Service Real Estate

A high asking price is not a negotiating position. It is a filter that removes your own buyers.

Now here is the part that catches people. Alaska is a non-disclosure state. Sale prices are not public record here, which means that estimate you pulled up online is built on asking prices and guesswork, not on what anything actually sold for. You cannot look up the real number. Neither can your neighbor who told you what your house is worth.

I can see it. If your listing has gone stale, call me and we will sit down with the actual closed numbers. Sometimes the fix is new photos. More often it is the price.

Someone asked me last week what makes a house feel like home.

I did not have a good answer at the time. I have been thinking about it since.

I do not think it is the house. I have moved more than ten times in my life and some of those houses never felt like much of anything. The ones that did had something else going on. People who knew my name. A routine I actually looked forward to. A place I kept coming back to.

That is the thing I cannot sell anyone. I can find you the right house. The rest of it you build yourself, over years, usually without noticing it is happening.

But I can tell you which neighborhoods make it easier. That part I know well.

Everyone keeps telling me the market feels slow right now. Here is what it actually looks like.

ANCHORAGE
276 active, 223 pending, 14 new

EAGLE RIVER AND CHUGIAK
76 active, 81 pending, 2 new

WASILLA, PALMER AND SURROUNDING
577 active, 301 pending, 3 new

605 homes are under contract across Southcentral. In Eagle River, more pending than active. What is actually thin is new inventory, nineteen listings between all three areas, and that is a seller shortage, not a buyer one.

Slow is not the same as bad. There are just fewer people in the room, and that is not a problem if you are one of them.

Want to know what this means for your house or your budget? Let's talk.

If you are buying a home in Alaska, the heating system is not a detail. It is one of the biggest cost decisions attached to the house.

Oil, natural gas, Monitor, Toyo. They all heat a home. They do not all cost the same to run, repair, or replace, and they do not all make sense in the same location.

Swipe through for a plain English breakdown of what you are actually looking at.

And if you are under contract right now, ask your inspector to look closely at the heat source. It is worth the extra attention.

Here is what most people miss about buying a home in Alaska in the fall.

Less competition. The buyers who were out in June are not out in September. Fewer offers on the table means fewer bidding wars and more room to negotiate.

More motivated sellers. A home that has been sitting since July belongs to someone who has been waiting a while. Waiting makes people flexible.

Faster answers. When agents, lenders, and inspectors are not slammed, everything moves quicker. Your questions get answered the same day instead of three days later.

The tradeoff is inventory. There is less to choose from than in peak season. But if you know what you want, fall is often the easier market to buy in.

If you have been waiting for spring, it might be worth a conversation now.

August and September in Alaska is quieter in the real estate world, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

Every year around this time the market slows down. Buyers stop scrolling listings. Sellers stop calling. Showings thin out. And there is a simple reason for it. People are out fishing, hiking, camping, and squeezing everything they can out of the last stretch of real summer.

I know this because I have been out there too. This was me last week, and I make no apologies for it.

If you are in the middle of buying or selling right now and the waiting is starting to get to you, know that the quiet is seasonal, not personal. Nothing is wrong with your house. Nothing is wrong with your offer. Alaska is just busy being Alaska for a few more weeks.

Enjoy it while it lasts. We will all be inside again soon enough.

Thinking about trading Anchorage for the Valley?

You are not the only one. It comes up more every year. More land, more space, a slower pace, and prices that stretch further than they do in town.

Here is an idea. If you are already heading out to Palmer for the fair, make a day of it. Come out a few hours early and we will walk through a few houses before you hit the fairgrounds. You get a real feel for the neighborhoods instead of guessing from listing photos, and you are already out here anyway.

The drive changes how people think about the Valley. It is easier than it sounds on paper.

Give me a call and we will put something on the calendar.

A small piece of advice that will save you a cold week in November.

Schedule your heating system inspection now.

In August, heating techs have open calendars. You call, they come out, and you are done. Wait until the first hard freeze and you are on a two week waitlist along with everyone else who waited.

This is not just for buyers. If your furnace or boiler has not been serviced in the last year, August/September is the cheapest and easiest time to handle it. Parts are in stock. Nobody is charging emergency rates.

If you need a referral for someone reliable, reach out. I keep a list.

The Alaska State Fair opens Friday, and for a lot of us it is the real end of summer.

Giant cabbages. The smell of the food row. Running into six people you know before you make it past the front gate. We have been making that drive out to Palmer for years now and the routine barely changes.

Favorite foods, favorite rides, goofy photos and tons of shared memories.
That is what I think about when someone tells me they are looking for a home in Alaska. You are not just buying square footage. You are picking which traditions become yours.

Going this year? Tell me what you are getting in the food row.

The house has been Active on the MLS for a bit now.

After a month of well pump repairs, septic inspections, radon mitigation, five CMAs, seventeen years of decluttering, one very generous friend with a staging eye, and about a hundred moments of "why did I think I could do this alone," it's out there. In the world. Being walked through by strangers.

And I have thoughts.

The showing prep is its own kind of workout. Mop between showings. Wipe every counter. Fluff every pillow. Hide every dog toy. Do it again tomorrow. And the day after. Keeping a house of seventeen years camera-ready every single day is not for the faint of heart.

But here's what I've noticed. Every time I lock the door and drive away so someone can walk through, I catch myself hoping they see what I see. The good light. The quiet mornings. The way the yard opens up in summer.

Which is exactly what every seller I've ever worked with feels. I just know it now in a way I didn't before.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along this month. To Arrow Pumping, Brandon's Onsite, the Radon team, my ladies real estate group, my staging friend, and the neighbor who fixed my yard. And to my clients past and present who trusted me with your journey before I knew what mine was going to feel like from the inside.

Still in the middle. Still moving forward. Still grateful.

Onward.