service!
• At first glance, I was wondering what this post “Why Lovers and Others Leave” had to do with real estate.  After the 4th sentence I realized that AgentGenius.com was explaining why our customers leave us and go elsewhere.  Good list of reminders!
• The real estate business can wear you out.  It is good to take some time off occasionally and recharge the batteries.  Jack Schmidt at SectorMatic quips about “How to Know When You Need a Vacation“.

Buying Real Estate

• As real estate agents, it is our job to make the purchase or sale of real estate as smooth as possible.  Unfortunately, it is rarely as simple as the public might think!  Dan Melson writes about it at Searchlight Crusade in his post:  Buying Real Estate Isn’t Simple.
• Along with everyone thinking buying real estate is easy, most of the buyers I work with today want to make low-ball offers on houses.  They figure that in this buyer’s market, they are in the driver’s seat.  Doug Willis demonstrates 5 Reasons Your Low Ball Offer is Rejected.

Selling/Owning Real Estate

• Ned Carey explains the differences types of tax auctions and how to handle if you wake up saying:  “Help!  My Home is going to tax sale“.
• The Zillow blog is always a great source of market data.  In their post:  Homeowner Confidence Shrinks (Yet Most Think the Worst is Over), they validate what most of us in the business have been sensing for a while.

Mortgages

• This comes up every time I am at a cocktail party with anyone that knows I am in real estate.  Fivecentnickel.com takes up the age-old argument about whether you should Pay Off Mortgage Early?  Or Invest?
• Everyone in the real estate arena these days loves the low interest rates.  Most of us are wondering not if, but when will rates go higher.  Dan Green looks at what the fed is doing and suggests:  Why Mortgage Rates May Plunge One Last Time Before Low Rates Are Gone For Good.

Thanks everyone for the great (and many) submissions.  Are you a real estate blogger and would you like to host a future edition or take a more active role in administration of the CoRE? If so, get instructions on how to do so here. Please check the complete FAQ list if you have other questions as to how to participate.

I have written several posts about how to write “For Rent” ads in Craigslist.  Although I was previously the Director of Information services at Caribou Coffee, sometimes technology improvements can sneak by me.  This might be such old news that you are going to send me hate mail telling me I need to get rid of my Pentium 1 computer!

Here goes…As most of you know, Craigslist ads are quite dry and simply text in a white background.  You can add HTML to the ad, but that is time consuming and not for the average non-geek.  A customer of mine recently posted a “For Rent” ad on Craigslist.  He wasn’t getting many calls so I told him to send over the ad.

What he sent over floored me.  It was a colorful, well-formatted web page inside of Craigslist.  This customer happens to be a geek so I figured he wrote the entire thing in HTML and posted it.  When I mentioned it, he said he found a website called Postlets.com.  This free service allows you to create a beautiful page for your rental ad or your “home for sale” ad and then simply cut and paste the HTML into Craigslist.  You can add up to 18 pictures and even a virtual tour!  If you upgrade to the paid service you can have a single property website.

Now, no more boring Craiglist ads.  Start using this today!

I have been collecting some interesting pictures over the last 30 days.  I haven’t found one house that was completely stupid, but a one or two in several houses.  Here we go:

I love what people do to fix things.  Enjoy!