Delayed Closings

Wow. Yesterday I finally closed on my listing at 1119 E. 37th Street, Tulsa, OK 74105. This house is located less than a block from Peoria in the Brookside region of Tulsa -- a very popular location. The new owners can walk to restaurants, shopping, and work (she actually works at a Restaurant)!

But the process from contract to closing was definately stressful due to a number of factors.

First, the buyers were approved for an FHA loan. The house, while solid as a rock, was somewhat dated and had a few repair issues. The roof had some hail damage that needed to be addressed. The detached garage had some siding that was showing signs of wood rot. Usually detached garages are sold as-is, but because this was an FHA loan, the garage was included in the FHA appraisal.

Getting past the repair issues took a lot of cooperation between the sellers and the buyers, who saw repairs as a joint effort. The seller filed a claim with insurance for roof repairs and the buyers, who want to upgrade the home anyhow, worked on garage and other repairs. In the end, repairs were made to meet the FHA appraiser's re-inspection guidelines.

Lending was an issue. Underwriters were changed halfway between contract and closing dates. New underwriters during this period were slow to respond to the buyer's broker. With every question the underwriter made, our file was put back at the bottom of the stack -- delaying our closing 10 days. This was a very stressful period for both the sellers and the buyers. But our mortgage broker knew the issues were not insurmountable, and was proactive in accelerating the process beyond the underwriter's time frame.

And now we are closed! Sellers are on the road to live closer to children and grandchildren. And buyers are moving into their new home, conveniently located in the hub of their social life. Successful closings may take time, but in the end, they are simply the stepping off point to a whole new adventure.

Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures for the holidays

Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures for the holidays

Hands Off the Mortgage Interest Deduction

I'm your Real Estate Man

Click on the title of this post and hear my theme song, written and performed by musician extraordinaire -- Doug Hepler!

Adding Value to Your Home or Making it More Marketable

I find that home sellers and their agents sometimes don't understand the distinction between what adds value to a home versus what makes it more marketable. Having worked for an appraisal company (my first job in real estate) I was taught the difference, which really can be easily understood.

To make a home more marketable you do things like clean, polish, paint, and trim. My first broker told me to instruct sellers to plant yellow and blue flowers close to the front stoop or porch. Declutter is preached by almost everyone now. If a paint color is too bright or unusual, paint the walls off-white. Work on the odor of the house, especially if a smoker lived there. Repair everything you can.

But these aren't fixes that will necessarily add value to your home. They won't make it appraise for a higher price. The first thing you must always remember is that finished square footage is king when it comes to the value of a home. When an appraiser looks for comparable properties to your home, he will look for the house that is most like yours in floor plan and finished square footage.

The URAR form, the core of an appraisal, lists many of the value added upgrades which distinguish your house from those comparables in your neighborhood. They list things such as siding, flooring, windows, porches, patios, garages, and there are several blanks available for additional value added features. In these blank spaces I have seen items such as sidewalks, paved or concrete driveways, kitchen cabinetry or counter tops.


Landscaping is nice, but it is mostly ordinary -- everybody has some. Of course if you have a formal English garden in your backyard, that might get an appraiser's attention. But the normal trees and shrubs in your yard, even though you paid a lot for them at your local garden shop, won't add value to your home. They instead will make your property more marketable.

Everyone talks about today's colors. Marketability is what you'll get when you paint your walls with them. Houses all have paint. Your's isn't more valuable because the color is trendy, even when you spent thousands to have it done. But it will make your home more marketable. Nowhere in an appraisal is there mention of paint, unless it is a negative notation. Carpet is similar. You either have it or you don't. Of course if it is very worn, it will be flagged (especially by a VA or FHA appraiser.)

So I said it would be easy to make the distinction between adding value and making your home more marketable. What things are solid and lasting? Beyond adding square footage to your finished and unfinished areas, you could add thermal windows, hardwood or ceramic flooring, an additional bathroom, granite countertops, or new siding. But when you paint, landscape, clean and polish -- you are doing this to make the home more marketable.

How to Figure Your Finished Square Footage

There seem to be a lot of discrepancies on the finished square footage of homes here in Tulsa. Most Real Estate contracts require a disclaimer statement be included since often municipal records don’t match appraisal figures and vice versa.

My first job in real estate license was working for an appraisal firm. Since all appraisals require a review of finished square footage, my manager taught me a simple way to calculate this. As a homeowner or future homeowner, you should know the finished square footage of a house, as it is the most significant factor in calculating it’s value. You will need a pencil, legal pad, 100 foot open reel measuring tape, and a calculator.

First step is to make a rough drawing of your home’s floor plan on a sheet of paper. The dimensions of the interior rooms need not be precise, but be sure you have a good outline of the exterior walls. Most houses are simple rectangular boxes stuck together. A single floor ranch, bungalow, or cabin will be the easiest to measure. If your home has a second floor, draw the second story floor plan separately next to your first floor. More on second floors in a minute.

Second step is to go outside with your tape and measure the width and length of your homes exterior walls. Remember, you are measuring finished square footage, so your garage patio or porch will not count in FinSqFt. Always look at your drawing to guide you.

Again, if your house is a ranch or bungalow, you should have two measurements — width and length. If your house has potions that jut in and out, measure each flat surface from corner to end. Place these measurements on your drawing so you can clearly see the exterior dimensions.

To calculate square footage, simply multiply length by width. Subtract 1 foot from both dimensions to allow for the exterior wall’s thickness. If your house has a wing or addition, you should see this as a second box protruding from the main structure. Usually you can see an outside dimension that defines the extra length or width beyond the main structure. You can draw a line to cut this box off and define it’s dimension separately, then add the two together.

Now back to the second story. If your house is a colonial, that’s simply two identical sized boxes, one on top of the other. For this style you can just used the downstairs area and double it. But many homes have partial second floors which are built into the roof of the house with knee walls located inside the home’s exterior dimension. In this case, best to measure inside dimensions to calculate second floor finished square footage.

Use your tape to measure the total width and length of the finished area. Finished square footage is any part of your home that is heated. Most closets are part of your finished square footage, but a utility area where the air-handler is located is probably not.

You may have a few more dimensions than you did on the first floor, but use your drawing to guide you. You may have to open doors to run your tape from one side of the upstairs to the other. Remember, look for the boxes. If rooms jut out , measure the extra length or width and include that on your drawing. Measure dead space like stairwells or vaulted foyers and subtract these areas from the larger dimensions.

This is just a brief lesson in figuring the finished square footage of your home. Remember, draw first, then measure. If you even the faintest memory of high school geometry, you’ll be fine. Use your findings to check that tax records and appraisals are within range of your home’s square footage.

Zillow names Tulsa 5th best place to buy!

Real estate website Zillow.com has named Tulsa the fifthe best metro area in the nation for buying a home.

The wesbite, which released its Best Places to Buy 2011 survey this week, said it based it's rankings for 125 metro areas on affordability, unemployment, foreclosure frequency, and price appreciation.

Zillow noted that the average value of a home in Tulsa, as of Sept. 30, was $114,000.

It indicated that Tulsa area home values dropped only 3.6 percent in the 12 months preceding that date. This rate is relatively low compared to other metro areas across the county.

Zillow's report also stated that Tulsa had THE most affordable homes in it's top 10 list of best buy cities, offering home buyers a "good bang for their buck."

The website further estimated that homes in Tulsa sold for $73 per finished square foot, compared to the national average of $108 per finished square foot.

The survey also computed home affordability by using the home value index and median household income data from localities across the country. While some areas were as high as 7.56, the national average at 3.19, Tulsa's affordability was a low 2.3 -- good news for home buyers in Tulsa Oklahoma!