Real Sage Advice

Don't let the real estate market dictate how you live your life

You're probably tired of hearing the gloom and doom the media is spreading about the real estate market "The lowest number of building permits in history", "The lowest number of homes sold this month in the last 10 years", "Depreciating house prices"...and on and on. Here's the problem with these headlines. 1) The media usually reports from national statistics, and those statistics may or may not hold true for your particular neighborhood; 2) Those statistics don't narrow down the different price points of homes, if they are in the city or second ring suburbs. When you look at "averages" homes that take over 100 days to sell in the second ring suburbs scew the number for the homes that sell in under 60 days in Minneapolis or St. Paul.

There's no question all of this negative media is enough to scare you into staying into your home, even if you'd like to move.

Let me tell you a little about how the market looks from my perspective.  I had three closings in October, three in November, and already have one scheduled for December. This is supposed to be the time of year I take some extra time off, but it's been too busy!

I don't mean to make light of the current market. There's no question it's much more difficult to sell now than it was 3 years ago. Just don't let the media let you think it's impossible to sell your home. That's simply not the case.

Here's a simple plan you can implement with your real estate agent

1. Figure out the advantages and disadvantages of moving now. Remember, waiting for next spring does not mean the real estate market will be better. There's no reason to suspect we'll see anything other than more of the same.
2. Determine what you're willing to do to your home to get it ready for the market. Then, price it accordingly.This market demands that you be willing to do things to sell your home that you may not have had to do 5 years ago. You may have to spend some money to get your home ready for the market, and you won't be able to increase the price of your home because you made those improvements.  Those improvements only make your home more sellable!
3. Meet with your financial planner and decide what you'll do with the equity you'll have from your home.
4. Set a move date, and get that real estate agent of yours to stick the for sale sign in the yard, and get moving!

Baby Boomers New Babies?

   Other than a new baby, nothing will make you as happy and drive you as crazy as a new puppy (I know I said I was going to get back to aging issues.  Bear with me, I'll tie this in one way or another). At my house all we talk about is the last time the puppy peed or pooped. While they take a ton of time and energy, there's nothing like coming home to that wagging tail and taking time out of your day to play. It's the best stress relief in the world!

Sunrise Senior Living is one senior housing community that understands the importance of pets.  The one located in Golden Valley has a "house dog" named Baxter. He's a big yellow lab that roams the halls of the assisted living community and offers a warm wet nose and a tail wag to anyone who wants to say hello. This is a dog that's shared among many seniors and, in my opinion, one lucky hound.

As senior housing becomes less institutionalized and more like home, and boomers come up with new creative forms of housing, why not incorporate new forms of pet-ownership? There's a new company that hasn't made it's way to Minnesota yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. FlexPetz is an organization that offers an alternative to full-time dog ownership.  They offer an opportunity for people to take a pooch on "loan" for a few hours or few days at a time.  The best part is these are rescued dogs that have been vet-checked and fully trained. This seems like a great opportunity for empty-nesters, periodic visits to a friend recovering from an illness, or even therapy visits to nursing homes. If I weren't already elbow-deep in my own business, this is one I would look into!

Pets-Loss and Happiness

  It's been a quite month here at Real Sage Advice.  I lost my best friend of 15 1/2 years to old age.  Her name was Kiya and she was a beautiful Siberian Husky. Together we lived in 9 different houses, went through 5 different cars, 3 different veteranarians, a wedding, and numerous life events-both difficult and joyful. Grieving is a tough process.  You have to force yourself to get through the days, often running on automatic until the grief siezes you and you have to pull yourself together and just keep going.   Each day gets easier.

Thank you for the emails wondering where I've been. I'm back and I'm climbing back on the soap box to talk about aging issues.

Now it's time to get back to issues on real estate and senior housing.