Author Archive
Minnesota MLS Now Has Statewide Data
As announced last month, most of the REALTOR® Associations/MLS’s in Minnesota are sharing their MLS listings including Actives and 3 years of off-market listings. Those listings are now all available on NorthstarMLS Matrix. This is the result of a long-term cooperative effort among most of the REALTOR® Associations in Minnesota. We are very excited to make this program available to you. Continue on for details.
Are the data share outstate listings available for all property types?
Currently, they are available for Single Family Residential only. The other property types will be added over the next couple months. We will make announcements here as they become available.
How do I find these listings?
Search just as you would for any other listings. For example, if you want to find listings in Duluth, search by Municipality for Duluth, search the Duluth ZIP Codes, or use Map Search to draw the exact area you want to search. Listings from the data share will be in your results. (Note: If you want to see data share listings, do not search by County or MLS Area as we currently do not receive data for those fields through the data share.)
How do I know a listing is from the state-wide data sharing?
Listings imported from the outstate Associations can be identified by a three to four letter code at the start of their MLS numbers. For example, MLS# DAAR153802 is from the Duluth MLS. MLS# ALX10-1835 is from the Alexandria MLS. Listings entered into NorthstarMLS through Home Base will continue to have the current MLS numbering scheme without a letter code.
BMJ = Bemidji Area
DAAR = Duluth Area
ALX = Greater Alexandria Area
GLAR = Greater Lakes (Brainerd Area)
ICBR = Itasca County
LKSR = Lakes Region (Fergus Falls Area)
MAM = Minnesota Arrowhead
RASM = Southern Minnesota (Mankato Area)
SEMN = Southeast Minnesota (Rochester, Owatonna, Albert Lea, Winona)
WCMN = West Central (Willmar Area)
Will the data share listings be included in my Auto-Emails to Clients?
If your search criteria covers areas where the outstate Associations have listings, then yes, they will be included.
Why are there duplicate listings?
Many brokers in the outstate areas subscribe to NorthstarMLS through a special Allied Participant Program and enter their listings into NorthstarMLS. Because of this new data sharing program, the Allied Participation program will end as of December 31. Until then, Allied Participant brokers’ listings may be in NorthstarMLS twice–one as entered in NorthstarMLS, and one as imported from their local outstate MLS. After their Allied Participation expires, their listings entered into NorthstarMLS will be removed, leaving just the listings imported from their local MLS.
How often are the data share listings updated?
We refresh the data share listings with updates from the vendor every four hours.
What if I want to exclude data share listings from my search?
On any of the Single Family Search screens, click the link “Click here to add or remove other search fields.” Add the field “MLS Source.” There are two selections for this field: RMLS and SASI. RMLS is for the regular NorthstarMLS listings entered through Home Base. SASI is for the data share listings imported from the outstate Associations. Click to select “RMLS.” This will ensure that the data share listings are not included in your search results.
How do I report problems with data share listings, such as missing data?
You may notice some fields missing data for the listings of some outstate Associations. This is usually an issue between that outstate Association and the data share vendor that only they can resolve. We expect any problems with missing data to improve over time as the vendor improves the import process. For any other questions or problems, contact the NorthstarMLS Help Desk at 651-251-5456 or help [at] northstarmls [dot] com.
How does this affect the MLS Co-op?
This data sharing replaces the MLS Co-op. The MLS Co-op will be discontinued effective December 31st.
How does this affect the NorthstarMLS Rules & Regulations?
All data sharing participants, including NorthstarMLS, have agreed to a common set of MLS rules. There will be several minor changes to our rules that will be outlined soon in a separate announcement. NorthstarMLS and each of the outstate Associations will continue to handle their own rules enforcement.
Home Buyers
Buying a home may be one of the largest purchases that you make in your financial life. So much more goes into buying a house than just looking on the internet and booking a showing. An experienced real estate agent can help you understand market trends as well as neighborhood issues. They should have experience negotiating on your behalf to get you the best deal possible, which may include telling you to walk away from a deal when it is not in your best interest.
While the property search and offer process is exciting and interesting, the hard work actually begins once you get an accepted offer. This is where I have put people and processes in place to insure the deal on your dream home stays together and you make it to closing with as few surprises or frustrations as possible.
To start the process, you can use this site to search for Minnesota homes at your leisure. Using this site, you have access to the live MLS data, just like I do (albeit I have some additional information that is only supplied to licensed real estate agents). Here are some pre-programmed searches to get you started:
- Minneapolis Homes for Sale
- St. Paul Homes for Sale
- Hennepin County Homes for Sale
- Carver County Homes for Sale
- Ramsey County Homes for Sale
- Anoka County Homes for Sale
- Dakota County Homes for Sale
Otherwise, you can start from scratch and create your own search here. If you see a home you are interested in, feel free to contact me and we can take a look.
Expired Listings
Before you list your home with the same real estate agent, stop and think about what they are going to do for you. Are they using the same worn out marketing techniques that everyone else uses. Are they promising to sell your home fast and for top dollar? Can you afford to not sell your home again?
You need a new marking plan, new excitement, and new enthusiasm. Studies show that almost 90% of home buyers will use the internet before they ever look at a home or even contact a real estate agent. That means that the houses with the greatest web presence will be seen first.
I have a comprehensive internet marketing plan for each home that I list. Not only is your home published on the Minnesota MLS, but it is it is also syndicated out to these other real estate websites:
Additionally, we use these other items to market your home on an on-going basis:
- Create a customized property website complete with Virtual tour.
- Publish to Craigslist regularly
- Publish to Twitter frequently
- Publish on Facebook
- Add a customized sign rider that has text messaging capabilities, allowing the interested buyer to simply enter the property code and receive information about your home immediately. Additionally, the phone number of the caller is recorded so that I may call them back and see if they are interested in setting up a showing of the house.
Only by aggressively marketing your home have we earned the privilege of selling it.
Short Sales
We are all facing tough times. You or someone you know may be in financial distress, that make the future seems uncertain. Don’t let the possibility of foreclosure be a means for panic.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is ask for help. There are better options….and as a Certified Distressed Property Expert I can help you fin the best solution for you and your family.
Now is the time to learn about your options. Feel free to contact me here or read more about it on my Minnesota Short Sales website.
Investment Properties
I purchased my first investment property (a commercial office building) in 2002. Since then, I have owned up to 28 rental units at one time, flipped homes, and done property management for office space. I enjoy helping new and experienced investors expand their portfolio of rental properties or buy a home, rehab it, and sell it for a profit.
Much of what I have learned over the years is contained in my Minnesota Investment Property blog. You can use this as a resource to find answers to just about any question you can imagine as related to buying, owning, and selling investment properties. If you have an interest in becoming a landlord or doing flips, take a look.
Housing Market Update
The market numbers recently came in and they look deceptively bad. If you remember, last year at this time, we were just finishing up the closings on the first round of the $8000 tax credit homes. As the President of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors puts it” We are comparing apples to oranges when looking at September 2009 versus September 2010. So with that disclaimer, how are the numbers?
Pending sales are down a whopping 37.8% over September 2009 and closed sales were down 33.5%. When compared year to date versus 2008, the Twin Cities market shows just a 1.4 decline in closed sales.
Inventory drew by almost 14%, which in my opinion is the leading edge of the wave 2 foreclosure inventory. We are also seeing buyers becoming much more choosy than in the past. Most are in no hurry to make a decision and will consider dozens of houses before making an offer. Then that offer is typically well below list price as the buyer is convinced that everyone, including retail sellers, can take huge price discounts.
The Minnesota MLS showed a listing decline of 10.7% for the entire metro area since September 2009. Most of that (11.2%) was made up of traditional sellers not putting their homes on the market. Banks put 5.8% fewer REOs on the market and 11.5% fewer short sales were added.
As of October 1, there are 8.6 months of inventory for the entire Twin Cities Market. We need to see this number closer to 4 months to be in a more stable market. We jumped up from 6.6% this time last year. Just like above, the increased inventory is pushing this number higher.
Like you would expect, we are not out of the wood yet. No great glimmer of hope has even begun to shine in this real estate market.
Digital Retouching MLS Photos
I just read an interesting article from the MN Realtor’s Association. It was titled Looks Can Be Deceiving. It was written by Linda Modlinki, Sr. VP. She was talking about how there are now tools that will let you enhance the MLS pictures for a listing. Here are some examples and thoughts:
- Several new sites allow the user to actually place furniture in the picture so that you can see if your type or style or even color of furniture will work in this room. Seems harmless enough. You are not changing the room or property or misrepresenting anything about the home.
- Other tools allow you to brighten them image, remove the car parked in the front driveway or add some blue sky to the background. Again, this seems like marketing fluff and nothing has changed about the house. No bid deal.
- What about if the listing agent retouched the photos on the front of the house to remove the electrical tower in the background? What if made the grass greener or added flowers in the front of the yard? Boy, that is a tough one. I think he is misrepresenting the house as the tower is really there, the grass is not that green (lesser issue) and there are no flowers that the buyer will have when they buy the home.
- Here are the really sneaky examples that have occurred on the Minnesota MLS: A listing agent used a photo editing software to edit out missing shingles on the roof. Another agent “repainted” the house digitally to remove the peeling paint. Uh Oh. Those are not good and clearly misrepresenting the home.
Article 2 of the Realtor Code of Ethics requires that an agent does “not exaggerate, misrepresent or conceal pertinent factors relating to the property. Article 12 obligates a REALTOR® to use truthful, accurate advertising in all representations to the public.” While aggressively marketing your listings are one thing, committing fraud it another.
Real Estate Market Update
It has felt to me over the last 30-60 days that the market was slowing down. Most of my investors were quiet. Everyone seemed to be holding onto their money waiting for something (albeit, no one could say what) to happen. One of my more analytical customers has been watching one particular autoemail that I send him from the Home Search Minnesota. He has had the same search for houses under $100k in North and South Minneapolis running for about 2 years. During that time he has watched as the market heated up and the list fell to 40 properties and when it slowed down and went to 120 properties. He said that he has seen the number of properties added to the market triple in the month of August.
Now I am making a leap by saying that inventory alone is the indicator of the speed of the market, but I think it is an interesting gauge. Back in 2008, we were trying to consume all that we could get our hands on. If something hit the Minnesota MLS, we jumped on it. It seems like now the buyers in the home market that I am working with are much more reserved. Many of them still want great deals, in fact some are looking for deals that would have not been possible even in the bottom of the market, let alone today.
With the 2nd wave of foreclosures already hitting our shores and the MLS, plus more people choosing to get out of their homes using short sales and then most buyers not in a hurry to buy, it is going to be a rough next 6 months. Sellers are going to be frustrated at the lack of showings. Buyer are going to be frustrated that they can’t get the deals they think they should be able to.
I ran a report today that showed how many showings many of our 250+ listings on the MN Real Estate Team had in August. I was shocked that in the $100-200k price range, many of them had 1 showing for the entire month of August. Others had 4-5, but not that many. Ouch. If you are selling your home, be prepared to price your house aggressively, and then wait.
Update on the MN MLS Adding Rental Properties
I reported a couple weeks ago that the NorthstarMLS had announced that they are targeting a September 1 launch of the ability for agents to put rental properties into the MN MLS. This could be a fantastic centralized location for all landlords to advertise and for tenants to see what is available. While I don’t think it will kill Craigslist and other paid rental sites, I do believe it will be great for more expensive rentals that are $1200+ rent per month. It should give them the exposure they need.
Well, since that last post, I have been doing some research and speaking to some experts in this area regarding their opinion of the change to the MLS in Minnesota. Here are some of their thoughts and concerns:
- Actually, despite this launch being headed up by the rule makers, they overlooked an important state statute. A property can only be represented by one licensed real estate agent at a time. I am sure it doesn’t take much imagination to think about the scenario where someone has their home listed with Realtor A, who has been working hard to sell their home for months. The seller decides that maybe they should try to rent their home, but Realtor A is not interested in that part of the business. Seller contacts Realtor B, who specializes in renting homes and puts their home up for rent at the same time. Unfortunately, this is against the law!
- The compensation model is not complicated, but most brokerages have not worked out the kinks yet. Let’s say that I list a house for rent at $1500 and I enter into an agreement for the owner to pay me 1 month’s rent when it is filled with a tenant. This is a very typical fee. I may put that property on the MLS in the rental section. I must specify how much co-op I am willing to pay the other agents. This is just like the buyer’s agent commission in a sale. Maybe I pay out $750 of the $1500. Most brokerages have not decided how much of that $750 (that either side gets) they are going to take to handle their administrative work. With many brokers charging the agents $100-$350 per transaction, you can see that I may only make $400 on listing a home for rent. Sadly, I can’t list enough of those on a monthly basis to feed my family after expenses.
- Related to this is if the brokers will charge their typical $300-500 broker commission fee that is now charged on most sale transactions. That could increase the costs to the home owner by 25-50% to have an agent rent their home.
It was a very interesting discussion that I had with these guys that had been involved in the rental properties on the Minnesota MLS, right from the beginning. Stay tuned!