HANDS ON THE HEARTLAND: Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Entries categorized as ‘Leawood Kansas Real Estate’

Selling Your Kansas City Home: To Pod Or Not To Pod

March 9, 2010 · 1 Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

When preparing your home for sale, it’s critical that you de-clutter the home. I’ve mentioned before that preparing one room can’t come at the expense of another room. The entire home needs to appeal to homebuyers and getting clutter out of the home is imperative. Donating or throwing away items isn’t always an option, and a home I sold last year was a prime example. The couple had recently married and the entire basement of the home is where one of the spouses entire household of items resided.  This couple had no friends or family in town with storage space, so the choice was made to have pods delivered to get the items out the home.

A potentially cheaper but more labor intensive option is hauling the items yourself to a self-storage facility. Either way, getting the items out of the home is a great choice and will help sellers net the most out of their home.   Another seller last year had very little clutter but they also had very little storage space. 90% of the basement area was finished and this left little storage space for the items they did have. If they hadn’t hauled all the items to a self-storage facility, the perception absolutely would have been that this home had no storage space — and perception is reality.

If storing items is in your future, here’s a list of companies that can help you with self-storage facility or having a pod delivered and then hauled away and stored until you’re ready to have it delivered

Mobile Storage
PODS Kansas City
Pack Rat
Boxt Containers
Mobile Storage
Budget Mobile Storage
SAM Store & Move
Mobile Mini

Self Storage
Public Storage
U-Haul Kansas City
Security Self Storage
Extra Space Storage
Storage-Mart

Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Selling · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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HomePath Financing With No PMI Is An Option On Fannie Mae Owned Kansas City Foreclosures

March 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Whether I’m representing smaller local banks or large national banks, I really enjoy selling bank owned properties in Kansas City. The process is one that comes second nature to me and knowing the process inside and out also comes in very handy when representing buyers in their purchase of a bank property. In my experience, these transactions are simplified because the homes are already through all of the nonsense of the foreclosure process, the lender’s want them off their books, there’s little problem negotiating a close date, the buyer already knows they’re not going to be asking for any inspection repairs, etc.  Buying a Fannie Mae foreclosed home also just became a little easier for many home buyers in Kansas City.


Fannie Mae Foreclosures are homes that had borrower loans that were backed by Fannie Mae and have since gone through the foreclosure process. This is not just some foreclosure niche either. Fannie Mae owns or backs HALF of the mortgage loans being written in our country today, so it’s a lot of homes were talking about that fall under Fannie Mae control. To help deal with moving the high number of foreclosures off of their books, Fannie Mae created the HomePath Mortgage Program as incentive for home buyers to purchase these homes. This program allows Kansas City home buyers to purchase a Fannie Mae foreclosed home with clear-cut advantages not found with most other lenders/loans and homes.

I want to be clear that a Fannie Mae foreclosed property can be purchased WITHOUT going through the Fannie Mae HomePath program. But there are a lot of reasons borrowers should consider the HomePath program. For starters, borrowers will only need a 3% down payment. FHA loans require a 3.5% down payment and conventional loans require 5%. There’s also a relaxation on explaining where the down payment came from… it can come from your Aunt Topsy, your savings account, your riverboat winnings, a loan from your boss (seriously), etc.  There are flexible options on the type of loan, as borrowers can go with a loan that’s a fixed rate, adjustable rate or interest only (I’m going to bite my tongue on discussing how adjustable rate and interest only loans are part of what got us in our current financial mess). Borrowers can qualify with less than perfect credit and there are investor loan options too, although investors would be required to have a 5% down payment, among other things.

Another big benefit is there are no required appraisal fees. Probably most important of all, Kansas City home buyers can get a HomePath loan with NO PMI! So you can have less than a 20% down payment and not have to pay the mortgage insurance premium other types of loans require. This is typically one of the biggest negatives when buying a home, so not having to worry about PMI would save borrowers a TON of money with lower mortgage payments. To give you an idea of what’s out there, here’s a list of Johnson County Kansas homes that qualify for HomePath financing. If you find a great home, you can then search that address directly from my home search page to verify it’s still available. Also, be aware that only a handful of local Johnson County Kansas and Kansas City lenders are approved HomePath lenders. Check out the following list of approved lenders at the time of this writing…

CapWest Mortgage
Century 21 Mortgage
Champion Mortgage
CitiMortgage
CMG Mortgage, Inc.
Coldwell Banker Mortgage
Colonial National Mortgage
ERA Mortgage
First Place Bank
Flagstar Bank
GMAC Mortgage
MetLife Home Loans
Nationstar Mortgage
PNC Mortgage
Prospect Mortgage
PHH Mortgage
Quicken Loans
Weichert Financial Services
Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Mortgage Loans · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Are You Adequately Insured Should An F-5 Tornado Rip Through Your Kansas City Neighborhood?

February 26, 2010 · 2 Comments

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Getting homeowner’s insurance in place is one of the important aspects of buying a Kansas City home. I always remind my home buyers early on to shop carriers and insurance rates because they can save a lot of money by doing so. But in most cases the response is they’ll just contact their current insurance agent and have them get the info to their lender. At this point I mention that since  they’re already going to have to go through the process of setting up a new policy, there’s no time like the present to check out the insurance options available — and with rates fluctuating greatly in recent years, it makes a lot of sense to shop around.


Getting at least 3 quotes is advantageous because all insurance companies handle insurance quotes differently. I’ve been there and  at times it can feel like you’re comparing apples and oranges, so asking questions whenever you don’t understand something is also important. At one point I found out that my insurer would no longer cover roofs for wind and hail damage… yes, I switched companies at that point. “Replacement coverage” is very common and is designed to cover the replacement cost if you had to rebuild the home from scratch — including personal property in the home.  This may seem like common sense insurance but there are varying degrees of under-insuring and over-insuring, so be sure you understand just exactly what you’re getting.

Other common considerations include making sure you add coverage for outbuildings, detached garages, barns and pools.  Also be sure you have coverage for luxury items in your home, like a diamond ring or a fur. If homes in your area are appreciating at a great rate (something they used to do  – and will again at some point), you need to make sure you’re amount of coverage is keeping up with the appreciation rate.  One item I’m sure many homeowners often overlook is that if you finish your basement, you need to contact your insurance agent to increase your coverage.

I’ve seen quotes that are double from one insurance company to the next and you never know the motivation (or lack thereof) of any particular insurance company. They could be looking to add policy holders or they could be constricting. As with auto insurance, the higher you’re willing to go on your deductible, the lower your annual policy premium will be.  So if you want your policy deductible to be low enough to cover a broken window, you shouldn’t expect you’re annual premium to be low as well. You can find reductions in insurance premiums by having your vehicles with the same insurance company and by installing a security system. There are many other ways to get reduced premiums, so be sure to ask what the options are. Oh, and your credit scores is likely to play a role in how much your policy will cost you.  Insurance companies have found a link between homeowner’s with high credit scores  making fewer claims. So there’s all the more incentive to improve that credit score when buying a home.

If you’re shopping for homeowner’s insurance, here’s a few insurance companies you can check with…

State Farm Insurance
All State Insurance
Farmer’s Insurance
GEICO Insurance
Nationwide Insurance
American Family Insurance

And here’s an interesting site for comparing insurance companies that I’ve seen receive some good online reviews…

2Insure4Less.com


Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Mortgage Loans · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Search By Zip Code For Kansas City And Johnson County KS Homes For Sale

February 23, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

A home search in the southern Overland Park Kansas area sometimes crosses over into the city limits of in southern Leawood Kansas. A northern Overland Park home search can quickly lead to considering homes in northern Leawood, Prairie Village or Eastern Shawnee Kansas. It’s really difficult at times to know when you just left one city and entered another. Some homebuyers may care about this but others place no importance on whether they just left the Lenexa city limits and entered Shawnee. In another example, some home buyers might assume that being west of Pflumm and south of I-435 means you’re in Olathe. But it could mean you’re in Overland Park at certain points too. Again, that may matter to some buyers but not to others.

So, while some buyers are best served by searching by School Districts or by city, others may want to consider a Zip Code search instead. Many Zip Code searches will often allow a buyer to cross city boundaries while keeping them in close proximity to their work or whatever it is that’s driving their home search. A zip code search can also help a buyer focus on demographics, if that’s important.  If you wish to be in the Western Olathe area, a search of the 66061 zip code would do the trick. If you only want to view homes for sale in Western Lenexa, a 66220 zip code search would be an excellent starting point. Homes in the old Stilwell Kansas area (what’s now southeast Overland Park)? Try the 66085 zip code. You really can zone in on an area by finding one great listing that you like, noting that zip code, and then coming back to this page and clicking on the that zip code to view all the other area homes for sale…

64002

64063

64064

64065

64081

64082

64083

64086

64101

64102

64105

64106

64108

64109

64110

64111

64112

64113

64114

64116

64117

64118

64119

64120

64121

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64125

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64127

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64132

64133

64134

64136

64137

64138

64139

64141

64144

64145

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64147

64148

64149

64150

64151

64152

64153

64154

64155

64156

64157

64158

64161

64163

64164

64165

64166

64167

64168

64170

64171

64172

64179

64180

64183

64184

64187

64188

64190

64191

64192

64193

64195

64196

64197

64198

64199

66051

66061

66062

66063

66085

66201

66202

66203

66204

66206

66207

66208

66209

66210

66211

66212

66213

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66215

66216

66217

66218

66219

66220

66221

66223

66224

66225

66226

66227

66251

66282

66283

66285


If searching by zip code doesn’t do the trick, we can schedule a time to sit down at my office to log into MLS and draw lines on the MLS map to select the precise parameters you want… it doesn’t have to be a simple boxed area either. We can zig and zag the lines on an MLS map to meet your precise area parameters. So don’t hesitate to contact me to schedule an appointment to do so.

If you are getting MORE than 100 results when clicking any of the above zip codes, be aware that you’re not seeing all of the available homes. In fact, you’ll be seeing just the 100 most expensive homes in that zip code.  You can tell if there are more than 100 results by looking for the black print right above the button that says “Email Me When New Listings Match This Search”. If it indicates there’s more than 100, here’s a trick you can use: once you’ve clicked on one of the above zip codes if it indicates there’s between 100 and 200 properties for sale in the zip code, click “ASCENDING BY PRICE” and click the SORT button. This allows you view the 100 LEAST expensive homes in the zip code – thus letting you see 200 total listings at most.

Now if there are more than 200 available homes in a zip code, you’ll have to go to work to narrow the parameters to less than 200 homes. Change the price or some other parameters because MLS rules only allow consumers to do a search that nets 100 maximum results (200 with the trick I just showed you). To search a zip code AND change a search parameters is easy, just go HERE and enter your preferred zip code and enter a price range parameter, etc. Enjoy searching!


Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Royse Community Market Stats ~ Royse Homes For Sale In Leawood Kansas

February 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Royse Real Estate Market Stats
Royse Is A Subdivision In Leawood KS

Looking over the Royse market statistics dating back to February 2009, 11 homes were put on the market and 8 homes were sold over the same year period. The average sales price in Royse was $485,563 and the subdivision saw a price range variance of $330,000 to $630,000.

Stats pulled from Heartland MLS & deemed reliable but not guaranteed; Check the post date for relevancy; Stats cover approximately 12 months of market activity.

Comparing the 4 Active listings in Royse to the 12-month sales rate in the community, there’s 6.0 months of inventory currently on the market. This is typical of what were seeing in the price range and area. The average current list price of $600,975 in Royse over the past year is significantly higher than the average sales price ($485,562) over the same period in the community – though one of the recent sales was in the smaller townhome area of the community. Royse is a popular Leawood Kansas subdivision and located near parks, shopping and dining amenities.

Royse In Leawood Kansas

Royse In Leawood Kansas

Royse is located in southern Leawood Kansas and is served by the Blue Valley School District. Many of the homes in Royse were built from 1980 through 1995.  If you’re considering a move into or away from Royse, please contact me to discuss your buying and/or selling situation in detail.

View Homes For Sale in Royse

Buying A Home In Royse

Selling A Home In Royse

Relocating to Leawood Kansas

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Categories: Home Buying · Home Selling · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Subdivision Market Stats
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FHA Loans Will Be More Expensive And Harder For Kansas City Home Buyers To Get

February 19, 2010 · 5 Comments

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

A late 2009 poll of Realtors who are a member of the National Association of Realtors indicates that 39% of  mortgage loans in recent months were Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. So it’s important to note that new FHA guidelines are planned to go into effect sometime this spring. These new guidelines will make it more complicated to get a FHA loan and a little costlier too.  On one hand, I don’t want to hear of anything that makes it more restrictive for Kansas City home buyers to get a loan. On the other hand, keeping FHA on solid ground is absolutely essential to the housing market, even if it means some buyers will no longer qualify for a FHA loan.  Keep in mind that FHA provides the majority of loans to first time home buyers — and nearly half of the home sales were seeing today ARE first time home buyers. “Striking the right balance between managing the FHA’s risk, continuing to provide access to underserved communities, and supporting the nation’s economic recovery is critically important… When combined with the risk management measures announced in September of last year, these changes are among the most significant steps to address risk in the agency’s history. Additionally, by continuing to provide affordable, responsible mortgage products, FHA will support the housing market’s recovery. Importantly, FHA will remain the largest source of home purchase financing for under served communities.” — FHA Commissioner David Stevens

The big changes that are coming include a requirement that home buyers have a  minimum 580 FICO score to qualify for the standard 3.5% minimum down payment. If your FICO score is lower than a 580 you MUST have a minimum 10% down payment. This may seem like a bad idea to some, but the low-down and no-down home loans that were made the past decade played a huge role in the number of defaulted loans we’ve seen.  So if you have a 570 credit score you’ve shown you are a huge credit risk. Giving out loans is all about risk management (or should be) and, by requiring a 10% down payment, FHA will either (a) run off the buyers most likely to default on a loan or (b) hold the buyers hand to the fire by requiring a 10% down payment. It will certainly be a whole lot harder for a borrower to throw their hands in the air and walk away from a 10% down payment than it was to walk away from a 3% down payment (which is all that was required as recently as a year ago).  Then again there may not be many of these 10% down loans anyhow because I don’t know any lenders handing out loans to buyers with credit score in the 500’s.

Another of the new guidelines is that seller paid concessions may NOT exceed 3% of the sales price of the home — the maximum allowed previously was 6%. This means on a home that goes under contract for $100,000, a buyer can not get the seller to pay more than $3,000 of the buyer’s allowable closing costs. The old system would have allowed $6,000. But here’s why this change should matter very little… Very few sellers were willing to pay more than 3% of a buyer’s closing costs anyhow.  Still, I’ve heard many other agents screaming this could be a huge problem for borrowers. But even if a seller were willing to pay 4, 5 or 6% of a buyers allowable closing costs, I simply can’t see any appraiser allowing the home to appraise for the purchase price PLUS a huge amount in seller-paid closing costs. To be honest, you’re asking for trouble even getting a home to appraise for ONE PERCENT more than the purchase price in today’s market.

There’s one other change guaranteed to have an effect on ALL borrowers getting a FHA loan. The up front mortgage insurance premium (MIP) required on FHA loans will increase from 1.75% to 2.25%. On a $100,000 mortgage, this means the up front fee would increase from $1,750 to $2,250 – thus you can expect a $500 increase for every $100,000 of mortgage. As always, buyers will still be able to finance this amount into their loans — but it’s a real cost increase when getting a FHA loan going forward. If you’re considering getting a FHA loan, these are all factors to take into consideration and discuss with your mortgage loan officer. Again, these guidelines are estimated to go into effect sometime later this spring.


Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Mortgage Loans · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Johnson County Kansas Real Estate Update – February 2010

February 17, 2010 · 1 Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Real Estate Info for Johnson County Kansas
Recent
10 Days of Johnson County KS Market Activity

Using the past 10 days of real estate market stats in the chart below to figure the absorption rate in Johnson County Kansas, there’s 32 months of inventory on the market. That’s not a misprint and seeing just 35 homes close in all of Johnson County Kansas over the past 10 days is concerning. Absorption rates tell us how many months it would take to sell of the current inventory using a recent sales rate figure — in this case using the past 10 days of sales. This is a typically slow time of year for sales, so I would expect the numbers to be weak. But when you think of just a 100 sales per month pace when there’s more than 3,000 homes on the market, that is an eye opener.

Type
#
Average $
Avg DOM
Listings Past 15 Days
346 $270,189
-
Total Active Listings
3374
-
-
Newest Contracts Written
228 $259,931 89
Newest Sold (Closed)
35 $212,100 85

* The Average $ of Newest Contracts considers the price the homes were listed at when they went under contract. Data pulled from Heartland MLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Low samplings in any category can skew results. Stats may not be an exact 10 days from date of this post. DOM = Days On Market.

The number of homes that went under contract was a much improved 228, but even we assume all those would close (and recalculate the absorption rate), there’s still 4.9 months of inventory on the market.  Better, but not great by any stretch. Other eye-openers in these stats are that nearly 350 homes came on the market in just the last 10 days and the average sales price of $212,100 was MUCH below the average list price ($270,189) of the 346 homes that came on the market.

If you’re considering selling or buying an Johnson County Kansas home, you’ll need more than just 10 days of market stats. You’ll also need market stats specific to the area that most interests. As your Johnson County KS Realtor, we can get you the market information you need to make an informed real estate decision.

View Past Real Estate Stats On Johnson County KS

Buyer’s Agents In Johnson County KS

Listing Agents In Johnson County KS

Relocating to Johnson County Kansas

View All Listed Johnson County KS Homes For Sale

Johnson County KS Real Estate

Johnson County KS Real Estate

Johnson County Kansas Tip of the Day…
Search For Licensed Johnson County KS Contractors
Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Categories: City Market Stats · Home Buying · Home Selling · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Selling Your Kansas City Home: One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Refuse

February 16, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

When preparing your home to sell, there’s a lot of checklists you can follow.  But if you’re not careful, the de-cluttering of one area can quickly lead to the cluttering up of another area.  Remember, you’re working to make your ENTIRE home appealing to home buyers, not just the main living spaces. When a home hits the market, it needs to be completely organized where all rooms appear as large as possible and completely functional to potential home buyers.  An example of de-cluttering would be removal of all ottomans from living spaces. Items such as these are space killers and do nothing when it comes to making rooms appealing to homebuyers. They are in fact detriments that cause home buyers to walk-around them, while taking the buyers focus away from home’s important details. Just as importantly, they can prevent a home buyer from envisioning their own furniture and items in your home.


When removing items like ottoman’s from your living spaces, you’ll need to make room for them in your unfinished areas. Doing so often means you’ll have to get rid of unnecessary items already occupying the space in your unfinished areas. You simply can’t accept moving furniture to the basement if it’s going to give home buyers the appearance that the home lacks adequate storage space. And under no circumstances would you want to stack the items in an unsafe manner or let the items get double deep away from the storage room walls.

The best plan of attack when moving is to get rid of unnecessary items before your home goes on the market. The first consideration is often to donate the item but many items that are of little value to you will be of even less value to others — in other words, charities don’t want to come and haul off your trash for free. If you’ve gotten this far, you’re remaining options are probably to call your cousin Earl to come take the items, haul the items to a landfill yourself, have a company haul the items away or have a roll off dumpster delivered to your home. The list below will help you get going on many of these possibilities…

1-800-Got-Junk
Defenbaugh Disposal
Olathe Transfer Station
Superior Disposal Service
Allied Waste
Ted’s Trash Service
Sunshine Disposal
L&K Roll Off
The Trash Pros
Roll-Off Service
Willey Refuse Disposal


Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Selling · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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New Search Tool Features To Keep You Up To Date With The Kansas City Real Estate Market

February 12, 2010 · 2 Comments

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

The search tool I use to show you all of the area homes for sale (fed from the Kansas City MLS) has been greatly improved. In addition to giving you the listing updates by email, now when they come to you the updates no longer jumble the old listing information with the new. You’ll get to clearly see what’s changed since the last update and specific changes will be highlighted. This is all designed to help you make an informed real estate decision. Although the sample below may a little hard to read, notice the text items in RED below showing recent CHANGES to the updates…

Kansas City Home Search Tool

Kansas City Home Search Tool


You can see how clear the updates will be and this will save a ton of time when scanning the list of homes. Being able to see when a home from your previous list has SOLD will benefit home buyers and home sellers alike.  You’ll also get to see what the market around you is doing as they’ll be clearly marked with PRICE REDUCTION. These are all improvements to our system to help Kansas City home buyers and home sellers stay current with the real estate market.  We believe providing real estate information in a quick and efficient manner are key to a successful real estate transaction.

If you haven’t checked out our home search tool, visit our Home Search page to get going. Once you’ve created a search be sure to SAVE it, so you can come back to it later and also save the search to start receiving email updates – which now include the added features on this page! It’s all free when searching homes for sale in Kansas City, Johnson County KS, Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, Leawood, Shawnee and the surrounding metro area!

Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Home Selling · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lee's Summit Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Prairie Village Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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Searching Villas For Sale In Overland Park, Johnson County KS Or A Surrounding Kansas City Area?

February 9, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

If you’ve tried locating Villas for sale in Johnson County Kansas, Overland Park or the surrounding Kansas City areas, you may have run into the problem of having the Villa listings  lumped together with all the single family homes. This can mean a lot of wasted time when searching through the list of homes that fit your needs.  There are ways however to make the home search more productive and you can do this yourself when searching online or you can have a local Kansas City Realtor like myself help.

Kansas City & Johnson County KS Villas

Kansas City & Johnson County KS Villas

If you’re in the preliminary stages and want to do the searching on your own, our search tools have been drastically improved in recent years. You can eliminate single family homes from the results and just search the available Villas for sale and priced in just the range that you need. For example, you can search just for homes for sale over $300,000 in Johnson County KS and doing so nets you these results… Johnson County KS Villas & Towhomes priced $300,000+.

You’ll see homes in area communities like the Villas Of Shadow Glen In Cedar Creek, Afton Hill, Prairie Brook Villas, Club Villas At Lionsgate, Avignon, Villas of St. Andrews,  Crescent Court, Villas of Highlands Ranch, Ashford Villas, Links of Cedar Creek, Deer Creek, Ranch Villas at Nall Hills, Hallbrook, The Woods Villas,  Villas of Falcon Valley, Tuscany Reserve, Villas of Whitehorse, Willowbrooke, Village At Ironhorse, St. Andrews Court, Prairie Villas At Falcon Valley,  Corinth Downs, The Cottages Of Cedar Creek, Leabrooke Preserve, Mission Reserve, Heather Glen, Patrician Woods, Linden Place, Camden Woods, Brighton’s Landing and Falcon Ridge Villas.

The search we did above is just one example of what you can do to narrow down the available homes for sale. You can also play around with the homes that get fed from the Kansas City MLS and make the search work many different ways to benefit you. After clicking the link above, you can search either by selecting a map area or you can take control of the search by selecting specific cities to search. To do that latter, click on the Refine Your Search button and then select Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe, Shawnee, Leawood, Kansas City… or any combination of these or other metro areas that you want to see.

You can also save any searches you’ve done by clicking on the SEARCH SAVER button. In addition to letting you come back later to view the searches you’ve done, creating an account also allows you to start receiving automatic email updates whenever a NEW listing comes on the market that meets the parameters you’ve entered.  You are able to add,  edit or delete searches. When you’re really ready to hit the home search trail, you’ll want to have your Kansas City real estate agent doing the searches via MLS because agents can search additional parameters that are not available on the consumer version.

Posted by Jason A. Brown
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Categories: Home Buying · Home Selling · Investment Property · Johnson County KS Real Estate · Kansas City Real Estate · Leawood Kansas Real Estate · Lenexa Kansas Real Estate · Olathe Kansas Real Estate · Overland Park KS Real Estate · Shawnee Kansas Real Estate
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