Chris Lengquist, RIPS

Portraits Today Studios is opening a store in Olathe! Portraits Today Studios is a same-day portrait studio that delivers your photos to you the same day you take them. Usually within an hour after your photo session.

What does this have to do with real estate? Truthfully, not much. But that's okay. More businesses opening in Olathe shows that the economy here is moving forward. The more businesses, the more jobs. The more jobs, the more demand for housing. And etc.

Check out their website if you are looking for professional photograhpers in the Olathe area for your holiday and family photos.

Olathe, Kansas: Spotlight On Why I Like This Market

Olathe, Kansas has been mentioned by me time and time again as a market that I am enamored with. Sure, I live here. But there is much more to it. For real estate investors and Joe & Mary Homebuyer alike Olathe offers the opportunity for solid appreciation even in these tougher times. If it's alright with you I'm going to take a minute and show you (and link you) to what I'm talking about.

Top 15 City in America
As recently as 2006 when CNNMoney ranked the Top 100 Cities in America, Olathe finished #13. Neighboring Overland Park finished #6. Olathe currently has a population hovering around 114,500 (up 2,400 since 2006) and a Median Family Income right around $79,100.

Olathe Housing Stats
The Kansas City Star's zip code appreciation map shows the two predominant Olathe zip codes with appreciation over the last year. 66061 came in at 4.3% while 66062 came in at 7.6%. And as you can see by clicking on the image for Olathe Housing Stats for the last six months that we are still selling homes at a pretty good pace. I showed here on our Olathe Real Estate blog that inventory for single family homes is at about a four months. Technically, still a Seller's Market even though people got spoiled by the markets of past years where you would sell a house in 45 days or less, sometimes.

Olathe Job Growth
Olathe is really doing well in the Job Growth category, as well. I've written here before how Ft. Dodge Animal Health has moved in. Along with Farmer's Insurance. A multitude of call centers are relocating to Olathe, too. US Bank has a large tech center here in Olathe now. And we haven't even mentioned that the world headquarters of Garmin is located right here in Olathe.

Jobs seem to be coming to Olathe every month. To keep up with the growth of jobs in and around Olathe I would encourage you to visit the Olathe Chamber of Commerce's Breaking Newspage. I think you'll find the website by the Olathe Chamber to be very easy to navigate and one of the most informative Chamber sites I've ever visited.

Olathe's Quality of Life
Want to know the reason I live in Olathe? The Olathe School District. Period. As a father of four (two with special needs) I needed a school district that could work with my children. We interviewed the three predominant school districts in Johnson County, Kansas and felt strongly Olathe was where we could be best served. Because in addition to the two special needs kids we have one that is on an Advanced Placement path. And as we enter his high school years he is going to get to take advantage of the Olathe School District's 21st Century Program. He'll be taking part in Olathe Northwest High School's e-Communications Program. We can hardly wait.

In addition, Olathe is easy to navigate. Has quite a few parks for your enjoyment including Heritage Park, the Indian Creek Trailway and Frontier Park where the City hosts a series of free concerts every year. I'm usually in attendance.

Olathe's Potential For Real Estate Investment
Olathe is not a "cash flow" city. At least in my mind. It will usually take you about 20% down to break-even on a duplex here or about 25%-30% to break-even on a single family house. But having said that, there are few areas around Kansas City...or the Midwest for that matter...that you are going to get better long term, steady growth.

So for my investors I will usually recommend they have only part of their portfolio parked in Olathe. If you own five investment properties I might recommend two be in Olathe and the other three be in cities where you will be able to leverage your money more in the 90% LTV range. Because just like it's nice to diversify your investment holdings it's nice to diversify your real estate investments.

A for instance would be of a "pocket listing" I have. It's a duplex with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths per side. Rents are a steady $750 with vacancies nearly non-existent. So you have a Gross Scheduled Income of $18,000. Asking price is $191,000. Your Gross Rent Multiplier is 10.61. Not too shabby.

Closing Thoughts on Olathe
I hope you have enjoyed our little tour of Olathe. If you are thinking of moving to Olathe take some real time to follow the links and explore our city. Give myself or our team a call or contact us if you need help selecting housing that is suitable for you and your family.

If you are a real estate investor be sure to ask for specific examples if you are looking to add a rental property or two to your investment portfolio.

Olathe Kansas City real estate homes for sale has a new resource. If you are looking for a resource to help you locate homes for sale in the Olathe or Kansas City market areas then you will want to visit the our newest website at www.OlatheKansasCityRealEstate.com.

With easy to use buttons to help you conduct your free MLS style home search by either map, zip code or school district.

You can either use the system to search for real estate for sale or you can register and save your searches. The choice is yours and yours alone.

And if you are a home seller in the Olathe or Kansas City areas you'll find resources to help you stage your home, price your home and market your home. And of course, should you want to hire real estate professionals to get the job done we, I, hope that you will consider interviewing us.

Did you know that in Kansas we had year on year appreciation of 2.7%...according to the US Government's index on housing. Yes, we were one of only seven states last year with positive appreciation. Missouri was too with 1.7%. The Kansas City area was up just over 1%. My guess is that would be much higher if not for a couple areas I warned real estate investors to stay out of, any way.

Go ahead and jump on over to www.olathekansascityrealestate.com and let us know what you think!

Chris Lengquist
Keller Williams Realty
Diamond Partners, Inc
Olathe, Kansas
913.322.7515

Kansas City Power & Light District: Two Thumbs Up

The Kansas City Power & Light District gets a thumbs up from me and an another from by buddy. We spent the day there yesterday hanging out in KC Live with all the festivities for the Big XII Tournament. As you can see from the photo, there was not only a sold out Sprint Center but literally tens of thousands more came down to drink beer or sodas, hang out with friends and watch the game on the 12-15 foot television screen that you can see in the upper right hand corner of the photo.

I have no idea on whether or not this will be a long term economic success. I can tell you from a civic pride perspective that I felt like I was in a real city, again. The whole atmosphere reminded me very much of Baltimore's Inner Harbor area. (Yes, I know there isn't any water within 3/4 of a mile of the place.)

We grabbed a bite to eat at the Gordon-Biersch brewery. Food was great and their own brews were good. I loved the Marzen. GB describes it as "Our most popular beer which is a smooth, mildly sweet, auburn colored lager."

The crowd was very midwestern. Well-behaved and friendly. We spoke with people from Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. I even saw that Colorado brought their fan!

Chris, what does this have to do with real estate investing in Kansas City? Well, nothing really. Or everything. See, I believe cities will tell you whether they are moving forward or backwards. And that will have a determination on the desireability of a city for future work-forces and employers. And this bodes well.

Despite many fears, parking was not too difficult to find so long as you don't mind a 5-10 minute walk. And really, if you are going down to eat and drink all day, I don't think the walk will hurt you.

So the next time you are looking for something to do I would love to encourage you to go on down to the Kansas City Power & Light District. Eat dinner. Listen to one of the many live shows they have planned. Catch an event at the Sprint Center or visit the College Basketball Experience.

Reprinted with permission from BBQCapital.com - A Kansas City real estate investing website.

Selling Your Rental Property In A Buyer's Market

Kansas City is currently experiencing a buyer's market. Investment property is a little better off. Certain areas of the city are better than others. Let me give you a picture of what the investment market in Kansas City currently looks like.

Below will be a couple sets of numbers for you to take a look at. One is for Johnson County, Kansas duplexes and the other is for Jackson County, MO duplexes. Now, the numbers only include duplexes priced for sale between $100,000 and $300,000. I just figured below $100,000 isn't usually what my clients are looking for and above $300,000 just isn't going to be profitable within the parameters I use.

Johnson County, Kansas Duplex Activity
current as of 2.21.2008

Active = 34
Pending = 3
Sold = 52 (within previous 12 months)

Jackson County, Missouri Duplex Activity
current as of 2.21.2008

Active = 147
Pending = 5
Sold = 100 (within previous 12 months)

Right away you should be able to see the market within the market. Johnson County has about a 7.5 month supply of homes while Jackson County has about a 16.5 month supply of homes. Further emphasizing that all real estate is local. And local can be broken down into cities from country, zip codes within the city and sudivision from the zip code.

As a seller of residential investment property in Kansas City you need to know that you are in for some fierce competition. And while some sellers may think they know that what I see on the market is usually overpriced, under cared for and have crappy tenants.

Why, I know of a duplex in Overland Park that has been on the market for quite some time and the real estate agent has "motivated seller" on her comments. Further inquiry discovers that one side has a tenant that isn't paying any rent because they made improvements to the property and don't feel they owe rent for some time to come. The other side unilaterally decided their rent was too high and cut their payment by $200 a month.

And the seller still wants retail for this Overland Park duplex!!!???!!!

There is no question I could find an investor to take this headache off their hands. But not at retail. So what can you do to be sure you can move your Kansas City are investment property if you need to cash out?

Investment Property Selling Tips

• Price it right. Know where the price point is for your particular class of investment property (and location) that the next would-be real estate investor will pull the trigger. This is not the market to "test" the waters.
• 100% occupancy with quality tenants. I said quality tenants. Tenants with good payment history. Tenants with security deposits. Tenants with time left on their leases. Tenants that don't trash their rentals.
• Deferred maintenance accounted for in the pricing or repaired before marketing. Remember, if you milked the property dry by collecting rent and not fixing a thing you will pay for it on your sales price! You might be able to get away with that crap during a seller's market. But guess what? This isn't a seller's market.
• Choose the right real estate agent. I'm not the only one in Kansas City that knows and understand real estate investment property. (I am, however, the best. :) - Sorry for the ego trip.) There are several good agents around the city. But that number doesn't exceed 10-12 out of the 10,000+ licensed real estate agents around KC.
• Be prepared to assist with closing costs. Investors, and that is who will be in the market for your duplex, like to get in with as little cash as possible to maximize their equitable returns.
• Be patient. Do all of this correctly and you should sell inside 4-6 months. In fact, if you do all this correctly we should sell inside 4-6 weeks going into spring. But the real estate investor's credit standards have changed drastically over the last year. You don't have to like it. But it means fewer people are qualified to buy your rental property.

I've used duplexes as the prime examples here. But the same is true for all investment class real estate whether it be single family homes, apartments or four-plexes.

You can definitely sell your investment property in this market. In fact there is a need for quality inventory. Feel free to give me a call, write me an email or leave a comment if you have any questions or comments.

Reprinted by Chris Lengquist of Keller Williams Realty, Diamond Partners, Inc of Olathe, Kansas from BBQCapital. BBQCapital is a blog devoted to Kansas City real estate investing.