Today I’m very excited to share a great listing in Sugar House.
One reason I find this listing to be so special is that it shows you can live with a family in Sugar House while still having access to modern amenities.
This two-story, 3,000 square foot home was built in 1938, which is unusual for the area.
Living with a family in Sugar House while still having access to modern amenities is possible.
In the master, you’ll enjoy high ceilings, a walk-out porch, and a fabulous walk-in closet.
Just off of the master, there’s also an office space and a wet bar.
Of course, this is just one room of the house. If you are interested in the home and would like a personal tour, I would love to share all it has to offer with you.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Today I’m visiting Tinker’s Cat Cafe, which just opened last week.
The cafe has coffee, tea, cat-themed treats, and, of course, feline friends to keep you company during your visit.
The walls were covered in places for them to climb and the floors had plenty of comfy beds and rugs for the cats to relax in while we humans enjoy our food and drink.
Whether you want to snuggle and play with the cats or simply watch them explore, Tinker’s is so much fun.
Each and every cat at Tinker’s is up for adoption.
The best part is that each and every cat at Tinker’s is up for adoption. When you visit, you could be leaving with a new friend.
Even if you don’t plan to adopt, though, you can still enjoy the therapeutic benefits of spending time with these sweet felines.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
I’ve got the latest numbers from the Salt Lake market update. We’re approaching the fourth quarter, so this hopefully this update will help you understand what’s going on in the area as we make the transition.
Let’s start with rates. The interest rates continue to be pretty low, though the Fed is threatening to raise them in December, so we’ll see what happens when that decision is made. Currently, conventional interest rates hover slightly above 4%, and FHA and VA rates are just below 4%. All in all, interest rates are still very good, keeping buyers active in the marketplace.
Though it softened up at the beginning of the fall, the market is still very strong and we’re seeing multiple offers again.
Interest rates are still very good, keeping buyers active in the marketplace.
Values have plateaued. This can be seen as a good thing since they haven’t continued to rise and make housing unaffordable to most people.
Here are a few statistics for you:
In 2017, the average days on market is 34 days. Interestingly, this is the same average as last year.
Almost 11,000 homes have sold in Salt Lake County this year so far. The entirety of 2016 saw 11,330 homes sold, so it looks like we’re on track to surpass that in 2017.
Year to date, the average sales price is $372,853 for a single-family home. For the third quarter of 2016, the average was $341,943. This shows that there’s been quite a year-over-year increase in single-family home values.
There are about 3.5 months of inventory on the market right now, meaning if no one else were to put their homes up for sale, we’d sell all of the currently available homes in 3.5 months. A healthy market has between three and six months of inventory, so we’re in a great time to sell, but not so much that the market is skewed against buyers.
As I said, we’re in a good, healthy market. Despite media scare tactics, there’s nothing indicating that a bubble or a crash is imminent.
If you have questions or want to discuss this further, please feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.
It’s that time of year again. Property tax season! Most municipalities are adjusting values and therefore raising taxes. You probably have already received your notice this year, but I wanted to make you aware of a few different things about them.
You’ve probably already received your notice in the mail.
The first thing you’ll get is a notice in early fall. Then a month or two later, you’ll receive a property tax bill that’s typically due sometime in November or late December. It’s important to note that this bill is something that’s typically included in your escrow account. Your mortgage company actually mails out that check. Before you decide that you need to pay your property tax bill, check with your mortgage company to see if you already have.
If you have any questions about this or about protesting your property taxes, I’d be glad to assist. Just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Today, I’m meeting with Ed Blake from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to discuss how the organization works, and how you can help them with their amazing cause.
Today, we’ll be talking with Ed Blake at Habitat for Humanity.
What does Habitat for Humanity do for the community?
Ed: We provide affordable housing for families in need. We don’t give them the house; they get a 30-year, no interest mortgage, and they pay back every cent we give them. Habitat for Humanity also does critical repairs, primarily on homes that are making people sick.
Another service I’d like to talk about is our Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which keeps 781 tons of refuse and turns it into money that comes into our affordable housing program.
A lot of this product is new; people think it’s all used or garbage, but a lot of it is actually brand-new. The story goes quite often that if you come down here and you can’t find what you want, just wait a few days—it’ll come in eventually.
These are all building improvement items for homes. On the real estate side, if you hear about a family that’s going to take out the kitchen as soon as they move in, donate those materials to us. You’ll come down here and sell or donate it—you get a tax write-off for it as well—and we can also send a truck out to pick it up for you.
We provide affordable housing for families in need
If you’re going to to be tearing out your bathrooms or kitchens, contact the ReStore and see if it’s a fit for them to come pick up those materials. You get a tax write-off, and you won’t have to haul it to the dump and pay to get rid of it. They’ll absolutely reuse it. Beyond that, if you’re doing any home projects such as finishing or redoing a bathroom or basement, please stop by the ReStore for any number of supplies. There’s furniture, tile, cabinets, appliances, and much more.
As one last final touch, who gets these Habitat homes?
Ed: The people who get these homes are people in the community who are earning 30% to 60% of the area median income, families in need, and often single parents with their children, which is our largest demographic.
Please keep that in mind, and if you’re looking to volunteer, Habitat for Humanity is always a great entity to work with. They are located at 1276 S 500 W, Salt Lake City, Utah 84107. You can also follow their activities on their Facebook page.
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'd be happy to help you.
This activity has been a favorite of my husband and I since we discovered it a few years ago. There are many disc golf courses across the state, but today I’m at the one at Creekside Park. It’s quite fun, very popular, and highly rated.
You don’t need to be skilled at disc golf to have fun.
To play disc golf, you simply throw discs (or frisbees) at designated targets. A lot of golf terminology is borrowed for this game, and you don’t need to be skilled at it to have fun. It’s perfect for a day at the park—you can get some exercise and enjoy some competitive sporting fun!
If you’re familiar with the sport and want to meet up with us sometime for a game, feel free to get in touch with me. If you have any real estate questions or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in the Salt Lake area, give me a call or send me an email. In any case, I look forward to hearing from you.
I noticed so many great trends at Salt Lake Creative Homes that I couldn’t fit them all into one discussion, so here’s the second half of my top 10:
6. Light fixtures with Edison bulbs. This was a really big one—I don’t know if there was a single home without at least one fixture with an Edison bulb in it. If you’re considering redoing your lighting, keep this in mind.
7. Open shelving in the kitchen. This is a neat concept if you’re really clean and don’t have a lot of clutter in your cupboard.
If you’re considering redoing your lighting, keep Edison bulbs in mind.
8. A free-standing tub in the master bathroom. This has been a hot trend for the last three or four years. This wasn’t in just the high-end homes—it was in several other homes in the master suite as well.
9. Pendant lights in the bathroom vanity. This was a new trend this year. Instead of just the light bar, they had pendant lights that hung down in front of the mirror.
10. Crystal resin doorknobs. Door hardware was a big thing. It was very rare that I saw a traditional lever or doorknob. Everyone had their own take on door hardware, and I love it because I myself was searching for hardware because we’re redoing our doors this month!
If you noticed any trends I missed or have any questions about any of these trends and applying them to your current or future home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to speak with you.
I noticed some great trends at Salt Lake Creative Homes this year. I’ve got a top 10 list but today, I’ll just go over the first five.
There are definitely a few things I noticed that are emerging as common themes in the national housing market.
1. The chalkboard wall. Several homes had a chalkboard wall. Some had them in common rooms like kitchens, while other homes had chalkboard walls in children’s rooms.
2. Patterned tile. I have mixed feelings about patterned tile. When I say patterned tile, I mean that the tile itself is arranged in a certain pattern or has a certain geometric shape. For several years, I’ve been telling homeowners to get rid of their 1970s patterned tile, so I’m struggling with the fact that I’ll have to do that again in five to seven years. But I guess some people think it’s cute right now.
I did like the patterned tile in one home. They just had a small backsplash with patterned tile, so it wasn’t overdone. If you have to do patterned tile, I would definitely recommend that you use it in small amounts.
I recommend using patterned tile in smaller spaces, like backsplashes.
3. Wall treatments. Many people are dressing up walls with painted boards or repurposed barn wood. This is a cool way to make your room look unique.
4. Gray cabinets with blue and green tones. These cabinets are really pretty and a refreshing change from all of the white kitchens we’ve seen the last few years.
5. All-white exteriors. Homes are being painted in white or off-white colors. There are even some painted brick homes out there. These homes are then paired with a black or dark brown roof and gutters, which creates a very sharp look.
Stay tuned for my next video where I’ll go over the last five trends from Salt Lake Creative Homes.
In the meantime, let me know if there are any other interesting trends that you’ve noticed or if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
I want to spread the word as much as possible about a great organization here in Salt Lake City that is helping our most vulnerable people: kids.
I’m excited to be joined today by Lynda Smart Brown, the CEO/President of KidsEat! here in Salt Lake City. To me, she is simply an angel for what she does. She steps up to help the alarming number of children in our backyard who don't have enough to eat.
Did you know that there are 55,000 children in the Salt Lake Valley that qualify for a free lunch from the state every day? Lynda figures that at least half of those kids could benefit from food on the weekend and their numbers are proving that to be true.
What they do is pretty simple. They take backpacks and fill them up with seven balanced meals consisting of everything from fruit cups to graham crackers to macaroni and cheese. They then take these backpacks and distribute them to places like The Boys and Girls Club and elementary schools.
This is such an important organization.
Even with all the work Lynda has done, she still hasn’t been able to feed all of these hungry kids. She needs our help to do this. I’m a big believer in this cause, and I’m proud to support it.
They go through a whopping $4,000 per month in food and distribute anywhere from 100 to 150 backpacks. If you’d like to support KidsEat!, you can do so right on their website. Whether you can donate time, money, or food, just know that you are helping to give a lot of these kids what so many of us take for granted.
KidsEat! also has a charity golf tournament coming up on September 15th at Murray Parkway. You don’t need to be an expert player by any means. They are looking for more female golfers in particular, but everyone is welcome to attend.
If you have any questions for us about KidsEat! or anything about real estate, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.
Today we’re continuing to talk about the bathroom remodel process.
To do so, I met up with Ross Jorgensen of Rosco Construction—who is helping a friend of ours remodel three bathrooms, including a full bath, a guest bath, and a half bath.
Protecting certain features in the room is important, he told me, since he and his team will be coming in and out of the rooms with heavy equipment.
Protecting certain features in the room is important.
After they tear out the things that must be removed, they will need to adjust the plumbing. Since granite is being installed, they must also rip out all of the sheet rock in preparation.
Now, the particular home they’re working on does have downstairs bathrooms so the remodeling will not impede the homeowners, but there are cases where remodeling makes all of a home’s bathrooms totally inaccessible.
Ross says people should be mindful of instances like this, since the entire process takes between three to five weeks.
Next time, we’ll show you what everything looks like once it’s been torn up.
If you have any other questions or want more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Today marks the starting point of a new video series about the process of a basic bathroom remodel. To start, I wanted to focus on the color selection process here at Arizona Tile.
In the video above, I'm standing in the slab yard’s granite section to pick out a countertop slab for my friend Kiku. We need to pick out some granite for the counters in three different bathrooms.
There's an immense selection of granite, marble, and quartz here at the amazing showroom at Arizona Tile.
Our friend and contractor Ross Jorgensen from Rosco Construction sent us here for the first of many tasks in this remodel job. We're here to pick out tile for the bathrooms in addition to the countertops.
As you can see in our video, there's an immense selection of granite here at the amazing showroom at Arizona Tile. They also have marble and quartz slabs. The best part is that their prices are very competitive as well.
Stay tuned for our next video where we'll tackle another step in this bathroom remodel. In the meantime, give me a call if you have any questions about remodeling or you need a reference for a great contractor or vendor. We're always happy to help!
Lighting is one of those things you don’t think about until you’re in need of it. Here’s who we recommend you get your next lamp or light fixture from.
We are excited to be joined today by our friend Derek Nielson with Lighting Specialists to talk a little bit about what they do and how they help new and existing homeowners alike with their lighting needs.
You might be tempted to go to a big box store like Home Depot or Lowe’s, but there are certain advantages that come with working with someone like Derek that you won’t get there.
Their customer service is second to none.
The first is the selection. Everything is high quality, and the selection is unmatched. Their pricing is another advantage because most of the time, they can get you a better deal on a lamp or lighting fixture than you would get at a big box store.
Finally, their customer service is second to none. Derek, or one of his coworkers, will ask questions and listen to your answers to determine exactly what your needs are. They are very patient, and definitely in it for the long haul. I just got a new fixture for my dining room here, and Derek was very patient with me.
If you have any questions for Derek or anyone else at Lighting Specialists, give them a call at (801) 566-1324 or visit their website here.
If you have any real estate questions or needs, you can always give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
After many years of talking about carbon monoxide detectors in homes, I actually had a potential carbon monoxide problem in my own home recently and panicked and didn’t know what to do.
One of my kids turned on a stove burner to boil water and didn’t realize the flame didn’t light. I was in a different part of the house at the time, so before I smelled the gas, it had already been leaking into most of my house for a good 10 minutes.
All it took for me was a little Googling to solve this problem but if this kind of thing happens to you and catches you off guard, here’s what you need to do to keep everyone in your house safe.
Taking care of these tasks can mean the difference between tragedy and near-tragedy.
First, open all of the windows regardless of how cold it is. Then shut off all the gas appliances. After that, check everyone in the home for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. Symptoms include lack of consciousness, vomiting, or nausea. If none of those symptoms are present, evacuate the house and allow the home to air out. You can call the fire department and have them check the home for leaks if you’re not sure where yours is coming from. If this happens during winter, make sure you turn the furnace off.
Taking care of a few simple things can mean the difference between tragedy and near-tragedy. Lastly, remember to have up-to-date smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in your home.
If you have any questions about carbon monoxide safety, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to speak with you.
It’s that time of year again. Spring is in full swing, summer is on the way, and most of us will be visiting a farmer’s market here in the upcoming weekends.
I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be more excited. I always love going out in the community, visiting with local farmers and small business owners, and getting some delicious produce in the process. If there are any urban farmers out there that need some space to grow their veggies, I’ve got plenty of space out here in Sandy!
What’s your favorite thing about the farmer’s market?
What are your favorite things about the farmer’s market? Let me know in the comment section below. I love picking out fresh tomatoes, and anything with garlic in it instantly has my attention.
There are a ton of different markets around here. There’s the Wheeler Farm market, the giant downtown market, and the Park City Park Silly Market in the summer. The Park Silly Market is one of my favorites because we just head up their with our dogs and enjoy all the art, food, and drinks they have to offer.
So get out there and let me know what some of your best farmer’s market finds were. If you have any real estate questions or needs in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Mother’s Day is May 14th, so you might be wondering where you should take your mom for brunch.
Many people already have a favorite spot, but I wanted to let you know about a great place for brunch if you’re looking to switch it up this year.
Kimi’s Chop and Oyster House is great anytime, but it’s especially wonderful for Mother’s Day brunch.
Kimi’s Chop and Oyster House is great anytime, but it’s especially wonderful for Mother’s Day brunch.Click here to make sure you get a reservation and let me know what you thought!
As always, if you have any questions about buying or selling a home in our market, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’m always happy to help.
As some of you may know, I have a real affinity for Elon Musk and the ingenuity he brings to the table. From space travel to automaking to energy management, he’s doing a lot of great things to improve our world.
The latest and greatest comes with the bringing of his Tesla solar roof to market, and there’s some new information about it that we are very, very excited to share with you.
Recently, Tesla merged with SolarCity, another one of Musk’s companies that manufactures solar panels. With the merger, it is predicted that the cost of installing this solar roof will be less than installing a traditional roof. That is amazing! If you need a roof replacement, how great would it be to save a little money and get a solar roof?
These roofs will be cheaper to install than traditional ones.
On top of that, the roof will eventually pay for itself in energy savings alone. There will be four different shingle options when this product comes to market: textured glass, smooth glass, French slate, and Tuscan tile. They will be manufactured in the U.S. as well! We will be sure to keep you updated on who will be installing these in our area and when.
If you have any questions about this solar roof technology or any other questions about Utah real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Last year was a fantastic year for our market, and 2017 should stay strong. However, there are also a few challenges for buyers and sellers to overcome.
How did our Wasatch Front market do in 2016? What should the rest of 2017 look like?
Last year, there were 13,600 single-family home sales, which was a 1.3% increase from the year before. There were 4,300 condo/townhome/twin home sales, which was a 12% increase. The median sales price for single-family homes increased 8.1% to $295,000, while the median sales price for condos, townhomes, and twin homes increased 7% to $203,000. The median days on market was only 13 days—less than two weeks!
In 2016, we had the highest number of sales in the last 10 years. This has led a lot of people to wonder if we’re on the verge of another bubble. You can rest easy, though. There are no indications another recession is imminent because all the factors that caused the last one aren’t there now.
For the first time in 40 years, demand has exceeded supply.
However, for the first time in 40 years in our market, demand for housing has exceeded the supply. This has presented a list of challenges, such as affordability for housing, a shortage of well-qualified trades for builders, zoning and municipality changes and fees, land cost, rising rents, sustainable housing, and basic supply and demand.
You’ll likely hear about these things on the local news now and again, and us Realtors are working hard to solve them and work with politicians to protect your personal property rights.
All in all, 2017 will be a really strong year for home sales and home values. Interest rates should rise a little bit, but that shouldn’t affect the overall market.
Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, if you’re on the fence about entering the market, I’d love to sit down and review the details of your situation with you. I look forward to hearing from you!
The theme for 2016 was “The year of the refinance” with interest rates being so low. Now, people are saying that 2017 is going to be the year of the buyer. Things are certainly shaping up that way, here’s how.
For starters, we all know millennials are getting into the market and purchasing homes at a much higher rate than they have in the past. There are a few interesting statistics to note, including the fact that the national average rent rose from $950 a month to $1,040 a month in 2016 alone. That’s nearly 10%!
Buying a home protects you from continually rising interest rates.
The odds are that when investors are buying properties, now with higher rates, they are passing those costs along to the renters. Renters may think it’s smart to wait to buy until rates go down, but the truth is you’ll still be paying those higher rates in the form of higher rent.
If you rented last year, how much equity did you earn? The answer is none. Purchasing a home is an investment that’s nearly always appreciating in value. A 30-year fixed rate stays the exact same over the life of the loan, save for some taxes and insurance.
If you have any questions for us or you’re thinking about buying a home in 2017, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.
If you plan on buying a home in 2017, that’s great news. However, there are a few things that you should know before you make the decision. We’ve got seven tips to share with you today that will help you become a better buyer. We’ve got tips for budgeting, tips for home maintenance, and tips for working with a lender.
1. Meet with a lender you trust. This could also be a lender that your Realtor trusts. You want to establish a game plan, know what type of loan product you’re going to get, and what you need for a down payment. There are a lot of down payment assistance programs out there.
2. Automate your down payment savings. Make them as relatively untouchable as possible.
3. Build up and clean up your credit. You don’t want to be sidelined when the time comes to buy because your credit needs work. A good lender will check your credit and if there are any problems, they will work with you to find a solution.
Be ready to pounce when it’s time.
4. Practice living on the budget of your estimated payments. This is a good exercise to use to determine if you can handle the monthly payments on your current income.
5. Get familiar with home maintenance. If you’re a first-time buyer, you don’t necessarily need to know everything it takes to maintain a home, but it’s a good idea to get familiar with it.
6. Create your wishlist and must-have items list. Compare those lists to the homes currently on the market, and get familiar with the homes that match your criteria in your target areas.
7. Be prepared to pounce when you are ready. This is the final step, but it’s the most important one. The market is active and competitive. We expect our trend of low inventory to continue.
If you have any questions for us or would like to discuss this topic further, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.
Whenever I hear multiple buyers starting to repeat the same misinformation, I start to notice a trend coming about. I never know where the info is coming from, but I know it’s wrong. Today I want to clear the air a bit on a few things I’ve been hearing about short sales.
Oftentimes, buyers tend to think that short sales are the best strategy to get a deal when buying. 85% of the time, that’s not true. Short sales are unique and different from other sales for a few reasons, such as:
1. In a traditional sale, homes that sit on the market and don’t sell typically reduce their prices. For short sales, this doesn’t typically happen because the balance the owner owes continues to rise as long as the short sale goes on. If someone is in foreclosure, they are not making payments. This causes interest and penalties to continue to accrue.
Short sales are unique situations.
2. Most of the time, the loans on these homes have mortgage insurance protecting the bank from losing too much money. This doesn’t give them a lot of motivation to drop their price significantly. You’ll be paying at, or just below market value for a home that may be in major disrepair. It might not even have a clean title, which will cause you to have to pay off any liens on the title. Ultimately, the bank could just decide to foreclose on the property at any time as well.
Before you hang your hat on the short sale bargain dream, remember they can take up to 13 or 14 months, and make sure you’re educated on what the process is like and an individual home’s situation.
If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
As the weather starts to get colder, we want to bring you some tips to prevent you from having to deal with the nightmare of frozen pipes. I learned a few things from a report I recently read, and I want to share them with you.
One typical preventative measure to take is getting a pipe sleeve that goes on a water line attached to an exterior wall. You can pick one of these up at Lowe’s or Home Depot, or you can just use newspaper as insulation if you’re in a pinch.
“
Pipe sleeves can work wonders.
”
There are quite a few things you can do in order to take preventative action against frozen pipes. One is keeping your garage door closed, as pipes are sometimes connected through there. If you have a bathroom or sink that is attached to an exterior wall, keep those bathroom cabinet doors open on cold nights and let the faucet drip just a touch to prevent freezing.
If you’re going away or out of town, always remember to keep your thermostat to at least 55 degrees.
Hopefully these things can help you and hopefully you’ve learned a thing or two in the process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
