January 2014 Steve & Jack's Home News

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

We hope you are preparing to enjoy the Christmas holidays and New Year.

First off, THANK YOU to everyone who attended our VIP Client Appreciation Event last Saturday!!! We had an amazing turnout, despite frigid temperatures and almost 250 of you enjoyed refreshments & an amazing movie Frozen. If you haven't seen it yet, it is worth your time & money. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We enjoy pampering our fantastic clients and referral partners and look forward to doing it again next year.

This has been an amazing year for us and we owe it all to YOU, our fantastic clients. We plan to take a much-deserved break between Christmas & New Years and visit Brigid's parents who live in Tampa, FL. Not a bad place to visit family! Our family is looking forward to spending time together and slowing down a bit to enjoy the holidays...and we hope you are as well. We all work hard during the year and it is nice to be able to slow down, relax, and reflect on the past year and make plans for the next.

The real estate market is still quite HOT. Here are some notable numbers (from MIBOR's most recent Monthly Indicators Report-October 2013):
• Closed sales are up 11.6%
• Pending sales are up 6.4%
• New listings are up 13.1%
• Median sales price is up 4.9% to $135,000
• Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale up 2.9% to 92.3%
• Total active listings available down 7.6%
• Months supply of inventory down 24.6% to 5.5 months

As you can see, every single category we track is posting impressive numbers. Hamilton County is posting even more impressive numbers with inventory in some areas and price ranges at just 2.3 months! If you are considering buying, selling, or building a new home, please contact us so we can share specific numbers with you and advise you on your options.

From Steve, Jack and our entire family, we heartily wish you a warm, fun, relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. THANK YOU again for being a client and we can't wait to see what is in store for next year!!

Click here to read our January 2014 newsletter.

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack

December 2013 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

At this time of the year, we always reflect back on our year both personally & professionally. Like many of us, it is easy to always look for and see the negative things in our lives. After all, the media certainly focuses on those things, don't they? If it bleeds, it leads. We are grateful for a strong and healthy family and many, many friends who support us in good times and bad. We also are extremely grateful to our loyal clients. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we do every day. It is our passion and what we love to do. Thank you for enabling us to continue to help you and those you care about with your real estate needs. We are humbled and grateful.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? We are spending time at Jack & Mary Anne's enjoying a delicious dinner with all of the traditional fixings. Brigid's parents are leaving tonight to spend a couple of weeks in Italy. They have never been and are really looking forward to experiencing the Italian culture. We can't wait to see photos and hear about their trip!

We are extremely proud of Michelle's husband Steve who is the head athletic trainer for Carmel high school. You may have heard about the horrific series of health events that happened during the semi-state football game (Carmel won and is going to State). The head referee collapsed due to a heart attack. The team doctor & Steve resuscitated him and kept him alive until he could be rushed to the hospital. He survived and owes being alive to Steve & the team doctor. Also, during the game, a parent who was cheering for his son who just scored a TD, died of a heart attack and another fan suffered a stroke! Talk about a terrible game!

On a happy note, we would like to officially welcome our new Director of Marketing & Client Service Bob Clidinst. He has been helping us part-time for most of this year and just joined us full-time on November 15th. Bob has a background in real estate marketing and has his real estate license. He will be specializing in marketing the heck out of our listings as well as answer any client questions/needs. His e-mail is Bob@Welcome2Indy.com. Feel free to drop him an e-mail to welcome him to our real estate family. We are fortunate to have him helping us and serving our clients.

Finally, we are overwhelmed at the amazing response for our Client Appreciation Event on December 7th. We have just a few more seats left, so if you haven't reserved your tickets, please RSVP TODAY to Kari Kuper at KKuper@AccessNational.com. She needs your name and number of tickets requested and whether they are adult or child. We have rented out the entire Hamilton Towne Center movie theater and are showing a private screening of the brand new Disney movie Frozen. A coffee, juice, & donut bar starts at 9AM and the movie begins at 10AM sharp. It is our small way of having fun and saying thank you to all of our friends and clients who have supported us over the past 50-years. Please RSVP TODAY and share in the fun with us!!

We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving spent with friends and family and a time to relax and reflect on the many blessings we all have in our lives. Thank YOU for being a blessing in OUR lives!

Click here to read our December newsletter.

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Steve & Jack Rupp

November 2013 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Halloween!!!

Even though Trick-or-Treating has been moved by most municipalities around Indy to tomorrow night, we hope you enjoy this extended holiday. Ana & Tali are excited to go around with neighbors tomorrow in their costumes. Ana is Princess Leia, and Tali is Rapunzel. They both look so cute in their costumes! We hope you enjoy either tagging along your kids or grandkids or enjoying seeing all of the kids in their costumes come to your door.

We enjoyed Fall Break with Jack & Mary Anne in their timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN. Although the leaves hadn't changed as much as we had hoped, we had a great and relaxing time and enjoyed hiking in the park, walking downtown Gatlinburg, attending a craft fair, and going through a really cool science museum. We also enjoyed earlier this month the Hauntless Halloween at Holiday Park and Pumpkin Fest in Zionsville-great Fall traditions our family has embraced for years!

As for the market, we have had a strange fall. With the government shut-down, things really slowed down. As soon as it was over, things picked back up again. Activity is still very strong and houses are selling. Interest rates are also lower again hovering around 4%. Closed sales are UP 21% over this time last year, median sales price is UP 6.5% and inventory is DOWN again 9.9%, making for an inventory of just 5.5 months, which is a seller's market. Hamilton County is down to just 3.9 months of inventory, which is bordering on an unhealthy supply of inventory and creating a very strong seller's market. So, if you have a house to sell in Hamilton County, give us a call!

Our annual Client Appreciation Event is just around the corner (see attached invite). Invitations were mailed out yesterday, so look for yours in the mail, and please RSVP to Kari Kuper prior to the event with the number of adult and child tickets you would like. We are showing a private screening of the brand new Disney movie Frozen, which is being release Thanksgiving weekend. This is open to parents, grandparents, and children. We will have a donut, juice, and coffee bar starting at 9AM and then the movie will begin promptly at 10AM. We will be holding our event this year on Saturday, December 7th at Hamilton Towne Center Theater. We hope you can join us and please don't forget to RSVP, so we have enough refreshments and tickets available.

See you there!!!

Finally, I have included an article from a friend and client of ours who is a Professional Home Stager. Her name is Monya Visor with Pretty M-Pressive. Her phone number is 309-310-3521 and e-mail is PrettyMpressive@aol.com. She does a fantastic job and is very talented. Please feel comfortable calling her with any questions on Staging, decluttering, etc. I think you will be impressed with the results!


WHY DO I NEED A STAGER?
The purpose of an Accredited Staging Professional, ASP®, is to help homeowners and Realtors® sell their homes/listings quickly and for the most money possible. A stager does 3 things: Depersonalize, Declutter, and Organize. When personal items and clutter are removed, buyers get a chance to see the home for the jewel it really is.
Stagers are also a great resource if you’re selling a vacant home. It’s difficult to visualize furniture placement in a vacant home. Stagers own or have access to furniture and accessories that can turn a cold, plain room into a warm, spacious home.
It is imperative that sellers are educated on how to sell their homes. They have to look at the house in terms of a product because the way you live in a home and the way you sell it are two different things!
Speaking of purchase, do not be afraid of the cost. If your home is listed at the right price, the fee for staging will be less than your first price reduction. Why not stage and keep the price as is? Staged homes sell faster and for the most money. Average homes in America are on the market 130 days before being sold. On average, 95% of Staged homes sell within 11 days or fewer and for 17% more!
Now that you understand why you need a stager, call an ASP. The first meeting is usually FREE!

Click here to read our November newsletter.

Click here to gain access to our exclusive coupons & discounts.

Steve & Jack Rupp

October Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy October and Halloween! We hope you are enjoying some cooler weather. If you love the heat, maybe a vacation somewhere warm is being planned. Our girls are excited about dressing up again this year and getting together with all of the neighbors for our annual tradition of dinner and then Trick-or-Treating. Ana is going around as Princess Leah and Tali will be Tangled. Ana wanted her to be Yoda, but we put the kibosh on that one!

Our family has an annual tradition of attending the Headless Horseman at Conner Prairie every year and we continued that tradition on Sunday. If you haven't been, I encourage you to go. It is very well-done and there are a lot of activities to keep kids and grandkids occupied for a few hours. The Sleepy Hollow puppet show is extremely popular and if you haven't seen it, would recommend it highly.

Next Thursday & Friday is our Fall Break and we are going with Jack and Mary Anne to the Smokies. We are really looking forward to spending time together and are hoping that the park opens by then!

This year continues to be extremely good for real estate, however since the Federal Government partial shut-down, buyer traffic has slowed significantly all over the country as buyers are hearing that lenders are not able to close loans. While the shut-down isn't helping things, that sentiment is not accurate. Loans are still closing and lenders are making changes to the prior requirement to receive tax transcripts and are asking for an additional year of a tax return instead, in many cases. People are still closing loans, but clearly a budget deal would greatly help!

As for some market updates, things are still going very well:
*Closed sales are up 22.2%
*Median sales prices are up 5.6%
*Inventory is down 12.7% to just 5.6 months, which constitutes a SELLERS' market

Thank you to everyone who has registered for the FREE Colts-Bronco's tickets for Sunday night's game. We will be drawing one lucky winner at 4PM TODAY, so if you haven't called us yet to register, please do so-317-573-1880. Good luck!!!

Also, Ana and I will be attending the sold-out All-Pro Dad's Club breakfast this Friday morning at 7:30AM at Carey Ridge Elementary school, where several former Colts' players, including Hunter Smith will be talking, including a message from Tony Dungy. The NFL will be there filming and we should be on TV on Sunday night, so please watch for us! After the breakfast, we get to tour the Sunday Night Football RV. Ana is SO excited!!!! Let's hope for a better showing of our Colts than last night. Ugh!!

Enjoy the newsletter and, as always THANK YOU for your continued support and referrals. Please continue to think of us for your real estate needs and those of people you care about. We love to help!

Click here to read out October Newsletter

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

September Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome Fall (almost)! It certainly feels like it! We hope you are enjoying the cooler weather even though it means winter is just around the corner. School is now back in session for everyone and our crazy schedule certainly proves it with soccer (4x/week), swimming lessons, piano lessons, choir (2x/week), & Girls Scouts, not to mention homework and birthday parties, etc. Whew! I am tired just thinking of all of that! We hope you are enjoying the nutty fall season as well.

Real estate has slowed a little, but is still going VERY strong. Inventory is down another 14.1% to just 5.6 months, the median sales price is up 5.3%, and closed sales are up 27.5%. Hamilton County is seeing even stronger numbers and is down to just 4.1 months of inventory with closed sales up 39.6%! We are having our best year EVER and are so incredibly grateful to you our loyal clients for making that happen. THANK YOU!

Did you receive your 2013 football calendar from us a few weeks ago? We hope you enjoy it as a little gift to say thank you for your support over the years. We have a couple of more ways we would like to say thank you as well:

1) You should have received a Save The Date invitation in the mail about a week ago for a private screening of the upcoming movie Frozen, which we are showing on Saturday, December 7th. A donut and juice bar opens at 9AM and the private screening begins at 10AM at the Hamilton Town Centre movie theater in Noblesville. We rented out the entire theatre for you, your children and your grandchildren, so bring the whole family and let us treat you to a fun and entertaining Disney movie for the entire family. The trailer is hilarious.

2) We are GIVING away TWO tickets to the most popular football game of the season, which is the Colts vs. Broncos game broadcast on national TV at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday Night Football on October 20th at 8:30PM. This game has been SOLD OUT for months and these tickets are incredibly difficult to get. If you would like to be entered into our drawing, you must CALL ME at 317-573-1880. A drawing will be held on Friday, October 18th and the winner will be notified via phone, so please make sure you leave a phone number and your name when you call. In order to qualify to have your name entered into the drawing, you must have bought, sold, or built a home with us OR have referred a client to us anytime in the past whether it was this year or 40+ years ago. If you haven't done any of those, don't worry, there is still time. Good luck!

Finally, check out the September edition of our newsletter. There are some cool articles about not giving up your dreams, regardless of what anyone says and another article about how to get a raise from your boss, as well as many others.

To access our exclusive coupons & discounts, click here.

To search for any home, visit our website at http://www.Welcome2Indy.com

To read our September newsletter, click here.

August Newsletter

School is back in session for many kids and will be back in session soon for others-including ours. This has been a very fast summer for us and we are left wondering where all of the time went. It seems the older we get, the faster time goes. Doesn't it?

In our July newsletter, I mentioned the wonderful 10-year wedding anniversary trip Brigid and I took to Jamaica. Unfortunately, we had a rather negative surprise happen on our way home. Here is what happened after we landed in Orlando to make our connection to Indy.

We had about 2-1/2 hours after we landed in Orlando to make our connection, so we had plenty of time. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7:30PM. We board the plane a few minutes past when we would normally board. There was a mechanic on the plane repairing one of the seats in coach-no problem. Then, the captain announces over the PA that we are not only waiting for the mechanic to fix the seat, but also one doing something under the plane. Again, no biggie...yet.

We finally pull away from the gate about 30-minutes past our scheduled departure time and the pilot who LOVES the movie, Star Wars, tells us that Luke Skywalker (him), Han Solo (the First Officer) and Chewy (the mechanic who worked on the underbelly of the plane) would try to engage the hyper-drive and use light speed to get us back to Indy in just a few minutes. If the hyper-drive wouldn't work, it would take about 2 hours, 20-minutes. Cute.

About ten minutes into the flight as we are still climbing quickly, Brigid turns to me and asks if I smell smoke. I calmly tell her no and suggest she is just imagining things or smelling burnt coffee or something. A few minutes after her question, we notice the flight attendant in the forward galley open up the first overhead storage compartment and retrieve a fire extinguisher. What? Now, THAT caught our eye! She didn't use it, but calmly and deliberately focused her attention in the galley with the other flight attendant. We don't break eye contact with the galley at this point.

Shortly thereafter, the flight attendant picks up the intercom and says something frantically and quickly puts it back down. About 20-seconds later, the flight attendant working the back of the plane comes running up the aisle past us with a second fire extinguisher. It has not been discharged and neither has the first one. They all talk softly and then turn off all of the switches in the galley and then get on the intercom with the captain.

The captain comes on the intercom and states that we need to turn around and land back at Orlando as a precaution only and that everything is okay, but they just want to be safe. Brigid starts to really worry now and I told her that as long as there are no emergency vehicles on the runway, we are fine.

As we approach our runway, of course we notice emergency vehicles with all of their lights on and the runway has been shut down, we are told for just us. After we land, we stop in the middle of the runway while the emergency vehicles light the plane up with their spotlights looking for smoke. We are finally cleared to park at the gate and are told to de-plane-no smoke noticed, apparently.

After about an hour of waiting at our gate, the captain tells us they have been looking for another plane as ours has been placed out of service due to smoking wires in the galley electrical panel. Our three flight attendants decided to not work anymore due to 'extreme emotional stress' and went home leaving us stranded at the airport (a very subjective perk that a good lawyer wrote into their collective contracts, no doubt). The captain was NOT happy about their decision and commandeered another flight crew who just arrived to fly back with us to Indy on the plane on which they just flew in. Now, THAT flight crew was NOT happy either.

We finally re-board the new plane with our captain and first-officer from our original flight and the new flight attendants who were visibly unhappy about working (I can't blame them). The time is now 10:50PM. We arrive uneventfully back in Indy at 1:20AM, however due to our frightening experience and delay, AirTran gives each passenger on our flight a FREE round-trip ticket anywhere they fly to be used in the next 12-months. Wow!!! Chalk one up for great customer service!

We finally arrive home around 2:30AM and four hours later have the privilege of getting up and going to work. Ugh! Not the end of the world, but a LONG day at work, to say the least. The positive is that we are still alive and didn't make national or even local news and we have 2 round-trip tickets.

We hope your air travels have NOT been as eventful as our most recent one was, but some of you travel quite a bit and we would LOVE to hear of any eventful flights you may have encountered (to make us feel better!).

Enjoy the rest of your summer and we hope you are able to make it out to the State Fair this year. Thanks again for your continued support and trust as we strive to make our clients' experiences as UNeventful as possible!

Click here to read our August newsletter.

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July 2013 Steve & Jack's Home News

We hope your summer has been going well. You have probably heard and/or read by now that the real estate market is RED HOT! We have certainly seen that to be true on the north side of Indy as well, which is why we have been slow in getting our July newsletter out. Due to increased demand and very low supply, some houses are selling in HOURS. There are many factors influencing which houses sell that quickly while others do not, but if you or someone you care about are curious about the housing market, please give us a call so we can consult about your options.

In July, Brigid and I took a vacation we had been planning for 3 years to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary. Jack & Mary Anne watched Ana & Talia so we could truly relax. Thank you, mom & dad!!! We chose to spend 5 days and 4 nights in Montego Bay, Jamaica at a Hilton all-inclusive resort-using HHonors points we had been saving. While I had visited Jamaica long ago as a kid, we went to a totally different area of the island and Brigid had never been before. Neither of us had been to an all-inclusive resort before, either.

Needless to say, it was a fantastic time and we had amazing weather! We enjoyed the pools, live bands at night, laying out on the beach, and I read my first 'enjoyable' book for the first time in years. We ate dinner at 8:30-9:00PM each night and dined al fresco. The stars were amazing and the water crashing onto the beach was therapeutic-so was the couples massage in which we indulged ourselves one day. The staff at the hotel were absolutely amazing and all were very intent on making sure we were having a great time.

I surprised Brigid with a 10-year anniversary ring, which she absolutely loves. My plans to re-propose to her on the beach were washed away with the high tide, so the beach chair had to suffice. We would highly recommend going if you get the chance.

I'm curious, what all-inclusive resorts have you visited and would you go again? Please let me know as we would love to go again down the road.

In next month's newsletter, I will share our very scary return home-something we have never before experienced and hope to never experience again...

Enjoy the rest of the summer, cool though it may be, and THANK YOU for your continued business and loyalty. We are truly grateful!

Click here to read our July newsletter.

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June 2013 Steve & Jack's Home News Newsletter

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there! We hope your special day affords you a day spent enjoying what you most like to do. My Father's Day will involve traveling home from our annual summer family vacation. This year, we are going back to Disney where we will see Brigid's parents for a couple of days and then off to the park where we will see her brother and her family. We can't wait to see the new Fantasyland. Brigid has already set up all of our dining reservations and we are excited to go on the river cruise for the first time for dinner and see the fireworks.

We will also see an old Xavier roommate who lives in Orlando now along with his family. We have been told that this first week of June shouldn't be as crowded, but time will tell.

A very special trip to which Brigid and I are looking forward is our 10-year wedding anniversary trip for 5-days to Jamaica in July. The kids are staying at home with their grandparents and Brigid and I get to enjoy an all-inclusive resort and just relax. We have never been to an all-inclusive resort before, but have heard they are really nice. I will report back on how it went in our August newsletter.

School is out for us on June 7th and the girls are looking forward to playing with their friends and not having to go to school for several weeks. Is it just me, or does summer seem much shorter now than it did when we grew up?

Great news for the market!!! Check out our blog to read about the increase in building permits and a decrease in foreclosures. For the Indy-area, closed sales are up 21.8%. Median sales price is up 0.8%. Inventory is down 16.4% making our month's supply of houses to be 5.5. In Hamilton County, we are down to 4.2 months of inventory!!

Enjoy the warmer weather and the start to the summer season. THANK YOU again for all of your continued support and business. We are having our best year yet and we couldn't have done it without YOU! Truly, we are grateful!

Check out this month's edition of our June newsletter, which contains some very interesting stories, including:
• History of Father's Day
• History of shaving
• How reflective paint works
• Why dogs live short lives
• How to spend less at restaurants

Click here for our May newsletter

Click here to access our VIP Coupon & Discount Savings Site

Building Permits Rise-Foreclosures Drop

Steve & Jack's Home News for May 2013

Welcome spring and all of the weather (good & bad) that comes with it! We hope you survived the storms last night. We spent part of the night in the basement with our girls. Both are so used to it now that waking them up in the middle of the night doesn't even phase them! Our hearts & prayers go out to the victims of the Oklahoma tornado. What terrible devestation!

On a lighter note, if you are a subscriber to the Indianapolis Monthly magazine, please look for us as one of the top real estate agents in the city for providing outstanding client service. We are honored and humbled at the reviews YOU submitted on our behalf. We are a multi-year award winner and are in the top 7% of agents in the city our of over 6,000 agents. THANK YOU! We wouldn't be able to do what we do without such amazing clients like you. Truly, we are grateful. Please feel comfortable introducing us to those you care about needing outstanding service and advice on buying, selling, or building a new home. That is how we stay in business.

As for the housing market, it has posted some more great numbers. Inventory is down again to 5.5 months in Indy (4.2 months in Hamilton County), sales prices are up 2%, closed sales are up 18.7%, pending sales are up 22.8%, and new listings are up 9.2%. This is all excellent news!!!

We are grateful to Butler University for inviting us, once again to present to their faculty and staff earlier this month on the Top Ten Mistakes Buyers and Sellers Make as well as a market update. If you have a group or your company does Brown Bag lunches, please feel comfortable contacting us about doing a presentation for your group as well. We are proficient on myriad topics relating to real estate, marketing, client service, Staging, and financing. Give us a call!

Enjoy the warmer weather and thanks again for inviting us to a part of your family!

Click here to read our May Newsletter.

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Enjoy!!!

Good News for Buyers AND Sellers!

Best Bang for Your Buck Home Improvements

Increased Housing Starts...

April Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome spring and the April showers that come with it--in some cases a LOT of water. We hope this e-mail finds you well...and dry.

Our big news is that Natalia had a tonsillectomy on Friday. She was the last in our family with tonsils, so we are grateful to be finished with that and Natalia is healing extremely well. We truly hope you never have a need for a good ENT, but if you do, we can highly recommend Dr. Hackett. He is simply outstanding!! Jack and Mary Anne have been very helpful with watching Talia this week for us while she recovers.

Anastasia is preparing for her First Communion in two weeks. This has been a 2-year preparation process and she is so excited! We are hosting quite a bit of family that weekend and are looking forward to seeing everyone again.

The housing market is on FIRE! Overally, we are down to 5.2 months of inventory, however in many parts of Hamilton County, we have only a few weeks of supply creating an extreme sellers' market. Some agents are knocking on people's doors asking if they would consider selling. We have five buyers right now who are having a very difficult time finding a home that meets their needs. If you are even remotely considering selling this year, please call us as we would love to consult with you about your options.

Enjoy your spring and warmer weather and thank you for your continued trust and confidence!

Click here to read our April newsletter.

Click here to see our new and improved coupon and discount saving site. If you haven't checked this out yet, please take a moment to do so and save some money.

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

Housing Myth vs. Fact

Indianapolis Housing Market Update

Existing-home sales market surging 15 percent across Indiana
Associated Press
April 9, 2013
Nissa Ricafort and her husband figured their ranch-style home in northeast Indianapolis would take two to three months to sell, but the weekend it hit the market the couple had 17 showings and accepted an offer for the full $185,000 asking price.

"It was the most insane thing I ever experienced," said Ricafort, a family law attorney. "But a good insane. I closed on the sale of one home, then closed on the other four days later and moved in between. It's really worked out great."

The housing market has spiked so much in some places in the Indianapolis area that real estate agents are turning to Facebook and going door-to-door looking for prospective sellers because of a shortage of houses for sale. Sales are up overall statewide, with Indiana reporting 68,015 homes sold from March 2012 through February 2013, a 15.2-percent increase over the same period a year earlier. For the first two months of 2013, sales were up 20.5 percent. Home sales have improved on a year-over-year basis for 20 consecutive months.

"In the major markets, everything seems to be very, very busy," said Kevin Kirkpatrick, president of the Indiana Association of Realtors. "We don't have enough inventory for the number of buyers that are out there right now. That's what's causing prices to go up. They're not skyrocketing, but things are moving in the right direction."

The median cost of a home in Indiana is up 4.7 percent, from $112,750 to $118,000.

Toby Muhlhofer, an Indiana University assistant professor of finance who specializes in real estate, said it's not surprising the housing market in Indianapolis is leading the comeback.

"It makes sense because Indianapolis is where Indiana's economic output is centered," he said.

Other areas also are seeing improvement.

"It's still very clearly a buyer's market, but that pendulum is beginning to swing and I think consumers are noticing that," said Peter Novak Jr., chief executive of Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

Some buyers are having trouble even finding homes to look at. Tonya Sanderson of Fishers said she's been looking nearly a year for a four-bedroom house with a three-car garage and a yard big enough for a pool in the school district she lives in, but there have been few houses to look at.

"We really thought by now there would be a lot of houses being listed and we'd have a lot of options, but we're not seeing that," Sanderson said.

She said she's considering putting letters in mailboxes of homes she likes to see if people are interested in selling.

Cindy Marchant, a real estate agent since 2001 in Fishers, said home sales in the suburb are up 48 percent from a year ago. She said it's the best market she's seen. She attributes the improvement to pent-up demand, low interest rates, improving consumer confidence and homeowners becoming frustrated last year at the lack of sales lowering their prices.

"It was the perfect storm, but no one was jumping because everyone was afraid because so many people were unemployed," she said. "It was hard to go out on a limb and buy a house. But I think now, people are ready to make a move."

Kirkpatrick worries, though, that the resurgence is fragile.

"If something happens with North Korea or something happens with oil prices, it could knock it off real quickly," he said.

Profits Up in The Commercial World

Housing News Roundup

Buying A Hom? Read This First!

Homeowners can save $$$ with tax deductions

March 2013 Newsletter

Welcome Spring? As we write this snow is frantically flurrying outside and schools were just cancelled. Fortunately, spring break is just a few short days away and Steve & Brigid are headed to Tampa, FL to see Brigid's parents and see two of Steve's college roommates. They are looking forward to enjoying some warm weather until Spring finally decides to arrive for good here.

Speaking of spring changes, the transition to Keller Williams has been very smooth and an extremely good one. We continue to be amazed at the support, technology, and marketing that Keller Williams has on top of their impeccable ethical reputation. Steve attended Family Reunion (national convention) in Dallas last month and not only continued to be impressed hearing Gary Keller speak and then announce that Keller Williams is the #1 real estate company by agent count in the US. We are honored & privileged to be associated with such a fine company.

As for the market, it is a LOT hotter than the outside temperature. It is a strong seller's market, believe it or not and the inventory is at 4.2 months and getting lower. We are seeing houses selling in hours, not days or months and they are getting multiple offers. We expect things to continue to get stronger as inventory shrinks and buyer activity increases. Builders can't keep up with demand. If you are even remotely thinking of selling your house, give us a call as we'd love to share some specific information about your situation so we can give you the most thorough information with which to make a decision.

Enjoy this month's newsletter talking about a subject, which is near and dear to our hearts-Servant Leadership. We truly believe in servant leadership.


Click here to read the newsletter.

Get Your Workout While Spring Cleaning

They Are Moving In!

Good News for Housing

More Signs of Housing Market Improvement

Go Green And Save Money

Now Is The Time to Find A Home Bargain

Indy Housing Growth

Low Housing Stock

Buying Vs. Renting

Housing Marketing Update for Indianapolis, IN

Home Improvement Surge

Case Schiller Home Prices Indexes

January Steve & Jack's Home News

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

We hope you are getting in the holiday spirit and ready to enjoy some time with family and friends. Thank you to everyone who attended Santa Night again this year. We had another GREAT turnout and, if you weren't able to make it this year, we hope you can join us next year.

Tomorrow is the day Ana and Steve have their tonsillectomies. While it certainly isn't the way either of them planned to spend their Christmas holidays, it will be over and they can move forward-a lot healthier. This has been a humbling experience for Steve in realizing the lengths a dad will go for his little girl. He has been putting off this surgery for 10 years now, but when Ana was told she had to have her tonsils out, he bucked up and told her he would do it, too! Strangely enough, he drew strength from is 7-year old daughter knowing he had to be calm for her. The things a daddy will do for his daughter!

We will update you on their recovery progress in our next newsletter, but it will take a good week for Ana's recovery and a good 2-weeks for Steve's.

We wish you a more peaceful and relaxing Christmas holiday than Steve and Ana will experience. Thank you so much for all of your support over the years. We are truly grateful for each of our clients and that is why we are in business. Here's to a successful and peaceful 2013 for everyone.

Here is a preview of what you can look forward to reading in the January newsletter:
• A Little Learning
• The Invention of January
• January Quiz Question
• Jammin' January Observances
• Weird Words
• Cheapest Tablet on The Market
• Lead with A Positive Attitude
• Sometimes A Hug Trumps A Fight
• Good Medicine
• 'Chivalry' in Insects?
• Effects of Peaceful Video Games
• Caffeine Withdrawal

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