I live in Lee's Summit. Lee’s Summit is one of the hottest places in the Kansas City Area to move to. Why? (1) Great schools; (2) Small town feel, with big city amenities; (3) Easy access to major highways. It has location, location, location! According to MLS, (it’s almost worth being a licensed agent just to have access to all this fun stuff), home prices in the zip code 64082 have increased 9.63%; for 64063, it’s a 5.2% increase; and 64086 is an 8.06% increase. Not all LS areas have seen an increase in the prices of homes. 64081 decreased 1.74%. Why is that? Best as I can tell – because Lee’s Summit has gone completely nuts about allowing new housing developments to pop up all over Lee’s Summit. We need to be careful about having too many residential developments and not enough industrial and business developments to offset the high real estate taxes home owners pay. The amount of these taxes could backfire on us because people are going to see they can move to an area like Blue Springs, and get great schools without paying so many real estate taxes. Make sure we elect the right people to keep our quality of life high and our cost for it as low as possible.

Homes normally appreciate between 4-6% each year. Not bad for an investment, huh? It gets better. Thanks to Uncle Sam, you get to reduce your taxable income by the amount you pay in interest and property taxes each year. That adds up to a lot of money! If you are paying rent – your status never improves-it normally worsens. Each month, with a conventional mortgage, you become closer and closer to paying it off. Whereas rental fees normally increase over time, a fixed mortgage monthly payment usually remains the same, and each month, a little more of your payment goes towards paying down your mortgage loan instead of just paying the interest (which, don’t forget – the interest is tax deductible!). A good real estate agent, like me, can help you figure out the pros/cons of getting a bigger house, downsizing, or buying your first home. We can help figure out what type of home work best for you, get you pre-qualified for a mortgage (trust me – no matter how bad you think your credit is – we’ve seen worse, and we can help you clean up your record.), and figure out how much you can really afford. You’d be surprised. Most people find out it’s less expensive to own a home than to rent a two-bedroom apartment or townhouse.

To keep things easier and less complicated I strongly urge you to contact a real estate agent who is knowledgeable in the area you are looking at. For instance, I am very familiar with Eastern Jackson County (Lee’s Summit, Greenwood, Blue Springs, Independence, etc.) I know very little about Lake of the Ozarks, or Platte County, etc. Once you pick an agent, (see above question), then I recommend if you are married, or in a serious relationship, take your spouse or partner with you. You will save a lot of time in the long run. Second, once your agent provides you with a print out of possible houses you might be interested in, you should drive by them with or without your agent. Check out that good old curb appeal. If you don’t like the looks of the outside, don’t even waste your time with the inside. Third, if it passed your curb appeal test, then have your agent set up some times to go through some houses. I don’t recommend you go through more than 5 houses in one day. Your brain starts meshing all of the houses together. When you first go through a house, take a quick tour of the entire house. Don’t spend more than a couple of seconds in each room. Does the layout feel right? Can you see yourself living there? Try to forget the colors the walls are painted at this point, or overlook the ugly carpeting. Don’t get attached to the furniture or wall hangings – those things aren’t staying! As a whole, does this home have what you need? Enough bedrooms? If the laundry is in the basement, how do you feel about lugging laundry up one or two flights? Do you have a dog? Do you entertain? Is the backyard big enough? If you don’t like the home, let your agent know why. Be specific. This will prevent future frustration between you and your agent. If, after a quick tour, you do like the house, then leave. That’s right. Leave. Go through the rest of the houses on your list. On a different day (assuming timing allows you to do this), go back to the houses you liked and take a second, more detailed look at them. Shoot away with your camera! Take lots of pictures and make a list of what you like and don’t like about each house. Ask your agent what they like and don’t like about the house. Then sleep on it. Now, you can review your pictures and your detailed notes. If you are ready, call your agent to make an offer. Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? If you find the house you like, don’t wait too long to make the offer or you may loose it. It happens all the time.

Well, Sylvia, for starters, a good real estate agent is much more than a “salesperson”. A real estate agent represents your interests, provides you with advice and guidance in doing a job. The information highway (the Internet) has opened up an entirely new world for most of us – it provides us information that previously wasn’t available to us. The public is certainly much more savvy than they used to be. The data on listings available on the internet is almost current – but not quite. There’s many times when you need the most current information about what has sold, what’s for sale, and the details and complete history of a property. The only way to get this is with an agent. If you are selling a home, you gain access to many other buyers, through their agents, via the Multiple Listing Service. Only a licensed agent who is a member of the local MLS can get your house listed there. Also, the role of the real estate agent has changed dramatically over the past decade. In the past, agents were the only way home buyers and sellers could access information. Now, agents are evolving, too. Because today’s home buyer’s and sellers are so much more educated, expertise and ability are becoming more and more important. An agent is your guide – your hand-holder, so to speak, through the rather lengthy and tedious process of buying or selling a house.

Well, as a matter of fact, I do! Aside from the obvious: pay your bills on time & don’t spend more than you make–here’s some things you can do, assuming you are, in fact, human, and haven’t been following my advice I just gave you . Having several names and addresses on a credit report will lower your score. If you’ve moved a lot within the past seven years, or if you have credit in multiple names like: Deb Smith, Debora Smith, J. Debora Smith, or Deborah Jones (maiden name) – then I’m talking to you. Clear off all the names & addresses except one, your score could go up 20–30 points instantly! The more severe the delinquency of a payment (30, 60 or 90 days) the more adversely it effects your credit score. Late payments less than 30 days are NOT reported. Also, utility companies don’t report late payments unless they go to collection. So, if you’ve got to be late on something, be late with your utilities – but don’t let it go to collections or get turned off! Late payments and collections have a huge negative impact on your credit score. Collections, or charge-offs, are especially damaging. After you pay a collection account off to $0, it still shows on your credit report and will significantly lower your score for several years! A $10 collection last month can be more damaging than a 3-year old bankruptcy! So, if you’ve got a collection on your record now, contact a real estate agent or mortgage broker BEFORE YOU PAY.

Absolutely, Jeanne. There is a new service out I am offering my clients. It’s not widely used by agents yet (I always try to be on the cutting edge to offer my clients the best available!). It just became available in April, 2006 – and I only started offering it last week myself. It’s called “Agent Access”. You can get the “inside scoop” so to speak on almost every home with a “for sale” sign in the yard. You can get the list price and features of the house. It’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is totally simple (even for the technologically-challenged)! All you need is your cell phone. I’ll be happy to get you registered for this service – free of charge, of course. Once I register you, you will just call the number I give you from your cell phone and you will be prompted to enter a house number, and then it will give you the features of the home and the listing price. It’s that simple. By the way, even if I didn’t offer this service, you could still just call me (or any other member of the KCRAR) and ask me to look up the information for you. I promise I won’t stalk you and harass you! I don’t do hard-selling – it’s not my style. Call me at 816/210-4212 and I’ll get you hooked up to this service in an hour. No strings attached.