Eau Claire Real Estate's Blog: All Categories

Here are the four strangest Wisconsin real estate news stories from 2008 (so far):

First this guy in Whitehall (about 30 miles south of Eau Claire) offers to name the buyer of his home as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy...

Then there was the terrible flood in central Wisconsin which eroded the bank between Lake Delton and the Wisconsin River. Lake Delton emptied into the river, but not before taking this house with it!

Now-- Eau Claire County, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that some of the most prime riverfront real estate in the city should be used for....a new jail. So the dregs of society will have a better view than most of us productive citizens. What a terrible use of taxpayer money. I'm sure some local developers would…

Recently, I was involved in a short sale transaction on the buyer side. It was quite a roller coaster, to say the least. It took four months to complete the deal from offer to closing. No less than four times, we thought the deal was dead...but somehow we kept managing to shock the tired heart of it back to life for another go until at last it was completed.

I must give credit where credit is due. One man with extraordinary skills and drive singlehandedly saved the deal. He saved the buyers from having to find a less desireable house at a much higher interest rate, saved the sellers from foreclosure, and saved the commissions for the agents involved.

The man is a mortgage broker. I admit I was not sold on the idea of having a mortgage broker until…

One topic that comes up frequently when selling real estate in and around Eau Claire is the idea of egress windows in lower levels of homes. I thought it would be helpful to spell out the exact requirements for egress windows to be legal in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Building Code

According to Paul, the current building inspector for the city of Chippewa Falls, the Uniform Dwelling Code applies to all municipalities in Wisconsin. The code applies to all single family dwellings, and municipalities may not enact codes that are more strict than the state UDC.

There are three basic requirements that need to be met for a lower level egress window to be legal: It must be low enough, it must have an areaway, and it must be big enough to allow for exit and…

I'm in the middle of a so-called "short sale" at this time. My wife keeps asking me why they are called short sales, because it is taking so long to complete the sale! I've read that many short sales are taking 90-120 days to complete these days. The backlogs at large banks result from a combination of the high number of homes in foreclosure combined with understaffing.

4-5 years ago, mortgage brokers held most of the market share on the origination of mortgage loans. As they lost market share, banks cut staff. However, with the tightened credit market, many mortgage brokers have gone out of business. That means ordinary banks are taking up the slack and have once again begun originating the majority of mortgage loans. Apparently they have not yet…

One of the great things about being a discount Realtor is that I deal with many clients who have had bad experiences with full-service agents. I've heard some pretty awful stories, as I'm sure both full-service and discount agents can attest. That is the nature of being in an industry with very low barriers to entry. But I digress. Here is another one, to be filed under "Ignorance, Unethicalness, or just plain Lying." 

At a recent listing appointment, the seller asked me whom he could use to have his home appraised. This made me curious, as it is usually the buyer...or more specifically the buyer's lender that requires the appraisal, not the seller. I asked why he wanted to have an appraisal done -- did he have an offer already?

My client replied that he…

All the sales stats for the first quarter of 2008 are in, and the differences in real estate trends between the various areas of Eau Claire continue to fascinate me. Many people in Eau Claire have found that there is a premium for homes in the South end of the city. Here are some highlights of an analysis I am working on to prove (or disprove) this theory:

Eau Claire's South Side -- Still Hot!

• 66 Residential homes sold in 1st quarter 2008
• 54 Residential homes below 200k sold in 1st quarter 2008
• 12 Residential homes above 200k sold in 1st quarter 2008
• Average Selling price of about 160k
• Average Days on Market: 148

Eau Claire's West Side: Sales Cool

• 35 Residential homes sold in 1st quarter 2008
• 29 Residential…

I've been working woth a young couple eager to buy a house on Eau Claire's South Side for the past month or so. Just in working with this one couple, I can cite numerous examples of the real estate market being very good on the South side of Eau Claire.

Early one week, the buyers emailed me a list of ten homes they wanted to see the following weekend. I checked the MLS and noted that four already had accepted offers. By the time the weekend rolled around, one more had an accepted offer. The buyers were not interested in getting into a bidding war because, hey, it's a buyer's market, right? So five were scratched from the list.

None of the remaining five seemed to match their needs, so they found 2 more for the next weekend. By the time the next…

In this market, only the most desirable homes priced correctly will get top dollar. If there are any aspects of your home that are viewed negatively by buyers, your home will rapidly move down their list of favorites. Recognizing that your home may be a tough sell is often half the battle.

A house I listed about a year and a half ago is a good example of this. It’s a nice home but needed a few upgrades inside. The kitchen had old vinyl flooring, there were 4 bedrooms but only one bathroom, and one of the bedrooms had flooring that looked suspiciously like asbestos tile.

It was also located adjacent to train tracks. Active train tracks. Upon which trains roll at all hours of the day and night.

Finally, the house had some issues with the city…