July Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Independence Day weekend!

Welcome to the July edition of Steve & Jack’s Home News!

We truly hope this video message finds you staying safe and healthy and enjoying the summer weather. We hope you stay safe this weekend and enjoy the holiday.

The biggest news is our Team Buyer Specialist Thea Charnas got married on July 20th in Cleveland followed by a honeymoon to Charleston, SC. Her married name is Thea Snelly. She and her husband Michael are excited to start the next chapter of their lives as husband and wife. Please join me in congratulating Thea!

Our Team Marketing Director Patti Bruns is in final preparations to take her real estate exam in a few weeks in Cincinnati after having to reschedule her test in March due to the pandemic. This test is not easy and comes after 120-hours in the classroom. Patti would appreciate your positive thoughts as she prepares for this test. We know she will do great!

Kylie, after being bitten badly by her puppy is all recovered and we are happy she has healed and is back to 100%.

Our entire team is finally back together in the office after 2.5 months working from our homes.

Steve’s family is excited to drive to The Poconos at the end of this month to spend the week with Brigid’s brother and his family. This will be the first trip we take our dog Duke with us, so we are anxious to see how he does with a 10-hour car ride! This trip is the ‘consolation trip’ for our missed trips for spring break to Universal Studios and our summer trip to Italy. We hope to get back to both next year.

Steve’s 10-year old daughter Natalia has made the decision to quit competitive gymnastics after 4 years and transfer her skills to competitive cheer with her ICE cheer team. She will be traveling around the country competing and is so excited! She also completed a 2-week horse camp in Zionsville a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it!

Steve’s 14-year old daughter Anastasia graduated from The Indianapolis Children’s Choir last month after 6-years and will be moving up to their Master Chorale for 10-12 graders. She also will be playing soccer for Guerin High School and has already started practicing with the team. She has quickly learned that high school sports are much harder than grade school! Ana continues to amaze us with her cooking skills with an entirely scratch-made dinner every Sunday. Sometimes her sister helps as her Sous Chef. We have been so very impressed with her skill and dedication. Our favorite so far has been Bavarian pretzels and a marinated steak with grilled peaches smothered in melted butter and brown sugar finished with home made peppermint patties. Yum!

We have been asked about the real estate market a LOT lately. Bottom line: we are in the strongest sellers’ market in history. There is only 1.3 months of inventory right now, which is almost like saying our unemployment rate is 1/2%. A balanced market is 6-months of inventory. We need more listings…badly. There are TONS of buyers begging for houses to buy. Interest rates are at historic lows of 2.875% for a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage. Homes are selling faster than ever before for more than ever before. There has NEVER been a better time to sell your house than right now. Period. If you are staying put for awhile and you have a mortgage and you haven’t recently looked into refinancing, please call or e-mail me for some names of some great local lenders who will tell you if refinancing makes sense for you or not. We have seen client save hundreds of dollars/month by doing so.

Here are some stats from MIBOR comparing May 2020 to April 2020:
Median Sales Price-$215,000-UP 2.4%
Closed Sales-2,703 units-UP 5.1%
New Listings-3,744 units-UP 32.7%
Pending Sales-4,054 units-UP 46.2%
Days on Market-38 days-UP 2.7%
Price/s.f.-$121-UP 0.8%
% of Ask Received-97.9%-DOWN 0.4%
Active Inventory-3,563 units-DOWN 10.8%
Absorption Rate-1.3 months-DOWN 18.8%

Look at the new listings and pending numbers. Those are HUGE!! You can see we are recovering from the pandemic VERY fast and we expect this to continue into the fall months. Please call us at 317-573-1880 or e-mail at Steve@Welcome2Indy.com to see what your house is worth today. We will be happy to provide you with a market valuation specific to your house and help you navigate this crazy market to craft a personalized plan to get you from where you are to where you want to go.

We are so excited to go back to live Happy Hours in July!!! Please join us on Thursday, July 16th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. As always, drinks and appetizers are on us. You bring the conversation and fun!!! Bring a friend or significant other!

Also on Thursday, July 16th, we are bringing back our FREE Shred Day. Our last one was more successful than we ever dreamed with over 400 cars coming through!!! Come by our office from 10AM-noon. Bring any documents you want safely and securely shredded or electronics you want recycled. Trucks will be there to safely handle those items on-site. You don’t even have to get out of your car. We come to you and take what you have from your car and you drive off. This is a small way for us to say thank you to our valued clients and referral partners.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!! Know we are grateful to you for your trust and loyalty. Please continue to introduce us to the next person you know who is thinking about buying, selling, or building a new home. We would love to help them!

Happy Independence Day weekend!!!

Click here to watch a video message from Steve
Click here to read our July newsletter
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Click here to watch a 1-minute video market update
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Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Kylie, Thea, & Patti

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

June Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome to June and the official start to summer. This has been more than a strange spring. From a global pandemic, to protests and riots, to killer hornets, locusts in Africa, and the 7-year cycle for some species of Cicadas, it can seem rather biblical. We certainly hope this e-mail finds you and your loved ones safe, healthy and happy. Those can seem rather elusive right now. If there is something you need that we can help support you or your business, please let us know. We are absolutely happy to help however we can to support you.

On the health front, as of right now COVID-19 has significantly subsided with most hospitals reporting very few, if any COVID-19 patients. We certainly hope that the numbers continue to drop and that we are at the predicted zero cases by July 1st and by July 4th we are able to safely get back to our 'new' normal, which may even include a parade and fireworks, if we are lucky.

As for our family, Tali has been out of school for 3-weeks now and Ana just finished a week ago. Tali will be a 5th grader and Ana a sophomore at Guerin. It is hard to believe! Ana has to take PE and health this summer since she started Guerin in the 2nd trimester and missed the first trimester of it. While she isn't looking forward to it, it will be good to get her moving in the mornings as she is like a typical teenager and can sleep until noon, if you let her. She is going to play soccer for Guerin this fall and will be practicing all summer as well and will also sing in one of Guerin's choirs and will be going back to Indianapolis Children's Choir Master Chorale since she graduated from the youth program this year. She has also been doing such a great job as Chef Ana cooking Sunday dinners all from scratch. They are so absolutely delicious and we love enjoying her cooking.

Tali is going to horse camp in Zionsville for a few weeks and absolutely loves it! On top of that, she decided to quit competitive gymnastics after four years and is instead doing competitive cheer at ICE and has already started practices, which are kicking her butt!

Brigid is still at home as Merck will not allow any reps to go out for a few more weeks. The good news is that she still has a job, full pay and benefits, so we are extremely grateful there.

Steve's parents Jack and Mary Anne are getting back out again, but did cancel their trip to Branson last week, per the urging of Steve and Michelle. They are enjoying seeing some of their friends and family again and we enjoyed having them over last week for a belated Mother's Day celebration.

Kylie's big news is that Carmel finally took them off of well water and hooked them up to city water. She has been waiting for this for over a year as their well was going out. Her dog ripped a big gash in her hands and she is recovering from that now.

Patti is enjoying getting jobs done around the house and now that Ron is retired, he is able to do work during the week.

Thea is in final preparations for her wedding to Michael on June 20th in Cleveland. Her plans for a wedding here in Indy have been cancelled due to COVID-19 and will instead have a small wedding with family and then have a delayed reception next summer here in Indy. We can't wait!

As for the real estate market, we are getting asked daily how it is doing right now. Fortunately, it is recovering very nicely. We have been ranked as a Top 10 city to recover fastest from the pandemic and we are seeing that. Activity has picked up a lot and is getting close to where it usually is for the spring. We are hoping the spring market will shift into the summer and fall. We are in dire need of inventory right now. We are near an all-time low of 1.6 months right now. A balanced market is around 6 months. We have lots of buyers, but no homes to show them. If you know of someone thinking of selling, please give us a call. We would love to consult with them about their options, which include selling at the highest prices in history in the shortest amount of time.

Here are some numbers from MIBOR for April 2020 vs. April 2019. May numbers will come out in a week.
Median Sales Price-$210,000-UP 0.7%
Closed Sales-2,522 units-DOWN 14.9%
New Listings-2,782 units-DOWN 23.9%
Pending Sales-2,866 units-DOWN 9.1%
Days on Market-38 days-No change
Price per s.f.-$120-UP 1.7%
% of Ask Received-98.3%-UP 0.4%
Active Inventory-3,967 units-DOWN 1.7%
Absorption Rate-1.6 months-UP 14.3%

It will be interesting to see where May's numbers come in, but these could have been MUCH worse, as you can imagine.

We truly hope that you stay safe and healthy, especially now. We also hope that you will take time to celebrate all of the wonderful dads out there for Father's Day this month. We wouldn't be who we are without you!

A few updates and reminders:
Thank you to everyone who attended our May virtual Happy Hour! We had a great time and gave out some fun prizes for best dressed (Rhoda Israelov) and winner of our May trivia challenge on our call (Gene Ziobron). Please join us next week for our June virtual Happy Hour on Thursday, June 18th from 5-6:30pm. Bring your favorite drink and come ready for some fun trivia questions and your chance to win some prizes. Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9756645504. We hope this is the last virtual Happy Hour and we can go back to seeing you all in-person in July. Stay tuned for updates.

Wow!!!! We had over 400 cars for our Shred Day a couple of weeks ago!!! This was an all-time record...by a LOT! We filled up one entire truck and had to call a second one! The recycling truck was also full. This was so popular that we are going to do another one in July. Mark your calendars for Thursday, July 16th from 10AM-12pm at our office again. Anything you want shredded or electronics to be recycled can be disposed of. This is absolutely FREE for our clients and referral partners.

A lot of people have asked us for our preferred contractors as so many people are getting house projects completed. Please call or e-mail us any time and we are happy to get you some names of great contractors you can trust to handle all of your projects...big or small.
If you have a mortgage and you haven't checked to see if you should re-finance, you may want to take some time to look into it. Rates are at or near all-time lows and if you have a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage, for example the rate is around 3.25%. Call or e-mail us today for our preferred loan partner who will be happy to help you figure out if it makes sense to refinance or not.
So, what did you think of our video intro last month? Did you like it? We would love your feedback on how we can improve. Let us know.

Click here for our June video

Click here for our June newsletter

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

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Enjoy summer!!!

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Kylie, Thea, & Patti

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

December Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Holidays!!

We hope that you had a fun and restful Thanksgiving spent with friends and family and are looking forward to more time with friends and family this Christmas season. While this can be a hectic and stressful time, to be sure, it also can be one of time spent reconnecting with friends and family and, hopefully, enjoying some much-needed time away from work.

Hopefully, you received our calendar in the mail over the past week or two and will enjoy it throughout 2019. If you didn't receive one and would like to be on our list for next year, please let us know and we will add you to our list.

For Thanksgiving this year, Steve and his family had Jack and Mary Anne over for dinner and they enjoyed being able to relax and Mary Anne enjoyed not having to cook a big dinner. Michelle and her family enjoyed Thanksgiving at family in Louisville. Kylie and Julia both enjoyed Thanksgiving with family here in Indy. We hope you were able to enjoy some time with family and friends as well.

Our family will be staying in Indy for Christmas and Brigid's family will be coming into to town to celebrate with us. Ana & Tali are looking forward to seeing everyone and taking a break from studying for a few weeks. Tali starts her gymnastics competition season mid-December and will be competing a level up from last week. We are anxious to see how this year goes competing at a higher level. Ana is in her busy season with performances with her school's show choir and many performances with The Indianapolis Children's Choir. If you haven't ever attended their Angels' Sing performance, consider making time to attend. It is nothing short of remarkable and will absolutely put you in the spirit of the season!

Due to the holidays, don't forget that we will NOT be having a December Happy Hour. We will pick back up again in January on the 16th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's. Look for your evite to confirm your attendance. If you aren't on our evite list, please let us know and we would be happy to add you!

Finally, we hope we will see you TOMORROW for our 6th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies. We have rented a theater at Hamilton Town Center again and will be showing Wreck It Ralph 2. We have a FEW seats remaining, so if you would like to attend, please e-mail Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. The fun starts at 8:30AM and the movie starts promptly at 9:30AM. We will have a photo op stop, a caricature artist, food, and fun. We hope to see you there!!!

As for the market, it has definitely cooled off from a few months ago. It is still very strong, but houses are sitting on the market much longer, some for more than 90-days due to very weak buyer activity. We expect the market to pick back up again in the spring (around March 1st or so) for another strong year. Here are some recent housing stats from MIBOR comparing October 2018 to October 2017:

New listings-UP 13.4% to 3,707 units
Pending sales-UP 9.4% to 3,017 units
Closed sales-UP 1.7% to 3,196 units
Median sales price-UP 6.4% to $174,500
Average sales price-UP 2.7% to $206,681
Percent of original list price received at sale-UP 0.3% to 95.4%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 8.0% to 8,339 units
Months supply of inventory-DOWN 10.0% to 2.7 months

Please enjoy this month's newsletter, which can be found here

Click here to watch a 1-minute video on a real estate update

Click here to read a few testimonials from happy clients

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We are honored to announce that we were recently profiled in Top Agent Magazine! You can read the article here.

Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia all say 'thank you!' for inviting us to help you and those about whom you care! Without you, we couldn't do what we love. We look forward to helping you again next year! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia

May Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Spring...finally!!! After what seemed like an eternity, it appears as if Old Man Winter has loosened his grip on us. We hope that you are ready for some spring weather as well, and if you are like us, you have a long list of projects to start tackling.

With the spring market here, real estate is white hot. This is the absolute craziest market I have ever seen in 20-years in the business. Houses are literally selling in hours with multiple offers all above list price. Some are even selling before they hit the market. In fact, that is the case with Jack and Mary Anne's house, which sold before we could even get it listed! They are excited about the new buyers who will love their home as they have and close on May 24th. As you might imagine, this is a very difficult move after living there since 1980! There are lots of memories (and junk) to process, but it will be a very good move for them as they don't need that much house or yard for which to care.

The biggest piece of advice I can give people who are thinking of downsizing or even selling the house and moving into an assisted living community is to 1) start early for de-cluttering, & 2) have your financial affairs in order ahead of time. We see all too often people leave these two items to family members after they are gone and the stress and pain it causes everyone. This is a very difficult subject to broach, to be sure, but one that is absolutely necessary. If you need a very good estate-planning attorney, and/or people who can help with de-cluttering/selling items, please call us. We have several excellent recommendations we can give you so you can be ahead of the game and have everything planned out, according to your wishes and not leave your family guessing.

Jack and Mary Anne are looking forward to celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary this summer!!! It is hard to believe it has been that long. Michelle and I are planning a nice celebration to mark this impressive milestone and look forward to reaching it ourselves one day.

Brigid is staying very busy with her work at Merck and, on top of that is remodeling both of our girls' bathrooms. We hope to have those finished by the end of the weekend. Not a fun job, but a rewarding one!! Tali just finished her final gymnastics' meet for the season and is practicing all summer to prepare for moving up a level next season. She so loves gymnastics and we love supporting her. Ana is preparing for her month-long trip to Europe with Blue Lake Fine Arts camp this summer. We are looking forward to seeing her perform in Belgium and then spending a few days in Paris. This will be a trip of a lifetime!

Brigid's brother Jim was just awarded Professor of The Year at Northeastern University out of over 1,600 professors as well as he just received his tenure. We are so proud of him for all of his hard work!! Amazing!!!

Below are some staggering stats for our housing market courtesy of MIBOR comparing March 2018 to March 2017. We have never seen inventory this low...ever. This is literally historic. If you are even remotely thinking of selling, please call us as proper planning is crucial to achieving your goals and ensuring a smooth transition.

New Listings-DOWN 8.8% to 3,932 units
Pending Sales-UP 30.5% to 4,285 units
Closed Sales-DOWN 7.5% to 2,966 units
Median Sales Price-UP 11.2% to $173,500
Average Sales Price-UP 10.6% to $209,313
Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 1.2% to 95.9%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 34.7% to 5,708 units
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 34.5% to 1.9 months

Thank you to all of our friends and clients for joining us a Matt The Miller's last Wednesday for our monthly Happy Hour! We had a great time, as always and hope you can join us next month on May 16th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel. Food and drinks are on me!!

We hope you enjoy reading this month's newsletter. If you would like a paper copy, please let me know. We are sending a limited number out and would be happy to add you to the list, if you prefer that over electronic. Happy Spring!!!

Click here to read our May newsletter

Click here for the most powerful real estate app available

Click here for a video market update

Click here for coupons and discounts at places you shop every day

Click here for our new construction video series

Click here for some fun testimonials

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia


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

September 2017 Steve & Jack's Home News

Can you believe school is back in session and summer has unofficially ended for our kiddos? It seems the older we get, the faster summer goes. Of course, for some parents, the first day of school can't get here soon enough! We hope you had fun this summer and enjoyed some outdoor activities. With our mild weather, it made it much more comfortable.

Did you watch the solar eclipse? Were you able to find some glasses? We stayed in Indy and our kids watched it at school. While the whole eclipse is fascinating, frankly I found it pretty boring. Unless you were in the total eclipse area where it turned dark in the middle of the day, it just didn't do much for me. Our kids felt the same way. Seven years and we will get to see a total eclipse here in Indy.

Jack and Mary Anne are back from their 16-day European adventure!! They had a great time and enjoyed Paris, Normandy and their Seine River cruise. They saw so much countryside and Mary Anne enjoyed speaking French with the locals. A trip-of-a-lifetime, to be sure. Mary Anne received some bad news lately that she has to have yet another surgery to repair another hernia as well as needing a full knee replacement on the left knee. This has been a rough 12-months for her and we pray it will be easier after this knee procedure.

Kylie is still doing amazing at work and so are both of her kids. Her infant Jackson is crawling now, so she has to keep an even closer eye on him. Childcare has been going well, too.

Steve & Brigid are trying to settle back into the school routine. Ana is in 7th grade, which means she started at the Middle School this year. It has been a tough transition, but she is handling it well. She will be continuing to play trumpet in the band and they have a trip to St. Louis in the spring along with other performances. Couple this with her Indianapolis Children's Choir and their many performances and practice schedule and she is a busy young lady! She will find out soon if she is selected to travel to Europe and sing for 4-weeks with her choir from Blue Lake where she went for 12-days this summer. 2,500 kids applied and only 200 are chosen, so the competition is fierce. Unfortunately, that is at the same time as her tour to Canada with the Indianapolis Children's Choir, so choices will have to be made, but I think Europe will win out, if she is chosen. Tali is doing very well in 2nd grade and she loves her teacher. She is still doing gymnastics 3-days/week 2 hours/day and is preparing for competition season. She loves every minute of it!!

As for the real estate market, it has definitely cooled since the 4th of July. It is still a great market, but houses are not selling quite as fast as they used to. Median sales price is down a tad from last month, new listings are down from last month and % of list price to sales price is trending down a bit as well. Inventory has ticked up 0.1% each of the last 3 months, but we are still extremely low at 3.2 months.

If you are planning to sell, NOW is the time to do it. The market is still good and the interest rates are down below 4% again. See below from MIBOR comparing July 2017 to July 2016 numbers:

New Listings-DOWN 2.6% to 4,143 units
Pending Sales-UP 5.7% to 3,014 units
Closed Sales-DOWN 0.9% to 3,461 units
Median Sales Price-UP 6.7% to $169,500
Average Sales Price-UP 7.9% to $209,227
% of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 0.6% to 96.3%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 15.4% to 9,625 units
Months Supply of Inventory/Absorption Rate-DOWN 20.0% to 3.2 months

As you can see, we are still looking good, but expect to see the market continue to soften, as it usually does around this time of the year. We usually see pretty good activity until around November 1st or shortly thereafter, depending on weather.

Enjoy this month's newsletter! It contains some words of wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.

Click here for the September newsletter.

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Click here for the most powerful real estate app available.

Your friends in real estate,

Steve, Jack, & Kylie

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

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

Click here to read our May newsletter

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December 2015 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!!

We hope you are preparing to enjoy some time away from work and the hustle and bustle of life to spend with family and friends and truly be thankful for what we have. After some horrifying events around the world, it can become difficult to be grateful and thankful for what you have. Here are a few things for which we are thankful and will not take for granted:

Our health
Our family
Our faith
Our friends
Our country
Our clients
We are curious, for what are you most thankful?

Thank you to all of our clients for attending our final Happy Hour of 2015 last Wednesday at Matt The Miller's!! We had another great turnout and it was so nice to see so many clients & referral partners. We are grateful for the trust you have placed in us and for our friendship. See you in January!!

Thank you to so many of our clients for attending our Pictures with Santa on Saturday!! Santa was so happy to see so many smiles and hear all of the presents the kids asked him to bring. We will be sending you the photos from that afternoon in the next couple of days as we know many of you are waiting on them for Christmas cards. If you didn't get a chance to join us this year, please plan to attend next year. It is always a great time!

You should have received an invitation to our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event on December 12th from 8:30-11AM at Hamilton Towne Center movie theater. We already have a big group attending and look forward to seeing you there. We will have food and drinks and then show the soon-to-be-released movie The Good Dinosaur. It has received excellent reviews and know kids and adults alike will enjoy it. Please come and join us as we say Thank You for everything you have done for us. Parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren are all welcome. Please RSVP by December 1st to Kylie Zajac @ Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com with the number of adults & children in your party. Thank you for letting us 'love' on you!!

Our family had our Thanksgiving a little early this year and celebrated it yesterday with Brigid's parents who were up from Florida. Brigid did another amazing job cooking and Mary Anne and Michelle helped with bringing delicious desserts. No one walked away hungry!!

The reason we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early was Steve & Brigid are crossing off a 'bucket list' item and are flying to Germany & Austria on Wednesday for 12-days. Ana & Tali are coming along and are very excited about being out of the country for the first time aside from some cruises. We fly from Chicago to Berlin and then on to Salzburg. We plan to stay in Bavaria the entire time and enjoy the Christmas Markets, sled down the Alps, play in a thermal spring-fed water park, see Neuschwanstein castle, and much more!! This will be Steve's 3rd trip to the area and Brigid's 2nd, but our first trip to Europe since Brigid was 7-months' pregnant with Ana 10-years' ago!! Although recent events are in the back of our minds, we refuse to cancel our dream vacation. We are looking forward to getting away and showing our girls other cultures so they have more of an appreciation of how people can be different from us, but that doesn't make their way of life wrong or ours better. This is going to be a trip experiencing other cultures and traditions and one of tolerance and understanding. We can only hope that people in other countries and throughout the US adopt that same mentality as our world would be a much better and peaceful place for us our and children to live. Please say a prayer for our safe travels as we confront some obvious fears.

Finally, the housing market continues to be good. We are getting asked this question quite a bit. Inventory is extremely low and in some areas near 1-month-very unhealthy. First-time buyers only make up approximately 30% of the overall buyers and normally, they comprise 40%. We need first-time buyers to start the domino chain and we need people to put their houses on the market. Prices continue to rise and so will interest rates, so now is the time to sell, even though the holidays traditionally see lower traffic. With so few houses with which to compete, your chances are pretty good with each showing you get. Call us today if you or someone you care about is thinking about selling in the next 6-months. We would love to consult with you about your options and share facts and data so you can make an informed decision.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you and your family!!! We hope to see you at the movie on December 12th!!

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Steve & Jack Rupp

July Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome to summer and the end of another school year! We hope you have some fun summer vacation plans as well as spending time with family. While there are a lot of varied opinions over Daylight Saving Time and I could argue for either side, personally I love still having daylight at 9:30 at night. We work in the yard quite a bit or one of us will take the dog for a walk after the kids go to bed and have light in which to do those activities is so nice.

We have been missing Ana the last week as she has been enjoying an amazing trip with her grandparents on an Alaskan cruise. Tali has been especially sad to see her sister's room empty and our dog Duke even takes a winter glove of Ana's out of the basket and sleeps next to it. They both miss their big sis. Fortunately, she has been able to call us a few times and says she is having a blast! We would love to go as a family sometime and have it on our bucket list. Have you ever been to Alaska? What was your experience like?

Jack and Mary Anne are in Branson this week enjoying the scenery and taking in several shows. They have a time-share there and love going back each year.

The market has continued to be really strong in most areas and price points. Here are some recent figures (MIBOR monthly data report comparing April 2015 to April 2014):
*New listings are UP 6.3%
*Pending sales are UP 13.5%
*Closed sales are UP 12.8%
* Median sales price is UP 8.8% to $148,000
*Average sales price is UP 6.2% to $ 182,931
*% of Original List Price Received at Sale is UP 0.3% to 94%
*Total Active Listings Available at Month's End is DOWN 2.6%
*Months Supply of Inventory is DOWN 6.1% to 4.7 months (a balanced market is ~6 months, so we are in a seller's market)

If you or someone you care about are thinking of moving, please give us a call so we can consult with you about your options and maximize your house's value while reducing many of the hassles of buying and selling.

**Have you RSVP'd yet for our Happy Hour THIS Wednesday, June 17th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's in Carmel? If not, please do so. We have a big crowd coming and we would love to see you there as well. Drinks and appetizers are on us!! Whether you can only stay for a few minutes or the entire time, we would love to see you. Don't forget to pick up your poker chips at the hostess stand. Those are your drink tickets for the evening. See you there!!!

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

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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

November Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy November and a not-so-welcome polar vortex showing us signs of an early winter. As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in sunny San Diego for a real estate conference learning how to better run our business and provide an even higher level of service to our clients. Of course, I had to send the obligatory video of me at the ocean today to Brigid to rub it in a little before our conference starts this evening. We are big believers in continual education that never ends. We are excited about what we will learn over the next 3 days and bring back to implement into our business.

Last month for Fall Break, we went to visit Brigid's parents in Tampa and see Steve's good friend from college. While there, we attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween-a first for us. It was so much fun and the girls absolutely loved it. The best part is that a limited number of guests are allowed in and lines for rides are much shorter. If you have never been to Disney during the Fall, I highly recommend going to this special event. It is worth the time and money...and the parade is the best of any all year!

Here are some housing stats for September as reported by MIBOR. These compare September 2014 to September 2013.
• New listings-UP 8.4%
• Pending sales-UP 13.6%
• Closed sales-UP 13.1%
• Median Sales Price-UP 5.1% to $141,900
• Average Sales Price-UP 2.9% to $172,319
• % of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 1% to 93.2%
• Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 0.1% to 13,882
• Months Supply of Inventory-UP 3.3% to 5.7%
Basically, house prices are going up, interest rates are staying low, but are predicted to be at 5% by this time next year, and inventory is going up and is nearing a balanced market shifting from a sellers' market. If you are thinking of selling or buying your window is closing to take advantage of our very favorable market. Please contact us if you would like specific numbers on your house so you can make an informed decision.
Veteran's Day was yesterday. A huge THANK YOU, especially to all of our clients who have served our country. Jack is a Navy Veteran and served aboard the USS Essex. We honor and give thanks to each of you for the sacrifices you have made for us and our families.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. We certainly hope you have plans to spend it with friends/family and to truly be thankful and grateful for how fortunate we all are. We are extremely grateful and thankful for our wonderful family and friends, but also for our amazing clients...like you! Thank you for your continued trust and confidence. Without you & your continued referrals, we wouldn't be in business. We are honored & privileged to be a part of such an important time in your lives.

A few reminders and fun things coming up for you to put on your calendar.

1) Pictures with Santa is coming back!! They will be at our office at Keller Williams at 11550 N. Meridian Street, Suite 450 in Carmel. The time is 12-2PM on Sunday, November 23rd and we will have punch & cookies. Please RSVP to Bob@Welcome2Indy.com by Friday, November 21st at 5PM if you plan to attend so we can have an accurate head count for refreshments.

2) You should be receiving your formal invitation any day now, if you haven't already for our 2nd annual VIP Client Appreciation Movie Day. It is on Saturday, December 6th at the Hamilton Town Center Movie Theater. We rented out the entire theater for you and your family to watch the new Disney movie, The Penguins of Madagascar. For those of you who attended last year for the blockbuster movie, Frozen, you know how much fun it was. We will begin with a coffee, juice, & donut bar at 9AM and the movie will start promptly at 10AM. Reservations are required by 5PM, Wednesday, December 3rd with the number of adult & child tickets requested to Bob@Welcome2Indy.com. We hope you can join us for both of these fun events!

Enjoy the newsletter and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Steve & Jack Rupp

October Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome to Fall!! We love this time of year with cooler temperatures and the beautiful colors (although our summer has been very mild)! We can't forget about football!! Our Irish and Colts are faring quite well so far. We hope you are having fun at some festivals and enjoying nature's pallet changing as well. We have some family traditions during this time of year we would love to share with you. What are your Fall traditions? Here are some of ours:

Headless Horseman at Conner Prairie-Adults are $10-$14 depending on the day, except if you are a member and then admission is FREE! In addition to the feature attraction of the haunted hayride with the headless horseman (non-scary version from 6:30-7:30PM and scary from 7:30-11PM) 10/16-10/19 and 10/23-10/26. There are lots of food tents as well as the Apple Store (our favorite) full of delicious apples and the amazing gourmet apple! There is a catapult launching various things, costume contest, karaoke, mad scientist tent, scary movies being played, play ground is open, slide, instrument play along, and the famous Steven's Puppets Legend of Sleepy Hollow (a must-see, trust me). Hayride time slots usually sell out by 7PM, so get there by 5:30PM at the latest and stand in line until the gates open at 6PM.

Pumpkinfest in Zionsville on 421-open every weekend in October. Tickets are $10/adults and $9/kids. We have gone every year for the past 10 years. The great thing is that almost everything is included in your ticket price, except for food, of course and the pony rides, which are only $5. There is live bluegrass music, a huge slide, milking & lassoing areas, face painting, corn kernel box, petting zoo, hay rides, pumpkin patch, corn maze, a craft and farmer's market, blacksmith & wood carver, trikes, train, and a free pie pumpkin you can take and decorate in the tent. Of course, the absolute BEST thing to get is the famous apple cinnamon donuts! Yum!

Oktoberfest at Traders' Point Creamery-only open one day (last Saturday). Tickets are $8/adults in advance and kids 10 & under are FREE. They have live bands (Polkaboy is outstanding!!), games and crafts, a Biergarten, Sun King truck, Artisan market, hog roast, hayrides, pony rides (extra $), and live milking demonstrations. Very fun!

Renaissance Faire-This is held one weekend in October (the 4th & 5th this year) in Saxony in Fishers and is the largest single weekend event of its kind in the nation! Tickets are $10/adults & $4/kids in advance. There are costumed denizens wandering about, tons of tents with all kinds of period wares to sell, puppet shows, acrobat acts, live music, jousting, sword play, lots of food booths and lots more.

The real estate market continues to change with strong movement in sales price and trailing closed sales. New listings have declined along with pending sales. Sustained job growth, lower mortgage interest rates and slow rise in homes for sale appear to have unleashed some pent-up demand. It is encouraging to see second quarter GDP growth revised upwards to a 4.2 percent annualized rate and stronger-than-expected job growth. Improvements are still needed in wage growth and consumer confidence, but recovery continues. Figures below are taken from MIBOR's August 2014 Market Overview Report:

• New listings DOWN 5.8%
• Pending sales DOWN 0.8%
• Closed sales DOWN 2.9%
• Median sales price UP 5.8% to $146,000
• Average sales price UP 6.7% to $183,433
• Percent of original list price received at sale UP 1.1% to 93.8%
• Total active listing available at month end UP 0.8% to 13,921
• Months supply of inventory UP 4.4% to 5.8 months

Finally, we are so excited to bring back two of our favorite events from last year. You should have already received a postcard in the mail regarding our extremely popular Colts' Ticket Giveaway. We are drawing one lucky winner for 2 Colts tickets 4 rows from the field!! The tickets are for the final home game of the season with division rivals the Houston Texans on December 14th at 1PM. The drawing will take place on December 1st. If you are interested in being entered, please e-mail or call us at Steve@Welcome2Indy.com or 317-573-1880. It should be a great game and fantastic seats!! Good luck!!

Our second event is our annual VIP Client Appreciation Event. Last year was a HUGE success and we are doing it again. You will be receiving a Save The Date card in the next few days and an invitation next month. We are renting out Hamilton Town Center movie theater again on Saturday, December 6th where we will be showing the newly released The Penguins of Madagascar. Our donut & juice bar will open at 9AM followed by the movie screening at 10AM. This is a fun, family-friendly event, so bring the entire family and enjoy a hilarious movie on us. Please RSVP to Steve by December 1st with the number of adult and child tickets requested.

Both of these events are our way of saying THANK YOU for being such fantastic clients, business partners, and referral sources over the years. We are extremely grateful for you and know we wouldn't be where we are without your continued support.

Enjoy the rest of October and we hope to see you at the movies on December 6th and wish you the best of luck in the Colts' tickets drawing.

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September Steve & Jack's Home News

Welcome to Fall (unofficially) and back to school! Ana is now in 4th grade and Tali is in Pre-K, both of whom are at Maple Glen Elementary in Westfield, which we absolutely love!! With the cooler temperatures we have experienced this summer, it hasn't felt like a hot, humid and oppressive Indiana summer. We hope you have been able to take some time off to wind down and enjoy a vacation or two, or maybe even a 'staycation'. For our family vacation this summer we traveled to Boston to see Brigid's brother, wife and daughter whom we haven't seen in a while. We traveled by way of the Canadian side of Niagra Falls, which I haven't seen since I was a kid. What an awesome sight! I wouldn't recommend going to the Canada side, however-far too much traffic and hassle with Immigration.

Boston was a LOT of fun and so full of history. We had both been there previously, but it was great going with the kids and following Freedom Trail, celebrating our niece's birthday, seeing where Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Steph work, and enjoying walking around Harvard and other parts of Boston. On the way back, we stopped at Hershey, PA and took tours of the Chocolate Factory, which the girls absolutely loved! Highly recommend, if you are there.

The real estate market has been rather unpredictable lately. Normally, June & July are rather robust, but this year, they have been lackluster, to say the least. Fast-forward to today and it has picked up, but is still gaining steam. Here are some stats courtesy of the July MIBOR Monthly Indicators Report:
• New Listings-UP 2.2%
• Pending Sales-DOWN 3.6%
• Closed Sales-DOWN 8.5%
• Median Sales Price-UP 0.1% to $145,000
• Average Sales Price-Up 2.2% to $183,449
• Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 0.7% to 94.2%
• Total Active Listings Available at Month End-UP 2.7% to 14,165
• Months Supply of Inventory-UP 4.8% to 5.9 months
As you can see, real estate values are going up, but so in inventory and at the same time closings are down. We expect to see a more robust Fall and have already seen an uptick in activity.

If you or anyone you care about has any questions at all about where our market is or where we predict it is going, feel comfortable giving us a call. We are always happy to share information so you can make informed decisions. Enjoy the start of the football season, and if you are in the Indy-area, we hope you are enjoying the calendar magnets so you don't miss any Colts, ND, IU, or PU football games. Go, Colts!!

Thank you for all of your trust and support over the years! We are extremely grateful for our amazing clients! Enjoy this month's newsletter!!

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

August 2014 Steve & Jack's Home News

Can you believe summer is almost over? Some schools have already started and the rest are starting in about 2-weeks. Where has the time gone? We hope you have enjoyed some family time and some time away in a vacation or even staycation and just take a break from the hectic lives we all lead.

At the end of June, we took a family vacation to Colonial Williamsburg and a short two-day stop in DC. We saw many of the monuments there as well as the original Constitution, Bill of Rights, & Declaration of Independence. Our highlight was getting a tour of the White House. We all really enjoyed touring it room by room and seeing where so many of our Presidents live and work. Secret Service agents are in each room to answer questions and make sure all visitor 'behave'. Apparently, the rooms are used 2-3x/week by the President and First Lady, which made seeing them even more meaningful.

Colonial Williamsburg was very hot, but the kids really loved seeing all of the buildings and talking with the actors. A really neat game they encourage kids to play is called RevQuest where you are shown a movie and given a booklet and sent on a quest to decipher codes and solve clues. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids had playing it! What a fantastic resource we have available to us only a few hours away...and for an even closer destination, Conner Prairie, while much smaller is such a great asset to our very own community. If you haven't been to Williamsburg, we can't recommend it highly enough!

Here are some notable numbers collected by MIBOR for its June Monthly Indicators Report. As stated by MIBOR, “Central Indiana has all of the right ingredients including a diversity of housing stock and prices. Builders are active again for the first time in a few years and that adds new product to our market every month.
“Housing experts say sales are inching up, price growth is becoming more sustainable and housing inventory is increasing slowly. The market continues to stabilize overall, but a need for more people participating on both the buyer and seller side is evident.”
•New Listings-UP 6.5%
•Pending Sales-DOWN 2.5%
•Closed Sales-DOWN 1.4%
•Median Sales Price-UP 3.5%
•Average Sales Price-UP 6.9%
•% of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 1.4% to 94.3%
•Total Active Listings Available at Month End-UP 1.9%
•Months’ Supply of Inventory-5.6 months-no change

Thank you, again for your continued support and introductions of new clients! Referrals and repeat clients are how we stay in business! Enjoy the rest of your summer, which always concludes for us with a visit to the State Fair!

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Steve & Jack

Steve & Jack's July 2014 Newsletter

Welcome 'officially' to summer! We hope you survived the storm last night unscathed. That was pretty scary! I happened to be checking up on a vacant listing right in the path of the storm and took shelter in their basement. Scary! We hope that the start of summer has been a good one. Changing routines is always difficult, especially when children are involved. Our bedtime has continually become later as we all take advantage of the great weather and sunlight.

We are excited to take our summer vacation this year to Washington, DC and Colonial Williamsburg. We even scored tickets for a White House tour! We will be joining Jack & Mary Anne and spending the week in Williamsburg with them and celebrating Independence Day there as well. Ana has been studying Colonial America this summer so she appreciates what she is seeing. It should be a very fun trip and a very educational one as well. We will let you know how it went in next month's newsletter.

The real estate market has been a little nutty lately. After a slow start due to the severe winter, it took off with impressive numbers, until the end of May when it took a breather. Showings and closings are both down right now leaving sellers to question the market at a time, which is usually quite robust. Please know that this slow down is city-wide and is not expected to last. Activity is already slowly picking back up, but summer always brings vacations, so many buyers take a break, especially in June.

Here are some quick housing numbers you will find interesting:
These numbers are comparing May 2013 to May 2014 according to MIBOR's Monthly Indicators Report:
• New listings are down 1.0%
• Pending sales are down 6.8%
• Closed sales are down 9.0%
• Median sales price is UP 1.4% to $140,000
• Average sales price is UP 2.1% to $175,903
• Percent of original list price received at sale is UP 2.1% to 94.4%
• Total active listings available at month end is down 1.7%
• Months supply of inventory is down 5.4% to 5.3 months
We hope you enjoy your summer and are able to take a vacation or two and enjoy some fun time! As always, thank you for being such great clients!! We truly are blessed and continue to be grateful for your on-going trust and support. We would love to help someone you care about with their real estate needs, so please give us a call when the next person you know is talking about buying, selling, or building a new home. We would love to learn about their specific situation and consult with them about their options.

Enjoy the July newsletter!!

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Steve & Jack Rupp

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