About Gallatin County, MT

Manhattan, Montana

Who knew that tucked away just outside of view from the freeway as a driver makes their way to the more populated Bozeman or Billings is the little town of Manhattan? With a population of 1,300, Manhattan is framed with picturesque panoramic of the Horseshoe Hills and the Bridger Range.

The old west town is supported on industries including potatoes, dairy, wheat, and cattle. Because of its food, arts, and outdoor recreation scene, the town of Manhattan is authentically rustic as fewer and fewer cities here and Montana can claim to be.

Originally named Hamilton, the renamed Manhattan has been an establishment here in southwestern Montana since 1865. By their traditions continue for many years to come.

Enjoy local events such as:

Garage-A-Rama,

Manhattan Easter Egg Hunt,

Farmer’s Market,

Potato Festival,

Christmas Stroll

Stabilizing is a word being thrown about to describe the current housing market. CoreLogic has found the following five states to go beyond ‘stabilization’ to price appreciation:

• South Dakota: 5.7%
• North Dakota: 4%
• West Virginia: 4%
• Montana: 3.6%
• Michigan: 3%

The average price change recently recorded was a drop of 3.1% as compared to the above five markets and their price increases. In fact, Illinois’s market was down 8.7%. Blessed to be a Montanan—always.

Source: “Home Prices at Levels of 10 Years Ago: CoreLogic,” HousingWire (March 7, 2012)

The housing market has been called the anchor holding the economic recovery down. In the past, the comeback of a healthy job market is highly dependent upon the construction sector (nearly 25% of recovery is attributed to new construction).

Most recent job reports show rapid improvement in 25-34 year olds, the same age group who feed the housing demand. Numbers show the unemployment rate dropping for this age group by 9% in January and 8.7% in February.

“Today’s jobs report means housing demand will pick up: as young people go back to work, they’ll be able to rent their own place or start saving for a down payment. Construction is picking up, too, but not fast enough to lead the recovery. To get back to its traditional share of jobs, construction needs to catch up from its long slowdown by outpacing overall growth. Right now construction employment is keeping pace with the overall economy but not growing fast enough to get back to its normal share.” says Jed Kolko, chief economist and head of analytics at Trulia.

A famous statistic quote is ‘correlation does not prove causation,’ but there certainly is an inverse relationship between a vibrant housing market and unemployment. The role real estate casts a wide net.

HOW IS YOUR AREA DOING?

Montana Specific Highlights from the 2010 Census Report:

In 2010:

• The average new single-family home sold was built on a lot of 17,590 square feet. The average lot size for new homes sold inside metropolitan areas was 16,585 square feet. Outside metropolitan areas, it was 27,363 square feet.
• 58% of all new single-family homes sold were financed by a conventional loan. The proportion was 62% in 2009 and 74% in 2008. The proportion that were financed by an FHA-insured loan was 25% in 2010, 24% in 2009, and 16% in 2008.
• The average sales price of new single-family homes sold was $272,900. The average sales price was $270,900 in 2009, $292,600 in 2008 and $313,600 in 2007.
• The average price per square foot for new single-family homes sold was $84.07. Regionally, the average price per square foot was $111.05 in the Northeast, $85.24 in the Midwest, $75.72 in the South, and $102.75 in the West.
• Of the 155,000 multifamily units completed, 50% had one bathroom, 5% had 1½ bathrooms, and 46% had 2 or more bathrooms.
• The average square footage of multifamily units completed and built for sale was 1,388.
• 9,000 multifamily buildings were completed. Of these, 22% were 2-unit buildings and 16% were 3 to 4-unit buildings.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/03/09/the-good-and-bad-housing-news-in-the-february-jobs-report/#ixzz1ouf1YXTP

Every house is different. When looking at MLS to find the proper homes to overlap with a buyer’s desires, an agent has a limited depth of information they can read until they are in a home for the first time. This means that the Realtor must trust the numbers and data in the system. The only thing is there can be discrepancies.

Square Footage

Measuring living space is one of the variables that have guidelines that are not always know/followed. Each state’s Department of Taxation and Finance set the standards of how a space needs to be measured. One common standard is “No matter how spectacularly well remodeled that basement may be — lavishly enough, perhaps, to increase the assessor’s ultimate determination of property value — its location in the house makes it irrelevant as square footage.”

HERE IN THE GALLATIN VALLEY REAL ESTATE, WE DO THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. New buyers coming into our neck of the woods should be aware that they need to verify what the “square footage” is defined as. Finished and above grade is included in the total square footage, but does it does not include the garage square footage.

Details such as square footage are viewed as primary indicators to whether a buyer is or is not interested in a home. To have some agents include the basement square footage when others do not is the cause for a great margin of error in the real estate world.

The only way to mend this error is to be as thorough as you can as a listing agent within your own practice. Know the listings you are visiting and when in doubt, call the agent and ask questions. For those browsing online, this discrepancy can be the difference between finding the home of their dreams and settling for what they see.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/realestate/square-footage-an-incomplete-measure.html?_r=3

As a long-time realtor I know what I do well and what I falter with. Because of this, I have had a company largely focused around the buyer’s end of the real estate market. Due to the development of a stunning team here in the office, I now find that I can face the challenge of getting more listings to circulate through too. Emphasizing listings will provide me with a new adventure and personal growth, the only question is how do I get those sellers to choose me?

Here are a few reasons I have come up with:

• Community, community, community. Bozeman is a semi-large (comparative to other Montana towns) city that manages to maintain a local, small town feel. Localism means the world to residents of the Gallatin Valley and the Gallatin Valley means the world to me. Possible clients are ANYONE you meet on the street, at a social function, or skiing down the slopes.

• Follow up once a possible client contacts you. A very simple phone call letting the client-to-be know that you are interested in their listing can make all the difference.

• Be able to price accurately. An accurate CMA is a hook-line-and-sinker or it can be the nail in the coffin on a deal.

So, these are all no brainers and with spring in the air my mind is eager to hear some fresh ideas! Comment and share in this forum on how to attract sellers! If you are a potential seller, what can a realtor offer you to make them look the most appealing?