Coeur d'Alene Idaho Real Estate & Property Management

Homes listed with our team are selling in days and weeks, not months.  Months is the MLS area average.

Why?

1. Price:  When a home is priced right, it will be a commanding presence in the ocean of available properties
   
   
2. Commission:  When a solid commission is offered to a Buyer's Agent, BA's come to our team first (often times before they look in the MLS, believe it or not) to let us know what their buyers are looking for.
   
   
3. Strong website presence:  Many of our properties are not listed in the MLS for various valid reasons.  This means we also can not promote these properties via MLS broadcasts to fellow Realtors, nor are they found in typical 'MLS' searches.  How are other Realtors buyers finding our 'non-MLS' properties?  From our website.  Their buyers google around and find our website.  They explore, they find something they like.  Showings get scheduled, offers get made and homes get sold.
   
   
4. Large clientelle:  We have a phenomenally large database of past clients and prospects interested in buying homes.  We market heavily to this database, providing information relevant and up-to-date. 
   
   
5. Forging Networking Relationships: We've forged strong relationships with real estate networks throughout the country.
   

What prompted me to write this post?  We just sold 2 properties so far today (it's 9:30am), 1 that hit the MLS last night and one of our clientelle purchased it because it was on our website 24 hours earlier and another that hit the MLS on Wednesday and had its first showing last night (offer came today) and has yet another showing scheduled for today (we just might get into another multiple offer situation on this property).

We sell a lot of properties, the key difference between us and everyone else are the reasons above.  There is a difference in Realtors.  Marketing is important.  Too many agencies in the area are spending thousands of dollars publishing full-page, full-color newspaper ads once a week.  It's not getting it done.  Since 80% of buyers and sellers 'hit the net' when buying/selling real estate, we focus our marketing where 80% of the people go, not the newspaper. 

More updates on what's going on in Post Falls Idaho:

1. Netflix is opening a distribution center in the Riverbend Commerce Park
2. Noodle Express is opening at Mullan & 41 by October (new building being purchased)
3. 120-unit rental housing complex at Seltice and McGuire, 50% of which are slated for senior housing
   

On a side note, Wild Waters park in Coeur d'Alene is starting a $4 million expansion to be completed in 2 phases, 1 slated to finish by June of this year and the 2nd phase slated to be completed by the 2008 season.

My personal thoughts on this are that they need to keep up because of the ever expanding of Silverwood Theme Park just a few minutes north of Coeur d'Alene. 

Check this out:

6,444 total listings on the market in the MLS.  We're already over last years highest inventory point of 6,150 hit in August.

3,520 homes available for sale, over last years high point of 3,496 (again in August).  Bring that down to residential homes and condo's only (no manufactured homes, vacant land or commercial listings) AND narrowing that down even further to include only properties for sale in Kootenai County, we have 2,515 homes/condo's available for sale within the county.

Prices are holding steady with a few exceptions.

• Absolute lowest price are 600-700sf condo's available for $86,500 - $90,000.
• Absolute lowest house prices are 400-800sf older homes, mostly in outlying towns, available for $110,000 - $130,000
• Entry level price for existing homes in the newer sub-divisions starts (there are less expensive pre-construction options which require a 4-6 month wait until completion):
• Fieldstone $179,000 3bd/2ba 1203sf
  
• The Landings $214,000 3bd/2.5ba 1736sf
• Strawberry Fields $268,766 4bd/3ba 2468sf
  
• Sunshine Meadows $177,000 3bd/2ba 1042sf
  
• Woodbridge $170,000 3bd/2ba 1162sf
  
• Avalon Estates $171,500 3bd/2ba 1102sf
  
• Treaty Rock Estates $162,900 3bd/2ba 1166
  
• Greensferry Landing $169,900 2bd/2ba 1018
  
• Jasper Meadows $214,000 3bd/2ba 1679
  
• Riverside Harbor $199,950 3bd/2ba 1332sf
  
• Ramsey Meadows $189,000 3bd/2ba 1263sf
  
• Legacy Place $249,900 3bd/2ba 1518sf
  
• Coeur d'Alene Place $164,900 2bd/1.25ba 892sf
• Broadmoore Estates $205,000 3bd/2ba 1458sf
  

What is very revealing about this is that the price to 'enter' most of these sub-divisions jumped from $164,900 less than 2 weeks ago to $177,000.  For you folks that keep waiting on the fence thinking prices are going to go down, you now have to spend an additional $12,000 to get into a home.  A couple of these sub-divisions are maintaining their prices, not moving up or down including: Avalon Estates, Treaty Rock Estates and Greensferry Landings.  One thing to note, in each of these 'holding steady sub-divisions', while I've reported the entry level price, there is only 1 home available at that price.  The next priced home in each of these sub-divisions starts a minimum of $10,000 higher.

Have I missed reporting on a sub-division or area within Kootenai County you are interested in?  Let me know and I'll give you an update immediately and include it in the future. 

1. A 96-acre annexation proposal "Prairie Properties" at the southeast corner of Prairie Avenue and Hwy 41.  A shopping center is planned and 2 acres were donated to the Dirne Community Health Center.
   
2. A 131-acre Foursquare Business Park, anchored by Cabela's - for 26 industrial lots with an average density of 0.2 lots per acre
   

Public hearings will be held by The Post Falls Planning and Zoning Commission at 6pm, May 8th. 

Zoning change requests include:

1. A 280-acre sub-division
2. A conditional-use permit for a 9-acre church complex 

Additional considerations:

1. 5-acre Legion Manor sub-division proposing 18 single-family lots with an average density of 3.44 lots per acre.
   

There was a great article in today's Coeur d'Alene Press about county population growth.  The most important, in my opinion, being that the county is asking for all voices to help shape the growth plan.  Currently, the voices are mostly new residents to the area who have "gotten their piece of North Idaho and now they want no more growth".  The county wants the growth plans to be balanced and currently it's lopsided.

Please help shape the growth.  It is inevitable, and we can all help formulate the the plan so our area retains it's beauty and pristine quality of life.

It's funny how many calls we get from people wanting to 'buy foreclosure' properties in Kootenai County.  What's even more amazing is how inaccurately this information is being reported in our local media!!  Wow, imagine that, inaccurate media reporting :D  One source was quoted as saying they have over 100 defaults a month.  Hum, interesting.  I've compiled the total number of defaults in Kootenai County, on a month by month basis since 2000.  I track this monthly, see below.  Even in our highest default year, 2001, no single month ever reached 100 total.

Ok, first of all, here are the facts:

1. The 'numbers' you see reported are 'Notices of Default'.  This means that payments are late anywhere from 1 month to 1 year.  Reporting is done by lender, there is no standard.  Notices of default are not 'actual foreclosures'.
2. 99% of NOD's do not make it to the trustee sale.  In other words, 99% of the NOD's that are filed and reported are simply a warning to the borrower and the borrower makes good on the default.  They have 180 days to make good on the default.  99% bring their accounts current or work out an agreement with their lender.
3. A trustee sale is different.  Notices of Trustee Sale, announced on a daily basis in the local newspaper are another story.  90% of these actually make it to foreclosure.
   
4. I'll be tracking the actual Notices of Trustee Sale beginning today, for your reference.

Check it out!  Google maps now has a little tab called "My Maps".  This is one of those 'awesome' new things put out by Google.

• Mark your favorite places on your map.
• Draw lines and shapes to highlight paths and areas.
• Add your own text, photos, and videos.
• Publish your map to the web.
• Share your map with friends and family.

So incredibly perfect for real estate applications.  For example, we have a buyer looking for large amounts of land (100+ acres).  We are able to find the land on google and then draw the overlying plat, allowing the buyer to get a birds eye view of the property.  It's awesome!

Dear Clown:

You'll have to do much more than send me a spam email telling me you can get me 10 'solid leads' per month.  You'll have to do much better than say you'll get me 60-100 calls a month.  You'll have to do something different than proclaim that you can get my website 'at the top' of google, yahoo and msn.

You see, you haven't taken the time to review my website or get to know who I am and what I offer.  We already do more deals than what you are offering.  We get way more calls than what you are projection and our little poduck website already sits nice and high in the search engines.

Stop with the calls saying you saw me on Active Rain and you have a referral for me - it's just bait and switch.  You aren't giving me a referral, you are asking for money.  Stop trying to sell me on something that isn't even in the county I serve.  That's right, if I tell you I'm not interested in working in the adjacent county, I am not going to change that for the 'suppossed' lead you can get me every month for that county.  Since we refer out multiple leads a month to a colleague for that county, why would I want to work your leads?

And the next part is for Realtors(R).  STOP giving these idiots money.  Stop trying to 'buy' leads.  With very very few exceptions, everyone that signs contracts with these lead aggregators more than regrets the action a few months later. Spend HALF the amount of money they want building your website, focusing on your blog and getting organic search results in search engines.

ALL good things take time and work, period.  You can not buy your way to a solid successful real estate business, it will not work.

Signed,
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