For a real estate agent, seeing what is new on the market each day can be quite exciting. You just never know what is going up for sale! Here is a list of the most recent homes above $500,000 to hit the St. Paul market.

If you are looking in the St. Paul area for a home, or thinking of selling your current residence, please contact me.

Showing properties 1 - 10 of 71. See more city of St. Paul real estate.
(all data current as of 5/18/2012)

1. $675,000 : 36 Kenwood Parkway, St. Paul
   
   5 beds, 1 full, 4 part baths

   Home size: 4,536 sq ft

   Lot size: 11,761 sqft

   Year built: 1889

   Parking spots: 1

   Listed with Edina Realty, Inc.
   
2. $529,000 : 38 Orme Court, St. Paul
   
   3 beds, 1 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 3,246 sq ft

   Lot size: 16,552 sqft

   Year built: 1955

   Listed with Robert Engstrom Companies
   
3. $599,900 : 1721 Hampshire Avenue, St. Paul
   
   5 beds, 2 full, 1 part baths

   Home size: 3,100 sq ft

   Lot size: 8,276 sqft

   Year built: 1950

   Listed with Lynden Realty, Ltd.
   
4. $749,900 : 545 Montcalm Place, St. Paul
   
   5 beds, 1 full, 3 part baths

   Home size: 3,289 sq ft

   Lot size: 10,018 sqft

   Year built: 1940

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
5. $569,900 : 1825 Bayard Avenue, St. Paul
   
   4 beds, 1 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 2,045 sq ft

   Lot size: 9,583 sqft

   Year built: 1938

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
6. $749,900 : 1480 Summit Avenue, St. Paul
   
   5 beds, 1 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 3,227 sq ft

   Lot size: 12,196 sqft

   Year built: 1929

   Listed with Edina Realty, Inc.
   
7. $559,900 : 1305 Pinehurst Avenue, St. Paul
   
   5 beds, 2 full, 3 part baths

   Home size: 3,626 sq ft

   Lot size: 9,583 sqft

   Year built: 1950

   Listed with Edina Realty, Inc.
   
8. $549,900 : 1943 James Avenue, St. Paul
   
   4 beds, 2 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 3,202 sq ft

   Lot size: 5,227 sqft

   Year built: 1924

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
9. $1,425,000 : 1524 Mississippi River Boulevard S, St. Paul
   
   3 beds, 1 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 4,100 sq ft

   Lot size: 13,068 sqft

   Year built: 1953

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
10. $695,000 : 2236 Sargent Avenue, St. Paul
    
    4 beds, 3 full, 1 part baths

    Home size: 3,041 sq ft

    Lot size: 6,098 sqft

    Year built: 1923

    Listed with RE/MAX Results
    

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

The luxury home market in the Twin Cities has taken quite a beating the last couple of years. Home values have plummeted, putting what were once million dollar homes into lower price ranges. For some home owners who bought 2005-2008, the news has been less than welcome, even devastating. Foreclosure was inevitable for a few, other have been able to refinance. But one thing I have learned from speaking to luxury home owners, they are taking it all in stride and working with the cards they have been dealt.

Currently the inventory of luxury homes has been dwindling across the Metro, good news for home sellers. Less inventory means less choices for buyers, and gives sellers a better chance of selling their home.  In Spring 2010, there were about 680 available homes for sale. Two years later, that number is down to around 615. As is typical for real estate in Minnesota, home inventory increases over the summer months, topping out in August and September. It will be interesting to see how the summer progresses and if the overall inventory remains low.

When it comes to how long a luxury home takes to sell in the Twin Cities, real estate agents turn to Days on the Market data. With Spring comes buyers. After waiting through the winter, they come out from the shadows and pluck down money for luxury homes. For reasons you can imagine here in Minnesota, it typically takes longer to sell in the winter. Starting this Spring 2012, the days it takes a luxury home to sell hovers around 170 days. While this may not sound like good news, when you compare it to Spring 2010 which hovered around 235 days, our current real estate market it doing quite well. I am pretty sure home owners would like 2012 market trends over two years ago!

If you are thinking of selling and would like a free micro analysis of your home in today’s market, please contact me!

(Data is comprised from top 10 most expensive zip codes in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Lake Minnetonka, and  surrounding Twin Cities Metro areas, using homes priced above $500,000)

In case you missed it, the Pillsbury Mansion “Southways” was quietly put back on the market in October 2011 for $24 Million, a far cry from its previous listing price a few years back of $54 Million. Located at 1400 Bracketts Point Road in Orono the home sits on some of the best real estate on Lake Minnetonka.

Showing properties 1 - 1 of 1. See more city of Orono real estate.
(all data current as of 5/18/2012)

1. $24,000,000 : 1400 Bracketts Point Road, Orono
   
   7 beds, 6 full, 7 part baths

   Home size: 32,461 sq ft

   Lot size: 12.91 ac

   Year built: 1918

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Contrary to what most might think, many real estate agents aren’t desperate for listings. Yes, there are those out there that will take a listing because they really need it, no matter how overpriced the home will be, but I am not one of those agents.

Recently I turned down an expensive home simply because the home owner and I could not agree on a price. He saw it as a million dollar home, but I knew it was not worth anywhere near his dream number. I did my research, showing him what similar homes in the area had sold for. I even went so far as to take him out into the local marketplace and show him active listings, comparing those million dollar homes to his, hoping the information would sink in that his home in no way compared to those high-end homes. But alas, he still felt his unluxurious home was superior to them. We parted ways that day with a handshake, and I wished him all the best in the sale of his home.

He seemed surprised that I was turning down the listing. ”Wouldn’t you like this home to be showcased on your website?”, he asked. I would have liked to have plainly said “Yes, but only if it is priced correctly”, but I was nicer than that.  Here are some reasons why I don’t take overpriced listings:

• I was asked how much marketing it would take to get his home sold and I flat out told him that no amount of money thrown into marketing the home would make it sell if it was overpriced. See, agents don’t get paid unless a home sells, so we have to put thousands of dollars into photos, brochures, marketing, etc before we see a dime in commission. If the home doesn’t sell, then we are out all those costs. Taking an extremely overpriced listing means that the odds of that home selling are so rare that it is just not worth wasting my hard earned money. Buyers are pretty savvy in today’s tech world and know when a home is overpriced. Looking at it is just a waste of their time.
• Telling a home owner that their home is worth more than it actual is is a Realtor Code of Ethics violation. Standard of Practice 1-3 of the Code states that “Realtors, in attempting to secure a listing, shall not deliberately mislead the owner as to market value”. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to ever be accused of an ethical violation.
• I believe in being completely honest with home owners, even if I know they are not going to like what I tell them. They might throw me out of the house (never have had it happen), but at least I walk away knowing I gave them legitimate information and that it is truly their problem if they don’t like the data.
• Beating up a home seller every couple of weeks for a price reduction is not something I like to do. Instead, I choose to educate sellers that pricing their listing correctly from the beginning ensures them that I won’t be calling them and getting on their nerves. While markets do change during a listing period and price reductions do happen, I would rather be able to back my advice up with real market data, then make up some random number just to make a seller happy.
• When selling a home, many times a home owners number one “enemy” is the real estate appraiser. If he can’t find evidence to support a contract purchase price, then you won’t be selling your home anytime soon. And waiting for a cash buyer isn’t the best strategy.  While many won’t order an appraisal since no lender is involved, million dollar cash buyers are pretty smart and know when a home is overpriced. Don’t pray for a stupid cash buyer – they don’t exist.

Getting back to my recent experience. Another agent ended up taking the listing, which doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is the listing price, which is extremely overpriced. Not only will the home never sell at that price, I can’t imagine how the agent justifies wasting everyone’s time. At least I can sit back knowing that I made the right decision in walking away. Let that listing be someone else’s headache. I won’t take part in overpriced listings.

Over the years, home trends come and go. What was once ultra cool is now outdated. Remember those lovely 70′s orange countertops, or avocado green appliances? Most buyers today would shiver at the sight of them, but a simple kitchen remodel could be a home owners saving grace to successfully selling their home and having the buyers jumping for joy. While renovations can help your home sell faster, don’t expect to get much of that money back.

Each year Remodeling magazine comes out with a Cost vs. Value Report which highlights remodeling projects across the nation and by region, comparing their cost to the value retained upon sale of the home. The Twin Cities is one such region which gets its own specific report. Lucky us!

According to the Minneapolis report for upscale homes, the project topping the charts for greatest % of return is siding replacement with fiber-cement board. The next two top projects are garage door replacement and window replacement (vinyl). In contrast, the top projects for mid-range homes are minor kitchen renovations, front door replacement, and the addition of a deck.

It’s interesting that the areas of the home always thought to be the best renovation projects are not the chart toppers. Kitchen renovations get only 57% of their original cost for high-end homes, and one of the lowest bangs for your buck is a master suite addition. Of course home owners want to “live” in their homes and therefore will always do projects that makes their lives simplier, or more luxurious, not necessarily concentrating on if the project will be a good return on their investment.

If you are planning on a future remodel, and want to get an idea on the resale value of your efforts, take a look at the report. If you want to renovate your home for yourself, then does it really matter what the return on investment it? After all, replacing that roof might only get you 39% of your money back, but I am pretty sure having a dry home would trump any desire to recoup your costs.

In Minneapolis, the most expensive single family homes are situated around the beautiful area known as the Chain of Lakes just southwest of downtown. Lake of the Isles and Lowry Hill, settled by some of the wealthiest in the city, are home to many of the grandest properties in all the Twin Cities. Currently the most expensive home comes in at $6.5 Million!

Showing properties 1 - 5 of 5. See more city of Minneapolis real estate.
(all data current as of 5/18/2012)

1. $2,750,000 : 1903 Mount Curve Avenue, Minneapolis
   
   5 beds, 3 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 7,639 sq ft

   Lot size: 17,424 sqft

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
2. $3,750,000 : 2505 E Lake Of The Isles Parkway, Minneapolis
   
   5 beds, 3 full, 3 part baths

   Home size: 6,500 sq ft

   Lot size: 39,639 sqft

   Listed with Lakes Sotheby's International
   
3. $2,750,000 : 2350 Lake Of The Isles Parkway W, Minneapolis
   
   6 beds, 3 full, 5 part baths

   Home size: 7,436 sq ft

   Lot size: 14,374 sqft

   Listed with R Sutton Inc
   
4. $2,950,000 : 4218 Fremont Avenue S, Minneapolis
   
   5 beds, 4 full, 2 part baths

   Home size: 6,991 sq ft

   Lot size: 14,374 sqft

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   
5. $6,500,000 : 1712 Mount Curve Avenue, Minneapolis
   
   7 beds, 3 full, 6 part baths

   Home size: 12,195 sq ft

   Lot size: 1.01 ac

   Listed with Coldwell Banker Burnet
   

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

So this post isn’t about real estate in general, but it does concern saving my real estate data. See, I use Microsoft Outlook for email and when I started using it a few years back, I assumed that all the emails and data inside Outlook backed up each and every time I backed up my computer to an external hard drive. Boy, was I ever wrong!

By chance one day I read on another blog post that Outlook is not backed up with computer data. So at that time, I had a years worth of emails, attachments, etc, and realized that if my computer crashed, I would lose everything. Being a real estate agent, emails are constantly going back and forth between clients, other agents, and prospects. I organize them into folders and set rules for email addresses for these folders. Saving this data is crutial because it keeps a paper trail of communications. So for instance if a client, or angry agent, tries to say something I know to be false, I simply pull up the proof via my saved emails.

Two years ago I found that Microsoft has an Outlook Backup download for personal files, including calendars and contacts. From this you are able to save the data as a .pst file, which then is saved to your harddrive, or any place you wish to save the data. Once installed, I set it up to save each time I exit Outlook.

Let me tell you, this simple download has saved me TWICE in less than two years. A year ago August, my HP Pavilion laptop had a mother board failure and the laptop was totaled. Thankfully, my hard drive was still intact, and via the .pst file, I was able to retrieve all my Outlook data and import it onto my new laptop. However I soon realized that I had not gone far enough. If my hard drive had failed, then I would have lost that Outlook file. When I bought my new laptop, I also bought a new external hard drive, which saves a second copy of all my data.

Two months ago, my “new” laptop’s cooling fan decided to die on me. I had to send it by mail to a repair shop in Texas, via the exteneded warranty program. Unfortunately, they wiped the hard drive while repairing my computer. Thankfully, I had all my data backed up on the external, and once again, was able to retrieve my Outlook data file.

Lesson learned, twice. Make sure you don’t have to learn the hard way – Back Up Your Outlook!

I have been getting a lot of questions from Minnesota home owners and future buyers about the homestead credit previously available on Minnesota properties. The Minnesota Association of Realtors has recently put forth a helpful explanation about the new Homestead Market Value Exclusion (HMVE) that was created in the 2011 legislative session.

The new HMVE is a recent change to how homestead property taxes are calculated. It replaces the Homestead Market Value Credit (HMVC). Under the old credit system, the credit lowered a homeowner’s property tax burden based on the value of their home. The state then reimbursed local governments for the lost amount of their levy (revenues) due to the credit. However, due to the state’s budget problems, it was rare that local governments were fully reimbursed by the state. Eliminating the credit and creating an exclusion removes the possibility of the state withholding funds and creates more stability for local governments.

The new program excludes a portion of the homeowner’s market value from the property tax calculation. The amount of value excluded is directly proportional to the credit the home received under the old law. The actual tax burden on homesteads could be lesser or greater depending upon the mix of properties in the taxing jurisdiction and the levy decisions made by local governments (for more information on the technical calculations, please see further below).

Technical Calculations

Description: Under the old credit system, the credit amount would rapidly increase as a home value approached $76,000 with the maximum credit amount of $304. After $76,000 the credit would decrease until it was completely phased out with a home value of over $414,000. The new exclusion mimics this same scale as homes approaching $76,000 would have a rapidly increasing exclusion of value, with a home valued at $76,000 receiving a maximum exclusion of 40% of their home value from property tax calculations. The percentage then decreases and is phased out at homes valued over $414,000.

Calculations

(Referendum taxes are not covered here)

If you haven’t had the chance yet to view the Parade of Homes, then today is your last chance to check out the newest trends in luxury new home construction. I was able to check out a few in my spare time this week, and I have to say that some of the homes are simply stunning. My favorite by far was the “Dream Home” located in Edina.

Not only does it sit on a fantastic lot, the design inside and out is classic. Designed by Charles Cudd De Novo, one of the premier luxury home builders in the Twin Cities, the home boasts 8700 square feet.

From this home and others on the market, here are some of the newest trends found in luxury homes in the Twin Cities:

• Deep, rich, and dark hardwood floors. Some almost look black giving a great contrast to the lighter colors of the home
• Built-in cabinets and bookcases everywhere. Many are made to look like furniture, placed in nooks and along walls. These features are not only classic, but very functional on eliminating clutter and keeping a grand home organized.
• Marble. For high end homes, granite is no longer the staple. The use of marble for counters and floors is being seen more and more, especially for tiled bathroom floors, tiled luxury showers, and kitchen/bathroom countertops.
• White cabinetry and trim has made a dramatic comeback with a high end twist. Many of the most expensive homes available today feature white everywhere, which mixes well with dark furniture or colorful accessories.
• Huge, organized closets worthy of Rachel Zoe.
• Informal office space open to the home. For instance, in the home above, informal space is part of the huge mudroom off the garage giving easy access to computers and such to family and children.

There are tons of additional features highlighted in the newest luxury homes found in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Edina, and Lake Minnetonka, but if you want a first hand glimpse, take a free day and visit some of the local open houses on weekends throughout the area.