Gillians’s Blog & REsources Portal: A Source for Buyers and Sellers of Montana Real Estate

Traditionally, the onset of spring is the beginning of the busiest home buying and selling season. So if you have been waiting for the weather to turn, now is the time to think about readying your property to be put on the market. With a larger inventory of homes currently on the market than in the past few years, it is more important than ever to ensure that your home stands out from the crowd within its appropriate price range.

First, pricing your home correctly from the onset is essential to successful selling. As soon as you decide to put your home on the market, it becomes a commodity for sale and must be viewed and marketed as such. Determining a competitive, reasonable offering price is the key to a timely sale. Knowing the background of comparable sales in the neighborhood is obviously important, but it must be coupled with the supply and demand for the location, size of the home, etc. The home’s condition is another consideration when comparing to other homes that are currently on the market. If the competition is all in move-in condition, and your home is in need of updates, the price must be willing to reflect this. Also keep in mind the timeframe in which you honestly need to sell the home. If urgency is imperative, then you may need to price it on the low end of the proper price range in order to move more quickly. Finally, take note that when homes are overpriced at the initial time of listing and have undergone several price reductions, they often end up selling for even less than their worth.

Next, take some time prior to placing the “For Sale” sign in the front yard to complete home improvement projects, improve the exterior appeal, and stage the interior of your home. All are essential to get the attention of today’s buyer and will certainly pay off in terms of final sales price and time on the market.

If you have been in the middle of one or several do-it-yourself projects, it is definitely time to finish them up prior to potential buyers viewing your home. Curb appeal is a much used term, but the importance is paramount. If the prospective buyer is not compelled to actually get out of their vehicle and walk up to the front door, it doesn’t matter how much potential the home has.

Once a buyer has decided to view the home, the first impression must make a huge impact. Hiring a staging professional is certainly an option if your budget allows. A home stager can make the most of your personal belongings or bring in furnishings that will best showcase your home’s possibilities and bring out the maximum value possible in the home. Generally speaking, the cost of this service is almost always less than the initial price reduction of an unsold, listed property. Montana Home Staging and Staging Spaces, companies servicing the Bozeman and surrounding area, both offer a wide variety of services with the goal of turning a “house hunter into a home buyer.”

Staging has been on the rise in recent years with statistics to back up its effectiveness. The payoff can truly be great. One local staging company is credited with transforming a home that was sitting on the market for 12 months into selling in 4 weeks. National statistics show that staged homes generally sell in ½ the time of unstaged homes. Additionally, according to a 2007 survey published by homestagingresource.com, the cost of professional home staging can garner a 343% return on investment in terms of increase in sales prices. Furthermore, 91% of real estate agents nationwide now recommend this service. These numbers are both up from the same survey in 2003 when the return on investment was estimated at 169% with a 76% agent recommendation rate. In fact, the only category that received a higher return on investment is “Clean and De-clutter” due to the fact that the cost involved is so minimal.

Small changes can really make a big difference when positioning your home as the best deal in your price range. If buyers leave your property with a memorable impression of it, you will have a much better chance of selling your home at the best possible price in the shortest amount of time, which is very important in this competitive market. Keep in mind that being proactive is the best first step to a successful real estate sale.

For those sellers who already have their homes on the market in anticipation of a springtime sale, an Open House may be the key to getting an interested, qualified buyer in the door. This Sunday, May 4th, from 1pm - 3pm, I’ll be holding 327 South 10th open between 1pm & 3pm. Here’s the description from the MLS:

If you’ve been looking for home, stop right here. This is where family & friends will want to gather at the holidays, in the spacious beamed living room, with awarm wood stove. This is the place for graduation parties, in the private back yard sanctuary. This is a house to mould to your lifestyle: need a lot of bedrooms? They’re here. Need loads of office space? Got it. Like to entertain? Great flow,indoor & out. With the best location in town, this roomy beauty is big enough to hold a hundred dreams!

I love this house! There are some properties where I have to work a little harder to see all the assets & benefits, but this one is so easy to be enthusiastic about. It’s not perfect: needs some new windows here & there, some paint maybe, but there is a wonderful feel to it, that transcends any of the imperfections. Walking in, you just know there’s been a lot of laughter and love here. Children have grown up, weddings have been prepared for, live has been lived to the fullest.

Come & see what I mean this coming Sunday afternoon.

This 4 bedroom/ 2 bath, 1574 SF west side home has been updated with new bathrooms and more. Fenced yard and oversized 1-car garage. Great starter home@$159,000.

You can move right in to this fully renovated 3 bedroom/ 2bath, 1527 SF home on Livingston’s east side. Wood floors, high ceilings, 2 new bathrooms, and more. Small lot keeps yardwork to a minimum! Hobbies? You’ll love the extra shop room in the garage. Just listed @ $179,000.

You’ll love the floor plan of this newer 3 bedroom/ 2 bath home in Northern Lights. Open kitchen/dining area, vaulted ceiling in the spacious living room. Master suite w/ walk-in closet & walk-in shower. Kitchen has hickory cabinets, black granite tile counter tops, gas range, wood laminate floor. Super clean! Full unfinished basement has 1 egress window and is plumbed for bath. $249.000.

Beautiful northside Victorian with the perfect blend of character & an elegant 2005 remodel. This 3 bedroom/ 2 bath 1880’s home sits above the historic Livingston railyards & looks south towards Paradise Valley & the Absaroka Mtns. Beautiful cook’s kitchen w/skylight, great entertaining flow & wonderful living/dining areas. Hardwood floors & high ceilings too, with loads of historic character. Lovely yard with shady arbor in summer and only minutes to Main Street. A beauty listed at $269,000.

Wondering what’s going on with our friend Mr. Wade Dokken, of Ameya Preserve & Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalogue fame? The folowing information was taken from a recent article in the Bozeman Chronicle.

Wade Dokken has sold roughly 4,000 acres of his proposed Ameya Preserve development to a neighboring landowner, Giorgio Perfetti, an heir to an Italian candy empire that includes Mentos mints.

Ameya touts itself as an environmentally sensitive development that blends ecology and culture, with a nature program as well as music, paleontology and other programs. Plans call for putting about 300 homes plus commercial facilities in the Bullis Creek drainage about four miles south of Livingston.

Perfetti proposed the purchase, one Ameya executive said, because he didn’t want to look at development from his own property.

“He came to us, and for us, it seemed very hard to pass up,” said Jaime Prieto, one of the Ameya partners in charge of marketing. “He said he doesn’t want to develop it.”

Perfetti wants to preserve his own viewscape on a ranch he owns at the head of the neighboring Strickland Creek drainage. Perfetti could not be located for comment.

* Ameya sold the block of land on the west end of its holdings March 5 and some of it had been slated for development, Dokken said Monday.

“He would have looked right down on it,” Dokken said of Perfetti.

Dokken said the sale eliminates all of Ameya’s debt and puts cash in the bank, though he did not reveal the purchase price.

“We have no debt and no interest costs,” Dokken said. “It’s a very attractive position for us to be in.”

Ameya earlier had taken out a $13 million mortgage, according to Park County records, as well as a $6 million line of credit.

Forbes magazine said in 2004 that Perfetti and his brother have a fortune estimated at $2 billion.

Phase one of the Ameya development has received preliminary plat approval from county officials, and reservations have been taken for several parcels, Dokken said. Those parcels can’t be sold until final plat approval is granted.

Future phases will bring about 300 homes to the scenic valley, Dokken said.

Park County Planner Mike Inman said he will be meeting with Ameya representatives April 3 to discuss final plat approval for phase one, which includes about 40 homes, according to a map on Ameya’s Web site.

A large part of Ameya’s marketing program has focused on the access buyers would have to the entire property, which includes about 9,700 acres of deeded land and 1,300 acres of land leased from the state of Montana.

Dokken said the sale to Perfetti will reduce the number of hiking trails Ameya residents can use, but didn’t think it would make a huge difference to potential owners.

“We probably valued that footprint more than they (buyers) did,” he said. People will still have access to about 5,700 acres of land, and another 1,300 if Ameya’s efforts to buy the two state sections are successful.

The lots are expensive: $2.1 million for a little less than 10 acres, according to the Web site for Hall and Hall, a Billings firm that specializes in high-end properties.

Dokken has said he wants Ameya to be a model of low-impact development, that it will use green building materials and buy carbon offsets and wind-generated power.

Some local critics have scoffed at the notion that 300 vacation homes in an important wildlife area could be good for the environment.

One of those critics, wildlife biologist Pete Feigley, said Monday that he doesn’t know enough about the land sale to say what impacts it might have on the wildlife or the project.

The Ameya property is host to a herd of several hundred elk, plus a wide variety of other wildlife.

Dokken said he hopes to begin construction of some commercial facilities in the summer.