Utah County Market Stats • December 22, 2023

Market shows shifting dynamics and need for strategy

by Rodger Hardy

In the dynamic landscape of Utah County’s real estate market, the past month has unfolded a narrative of shifting dynamics and strategic negotiations. Between Nov. 22 and December 22, 2023, the average Utah County single-family home sold for $643,000, down 3 percent, according to the Wasatch Front Multiple Listing System.

However, the average list price rose 13 percent to $887,000, while the sales price to list price ratio was 98.67 percent. So, sellers are taking offers lower than their asking price. It isn’t what you want anymore, it’s what you negotiate.

Single-family home sales totaled 306 in the last 30 days, a drop of 32 percent. That translates to a 5.58 month’s supply of homes on the market, (up 9 percent). Sellers are finding that it takes a bit longer to sell their homes. With interest rates coming down, that will likely change in the next few months.

Condo/townhome market

Meanwhile, the townhome/condominium market saw a price increase in the last 30 days of just 1 percent, with an average sales price of $411,000. The average list price rose 2 percent, to $450,000. The sales to list price ratio also rose 2 percent to 98.93 percent, Wasatch Front MLS research shows.

Only 182 condos and townhouses sold in the 30-day period, down 13 percent. But the supply of inventory in that category dropped 37 percent to 3.36 months.

To get your home or condo sold these days takes great marketing and a willingness to include a fair commission for both buyer and listing agents. The commission becomes a major part of the marketing strategy and shouldn’t be shortchanged to get the best and quickest price. Decide what’s important to you — what you pay in commission or what you net.

My travels • March 13, 2023

Sharing Adventures With a Noted Author

by Rodger Hardy

It was the spring of 1973. My new bride, Cynthia, and I had just moved into our first home in St. George, Utah, a 10×50 mobile home parked on a Dixie College trailer park. One day I received a phone call from a woman who wanted to meet the new journalism teacher at Dixie.

We invited her over and Maureen Whipple came for a short visit. I so. on learned that this was a noted journalist, short-story writer, and the author of the 1941 historic novel, The Giant Joshua. Although the novel is a work of fiction, as we got to know Maureen, she insisted it was based on fact. Perhaps not the story, but certainly on incidents that really happened during the polygamist days of old St. George.

The Giant Joshua Storyline

The Giant Joshua is set in the 1860s about a small group of Mormons fighting to stay alive in Utah’s arid Dixie Mission, like the Giant Joshua tree, itself. The story follows a young girl, the third polygamous wife, torn between her older husband and his son, who is more her age, along with her passion for her religion. Scholars consider it one of the most important works of Mormon fiction.

While polygamy was outlawed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1890, splinter groups still practice it. I remember polygamist children walking by on their way to school. They always stood out because of their old-fashioned dress; little girls with pigtails.

Maureen loved to explore historic sites around the St. George region, and she finally had someone to share those adventures with her. At least one of those episodes was with a park ranger who planted a sign marking a historic site. More about that later.

Our Friendship Blossomed

We became good friends; Maureen was at least twice my age and Cynthia was in her early 20s. Maureen’s steady companion was an old arthritic dog. When we went on our many adventures, the dog would often come along.

She loved to visit ghost towns, particularly the towns where the only thing remaining were the cemeteries. On one such visit we found an old grave surrounded by a fence with cactuses planted on top. The man whose bones were buried beneath had died of syphilis. So, he was buried outside the cemetery under a bed of cactuses and fenced off from the world. Then his home was burned to the ground. Though harsh, it was a common judgment for people who died with that kind of sin.

Another time, Maureen told me about a sheriff in the late 1800s charged with taking a couple of horse thieves to jail in Pahrump, Nev. several miles away. Instead, the sheriff took them to the hills outside of St. George and executed them, rather than making the long trip on horseback to Pahrump.

Looking for Bones

So sure was Maureen of that story that she persuaded me to hike the hills looking for finger bones where he allegedly buried them. We never found any bones, but we did come across some old metal toys. I should have scooped them up, but at the time I didn’t know their value.

Another time we went looking for an original cabin of Jacob Hamblin, an early Mormon pioneer. That time we found foundation stones that she thought belonged to him. Of course, they could have been the remains of any old cabin. But she insisted the location was correct.

The Waterfall

She had another friend named Jim — I don’t recall his last name — who would go with us on some of our adventures. One day we drove out to Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park. Stopping along the road, Jim and I spotted a waterfall across the canyon and wanted to explore. But Maureen and Cynthia weren’t interested in the hike, so we left them in the car and hiked over to the waterfall. It was a natural cascade, we discovered when we got there, resulting from the spring thaw. It would soon disappear.

We were gone a couple of hours while Cynthia and Maureen waited in the car. I was impressed with their patience. But it gave them time to chat and get to know each other better.

On to Peter’s Leap

Maureen told me about a site called Peter’s Leap and wanted to explore it. She features it in her novel. When the pioneers were making their way to the St. George area in their covered wagons, they drove across a meadow which ended abruptly at the edge of a cliff. When the wagon master, Peter Shirts, looked out over the edge the others in his party turned and asked him how they were going to get over that.

“We’ll leap it,” he is reported to have said. And so, the site became known as Peter’s Leap.

With ropes, the pioneers lowered their wagons to the floor of the canyon, then journeyed on their way across a creek that became known as “Leap Creek.”

So, Jim, Maureen, Cynthia and I and a park ranger piled into Jim’s pickup truck and drove to the site. The ranger and I rode in the back along with a sign to mark the spot. However, the road turned rough before we got there. So, Jim hotdogged it across open land while the two of us in the back, and the sign, bounced around like rag dolls on the steel and wooden floor of the truck bed. It wasn’t fun.

Finally, when we got there, Maureen pointed out a bat cave where she said the pioneers took bat dung as an ingredient in making black powder for their guns. We also found native Indian petroglyphs on the canyon wall. The scars along the rocks and across the stream where the steel-rimmed wagon wheels left their marks more than a century ago were still visible.

The ranger planted the sign to mark the spot, which stands there still today, as far as I know.

From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

After a year teaching at Dixie College (recently changed to Utah Tech University) I decided to practice journalism rather than teach it. So, I took a job in my native Susanville, Calif., and then shortly moved on to the Oroville Mercury-Register as a reporter covering county government.

After six years of that we moved to Cyndee’s native Hemet, Calif. Where I was hired as wire editor.

Then after a few months we moved to Palm Springs where I took a job as real estate editor for the Desert Sun. It was there that I cut my teeth on real estate.

Over the years we lost touch with Maureen. One year on a visit to Utah we decided to stop by her home. She lived in an adobe house on the west side of town. But when we got there the house was abandoned, its windows gone.

Inside, the only sign of Maureen was some of her papers, many of them about her novel, The Giant Joshua. We gathered up some of them and I still have them. Maureen died in 1992.

In 1994 we moved back to Utah where I took a job with the Deseret News. At the same time, I got my real estate license and began juggling between reporting and helping folks buy and sell real estate. In 2010 I retired from the News and have devoted my time to real estate ever since.

Maureen was an interesting, fun lady. She researched her novel extensively and then lived it the rest of her life. Although the novel was sympathetic to the faith, she was disappointed that the general authorities of the Church were not happy with her portrayal of polygamy. As a result, The Giant Joshua was not well received in her own community.

But she always insisted it was put together with actual events surrounding the practice of plural marriage in those early years. “The book is true,” she would often say.

Scholars have since lauded it as one of the most accurate portrayals of pioneer life ever written.

Speaking real estate and authorship, I have a couple of books to help both buyers and sellers. Whether you’re a buyer or seller or just have someone you care about who could use the help, the link to get either or both is below. Here is the link to the buyer’s book:

https://rodgerhardy.book.live/buyer-book

And the link to the seller’s book.

https://rodgerhardy.book.live/biz-card-book

My travels • January 12, 2023

Hawaii in the Winter: Our Balmy Adventure

by Rodger Hardy

Winter is a wonderful time to visit Hawaii. My wife, Cynthia, and I went in December observing our 50^th wedding anniversary, trading the snow and ice here for surf and palm trees. And tropical weather about 50+ degrees warmer.

Our first stop after exiting the plane after a seven- or eight-hour flight was the car rental agency where we rented a Camaro convertible in an effort to relive our dating life. Back in the day when we met, I was driving a blue 1968 Camaro Rally Sport convertible. We thought it would be fun to harken back to that time in our lives.

Bad idea. For one thing, ‘68 Camaros have a way bigger trunk than the new models. So, our luggage wouldn’t fit. For a second thing, I put my camera bag in the back seat of the Camaro and forgot about it in the fuss. We saw a Jeep SUV parked next to it, so we loaded our stuff into the Jeep and took off for the hotel. I didn’t miss my camera bag until we unloaded.

Luckily, I put my real estate business cards in my camera bag, so, long story short, we got a call about 1 a.m. to come pick up the bag. Thank you, Alamo. Good people there.

Party Through the Night

Waikiki is a party place. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider hotel on the beach in the 14^th floor. Our room had two balconies, one facing the activity below and the other facing the ocean. Past midnight and the party below us was still going on. The next night the staff moved us to the 20^th floor with just a balcony facing the ocean. Ahh, peace and quiet.

I wanted to connect with Realtors while we were there for referral purposes and a former client who lives there. She inherited a house in American Fork she wanted to sell and called looking for help. She had called several agents before she called me, but I was the one who answered the phone. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect.

I heard Hawaii was expensive, but I was surprised at how expensive. Gas was about $5.20 a gallon, not to mention the cost of eating out.

Honolulu Real Estate

The average price of a home in Honolulu is $1.2 million, according to our tour guide. The best way to see Honolulu is to jump on a tour bus and let them show you around. It was a great way to spend an afternoon when you don’t know the territory.

Honolulu traffic is horrendous. Especially on Dec. 7 with the 81^st Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade remembering the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. To go a short distance took hours, it seemed.

While we were out and about, we started a game to see how many out of state license plates we could see. There were none. And then there was one from Texas. And another one from Texas, and even a third one. We decided they must be military.

Observing Pearl Harbor

To attend the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we had to rise early in the morning so we could be in our seats at 7 a.m. We joined some 2,500 others who attended. One of the first events was the Missing Man flyover at 7:55 a.m., the time the Japanese zeros attacked. Four fighter jets flew over the harbor with one of them leaving the group and turning up toward the heavens while the other three continued on flying through a rainbow.

We also sat in silence as the USS Daniel Inouye, a guided missile destroyer, passed by the USS Arizona entombed in a memorial in the harbor. The attack launched the U.S. into WWII when 2,403 Americans were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.

At least half a dozen survivors, most around a century old, attended the event. One was featured on the big screen from his hometown. Another one lives in Provo. As USS Arizona survivors die their cremated remains can be placed in the Arizona with their 1,177 buddies who remain with the ship.

Discovering Kepaniwai Park on Maui

Earlier, we spent a couple of days on Maui where we attended a luau. Then we explored the island a bit discovering Kepaniwai Park & Heritage Gardens honoring the various cultures that immigrated there over the years.

Back on Oahu we drove around the coast, then up to North Shore where we visited BYU-Hawaii, the Laie LDS Temple and spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center where we were drenched in a rainstorm but attended another luau, thankfully indoors.

Visiting the North Shore

We stopped at the Banzai Pipeline, one of the most famous, though dangerous, surfing locations in the world. We joined others on the beach watching the surfers, including professionals we met from Argentina. Surfers come from all over the world to experience those great barrel waves that break in shallow water.

A short distance away our son, Chad, surprised us at the Turtle Bay Resort, spending a few days with us.

I helped Chad buy his first house in Draper 20 years ago when he was working for Larry Miller at his then-Mayan restaurant as entertainment director. From that experience he launched an event company with one of his assignments handling the massive open house when Daybreak in South Jordan first launched.

Chad’s company eventually morphed into AdVenture Games, a hugely successful team building company. His team works with many name brands you would recognize. Along the way I referred Realtors to him so he could buy a house in Florida and a lot to build his dream home in California. By referring agents, I get to share in the commission. His business takes him to both coasts and many cities in between.

Just as I helped him, I can also help you or the people you care about buy or sell their homes. I’ll even pick up some of the costs of buying or selling just to show gratitude and appreciation for getting your business. Reach me at 801-360-9133 or rodger.hardy@cbrealty.com

Financing a home purchase • November 16, 2022

Beat high rates by selling with a contract for deed

by Rodger Hardy

With interest rates skyrocketing and homes sales cut nearly in half we’re back to an era of creative financing. You’ll probably see more of this in coming months.

Creative financing was popular back in the ’70s when Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. Rates soared into the double digits back then, hitting as high as 18.5 percent. That opened the door for home sellers to carry the contract on the sale of their home. They benefited with extra cash from the interest, instead of the bank. It also ushered in new language in mortgage contracts: the due on sale clause. That meant when the home was sold, the loan was due.

To get around that, a number of schemes rose to the top. I remember selling a house back in 1979 where I carried the down payment at 1 percent a month, or 12 percent a year. My uncle, a Realtor, helped me set it up so it was perfectly legal. I didn’t become a Realtor for several years later.

Buying my next house

Then I turned around and bought my next house, also using creative financing. I paid $1,000 down and assumed his VA loan, which you could do back then. The seller carried the note for three years, which was the time frame I was carrying the note on the home I sold. I structured it with no payments until it came due. Fortunately, the note I was carrying matured a few months earlier. So, I socked it away in a CD, then paying 8 percent interest. I earned an extra $300 in just a few months.

Another way of dealing with the due on sale clause is the contract for deed. If you’re having trouble selling and you’re thinking about renting it out, this may be a better solution. You’ll get monthly income without having to deal with landlord-induced maintenance.

With this method you don’t relinquish the title until the note is paid. Here’s what a contract for deed (CFD) could look like: on a $625,000 purchase, you would ask for a hefty down payment, about 10 percent to 20 percent. So, from $100,000 to $125,000. Then structure payments with a lower than market interest rate, say 5.9% interest rate for 30 years, all due in 5 years. With $100,000 down, you would receive monthly principal and interest payments of $3,113.97 (estimate). Again, you do not transfer title until the note is paid in full, although it is recorded.

Offer interest below the prevailing rate

You offer a low interest rate because interest is taxable income, while principle is not. Keep it low and you will drive more buyers your way and avoid high taxable income. Remember, you’re selling on terms, not price.

With a $100,000 investment, the buyer has more skin in the game.

But how about the appraisal? With a CFD you won’t necessarily need an appraisal. For one thing, you’ll likely sell your home for more than it would appraise for anyway. The buyer is looking at terms and buying on future appreciation.

Also, your buyer must get a pre-qualification letter from a lender to show when they will be able to refinance out of it. That information must be in the pre-qualification letter. As your Realtor® I will see to that, as well. Then, down the road when your buyer wants to re-finance out of the deal at the end of the term, and if it doesn’t appraise, be ready to extend the contract. You may want to build in an automatic extension just for that scenario.

Don’t try to skip the attorney

A savvy attorney must be involved to set up a CFD. I work with an attorney who specializes in contract for deed sales. In fact, he gave me this information. He charges $425 to set up a contract for deed per side.

I mentioned that a CFD is recorded, although you must use a title company that knows how to close these deals with all the legal documents in place. The attorney I work with also owns the title company that closes the deal. Not every vanilla title company knows how to do this. I keep his contact information proprietary.

Payments are not made to you, but to an escrow company, which, in turn will handle the details. If the buyer defaults you can take back the property easily through a default remedy, which is a 30-day forfeiture, rather than a full judicial foreclosure.

Where to begin: to take advantage of this way of selling I must list the property on the MLS as a contract for deed sale and handle all the marketing. You don’t want to attempt this on your own. Just schedule a short, 30-minute appointment to see our dynamic marketing plan, a mix of Internet, print and television to help you make an informed decision.

You can reach me at 801-360-9133.

Uncategorized • November 9, 2022

Exploring the Fall Colors on the Alpine Loop

by Rodger Hardy

The colors came late this year to the Wasatch. That gave us time to get up the American Fork Canyon and take them all in.

My wife, Cyndee, and I thought we’d take a Sunday drive, but as we approached the mouth of the canyon we were met with a huge line of cars. It seemed like half of Utah County had the same idea. So, we returned home to try again on Monday.

Still, the next day, the canyon was busy, but we were able to drive through the forest dripping with the many hues of Fall. We took the Jeep to some out of the way places along the Alpine Loop near Sundance where you wouldn’t normally take a car.

Impressive Backdrop

Cyndee loves fall colors. And the Wasatch Front forms an impressive backdrop to the Salt Lake region. The mountains rise to about 12,000 feet above sea level. Here you’ll find red maple trees and golden aspens, along with vivid oak, pine, fir, spruce, willow and birch.

This westernmost range of the Rocky Mountains beckons skiers, backpackers and hikers. On that Monday morning it was just Cyndee, me and our little yellow Jeep along with other Fall leaf aficionados. We took the narrow, winding Alpine Loop past Timpanogos Cave, then turned off toward Cascade Springs. But not before exploring a few campgrounds, including Little Mill and Tippecanoe Campground. The Wasatch has many dirt roads that wander off the Alpine Loop so we explored some of those, as well.

Vivid Panorama

Along the way we stopped at popular lookout points to capture the vivid panorama. Finally, we ended up near Midway in the beautiful Heber Valley, and then circled through Soldier Hollow, one the venues of the 2002 Winter Olympics, past the Historic Tate Barn. The area is popular for winter activities, such as cross-country skiing, tubing, biathlon, hiking and mountain biking.

Then we sped down State Route 189 through the popular Provo Canyon with its four-lane highway winding beneath towering stone walls, past Bridal Veil Falls and through Orem to get home. It was a great experience.

Utah is a wonderful place to live and work. To find your Utah home, regardless whether you are moving here or looking for a second home, or even a condo at Brigham Young University, you will find all the available properties on my website. For questions or more information call me personally at 801-360-9133.