It is an absolutely beautiful Spring evening here in the Mat Su Valley. The temps must be near 60 degrees and there isn't a cloud in the sky!
Real estate is doing well. Interest rates dropped back down again today and a steady stream of new listings come in each day. Along with that the pending and sales continue to be steady. We have about 7 months of inventory at this time. I still expect the inventory to pick up but right now it is holding pretty steady just over 700.
I just listed a couple of lots, one in Big Lake and one off of Upper Fire Lake in Eagle River. Check out my website www.dodykettler.com for more information!
I also reduced my home on Highlander Loop today. This ia just a beautiful 4 bedroom, 3 bath that sits on 2.81 acres. Horses allowed and a home warranty is included. Again, check out my website for more information.
Enjoy the daylight! Soon we will be fishing in the bright early mornings here in the Mat Su. If you are from out of state, make sure and get out and enjoy everything about Alaska! It is a great place to live.
It is turning into a beautiful Spring here in Alaska. The temperatures here at our house have reached 60 the last few days! The sun is out when I get up and still there when I go to sleep! I LOVE IT!
Along with Spring comes the bears! They have been waking out of their winter sleep over the past few weeks and yesterday this article was in the paper:
The first bear mauling of the year according to this article.
For those new and moving to the area there are a few things you can learn from this young man. First, PLEASE...never, never, never leave out food or dog food. Store it in a tightly closed container in the garage and put it out for pick up just before the garbage pick up arrives or take it to the dump in a timely manner. You might even be careful not to have food in your car. We have seen many times when bear decide to tear a car apart to get at the food. NEVER have your dog food or dog bowl out in the yard. My neighbors did that and the bears learned to open the gate to get at the dog food. The other thing you might learn from this young man is not to run from a bear. You are to stand your ground and then, if the bear continues to attack you, you are to play dead. Evidently this young man turned and ran. Most times momma bear with cubs will want to scare you and may even bite or hit you, but then will leave. They are usually defending their cubs and are not there to eat you. So, stand your ground if you can and then play dead and hopefully you will come away intact! LOL
On to Real Estate...interest rates were up just a bit yesterday to 6.25. Still great rates from a Realtor stand point. Anything under 7% is a great rate. If you were thinking of buying and haven't taken the first steps of pre-qualification, you might want to get that done. Annie Davenport at HomeState Mortgage Co is awesome. I work closely with Annie and trust her to do the best job for my clients.
Take advantage of this beautiful weather to get out there and see what is on the market. Check out my website for all of my listings! www.dodykettler.com
Just listed a great little ranch with a view in Palmer. It won't last long.
I wanted to highlight one of my listings today. In case anyone was waiting until we had physical access to the Crystal Creek property in Eagler River...we now have access. We hiked this beautiful property with the owner on Sunday. What a glorious day it was and the views of the Eagle River Valley, the inlet, mountains, river and glacier were fabulous (before the clouds rolled in and it began to snow! LOL).
If you are interested in almost 10 acres around the 5.8 mile mark of Eagle River Road, give me a call or send me an email or look at MLS # 08-1710.
Here are some photos from Sunday:
Again, contact me for more information!
Quote of the Day:
Every job is a self portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence. Anonymous
April! That means it is another month closer to fishing season! I usually only fish for Salmon, so round about the middle of June I start hitting it hard for King Salmon! That means in 10 weeks I will be Salmon fishing! It is good that I can fish early in the morning before anyone needs a Realtor.
Yesterday we saw that listings here in the Valley jumped up quite a bit. That is good news. The bad news is that buyers and sellers are not coming to terms as easily as they should and we still have houses priced too high and buyers wanting to give too little. In case you are believing all the media says, here in the Valley, home prices are actually up 2%. That isn't much, but it is enough to prevent this from being a buyer's market.
Another note: I have had 2 multiple offer situations in the last few weeks. If you are looking at houses in the $200,000 range and you see something that is priced well and you like it...BUY IT! It won't be there the next day. I showed 6 houses on Wednesday and by Saturday 3 of them had pended.
Another hint for first time home buyers: It is difficult to buy a house when you are looking at the top of your price range and you have no money for closing. It leaves us with no room to negotiate. Save some negotiation room. You are probably going to need it right now.
Thought of the day:
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
Wow! March is over and April is at the doorstep and life is moving so quickly!
Real estate is picking up in the Valley. We are starting to see more houses up for sale and more pendings and closings so that is a good thing for home buyers and sellers. I assume things will continue to pick up as we move into the summer season here in the Valley! The days are getting longer and warmer and the mountains SHINE in the beautiful sun. My family climbed the Butte this weekend and what a view we got from the top! Makes me happy I live in Alaska!
This morning I want to let everyone know that I have started using something called 'Talking House' for all of my listings! Just pull up to the sign in front of my houses and turn your radio dial to the channel indicated on the sign and listen to great information about that specific listing along with helps from me and, at this point, Annie Davenport from Homestate Mortgage Co. Talking house transmitters should be up and running in all my listings as of Friday of this week. If you are in the area, stop and listen at these locations:
2115 N Monte Vista (recently reduced to $310,000!!!)
1045 W Woodstock (great commute location for military)
1690 S Harvest Loop (new listing, beautiful home with tons of upgrades)
I would love some feedback on this. Please take the time to call me at 232-7331, email me at dkettler@prualaska.com or leave a comment here on my BLOG or the BLOG on my website at http://www.dodykettler.com/
Have a great first week of April!
Thought for the day: Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again. -- Captain Jean-Luc Picard, U.S.S. Enterprise
Well, it has been some time since I blogged. A trip to Dallas and then too much work makes me unable to get everything done I want to!
I thought today I would highlight my listings in case anyone might be looking for what I have!
My Monte Vista home was drastically reduced yesterday! MLS #08-814 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2255 sf, 1.01 acres, fenced, landscaped, all appliances and window coverings stay. Security system. Take a look at my website for pictures and more details! It is a screamin' deal!
My Woodstock home continues to have lots of lookers. It is a great buy with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, prow front, 2 car garage, fenced and a 6 person hot tub. Priced at $212,000 it is a great buy. Great communte location and within walking distance to Palmer. Again, check out my website. MLS # 08-1005
My land listings continue to draw a lot of interested. I have 9.77 acres in the mountains up Eagle River Road. Lots of interest and a great price of $79900! MLS #08-1710
I also have 40 acres near Big Lake that continue to draw interest. This is a GREAT deal at $97500! MLS # 08-1749
Have a great weekend. Stop by my Monte Vista open house Sunday from 10-noon for a cup of java and a cookie!
All of these are listed on my website and in the AK MLS
Okay, take a peek at this link to see what we in Alaska do for fun in the dead of winter! This is a YouTube video of the 'Running of the Reindeer' in downtown Anchorage yesterday during the Fur Rondy event.
Looks like fun to me. I may have to be one of the runners next year!
I try not to do a lot of work on Sundays, but I am home with a shoulder injury today so I thought I would take a little bit of time to catch up on my blog.
It has been an interesting week for me. As I continue to ponder the thoughts of the MatSu Valley being a buyer's market, I continue to find reasons I believe it wouldn't qualify as a 'true' buyer's market. At this time, our inventory is lower than this time last year. The average price of homes sold is up a bit, interests rates have come up 1 full percentage point since three weeks ago. My idea of a true buyer's market would be lower interest rates (although I feel anything under 7 is great), LOTS of inventory and prices lower than previously priced.
I think what we have here in the Valley is a 'perceived' buyer's market as the offers I am seeing are asking for many concessions from seller's and some are willing to do so. I see much lower priced offers as buyers think they can offer what they want, but I also see sellers not willing to accept these low offers. They seem to be willing to make concessions as to closing costs and things though.
It is all very interesting to me and I will continue to ponder as the market changes.
In case you are visiting the Valley, the next couple of weeks hold many wonderful events! Fur Rondy is happening RIGHT NOW. We enjoyed a beautiful, sunny, semi-warm day yesterday and were able to watch the dog pull events. It is so amazing to see these 40 pound dogs pull 920 pounds and then watch the 200 pound dogs pull nearly 2000 pounds! We saw the snow sculptures being completed and watch people from everyone enjoying the carnival and helicopter rides. What a wonderful thing in the midst of winter in Alaska.
From the Rondy comes the Iditarod. Next Saturday, the ceremonial start begins in downtown Anchorage and on Sunday the actual start of the race begins in Willow. If you get a chance to attend either starts, I highly recommend doing so. I will be in Dallas for a conference this year so will be unable to attend, but my family will be in attendance for me as we don't like to miss this event. Last year we cheered for Matt Hayashida and will do the same this year. Of course we all love Lance Mackey and will cheer him on also. If you get a change to view the DVD made from last year's race you will be in for a treat. It is so professionally done and just an amazing addition to anyone's Alaska collection. It can be purchase through the Iditarod homepage, linked above.
It is a great week to be Alaskan! Get out an enjoy some superb events, and take a peek at some great real estate. If you need some assistance, I will be glad to help.
About three weeks ago we saw interest rates hit as low as 5.3. As of Friday morning they were at 6.125. That is quite a change in just a few weeks. When the rates hit 5.3 I asked some lenders what they felt the rates would do and although they wished they could really figure it out, they thought they would not drop much more and would start increasing. Here we are today with rates almost 1 percentage higher, so their 'gut' feelings were correct. I am interested to find out what this week holds as far as interest rates.
Any predictions on the short-term and long-term interest rates? If so, leave your comments here! I would love to see what others are thinking.
It is Friday and here at my house we are in the middle of a blizzard. We warmed up to 40+ degrees yesterday, melted a bunch of snow, turned my driveway to ice and now it is 14 and a full-blown blizzard is underway! Got to LOVE Alaska weather. You are never bored!
I am hosting an open house for my Monte Vista listing on Saturday. This house is just beautiful. I hope anyone who has buyers who need something in the low 300's will come by tomorrow and have the chance to walk through this home. This is a 4 bedroom with extra utility room, laundry room, master suite with jacuzzi tub, prow front, great room, breathtaking views of Pioneer Peak, a 2 car tuck-under garage along with a detached, heated 2 car garage/shop in addition to the tuck-under. 1.01 acres of land, fenced and landscaped. All appliances (including washer and dryer) and window coverings stay with the home.
I hope some of you in the community and fellow Realtors come take a look at this home.
Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 16th from 1-3pm
2115 N Monte Vista
Take the Palmer-Wasilla towards Wasilla. Rt on Monte Vista (just before Equestrian Acres.) The house is up Monte Vista on the right. Look for the Prudential Open House signs.
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