Lake Ozark Real Estate Podcast Marty Gum

We recently started using a 3-D camera. This cutting-edge technology can help both homebuyers and sellers in many ways. Looking to buy in Lake Ozark? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in Lake Ozark? Get a free Home Price Evaluation On our real estate team, we work with the latest, greatest technology to make your job as a homebuyer or seller much easier.  One brand-new tool we started using is a 3-D camera. This camera can build virtual tours of your home. We have done a few open houses with this technology, hosted 3-D tours on Facebook, and shared these images with potential buyers.  There are several different ways to look at these 3-D images. You can use your computer, phone, or products like Google Cardboard to get a true 3-D experience. Buyers can feel like they are in your home without having to leave the comfort of their own.  Unfortunately, as a real estate agent, it’s common to hear buyers say that they are disappointed when they come to see a house in person. With 3-D images, you cannot hide anything. These 3-D tools help save you time as a buyer because you won’t waste time looking at disappointing properties.  3-D images help buyers feel like they are standing in your home. If you list your home with us, we use these 3-D cameras for advertising to generate more interest for your home. We post the images on social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn so that potential buyers can interact with your listing on their computers. These 3-D images can get more calls about your property than traditional marketing.  Finally, if you are a buyer with a buyer’s agent on our team, you can call your agent and request a virtual tour of a specific listing before you drive out to it for a showing. The buyer’s agent will go out with our 3-D camera and put that virtual tour together for you.  If you have any other questions about our 3-D camera or about real estate in general, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Our economy is expected to grow in 2017, but what about our local real estate market? These figures should key you in.  Looking to buy in Lake Ozark? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in Lake Ozark? Get a free Home Price Evaluation With the new year well underway, today I want to talk about what the rest of 2017 holds for our Lake Ozark real estate market.  If you’ve been following the news lately, you might’ve heard that the stock market recently went over 20,000 for the first time ever. That means that businesses expect the economy to grow and the new administration to have fewer regulations and fewer taxes.  How does this impact our market? Let’s start with condos. During the height of the downturn in 2007 and 2008, there were about 1,600 condos for sale. This morning, we had around 488 listed for sale. At this time last year, that number was 800. Of the 488 condos currently listed, only 322 have docks, which is what most people in our area look for when browsing condos for sale. Because inventory is obviously very low in this category, if you have a condo that you want to sell, now is the time to put it on the market. We expect the market to stay strong, but we can’t predict the future, and interest rates are expected to creep up.  On the flip side, prices for condos are still very reasonable. Last year at this time, the median sale price for them was $136,500. This year, the median sale price so far is $145,900. That’s a significant increase, but still within range for most buyers. Though condos are the most popular type of home to sell in our area, the lack of inventory has also affected buyers. In January 2016, we were able to sell 100 condos. In January of this year, we only sold 69. It’s not a matter of people not looking; it’s more that they can’t find a quality product within their price range.  Inventory is low for both condos and houses. Lakefront homes face a similar situation as condos, just not as drastic. In January 2016, we sold 152 homes. In January of this year, we sold only 82. That’s a drop in sales of 46%. Last year, the median price for lakefront homes was $250,000. This year, it’s $280,000.  The most popular price range for lakefront homes right now is from $300,000 to $350,000. If you venture over the $500,000 price range, the market is much softer, so if you’re looking for a luxury lakefront home, now is a great time to pounce. If you have any questions about our market or are thinking or buying or selling, please feel free to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help! 

Our website has some great new features that we would like to share. You can search for homes by dozens of different criteria, including their specific location on a map. Looking to buy in Lake Ozark? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in Lake Ozark? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Fall is gorgeous down here at the lake with the weather cooling down and the leaves starting to change colors. We wanted to take this time to talk to you a little bit about our new website and some of the cool new features on it. Our website, searchlakeozarkshomes.com, is pretty simple to use, but we wanted to give you an overview of some of the features that it has. For starters, the entire active MLS is on our website and is updated in real time. The many different menus on our site have pages for buyers, sellers, and featured listings. In addition to those, we also have a few different home search functions. The first is the “search for homes” page that allows you to do an advanced search of our MLS. There are a lot of different filters you can add to your search to give you the homes you want to see. In addition to searching by the number of bedrooms or bathrooms, you can also search by keywords like “deck” or “waterfront.” You can even search by mile marker or the year it was built. You can make your search as broad or as specific as you want. You can make your search as broad or as narrow as you want. The other home search function is a map search that allows you to draw a map and only view homes in that specific area. Once you have set the right criteria, you can save all of your searches, which will be saved on the site after you create an account. You can also save your favorite homes to view later and choose when you want to be notified when prices change or new homes that match your criteria are listed on the market. All of your searches and favorites are saved in the “my notebook” section on our page. You can send your favorites to friends or family members via email or social media. You can also make notes on properties or compare them in your notebook. We are very excited for you to start using our website. We added all of these features for your benefit, and we hope that you will have an enjoyable experience using it. If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy the website!

Getting a VA loan on a lake property is hard because the process you must go through to get the project approved is quite intensive. There is, however, an upside to this. Looking to buy in Lake Ozark? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in Lake Ozark? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Why is it so hard to get a VA loan on some lake properties, especially condos? According to Tom Spradling, our local mortgage officer, there is a process you must go through to get the project approved, and it’s quite intensive. What normally happens is that either the management company of the Homeowners Association or the Homeowners Association itself will have to fill out and complete an entire questionnaire that will be reviewed. Once that’s approved, the project will be approved for VA financing. The process you must go through is quite intensive. One of the good things about VA approval on a project is that the project’s approval does not expire. So, condo projects can be approved and loans can be made using VA financing on condos here at the Lake of the Ozarks, but it’s hard sometimes because the process is stringent. If you have any questions, please keep them coming. Give me a call or send me an email and I’d be happy to help you in any way I can!

The Lake Ozark third quarter statistics are in, and the numbers show that the market is doing quite well across the board. Buyers are out and willing to pay, but inventory is low. Looking to buy in Lake Ozark? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in Lake Ozark? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Curiosity about what's going on in the market is high, so today I wanted to talk about the third quarter market statistics. Lakefront homes are actually doing very well right now. The average sale price is up $10,000 from $311,000 last year to $321,000 this year. If you're looking to sell, it's a great time to hit the market. Similarly, the average list-to-sale price last year was 94.4%, and this year it's up to 95.5%. The average days on market dropped from 155 last year down to 142 this year. The biggest problem we have in the Lake Ozark market, though, is a lack of good inventory. Last year we sold 509 homes, and we have sold 469 this year. The only reason for this is that we just don't have the homes to sell. Buyers are out there and they're willing to pay more. Days on market are good, too. If you price your home properly when selling, you're going to get people looking to buy it. Buyers are out there and they're willing to pay more. Non-lakefront homes are becoming more important here as more people decide it's a great place to live. In our market last year, 548 homes were sold. This year, 607 homes were sold. The average price on these non-lakefront homes rose slightly from $130,000 to $131,000, and list-to-sale ratio also rose slightly from 94.9% to 95.3%. Days on market for off-water homes went from 85 to 60. It's a great time to sell these homes as well. Condos sales are up slightly this year, too; 461 units sold this year compared to 446 last year. Condos have a 95.8% list-to-sale price ratio, so it's a great market. All in all, it's a great market across the board. The only thing I see down are lots, because we're seeing some hesitation in builders. That's mostly because you can buy a lakefront home cheaper than you can build one in today's market. If you'd like a copy of any of the market statistics or you have questions about the Lake Ozark market, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We'd be happy to hear from you.

Karen McFarland, one of our great agents, is here today to talk about dock safety, an important issue here at the lake. Thousands of people come here each year, and we want to keep our lakes safe, happy, and wonderful by spreading the word on dock safety. If you are coming to the lake, you will likely be on a dock at some point. As a responsible dock owner, there are a few things you should keep in mind to keep you, your friends, and your family safe. First off, you should have a visual inspection of your dock done each year. Especially in places with rough water, there can be hazardous situations when docks move around too much. It’s also a good idea to get a GFCI tester to make sure your GFCI works. “ If you feel a shock, swim away from the dock. ” You should also keep an eye on your neighbors’ docks and make sure that they are being inspected on a regular basis. You should know how to shut off the electricity on their dock if there is any. If you have young people swimming around your dock, have them keep this in mind: “If you feel a shock, swim away from the dock” and “If in doubt, shut it down.” Practicing good dock safety means making sure everyone is as safe as possible. You don’t want anything bad to happen. If you have any questions for us about your dock, don’t hesitate to reach out. We would love to hear from you via phone or email. Hope to hear from you soon!