Janna Rankin Scharf - Realtor Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho Homes

Coeur d'Alene Real Estate Short Sale Opportunities

If you are like many buyers today, you are looking for a SCREAMING deal. Every buyer and potential buyer I have spoken with this past year has been on the lookout for a KILLER deal. Whether looking for a starter home, a vacation home or a million dollar lake home, everyone is in search of that SMOKIN' HOT purchase price. The buyers I've worked with this year have found it!

Short sale opportunities in Coeur d'Alene Idaho are plentiful.

Remember, a short sale simply means that the seller owes more to their mortgage lender than the current market value of the home. They can't sell it for enough to pay off their mortgage. Their mortgage lender must agree to accept less for the payoff than they are owed. There are a lot of hoops for the seller to jump through in order to make that happen. Depending on where the seller is in the process, your short sale transaction can potentially drag on for months. Be sure you are working with a sharp real estate agent who is experienced in working with short sales.

A successful short sale transaction depends on a skilled short sale agent!

If you're looking for a short sale in Coeur d'Alene Idaho, check out the following link. It lists 258 short sale real estate opportunities in Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho that are currently listed in the Coeur d'Alene Multiple Listing Service. Prices range from $50,000 to $1,599,000. Often, short sales can be purchased for much less than the listed price. This link will update daily with status changes and new listings, and will remain active for 30 days.

Coeur d'Alene Idaho Short Sales

If you want to know more about how the short sale process works, as either a buyer or seller, just give me a call or email me with your questions. I would love to assist you in a successful short sale transaction.

Thanksgiving was wonderful as family and friends gathered at my house for a traditional feast and giving of thanks for all of our blessings. My sister Kerri is a wonderful professional photographer and always on the lookout for photos for her file. I get such a kick of her snapping photos of the food I prepare for family functions! After my son's birthday party, I decided to post the recipes of the photos she takes. I always make these roasted vegetables when friends and family gather at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I found the resipe in a magazine years ago. They are always my favorite thing on the menu, as delicious as they are beautiful!

Roasted Vegetables
with Balsamic-Lemon Vinaigrette

12 baby beets, trimmed, peeled (I have never found fresh baby beets. I always use regular beets and cut them into chunks. Other than these roasted beets, I HATE BEETS and think they are disgusting. These are DELICIOUS!)
2 pounds red skinned sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces (about 3 yams)
2 3/4 pounds acorn squash, unpeeled, quartered lengthwise, seeded, cut crosswise into 1/2" thick slices
1 1/2 poounds brussels sprouts, trimmed, halfed lengthwise
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (I use a couple tablespoons) or 1 TBS dried
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 whole garlic head, top 1/2 inch trimmed

1/4 C balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 450'F. Cook beets in medium pot of boiling salted water until almost tender. Drain. Transfer beets to large roasting pan. Add sweet potatoes, squash, brussels sprouts, and rosemary to pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle generously with slat and pepper. Toss to coat. Place garlic head, cut side up on a small piece of foil and drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil. Wrap in foil and place in roasting pan with vegetables. Roast garlic and vegetables until tender and vegetables are brown in spots, turning occasionally, about 45 minutes.

Unwrap garlic. Peel and thinly slice garlic cloves. Transfer vegetables and garlic to large bowl. Whisk vinegar, lemon peel, and 3 tablespoons oil in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pour dressing over vegetables and toss to coat. Serve warm.

I hope you enjoy this family favorite. And if cooking up a real estate deal is on your menu I hope you will give me a call!

As a Realtor actively working short sales in Coeur d'Alene, I am finding no shortage of interesting stories to write about. Here is my latest. Really, I couldn't make this stuff up!

Back in August I wrote a post entitled:

The Joy of Short Sales ~ It was gonna take a MIRACLE, and he got one! Maybe...

I had met a great guy in Coeur d'Alene who was in a pickle. He bought three homes new, as an investment, 3 years ago. A year or two ago, when the market started turning south, he decided to unload them. Got two sold, and one under a lease option for a year. He told me how those folks were getting ready to exercise their option. Were approved to buy, but the appraisal came in about $10K less than the option price, which was what the seller paid for the house, and still owed. The folks forfeited their deposit and skipped on down the road to a better house for less money.

Then, miracle of miracles, he found another sucker person to lease option the home. For about 175% of the normal market rent, with an option to purchase it for substantially more than we knew it would appraise for.

Think about it. Who in their right mind would put down a huge deposit to lease option a house for $192,000 that is currently listed for sale at $159,000? It would take a huge deposit because he was no longer able to make payments, and they would have to be caught up in order to avoid foreclosure and lease it out. I was skeptical of the miracle that came through for my distressed seller that seemed to save the day. This is what I said in my August blog post:

My guy got his miracle! Maybe. Or not. Only time will tell. I was on a criminal jury once, where the judge instructed us that we could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, while still being fully aware that it was possible to be mistaken. This reminds me of that. I will believe in this miracle, while being fully aware of how wrong things could possibly go with this deal over the next few years.

As it turns out, I was right. Today, the tenant called my former client to tell him that he hasn't been able to make a go of it here, he has found work in Las Vegas and will be hitting the road on Tuesady. But what about the remaining lease for nine more months? Too bad, so sad. He is headed for bankruptcy anyway, so...

Unfortunately, my seller succeeded in simply delaying the inevitable. Prolonging the agony. Now he has a house to sell in the dead of winter. He will need to pay the heat bill and shovel the walks whenever it snows. And as he does, I'm sure that going through his mind will be the saying, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!"

This morning I was the first one up, and headed to the front door to get the newspaper. I opened my door to the quiet white world of softly falling snow that made a surprise appearance overnight. I thought, "How pretty, it really is beginning to feel like Thanksgiving around here!" I found my camera and snapped a picture of the scene. This is what it looked like this morning in North Idaho.

As I walked back inside, I passed my dining room. Last night before bed I piled a couple loaves af bread on some cookie sheets to start drying out for their transformation into Thanksgiving stuffing, just the way my daddy used to make it. There was nothing special about it, but as I passed that bread on my dining room table, it added to the feeling of the upcoming holiday season. It looked kind of pretty there, and since I had my camera in hand, I snapped a picture of my future corn bread stuffing!

This will be the 36th Thanksgiving since I have been married! I can count the number of Thanksgivings that I HAVEN'T cooked and hosted the main event on one hand with fingers left over. It is something I enjoy doing very much.

Although I will have only two of my five children here, I will be happy knowing that my three absent children with my daughter-in-law and two beautiful granddaughters will be gathered together in Colorado - warm, happy, loved and safe.

If you are one of so many feeling beaten down by life's circumstances, I challenge you to get out a piece of paper and start writing down what you DO have to be thankful for. That is something I did last year at this time, with remarkable results, when I wrote I'm Counting My Blessings.

As the song says, "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!" And the age-old remedy for feeling better when you are down in the dumps? Help someone in need! This time of year there are countless opportunities for service. Be a blessing on purpose to someone!

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest wish to all of you out there for a meaningful and blessed day. May you be warm, happy, loved and safe!

Here's a snapshot of the real estate market activity in different North Idaho municipalities. The first three columns are the stats as of November 21, 2009. The next twelve columns show the activity over the past 30 days. Exp is Expired, DOM is Days on Market, Pend is pending which means under contract and waiting to close, BOM is back on the market. Call me if you would like the stats for an area not included here. (208) 651-9700

As of 11/21/2009 10/21/2009 to 11/21/2009