The Houses By Harlan Team's Blog by The Houses By Harlan Team

Good Monday Morning!!

The Houses By Harlan Team — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:18:00 GMT

Enjoy the beautiful day!! We continue to run between rain drops but the coming weeks are looking terrific so get busy with summer!

The one thing that seems to be a constant in the market today, as always, is that if you are trying to sell your home, you will have to do everything just right. You will need to price your home aggressively. (We can help you with that!). You might want to have your home staged and have it looking better than your competitiors. Professional promotion is a must also. If you can do this, you will have a fair chance of selling it. If not, you may wait a while for a buyer to appear for your house. Our current market is not for those who are just testing the water. Selling your home takes a full commitment to all of the items ..(read more)

National News Again!

The Houses By Harlan Team — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:02:00 GMT

What a Beautiful Morning! It is so wonderful to see the Sun Shining!! We look forward to a great spring.

Wow, Sioux Falls makes the national news again! We are including the link to CNN Money Web site where they named Sioux Falls as one of the 100 best places to live & launch a new business. Sioux Falls was ranked as number 45 on the list. It costs about 45 percent less to open a business here than in (read more)

More Jobs in Sioux Falls

The Houses By Harlan Team — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:55:00 GMT

Welcome to South Dakota reality. Amazing we think spring is here and we get another snow storm. Oh, well we know it won't last very long with the warm temperatures we have coming.

South Dakota and Sioux Falls made some positive news again. This article talks about South Dakota leading the US in growth of income. I like the part of the article farther down where it talks about more jobs in Sioux Falls. Take a look here in the link: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS/803300314/1001/news

We are so blessed to be living in Sioux Falls, SD.

Have a Great Week!!!

Sincerely,
Harlan & Mark

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Property Tax Reduction for Disabled Veterans

The Houses By Harlan Team — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:51:00 GMT

Do you know any Veterans? Well more appropriately, do you know any Veterans that are totally disabled because of a service related condition? If you do, this bit of information may be for you.

South Dakota has enacted the Property Tax Reduction for Disabled Veterans program. The program is designed to reduce the property tax that a qualifying veteran pays. The first $100,000 of the home ..(read more)

Good Monday Morning!

The Houses By Harlan Team — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Spring was happening! Even though we have some new snow, we know spring is close at hand. It is the beginning of a gorgeous time of year.

The Sioux Falls real estate market also seems to be awakening from winter. There are more buyers out looking right now than there has been in months. If this starts turning into sales, we should see a marked improvement in homes sales over the next several months. Mortgage interest rates have been on a roller coaster ride over the past week, but still remain extremely favorable with 30 year fixed rates in the 5.75 - 6.0% range. Look for these rates to continue their up and down ride over the next few months.

One bit of interesting news is that the average time it takes a home to sell in our current market is 80 days. The average time it is currently taking homes listed by the HousesbyHarlan Team to sell is 49 days. Strong and aggressive marketing makes a difference in this ..(read more)

Maintenance Must-Dos

The Houses By Harlan Team — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT

BY JOHN N. FRANK

First-time buyers often don’t know much about home maintenance. You can help by giving them a maintenance schedule that’ll prevent small problems from turning into big headaches.

Our maintenance checklist was compiled with the help of Lou Manfredini, Ace Hardware’s home improvement spokesperson and star of the “Mr. Fix-It” show on Chicago’s WGN-AM radio, and Frank Lesh, president of the (read more)

Good Monday Morning!

The Houses By Harlan Team — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:51:00 GMT

Sunday was another Spring like day with the temperatures rising to the 40's for most of the week, we will lose a lot of our snow. Watch peoples attitudes and health improve!

South Dakota made the national news again! Nationally home sales dropped 21% from October through December. South Dakota was the only state where sales rose at an impressive 8.9%. Congratulations. we live in a great place!

What does this mean to us, if you have been waiting for prices to drop here, wait no longer. We normally start having strong sales in March and with the good rates, the good press and good weather we look for sales to really start popping.

Call us now if you have any plans to sell or buy!

Have a fantastic week!

Sincerely,
Harlan & Mark

AND ..(read more)

Ice Dams

The Houses By Harlan Team — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:17:00 GMT

So what do you know about

Ice Dams?

At least one of our clients called us and asked about a problem they were having with their house. The situation as they described it to us seemed to indicate they might have an “Ice Dam” on their roof.

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Good Monday Morning Everyone!

The Houses By Harlan Team — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:30:00 GMT

Hopefully everyone is taking the slow and cautious route as we head back to jobs or school today. These late winter storms always seem to catch a few of us unawares and a little under prepared for the reality of driving in wintry South Dakota. Slow down and be safe!

I guess those same words could apply to our real estate market too. As we have talked about on this page a number of times, the slow and steady approach has seemed to serve our Sioux Falls market fairly well. Some of the national publications and news services have even picked up our numbers. We may not grow and appreciate as fast as some other areas but the slump isn’t hitting us as hard either. It ..(read more)

Monday Morning Coffee

The Houses By Harlan Team — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:57:00 GMT

Wow, are we lucky to live in Sioux Falls and South Dakota or What?

I was thrilled to see the front page headlines on Friday! So much so that if you missed it I want to give you the link so you can read it for yourself and forward to all your friends and family so they can see how great living in Sioux Falls really is.

Here is the link to the article in the Argus Leader:

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Foreclosure: What It Means and How It Works

The Houses By Harlan Team — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:52:00 GMT

Foreclosure is the process through which a lender can sell or repossess (take ownership of) a property in order to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan secured by the property. Anyone worried about missing their home payments--or those thinking about purchasing a foreclosure property--should understand how foreclosures work.

State laws govern the foreclosure process, and they vary from state to state. You'll want to check with your own state to learn the details, including whether a judicial procedure is required (see box below).

Following is a broad-brush summary of the three stages of foreclosure, assuming the homeowner fails to satisfy the repayment obligation along the way.

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Good Afternoon

The Houses By Harlan Team — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:14:00 GMT

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? If you hail from New York/ New Jersey, life probably looks pretty good. If you call Boston/ Foxboro home, maybe not so good. Regardless, it was a game worth watching as the football season comes to a close. Time to switch seasons and get ready for March madness!

Back to this matter of perspective. We continue to hear the negatives regarding values and mortgages on the national scene and its information that is hard to ignore. It’s a view that probably makes many of us wonder what is in store for us. Fortunately, we don’t operate in the national scene! Here in Sioux Falls the picture really is much less dire. Mortgage rates are still low, almost historically so. The inventory of homes is not what we could really use for a city of our size. We do ..(read more)

Not Ready to Buy Right Now... Is This You?

The Houses By Harlan Team — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:51:00 GMT

A Real Estate Agents prospective client said he was not ready to buy right
now... Is this you?
Provided by Jeff Sislow (Minneapolis) & John Riggins (Hawaii)

Aloha David,
Thank you for your email.
You did not mention why you are not in a position to buy at this time. Would you tell me why?
If it's because you don't think you can afford to buy now, I must advise you that it's less expensive to buy today than it was 3 years ago. Home prices have gone through a market correction after the highs of 2005. Interest rates are at 44 year lows. This past week the 30 year fixed mortgage interest rates ranged between 4.75% and 5.25%. And thirdly, there is an excellent selection which gives you more choices of properties available.

There is an old saying, "buy when everyone is selling and sell when everyone is buying." This could not be more true ..(read more)

Sioux Falls Market

The Houses By Harlan Team — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:18:00 GMT

Hopefully, it was a productive and enjoyable weekend for each of you. I know sunshine and a break from the frigid weather does wonders for both body and soul. It’s that glimmer of hope that keeps us moving on through the bleak mid-winter! Enjoy it for now…..

We continue to see daily activity on the national scene with news coming at us regarding home values, rate changes, company consolidations and federal legislative proposals. It doesn’t appear that it will change in the near future either. But regardless of all that, the Sioux Falls market continues to move forward. It isn’t that we live on the Isle of Perfect Real Estate, but we do have a supportive blend of industry, city and state organizations that all serve to give us a steady base that keeps our home values from the ..(read more)

Flood Insurance Information

The Houses By Harlan Team — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:39:00 GMT

Click on this link for information about the new flood insurance areas in Sioux Falls.

http://www.siouxfalls.org/Building/information/flood_mgmnt/faqs.aspx