Ways to Improve Your Home's Marketability TODAY!

Selling your home isn’t always easy. While there’s always a buyer out there somewhere, connecting with that buyer and agreeing on a price sometimes takes a little effort. There are a lot of little things that you can do to make this a lot easier, though. Many of these solutions are fairly easy on the budget and can also be added on short notice – and some of them may only take an hour or two to implement!

Add a Coat of Paint

Touching up the paint in your home can do wonders for the marketability of the place when you’re looking to sell. Fresh paint can cover up colors that weren’t a great choice in retrospect and will also make whites seem whiter. You may also hear suggestions about painting large floor tiles or bathroom fixtures, but that’s a job you should only take on if you know what you’re doing.

Change the Doorknobs

Dull doorknobs can give buyers the doldrums, so swap them out with new hardware for an instant front-door facelift. You can also change out cabinet and drawer handles if you want to add some extra flair to the various rooms of your home.

Update Your Light Fixtures

Other changes you can make to your home’s existing hardware include things like light fixtures, replacing old fixtures with something a bit nicer looking. While you’re at it you can also update your light switches and even electrical outlets to replace anything that seems worn or out of place.

Hang Some Mirrors

Few things can open up a room as quickly as adding a mirror. A few mirrors around the house will create the illusion of more open space and will also help to fill blank spaces on your walls if you’ve taken down family photos or other personal items. (Here’s a tip: Take down family photos and other personal items.) Just make sure that you don’t position the mirrors where they’ll be hit by direct sunlight during the day, since nobody wants to be blinded by their wall furnishings.

Tame That Lawn

Now is the time to put extra care into your lawn maintenance, taking the time to weed, seed and feed that lawn into emerald perfection. Trimming the shrubberies, adding some tasteful decorative bushes and finally doing something about that tree stump from three years ago might be a good idea as well.

Add Accent Lighting

While you’re working on the outside of your home, consider adding some path lighting, home accent bulbs or other outdoor lights. This will not only add to the beauty of the home but it will also give you a chance to show off some of the home’s best features in the evening and at night. As an added bonus, additional lighting around the home can be a good selling point from a security standpoint.

Replace the Toilet Seat

Spruce up the bathroom before you put your home on the market. While you’re in there, consider replacing the toilet seat. Not only will this get rid of one of the things in your home that’s most likely to be dirty, but it will also give potential buyers the thrill of possibly going where no one has gone before.

Get Smart

If you really want to impress, consider swapping out some of the light bulbs with LED smart lights. Be sure to choose Wi-Fi-enabled bulbs that can easily sync with Alexa or Google Home for maximum compatibility – and keep a copy of the syncing instructions for the eventual buyer. If you really want to go the extra mile, pick bulbs that can provide multiple colors of lighting… then have a smart speaker set up so you can show off how they respond to voice commands to your buyer.

Need More Ideas?

Consult a professional interior decorator for easy ways to improve the marketability of your home without breaking the bank. Sign up for HomeKeepr for free to find the pro who can help you move from selling to sold!

June Steve & Jack's Home News

Dear Steve & Brigid,

Happy summer!!! With the temperatures outside finally feeling like summer weather and many schools have begun summer break, we hope this month's newsletter finds you enjoying some summer fun on this holiday weekend, which may include the race.

We also take this holiday weekend to remember the brave men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in protecting us and our freedom. We hope that you will take some time to reflect on the sacrifices these brave men and women as well as their families made for us. That is the true purpose of this holiday.

It does bring full-circle the amazing trip Jack and Steve had for the Indy Honor Flight last month. It was an incredible (and long) day and does bring home the true meaning of this holiday.

Ana and Tali officially finished their last day of school on Friday and have started their summer vacation. They are excited for some much-deserved time off. Tali leaves with Brigid's parents for a week at a Dude Ranch in Arizona and can't wait to ride the horses. She will have an amazing time as this is the trip her grandparents offer to each grandchild-a trip anywhere in the world for a week with just them. What an experience!

Ana will be headed to Germany for a Danube River cruise with the Indianapolis Children's Choir for a week next month. She is extremely excited and they will be making several stops to sing at cathedrals along the river. We will meet her in Salzburg with Tali and spend a few days there and then head off to Greece and will pick up a cruise to see the Greek Isles. It is a bucket-list trip, to be sure!

Ana and the Indianapolis Children's Choir was honored to sing at Senator Richard Lugar's funeral last week. They had less than a week to learn and memorize 4 songs to perform to an international audience. If you saw any of the broadcast, you undoubtedly saw and heard just how professional they were. We couldn't be any more proud of all of them!!! Click here to see the service.

Ana is also the lead singer of a rock band they just put together. They will be singing at several local venues in Westfield and Carmel over the summer. If you would like to know where she is performing next, send Steve an e-mail. It is an all-youth band and they sound really good!!!

In other news, we regret to report that our buyers' specialist Julia Hayes is no longer part of our team. We wish her all the best as she embarks on a new journey. If you were working with Julia, you should have been notified by now, but if not, give Steve a call (317-573-1880).

We do have a new buyer specialist on our team effective last week. Her name is Thea Charnas and we are so excited to have her join the team. Thea will be picking up the clients Julia was helping, unless Steve has already contacted you. Thea is from Cleveland and graduated from the University of Toledo. She is excited to be helping our clients and we are excited for you to meet her! Stop by our next Happy Hour from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel on June 20th.

Thank you to everyone who braved our last Happy Hour during the torrential downpour and braved the loss of power. We had an interesting and intimate gathering!

We are also excited to announce our other new team member who starts on June 12th. Her name is Patti Sircy. Patti is a navy veteran and has a ton of experience with customer service and retail as well as systems and planning. Patti will be getting her license later this year. She will be the Director of Marketing for our team and will be taking quite a bit of a load off of Kylie's shoulders. Patti and Thea will enable us to even better serve our clients and we look forward to you meeting them and experience their incredibly high level of service and experience they bring to our team!!!

The real estate market is still insane right now, although it is showing some initial signs of starting to soften. It may take some time to really see the effects, but with the still-incredibly now interest rates and inventory, nothing is going to change overnight. Check out the latest stats from MIBOR comparing April 2019 to April 2018

Median Sales Price-UP 5.6% to $180,000
Closed Sales-DOWN 3.8% to 9,249 units
New Listings-DOWN 2.7% to 12, 498 units
Pending Sales-DOWN 2.9% to 11,807 units
Days on Market-DOWN 13.1% to 53 days
Price per Square Foot-UP 5.9% to $107
Percent of Asking Price Received-DOWN 0.2% to 97.3%
Active Inventory-DOWN 0.9% to 4,767 units
Absorption Rate-No change-1.6 months

We hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend. Thank you for your trust, support, and confidence as you continue to introduce people you care about who can use our help in buying, selling, or building their home. We are truly grateful!

Click here to read our June newsletter

Click here to read what our clients are saying about us

Click here to get coupons at places your shop every day

Click here to get the most powerful real estate app available

Click here to watch a 1-minute video on this month in real estate

Click here to read about our Senior Advantage Program

Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, Kylie, Thea, & Patti

P.S. Don't keep us a secret!

Four Mortgage Programs to Consider

Whether you’re thinking about buying your first home or you’ve been contemplating an upgrade, you probably already know that there are several different kinds of home mortgages, some that seem pretty much alike at face value. FHA, VA, USDA — what does it all mean?! We’re about to take all the stress out of choosing the mortgage that’s right for you and your family (even if that family is just you and Spot the cat).

Mortgage Basics in a Nutshell

There are a few different elements of a mortgage that are important to understand before we move forward in this process. You already know stuff like interest rates and what your payment and interest payments are, but there are other things that might not be quite so well settled in your mind. Most homeowners have questions about the following mortgage related definitions:

Loan features. When you get a mortgage, it often has other stuff that comes with it. After all, this isn’t the same as borrowing money from your mom, banks have fancy lawyers who make sure they earn their keep. You may notice features like “assumability” and “prepayment penalty” listed on your initial loan form.

Assumable loans are loans that you can literally transfer to another person when they buy your house. This is useful when interest rates are climbing, sometimes people will pay more for a lower interest rate mortgage they can take over.

Prepayment penalties are very bad and you don’t want this. Basically, you’re punished for paying your loan off early. Typically, they’re part of subprime lending, but you never know when one might pop up elsewhere. Since “prepayment” includes the payoff from selling your home, there’s no winning with this one.

Mortgage insurance. There’s been a lot of talk about mortgage insurance, both for better and worse. To put it simply, mortgage insurance makes it possible for you to bring a downpayment as little as about three percent to closing with FHA or conventional type mortgages. It’s a type of insurance that you pay for in case you were to default on the loan. If you do, the insurance company pays out your coverage to your bank, reducing the amount you may be responsible for if the house can’t bring enough at the foreclosure sale to cover your remaining note.

Down payment. Down payments are your initial investment in your home. Many times, home buyers are surprised to see that they have to bring both closing costs and a down payment, having assumed the two were the same. The down payment goes to the bank as proof of your commitment. We’ll get to closing costs.

Closing costs. Closing costs are the bane of buyers everywhere. They can seriously mount as things like appraisals, title insurance, fees to the bank (separate from your down payment) and prepaid items like taxes and homeowner’s insurance add up. Some programs will allow you to ask the seller to pay these on your behalf, but the amount you can ask for is limited to a percentage of the sales price and based on the program you’re using. For many homeowners, closing costs will be similar in price to their down payment, which is where the confusion typically starts.

Pick Your Poison: The Four Basic Home Mortgage Types

Understand that these are not the only mortgages out there, but they are the ones that you’re most likely to use in order to buy a home. Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, which we’ll discuss briefly.

Conventional Conforming

If you’ve heard of Sallie Mae or Freddie Mac, you know the family of conventional loans. These loans are written by a wide range of banks, from your hometown locally owned to the fanciest mortgage broker. “Conforming” loans meet Sallie and Freddie’s high requirements, including maximum sales price.

Pros: Generally, you’ll get a better deal on mortgage insurance that automatically drops off (meaning you no longer have to pay it) once your home reaches a 78 percent loan to value ratio. Also, you’ll pay less in closing costs and your debt to income ratio can be somewhat flexible as long as look really good on paper.

Cons: These are generally the hardest loans to qualify for. Even though there are now three to five percent down payment options, your credit score will need to be around 700 (better is better) and your other ducks should be lined up nice and straight. Consistent employment, savings that can be designated as “reserve funds” and few to no scabs on your credit report are helpful.

Federal Housing Authority

The FHA started insuring loans after the Great Depression as a way of helping people get back into owned property. It basically created the 30 year fixed interest mortgage and continues to carefully oversee which homes can and cannot be purchased in its name.

Pros: Good option for first time buyers because of low down payment and credit requirements. FHA will accept “soft” credit lines for people who haven’t established credit yet or have very little, so keep that utility bill paid on time. The program allows up to six percent of your closing costs to be financed into your loan, as “seller paid items,” which can help reduce the actual cash you need to close.

Cons: FHA requires a lot more in closing costs because of the additional upfront mortgage insurance deposit. In addition, if you have less than a 10 percent down payment, under the current programs you’ll be forced to keep paying mortgage insurance for the life of the loan, giving you no options but to refinance or sell down the line if you want rid of it (it’s costly, you want rid of it). Not every banker wants to deal with FHA loans because they can be time consuming to write, so you may have to shop a bit to find a good bank.

Veterans Administration

As part of the benefits that active military members and veterans receive from the government, VA loans are built on a merit-based system. Career military and those honorably discharged early are generally eligible, but short-term members or Reserves may have to meet additional requirements. Anyone who can get this loan will need to bring a Certificate of Eligibility in order to get the ball rolling with an approved lender.

Pros: Favorable interest rates, extremely flexible guidelines and absolutely nothing required as a downpayment (often little to nothing required at closing!) There’s no mortgage insurance, just a one time “funding fee” that varies with your service type, downpayment and times you’ve used your Eligibility.

Cons: Really, there aren’t any. You can’t get this if you’re not military, though, so that could be a con if you really wanted this most excellent loan type.

US Department of Agriculture

In rural areas, the US Department of Agriculture will offer mortgage lending as a way of helping to keep the local economy flowing. Homes don’t have to be on an acreage, but they do need to be located in communities with under 35,000 inhabitants.

Pros: Like VA, USDA are fairly easy to qualify for as the buyer. They can also be zero down loans, though the more you can bring to closing the better. Payment assistance and other types of help are sometimes available for very low income borrowers.

Cons: The house you’re buying will undergo significant scrutiny in order to be approved for the program. In all loan programs, your house has to qualify, but the hurdles USDA puts in front of the building are much larger than most other programs. This is good for you, because it means you’re getting a great house, but it makes the process take a lot longer and can be scary for sellers. In addition, there’s a cap on income for potential borrowers.

Need a Mortgage? Who Ya Gonna Call?

HomeKeepr! Wait, that’s a different thing. But, seriously, whether you’re looking for more answers to your burning lending questions, need a plumber to fix your leaky faucet or a party planner to celebrate your finally closing on that loan, your HomeKeepr community has contact information for them all. Just log in and check out all the specialties your HomeKeepr family has to offer — they’re recommended by your Realtor, so you know you can count on these experts.

How to get good curb appeal

First impressions are everything. That’s as true for job interviews as it is for making your house the best version of itself it can be. No matter how big or small your remodeling budget, your first plan of attack needs to aim at improving the curb appeal of your home. Aside from major system issues, this is the decision point where a future buyer is going to eventually come inside or drive on by. No matter how flashy your interior is, if your exterior doesn’t say “love me!” you’ve already lost the real estate game.

What, Exactly, Is Curb Appeal?

Not that long ago (in the early days of the Internet, even), it was a lot harder to get an idea of what a house looked like simply from a listing. Instead of an online database, many markets had giant bound books that looked a lot like a phone book. But instead of telephone numbers, there were listings upon listings of properties for sale. Realtors would send their clients to drive by these homes to see if they thought they’d like to have a proper viewing. These potential buyers would pull up to the curb to take a look, and thus, the concept of “curb appeal” was born.

You may not think that how your house looks from the street really matters. After all, you’re going to live there forever / you have years and years to tick that box / you think a sterile lawn and worn out shutters are fine. Whatever your reasoning, you’re looking at this all wrong. It’s not just that curb appeal is good for a sale (though it is), it’s also a powerful tool for maximizing the property’s appraisal value. If you need a home equity loan or to refinance down the road, you’ll wish you had bothered.

So, let’s bother today. We’ll take a walk around the yard and figure out how to turn your boring house into a dazzling wonder with the budget you have.

Tips and Tricks for Better Curb Appeal

First of all, you’ll want to get cozy with the neighbor directly across the street from you. You’ll be popping over pretty regularly to see how your house is looking to a passer-by. After all, how can you judge the effectiveness of your efforts without seeing it from the same angle they would? Curb appeal is a difficult concept, and often an overwhelming one, but that’s why we came up with these tips to get you started:

Clean up any debris. Hey, whether it’s your leaf collection or just a bunch of junk you’ve been meaning to get rid of, get rid of it. Think about your home the way some people think about mullets: “Business in the front, party in the back.” Or to put it another way, keep the front of your house clean enough to eat off of, do all your cluttery things in the back. Your neighbors will also thank you.

Trim the hedges. Overgrown shrubbery and beds that need to be weeded are worthless, trim those and clean them up so you can make use of them. If someone chose to plant a tree in a poorly chosen spot, you should be the one to correct that tragic error. You can always plant a smaller tree in a better spot to make up for the one you cut down.

Paint the front door and shutters. There’s something exceptionally special about a front door. It sets the whole tone for the rest of the house, so if the paint is worn out or just the wrong color, people will notice. Consult a color wheel for suggestions or spend a lot of time standing at a paint counter going through paint chips. This is a big deal, take your time. While you’re at it, buy some shutters or choose a paint color that will give your old ones new life.

Consider an all-over paint job that really makes features pop. Every house has some architectural features that make it special and place it within its own time. Unfortunately, too many people bury these features with the wrong paint pallet. Plan your home’s exterior colors to emphasize these good bits of awesome.

Replace the old, worn-out lighting. New lighting can make a huge difference to the way your home looks. Choose something that fills the space appropriately, but is also period appropriate. After all, you’re working on a theme here.

Add to the softscape. When you’ve got a yard that’s kind of meh, it’s important to pump it up a bit. Choose plants that will be easy to care for in your climate and that will come back year after year. These softscape elements can make your place far more interesting, plus perennials will multiply over time, giving a nice, full look to the garden.

Give the whole front yard white glove service. Whether that means rebuilding your cement driveway or adding a new mailbox, carefully go over the entire front of your property. Clean windows, take care of crumbling patios, make people eager to get out of the car to see what else you have in store.

Improving Your Home's Appeal...

When you’re thinking about selling your home, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the details. Should you paint the front door? How about changing out that fixture in the dining room? Do you need to redo the floors or will a good deep cleaning be enough? So many questions, so many tasks that you suddenly feel are each the most important thing that must be done right away.

Anyone who has ever staged a home for sale, however, will tell you that the number one thing that you should do to get your home ready — before you start tearing out carpet or painting doors — is to make it feel light, bright and airy.

Buyers Are Always Looking for More Light

We’re creatures of the woods and savannahs, there’s an animal part of every person that wants more light, more light. It’s the same reason that people suffer from things like seasonal affective disorder: we need more light in our lives. Light also makes your home feel bigger when compared to other houses with the same basic square footage, so it’s sort of a win-win here.

Too many sellers overlook this simple notion, instead opting to choose trendy colors to try to appeal to buyers. They paint their dining rooms a dark scarlet, or choose lighting that isn’t nearly bright enough, creating a home that’s more cave-like than house-like. These same sellers wonder why they can’t find a buyer for their enclave, as potential after potential comes in for a look and immediately runs for the door.

But you’re not one of these sellers. You’ve come to the right place for some tips to make your home more appealing by bringing in more light, both real and artificial. These simple tricks can make a huge difference to your home’s first impression.

Let’s Let in the Light!

There are three kinds of light you need to be aware of when you’re looking to brighten your home: the natural light that comes from windows, doors and skylights, the artificial light that comes from your light fixtures and that light that’s bouncing off the walls and around the room.

Natural light is simple to harness, just:

* Clean your windows until they sparkle. Even those fine layers of dust and dirt can block light transmission, making your home feel dark and dreary.
* Remove heavy drapes. If you must have curtains, opt for sheers or lace panels. Sheers will still set off the windows like a heavy drape, but let most of the light from outside come inside.
* Leave every window blind open once your house is on the market. This is a huge mistake a lot of sellers make. Instead of leaving their windows open so that the first thing a potential buyer sees when they walk through the door is a bright and beautiful home, they close the blinds for fear that people will look into their home since it’s for sale.

Artificial light isn’t too tough to get a handle on when you:

* Clean the globes on all your light fixtures. The glass globes on ceiling lights and those glass shades on your ceiling fans can be run through the dishwasher on the top rack. They’ll come out clean as a whistle and able to let more light pass through.
* Replace dim bulbs with much brighter ones. You’ll be surprised how much different your living room looks when you replace the four 40 watt bulbs in your ceiling fan with four 75 watt bulbs. You can certainly overdo this, but it’s hard in rooms of any substantial size.
* Choose blue. Replacing those orange-tinted light bulbs with full spectrum bulbs may seem like a pointless hassle, but this small modification will make your interior feel like it’s full of more of the natural light that’s coming in through the windows. More natural light is almost always better.
* Consider the room size. There are times that choosing the brightest bulb in the box is the wrong way to go. Rooms that are small or narrow, like bathrooms, may be better served with slightly less lighting. You’ll have to use your judgement on that, but keep in mind that no one wants to walk into a small space and be blinded by the artificial light inside.

Light that’s bouncing around the room needs to keep bouncing, so:

* Choose brighter colors to reflect more of the ultraviolet spectrum. The more white involved, the more light it reflects, which then bounces off the other light colored walls, making the room seem big and airy. Stark white is not a great choice, it often makes a home feel too institutional, but a buttercream, barely gray or other almost-not-tinted color can really brighten up a room and get that light moving.
* Minimize dark design elements. It’s not just the walls that can absorb too much of the light in your home, making it feel like an underground bunker. The floors, ceilings and even the furniture in the room all affect how much light is moving around. Again, you don’t want to go totally white, but if you have a dark floor or your ceiling could stand to be painted, definitely make an effort there. Ceilings should be flat white for best results.
* Use mirrors strategically. Mirrors were way overdone in the 1980s and have kind of fallen out of favor since. It’s unfortunate, since they’re a great way to help direct light exactly where it’s needed. When you’re confronted with a dark room that seems to have no good solutions for light, try adding a mirror. For example, a mirrored closet door in a small bedroom with a single window can have a huge impact on the room, plus it’s a handy accessory.

What Is a FICO Score Anyway?

Stand and Be Measured: What is a FICO Score Anyway?


Another month, another rent payment that’s helping your landlord pay off the house or apartment where you’re living. Another month, another rent day spent pondering just how much equity you could have paid down on your own house by now. So, why not you? Why not now? Sure, buying a house can be complicated and intimidating, but your mortgage professional and Realtor will be there every step to help.

Wait, let’s take a step back. Before you even call them, it’s important to fill in some informational blanks. For example, do you know what a FICO score is or how it affects your ability to get a mortgage? A lot of first time homebuyers will need to do some work on their credit accounts, so it’s a good idea to start looking into this stuff six months to a year before you bite the bullet and make a loan application.

Today, we’re going as basic as it gets with the FICO score.

Fair Isaac Really Isn’t Judging You, Mostly

So, back in the 1950s, getting credit was a whole different kind of thing. Rates and down payments or securities were high, terms were short and credit was not nearly as widespread as it is today. Then two fellows named Bill Fair and Earl Isaac came along. They believed that there had to be a better way to make business decisions using data and computer algorithms (a bit ahead of their time, eh?), successfully completing the first credit scoring system in 1958.

By 1970, the Fair Isaac Company was delivering scoring systems for bank credit cards, then in 1981, it developed the credit bureau risk score — similar to the one your bank will be using to determine if you’re going to get a mortgage. The secret proprietary algorithm has been updated throughout the years in a quest to develop the most accurate picture possible of potential borrowers based on their past behavior.

Your FICO score isn’t a judgement of your character, of your job or anything like that. It’s simply a number that tells lenders how likely you are to be willing and able to pay back credit over the long run. If you’ve never had credit or not had much credit experience, expect your number to be lower simply because there’s no data on you. If you’ve had some credit, maybe a student loan or a car loan, and always paid on time, you’re probably golden.

A score of 620 is serviceable, a 650 is generally enough to get a mortgage.

What’s in a FICO Score?

A lot of people are confused about what exactly gets figured into a FICO score. FICO is just an algorithm, remember, so there’s nothing that it can calculate without being fed data. So, the score is based on the information from whatever credit bureau that you’re using to request a FICO score. Nothing else. Things like your on-time utility payments or car insurance, for example, don’t tend to report, so they won’t be added into the calculation.

When shopping for a pre-mortgage score, it’s best to look for a tri-merge report, or a product that gives you scores from all three bureaus: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. This is exactly what your bank will do to qualify you. MyFICO.com offers this service and you’ll get scores directly from the horse’s mouth, but feel free to use whatever tool works for you. There are plenty of legit sources out there that can approximate your FICO score.

The main factors that influence that score are probably exactly what you’d expect. They’re bits and pieces that are telling about your credit usage and ability to repay. FICO’s own site lists these as the primary components and weights of an average borrower’s score:

Payment History (35 percent). If you don’t make your payments on time, the credit bureaus report that and FICO makes a note. Non-payments, late payments and the like don’t report until they’re 30 days past due, but it’s still good practice to pay on or before the due date. If you’ve had late pays in the past, just keep paying on time now. The more space you put between today and those late pays, the less they’ll affect you.

Amounts Owed (30 percent). Are your credit cards maxed out? … like, every month…? Well, this is something you need to get a handle on. This metric looks at not only how much you owe, but how much you owe in relation to how much credit you have. The magic number for utilization is a meager 30 percent. If you’re trying to establish credit, it can be a tricky thing to keep your usage under 30 percent, but above zero to prove you can maintain payments long term.

Length of Credit History (15 percent). The age of your credit accounts, as well as the average age is considered under this metric. FICO looks at both opened dates and the date of last utilization to figure out your risk here. To even be in the running for a bronze medal, you need an average credit line age of over two years, but people with extremely good credit scores may have credit histories of 25 years or more.

New Credit (10 percent). FICO wants to see if you’ve recently acquired a bunch of new credit, maybe in anticipation of charging everything up and fleeing to Canada. Experience has told them that suddenly opening several new accounts in a flurry means that you’re a big time risk for default.

Credit Mix (10 percent). Do you only have store credit cards, or do you also have a car loan and a student loan? The better the variety in your credit history, generally the better risk you represent. Don’t run out and get a bunch of different loans just to see how it shakes out, but if you just have a car loan, it won’t hurt to get a small credit card through your bank just for emergencies.

Improving Your Credit for Beginners

Now that you know what the FICO algorithm considers when it calculates your score, you can use this information to improve your credit score before you apply for a mortgage. Be patient, though, it takes time to see these kinds of changes manifest.

Start by going to AnnualCreditReport.com and requesting your free credit reports (you’re entitled to a set of free credit reports from this site once a year). Check them thoroughly for errors of any sort. Dispute, dispute, dispute. Many credit files have some kind of errors on them.

While the credit bureaus are working on your disputes, you can start to pay off any judgements that appear on your credit reports, as well as developing a plan to pay each and every future payment on time. If your checks come on a regular schedule, autopay isn’t a totally bad option, but if you’re part of the gig economy, of course, that’s probably not going to help.

With each payment, your credit will start to improve. Leave those credit cards alone. Just put one payment in front of the other, and before you know it, you’ll have beautiful credit. Super extraordinary stuff. There’s no real secret to it, it’s all just perseverance.

If you think you might need some help doing the research or coming up with a plan to take care of any credit issues you discover, there are some very reputable credit repair companies out there.

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

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

April 2015 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Spring!!! Isn't it typical Indiana weather that we get snow during the first week of spring? For those of you reading this on spring break, enjoy your time off. We hope you are somewhere warm getting a head start on the warmer weather, which will eventually head our way.

Brigid and Steve are heading to Tampa the first week of April to see her parents. A day at Disney, a few at the beach and the pool will do us some good. Ana & Tali can't wait to see their grandparents again! Brigid started a new position at Merck and absolutely loves it!! It brings a new challenge to her and she is excited for the opportunities it will bring. Ana is getting back in the full-swing of spring soccer season with the Indiana Fire Juniors. Practicing 3 days/week and at least one or two games every weekend is in our foreseeable future, but Ana loves it. Tali is still our little swimmer and gymnast.

Jack & Mary Anne thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Costa Rica. They brought back amazing photos of the rainforest and animals we have never seen before. It looks gorgeous!!! Going with friends was a lot of fun and an incredible learning experience. They highly recommend it!

Check out some of the housing stats from the MIBOR February Monthly Housing Report:
New Listings-2,846-UP 13.4% from February 2014
Closed Sales-1,810-UP 12.6% from February 2014
Average Days on Market-66 Days
Average Sales Price-$166,384-UP 8.4%
Average 30-year fixed mortgage-3.97%
Number of Active Listings in BLC-12,018
FYI-Mortgage interest rates are expected to start increasing in June of this year. If you know of someone on the fence about making a housing change, now is the time to do it and potentially save tens of thousands of dollars. Please have them call us so we can consult with them about their options.

On a final note, we are hiring! If you know of someone who is looking for an Executive Administrative Assistant position, we would love to review their resume. The ideal candidate will be exceptionally strong with administrative tasks and is very detail-oriented. The position is full-time in our office in Carmel. We are looking to hire immediately. We have found that the best candidates come from people who know us. Who is the first person who came to mind just now? We would love to talk with them!

Enjoy this month's edition of the newsletter and please let us know when we can help you or someone you care about with real estate needs. Thank you for all of your past and future support! We are truly grateful!

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

March 2015 Newsletter

We hope you had a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones last week. Although one could easily argue its origins as being purely commercial in nature, which may very well be true, it is still a nice opportunity to show those about whom you care a little extra tangible 'something', the most important of which is your time and 'being present'.

With technology as prolific as it is today, the gift of our time and presence is appreciated now more than ever when freely given to those we love most. I think back to dinners with Ana & Tali and how Brigid and I have to intentionally put down our phones and interact with them. It truly is sad, but in a world with constant distractions and smart phones increasingly more powerful and small, always clamoring for our immediate attention with their seemingly incessant ringing and dinging it is no wonder we live in an attention-deficit world. However, I would submit that those closest to us deserve our uninterrupted attention much more so than the unknown caller on the other side of that ringing and dinging phone-now more than ever. What would your life be like if you put your phone on Do Not Disturb when your family could predictably count on you to do so and you were just present with them sharing nothing more than your presence and undivided attention? Would that have a positive impact on you and your most precious relationships? I challenge you to give it a shot and commit to doing it for a week and see what happens. You just may be amazed at what happens next...

Jack & Mary Anne just returned from a 2-week trip to Costa Rica last weekend. They went with another couple and had an amazing time!! It was an organized tour through the Rhodes Scholar program (formerly called Elder Hostel). They spent time in the extremely humid rain forest and saw the most beautiful animals, including Macaws, sloths, tree frogs, and myriad other creatures we don't have here in Indiana. The poverty they encountered was moving and humbling. They really enjoyed their trip and are glad they went. Have you traveled to Costa Rica? If so, what was your favorite memory?

As for our real estate market, it is quickly heating up. We are officially in the 'spring market', believe it or not. Many houses are selling very quickly (clearly not all of them!). If you are thinking of entering the market, NOW is the time to get moving. Here is a recap of December 2014 courtesy of MIBOR Monthly Indicators Report (compares December 2013 to December 2014):

*New Listings-UP 13.1%
*Pending Sales-UP 16.6%
*Closed Sales-UP 13.0%
*Median Sales Price-UP 0.1% to $135,000
*Average Sales Price-DOWN 0.6% to $175,522
*Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 1.2% to 92.4%
*Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 3.1%
*Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 0.7% to 4.5 months

Bottom line, 2014 was another year of recovery, albeit not as dramatic as 2013. Our market is approaching equilibrium after being drastically undersupplied. We are being told that this summer, we will see interest rates rise, although we have already seen them increase 0.25% over the past 2-weeks. Student loan debt, sluggish wage growth, and a lack of sufficient mortgage liquidity remain hurdles to a greater recovery.

We hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day. After a quiet dinner out, Brigid and I saw the new movie Kingsman. If you like James Bond, The Matrix, & X-Men, you will absolutely LOVE Kingsman. It is highly rated in reviews and I would echo those. Very enjoyable movie!!!

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

February 2015 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope you are enjoying a much milder winter than this time last year! We also hope you were able to enjoy some downtime with friends and family during the holidays. Although they can be hectic, it is nice to be able to see and talk to people close to us and catch up on each other's lives.

If you are a regular reader, you will remember that Brigid & I along with our girls usually go to Tampa, FL between Christmas & New Year's to see her parents who live down there. It is a nice respite from the cold winters up here (especially last year!), but the 16.5-hour drive is just grueling. It was nice to have them come to us, for a change and not have to travel so far. We were able to see most of our families and spend some quality time with them all.

On a sad note, Brigid's uncle passed away suddenly on December 26th. We just saw him the day before and he was acting just fine. He is the youngest of 7 kids on her dad's side and was only 57. He didn't drink or smoke and appeared to be in great health and was fit. He died of a massive heart attack the very next day. Needless to say, Brigid's family was devastated and everyone met in Chicago for the funeral. He leaves behind a wife and daughter. The take-away? Please get health check-ups, especially blood work and heart scans. It is simple, easy, and inexpensive, and MAY just save your life or that of someone you love. We guys are notorious for not seeing the doctor. This isn't an ego thing. It is a living thing, guys! Do yourselves and your family a favor and get checked out.

Here are some numbers from MIBOR for December. Overall, very good:

*New Listings +13.1%
*Pending Sales +16.6%
*Closed Sales +13.0%
*Median Sales Price +0.1% to $135,000
*Average Sales Price -0.6% to $175,522
*Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale +1.2% to 92.4%
*Total Active Listings Available at Month End -3.1%
*Months Supply of Inventory -0.7% to 4.5 months

Thank you for making last year one of our best ever! This year is off to an amazing start, but we need your help. Who do you know who is looking to buy, sell, or build a home this year? Please give us their name and contact info and we will follow up and consult with them about their options while keeping you in the loop. Thank you for your continued trust and confidence!

Next month, we will tell you all about Jack & Mary Anne's amazing trip for which they leave on Sunday. Exciting!!!!

Click here to read our Valentine's edition of our Steve & Jack's Home News. We guarantee you there is some interesting info you have never seen before. Check it out!

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

January Steve & Jack's Home News

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope, as we are nearing the final stretch before Christmas, that you have your shopping finished (or almost finished) and are about ready for the big day. Whether you are spending the holidays at home or away, or even if you don't celebrate Christmas, we hope this time of year is filled with joy, laughter, love, and some time off to spend with family and friends.

THANK YOU to everyone who packed the house a couple of Saturdays' ago to watch The Penguins of Madagascar! We had a fantastic time seeing everyone and hope you enjoyed the movie. We look forward to seeing everyone next year, so save the date-the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

We also had a great time seeing everyone for Cookies with Santa a couple of weeks ago. There were some fantastic pictures and the kids loved the treats and art projects. We hope you will join us again next year.

This year, we are looking forward to everyone staying home and have family come visit us for a change. It will be nice attending our own church and continuing our family holiday traditions. Some of our traditions are visiting Reynold's Farm Equipment and seeing their impressive lights display. If you haven't seen it, it is a must. We also get chocolate advent calendars for the kids each year. It is a nice treat for 24-days to which they look forward each year. We usually celebrate Christmas Eve at Mary Anne and Jack's house and then Christmas afternoon at Brigid's aunt & uncle's. What are some of your family traditions and customs?

The market continues to improve each month and we are seeing an unusually busy December. If you are thinking of selling your house soon, give us a call so we can consult with you and give you specific ideas on how to get the most money out of your house.

Thank you for your continued loyalty and support! We are extremely grateful for you and your trust in us and look forward to helping you and those you care about in 2015.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

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June Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome warmer weather and the month of May, which is always a race theme in Indy. We have the Pacers in the playoffs and the IMS is busy as usual. Busy time in the city. It also continues to be a very busy time in the real estate market. Many houses (although certainly not all) are selling in under 30-days and with multiple offers. Interest rates continue to drop (one lender quoted me a 4.125% rate today!)

Here are some notable statistics you may find interesting (all are from the April 2014 Monthly Indicators Report, courtesy of MIBOR, comparing April 2013 to April 2014):
• New listings-UP 1.2%
• Pending sales-DOWN 6.8%
• Closed sales-DOWN 8.3%
• Median sales price-UP 4.6% to $136,000
• Average sales price-UP 5.5% to $172,291
• Percent of original list price received at sale-UP 2.3% to 93.7%
• Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 3.3% to 12,349
• Months supply of inventory-DOWN 10.4% to 5.0 months
We are excited for school to be out next week and both girls will enjoy another fun-filled summer with their favorite baby-sitter, Kayla, including a week-long overnight Girl Scout camp for Ana (daddy is a little scared here). Ana only has two more soccer games left in the spring season and has been really playing well. Talia is enjoying swimming still as well as gymnastics, at which she really seems to excel.
Our BIG news is that daddy finally caved and we got a puppy! His name is Duke (Ana's choice after English royalty) Marley (his shelter name) and we adopted him two weeks' ago Sunday from a shelter that rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in southern Indiana. He was with a foster family waiting for his 'forever' family. Apparently, he was waiting for us! He is 3/4 Yellow Lab & 1/4 Shepard and was 7-weeks' old when we adopted him. Daddy had both Ana & Tali sign a contract and talked extensively about the responsibilities of being a pet owner as well as the life-cycle they will most likely see full circle. They both were accepting of my terms and here we are.

Duke, it seems is very intelligent. He is fun and has lots of energy, but, like all puppies likes to nip and chew on everything. We have done our best to quell that as quickly as possible, but it will take time. He is mostly potty-trained, but not entirely. Brigid got him to ring a bell on the door when he has to go out and that has worked great! 5AM seems to be a pretty consistent wake-up call time for him, so we are missing some sleep, but other than that, he is making it through the night.

All-in-all, Duke is a great puppy and Tali, who was afraid of dogs before this, has gotten much better. She still runs when he runs to her, making him run even faster as he thinks she is playing a game with him-quite funny to watch! We are excited that the girls have a life-long friend, protector, & loyal companion who will teach them more than they know and in a different way than we can. We hope they will come to appreciate Duke and all the values and emotions he will instill in them as the newest member of our family.

I'm curious, do you currently have a pet or did you have one growing up? If so, what was the single greatest lesson your pet taught you?

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Steve & Jack Rupp

April Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome Spring!!! While Mother Nature may not cooperate entirely, it is nice to see temps consistently above freezing. Let's see how long that lasts!

While Mother Nature is making up her mind as to whether it is time to heat up or not, the real estate market sure isn't. In many cases (certainly not all), houses are selling in days or even hours! It is most certainly a sellers' market. See the stats below (courtesy of MIBOR):

New listings-DOWN 19.9%
Pending sales-DOWN 12.5%
Closed sales-DOWN 12.9%
Median sales price-UP 7.8% to $124,900
Average sales price-UP 4.1% to $153,772
Percent of original list price received at sale-UP 3.5% to 91.6%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 11.1%
Months of available inventory-DOWN 21.3% to 4.3 months

From January 2013 to January 2014, Indianapolis housing appreciated 3.8% according to MIBOR.

This is a great time to sell a house, so if you have been on the fence, this might be the time to seriously give it another thought.

As I write this, our family is in Tampa visiting Brigid's parents for our spring break. Enjoying the warm sun certainly is nice and very therapeutic after one of the most awful winters I can remember. Hopefully, you have been able to escape from the strong grasp winter has had on Indy.

After the holidays, Brigid and I made a commitment to each other that we would start and finish the Extreme Home Workout program P90X. For those of you who have tried/completed it, you know how hard that is. For those of you who don't know much about it, it is quite a commitment of 60-90 minutes of intense workouts 6-days/week for 13-weeks. It is VERY hard. Friday evening marked our successful conclusion of this program and we are now P90X graduates! We couldn't be happier-and more fit. We both agreed that having each other to go through the program and push us to keep going was the key to finishing each day without missing one, even though there were many days we were sick as a dog, too busy, too late, too early, or just plain 'dogging it' that day. There was always an excuse NOT to exercise each day, but the commitment we made to ourselves and each other was stronger and we promised each other we wouldn't let us down. It was therapeutic for us far and above the physical improvements we noticed.

In an age when family members and spouses are many times passing in the night, when was the last time you and your spouse actually set a lofty goal together and worked together as a TEAM to accomplish it? If it has been awhile, may I suggest doing just that? You might find it has a multitude of benefits over and above the obvious.

Talia started gymnastics this month and absolutely LOVES it! Ana has already started spring soccer. She is now playing at Grand Park in Westfield. If you have never seen Grand Park, take an afternoon/evening and check it out. It is already booked for the entire year and has had over 31,000 visitors in the past 30-days and it isn't even officially open or fully functional! It is being touted as the best sports facility in the US and every team who has visited agrees. We are honored to call it our home field. By the year 2020, it is expected to have brought 1 BILLION dollars to the central IN economy!

We hope you enjoy your spring and are looking forward to the warmer weather it inevitably will bring.

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack Rupp

March 2014 Steve & Jack's Home News Newsletter

Happy March!!! While we were certainly hoping that the weather would be more conducive to spring, we are holding out hope that Mother Nature will release her winter grasp and allow warmer temperatures to find their way back to Indy. As you probably know, we have unfortunately surpassed an all-time record for most snow this season. That is not a record we were looking forward to breaking. Like you, we have hit our limit on winter and are experiencing spring fever like never before.

Speaking of spring fever, the real estate market has already started to heat up, however the weather has certainly put a damper on activity. Check out the following stats:

• New listings-DOWN 23.9%
• Pending sales-DOWN 22.6%
• Closed sales-DOWN 13.8%
• Median sales price-UP 4.8%
• % of original list price to sales price-UP 3.1%
• Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 6.7%
• Months supply of inventory-DOWN 19.3% to 4.4 months

As you can see, houses are appreciating nicely, inventory is WAY down and the terrible winter has most definitely impacted activity. What this means is that in many cases, houses are selling in DAYS, with multiple offers for at or above listing price! Quite frankly, we are desperately in need of inventory, as you can see from the statistics above. Buyers have very few options from which to choose, and we speak from experience when we say, we don't have enough houses to show our many buyer clients. When buyers find a house they like, many times it has already accepted an offer or will very soon. Buyers don't have the luxury to think about whether to make an offer. If they like a house they see, they need to make an offer immediately or risk losing the house. It is an exciting market for sellers, but extremely nerve-wracking for buyers and their agents.

If you are considering selling your house this year, please do yourself a favor and give us a call so we can share with you specific information so you can make an informed decision about whether putting your house on the market now is right for you. In many cases, it is. Interest rates are predicted to keep rising, so the sooner you lock in a low rate, the better.

On another note, have you checked out our BRAND NEW website? Check us out and let us know what you think. Please visit www.Welcome2Indy.com. It is updated, sleeker, has more information, and better searches.

Finally, we are so proud, once again to have been awarded by you, our clients for the 3rd year in a row as a Five-Star Real Estate Professional!! Check us out in the May edition of Indianapolis Monthly magazine. This coveted award is only bestowed to the top 7% of all real estate agents in Indy based on surveys of clients for quality service. On top of that, we have been fortunate to maintain our 'A' rating on Angie's List and have been nominated for Pages of Happiness and the Super Service Award. We couldn't be happier and more grateful to you, our loyal clients. THANK YOU!!

We hope you have a great St. Patrick's Day & Mardi Gras. Come on spring!!!

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Steve & Jack Rupp

February 2014 Steve & Jack Home News

Welcome 2014 and the Arctic Vortex that has rushed in with it! Like us, you are probably fed up with the frigidly cold winter we have had along with the snow, accidents, and seemingly never-ending school delays & cancellations. At this rate, our kids won't get much of a summer as they will be making up snow days into July!

We hope you had a fantastic, relaxing, enjoyable, and fun holiday break. As is customary, we drove down to Tampa, FL to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's with Brigid's family. Although it was cold by Florida standards (low of 40s in the evening), it certainly was better than here!

Jack and Mary Anne were able to see all of their grandchildren on Christmas day and all of the presents they opened. It sure is nice to have family in town to spend holidays together.

As mentioned in last month's newsletter, our new Director of Marketing & Client Service Bob Clidinst continues to shine. We are so fortunate to have him as part of our team. He is fine-tuning systems, adding new ones and is a natural at preparing all of the marketing (we have become known for our extensive marketing for listings throughout the Indy-area) we do for all of our listings. We hope you have a chance to meet Bob soon! His e-mail is Bob@Welcome2Indy.com if you want to drop him a note.

As for the real estate market, it has certainly been somewhat hurt by the weather, to be sure. Some areas are seeing more activity than others. Here are some quick numbers for reference (source: December MIBOR Monthly Indicators Report):

Closed sales are UP 4.3%
Median sales prices are UP 4.8% ($134,900)
Average sales prices are UP 10.5% ($176,622)
% of Original List Price received at sale is UP 2.3% (91.3%)
Months supply of inventory DOWN 19% (4.5 months)

As you can see, our market is still posting some impressive numbers. The forecast for this year is that 2014 will continue to post some strong numbers, but they will be tempered a bit compared to 2013. Interest rates are projected to increase to 5.5% by the end of the year and refinances will all but dry up forcing lenders to relax a bit on lending guidelines, however new laws/rules just went into effect on 1/10/14 limiting how much relaxed lenders can get-not a bad thing!

As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns at all, please let us know. We are always here to help. Speaking of help, if you have bought, sold, or built a new home with us in the past 3 years and are a member of Angie's List, would you do us a HUGE favor and leave us a positive review? Angie's List is so powerful and we could really use some more good reviews. Thank you for helping!!!

Here's to a warmer and drier February and a great Valentine's Day. Enjoy the SuperBowl, too!!

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack

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!!

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Your Personal Real Estate Consultants...for Life!

Steve & Jack

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!

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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.

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To read our September newsletter, click here.

Building Permits Rise-Foreclosures Drop