it’s becoming a stronger seller’s market every day.

Read Dave Ramsey's 

3 Mistakes Home Sellers Make

So far this year, many real estate markets have jumped into action. With low inventory and plenty of motivated buyers,it’s becoming a stronger seller’s market every day.

But that doesn’t mean a home seller can’t make a mistake that could derail their home sale, costing them both time and money. If you’re selling your home, make sure you avoid these three mistakeswhen you put your home on the market:

Too Much Price Tag

Don’t discourage potential buyers with an unrealistic asking price. Ask a real estate agent for a comparative market analysis that will show you how much homes like yours in your area are selling for.The number-one mistake home sellers make is overpricing their home. Many want to sell their home for enough to pay off their mortgage and have a nice down payment for their next home. But your home is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.

Taking a Low Offer Personally

The other side of that coin is home sellers’ tendency to take offense to a low offer. Remember, a buyer’s offer is not a reflection of their opinion of your home or your housekeeping abilities. They likeyour home, or they wouldn’t make an offer, right?

The sale of your home is a business transaction, and even if you’re starting with a low offer, now’s the time to negotiate. Make your counteroffer, and if they’re truly interested, the potential buyer will improve their offer.

Skimp on Advice to Save on the Sale

When the housing market is hot, many sellers think they’ll have no problem selling their homes on their own. So they try to “save money” by not paying an agent a commission to help them sell their home.

But last year, the typical for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) home sold for $174,900, while the average agent-assisted home sold for $215,000. FSBO home sellers also found handling the paperwork for a home sale and pricing their home the most difficult tasks they had to handle.

Read complete post at. http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/3-mistakes-home-sellers-make

Strong prices, limited supply boost interest in high-quality farmland

 

High quality farmland remains in demand nationwide, and buyers are competing for top acres in Illinois and Missouri.

"We're seeing strong prices, kind of limited supply which kind of goes hand in hand," Jim Sullivan with Sullivan Auctioneers in Hamilton said.

Historically, Sullivan said, that's pretty common when it comes to farmland.

"People tend to hang onto their land. They become attached to it," he said. "It's not often that it comes up for sale."

Top farmland selling for $15,000 per acre across the region also helps boost prices for medium or lower-quality land.

"Over 50 percent is being purchased by farmers. Investors are still active, but farmers are getting at least more than half," Sullivan said. "It's a strong long-term investment that historically has obviously been a good investment."

An accelerated farmland sell-off at the end of 2012 led to continued low supplies of premium quality property, according to Farmers National Company, the largest farmland and ranchland real estate company in the country.

Competition for land has kept values strong, averaging 20 percent higher values over comparable land in 2012, with much of the continued rise due to auction activity driving sale prices.

"Continued low supplies of land in this area have kept the market strong," Sam Kain, area sales manager for Farmers National in Iowa and Minnesota, said in a news release. "Low interest rates have also helped drive the market. Without low rates, current commodity prices do not justify current land values. Any jump in rates could lead to a sales slowdown, but its strength as an investment is keeping activity healthy."

Quality farmland in the East Central region continues to see moderate to steady land values, with increases near 4 percent over the past six months, according to Roger Hayworth, area sales manager for Farmers National in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, eastern Kentucky and eastern Missouri.

Despite fewer sales, Hayworth said he is seeing larger parcels of land being sold in individual transactions. Top prices in the region can be seen in Illinois at $12,500 per acre.

Several positive income years have put farmers in a stronger position than years past to be able to increase the size of their operations. "Many continue to evaluate their personal and business situations before buying, but are making the move when an opportunity arises," Hayworth said in the news release.

The land sales picture complements the farm economy.

"The farm economy here locally and throughout the Midwest is very strong," Sullivan said. "Farmers have managed to have a couple pretty good years. Coupled together with their willingness, even medium-size farmers' desire to grow helped increase the value of farmland throughout the Midwest."

Read complete article at http://buff.ly/1cfgZBD

We may have more to offer than you think.

Last week, we sat up our booth at the Indiana Bankers Association conference to talk with bankers about what services we offer and how that may benefit them.



This was our first time at the IBA Conference. "The experience was delightfully overwhelming. We saw, right away, that we were there to fill a much needed service to the Banking Industry. Our potential to help in their Trust Departments as well as the Real Estate, Business and Equipment Liquidations was met with much hospitality." Dave Matney said, when reflecting on the conference.

United Country Coffey Realty and Auction provides a variety of services to fit the needs of a large scope of people. If you are a banker, farmer, mom, dad, retiree, business person and the list goes on... we want to help you. Sell a house, buy a house, liquidate a business, buy or sell rural land, or help settle an estate. We have a variety of talented staff that can help you.

Below is a list of the services we offer, if you would like more information please call our office 812.824.6000.

Real estate - homes, historic property, waterfront property, commercial real estate, farms, ranches, land and recreational property.

Complete Estate Solutions

Commercial Business Liquidation

Benefit Auctions

Internet Auctions

Foreclosure/REO

We can't wait to help you!!

3 Mistakes That Will Ruin Your Home-Buying Experience

In just a couple of months, we’ll be deep in the heart of home-buying season. Some house hunters will succumb to house fever, which can cause calm, rational people to resort to knee-jerk reactions and downright hissy fits in the quest for their perfect home.

You can avoid the troubles that go along with house fever-induced decisions by watching out for these three mistakes:

Buying while still in debt (or without an emergency fund)

Debt and/or the lack of an emergency fund can ruin your home-buying experience quicker than you can say “leaky roof.” Don’t buy a home until you are out of debt and have 3–6 months of expenses saved for emergencies. Save up a down payment of at least 10% and keep your house payment 25% or less of your take-home pay on a 15-year mortgage. You could also choose to buy your home with cash and stay out of debt permanently!


Buying without a home inspection

A home inspection usually costs a few hundred bucks—money well spent if it helps you avoid potential disasters after closing. Your inspection will include a thorough review of the home’s structural elements and electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems. The inspector’s report gives you the information you need to decide to buy the home as-is or to negotiate with the seller to fix the problems or reduce the price.

Buying through the seller’s listing agent

Most real estate agents are friendly and outgoing, so it’s easy to make the mistake of trusting the seller’s agent to help you buy one of their listings. But the fact is, the listing agent works for the seller—that’s who they’re paid to look out for. You need to hire an agent whose sole focus is to represent you in the transaction. These agents are often called “buyer’s agents.” A buyer’s agent’s job is to show you properties and help negotiate your contract to make sure you’re getting a good deal. On average, a buyer’s agent saves you 5% on your home purchase. That’s $7,500 on a $150,000 home.

View complete article here. http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/3-mistakes-ruin-home-buying/?ectid=elp.facebook.post.4-27-2013

Did the Nice Weather this Weekend get you ready to Garden?

April gardening checklist

Gardens start to come alive this month, and if the weather cooperates, it's a time to plant, water everything and take care of the lawn.

In some areas, April brings the first signs of winter's end; in others, it's the gateway to hot, summery weather. But in most climates, it's the magical month when gardens start to come to life.
Remember to adjust gardening tips to fit your own growing season — but most important of all, wait until the last frost date to put tender plants in the ground.
Greenhouses
Here comes the sun, which means that greenhouses are starting to heat up. On warm days, be sure your greenhouse is well-ventilated. Give more regular care to greenhouse plants by stepping up your watering and fertilizing schedule. Also make sure to check your greenhouse thoroughly for pests.

Container gardens
Even beginning gardeners can brighten up a terrace, patio, deck or windowsill with containers tumbling with flowers.

• Use hanging baskets, pots of all sizes and planter boxes — or ask the kids to help you paint old pails or coffee cans — for clusters of color.
• Fill containers with bulbs and bedding plants to be transplanted in warmer weather, or make permanent plantings.
• Spark up potted shrubs and trees by surrounding them with dashes of perennial color.
• Group cactus plants of different heights and shapes, or try your hand at a container bonsai garden.
• Apartment dwellers, if you haven't made a windowsill herb garden, what are you waiting for?

Watering
Don't let your garden dry out before it even hits full stride. Get into the rhythm of watering regularly early in the season to ensure happy, healthy plants.

• Set up a watering system to minimize the work of regularly watering your garden beds. Make sure a hose or watering can is accessible in areas that you will water often throughout the growing season.
• In container gardens, make sure that your geraniums, pansies and other container plants are getting enough water.
• This is an ideal time to check on the moisture of plantings at the base of evergreens or under eaves. These are often left parched, even in rainy climates.

read more at - http://realestate.msn.com/april-gardening-checklist

Buy a home at auction? ....

"...most real estate auctions today are not sheriff's tax sales, but rather are conducted by professional firms specializing in this fast-growing segment of the real estate industry..."

Read complete article at http://www.unitedcountry.com/aboutus/articles/WhereToRetire_Article.pdf

Lifestyle, Rural Real Estate Market Interest at All-Time High

United Country Achieves Record Web Traffic in 2012

February 5, 2013 – (KANSAS CITY, Mo.) – Over ninety percent of buyers start their real estate search online, and in 2012 they showed record interest in lifestyle and rural real estate. According to United Country Real Estate, the nation’s largest seller of non-urban real estate, visitor traffic at their over 3,500 websites experienced a dramatic rise in 2012 and early 2013.

“Year-over-year, web traffic at UnitedCountry.com increased each quarter 21, 19, 24 and 33 percent, respectively over 2011’s excellent traffic results,” said David Dickey, chief technology officer for United Country Real Estate. “We received over a million visitors a day each and every month throughout the year, which had not been achieved in the 88-year history of United Country Real Estate.”

According to Dickey, these numbers only reflect traffic for the company’s main website, www.UnitedCountry.com, and does not account for the firm’s other 3,500-plus websites.

“When you include the performance of our other property marketing sites, we capture over 3,000,000 visitors per month – dwarfing the performance of all other major real estate brands on a per-listing, per-office and per-agent basis, and putting lifestyle and rural real estate traffic on the level of leading, primarily urban residential sites, such as Zillow and Trulia,” said Dan Duffy, chief executive officer of United Country Real Estate.

This increase in web traffic was also reflected in strong gains in real estate sales for the company. United Country’s sales volume experienced a dramatic rise in 2012, resulting in a 27.6-percent increase in annual sales volumes versus 2011.

“While we are pleased by a solid performance for the 2012 calendar year, we are especially excited about our growth in closed sales of larger ‘investment grade’ farm, ranch, recreational and timberland properties with sale values ranging from $1 million to $50 million,” said Duffy. “In addition to this over 40 percent increase in land sales, we have seen resurgence in sales of residential homes in the smaller city and towns we serve, which grew by over 12 percent. We also viewed large gains in residential auction sales – 41 percent better than 2011 – as this marketing method continues to gain in popularity.”

Read more at http://www.unitedcountry.com/aboutus/pressreleases/ruralrealestate-webtraffic.htm