Two Years of Recovery in Branson Real Estate

Aren’t you curious to find real stories of real estate rather than the sky falling media version of things that make you want to curl up in the fetal position and regret waking up in the morning?  Me too.  I came across some positive news that I thought was worth sharing.

I talked to some folks from Las Vegas over the weekend and I asked them how things were going.  They said, it was still bad in Las Vegas as home prices were still declining.  They asked how we were doing here in Branson and I gave them the typical Realtor answer that we never had the super high increase that Las Vegas had so we didn’t have as dramatic of a low but we did have some drama.

I like to work with facts rather than opinions so it inspired me to check the real numbers.

I keep a running tab of my own data that I process year after year to keep track of the Branson Real Estate Market and what I found was two years of recovery!

If you look at the number of transactions (closed sales) from  2005 until today you’ll see that 2005 was an amazing year for real estate in Branson with 13% to 15% appreciation in values from the previous year.  Then 2006-2008 were declining years, not only in the number of transactions, but also in the average price of a home.  The market bottomed in 2009 and has had two years of an increase in the number of transactions from the previous year in both 2010 and 2011.

The decline in the average sales price has leveled off to $141,169 from $143,169 in 2010 and $147,000 in 2009.  The foreclosure inventory is being absorbed and as it continues to do so, we should see an increase in that average home price.

But the good news is, buyers are out there and want real estate.  Interest rates are still at historic lows and so are average home prices.  People love a sale, and that’s evident an increase in the number of buyers to Branson Real Estate for the past two years.

Contributed by:

Jeramie Worley, GRI

Broker / Assoc

The Community Real Estate Group, LLC

140 Canyon Crossing, Hollister, MO 65672

Greedy Branson Home Owners Won’t Share Real Estate

Nor should they! When you buy a condo in Branson you are forced to share walls, roofs, foundations and the cost to maintain it all.  I know developers have come along way in condo construction with steel framing and concrete walls for sound reduction, but why share a wall if you don’t have to?  Go Crazy!

Branson Canyon is a community of single family homes that are zoned as condominiums along a private nook on Table Rock Lake.  Instead of only owning everything from the drywall in (as you would in the traditional sense) you own the interior and exterior of your building and the land underneath it.  This is considered your “unit” and everything else (such as the land between the homes) is the “common element”.  It is still as ultra low maintenance as a condo but it’s yours, all of it – finders keepers.  

We use the most maintenance free products on the market, like LP Smart Panel Smart Trim Siding, composite decking materials and a good coat of Sherman Williams paint.  We’ll even maintain your yard, landscaping and sprinkler system.  It’s all part of the package.

Here is the best part…If you were shopping for a condo in Branson or a vacation condo on Table Rock Lake, a good buyer’s agent, working for you, would find out the ins and outs of the Home Owners Association. Most importantly, how much has the association set aside for repairs and deferred maintenance.  If the answer is… a big goose egg, then you, along with all of your neighbors, could get an assessment for the needed repairs.  Yep, it’s the way it works in the condo world.  The association decides who does the work, when you get assessed and for how much.  But, imagine if you lived at Branson Canyon…since you own your single family home (zoned condo) you get to decide when you want a maintenance item done, who does it, and how much you want to spend.  More control is one of those comforts we talk about when we say you get all the convenience of a condo with all the comfort and privacy of a single family home.

The fact of the day is;  people buy condos because they are maintenance free, but how do you get all of your friends and family into your 1100 sq ft condo?  You don’t, you can’t.  Branson Canyon specializes in building 4-6 bedroom homes with room to spare.  There are very few 4 bedroom condos in the Branson real estate market and if you are looking for 5-6 bedroom condos…they don’t exist…except at Branson Canyon.

It’s a new concept to wrap your head around, but you’ll get used to it.  Our goal is to give you everything you expect and more as we pave a new way for real estate ownership in the Branson real estate market and so far, the feedback has been pretty darn good.

Branson New Home Construction: No building code, No Problem?

As a Realtor who sells Branson  new home construction, I always do a double take when I see a new house going up.  Sometimes I’ll even stop and look around.  I work primarily inTaney County,MO which has no building codes

.  They do have a Certificate of Conformity Permit, which is little more than an inspection to make sure the home is habitable, but outside of that, no one is checking to see if  the builder has gone about the systems or the structure properly.

Once I showed a (supposedly) completed branson new home to some prospective clients and I’m not joking, it looked like a large monster had scared off the subcontractors.  There were tools and lunch trash laying everywhere in the yard, the front door was left wide open and there were footsteps embedded in the concrete floor of the garage.

Further inspection revealed that there had been no box or ridge venting to the roof, and the drain for the main level laundry drained right onto the floor of the basement.  It had not been connected at all to the plumbing system.  Imaging, doing a load of laundry after you move in and you are in the basement working on a nice scrapbooking project. The next thing you know,  a soapy shower is raining down on you’re your many pages of grandmas 80^th’ birthday party from last spring…ruined, and darn it, now those die cut wood trees that you put down with dazzle tac glue are warped and just won’t stick anymore.

Just yesterday I saw a small 1400 sq ft home going up in a nearby neighborhood and they had all the forms up for the concrete slab.  There was no footing.  Now, I’m not a builder or an expert by any means, but that seemed like a cut corner to me.

I took a builder, from a development I had listed, out to look at the property and said, “Is this right?”  He gave me the thumbs down  but I still wasn’t satisfied. I had to know why.  Further research revealed that a Slab on Grade foundation is ok for areas where the ground doesn’t freeze, but here inMissouri, it does and therefore a T-Shaped footing is recommended to prevent frost heave.  Wow…seems like the corner wasn’t cut, it was totally hacked off.  All homes are built by humans and will have mistakes, or what builder like to call “character” but if this home is starting out this way, it’s going end up being Jim Carey by the time the roof goes on.

 

Branson new home construction at Branson Canyon

The builder I took over there cut his teeth on the strict and rigid building codes of Kansas City so he is was used to doing things a certain way, even though it is not required.  That’s the kind of gusto you want from your builder. Conversations about building codes or at least what your builder is used to…is a MUST, especially if you are building a home in Branson or Taney County, Missouri.

Contributed by:

Jeramie Worley, GRI

Broker /  Associate

The Community Real Estate Group, LLC

140 Canyon Crossing,Hollister,MO65672

417 336 4200

Author = Worley and Associates

Branson Vacation Rentals are in Demand in 2011 and Beyond

Somewhere between your last vacation and your next one, you’ll probably considerBranson,Missouri.  It is the third largest vacation destination in the United States, just behind Orlando, FL and Las Vegas, NV, and is reported by the Branson Chamber of Commerce to get anywhere from 7-9 million visitors per year.

 

Some people still choose to stay in hotels, but a growing trend is moving toward privately owned vacation rental homes.  Free from slamming doors and coffee pots in bathrooms, the large spacious vacation homes can accommodate an entire family with large, fully stocked kitchens and multiple living areas for room to spread out.  When a family pools their vacation resources, the cost per family per room is a huge savings.  One poplar rustic resort near Branson charges $165 per night for a one bedroom hotel room while you can spend only $350 per night atBransonCanyonand sleep 14.  Also, when you decide to cook a few meals at home instead of giving Joe’s Crab Shack a weeks pay for one family meal, the vacation home really starts to pay for itself.  Aside from the time when my brother-in-law embarrassed our entire family at a steakhouse inSanibel Island,FLwith a loud body noise, our most memorable times are around the table at home. When we cook and eat together, those are the best vacation memories aren’t they?

 

Look at some numbers.  If you are headed toOrlando,FLand go to a site like Homeaway.com to find a vacation home, you’ll find over 4000 vacation rentals to choose from, however, if you are headed to Branson, you have just over 200 to start with.  Then break it down to 4-6 bedroom homes and the list starts to get pretty small. 

 

With a growing trend of families using vacation home instead of hotels and growing trend of families pooling their resources to vacation smarter and furthermore, a supply this small compared to other vacation markets, now is an excellent time to buy a second home in Branson and rent it out when you are not using it.  Interest rates are still very low and purchase prices are still reasonable here in the Branson Real Estate Market.

 

Branson Canyon has become successful enough that people have decided to stay here full time.  In 2011BransonCanyonlaunched “Branson Canyon Reserves” for full time living where no vacation rentals are allowed. 

 

There is something for everyone here, but if you are smart, you’ll take the opportunity to get in now, before I succeed in letting the rest of the world know how great of a placeBranson Canyon really is.

 

Contributed by:

Jeramie Worley

Broker

The Community Real Estate Group, LLC

140 Canyon Crossing,HollisterMO65672

jerworley@bransoncanyon.com

Branson Real Estate Values Going Up in a Shaky Market

Amidst the mega golf communities inSouthwest Missouriand the multi-million dollar timeshare enterprises. BransonCanyon is an underdog.  It’s a smaller development with limited marketing resources and a small team of dedicated souls who show up at the office daily and refuse to buy into the mentality that “The Sky is Falling”  We sell homes here, not timeshare you get to own a piece of the Ozarks and we don’t fluff it up.  People will always want new, cutting edge, upscale rustic lake homes and that’s what we do best, period.

 Our weaknesses are our strengths.  We don’t have an airport but we are only twelve minutes from one and, by the way, we don’t get the traffic or fuel trucks driving by.  We don’t have a golf course but we are only six miles from two great ones, but we don’t have outrageous homeowner’s association dues.  We have hiking trails, panoramic views, happy homeowners and the hippest styles around.  Seems to be working.

New Master Cabin Model at Branson Canyon

 With all of the foreclosures and low hanging fruit out there, the market in the Ozarks has seen a decline in the average home price since 2007, but that’s about the time Branson Canyon started selling homes.  Since 2007 the average home price at Branson Canyon has gone up 6% or more and there have been ZERO foreclosures or short sales in the community.  That is the major difference.  When the sales comparisons start to tank, so do the rest of the homes.  However, another benefit at Branson Canyon is that there have been very few resales.  There have only been four since 2007 and three of them were owners who upgraded to a bigger home in the same community.

 Why Bigger?  Spoiler Alert! Branson Canyon has a corner of it’s community where the owners can rent the home out on a nightly rental basis and, the fact is, a 5 bedroom usually rents more than a 2 bedroom.

 This gives people a chance to buy now.  One owner said that he hopes to retire here in five years. At that time, he wants to let the renters pay down his mortgage for him and take that and any other equity and finally retire.  He said, “We have one kid in college and one getting married and we didn’t want to miss all those years.  It’s our home, we don’t all have to be together. They can use it if they want to but It’s the most fun when we are together. “ 

 It’s not an anomaly, were just meeting the demand that is out there.

We build retreats for people who want to keep their loved ones together and we make them as maintenance free as possible. 

 Yankee Ingenuity, that’s all it is and those that have it are the ones that are going to lead us into a brighter tomorrow.

Click Here to see a short intro video to Branson Canyon.