About Hennepin County, MN

Income property can have very stable, respectful and reliable tenants. Minneapolis, MN

Yes, that’s correct! It all depends on product, location and good tenant screening. If you don’t have all three, your vacancy rate will be too high. Let’s talk about product first. We recommend to our students that they furnish their properties with clean serviceable items, new linens and art work on the walls. What you are creating is an environment that is very agreeable to the tenant, one that not only the renter will look forward to coming home to, but also one, through pictures on flyers, web sites and word of mouth, will attract new inquires. We are all for building and keeping a pipeline.

Lots of furnished rooms for rent are not clean and contain old, thread bear chairs, sofas, and soiled mattresses. Would you want to stay any longer than you had to in a place that does not support a good sense of self-esteem? Nicely furnished rooms generate good paying tenants, who stay for extended periods.

Our favored tenant populations normally do not have their own transportation so proximity to public transportation is necessity.

Key to this equation within our program is good tenant screening, which oddly enough doesn’t include credit or traditional background checks. Our tenants are referred to us, so we gain knowledge about them and their history though direct questioning of people who are familiar with each potential tenant individually. We learn of personal background information and work experience. This type of screening done systematically will produce good paying renters who stay for long periods creating a stable house.

To discover more about setting up transitional housing, please download our free Ebook from the side bar on our main blog site.

Don't hesitate to contact us with questions. Learn about us. Learn our system. Learn what others have to say about us and our system.

 

The 'side by side' townhouse style is the most popular by far, dominating 80.8% of all active Twin Cities townhouse listings. This style also has the longest history, with roots going back to classical Greece and ancient Rome where deep houses with narrow facades were built in places like Pompeii. Townhouse-like buildings were also found in early US settlements, going back 400 years.

Rowhouses were popular in the 19th century, but over time townhouses lost status in the US, and the emergence of the houses of suburbia after WWII furthered their decline in popularity. When the detached and quad/4 corners townhouse styles emerged in the 1970's, there was renewed interest in 'side by side' styles as well...with a big jump in the 1990's and an explosion in the 2000's. A brief look at current Twin Cities side-by-side townhouse listings by year built shows how dramatic their growth in numbers has been in the last decade.

Early side-by-side townhouses were long and relatively narrow rowhouses, with windows and doors on front and back outside walls and shared walls on both sides. This configuration style usually got its square footage from multiple levels (4 stories in the 1800's rowhouse pictured below) which were often long and narrow. With windows on only the two ends they could be dark, but some historic luxury townhomes even had innovative skylights and central light shafts to bring natural light into the center space.

Most early rowhouses currently for sale in the Twin Cities were built in St. Paul in the 1800's and had no garages when they were first built...of course, there were also no cars at that time! These rowhouses were spacious and luxurious...there is one curently listed in St. Paul with 4,800 sq ft for $699,000.

After their popularity in the late 1800's and early 1900's, very few townhouses were built until the 1960's. Units currently for sale from the first half of the 20th century are often duplex conversions.

When they started building townhouses again in the 1960's they were often intended for downsizing empty nesters leaving their houses for freedom from maintenance, snow and lawn care. Units built at this time usually had detached garages, often single car...and were two stories, often with basements. They still tended to be somewhat long and narrow, with front and back outside walls and no side windows due to shared walls.

There was a huge growth in townhomes built in the 1970's, when new styles started to emerge. Rowhouses built in this era were often multi-level, sometimes with as many as 6 different levels. Living and sleeping rooms were still usually on different levels. There was often more green space, sometimes with shared pools and tennis courts. Double garages were now often in front of the units, but usually not attached...sometimes forming a private courtyard between the garage and the unit entrance. Interestingly enough, end units were still often designed like center units, with no side windows.

In the 1980's side-by-side townhouses were usually wider, and many adopted the split entry style popular at that time in both houses and the new quad/4 corners style townhouses. The main living and sleeping areas were both on the main upper level, with a family room on the lower level which was usually daylight or walkout. End units often had a different design from center units, with windows on three sides and sometimes more space.

Side-by-side townhouse styles made a big shift, starting in the late 1980's. As they tried to expand their appeal to first-time and single homebuyers there was a proliferation of mega complexes with units now back to back...meaning there might be 10 units in one building. Instead of a single unit stretching from front to back exterior walls, buildings were now often divided so units were back to back, and center units had three shared walls. Because the units weren't as deep in this style, they often weren't as dark as traditional rowhouse styles, even though center units had only one outside wall for windows and doors. They were usually two stories without basements, and living areas were usually on the main level with sleeping rooms above. These changes made units available at different sizes and prices...with smaller, more affordable center units with single garages, and larger end units with more light, only two shared walls, double garages and higher price tags.

As new styles developed, some garages tucked under the units. That made three levels again, more like the more vertical historic rowhouses. In the 2000's some rowhouse styles started building heated basement garages under the shared buildings, with common access but spaces separated with walls for each unit...combining the original rowhouse look of no garages with the convenience of a heated attached garage with private storage.

Another style which also developed was the one-level townhome. As the mega-townhouse complexes were built to appeal to first-time homebuyers, this style had greater appeal to empty nesters...who were often looking for re-arranged space rather than less space. Some have basements, some don't...some are lined up like rowhouses but some are more creatively spaced and designed to feel like single family homes. Even if you share walls, you may not see your neighbor's driveway. Some current side-by-side townhome listings built in the 1990's and 2000's have over 5,000 square feet and cost $1-3M!

Townhouses have been around for centuries, and there is now a wide range of styles and sizes available...with some complexes small and some huge. Townhouses appeal to buyers for different reasons. Sometimes the appeal is cost savings, but another big draw is freedom from maintenance and snow/lawn care...which translates to greater freedom to travel or have multiple homes in different locations.

Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email - HomesMSP.com

RELATED POSTS

• Townhouse Styles, Part One - Detached and Quad/4 Corners
• Condo vs Townhome vs House
• No Dogs Allowed...about CIC association restrictions
• About dogs and townhomes...
• Detached townhomes...isn't that a house?

Recently AVID Ratings released their annual surnvey of home buyers for 2010 and found these features as the top ten must haves in a new home.

1. Large kitchen with an island
2. Energy efficient appliances, insulation, and windows
3. Home office / study
4. Main-floor master suite
5. Outdoor living room
6. Ceiling fans
7. Master suite soaker tubs
8. Stone and brick exteriors
9. Community landscaping, including walking paths & playgrounds
10. Two-car garages

Check out the entire article by Steve Kerch for MarketWatch.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108701/the-10-must-have-features-in-todays-new-homes.html

If you are ready to look for some of these features in your next house, give me a call.

Pending sales for last week, up 16.4%. Great news as the spring market heats up. New listings are still coming in strong with 1584 home coming on the market last week. As spring continues the number of pending sales will dictate how many of these homes sell, and whether or not the market continues it's march towards balance, health, and/or recovery.

The pains home sellers are feeling notwithstanding, real improvements have been make. The average time homes spend on the market is falling and the percent of list price sellers are receiving is rising. Still prices are down in general. Perhaps the most important point to make is that while some area and price ranges are doing well, others are in completely the tank.

If there is a silver lining to all this it's that some opportunities are presenting themselves in this market. For example, homes in high end neighborhoods that are in really poor condition can be a great way to take advantage of this market. Poor condition takes a massive toll on price when buyers have so many other choices. If the homes in good shape but need a cosmetic over haul, you may have a diamond in the rough. Be sure it's in a great neighborhood though, like poor condition, less than ideal locations will be hurting for a long time before their recovery takes hold.

If you are considering buying a townhouse you may have already considered the differences between a condo vs townhome vs house. When you own a townhouse you share common grounds but own a slice from the ground to the sky. Most townhouses have at least one shared wall, but you never have someone living above or below you.

Our Twin Cities MLS divides townhouses into three different styles... detached, quad/4 corners and side by side. I looked at all currently active townhouse listings in Hennepin County to do a comparison of the three styles.

DETACHED TOWNHOMES

Detached townhomes are the most similar to a house of the three types, and have the largest average size (2,225 sq ft) and highest average price ($310,769) of the three townhouse styles. People tend to like them because it is the only townhouse style with no shared walls, giving more sound privacy and space for more windows and more light.

They do share grounds, however, and in some complexes the units are placed so close to each other that it feels like you could reach out and touch your neighbor...or easily see into each others windows. If this is of concern to you, check out GoogleEarth to get aerial views that can tell you a lot about the sense of place of a complex. Where the unit is located in the complex can also make a big difference in views, space and sense of place.

Current active listings range from $139,000 for a 1981 split entry style detached townhome with 1,425 finished square feet to a one-of-a-kind luxury detached townhome priced at $1,295,000 on an end lot with about 1/4 acre and 4,628 finished square feet.

Only 5.8% of current Hennepin County townhouse listings are detached townhomes. None of them were built before 1971, and more than half have been built since 2000.

QUAD/4 CORNERS TOWNHOUSES

Quad/4 corners townhomes were especially popular in the 1970s and 1980s, with nearly 3/4 of current active inventory built in those two decades.

Quad/4 corners pretty clearly describes the style. If you 'cut' the building into quarters, each corner would be one unit. What is nice about this style is each unit has two exterior walls on the corner...usually the location of the living and dining areas. They also often have a fair amount of green space around the buildings, giving each unit its own private corner and a feeling more like a house than many townhome styles.

Units built in the 1970s and 1980s were usually split entry style, and feel much like the split entry houses also popular at that time. Newer quads are often one-story units with or without basements, some specifically designed for people over 50 years old. Double garages typically divide the units, giving a feeling of separation and great privacy for one-story units. Two-level styles usually have the bedrooms above the garages with a bedroom wall shared between units...not popular with some buyers.

Quad/4 corners units comprise 13.4% of current townhome listings, ranging from $29,900 for a 760 sq ft foreclosure unit built in 1972 to $699,900 for a 3,575 sq ft new construction unit.

Detached townhomes and quad/4 corners townhomes make up less than 20% of the townhome market, leaving side-by-side townhouses the most popular style by far. There are many variations on the style, enough to explore in a separate post to follow...Townhouse Styles - Part Two.

Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email - HomesMSP.com

RELATED POSTS

• Townhouse Styles, Part 2 - Side by Side
• Condo vs Townhome vs House
• No Dogs Allowed...about CIC association restrictions
• About dogs and townhomes...
• Detached townhomes...isn't that a house?