November Market Report - The Schaefer Team

Market data has arrived for Missoula and is here for your reference!
Please let us know if you have any questions.

Jason | 406.493.4262

Alana | 406.493.0066

October Market Report - The Schaefer Team

We have the numbers for the month of October and here they are for your reference. We've been busy this Fall - our market is active and healthy! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us - Jason | 406.493.4262 and Alana | 406.493.0066.

To see all available properties in our market, please visit - www.missoulaareahomes.com

Need Help Moving?

Let's face it, moving is not the most enjoyable thing to do in life - in fact I dread it! We have invested in a 6' x 10' enclosed Mirage trailer for our clients/friends to use. Feel free to call or email us at anytime if you want to put it to use. My moving services can be negotiated in with the trailer under certain circumstances:) 

September Residential Numbers

Numbers for the month of September have been released! Overall, our market continues to be very active. While pending sales are down, actual closed sales are up 2%, and there are 10% more listings compared to September of 2014. Furthermore, the median sales price continues to increase, which is no surprise as this has been trending up for quite some time. New construction continues to be very prevalent in and around Missoula - both residential and commercial!

If you have any questions, feel free to let us know - Jason & Alana.

Top Producers for September 2015

Thank you to all of our clients for a wonderful September! We appreciate each and everyone of you!

Missoula Area Homes Market Report - AUGUST

Here are the residential numbers for the month of August, brought to you by The Schaefer Team with ERA Lambros Real Estate. Please let us know how we can help out!

NEW LISTING - 2528b Old Ranch Road

Welcome to Old Ranch Road and this wonderful townhome in nearly new condition! It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom that was built in 2012. The kitchen is equipped with stainless steel appliances as well as a gas range. The yard comes fully fenced with underground sprinklers and raised flower beds. To schedule a showing - give us a call at 406.493.0066 (Alana) or 406.493.4262 (Jason) or your real estate professional. You don't want to miss this opportunity!

To see more, click - 2528b Old Ranch Road

Missoula Area Homes - Instant Property Alerts via Text Message

We now have a new feature on our website where clients can receive a text message when a new property comes on the market. This way, you'll be the first to know about homes that come on the market.

In order to do this, click on SAVED SEARCHES within your profile. Next, click the box that says, "Notify Me When Similar Listings Hit The Market." See below for where this is located within your search profile. If you have questions on setting up this feature, just let us know!

July Residential Numbers

Interest Rates Still Low!

Interest rates have been on the rise, and while they have increased slightly over the course of 2015, they are still at very low levels. Making this a great time for buyers to secure that low rate on the purchase of their home! We have lenders we work with from Opportunity Mortgage, and if you'd like to chat with them, please follow this link for their contact information - Opportunity Mortgage

New Listing - 5436 Bigfork Road

Another beautiful listing in the Maloney Ranch neighborhood! Pride of ownership is evident throughout this 4 bed/2.5 bath, over 2,500 square foot home. Located on a quiet, dead-end street, enjoy all the amenities such as Maloney Ranch Park, close proximity to downtown, and Highway 93 South. The backyard has a fully fenced backyard with underground sprinklers and a drip system. 

For more information, please visit - 5436 Bigfork Road

New Listing - 6226 Lower Miller Creek

Beautiful new home for sale in the sought after Maloney Ranch neighborhood. Built in 2008, it is situated on a half acre lot with over 4,000 square feet on 3 levels. Hardwood floors throughout, with granite counter tops, tons of cabinet space and beautiful kitchen. Underground sprinklers with new sod last year in the back yard.

You can see more information here - 6226 Lower Miller Creek

For additional information and to set up a showing - just let us know!

Homeword Home Ownership Class - July 14-16

We wanted to make sure folks are aware of the Homeword Home Ownership Class taking place July 14-15-16 from 6-9PM. This a great organization and class that goes over everything involved with purchasing and owning a home. For more information, see the flyer below and you can visit their site - www.homeword.org.

June 2015 Residential Market Report

Numbers for the month of June are out. As expected, the trend continues with similarities to the May market report. The median sale price is up compared to June of 2014, while overall pending sales are down compared to June, 2014. Simply put, there's a tremendous amount of activity in the market right now, it primarily comes down to affordability and inventory for buyers. You can see the overall numbers for year-to-date reflect similar numbers as June 2014 compared to June 2015.

We're here to help - if you have any questions, just let us know!

City of Hamilton Upgrades Infrastructure

The city of Hamilton is moving forward this summer with some extensive projects. Included in that is a $380,000 road reconstruction on the first block of Fairgrounds Road. According to Hamilton Mayor, Jerry Steele, it was badly in need of repair and has been deteriorating for sometime now. The plan is to bring the road up to city standards, as well as add a sidewalk on the south side.

They talk paving the road toward the middle of July, and hope to be finished, for the most part toward the latter part of July. The city remains committed to upgrading Fairgrounds Road with additional construction planned for next summer. By the time they are finished, there will be nearly $2 million invested in one of the busiest roads in the city.



Source: Missoulian

May Market Report

The numbers are out for the month of May in the Missoula Real Estate market. You can see from the numbers several things stick out. First, listings are down 26% compared to 2014. For buyers, this is presenting challenges in finding a home that fits their needs. Our buyers that we work with, are strongly encouraged to get pre-approved through a lender, so when they do find the perfect home we are able to act quickly.

Additionally, this has had an impact on selling prices, as the median sale price is up 20% over 2014. When priced competitively according to the market and condition, all of our sellers are getting multiple offers.

If you have any questions - please let us know!

New Facebook Group - Missoula Area Homes For Sale and Rent

We have created a new group in the interest of helping folks, whether they live in the Missoula area or are from out of town. The intention of the group is for collaboration. If people want to post a home of their own they have for sale, please do so. Should you have a home you're looking to rent, or are in need of finding a rental, we want this to be a great resource. Need advice related to real estate - please ask! We also have lenders from Opportunity Mortgage that will be admins on the page, and can assist with any questions related to obtaining a mortgage.

Here's the link to it - Missoula Area Homes For Sale and Rent

Seasonal Flights to Keep Missoula Airport Busy

2014 was a record setting year for Missoula International airport, and 2015 is expected to be just as busy.

Delta continues to be a mainstay with direct flights to Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. Frontier airlines came back with direct flights to Denver on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. United Airlines will start flying daily flights from Missoula to Chicago starting June 4th. In addition, they will resume their daily flights to San Francisco on July 1st.

Allegiant Air will expand it's service by offering direct flights to both Los Angeles and Oakland, beginning June 4th. Delta will also add to it's service a direct flight to Atlanta on Saturdays, which will begin June 7th.

June will also bring construction to the airport, with a new $2 million taxiway. The airport has increased the size of the rental car lot so that it has doubled in size. A new car rental vendor is expected to be announced soon. The new post-security observation deck that opened last year has been well received. It has been getting busier and busier, and offers up local microbrews, food, and other beverages.

Source: Missoulian 

April Residential Report

Here are the statistics for the month of April on the residential side in Missoula County. As is typical, there is more inventory on the market, and buyers are actively looking. What's great to see is the strong growth in our market over 2014. 

Personally, Alana and myself are working with a wide range of clients. Out of state buyers continue to have interest in and around Missoula, and in particular the Bitterroot area. We're also seeing more and more first time home buyers, many of which are millennials, and I feel this a very good sign of the economy around Missoula showing good strength. 

Enjoy and if you have any questions, please let us know!

Just Listed - 307 Lakeside - Lolo

Located on a corner lot, this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house has been updated and is in good condition. On the main level of this home is a living room, kitchen with eating area, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Downstairs is a family room, utility room and master bedroom with a large closet, bathroom and lots of storage. Recent updates (within the last 3 years) include: upstairs bathroom remodel, new interior paint, new carpet, new kitchen flooring, a new roof, a new dishwasher and a new microwave. There is a 2 car garage plus a parking pad in the back yard. The yard is landscaped and fenced and has underground sprinklers. All of this is conveniently located in Lolo, close to all of life's amenities, and just a short distance to Missoula.

Follow this link for all the details on this great property - 307 LakesideFor more information and to schedule a showing - please call Alana Schaefer at 406.493.006.

New Listing - 4905 Jaiden Lane - Linda Vista

Check out our new listing!

Located in the Linda Vista Neighborhood, this 4 bedroom, 3 Bathroom home has so much to offer! On the main level of this home is a functional kitchen which boasts: stainless steel appliances, lots of counter space, a pantry and an eating area. As you exit the sliding glass doors off of the kitchen you will see a large, landscaped, fully fenced backyard. There is a deck perfect for entertaining, a garden shed and there are underground sprinklers. Additionally on the main level there is a large living room with a gas fireplace, a master suit, 2 additional bedrooms and a full bathroom. On the lower level there is a family room, another master suit and the utility area. There is a large, 2 car garage with extra room for storage. This home also has large windows for natural light and enjoying the beautiful views. Finally this home has a newer 50 year roof (2012), a newer hot water heater (2010) and has new exterior paint (2013). You won't be disappointed in this house. For your personal tour please call listing agent Alana Schaefer at 406.493.0066 or your real estate professional.

ERA Circle of Achievement - Alana Schaefer

Congrats to Alana of The Schaefer Team for her award - ERA Circle of Achievement! This award is given to realize the exceptional results through personal expertise and commitment, community involvement and consistent client service. Circle of Achievement honorees represent the best of ERA Sale Associates at both the state and national levels!

1st Time Home Buyers - Homeword

We wanted to let you know about a great opportunity in Missoula for 1st time buyers. Homeword of Missoula presents Home Buyer Education classes on a regular basis for first-time buyers. The topics covered are:

1. Selecting a lender

2. Using credit wisely

3. Understanding home inspections and insurance

4. Working with a real estate professional

5. Determining affordability 

6. Distinguishing between different types of loans

7. Identifying special financing programs

8. Evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of home ownership

Upon successful completion of the program, attendees are provided with a certificate of completion which is required for many down payment assistance and other lending programs for first-time buyers. 

The courses are offered on a monthly basis, either on three consecutive week nights from 6-9PM or on Saturdays an all-day class is offered several times a year from 9AM - 6PM. 

For more information, and to schedule, please visit - Homeword

Missoula County Looks to Make Airport Development Park

With commercial building and manufacturing coming on strong in Missoula, leaders are wondering why the Missoula airport development park hasn't received much attention with regards to attracting employers. And they look to change this by attracting potential businesses.

Their goal is to actively market the property more online and in real estate publications. James Grunke, CEO and president of the Missoula Economic Partnership, agreed there is a lot of interest in the Bonner Mill site. He said they've seen no interest in the development park the past 6 months. There are 2 companies showing strong interest in the Bonner Mill site, with one of them expected to open in September.

The county is actively looking for technology based businesses for the development park. Some expressed concern that employees prefer the downtown setting. The county does remain hopeful about the future of the development park, as it does have broadband in place, and the county is considering some incentives for businesses to locate there as well. The board plans to continue moving forward at it's next quarterly meeting where it will review pricing and other incentives. 

Source: Missoulian

Southgate Mall and Missoula's South Side Redevelopment Plans

With malls nationwide finding it a struggle to remain viable, let alone profitable - Missoula's Southgate Mall is looking towards future expansion. What exactly these plans are remains to be seen, however, representatives say within the next few years property around the mall will look much different than it does today.

Project details remain vague, but we do know some certainties. H&M Store is currently building a 20,000 square foot store at the entrance of Southgate Mall near Red Robin. Outside the mall, Paxson Plaza is under going changes as well. Tenants were informed that the building was under contract with new owners. The Val-U Inn has since been razed and Curley's is expected to be next, however, the future of the entire Paxson Plaza is still uncertain.

The region south of the mall continues to see great improvements, even from a few short years ago. The region of South Reserve Street and Brooks Street is set to undergo construction this summer, with the addition of a traffic signal, pedestrian crossings, landscaping, and lighting.

Missoula Real Estate - Map Search

This is our 4th installment in helping clients search for their perfect home, condo, townhome, or property using www.missoulaareahomes.com. Today, we're going to show you a feature that not many folks know about - Map Search. It enables clients the ability to draw custom searches on a map, using their designated search criteria (price, location, bed/bath, etc.). With this tool, clients can manually draw a custom search in specific geographical areas they are looking at.

Here's the 1st example. I used a search criteria of Florence & Stevensville - 2+ bed/1+ bath, under $200,000 and single family homes. You can see the initial search comes up showing 1 of 18 homes. There are 3 red arrows drawn showing on this screen shot. To get into Map Search, simply click on it after you've put in the parameters above. There's a second arrow drawn to Draw Custom Search, which we'll look at next. The final one is the Zoom In/Out vertical bar on the left hand side. 

In order to see more than 1 property, I clicked the ZOOM OUT button on the bottom of the vertical bar, which now produces 17 of 18 homes for sale.  Seen here:

In this next example, I switched to Satellite view, and actually took off Florence and Stevensville as I wanted to see other properties around Missoula under $200,000. This one actually includes homes in Superior, Plains, and Hamilton, so you can see the radius was quite large. But it can give clients and idea of different markets and what they can expect for homes under $200,000.

The final portion I want to show you is how quickly you can get an overview of properties. In this screen shot, I've added in Florence, Hamilton, and Stevensville just to narrow it down a bit. I now have 48 homes that match the criteria and it's showing 46 of those. You can see where clients can quickly browse and preview properties by clicking on the price of the home. If you'd like to see more of that home, simply click on link within the box.

That concludes using the map feature when searching for your perfect home on missoulaarehomes.com. This can be a quick and efficient method for finding properties. If you have any questions, please let us know!

Missoula Real Estate - Help Us, Help You

Our last post was on how to do advanced search through our website - missoulaareahomes.com. Today, we're going to look at how clients can communicate with Alana and myself - allowing us to get a better idea of what their perfect home looks like! This can be done through marking homes as "favorites" and we'll also show you how to submit an "inquiry" or schedule a "showing" directly through the site. An inquiry can be utilized to let Alana and myself know if you have questions on a specific home, and a showing obviously means you would like to go see a certain property.

Let's begin with our initial search - I did Missoula, $200,000-$400,000, single family homes with 2+ bed/2+ bath. Below you can see the results of this search with 143 homes for sale in Missoula:

Next, let's look at how to mark them as a "favorite", submit an "inquiry" or "schedule a showing". Again, this enables us to get a better idea exactly what clients are looking for, and for clients to communicate directly with us through missoulaareahomes.com. Here's an example where you can see circled in red where clients can mark properties as "favorites". We have clients that have viewed upwards of 1,000 homes, and will have 20-30 "favorites". This is perfect, especially for out of state of buyers whom we have not met face to face with, or previewed any homes with. Schedule a "showing" is also circled in red. Lastly, if clients have a specific question on a home, that's where you can send us a message - or property inquiry. This can be as basic as "How long has this property been on the market?" to "Do you have more pictures of the living room?

That concludes today's session on how you can help us, help you! Should you have any questions, please feel free to Alana or Jason know.

"

Missoula Real Estate - Advanced Search

Last week we published an article on beginning your home search through our site - www.missoulaareahomes.com. That is a great start, however, there are many more features that clients use on a daily basis when searching Missoula area real estate. Here are some more examples for you, which explain how exactly to narrow down your search.

In this example I have created a search for multiple areas: Missoula, Florence, Victor, Lolo, Stevensville, and Hamilton areas. I did the search parameters of single family homes, $200,000-$400,000 price range, with at least 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. You can see this brings up 311 results. To add in more communities, this is done in the "keyword" box which has a red arrow drawn to it. If I were to add Frenchtown, I'd type it in there, and then click "apply". Here is the screen shot of this example:

Now, let's say that I am interested in a property, but I have additional criteria such as acreage or air conditioning. This can be done through the "more options" tab which is located right under the GREEN search tab on the left hand side. Screen shot below:

Now - we are into the advanced SEARCH criteria where we can narrow down if/what we are looking for. In this example, I'm wanting some property that has at least 1 acre, but no more than 5 acres. When I do this search, you can see it takes my number of available properties from 311 down to 67. Here's a screen shot of more options from the advanced search area, just so you can see what comes up:

Here's the second screen shot where I put in our acreage parameters of 1-5 acres. Take note of the fact there are many more criteria in there that clients can use to specifically target properties that match what they are looking for:

Here is the result of our Missoula area real estate search for properties that have 1-5 acres, 2+ bed/2+ bath, $200,000-$400,000. All done in less than a minute with 67 results!

That concludes today's session from The Schaefer Team! We hope you'll find this helpful when you are doing your search for the perfect home. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in setting up advanced search criteria!

Missoula Area Homes - Begin Your Search

When looking for homes in Missoula, our real estate search platform is one of the best out there. It's directly linked to the Multiple Listing Service, and updated daily with new properties. However, there are many additional features to our site that we would like to explain. Today, this is a look at how to begin your real estate search for homes in Missoula. Let's begin...

Buyers can begin here on the home page - where you can search by City, Community, and Zip Code. You can also put in all of your parameters with regards to Property Type (see below):

In this 2nd example, you can see search criteria were set up. I have created a search for Missoula: single family homes, under $250,000, with 2+ bed and 2+ bath. You can see the result of that is 53 homes showing.

It's that easy! From here, clients can view all of the properties they wish to on Missoula Area Homes. You can include more areas such as Lolo, Frenchtown, Clinton, etc from this same screen. Or even edit the parameters with regards to bed/bath.

We hope this helps with your Missoula real estate search. Next post, we will look at some additional higher-end search features that are available. Please let us know if you have any questions - Jason & Alana.

Meet Myles Link - Opportunity Mortgage

We want to introduce Myles Link from Opportunity Mortgage, one of our partner lenders. Myles is originally from Great Falls, MT and attended the University of Montana. Myles is married with one son and enjoys golfing, snowboarding, cooking, and coaching his son's various sports activities. He's been in the mortgage industry for 10 years now. 

There are continual changes in the mortgage industry - which Myles is an expert in. For example, loans though FHA have recently been announced they will be reduced by 0.5 percentage point - meaning this could save borrowers up to $900 annually on this insurance premium. Here is an interesting article on how falling oil prices could effect the mortgage industry - Montana Chamber of Commerce.

To Contact Myles:
mlink@oppbank.com
Direct: 406.203.4310
Mobile: 406.544.5115

Meet Cory Sobin - Opportunity Mortgage

We want to introduce Cory Sobin from Opportunity Morgage, one of our partner lenders. Cory grew up in New Jersey and has been living in Missoula for 15 years now. He attended the University of Montana. Cory has been in the mortgage industry for over 10 years now. During his spare time he enjoys mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and skiing.

There are continual changes in the mortgage industry, and Cory is an expert in this area. For example, it was recently announced that FHA loans will be reduced by 0.5 percentage point - meaning this could save borrowers up to $900 annually on this insurance premium. Here is another interesting article on how falling oil prices could effect the mortgage industry - Montana Chamber of Commerce.

To Contact Cory:
csobin@oppbank.com
Direct: 406.541.7236
Mobile: 306.370.8947