Are you looking to buy and live in Minneapolis or St Paul?
Do you want information about all of the financial resources available to you from the State, County, City or Non Profits?
There is a new website coming out tomorrow, Thursday April 23 2009 that will give you all of that and more.
Live MSP is a website dedicated to showing potential buyers all of the neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St Paul, available homes and most importantly, all of the financial programs that are available to home buyers and home owners to entice buyers to buy in the city and encourage current city dwellers who may want to remodel.
Check out Live MSP now!

There are a few areas in the Twin Cities where the $1 million dollar price tag is still the “norm”. According to Mpls St Paul Magazine, the cities of Woodland (a strip of shoreline along Lake Minnetonka’s east side), Tonka Bay (a south central bay on Lake Minnetonka), Sunfish Lake (between Hwy 110 and Hwy 494 just west of Robert Trail) and Mendota (just across the Mendota Bridge from St Paul) had median price tags of $1 million in 2008.

These areas are high demand because of their locations and the homes are beautiful.
Currently, there are 43 single family homes listed as active – 26 are under $1 million and 17 are over the $1 million mark. Looking for the best? There is a Tonka Bay location for $5,950,000 and 7,348 square feet of Mediterranean styled luxury. Want the biggest in Woodland? $8,500,000 will buy you 8,036 square feet on Wayzata Bay and 571 feet of lakeshore and private boat docking.

Want more information on these types of homes?
Contact me
Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team – #1 Team in MN

612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

I showed a house last weekend that was in a high demand neighborhood in Minneapolis near Uptown that was listed at $300,000 which seemed to be a decent price for the size of the home, number of bedrooms, baths, location, etc…UNTIL we walked in and the painter was there working, the kitchen cabinets were not completed, the trim work was not done and the “master bath” upstairs was still a framed out shell.  It was a nice touch to have a paper sign posted that said “build to suit your tastes.”  

Personally, if I want to buy new construction, I will buy new construction but I am certainly hesitant of buying and spending $300,000 on a home that first of all is not finished and second is not finished carefully or with great skill.   Personally, I’d want to hire my own contractor to finish the job and offer them $50,000 less for the house.

In my opinion, if you are rehabbing or “flipping” a house, PLEASE have it finished before you list it OR at least fill us in on how far along you are with the construction so we know what we are walking into.

Looking to buy in the Twin Cities?  Give me a call!

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
MN Real Estate Team – #1 Team in MN!

612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com

I knew that Short Sales were frustrating but just had a recent scenario to share….

A client and I put in an offer on a short sale property recently. The listing agent does ALOT of short sales and as usual, forwarned us that it would probably be at least 30-60 days until we got a final accepted offer. Just this week – about 30 days in he tells me that the offer is dead because the bank will no longer take anything less than the full amount owed by the seller. This amount is approximately $50,000 more than our offer so, NO, we were not going to resubmit a new offer.

To make a long story short, the bank conveniently waited for the sherrif sale to go through so that now they no longer have to accept the short sale.
Essentially, they are forcing the seller into foreclosure which means 7-8 years of not being able to buy a new home versus being able to try for a new loan in a couple of years. PLUS, my client lost the option to buy this home for the nice low price that he wanted to buy it for.

In the end, no big deal for us because we can go find another house but I feel bad for the seller who is now in a bigger mess and will have a foreclosure on his record.
Gotta love the banks. Bottom line, stay away from short sales or make sure the listing agent has full information on what the bank is planning to do. I do believe that the agent I was working with had everyone’s best interest in mind but the bank did not communicate correctly with him.

Jen McKinnon
Realtor / Investor
612.384.1073
jen[at]mnrealestateteam[dot]com