HOW'S REAL ESTATE?

Mike & I are asked this question almost daily. Most of the national media that we hear has everyone a little nervous about the value of their homes. The good news is that Tulsa's real estate market has fared this recession fairly well. Especially if you consider the hard hit areas of California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona.

Ten years ago a Tulsa area home owner could typically count on 3% appreciate per year on their home value and that's not been the case for about the last 5 years. In those years, we've seen some years of 0% appreciate to a slight negative in some areas and price ranges. There have also been some lucky areas that have had slight increases. Everyone's situation is unique, in that, it depends on how good of a deal you got when you purchased your home; what improvements have you made (and at what cost); how the neighborhood is selling; and do the properties on your street help or hurt you. It's always good advice to be the smaller or less valued home in an area with larger and more expensive homes around you. That gives you a better opportunity to appreciate in value.

I will add that it is still a Buyer's Market due to there being so much competition on the market and the low interest rates. But there are Buyer's in the market...that's the good news!  Sellers have to put their best foot forward, be priced competitively, and obviously use an experienced realtor! (I have the number of a good one!)

Feel free to call Mike or I if you have questions about buying or selling a home. We frequently meet with homeowners and provide a Market Analysis of their area and at no cost.

Tina 918-740-1000                               Mike 918-645-9669

2011 REAL TRENDS GATHERING OF EAGLES

Sheryl Chinowth, CEO/Broker Owner Chinowth & Cohen Realtors, was recently a guest speaker at the exclusive 2011 REAL Trends Gathering of Eagles conference. The conference is held annually and this year's event attracted over 200 principals and CEOs from the nation’s 500 largest residential real estate brokerage firms plus senior management of the nation’s largest real estate franchise organizations.

Chinowth participated in the Billionaires meeting discussing how she managed significant growth in the tough markets of 2007-2010. Consistently Chinowth & Cohen Realtors experiences yearly increases in size and sales volume since opening in 2004. The company was recently named 70th in size in the nation for Independent Real Estate Brokerages by Real Trends in 2010. “Our company’s growth through the challenging real estate market has been a result of carefully selecting and working with the most elite Realtors. We strive to educate and motivate our Realtors to be the best they can be, “said Sheryl Chinowth, CEO of Chinowth & Cohen Realtors. “Sharing our company’s vision and strategies to a group of established industry leaders was an honor. I wanted to impart to the audience the hard work and spirit our Associates bring to work every day in order to grow their business and contribute to the success of Chinowth & Cohen Realtors.

“While there are new challenges that appear each year, among the largest issues facing leaders throughout the real estate industry is where to keep the focus. This year’s conference was focused on understanding more of the basics of the business than in years’ past; business models, new incremental revenue opportunities and the reality that housing consumers need professional assistance more than ever. Leaders need to stay focused on how to reach out and touch more customers with more assistance. The 2011 Gathering of Eagles will go down as the year that housing started to turn the corner and those in attendance were able to see where to focus their efforts to take advantage of the market,” said Steve Murray, editor of REAL Trends.

Chinowth & Cohen Realtors is a full service real estate company specializing in residential and commercial real estate. Founded in 2004, by Sheryl Chinowth and Lee Cohen, the firm has over 350 Associates in six offices. The offices are located in Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, South Tulsa, Midtown Tulsa, Sand Springs and Owasso.

Mike & I are proud to say we're been with the company since it was founded in 2004 and count Lee & Sheryl as dear friends. It's been quite a ride to watch the company grow from a group of 18 to over 350 associates!

BIXBY'S GREEN CORN FESTIVAL

Green Corn Festival

June 23-25, 2011

Charley Young Park in Downtown Bixby

The Green Corn Festival is a kick back to the good old fashioned family oriented picnics. The annual festival (held on the 4th Thursday, Friday and Saturday of June) features great music, arts and crafts, food, bingo, carnival and great games and contests for the young and young at heart. A talent show to highlight area youth is held on Friday at the Community Center and the annual Green Corn Parade entertains the masses on Saturday morning.

The Festival is held in downtown Bixby, south and east of 151st and Memorial. Charley Young Park is the site of the Gazebo stage, and games, surrounded by food and crafts booths. Just a hop and skip over is the Youth Stage and Carnival. Cool off during the heat of the day by joining in a few rounds of bingo in the building at the corner of Charley Young Park.

What could be more traditional than an afternoon or evening in the bright summer sun, with lemonade to sip, an array of crafts and gifts to purchase, music to enjoy listening to, with your friends all around? Only a ride on the ferris wheel as the sun sets and the sounds of carnival music drift up in the evening air…

(Information From Bixby Optimist website)

HOW TO IMPROVE CURB APPEAL

Home Selling Advice to Help You Attract Potential Buyers

A large percentage of home buyers decide whether or not to look inside a house or take it seriously based on its curb appeal—the view they see when they drive by or arrive for a showing. You can help make sure they want to come inside your house by spending some time working on the its exterior appearance.

It's difficult to look at our own house in the same way that potential home buyers do, because when we become accustomed to the way something looks and functions, we can't see its faults. Decide right now to stop thinking of the property as a home. It's a house—a commodity you want to sell for the highest dollar possible.

Curb Appeal Exercise:

The next time you come home, stop across the street or far enough down the driveway to get a good view of the house and its surroundings.

1.What is your first impression of the house and yard area?

2.What are the best exterior features of the house or lot? How can you enhance them?

3.What are the worst exterior features of the house or lot? How can you minimize or improve them?

Park where a potential buyer would and walk towards the house, looking around you as if it were your first visit. Is the approach clean and tidy? What could you do to make it more attractive?

Take photos of the home's exterior. If you have a digital camera, view the color versions first, then remove the color and look at it in black and white, because it's easier to see problems when color isn't around to affect our senses.

Make a list of the problem areas you discovered. Tackle clean up and repair chores first, then put some time into projects that make the grounds more attractive.

FIXED MORTGAGE RATES HIT NEW LOWS FOR 2011

NEW YORK (AP) - Fixed mortgage rates fell this week to the lowest point of the year, offering incentive for homeowners to save money by refinancing their loans. Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.61 percent. That's down from 4.63 percent and the lowest level since mid-December.  The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinance option, slipped to 3.80 percent from 3.82 percent. That marked the lowest point since late November.

Low rates haven't been enough to jumpstart the weak housing market. Fewer people bought previously occupied homes in April, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million units, far below the 6 million homes a year that economists consider a healthy market.

However, the number of borrowers looking to refinance is now at the highest level since the second week of December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinance activity has increased 33 percent over the last five weeks, mirroring the steady decline in rates.

MAYFEST May 19-22

Mayfest is an outdoor tribute to the arts and music that is a family-oriented event created to promote a broader knowledge of and appreciation for arts and humanities among serious, as well as casual art lovers. Tulsa International Mayfest, in cooperation with the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, is once again making plans to stage Tulsa's renowned spring festival of the arts. Mayfest 2011 will be May 19-22. Attracting over 350,000 people, Mayfest will feature an array of multi-disciplined arts from dance, music and visual arts. Always one of the major highlights of spring, Mayfest 2010 will be planned to encompass some of the very best in both the exhibit and performance areas. Mayfest offers some of the best local, regional, and national entertainment in Tulsa. Multiple styles of music are represented including Rock & Roll, Classical, Jazz, Pop, Country, and many more. The Creative Culture Courtyard brings together a taste of New York City street performance art with a touch of Venice beach vibes. This year presents Jascha on his recycled drum set, Cherokee Story Teller Robert Lewis, Pow Wow Dancers, Drum Circle, Body Art, Chalk art, Interactive Dance Performances(tango, salsa and swing) and DJ sets from 9-11pm on Friday and Saturday night. The Creative Courtyard hours are Thursday 7-11pm, Friday 7-11pm and Saturday 1-11pm.

Click for MAYFEST website.

TO RAISE OR NOT TO RAISE?

Water Heaters with Sealed Combustion Chambers

To raise when installed in a garage or not to raise?

Newly Designed Water Heaters Flame Vapor Ignition Resistant Units (FVIR)

To meet the American National Standards Institute’s new standard for gas water heaters, a new water heater has been introduced to the market. The objective is to reduce the potential of fire or explosion from flammable vapors ignited by gas water heaters. When you remove the inspection shield, a device called an arrestor plate is now installed at the combustion chamber. The arrestor plate will allow flammable vapor along with the combustible air to be pulled through and ignited. But the plate keeps the flame from passing back through to the atmosphere. Another safety feature is a temperature sensor that recognizes the event and shuts off the burner as well.

As of April 29, 2011 the majority of the cities in the Tulsa metro are do not require water heaters with sealed combustion chambers to be raised. Should this become an issue on one of your home inspections you should call the city building inspector of the city the home is located in and ask him. Most of the time you will get his voice mail as they normally leave their office around 8:30 am and don't come back until after 4:00 pm. Leave a message and they are very good about returning your call.

Information from Cravens Home Inspection Service newsletter.

MORTGAGE HISTORY LESSON

Chinowth & Cohen's CEO Sheryl Chinowth wrote an wonderful article for the Tulsa World's Viewpoint section about the housing market still needing federal support. 

"The mortgage industry's lax underwriting requirements allowed for less-secure mortgages, and the focus became the up-front profits of selling these pooled mortgages. Through securitization, the loan originators were separated from the risk of the loans they were writing. All of this played a large part in the mortgage banking crisis and led to the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, an action that was described by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as "one of the most sweeping interventions in private financial markets in decades. Why is all of this so important? Housing creates jobs. Housing accounts for more than 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, or $2 trillion. For every 1,000 home sales this year over last, about 500 new jobs are added to the economy. And jobs are critical to the nation's recovery."

To read the entire article CLICK HERE.

NEW WHITE HAWK LISTING!

Gorgeous Home in White Hawk Golf Community 5/4/4.5 Stunning Views to Outdoor Living!

Exceptional home with character and style featuring 5 bedrooms (2 down including master), has been completely updated, views to charming outdoor living area including stone fireplace, pergola, trickling stream, Koi pond, paver walkways, & exceptional landscaping with outdoor lighting. The home has a 3 car side entry attached garage PLUS a 1 1/2 detached garage/workshop 22x24 with heat, 220 wiring, stairs to 2nd story storage, security, & full brick. All on 1/3 acre +/- with mature trees.



CLICK HERE FOR FULL OBEO TOUR

FINDING A NEW HOME

Most buyers like to start their search for a new home online, before they ever schedule time with a realtor.  The majority of buyers that we work with, whether ready to purchase immediately or sometime in the future, appreciate the automatic MLS search that we set up for them.  It's as easy as telling us area, price, "must haves", and email address.  Once we set the search up, it will email all of the active listings within the preferences you have given us.  Then each night the search will run again and send you any new properties that have come on the market. Buyers love it!! Feel free to email us the information above to ButlerTeam@cctulsa.com and we'll get you going!

If you prefer to navigate the search yourself, go to http://www.tinabutler.com/ and click on Property Search on the left side of the screen and you're in the driver's seat!

An important piece of the buying-puzzle is to contact a lender to begin the pre-approval process.  We've worked with David Ransdell with Capital Mortgage for about 8 years and highly recommend his team. The office number is (918) 481-8810.

Also feel free to give Mike or I a call if you have ANY questions about the home buying process! We love selling homes!