Considering a Career in Real Estate?

I love my job. Each day I go to work I get the opportunity to go on a new adventure. People invite me into their lives to help them achieve their personal and financial goals. I went to Indiana University to become a teacher and now I own a real estate company. A lot of people laugh when I tell them I have a degree in education, but now I am a business owner. It was funny to me for a while too, but now I realize I am still in education. Just a different kind of education.

People rely on me to educate them about our real estate market, when to sell, how to improve the value of their home, and sometimes how to avoid foreclosure. They invite me into their homes, share with me their hopes and their dreams, and let me get to know them. I feel incredibly blessed by all of the amazing people I have met and the experiences I have had selling real estate.

The other really exciting part of my job is helping other people transition into the career that has become such a huge part of my life. It is incredibly exciting to help new agents develop skills that will allow them to reach their goals and dreams. Teaching them how to price a home or how to write an offer that protects their buyer or even how to use the computer to keep track of their clients and showings is incredibly rewarding to me.

If you LOVE real estate, if you enjoy going to work and being surprised by what your day brings, if you enjoy solving real problems, then real estate might just be for you. If you have any questions about becoming a REALTOR in Columbus, Indiana, I would love to answer any questions you have. It is a unique career that offers flexibility like no other.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I am heading to Indianapolis to meet with Realtors from all over the state to discuss how the Women's Council of Realtors can best serve the Realtors in our local chapters. As President, I get to present the amazing lineup of educational events we have prepared for our local Realtors.

Happy House Hunting!
Robyn

Is Your Price on Target?

When listing a property, we consider price to be the most important factor! Yes, home staging is helpful, and updating certain items is helpful. Curb appeal is king! "Location, location, location." You've heard about all of these things I am certain. However, when we price a home we take all of that into consideration. Of course, we advise our clients on the items and improvements they can make that will increase their value or cause their home to sell more quickly, but all of that aside, we should all be chanting: "price, price, price".

If you are looking for the insider secret on how to sell a home, you have come to the right place. We here at Spoon Real Estate know the secret: price it right! Here is a simple break down of what happens when you price your home at different levels:

• 12+% overpriced: Not showing!
• 6-12% overpriced: Shows some, no offers!
• 4-6% overpriced: showing some, low offers.
• Right on Target: Showing a lot, good and oftentimes multiple offers!

Many people feel like they have to overprice their home to leave room for negotiating. We absolutely don't believe that at all. If you price your home on target, you will ultimately net more than if you overpriced your home waiting for someone looking for a bargain. If you overprice it long enough, they will get a bargain because you will become desparate to sell your house!!!

In many parts of the country right now, the real estate market is suffering. There is an oversupply of homes and a high foreclosure rate. Our market in Columbus, Indiana is pretty balanced. If you stage your home nicely and PRICE IT RIGHT, you should be able to sell your home in a reasonable period of time.

When you take a well-priced home and market it efficiently, a sale in a reasonable period of time is the result most of the time. Add a seasoned professional to make sure you have indeed priced it right, and you are in great shape.

So, how do you know if your Realtor has done a good job coming up with a price for your home? They should be using homes that have sold in your geographic area or neighborhood within the last year (six months is best), that most resemble the qualities and amenities of your home. Simply averaging the sales prices won't work. There are adjustments that need made to ensure that the homes have been compared properly. Pools, sun rooms and screened porches, extra bedrooms, finished basements, fences, fireplaces, garage size, and quality of construction are just a few of the items worth taking into consideration.

The final determination of price is usually a comparison of other active properties. In other words: what is your competition? Stay on top of what other homes around you are selling for and what they are listed for. The buyers in your market will certainly be checking out the other options!

For how, happy house selling!

Robyn Spoon

Home Inspections...do or die!

Since I began selling real estate nearly a decade ago, the home inspection industry has completely changed! Buyers used to have a friend or a trusted carpenter come along and let them know if they had any serious concerns before they bought. These friends and trusted advisers weren't licensed or fully trained. Some were better than others...many weren't insured. Today, the home inspection industry is a huge and amazing industry. It is a huge improvement over my early days in real estate, but more confusing than ever.

What is the purpose of a home inspection? What types of inspections can you have done? Who should perform the inspections? Once an inspection has been completed, what should you do with the information? These are all questions that my buyers have been asking.

First, you should always reserve the right to inspect a property. In some cases, like bank repo's, and other "as-is" properties, you can inspect, but it doesn't mean that the owner will make repairs. In some rare cases, it doesn't even mean you can get out of the deal if you find something you don't like. SCARY! However, most of the time, in Indiana anyway, major items found on an inspection can be cause to terminate the transaction with your earnest money in tact. I say "most of the time" because it depends on how your contract is written. Be sure to have a clause that allows for this if you want to be fully protected.

Second, you must be certain that your contract allows for the types of inspections you wish to have done. Here are a few: whole house inspection, radon inspection, termite or other wood destroying organism inspection, lead paint inspection, mold inspection, and so on and so on and so on.

Third, do your homework before you choose an inspector or a type of inspection. What are you hoping to find? What will you do with the results? Who will perform the inspections.

I would make sure to get referrals from a real estate professional on the "who" of the above list. Your Realtor should also be able to answer simple questions or refer you to your answers in some way.

In Indiana, a whole house inspector now has to be licensed. This is another huge change from my early days in real estate.

My final words of advice: attend the inspection. Not only will you want first hand knowledge of any problems that are found, but you will learn the ins and outs of maintaining your new home.

Good luck and happy house hunting.
Robyn

**The information here is the opinion of Robyn Spoon. I do not warrant or guarantee the information above.

Brookfield Place

We are excited to announce that Brookfield Place is now selling! The process to develop this piece of land has been an adventure and an amazing experience. Last week, I was pleased to drive by and see pavement!!! Each of the 22 home sites will be designed and built custom per the client. It is exciting to be a part of a neighborhood from the beginning. We have had the opportunity to consider what makes a neighborhood a great place to live as well as a place that will hold its value over time.

With none of the lots backing up to anyone else and a beautiful green space in the center, there should be a home site that works for everyone. In order to secure a home site, buyers may provide a deposit that will hold the lot for a period of time. An extra deposit will secure the home throughout construction and allow clients to avoid having to get a construction loan or move twice. Each home will be custom designed by Joel Spoon and then built by our construction company, Spoon Construction. We are pleased to see the variety of home plans individuals are interested in and the wonderful people we get to work with.

Check out the Brookfield Place link on the Spoon Real Estate web site for more information about lot availability and pricing.

Happy House Hunting!
Robyn

Columbus Indiana Real Estate Market Condition!

After coming back from the National Convention for the National Association of Realtors, I feel it is important to take some time to reflect on our market here in Columbus, Indiana. My suspicion was proven correct: there are some really tough real estate markets out there across the country, but ours is NOT one of them. The areas that seem to have been hardest are the coastal areas and major metropolitan areas. I spoke with a Realtor from Ft Myers, Florida where they have seen their supply of homes multipy by nearly 5 x in the past year. Needless to say, the demand for homes has not only not gone up, but actually gone down!!!

In all fairness, many of these coastal areas in Florida and California have seen massive increases in home values over the past five years. Builders and Realtors alike have been speculating new home and condominium construction at an alarming rate...a rate that the demand did not keep up with. Coupled with risky loans, the market in those areas are in big trouble.

Columbus, Indiana is another story. We, like most smaller communities in the midwest, never saw the massive home appreciation like these big metro areas. Our unemployment rate is low, interest rates are low, and our supply of homes is in pretty good balance with our demand. Many of our homes locally have seen healthy appreciation because of the reasonable number of homes available for sale. If you are interested in some information about the value of your home, feel free to contact me at rspoon@spoonrealestate.com. A free CMA is yours for the asking.

Our national news has been telling some pretty scary stories about high foreclosure rates, bad mortgage programs, and tough real estate markets. All of these stories are true in the context of their location, but real estate continues to be a local economic condition. Today is a great time to buy and sell in Columbus, Indiana. Great loan programs from local lenders, wonderful existing and new construction homes are available, and there are buyers for your existing home.

Be sure to price your home right, make sure it is in good resale condition, and hire a great Realtor to represent you. There is a house out there for you and a great loan program to make it all come together.

Interested in attending an open house? The Columbus Board of Realtors has a great new site for open houses!
All for now. Happy House Hunting!

Knowledge is everything!

I am getting ready to head over to the convention center for my final day here at the National Association of Realtors National Convention. For some reason, I am always surprised at how much information and knowledge I am able to compile at an event like this. It is refreshing to see Realtors from all over the country come together to hone their skills. What an amazing group of people.

Absorption Rate Pricing, Economic Updates, Technology, Photography skills, advertising skills, negotiating skills, and more. All around me I see people here trying to improve their management and leadership skills. I am proud to be part of this group, and I can't wait to get back to Columbus, Indiana to use the skills I have learned about real estate, the housing market, avoiding foreclosure, advertising and marketing the homes we have listed, and being the best managing/owning broker I can be.

Until next time...

Moving across state lines...

A quick note to those of you getting ready to make a cross-state transfer: check with your local BMV to verify the laws reguarding a change in address. A friend of mine recently moved here from Georgia and found out the hard way that hanging on to those "Peachy Plates" from Georgia was a bad move. It turns out that according to Indiana Law she needed to get her insurance changed and plates purchased in less than two months or else she risked a suspended license as well as fines!!! Moving is a busy time; especially a long distance move. One more item to add to your moving checklist needs to be a trip to your local BMV to determine how much time you have to transfer plates, etc. You may also be able to check out the internet to get the information you need to avoid a trip to my least favorite errand: a trip to the BMV!!!

Happy Moving,
Robyn