January 2017 Steve & Jack's Home News

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!! No matter what or if you celebrate this holiday season, we hope it is a fun, peaceful, and restful time of year for you when you can look back and either count your blessings and/or look forward and be thankful it is over! We have been fortunate enough to help more families than ever before buy, sell, and build new homes this year and we couldn't be more grateful. THANK YOU for entrusting us with your business and/or that of a friend/family member/colleague. We say this often, but truly mean that we couldn't do what we do without you, so THANK YOU!

Speaking of thanks, we hope you were able to attend one or both of our Client Appreciation events this month. Our Photos with Santa was a huge hit and it was so nice to see so many of our clients all dressed up for pictures. What a fun afternoon!!! If you haven't attended, we hope you will consider doing so next year. We always have a great turnout and Santa is on his 'best' behavior!

Secondly, thank you to almost 200 of our clients for attending a super-fun 4th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies on December 3rd! Moana was a BIG hit with the kids and adults alike and we were honored to 'love' on you for a few hours as a small way to say thank you for being some of the best clients around. If you didn't get a chance to attend this year, please make plans to attend next year. We always host this event the first Saturday in December, which is December 2nd in 2017. Please join us!

Our monthly Happy Hours return in January at Matt The Miller's from 5-6:30PM. Come join us on January 18th to spend some time with old friends and meet new ones. Drinks and food are on US!

As for our family, we are fortunate to all live in Indy, so we will be getting together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Brigid's parents are flying in from St. Pete, FL for the week and then we will be headed to Chicago for a few days to take in the holiday spirit in the Big City!

Here are the MIBOR statistics for the housing market (November 2016 vs. November 2015):

New listings-UP 5.7% to 2,743 units
Pending sales-DOWN 1.3% to 2,124 units
Closed sales-UP 22.8% to 2,649 units
Median sales price-UP 4.8% to $152,000
Average sales price-UP 4.4% to $192,059
% of original list price received at sale-UP 1.5% to 94.4%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 13.1% to 10,242 units
Months supply of inventory/absorption rate-DOWN 20.5% to 3.5 months

As an additional thank you, we just found out that YOU named us to the TOP 5% of all real estate agents in the city and are again an Angie's List Super Service Award winner! We couldn't be more excited or happy and owe it all to our clients who wrote great reviews this year. It is only due to those reviews that we were awarded this top honor this year. THANK YOU!!! Please keep those awesome reviews coming!

We don't usually post numbers for production in this newsletter except for market statistics, which are posted above, but we just got the latest numbers in for our office on how we have outperformed all other offices in MIBOR. Jack and I are privileged to be in the top 8 agents/teams in our office of over 160 agents. We made a BOLD decision to move from our previous company 4 years ago to come to Keller Williams. The numbers below are one big reason as to why (% better that we performed over all other MIBOR offices month-over-month for November 2016):

Closed Units-10.5% better
Closed Sales Volume-28.9% better
Listings Taken-25.0% better
Listings Taken Volume-37.4% better
Listings Sold-74.8% better
Listings Sold Volume-92.7% better
Contracts Written-22.1% better
Contracts Written Volume-90.9% better

We work very hard not just to meet, but to exceed our clients' goals. It is great to have data to support our quest for excellence. Please continue to feel comfortable to introduce us to your friends, family and co-workers. You can see, we work hard for them. Our goal next year is to help 64 families buy, sell, and/or build a new home. Who is the next person you know who is thinking of doing that? We would be honored to help them and promise to take great care of them. :-)

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From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Yours friends in real estate,


Steve & Jack

P.S. Please don't keep us a secret.

December 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! From our family to yours, we wish you a joyous holiday season, which is hopefully spent with friends/family. If you are traveling, we hope you arrive safely. We have much for which to be thankful, to be sure, which includes our families at the top of the list, but we are also extremely thankful for YOU! Without you-our clients, friends, and referral partners, we couldn't do what we do and help so many families. It is always our goal to make each of our clients feel like family. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do so!

Thank you to everyone who attended our final Happy Hour of 2016 last week! A BIG shout-out to Keith Pemberton with Pemberton Insurance for sponsoring, in part, our evening. Thank you, Keith!!! We had a good group and enjoyed some good food and drink. If you have never attended a Happy Hour before, please consider doing so next year. We meet the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel. It is our way of saying, 'Thank you!' to our clients and referral partners and to have a little fun. Our next Happy Hour will be Wednesday, January 18th from 5-6:30PM. See you there!!

Thank you, also to all of our clients who attended our annual Photos with Santa yesterday afternoon! We had a great turnout and some amazing photos with Santa were taken. If you attended, photos will be sent to you shortly. Please look forward to our next Photos with Santa next year!

We have received a LOT of RSVPs for our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event on Saturday, December 3rd. Thank you!!! If you haven't RSVPd yet, please do so today with Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. We need the number of adults and number of children attending, please for an accurate head-count to the theater. Doors open at 8:30AM with registration, photos, and continental breakfast, and then the movie starts at 9:30AM. We will be seeing the new Disney/Pixar film Moana, which opens this weekend. It looks like a great movie! We hope to see you there!

We have received a lot of calls with questions regarding the election and how it will affect real estate. Our answer, unfortunately, is we don't know. We do know that interest rates have increased 1/2% in the past week and are now hovering around 4% (still an AMAZING rate!). We will see what happens, but the real estate market is extremely strong and not showing any signs of weakening as of yet. Take a look at some recent statistics courtesy of MIBOR for the Indy area comparing October 2016 to October 2015 (the most recent data available):

New listings=DOWN 4.5% to 3,237 homes
Pending sales=DOWN 3.4% to 2,386 homes
Closed sales=UP 6.4% to 2,844 homes
Median sales price=UP 7.7% to $153,000
Average sales price=UP 5.7% to $186,902
Percent of original list price received at sale=UP 1.1% to 94.4%
Total active listings available at month end=DOWN 15.0% to 10,690 homes
Months supply of inventory/absorption rate=DOWN 21.3% to 3.7 months

Again, thank you for your trust, business, and friendship spanning almost 50-years. We are grateful beyond words. We are excited to see what the next 50 will bring!

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Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, & Kylie

November Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Halloween! It is hard to believe it is almost November and the Trick-or-Treaters will be here on Monday. We hope you have had a fun Fall season so far and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays.

Jack and Mary Anne are doing well. Mary Anne just had surgery earlier this week to remove her parathyroid glands. She is recovering well and the doctor feels that she will be pretty much back to normal next week.

Steve's nephew Caleb has had a rough go of it lately with breaking the growth plate in his ankle and having to have surgery. He is home recovering, but will be missing over a week of school as well as soccer. His Aunt Mary arranged to have Indy Eleven player Duke Lacroix visit Caleb at home to lift his spirits. Duke was extremely gracious with his time to Caleb and even brought his jersey signed by the entire team! Thank you, Indy Eleven and Duke for your grace and generosity! What a class organization!

Did you go somewhere for Fall Break? If so, we hope you had fun and were able to relax and enjoy time with family. As many of you know, Jack and Mary Anne take Steve & his family as well as Michelle and her family on a trip each year to one of their timeshares. This year they took Steve & his family to Orlando and spent a week at Disney. Disney is one of our favorite places to go, but it is no relaxing vacation, that is for sure! The crowds weren't bad and the weather was fantastic! This is our favorite time of the year to go due to the mild weather, lower crowds, Food & Wine Festival at EPCOT, and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. What a blast!!!

Steve & Brigid also took the Backstage Magic tour for the first time and went behind the scenes at EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, toured the laundry facility (very impressive!), toured the costuming building, went through one of the prop houses as well as the maintenance facility and also walked through some of the Utilidor tunnels (very cool!). We HIGHLY recommend this tour if you have time the next time you visit. Kids are not allowed as secrets are revealed, but that was the favorite part of the trip for Steve & Brigid.

Kylie has exciting news to share in that she just purchased her first home last month & is pregnant and due at the end of March!!! We are so excited for her, but will dearly miss her while she is on maternity leave. We are looking for someone who can fill in for Kylie until her return in May as that is our busy season. If you know of someone who has a real estate license and would be willing to fill in for 8-weeks, please let Steve know-Steve@Welcome2Indy.com.

THANK YOU to everyone who attended our October Happy Hour on the 12th!! We had a record crowd and a lot of fun!!! Thank you to our October sponsor Robert Winiecki and his foundation. We are grateful for your generosity!

Our November Happy Hour will be on Wednesday, November 16th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel. Everyone is invited! Drinks and appetizers are on us!

December we will be taking off for Happy Hours due to the holidays and other events we have planned, but we will pick back up again in January.

Four days later on Sunday, November 20th from 12-2PM is our annual Photos with Santa here at our office at 116th & Meridian. You should have received an Evite earlier this week as well as an invite on Facebook. We will have a professional photographer, cookies and activities for the kids. This has become very popular and we would love to see you. This makes for a great photo for Christmas cards! So we have enough food and drink, please RSVP, if you haven't already to Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com and tell her how many adults and kids are attending. Thank you!

Finally, on Saturday, December 3rd is our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at Hamilton Town Center. You should have received a Save The Date letter in the mail this week. Food and drinks as well as registration start at 8:30AM and the movie starts promptly at 9:30AM. Disney's Moana is our feature this year and will have just been released. Please join us as we celebrate you and those you have referred to us. Please RSVP to Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com with the number of adults and number of kids attending so we have enough food and drink for everyone. We hope you can join us!!

October during a presidential election year is always slow for real estate and this year is no different. However, our market is still heavily in a sellers' market. Typically, we have a slow October and then we have a busier-than-usual winter. If you or someone you care about are thinking about moving, please call us, so we can learn more about your situation and offer customized advice to help you make the best, most informed decision possible. Below are some stats from MIBOR comparing September 2016 to 2015:

New Listings-UP 6% to 3,617 houses
Pending Sales-UP 0.1% to 2,695 houses
Closed Sales-UP 14.7% to 3,196 houses
Median Sales Price-UP 8.4% to $159,900
Average Sales Price-UP 9.0% to $197,696
Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 1.4% to 95.0%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 13.8% to 11,013 houses
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 20.8% to 3.8 months (normal is 6-months)

We hope you continue to enjoy Fall and all it has to offer. We hope to see you at Happy Hour, Photos with Santa, and our VIP Client Appreciation Event! Enjoy your November newsletter!

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Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, & Kylie

Partnership in Aging seminar

Come join us for an information-packed older adult seminar with several industry experts on a panel to answer your questions relative to aging and real estate/moving, including yours truly. We would love to see you there!

Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve & Jack

October 2017 Steve & Jack's Home News

We hope back-to-school went smoothly, if you have kiddos in school. It always seems like a bitter-sweet time for both kiddos and parents, who are ready to get back to their school-year schedules. A break, however is always nice. We hope you have settled back into a routine and school is going well.

Steve & Brigid continue to keep busy chasing Ana and Tali around. Ana is back practicing at Indianapolis Children's choir twice/week, school choir once/week and band every day. Needless to say, she is immersed in music! Tali is still our little gymnast and practices 4 hours/week. She absolutely loves every minute of it!

Mary Anne & Jack are on a vacation now and will be seeing Jack's brother who lives in North Carolina. They always enjoy spending time with him. In October, Steve's family and Jack & Mary Anne will be taking their annual family trip and this year are going to Disney World for the week. They are super-excited and Steve & Brigid are anxious to attend the Behind The Magic tour at Disney, which is an all-day behind the scenes tour. Please let Steve know if you have done this before and what your experience was like.

The real estate market has been on FIRE this fall!!! It is significantly busier than usual, but many houses are selling in hours with multiple offers. There are still some areas and price ranges where houses are much slower to sell, of course.

Thank you to Jamie Ellis, Jason Patch and Brett Breedlove for hosting us at Katz Sapper Miller this week to give a presentation on Everything You Wanted to Know about Real Estate, But Were Afraid to Ask. We had a great group and a lot of fun!! If your company would like to schedule a lunch and learn, please give us a call. We would be happy to talk on myriad real estate topics.

We hope to see you tomorrow at Matt The Miller's for our monthly Happy Hour from 5-6:30PM. Please stop by for a drink and some yummy appetizers. We will have a big group this month. Also, don't forget to mark your calendars for our VIP Client Appreciation Movie on December 3rd. We would love to pack the house again. Look for your invitation in the coming weeks.

Here are some stats for the month of August, courtesy of MIBOR:
New listings +3.6%
Pending sales +2.1%
Closed sales +0.4%
Median sales price is $158,900 +2.5%
Average sales price is $195,481 -0.8%
% of orig. list price received at sale=95.7% +1.2%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End is 11,377 -11.7%
Months’ supply=4.0 -18.4% (healthy market=6 months’ supply)
Who is the next person you know who is thinking of buying, selling, or building a new home? Please call us today with their information so we can consult with them about their options. Thank you, in advance!!

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September Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome back to school!!! If you have school-age children, like we do, this has most likely been an incredibly busy time of year purchasing supplies for the start of school, finding out who your new teachers are, starting activities and sports back up and getting into the school routine, which probably involves an earlier bedtime than summer. Hopefully, it has been smooth and settling into the routine has been good for the family, albeit busy.

Thank you to all of our clients and referral partners for the best-attended Happy Hour yet this past Wednesday! We had a great time and enjoyed meeting new people and reconnecting with others. Please plan to attend our next Happy Hour on Wednesday, September 21st from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel. Food & drinks are on us!

Please save the date for our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event, which will take place on Saturday, December 3rd at 9AM and Hamilton Towne Center. We have a fun, family-friendly movie in store for you that will be just released. Please plan to join us to thank you for your business.

The market still remains strong with extremely low supply and interest rates. We have helped more clients than ever this year with building a new home. If you or someone you know are thinking of building a new home, either production or custom, please give us a call. We can save you time and money and it costs you absolutely nothing.

Here are some market stats from MIBOR (June 2016):
New listings-DOWN 1.0%
Pending sales-UP 8.1%
Closed sales-UP 5.4%
Median sales price-UP 3.2% to $163,000
Average sales price-UP 5.0% to $203,913
% of original list price received at sale-UP 1.2% to 96.0%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 13.3%
Month's supply of inventory-DOWN 18.4% to 4.0 months
Enjoy this month's newsletter!!!

Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, & Kylie

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August Steve & Jack's Home News

Can you believe we just have a few more weeks before school starts back up? We hope you have been enjoying a fun, relaxing, and safe summer. This seems to be the time when so many of us take fun vacations and spend some quality time with family. As you may remember from last month's newsletter Jack and Mary Anne returned from their trip to Italy, Germany, & Switzerland and had a fantastic time!!!

Steve, Brigid, Ana, & Tali enjoyed a 'bucket-list' trip to Norway and just returned last week. They spent a couple of weeks enjoying Flam, Myrdal, Geiranger, Alesund, Trondheim, Bergen, & Oslo. The fjords were absolutely breathtaking! If you have never been, we highly recommend you get to Norway at some point in your life. The experience and scenery is amazing! Here is a link to one of our views from a hotel:
Norway photo

The 'midnight sun' is very much present with the sun never really setting in the summer, but rather just getting to twilight. That makes it hard to get kiddos to sleep!

Here are some MIBOR stats showing how strong our market still is (May 2016 vs. May 2015)
1) New listings DOWN 1.9%
2) Pending sales UP 5.7%
3) Closed sales UP 18.6%
4) Median sales price UP 3.9% to $159,000
5) Average sales price up 2.1% to $190,769
6) Percent of original list price received at sale UP 1.3% to 95.7%
7) Total active listings available at month end DOWN 11.4%
8) Months supply of inventory DOWN 18.8% to 3.9 months!

Here are a few upcoming events that you may find interesting to attend:
1) A financial planner friend of mine is hosting 3 seminars:
Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II-Wednesday, July 20th at 6PM at Sullivan's Steakhouse
Griffin-American Healthcare REIT-Wednesday, August 3rd at 6PM at Sullivan's Steakhouse
Griffin Institutional Access Real Estate Fund-Wednesday August 17th at 6PM at Sullivan's Steakhouse
RSVP to Dave Karandos at DaveKarandos@DLGWM.com

2) Steve is on the board of directors for the Westfield-Washington Chamber of Commerce and they are selling 50/50 raffle tickets to be drawn at their annual Lantern Awards ceremony in September. You do not need to be present to win. Tickets are only $20 each and a maximum of 250 will be sold for a maximum prize of $2,500. Please contact Steve if you would like to purchase one. The proceeds go toward providing college scholarships to graduating seniors of Westfield High School.

3) Steve's long-time networking/master mind group is hosting an open house/social next Tuesday, July 26th from 5:30-7:30PM at North End Barbecue & Moonshine in Nora located at 1250 E. 86th Street. It is FREE to attend and food and drinks will be provided along with great networking and socializing. Come join us!!! RSVP to Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com

4) Finally, don't forget about our monthly Happy Hour THIS Wednesday, July 20th from 5-6:30PM at Langton's Irish Pub in Carmel on Rangeline Road. We already have a good crowd and would love if you would join us. Just show up, even if only for a few minutes.

Click here to read our August newsletter

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Your friends in real estate,

Steve & Jack Rupp

July 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Summer!! We hope your start to the summer has been a good one and that if you have younger children, you have managed to avoid the "I'm bored" comments.

The Rupp/Schofield Family has had an eventful start to the summer. Both Ana & Tali have their favorite and long-time sitter staying with them this summer and they couldn't be happier. Being an English teacher, Kayla ensures they spend at least an hour a day working on school work and then they can have fun. Kayla does an amazing job!!

Jack & Mary Anne returned a couple of weeks ago from a trip to Europe where they spent time in Italy, Germany, & Switzerland. They had an amazing time, but had to dodge quite a few rain drops while there. Upon their return, Mary Anne was admitted for emergency surgery to repair a hernia, which has been bothering her for months. She is safely recovering at home now and is so thankful she didn't have to have surgery in Germany!

Steve Schofield has started his RN job at St. Vincent's and loves it!! He is so much happier and has quite a bit more time than when he was an athletic trainer.

Steve, Brigid, Ana, & Tali leave for a 'bucket-list' trip to Norway on Friday and will be gone for a couple of weeks. They are so excited to finally see the Fjords and the 21-hours of daylight!

Kylie & Jack will be holding down the fort during Steve's absence so all of our current clients are in great hands! Kylie has been an absolute life-saver for Steve & Jack and has become an invaluable part of the team.

Real estate continues to be white hot in most price ranges and areas. There are certainly notable exceptions (especially luxury homes), but overall the market is still a strong sellers' market with very low inventory. See the May 2016 vs. May 2015 stats below:

New Listings-Down 1.9%
Pending Sales-Up 5.7%
Closed Sales-Up 18.6%
Median Sales Price-Up 3.9%
Average Sales Price-Up 2.1%
% of Original List Price Received at Sale-Up 1.3%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-Down 11.4%
Months' Supply of Inventory-Down 18.8% to 3.9 months

THANK YOU to all of our clients who braved the terrible storms last week to attend our monthly Happy Hour!!! We had a great time!! Please come join us next month on Wednesday, July 20th from 5-6:30PM at Langton's Irish Pub in Carmel. Drinks & food are on us!!!

Finally, a friend of Steve's owns The File Depot in Westfield and is giving away a full YEAR of FREE storage of files. If you or someone you know needs to find a good place to store all of those boxes and/or shred old files, let Steve know. He has ONE certificate left to give out. First come, first served!

Enjoy the summer and July 4th Holiday!!

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Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, & Kylie

June 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

We hope you are enjoying a long holiday weekend and are taking some time to reflect upon why we have it in the first place. We are grateful and appreciative of the sacrifices that so many men and women and their families have made in order for us to live free. So, to all of our friends, clients and referral partners who have served or whose family has served-THANK YOU! We are grateful for you!

On a much lighter note, we hope you enjoyed the race festivities yesterday. Whether you attended the parade and/or race in person or watched on TV, it was certainly a sight to behold and really showcased Indianapolis to the world. Well-done, IMS!!

Jack & Mary Anne are enjoying a much-deserved dream vacation in Italy, Germany, & Switzerland. They will have many pictures and stories to tell upon their return, I am sure!

We are in the final week of school for our girls. Next year is 1st grade and 6th grade. We have been so blessed by having some of the absolute BEST teachers anyone in our family has ever had. Thank you to Christina Crask (Tali's teacher) and Mary Robison, Lisa Crist, & Kelly Franz (Ana's triad teachers). We cannot put into words how grateful we are to each of them for consistently going above and beyond for our kids and truly inspiring them to want to learn and go to school each and every day. Our family will absolutely miss them and their zest for unique lesson plans and entrancing our kids with learning. Thank you, ladies!!

Real estate is as HOT as ever in many areas and price points of Indy. Some of our listings are selling BEFORE they even go on the market! If you are thinking of selling NOW is the time. Give us a call so we can consult with you about strategies on maximizing value in this sellers' market. Here are some stats you will find interesting from MIBOR (April 2016 vs. April 2015):

New listings -3.8%
Pending sales +5.4%
Closed sales +12.4%
Median sales price +1.4% to $150,000
Average sales price +1.0% to $184,732
Percent of original list price received at sale +0.9% to 94.8%
Total active listings available at month end -10.4% to 10,809
Months supply of inventory -16.9% to 3.9 months

Come to our next Happy Hour on June 15th from 5-6:30PM at Langton's Irish Pub in Carmel. Food & drinks are on us!!!

Enjoy the June newsletter!

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Steve & Jack Rupp

May 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome to May!!! If you live in Indy, this is one of the busiest months for our city with the festivities of the 500. Whether you ran the Mini today, are going to the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, or one of the other myriad events in between, we hope you have some fun celebrating this festive month! College graduations are also taking place this weekend and next, so if you have a recent college graduate, congratulations!!!

We are in the thick of the busy spring season for both our family and business. Brigid has been extremely busy with work, Natalia has been busy with kindergarten & gymnastics where she has moved up to team. Ana was recently featured in the local paper for her activities on top of school such as being a lead in her school play Cinderella (she is one of the evil step-sisters) with performances this week, travel soccer with the Indy Fire Juniors, and singing with the Indianapolis Children's Choir where they just had their 30th Anniversary Tapestry of Song performance at Clowe's Hall last week. It was spectacular!!

We are so happy to report that our brother-in-law Steve Schofield passed his nursing boards and accepted a position as an orthopedic nurse at St. Vincent where he is currently employed as the head athletic trainer for Carmel High School.

Real estate is BLAZING hot right now for many areas and price points of Indy. Here are some stats (courtesy of MIBOR's March 2016 report comparing March 2016 to March 2015:
New listings UP 8.9%
Pending sales UP 16.5%
Closed sales UP 9.2%
Median Sales price UP 6.3% to $148,750
Average Sales price UP 3.4% to $182,023
Percent of original list price received at sale UP 1.1% to 93.9%
Total active listings available at month end DOWN 7.6% to 10,490
Months supply of inventory DOWN 14.3% to 3.8 months
As you can see, we need listings, so if you or someone you know is thinking about selling, please give us a call so we can consult with them about their options to see if selling right now makes sense. We promise to take great care of them!!

A friend of Steve's Scott Rush just opened a new business in Westfield called The File Depot. They securely store files in a climate-controlled environment, provide on-line file organization for your stored files, & shredding. Their prices are extremely reasonable and their service is outstanding. If you or your company have a file storage need, Scott has generously offered ONE certificate for 1-year of FREE storage for up to 128 boxes (a $600 value!). The first person who e-mails Steve (Steve@Welcome2Indy.com) will claim this prize.

Thank you to all of our friends and clients for coming out to our monthly Happy Hour again last month! Please come to our May Happy Hour on May 18th from 5-6:30PM at Langton's Irish Pub in Carmel. We would love to see you!!!

Finally, Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there!!! We hope you get all of the spoiling that you so richly deserve. Thank you for everything you do for all of us!!

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!
Steve & Jack

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April 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome April!!! We hope the beginning of spring has been a good one for you and if you celebrate Easter, that you had a good one with family. It was one of the earliest Easters possible.

'Tis the season for spring break. Steve, Brigid, Ana, & Tali are in St. Petersburg, FL visiting Brigid's parents who just moved from Tampa, FL. Hopefully, their weather is a bit better than what they left in Indy! If you are on spring break this week, we hope you have a fun, safe, and relaxing time with your family.

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Steve Schofield on passing his nursing boards on Wednesday!!!! This has been a grueling 3-year journey for him and his family and they look forward to closing this chapter and opening a new one. Well-done, Steve!

Thank you to all of our clients who joined us for our pre-St. Patrick's Day Happy Hour at Langton's Pub in Carmel last month! We had a great group and hope to see you at our April Happy Hour on the 20th from 5-6:30PM at Langton's again. Huge props to Marti Babb of HWA Home Warranty for sponsoring our Happy Hours!! Thank you, Marti!!!

We have a busy month for public speaking in April! We hope to see you at one of these events, if you are available. We will be the keynote speaker for the annual Heritage Place breakfast on April 28th presenting 3 of the Top 10 Mistakes Sellers Make. Later that day, we will have a table and be an expert table leader at the Caring for The Caregiving conference in Carmel. If you work at Butler University, please join us as we return for another Lunch & Learn on April 14th for an open Q&A on anything real estate. Bring your questions! Ask Steve how to register for any of these events.

We hope you received our 2 postcards we sent over the past month relative to the Top Ten Things You Need to Know BEFORE You Build A New Home. Hopefully, you found it helpful if you or someone you care about are thinking about building either production or custom. We are one of only a few agents in the city who have earned the coveted Certified New Home Specialist designation and have built our own homes and helped over 100 clients build their dream home. We have relationships with just about every builder in the city and know most of the new neighborhoods. The best part is that there is no cost to you as the builder pays our fee and many times we can get you a better deal than you could get yourself. Be sure and give our name to the builder when visiting for the first time so we can exclusively represent you and your interests as well as walk you through the process from beginning to end.

Did you know we have 4 speciality programs for our clients?

VIP Builder Concierge Program-Designed specifically for our builder-partners, this program assists you with buyers who do not have an agent with selling a buyer's house that is contingent upon building their new one. This dovetails with our next program.
Contingent Home Sale Program-Specifically tailored to help our clients who have a home to sell, and want to build new. 93% of our homes sell in the first listing period 27% faster and for 1.3% more than the MIBOR average.
Senior Advantage Program-For our older adult clients, this program is customized to help them downsize as smoothly as possible. Alternatively, for family members who need to sell a deceased parent's home, we are specially trained on making this as easy and painless as possible. We are one of only a few agents in the city who have earned the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation and are experts in helping seniors and their families.
White Glove Luxury Portfolio-Designed for our luxury clients who are looking to buy, sell, or build a home that is $500,000+. Our proven luxury program is effective and thorough.
Ask us about any one of these unique and special programs and how they can help you or someone you care about.

This market has been on FIRE with historically low inventory and some houses selling in hours of going on the market. Three of our recent listings enjoyed this! Here are some stats from MIBOR you might find interesting:

New Listings +10.5%
Pending Sales +14.0%
Closed Sales +9.6%
Median Sales Price +2.7%
Average Sales Price +2.2%
Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale +1.2%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End -6.0%
Months Supply of Inventory -13.1% to 3.8 months
Check our our fun April newsletter and don't forget to download our powerful real estate app. Even if you aren't in the market for a new home, everyone likes to know for what their neighbors' house is selling or sold. Download our FREE app to find out about any house.

Click here to read our April newsletter.

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Click here to get our powerful real estate app.

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve & Jack

March Steve & Jack's Home News

The signs of spring approaching are all around. Unused flex days for school mean 3-day weekends, Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl and we wait for another 6-months for football to return, Valentine's Day has come and gone, we are in the middle of Lent and St. Patrick's Day is the next holiday. This also means...the spring real estate selling season is upon us! More on that in a bit.

We hope you had a great Valentine's Day and are enjoying the fantastic and unseasonably warm weather this weekend. The big news is that Mary Anne (Steve's mom), had her gall bladder removed successfully and without incident a few weeks ago. It is amazing at how minimally invasive so many surgeries are nowadays. Mary Anne is recovering very well and we hope she is more comfortable as a result. Jack & Mary Anne look forward to traveling to Florida for a vacation in the coming weeks and will enjoy some much-needed warmth & sunshine. Steve, Brigid, Ana, & Tali are staying home until spring break at which time they will drive to Florida to visit Brigid's parents again.

The spring selling season is here in force! The biggest challenge is lack of inventory. MIBOR has reported that the 3.9 months of inventory in the 9-county area it tracks is the lowest on record. In fact, in some areas, such as Carmel, they are down to 1.3 months of inventory! This is causing a downward spiral with sellers not putting their houses on the market due to lack of inventory exciting them to want to move. Builders are filling this void as much as possible, but they, quite frankly just don't have the capacity to meet demand. What does this all mean? Simply put, houses are appreciating faster than any time in recent memory at 6.1% for the MIBOR area. Great news for sellers! However, this also means houses are getting more expensive to buy pricing some buyers out of the market or not letting them purchase the house they would like. Builders are also not having to give 'deals' like they used to and they are taking price increases monthly in many developments.

Look for a postcard in the mail from us in the next couple of weeks talking about the Top Ten Tips You Need to Know BEFORE You Build A New Home. We also have it posted to our blog (see link below). Building is becoming more complicated with so many more options available and new builders coming to our market in brand new neighborhoods. If you or someone you care about is thinking about building, read our Top Ten Builder Tips and then give us a call. We have helped almost 100 clients successfully build their new home-both production and custom-have built several of our own homes, and are one of only a select few agents in the city who have earned the Certified New Home Specialist (CNHS) designation, which provides us with unique expertise on navigating our clients who are building a new home through the lengthy process. Best of all-all of this expertise and experience costs you absolutely NOTHING! The builders pay our fee. Contrary to popular belief, you will not get a better deal by not having an agent represent you when building. In fact, we usually end up SAVING our clients money! Our fee comes out of the marketing budget of the builders. Depending on the builder, 75-92% of their buyers have an agent representing them. Shouldn't you?

Thank you to the great crowd we had at our Happy Hour last week! We had a GREAT time! Enjoy the warmer weather and come visit us at our next Happy Hour which is on Wednesday, March 16th from 5-6:30PM. In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day we are going to be next door to our usual Matt The Miller's and check out Langton's Irish Pub, which is immediately south and adjacent to Matt The Miller's located at 710 S. Rangeline Road in Carmel. They have set us up upstairs in our own area with our own bar! Come join us and be sure and RSVP to the Evite invitation when you receive it so we know how many people for whom to plan.

Click here to read our March newsletter

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack

Top Ten Things to Know BEFORE You Build

There has been a lot of press lately about the extremely low inventory of housing across the country, but especially in & around Indy. We are at an all-time low of 3.9 months of inventory and, in some markets are as low as 1.3 months! 6-months is deemed to be a balanced market. As a result, many people are seriously considering building a new home. If you or someone you care about is considering building, here are some things to keep in mind before you first step into a model.

1. Have a clear understanding of how long the builder will take to complete the neighborhood…and then add 1-2 years to be safe. New neighborhoods are nice, but do have lots of construction equipment, noise, & traffic as a result. There will be very few, if any mature trees unless they were saved during initial development & vegetation will take time to mature.

2. Take time to research available lots & choose the best one available. Many people will try and save money on the lot premium, but spend it on upgraded spindles, trim, deck, appliances, etc. Your lot is the one thing you cannot ever change. Pay the premium for the best lot (cul-de-sac, lake, tree-line, nature persevere, etc.) and upgrade other features later, if you need to.

3. Be willing to take time to choose your structural & design center options carefully & stay involved in the building process. Building a new home takes much more time than existing, however you can get exactly what you want. From contract signing to final home delivery, it can take 6-12 months, depending on whether you are building production or custom. Be patient. Be willing to stick with the builder and visit your house during construction at least once/week. Visit the design center several times before making a final decision to ensure you are happy with your choices. Maintain an open communication channel with your builder and ensure you are receiving updates at least 1x/week.

4. New homes are closer to ‘perfect’ than existing, but there is no such thing as a ‘perfect home’. Most likely, your budget will not allow you to get everything you want. Know that is okay and very common. Choose wisely on your options. Know that your builder wants to exceed your expectations, but they are human and mistakes will occur. Good communication will go a long way-so will the occasional snacks & drinks brought to the job site! :-)

5. Pay for a 3-phase new construction independent inspection. Many people make the mistake of not hiring their own inspector who is familiar with the building process to ensure high quality. Builders have a quality control process & the municipalities have mandatory code inspections, but neither are a replacement for having your own independent inspection. Budget $800-$1,000 & make sure your builder knows of your intention to have one so he/she can make accommodations for your inspector.

6. Understand the structural & home warranties. Most builders purchase a 3rd party, 10-year structural home warranty for their clients. This is for structural issues only & the deductible can be $500 or more depending on the type of claim. Builders are required by law to provide a 1-year ‘bumper to bumper’ warranty on their homes, but some provide 2-year warranties. This includes anything mechanical as well as drywall cracks & nail pops. Ensure you schedule a 1-year walk-thru prior to expiration of your warranty to have your builder address any concerns & keep a list of those as they occur throughout the year so you don’t forget any. Many components of your house have their own warranties that last longer, such as furnace, roof, windows, water heater, appliances, etc.

7. Know the HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score. Every year, new technology & building practices improve & homes are more & more energy efficient. You can literally save hundreds of dollars each month in energy costs with a new home versus an older one. When deciding on new or existing, factor this into your budget as it can have a significant impact on your monthly expenses.

8. Take time to research floor plans you like & don’t like & visit builder models. Builder models are a treasure-trove of information. Take time to walk through several and note what you like and don’t like. New homes are designed & built to the needs of today’s consumer (think open floor plans, hearth rooms, outdoor living, etc.) and flow much better than many older homes. If you buy an older home, will you have to make any significant improvements out-of-pocket that you could get included by building new?

9. HGTV is not real! HGTV is great to watch and you can get a lot of good ideas, but it is sensationalized and fictionalized. You only see what the producer wants you to see. There is far more to the story that what you see. Please don’t set your expectations according to what you see on TV.

10. Professional representation does not cost you more. Having an experienced agent who is well-versed in building is a huge asset. They can help guide you through all of the above & assist in making wise decisions as well as take a lot of pressure & stress off your shoulders. Contrary to popular belief, builders do NOT charge less if a real estate agent is not involved. In fact, in many cases, agents can help you get a better deal than not having one involved. Real estate agents are involved in new home builds between 75-92% of the time, depending on the builder. Our fees come out of their marketing budget & have nothing to do with the price you pay for your new home. The best time to involve a real estate agent is at the very beginning of the process before you set foot in your first model home. Builders are very happy to work with experienced agents, but they need to know you are working with an agent at the very beginning of the process & it is best if they accompany you to the model for the first time. All builders have registration forms they will ask you to complete. Make sure you write the name of your agent on this form and your relationship with your agent will be protected. We have built our own homes as well as almost 100 production & custom homes for our clients over the years and have earned the Certified New Home Specialist designation (along with 10 other certifications & designations) held by the top 3% of agents specializing in new construction. We have saved our clients tens of thousands of dollars & countless headaches.

If you or someone you care about are even considering building, give us a call today so we can sit down and consult with you about your options and help you make a truly informed decision, including which area/neighborhood is best for you, which builder is the best fit, lot choices, upgrades/options, & an overview of the entire building process from beginning to end. We specialize in selling homes that are contingent on selling before your new home is built. This is one of the biggest concerns people have when deciding to build. Let us walk you through some solutions and see which one best fits your needs.

We are honored to have earned the Angie’s List Super Service Award for 2015 & are a 5-time recipient of the 5-Star Real Estate Agent award, both recognizing exceptional commitment to client service. Finally, come join us at an upcoming Happy Hour! They take place the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. Food & drinks are on us!!

Call us today to schedule your private, no-obligation new construction consultation!

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants…for Life!
Steve & Jack Rupp
Keller Williams Realty
www.Welcome2Indy.com
317-573-1880
Steve@Welcome2Indy.com

February 2016 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy New Year!!!

We hope the holidays treated you well and you are back into a routine again, with the exception of maybe some positive resolution changes. Having clear goals, someone to hold you accountable to those goals and enforceable consequences for not meeting those goals are critical to achieving them. We are curious, what resolutions or goals do you have for 2016? We would love to hear from you and help hold you accountable!

Steve & Brigid stayed in Indy for this Christmas holiday instead of traveling to Tampa, FL to see Brigid's parents. They came to us this year and we were able to celebrate with the entire family, including Brigid's brother Jim who lives in Boston. It was a very nice time to enjoy time together-something we don't get to do often.

Natalia turns 6 on Tuesday and will be having a birthday party at InterActive Academy. We love this as they take care of everything, including entertaining the kids and they love it! Tali is still very active in gymnastics and is getting quite good, so we are excited to see where this leads.

Ana continues to do well in school and sings in the choir and just got a lead part in her first musical-Cinderella! She is super-excited and so are we...until we remembered practices are at 7AM 2x/week for the rest of the school year. Ugh!! She also sings in Indianapolis Childrens' Choir (ICC) and really enjoyed being on TV for the Angels Sing concert broadcast on Channel 13 around Christmas. If you haven't heard ICC before, we encourage you to attend an upcoming concert. They are truly outstanding and are recognized as one of the best youth choirs in the US.

Jack & Mary Anne continue to do well and are looking forward to a European trip this summer. They are so excited and can't wait to go. We will be sure and share some highlights upon their return. Mary Anne had her gall bladder removed last week and is recovering well. It is amazing they can perform this surgery laparoscopically. We hope she is able to feel much better after she heals.

As for the market, we are woefully short of inventory still. The spring market has already started heating up. There are a LOT of builders trying to satisfy demand, but they can't keep up. Multiple real estate experts including Lawrence Yun with NAR and Gary Keller with Keller Williams are predicting a real estate market contraction beginning the end of this year or beginning of next. We are NOT expecting to see anything as severe as 6-years ago, but we are expecting to see one. The stock market and oil are tanking and there is concern over the health of the global economy with China stealing the spotlight at present. What does this mean to you and those you care about? If you are planning to sell your house this year, we recommend you do it NOW. You are going to see a downward shift in the market, most likely in the next 12-months, which WILL affect house prices and values. Interest rates are still very low. If you or someone you care about are thinking about selling this year or next, take out your phone and give us a call so we can consult with you/them about your/their options. As always, it is no-obligation, no-pressure and full of information you can use to make an informed decision.

If you are thinking about building, call us. We have worked with just about every major builder in the city and have established relationships and detailed information to help you BEFORE you set foot in a model. We get asked a lot about whether you will pay more when you invite us to represent you. The answer is a resounding NO. Builders pay our fee out of their marketing budget. It has nothing to do with your sales price and you will NOT get a better price if you don't have professional representation. In fact, in many cases, we were able to SAVE our clients money by zealously representing them and negotiating a better deal with the builder than they would have been able to do themselves. We certainly helped make the process much smoother and easier. Builders in the Indy area work with buyers who have a real estate agent representing them anywhere from 78-97% of the time, according to estimates from most area production builders. They welcome working with real estate agents as we help make the process go smoother. Steve has built 2 of his own homes and also holds a Certified New Home Specialist designation held by less than 1/2% of 1% of agents nationwide. We have helped over 100 clients build their own homes as well-both production and custom.

If you are curious or just want some more information, take out your phone and give us a call. We would love to talk further and see how we can help. Remember, if you are out and about and drop into a model spur-of-the-moment, the sales rep will ask you to complete a registration form. Feel free to fill that out and make sure you put us down as your agents as that will protect our relationship and allow us to professionally represent you and negotiate like a pit bull for your best interest. We absolutely LOVE helping clients build their dream home and would love to help you or someone you care about as well. So, give us a call if you are thinking about building in the near future.

Finally, THANK YOU once again for nominating us as a 5-Star Real Estate Agent and also a Super Service Award winner on Angie's List! We are super-excited and grateful for all of our clients who were surveyed and gave us high marks. These two recognitions put us in the Top 5% in our industry and we couldn't have done it without you. You can feel comfortable introducing us to people you care about since you will know they are getting the absolute BEST experience and service possible and we will keep you in the loop along the way so you know what is going on. We are so fortunate to have so many outstanding clients!!

Enjoy the rest of your January!!

Steve & Jack

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Angie's List 2015 Super Service Award Winner

The Zulu Group, P.C. Earns Esteemed 2015 Angie’s List Super Service Award
Award reflects company’s consistently high level of customer service

The Zulu Group, P.C has earned the service industry’s coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award, reflecting an exemplary year of service provided to members of the local services marketplace and consumer review site in 2015.

“We are honored to accept Angie’s List 2015 Super Service Award. We would like to thank all of our clients for nominating us for such a prestigious award.”

“Only about 5 percent of the Real Estate companies in Central Indiana have performed so consistently well enough to earn our Super Service Award,” said Angie’s List Founder Angie Hicks. “It’s a really high standard.”

Angie’s List Super Service Award 2015 winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include an “A” rating in overall grade, recent grade, and review period grade; the company must be in good standing with Angie’s List, pass a background check and abide by Angie’s List operational guidelines.

Service company ratings are updated daily on Angie’s List. Companies are graded on an A through F scale in areas ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality.

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Angie's List helps facilitate happy transactions between more than three million consumers nationwide and its collection of highly rated service providers in more than 720 categories of service, ranging from home improvement to health care. Built on a foundation of more than 10 million verified reviews of local service, Angie's List connects consumers directly to its online marketplace of services from member-reviewed providers, and offers unique tools and support designed to improve the local service experience for both consumers and service professionals.