Real Estate Information

It’s been a busy week at Polaris Real Estate! Home sales in Indianapolis seem to be picking up in the new year, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve helped our clients find great buyers for the following homes in the Indianapolis-area:

	10287 Lakeland Dr, Fishers. Sold!
	206 Ironwood Cl, Noblesville. Sold!
	10853 Kllington Cl, Fishers. Sold!
	13898 Charleswood Ct, Fishers. Sold!

It hasn’t all been sales though—we have another new property on the market. Check out this beauty in the Eagle Creek area of Indianapolis:

4755 Bridgefield Dr, Indianapolis. Maintenance-free condo living! Includes great room with gas fire place, open floor plan, split-level bedrooms for privacy and a home office. Great community amenities, including gym, heated pool, and putting green!

Renting a property for the first time can be a little scary. It’s a leap of faith to let someone live in your home. One way to protect yourself and your investment, and to find a little peace of mind, is with landlord insurance.

You’re probably familiar with renter’s insurance and homeowner’s insurance, and landlord’s insurance is very similar. It protects your property from a variety of financial losses that are particular to leasing a property. For instance, many landlord insurance policies cover the standard risks of owning a property: fire, lightning and general property damage. But many go considerably beyond that to cover malicious damage by a tenant and theft. Other policies might offer the option of rent guarantee insurance to make sure you get paid even if your tenant can’t make rent for whatever reason. Every policy can vary, so make sure you find one that meets your needs. An experienced property manager can help you assess your risk and guide you in the right direction of the policy that best fits your needs. But you might find that you sleep a little more easily knowing you have landlord insurance backing you up, just in case.

For more information or to learn how you can lease your Indianapolis-area property, contact us today.

Whether you’re renting your home or selling it, one of the most important parts of the process is setting the price. Even the most beautiful home in the best neighborhood won’t sell if it’s priced too high, and you won’t make a profit if it’s priced too low. To find the sweet spot, use comparable sales or rentals in your area. Here are some tips:

• Location: The exact same house will sell or rent for very different prices if it’s located in Carmel vs. being located in Broad Ripple. When using comparables, the closer the comp is to your house the better, but don’t just use any comparable sale within a mile radius. A good comparable sale is a house in your neighborhood, your subdivision, on the same type of street as your house, and in your school district.
• Home type: Try to find comparable sales that are like your home in style, construction material, square footage, number of bedrooms and baths, basement (having one and whether it’s finished), finishes, and yard size.
• Amenities and upgrades: Is the kitchen new? Does the comparable sale house have full A/C? Is there crown molding, a deck, or a pool? Does your community have the same amenities (pool, workout room, walking trails, etc.) and homeowners association fees?
• Sales sweeteners: Did the comparable-sale sellers give the buyers downpayment assistance, closing costs, or a free television? You have to reduce the value of any comparable sale to account for any deal sweeteners.

These are all good starting points, but whether you’re selling or renting, make sure you’re working with an experienced real estate agent or property management agent to make sure you’re setting your price just right. Want more information? Call us today.

If you spend a lot of time watching those home renovation shows on TV, you might think you need to be constantly updating and improving your house. To some extent, that’s true: your house needs to be up-to-date, modern and in good repair. But how often do you really need to be replacing your hot water heater or your kitchen appliances? Here are some general rules of thumb:

• Start with the inspection report you received when you bought the house.  Did the inspector indicate that you would need a new roof in five years? A new furnace in 10? Keep a log of your major appliances’ age so you can estimate when they’ll need replacing. Some estimated life spans:
  • Roof: 20-25 years
  • Heating systems: 15-20 years
  • Range/ovens: 11-15 years
  • Water heaters: 8- 13 years

Then get estimates on what replacements will cost and start saving.

• Consider ongoing non-emergency maintenance, too. Do you live in New England? Price a snow blower and get bids from plow services.
• Resist the siren call of the home equity loan to take care of everything. That just defeats your efforts to pay off the mortgage early.
• Separate out what you want from what you need. A $50,000 kitchen remodel is nice, but you’ll recoup only 76% of the project cost your home’s resale, according to Remodeling magazine.
• If you can afford to redo, go for it. Just don’t confuse your necessary repairs (new oil furnace—about $4,000) with your discretionary upgrades (Viking range—$6,000 and up).

Home repairs and updates are a necessary part of homeownership, but be smart about it.

You’ve found an interested buyer, and you think it’s all over: your home has sold and everything is great. Not so fast. A lot can still go wrong before the final deal is signed. Here are 4 surefire ways to cause problems in your home sale:

Ignore contingencies

If your contract requires you to do something before the sale, do it. If the buyers make the sale contingent on certain repairs, don’t do cheap patch-jobs and expect the buyers not to notice the fixes weren’t done properly.

Don’t bother to fix things that break

The last thing any seller needs is for the buyers to notice on the pre-closing walk-through that the home isn’t in the same condition as when they made their offer. When things fall apart in a home about to be purchased, sellers must make the repairs. If the furnace fails, get a professional to fix it, and inform the buyers that the work was done. When you fail to maintain the home, the buyers may lose confidence in your integrity and the condition of the home and back out of the sale.

Get lax about deadlines

Treat deadlines as sacrosanct. If you have three days to accept or reject the home inspection, make your decision within three days. If you’re selling, move out a few days early, so you can turn over the keys at closing.

Refuse to negotiate any further

Once you’ve negotiated a price, it’s natural to calculate how much you’ll walk away with from the closing table. However, problems uncovered during inspections will have to be fixed. The appraisal may come in at a price below what the buyers offered to pay. Be prepared to negotiate with the buyers over these bottom-line-influencing issues.

The best way to make sure you don’t let a sale slip through your fingers is to make sure you’re working with an experienced Indianapolis real estate agent like Dan Baldini and the Polaris Real Estate team. To see how we can help you sell your house, give us a call today.

The American dream may be changing. More and more, people are turning away from home ownership and opting instead to rent instead of buy. According to a recent Fiscal Times article, rental vacancy rates have fallen from 8% in 2009 to just 5.6% in the third quarter of 2011. In the same period, average rent prices rose 2.5% to average $1,020 for a two-bedroom apartment, condo or single-family dwelling nationwide.

Why are so many more people turning to renting? It offers certainty and stability in an unpredictable housing market. People enjoy the flexibility of being able to move on after a few months or a year’s lease instead of being tied into a 20-30 year mortgage on a home they may or may not be able to sell. Many people also appreciate being free from the burdens of home maintenance: when a pipe bursts or the roof leaks, all they have to do is make a phone call and someone else will take care of it at no expense to them. Especially as baby boomers age, the prospect of a maintenance-free lifestyle will continue to appeal to more and more potential customers.

That’s why there’s never been a better time to consider leasing a property. Whether you’re interested in leasing a property as an investment or you can’t sell your house but need to move on with your life, renting can be a profitable, stable source of income. If you’re interested in exploring the possibilities of renting your home or property with an experienced Indianapolis property management firm, call us today. 

As a property manager, we have to please two masters. Of course we have a primary obligation to look out for the best interests of the property owner, but it’s also critical that we keep the tenant happy and comfortable in their rental. We have one client who’s seen both sides of this issue first hand. When we first met Abby, she was looking for a rental and became a tenant in one of our managed properties.

“Working with Polaris Real Estate and The Dan Baldini Team, the application process was very quick and easy! We scheduled a showing of the unit and within a few hours of deciding we were interested we were approved and had a signed lease.  Everything is electronic, simple and straight-forward.”

Later, Abby returned to Polaris Real Estate for help in renting her own condo. She’d originally worked with another company to lease her property, but she learned a valuable lesson in the process:

“Originally, we had hired another local company to manage our rental and quickly learned you get what you pay for.  Their fees were low but they had extremely slow response time and a highly unqualified staff. “

Her condo sat on the rental market for two months without any interested tenants. After her experience as a tenant with Polaris Real Estate, Abby decided to see if Polaris could help her find a renter for her home.

“The Polaris team communicates proactively and responds quickly. They’re very knowledgeable on price and have great recommendations to ensure the property is ready to rent.”

In just two weeks, we were able to rent Abby’s home for full-price and Polaris Property Management is taking care of the new tenants. It was a pleasure working with a client on both sides of the property management coin. Call us today and let us show you how we can help you find either the perfect rental or the perfect tenant!

Choosing an agent to list and sell your house is a big commitment. Your house is probably the biggest financial investment you have, and you don’t want to risk it with someone who’s untested or simply not a good match for you. Before sign on the dotted line, ask a prospective agent these questions:

1. How long have you been selling homes?

Mastering real estate requires on-the-job experience. The more experience agents have, the more likely they’ll be able to handle any curveballs thrown during your home sale.

2. What designations do you hold?

Designations like GRI (Graduate REALTOR® Institute) and CRS® (Certified Residential Specialist), which require that agents complete additional real estate training, show they’re constantly learning. Ask if agents have designations and, if not, why not?

3. How many homes did you sell last year?

Agents may tout their company’s success. An equally important question is how many homes they’ve personally sold in the past year; it’s an indicator of how active and aggressive they are.

4. How long on average did it take you to sell homes?

Ask agents to show you this data along with stats from their local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) so you can see how many days, on average, their listings were on the market compared to the average for all properties in the MLS.

5. How close were the asking and sales prices of the homes you sold?

Sometimes sellers choose their agent because the agent’s suggested listing price is higher than those suggested by other agents. A better factor is the difference between listing prices and the amount homes actually sold for. That can help you judge agents’ skill at accurately pricing homes and marketing to the right buyers. It can also help you weed out agents trying to dazzle you with a lofty sales price just to get your listing.

6. How will you market my home?

The days of agents putting a For Sale sign in the yard and hoping for the best are long gone. Look for an agent who does aggressive and innovative marketing, especially on the Internet.

Make sure you have an agent with the experience, drive and knowledge needed to sell your home. Call us today to find out how Polaris Real Estate and Dan Baldini can help sell your home.

Finding the right tenant for your home can be a lot like dating. There has to be an instant spark of chemistry, where the tenant falls in love with the house. Then comes the discovery phase, where both the rental owner and the tenant size each other up and decide if it’s true love. As a rental owner, how can you decide on the best tenant for your property? Here are a few things to look for in any prospective renter:

1. Verify, verify, verify. Sure, your tenant may say they’re employed, but not everyone can be trusted to tell the truth. Take the time to call their employer and make sure they’re gainfully employed. Save yourself the time and cost of an eviction—make sure they’re telling the truth on the front end!
2. Background check.  When it comes to choosing a tenant, you need to make sure these are people you’d feel comfortable living in your home. Do they have a criminal past? Are they a registered sex offender? Do they have a poor credit score and history of skipping out on rent? A thorough background check can shed considerable light on any prospective tenants.
3. References. You can learn a lot simply by talking to people who know your prospect best. Maybe you’ll want to talk to one of their previous landlords and make sure there were no complaints or late payments, or you’ll want to talk to their employer and make sure they’re trustworthy. Take the time to get other people’s perspectives on your renter before singing on the dotted line.
4. Talk to them. Yes, it’s old fashioned, but take some time to get to know your clients. Not only will you get a better picture about what kind of people they are, you might find information they wouldn’t tell you otherwise. Maybe they’ll mention their dog and you can remind them it’s a no-pet property, or you’ll find other useful information that makes your decision easier.

The best way to choose a tenant is to have a trusted partner in the process. When you work with an experienced property manager like Polaris Property Management, you’ll have our years of experience behind every tenant decision. Call us today to help us how we can help attract the best renters to your property.