Eau Claire Real Estate's Blog: All Categories

An interesting question came up from one of my listings a few days ago. There is a bedroom in the lower level of the home, which is below grade. There is an egress window in the room.

The owner of the home built a cubby approximately 10 feet wide by 5 feet deep in this bedroom with the intention of putting up doors and making that area the closet. However, the doors were never installed.

I listed the home as a three bedroom; I did not include the fourth bedroom downstairs because it did not have the closet doors. I assumed it was not an official bedroom.

The owner called me up and said he would prefer to have the home listed as a 4-bedroom. He also said he would install the closet doors if that was the only holdup to having his home listed as a 4…

Many of my clients ask questions about title insurance. Some common questions are:

Am I required to obtain title insurance? How much does it cost? Who should I buy it from?

The answer to the first question is yes, you pretty much need to buy title insurance to sell real estate in Wisconsin. Title insurance is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure that you are passing along a clean title to the buyer.

As for prices and whom to use, well, it varies. Most title policies are priced on a sliding scale based on the selling price of the home.

Since I am in the process of selling my own home, I thought it would be a good time to compare some local title insurance providers and help give you an idea of how much title insurance policies cost.

I…

FTC Charges Milwaukee Area MLS with Illegally Restraining Competition

 MetroMLS of Milwaukee, WI was recently charged with violating antitrust laws. Basically, the broker-owned MLS tried to push limited-service real estate companies out of business by not allowing those listings to be uploaded to Realtor.com and other web sites. Naturally, all listings from full-service realtors were allowed to be uploaded.

 The FTC viewed this practice to be blatantly anticompetitive. Exclusive Agency (limited service) listing contracts are perfectly legal in Wisconsin. The complaint alleged that MetroMLS acted anticompetitively by adopting rules and policies that limit the publication and marketing of certain sellers’ properties, but not others, based solely on the…

There were 24 residential homes sold in Strum in 2007.  That is still a substantial number of sales considering the population of the town is just over 1000! Real estate around Eau Claire did not experience a large price runup in the last few years, but that also means our market is more steady in slow times as well. Homes that were well priced sold in a reasonable amount of time for a decent (and still increasing) amount of money.

Here are the sales statistics for Strum 2007:

Number of residential homes sold in the Strum in 2007: 24

$  20,500     Lowest priced Strum home sold in 2007
$  270,000   Highest priced Strum home sold in 2007
$  103,934   Average price of Strum homes sold for in 2007
$  108,000   Median price of Strum home sold for in…

A report conducted by Global Insight Inc. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors holds dire predictions about the effects of the current mortgage industry problems. The report states that US GDP will be $166 billion lower as a result of the mortgage crisis, and there will be 524,000 fewer new jobs created in 2008 due to the ripple effects.

States that had the highest growth in property values in the recent past, such as California, Nevada, and Florida will be hit hardest by the mortgage industry problems. When home values were rapidly increasing, investors and speculators jumped on the bandwagon and helped to increase prices even further.

Apparently, investors and speculators did not flock to Wisconsin, but this could turn into a silver lining for the…

There were 23 residential homes sold in Eleva in 2007.  Real estate in the Eau Claire metropolitan statistical area did not experience a large price runup in the last few years, but that also means our market is more steady in slow times as well. Homes that were well priced sold in a reasonable amount of time for a decent (and still increasing) amount of money.

Here are the sales statistics for Eleva 2007:

Number of residential homes sold in the Eleva in 2007: 23

$  65,000     Lowest priced Eleva home sold in 2007
$  533,000   Highest priced Eleva home sold in 2007
$  223,909   Average price of Eleva homes sold in 2007
$  210,000   Median price of Eleva home sold in 2007 (median means half were more, half were less than this amount)

On…

There were 35 residential homes sold in Fall Creek in 2007.  Real estate in the Eau Claire metropolitan statistical area did not experience a large price runup in the last few years, but that also means our market is more steady in slow times as well. Homes that were well priced sold in a reasonable amount of time for a decent (and still increasing) amount of money.

Here are the sales statistics for Fall Creek 2007:

Number of residential homes sold in the Fall Creek in 2007: 35

$  29,800     Lowest priced Fall Creek home sold in 2007
$  315,000   Highest priced Fall Creek home sold in 2007
$  122,319   Average price of Fall Creek homes sold in 2007
$  121,000   Median price of Fall Creek home sold in 2007 (median means half were more, half were…

There were 35 residential homes sold in Elk Mound in 2007.  Real estate in Elk Mound did not experience a large price runup in the last few years, but that also means our market is more steady in slow times as well. Homes that were well priced sold in a reasonable amount of time for a decent (and still increasing) amount of money.

Here are the sales statistics for Elk Mound 2007:

Number of residential homes sold in the Elk Mound in 2007: 35

$  44,900     Lowest priced Elk Mound home sold in 2007
$  329,900   Highest priced Elk Mound home sold in 2007
$  157,145   Average price of Elk Mound homes sold in 2007
$  148,500   Median price of Elk Mound home sold in 2007 (median means half were more, half were less than this amount)

On average, Elk…