Janna Scharf, GRI, CSP, CLHMS Coeur d'Alene Home Sellers Motivated to Offer Incentives to Buy
The other day I got a call from a reporter at The Coeur d'Alene Press. He was working on a story about the climate of our local real estate market. He asked me what it was that was motivating my sellers to sell, and some of the buyer's incentives that were being offered.
I quickly went down a mental list of my sellers. A woman is getting married, and a man is getting divorced. A retiree on 11 acres has bones that hurt and can't keep up the property any longer. A builder has a spec home to sell. One seller has a tax bill to pay in April and needs to sell an investment property. I have a fellow who sells a parcel of land when he needs a cash infusion, and he's there. Three of my listings are investment properties that went south, and are now in short sale situations. And then, there's a nice family who is answering God's call to Oregon.
Wth the exception of that family, and my builder, these sellers are all in high stress situations. Some days I feel like a therapist. I advise them on things that they can and should be doing to increase their odds of selling success, but some things are simply out of our control. Like the absence of active buyers in certain price ranges.
As for incentives offered to buyers, all frustrated sellers are trying to come up with SOMETHING to attract one of the few qualified buyers in their price range. My personal experience is that incentives don't work in the way they are intended. People base their purchasing decision on the property they find that best suits their needs and desires. With the exception of financial incentives that may make the difference in whether or not they can make a purchase, the incentives tend to become a nice bonus on a purchase they would have made anyway.
Some of the incentives that sellers of mine have offered, that were never collected, were ownership in a week's timeshare at the ski mountain; 6 months mortgage payments; an extra % of the purchase price to the buyer's agent; installation of a dock; Kroc Center annual membership; and the more typical appliances, furnature, closing costs and points paid.
The story came out in the paper today. I enjoyed seeing myself quoted, and for the most part, correctly. I wish I had a crystal ball to know what our market would look like a year from now. All I can do is listen to the forecasters and study the stats. The positive numbers we are seeing the past couple of months are encouraging, but my instincts tell me we still have a long way to go.
Janna Rankin Scharf provides a superior level of real estate services to home buyers and sellers in Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai County, Idaho. Visit www.JannaScharf.com to search for homes in the Coeur d'Alene MLS for anywhere in spectacular North Idaho.
No matter how grand or modest your real estate dreams may be, you can turn to me in confidence. Give me a call today and let me know what I can do to be of service to you!
Janna Rankin Scharf AB, GRI, CSP, CNS, CLHMS 208.651.9700
My husband Rick and I took our youngest two kids to Seattle for a 36 hour escape. Kristen was home for 5 days before heading back to college, and had never been to Seattle. Subtract 10 hours driving there and back, and 10 hours in a hotel room, and we were left with exactly 16 hours for some FUN!
We had a great seafood lunch on the seashore and requested a couple of extra to-go boxes. We walked back to the the overflowing bank of berry bushes and had fun filling our boxes up. Our goal was to have enough berries left after we gorged on them to bake the pie that dreams are made of.
new, as an investment, 3 years ago. A year or two ago, when the market started turning south, he decided to unload them. Got two sold, and one under a lease option for a year. He told me how those folks were getting ready to exercise their option. Were approved to buy, but the appraisal came in about $10K less than the option price, which was what the seller paid for the house, and still owed. 
This is the 7th and final report in a series of Market Reports of Waterfront Homes for sale in the Coeur d'Alene area of beautiful North Idaho. These links will take you to the other reports in the series:
On the low end, $209,000 will get you a 536 sf cabin on 0.17 acre built in 1968. It is listed at $390.65 per square foot. It has 70 feet of sandy waterfronton Makins Bay and has been on the market for 93 days. Honestly, this is an example of a price that would have been impossible to find in recent years for a great property like this. Check out the photos, it is a great little cabin!
There are currently two homes with sales pending on Hayden Lake, with list prices of $375,000 and $1,295,000. 
This is Part 6 in a 7 part series of market reports on Coeur d'Alene Area Waterfront Homes for Sale. These links will take you to the other reports in the series:
Of the active listings, $195,000 will get you a 1460 sf float house built in 1993. Here's the MLS description: 
Click here
Days on Market is 110.
No waterfront homes sold on Twin Lakes in the past 12 months. 
Janna Scharf, GRI, CLHMS - This is part four in a series of seven market reports of waterfront homes for sale on our area's magnificent lakes and rivers. 
north of Rathdrum and within easy driving distance of Coeur d'Alene and Spokane. Spirit Lake has 12 miles of shoreline, is 4.5 miles long and one mile wide. 100 feet at its deepest, Spirit Lake is home to an abundance of spectacular lakefront views with the majestic Selkirk Mountains to the west and north.
The 9 homes for sale range in price from $299,000 to $1,199,000.
At the other end of the spectrum is a 3848+ sq. ft. multi-story log home on 100 feet of level, sandy lakefront. It was built in 1999 and sits on 0.57 acres. It has been on the market for 59 days.
Floating the North Fork of the Coeur d'alene River is the ticket for a pleasant afternoon with friends and family. Off the beaten tourist track in the summer, the Coeur d'Alene River attracts hoards of locals with their flotillas of fun. It's a party on the river! Young and old, in tubes, kayaks, pontoons, and all manner of rafts, hooked together and gently floating with the slow moving current. Literally, from babies to seniors and even dogs in life jackets, towing floating coolers with their picnic lunch and cold drinks. Meandering down the river. Once in a while someone breaks into song. Or a baby cries, briefly. A dog barks, a duck quacks. Mostly, the sounds are laughter and conversation. And everyone you pass, or who passes you, is smiling.
My sister Kerri turned us on to river floating. When my sister Ronna came for a visit with her family, a bunch of our extended family spent a day of fun on the river. We headed out on I-90 east of Coeur d'Alene to Exit 43 (Kingston). Once exiting the interstate, head north for about 1.5 miles on Coeur d'Alene River Road. There, our first stop was 
bit further north, past The Snake Pit, you'll come to a little store where you can pay $5 and park all day. This is the perfect, grassy spot to come out of the river when day is done. Of course, your caravan of river floaters will leave one car there and then continue up the river about 4 or 5 miles to find a good spot to put in. Be careful wherever you park, there was a story in the paper a couple weeks ago about many cars being towed from along the river. One family came out of the water, their car was towed, the sun was setting, they didn't have a cell phone, cash, or any clue what to do. Apparently, it's important that your parked car tire doesn't touch even a smidge of the road...
Once you find your upriver parking spot, it's a group effort to inflate the flotilla. Kerri has all manner of tubes, inflatable lounge chairs, rafts and to the amazement of EVERY passerby, a huge Coleman Party Island! It was the mother ship of our flotilla, and somehow we managed NOT to get a photo of it! Most of our photos were taken FROM the mother ship, shaped like a huge blue donut about 10 feet across, with a hole in the middle for dangling our toes, a back rest encircling it, and 
enough room for 6 or 7 people to comfortably float, lounge, eat, take photos and direct the other members of the flotilla. 
shallow, the neices and nephews played frisbee down the river while we bobbed along at a snails pace.
This is part three in a series of seven market reports of waterfront homes for sale on our area's magnificent lakes and rivers. You can take a look at details and photos of all homes for sale on the Spokane River in our MLS by clicking the link above. This list will be automatically updated daily through September 15 with new listings. Sold or expired listings will be dropped from the list. You can find links to the other reports in this series at the end of this post.
husband proposed to me! Recently, the beautiful new mixed-use development of Riverstone has taken shape in a reclaimed mill site. Upscale developments of high end homes and condos line the north side of the river as it snakes into Post Falls.
There are currently 44 single family homes for sale on the Spokane River, ranging in price from $324,900 to $19,995,000. Yes, that's right, $19,995,000! Twenty three homes have price tags of more than a million dollars!
At the other end of the spectrum is the palatial estate known to locals as The Amway House, or The River House, having been built by the Puryears in 1995 from their Amway fortune. On the market for 8 days for $19,995,000, with an MLS description that says "Showing this house is like a trip to Disneyland!" It has 28,468 sq. ft. Here are a couple of interesting facts about this exceptional home. Property taxes are a whopping $155,000 annually. The listing price per square foot is $702.34. The listing broker is offering to compensate a buyer's agent 2.5% of the purchase price, which on a full price offer would translate to a cool $499,875. 
Only one home has sold on the Spokane River in the past 12 months. As is the case with higher end homes in our market, no matter their location, there is a much higher supply than demand. Statistically speaking, there is a 44 year absorption rate for these Spokane Riverfront homes. One sale a year, 44 homes for sale, it would take 44 years at our current rate of sales to absorb this inventory. What this means for you, as a buyer, is that in all likelihood there will never be a better time to get a super deal on a spectacular Spokane Riverfront home.
This is part two in a series of seven market reports of waterfront homes for sale on our area's magnificent lakes and rivers. You can take a look at all of the homes for sale on Avondale Lake in our MLS by clicking the link above. This list will be updated daily through September 13. 
There are currently just four homes for sale with frontage on Avondale Lake, ranging in price from $675,000 to $989,000. 
$500,000 bought a 4385 sq. ft. home built in 1995 with 75' of frontage. It was originally listed for $795,000, and sold on July 22 after 976 Days on Market. It included a dock, boat, golf cart and $10,000 bonus to the selling agent. It sold for 62% of its original list price.
This is part one of a series of market reports of our area's spectacular waterfront homes for sale. You can take a look at all of the active listings for sale on Coeur d'Alene Lake in our MLS by clicking the link above. This list will be updated daily through September 14.
On the other end of the spectrum, $7,500,000 will get a well-heeled buyer a 6648 sq. ft. home on 15 acres in the Loffs Bay area on the west side of Coeur d'Alene Lake. That property also has a 2000 sq. ft. guest house and an 1100 sq. ft. dock, with 510 feet of water frontage. 
On the upper end, a stunning 13,000 sq ft home on two acres just east of Sanders Beach, near the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course, sold for $6,750,000. 
We received the following email blast from our MLS about suspicious behavior of a potential buyer. Please use good business practices and common sense when scheduling showings at vacant or secluded properties to strangers...
Although our number of sales in Kootenai County were down 6% from July 2008, they were stronger than June, which was down 12%. This could be a signal that a recovery is underway. Time will tell.
There was an 
A real mom & pop operation, Candy Taranto is mom and Charlie Taranto is pop. They have operated Valentino's locally with a Tuscan cafe theme for the past six years, on the pad in front of Target between Government Way and I-95. 
When they relocated and opened Valentino's Pizza in Coeur d'Alene, they added hot baked pizza, and pizza by the slice to their long-time featured take & bake variety. A new twist for them, they also added a full smoothie operation, where they serve up fruit filled smoothies to rival the smoothie specialty shops. Personally, I love popping in at lunch time for a piece of Mediterranean pizza by the slice. It just doesn't get any better!