Catch Our Monthly Newsletter!

To read our monthly newsletter, click here and be sure to sign up to receive the newsletter via email every month. 

This month, we’re highlighting the upcoming vote in Lincoln for the new Haymarket arena, and feature a link to the virtual “fly-through” where you can see a dramatic rendering of what the proposed arena will look like when completed. 

Keep in mind that the arena is not just one building, but a whole entertainment complex that will bring revenue, visitors and new vitality to Lincoln. 

Our newsletter also contains a link to a free market snapshot where you can receive automated updates about what’s for sale in your neighborhood.

Call us any time with questions or comments!

A NEW TEAM MEMBER

We’d like to welcome the Searcy Team’s newest member, who is roughly 3 hours into his expected 19-year apprenticeship in the real estate business.

Ronin Fischer was born this morning to Hannah Searcy Fischer and her husband Colin Fischer.  Ronin (middle name to be determined) is 20 inches tall, and weighed in at a lucky 7lbs 7oz. 

Ask anyone on the team and they’ll tell you this is an awfully cute baby, and once you see him for yourself, you’ll know it’s true.  Congratulations to Hannah and Colin, as well as to grandparents Jeff and Mary Searcy.

News of the Weird

Now listen.  We’re all professionals here, but every once in a while, we find something weird in the world of Real Estate that is just too good to keep to ourselves. 

That’s why we want you to go check out this blog:  It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It!

We try really hard to take listing photos that don’t look like crime scene photography.  But some folks just don’t manage that for their listings.  Check out the photos from homes for sale all over the world, and we dare you not to be amused!

Open Doors, Open Houses

Once again, we’ve been promised decent weather this weekend, and since there’s NO FOOTBALL on TV, we’re hoping people get out of the house and go looking at real estate.

OK, yes…the PRO BOWL is on, but not until 6:30 p.m. our time.   That’s plenty of time for you to get out and see some houses and then get home to put barbecue sauce on the Little Smokies and get settled in the recliner.

So when you go looking this weekend, here are some great properties to tour.

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
$399,000 – 2715 North 98th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska  (Stunning large home on five acres just minutes from Lincoln’s amenities, with superb 1500ft outbuilding that has its own heat pump and RV bay)

$185,900 – 6820 Crooked Creek Ct, Lincoln, Nebraska (Lovely 2-story home with large master suite, country kitchen, 1/4 acre corner lot, cozy hearth room and terrific neighbors)

$87,500 - 2230 South 38th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Very cute cozy stone ranch with detached 1.5 stall garage, large back yard, nice storage, lots new.  Excellent price, in Sheridan Elementary district.)

$81,900 – 1637 North 23rd Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Just reduced price, excellent cozy bungalow with big front porch, cute as a button and close to University and downtown)

$67,000 – 840 F Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Amazing price on super cute home with new carpet and paint, 1,700sf of living space, fenced yard, enclosed porch, 3BR and 2Baths)

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
$135,750 – 4827 Franklin Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Tons of square footage, in excellent area.  Nice sized yard, everything on one level, pretty wood floors, very attractive and lots of house for the price!)

$125,000 – 2037 F Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Completely remodeled, 4BR, 2BA home with detached garage and additional off-street parking in back for up to three more vehicles.)

$124,900 – 916 El Avado Avenue, Lincoln, Nebraska (Superb 2+1BR home with 2-stall garage, carport and attached workshop, gorgeous wood floors inside, 2baths, huge kitchen and only one owner since 1958!)

$159,900 – 716 South 29th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Totally remodeled 2.5 story home, formal dining, gorgeous kitchen, new upstairs baths, finished basement)

$146,500 – 929 Furnas Avenue, Lincoln, Nebraska (Huge 3BR, 3BA home with over 1700sf of living space, pluse 800 more in the basement; detached 2.5 stall garage, great kitchen, tons of room to spread out!)

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
$139,800 – 8501 Horizon Drive, Lincoln, Nebraska (Super sharp ranch off 84th and Vine area, large deck, fenced yard, nice master suite, finished basement, pretty picture window.  Priced to sell!)

$179,950 – 521 South 29th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (Woods Park classic 2.5 story house with Lincoln’s most fantastic woodwork, oak floors, country kitchen, four bedrooms and 2 detached garages, situated on two city lots in the heart of town)

$575,000 – 5521 S 90th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (In the HiMark Golf Course development, you won’t find a more fabulous house at this price!  3+BR, theatre room, private study, sumptuous master bath, gorgeous columns, walkout lower level, covered deck and a view of the golf course)

Client Portal

What the heck is a client portal?

A client portal is a very cool link we can send you that gives you access to your own exclusive info on properties in our area that fit your search criteria when you are looking for a home.

For example, if you tell us you are looking for a three bedroom brick ranch in Lincoln, that it must have a two-stall garage, that there must be a basement, that the house must be a minimum of 1100 square feet in area and that you don’t want anything built before 1950, with a maximum price of $150,000…well, we put that all into a search of our local MLS (multi-listing service) and the results come up as a large list of available properties.

Once this search is saved under your name with your email address, the entire list is emailed to you, where you can look at photos of the houses, etc.  When we activate the “client portal” you just click on the link to the portal, and all your properties show up one one page under “newly matched.”

As you go through the properties, you can check off the ones you don’t care for, and click to send them to the “rejected” tab.  The ones you like, you can send to the “saved” tab.  After that, whenever you check the portal, you can look at the “newly matched” tab and see if there are new properties that fit your criteria that have just come on the market. 

You can post comments about the properties in a field on each listing’s page, and you can look at the room dimensions, photos, and even click on a link to the County Assessor’s page to see what the tax value is. 

When you’re ready to take a look at some of the saved homes in your portal, just give us a call and we can schedule showings. 

This is a free service we provide that takes just a few minutes to set up, but can save you hours and hours of searching through multiple websites.  If it’s listed for sale in Lincoln and fits your criteria, it should be in your portal.

For more information, give us a call today at 475-5555.

Melting, Melting, What a World!

What’s black and white and getting smaller all over?  Lincoln’s snowdrifts!  All that snow piled along the sides of the streets, flecked with dirt and car exhaust….well, it sometimes makes a winter day a little dreary.  But last week’s weather slowly but surely put the hurt on that snow.  And then Saturday it got up into the 40s and we could hear water everywhere–the snow is melting!

As always, be safe this time of year with the snow melting, since it can freeze when the temps dip overnight and make the roads extra slick.  Also, be very mindful no matter what time of year it may be when there is extra moisture outside. 

Make sure your gutters are clear and that the downspouts are firmly attached at the corners to direct any water from snowmelt well away from your foundation.  Because a basement can flood in the winter just as it can in the summer.

Finally, take advantage of this break in the weather to check outside for maintenance issues, debris, etc.  Make sure the slope away from your house doesn’t invite water into your window wells, and check the concrete in your driveway and sidewalks now that they are more clear to make sure there aren’t new cracks or heaving in the seams.

And remember, it’s winter, but all this snow is a blanket for the flowers that are waiting to come up.  We’re only a week away from Groundhog Day, and spring really is just around the corner.  Hang in there!

What Is My Home Worth?

There are a number of variables in determining a home’s value, and although many people feel that their home is priceless, emotion cannot be a factor in property valuation.

Certainly, any home will have intangible amenities that appeal to emotion without adding monetary value, such as ambience, paint color, or sentimental value.  But these are subjective things.

Determining the market value of a home is a matter of weighing the subject property against similar homes in the area over a short period of time, comparing like properties and their sale performance, usually over the past six months.

Market value is the price your home can be expected to fetch on the market in its current conditions and based upon the willingness of buyers to spend and lenders to underwrite.  Market value is not the same as appraised value, and assessed value (for taxes) is not the same as market (buyer) value or appraisal (bank) value. 

Confused yet? 

A Realtor will find homes that have sold in the past, and narrow down the search to your area of town, similar square footage and house style, similar age of the home (within ten years either way, generally) and begin the comparison.

Factors affecting home market value include number of bedrooms and baths, square footage above grade, basement square footage finished, whether the home has a walkout or daylight basement, number of garage stalls, age of the roof, heating system, number of fireplaces, extent of upgrades, curb appeal, locational appeal and other factors. 

Each comparable property is adjusted by a dollar amount for amenities it does or does not have compared with the subject property, and these adjustments are added or subtracted to the comparable property’s sale price to give an estimate of what the subject property might sell for based on how it compares with homes recently sold.

For example, if your home is the subject property and the house down the street is a comparable property that recently sold, you can expect the fact that your house has three bedrooms and the other house has only two to work in your favor and add market value to your home compared with that one.  If, on the other hand, the house down the street has a fully finished basement and yours does not—you can expect that your home might not compare as favorably since basement finish does add value to a home.

In Lincoln, we are fortunate to be able to click onto our County Assessor’s website and see a tax assessed valuation of just about any residence in the county.  The caveat to this is that these are assessed values, not appraisals or market values.  It’s important not to base your entire opinion of a property’s market values on the dollar amount assigned for the purpose of levying property tax.

If you are interested in learning about your home’s market value, let us know!  We can help you find out about how home values are trending in your area by filling out a simple form HERE.  And if you’d like to visit about a detailed market analysis of your home, you can always call us to set up an appointment for a member of our team to tour your home and meet with you about its prospects on the market.