Todd Anderson

Saturday Morning TV seems to be filled with shows on HGTV and the DIY network among others that show people upgrading their homes followed by a Realtor telling them how much more it is worth.

The country's present real estate market shows us that those upgrades may not all be good and definitely don't necessarily make you money in the end. This is not to say that something can't be bought at a great price have a few cosmetic upgrades done and be sold for a profit, but the days of the easy fix and flip may be gone.

The Park City area, having a resort originally built in the 60's and 70's (not to mention miners shacks from the early 1900's), has some properties that are in need of a remodel. The majority of the guests coming here expect a world class resort and accommodations to match. Real estate buyers in Park City have come to expect granite countertops surrounding professional grade appliances, jetted tubs and travertine tile in bathrooms, LCD or Plasma screen TV's, hot tubs plus plenty of snow in the winter and sun in the summer.

Maybe your Park City home or condominium doesn't currently have all this. Do you have to upgrade? If so, what should you do and how much should you spend? To answer these questions you really need to consider what end result you are trying to accomplish. Are you looking to sell soon? Are you looking for better rental revenue? Are you looking to just please yourself or spouse by making your place more comfortable? Do you just want to smile when you turn the corner and see your home come into view? Each of theses answers may lead to a different upgrade and investment in your property.

If your intention is to fix up the property and sell it, consult your local Realtor about which project to tackle first and the resulting revenue difference it may make in the sales price of your home. Remember that the most important part will be to get people to come into your Park City house or condominium, so work on the outside "curb appeal" first (this is the first and last thing people see when they come to look at your property).

If your intention is to remodel the inside of your home, take a look at the cost of remodels and the average return on that investment in the Sellers section of our website. Remember why you are making an upgrade, if it brings you happiness while you are living in the home; consider that value in your return on investment calculation.

Also, for those of you that plan to "do-it-yourself" note that it is never as easy as the ½ hour TV show would lead you to believe. Think about what type of person you are (are you a perfectionist or do you settle for adequate?), make sure that you finish the project to the end and not just do "good enough" especially if your end wish is for better resale value.

A recent video on the web shows an interview by Hilarie Barsky of Good Morning America Now speaking with Donald Trump about the real estate market. Mr. Trump is quoted as saying that the time to buy is now through next year and that those who don't may be wishing they had in the future. Trump feels that we are currently at "about the bottom of the market".

We see and hear reports pointing in all directions about which way the market is going. Mr. Trump may have some good insights, but can he call the bottom of the market? Only time will tell. He also states in the interview that "the country is obviously in big trouble" and that the banks have failed the people. Buying while home prices are down is good if you can find a way to finance it, and time will probably show that Trump seeing buying signals now was a good call.

How does all of this relate to the Park City market? The President of the Park City Board of Realtors recently said that prices in the Park City area are holding steady while inventories are on the rise. Economics 101 tells us that this can't last and the likely solution to drive up demand is to lower prices. Recent sales in the Park City, UT area indicate that prices are falling. The YouInParkCity.com group feels that most of the homes that have sold recently represent aggressively priced houses and condominiums that were a true value. We have recently added a Park City Best Buys page to our website. In its first week, 2 of the 12 properties we identified were put under contract. We will continue to update the site with Park City homes we think are a strong value and monitor the results. The Park City market may not have reached its true bottom, but we are seeing some great values.

A couple of other things from the Donald Trump interview do ring true in the Park City market. Mr. Trump states that real estate is a local business and that you need to know what you are doing. This idea has been a common theme in the www.YouInParkCity.com/blog. We know what we are doing and we are here to help you with your Park City real estate needs.

To see the Donald Trump interview go to: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5576708 or search ABC News Donald Trump 8/13/2008.

Posted by Todd Anderson :: YouInParkCity.com Blog 8/26/2008

One of the most commonly asked question a Park City REALTOR® gets asked is "how is the market?" We've written about this before in the YouInParkCity.com blog, but we think it deserves to be said again. "It really depends on where you are and what you are trying to accomplish in terms of buying, selling or investing, but most important is the idea that all real estate is local.

We've noticed some recent Park City numbers that reinforce this point on a local neighborhood level. The Silver Springs real estate area in Park City, Utah currently has 19 active single family home listings. During the month of May, 7 single family homes were put under contract and 1 sale closed (given the average under contract / pended times, the others should close in June). This represents quite a lot of activity in this neighborhood. So the answer to the "how's the market?" question could be "great" or "hot".

To the contrary, we can look at the available homes, new pending sales and closed transactions for the Promontory neighborhood in Park City: There are currently 63 active single family home listings in this real estate area, zero went pending in the month of May and only 3 have gone pending this year. So, the answer to the "how's the market?" question might be "tough", "slow", or "a Buyer's market".

These two real estate markets are both part of Park City real estate and tell very different stories. The idea that all real estate is local can be narrowed even further than this may suggest. It may be the perfect view of the ski run, access to a great running trail, or proximity to a local school that makes a home "perfect". These limiting factors bring about scarcity and drive demand.

The "perfect home" that you want may be represented by only a few possibilities in a given neighborhood, and the fact that one is currently available may make it the right time to buy.

"How is the market?" is really determined by what is available in a given local area. Think of this in terms not only of a state, county, or city, but down to specific neighborhoods and even streets and which side of a particular street.

For information regarding your present or future home in the Park City area; contact www.YouInParkCity.com .

Data mentioned herein was taken from the Park City MLS on May, 30, 2008 deemed accurate and reliable, but not guaranteed.

Short sale and foreclosure property always seem to catch people's attention. The idea of really getting a "steal" on property peaks investor and home-buyer interest. While a short sale can be a great deal, there are a few things to consider before you go searching for that "steal".

First we should define a short sale. A short sale is a sale of property in which the sale price is less than the value of the loans against the property. Short sales can be initiated by the seller (property owner), but must be approved by the parties with loans which are using the property as collateral. The purpose of the short sale is to try and sell the home before it is foreclosed upon (lenders tend to lose more money in a foreclosure sale than a short sale).

The parties on the selling side are losing money in the deal. The seller is losing whatever equity they had in the property (unless they got in with some type of "exotic" loan with no money down or cash out at the original loan origination (in this event the seller may not be losing real money, but is still damaging their credit)). The lien-holders are losing whatever money that was their original loan less the sale price. Secondary lien-holders stand to lose nearly all of their loan amounts. All of these parties have to agree to take their losses. None of them wants the loss and few of them want to admit they made a bad loan. The loss that a 1^st mortgage holder is willing to accept is generally about 20%-40% (they usually stand to lose as much as 60% in a foreclosure). Second or junior lien-holders also have to approve the sale. If in anyone's judgment the sale price is too low, they can refuse or send a counter-offer back to the Buyer.

Timing may be the most confusing and frustrating issues that short sales present. Unlike a normal offer and acceptance type of negotiation, once the offer has been accepted by the seller, the contract must be approved by all parties holding liens on the property. These parties do not respond in a timely manner. There is often quite a bit of bureaucratic "red tape" to get through in approving a short sale and just finding the correct representatives that can approve the sale can be very frustrating. And while this process may take months (this is not an exaggeration) for the "third parties" to get approval back to the buyer, they will then ask for a closing within days.

This timing issue means that as a Buyer, you need to keep from getting emotionally attached to the property and have no need to move quickly into owning the property. On the other hand, the Buyer needs to be able to move very quickly through their due diligence, evaluations and approvals as the third parties may ask for the sale to close within 10 days of their approval (in a "normal" sale this would be a 25-30 day process).

Another curve that is thrown into the short sale is that the seller can (and will) keep marketing the home while the Buyer's offer is awaiting approval in hopes of another or better offers. So it may be months before you find out that your offer was bettered by someone else and you should have been trying to find something else instead.

Buying a home can be very stressful and buying a home in a short sale situation is even more stressful. That being said, there are some short sale properties available in the Park City area (though not nearly as many as in areas where the housing market is "depressed") and they may represent a good value for the Buyer. If you want to know more about the short sale process and whether it is an option that works for your Park City real estate needs, contact us at www.YouInParkCity.com

The Park City housing market has seen change recently. The rocketing upward of prices has slowed and Park City is returning to a more normal real estate market. The effect of the changing market varies greatly depending on the price, neighborhood and subdivision.

The entry level market appears to have been affected the least by the downward pricing pressure here in Park City, Utah. Finding a single family home in Park City that is under $400,000 is still very hard to do; the same goes for a truly affordable condominium. There are a number of factors keeping the entry level home pricing up while other Park City marketplaces flatten or fall.

The economy of Park City and most of Utah is still strong. Job losses and cutbacks have not been a problem here, and the resorts are still enjoying strong tourism. The fact that the job market hasn't changed much means that people living in Park City aren't falling behind on mortgage payments and aren't being forced to sell their homes.

The entry level tier of the housing market has the most resistance to falling prices. While no-one ever wants to take a loss on an investment, the people who scraped everything together to buy the home they live in truly can't afford and refuse to take a loss and start over. If these people aren't forced into selling their homes due to job-loss or some family tragedy, chances are they will just stay where they are until such time that the market changes or they have accumulated enough wealth to move upward within the area.

People still want to live in and raise their families in Park City. Demand for housing, especially entry level housing has not changed much. There is a very strong service industry in Park City and the wages that coincide with these jobs dictates that entry level housing in Park City is what these workers can afford. The recent changes affecting credit and financing have made it harder to get loans, but in truth these were not the people that needed sub-prime loans anyway.

Things do happen and people are forced into selling their homes at "rock bottom" prices at times in order to move them quickly, but there are few indicators that "the bottom is falling out" and that entry level pricing will fall dramatically in the near future. For more information regarding pricing in specific Park City real estate neighborhoods and/or subdivisions, visit http://www.youinparkcity.com/