Get My Ham Lake Minnesota Home Value!

Are you planning to sell your home in Ham Lake, Minnesota soon? Do you need more information on where to start? 

When you need to sell a home in the Ham Lake area, I will help you get the process started quickly. My innovative marketing and top notch negotiating skills will get your property sold FAST and at the best possible price too.  A market analysis by a professional REALTOR® is your first step in the home selling process. It will give you an ACCURATE VALUE of your current home...not a quick computer generated one. 

Interested? Read testimonials from my sellers

The Ham Lake winter market is active! Home buyers are still searching for acreage homes but few good, affordable options have listed in the north and east Minneapolis/St. Paul metro since fall. 17 homes have sold in the city of Ham Lake in November but only 12 listed. AND 3 of these homes are already under contract! Currently there are 44 homes listed in Ham Lake (34 previously owned and 10 new construction). Only a handful of these properties are priced at a number affordable to the average home buyer. Listing your home in the next few months could maximize your sales price due to the low housing inventory in the area.

Selling acreage is one of my specialities. I have 15+ years experience with septic systems, compliance tests, well disclosures and other rural real estate issues.

For additional information about working with me, contact me to obtain a FREE Home Value Report. Or better yet call me, Teri Eckholm/Boardman Realty 651-336-7073 and arrange a no cost/obligation market analysis on your home today.

FYI-- I do answer my own phone so when you call, you will be talking directly to me!



Copyright 2015 www.terieckholm.com

Selling your Ham Lake Home—What You NEED to Know about Septic Systems

So you plan to sell your Ham Lake acreage home soon. Whether you have one acre or 10, you have a private sewer or septic system to get rid of sewage. This will require a disclosure and quite possibly a compliance test. Do you know what these are? Even if you do not, make sure the REALTOR® you choose, does.

Surprisingly, not all Minnesota real estate agents are familiar with septic systems.  And the lack of knowledge can be costly to a seller. Living in area where private wells and sewage treatment is the norm, has given me the opportunity to work with these properties on a daily basis.  I put this knowledge to use to reduce headaches and surprises down the road in the sales process. 

As of today, Ham Lake does not require a point of sale inspection for septic when selling your home.  This means the city will not require you to have a compliance test on the septic. But it can be advantageous for a seller to consider having the test done prior to listing the home. Why? Because most buyers will make offers contingent on the inspection of the septic system.  If a seller has pre-inspected the system to ascertain it is in compliance, he can provide a copy to potential buyers thus avoiding a contingency being attached to the offer. Also if the system is found to be non-compliant, a seller may be required to upgrade the system. If the buyer has negotiated a sales price prior to the compliance test, he will not want to pay additional for the property even with a new septic. But if a seller pre-inspects and it is determined an upgrade is required, the home can often be sold for a higher price due to the new private sewage system.   

Have more questions about your selling your Ham Lake home? Let me be your professional guide. If you are buying, selling or relocating to Minnesota and need help from a professional REALTOR®, give me, Teri Eckholm of Boardman Realty, a call or visit my website for a FREE Home Buyer Success Guide or FREE Home Value Report. I specialize in acreage and lakeshore properties in the north and east Twin Cities metro area including Ham Lake, Lino Lakes and all communities in the Forest Lake School District. Serving Anoka, Chisago, Ramsey and Washington Counties in Minnesota.

Copyright 2015 www.terieckholm.com 

Home Selling Tips—What do Sponge Painting and SpongeBob Have in Common?

Home Selling Tips Sponge/Textured Painting

Both SpongeBob and sponge painting were hugely popular and trendy a decade ago but are now passé. I know some people will argue that SpongeBob is still your kid’s favorite television show, heck the show was renewed for 9^th season in 2011. And, some people still love their sponge painted walls as much as the yellow cartoon character with the square pants. But if you want to sell your house in 2012, the sponge painting and faux texturing techniques that were very popular in the late 1990’s, must go!

My family does not have our Ham Lake home on the real estate market. However, after a decade of looking at rag rolled, sponged and textured walls, it was time to take down the dated wallpaper borders and paint our interior walls a neural, warm tone. We updated the kitchen and had new flooring put in a year ago and decided it was time to add a more trendy hip interior style to our home.  My husband and I are discussing a move in the next few years and we don’t want to have to update everything at one time. So in the same way teens across Minnesota kicked old SpongeBob SquarePants to the curb with like likes of Barney and the Power Rangers, sponge painting was out of the house.

I must admit when we began the project, I had a bit of trouble painting over all the sponging in my living room, laundry room, ½ bath and hallways. After all I had painstakingly selected the perfect two, sometimes three shades of paint to achieve the perfect look and match the wallpaper border. There was the neutral basecoat and then a light blue and tan for the laundry room. In the living room I used a special texture tool that looked like a dust mop to add a pale green texture to the taupe base. Every room was a thing of beauty when I finished it. Yet, that was well over a decade ago when my son started kindergarten. Since he is graduating and no longer wears cartoon characters on his t-shirts, it was time to have a different more up-to-date look to our house too.

One of a homebuyer’s biggest objections to this style of painting is the texture. Homebuyers will look at that bumpy surface and think that repainting will not be easy. Sure, it may take more than one coat of paint to cover over the myriad of shades that the multiple layers of sponge application provided, but it isn’t a huge project. However to a new homebuyer, getting rid of the sponge look will seem like a time consuming project.

I was very freeing to finally let go of the sponge-look….but I have a confession to make. The photo is from our master bath. It’s still stuck in the ninties but like I said we aren’t selling this year. But I guarantee that every trace of pink, gray and white will be long gone before the first potential buyer steps over the threshold!

Quick tips for selling your home

1. Paint over dated texturing and remove wallpaper.
2. Make any major/minor repairs.
3. Clean EVERYTHING!
4. Declutter and get rid of junk.
5. Can’t afford new kitchen appliances? Provide a home warranty. 

Copyright 2012 www.terieckholm.com