Kevin King's blog

The Fort Smith Board of Realtors set a new record for fund raising at it's 4th Annual Putt Putt for Special Olympics fundraiser. The Fort Smith Board of Realtors took an idea several years ago from Sharla Lau, Broker/Owner of Coldwell Banker - Fleming-Lau Realty when she mentioned many successful fundraisers across the state which included the idea for a fun night out with the family enjoying a game of Putt Putt. Here we are 4 years later breaking the 2007 fundraising amount by more than $2,000 for a total somewhere over the $7,000 mark. The event was heavily attended by Fort Smith area Realtors, local banks, title companies and even a home inspector. Arvest Bank employees helped out by cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for all to enjoy. Charlotte King of the King Realty Group even brought a gallon of homemade ice cream, which was a big hit. Many volunteers, like Vicki Bush of Ronald Ragon Realty (left) helped make the event a huge success.

While the golf action was underway, there was just as much activity going on outside the miniture golf fence. There was a last minute surge of donations to hit our $7,000 goal in order to take Chuck Fawcett up on his offer to shave his head should we hit the goal. We had several generous donors who were also eager to hold the scissors just for a snip or two. One of those generous donors was Tom Cannava of Bradford & Udouj Realty (shown right) taking pleasure in watching Chuck's hair hit the pavement.

Maria Lau, of Arvest Bank (left) took her sweet time clipping away with the "BIG" scissors, while we waited on the real clippers to arrive.

Teresa Sturgeon of Ramona Roberts Realty (right) takes her turn with the scissors getting a great response out of Chuck.

Special Olympics is the primary charity of the Arkansas Realtors Association, thanks to all those who have generously donated their time and money for a great cause.

A special thanks to all of the agents at Chuck Fawcett Realty for all of their support and work in making the event a success and helping raise the most money possible. I'm sure the haircut wasn't exactly what Chuck was expecting and we did have to get him back into the chair several times, but you have to give him credit for being a great sport.

It' not often we feature homes on our blog, but we felt like this home in Roland was worth mentioning.

This is truly a place to call home on a cozy tree shaded lot located at the end of a cul-de-sac. It features a covered back porch and a backyard pool. The 37' X 40' shop building in the backyard has a concrete slab and electricity. The home also had two bedrooms and two baths sitting on two city lots. Lots of extras in this home including newer Central heat and air as well as a new roof in 2008. The kitchen and family rooms have new laminated wood floors as well as a gas log fireplace and newer kitchen appliances and sink. Also included are updated light fixtures and new paint. Re-done to perfection and available for only $83,500 for all 1055 square feet. Call Hollie Byers with King Realty Group for your private showing at 479-650-3072 or hollie@kingrealtygroup.net

I really enjoy taking my kids
camping at many of the state parks especially Devil's Den which is less than an hour drive from the old homestead. However, last month we tried booking our site a little too late and all the sites we're full at our regular spot. So, like a good dad would, I decided not to give up but find another spot to take the little rugrats. I got online looking for some of the other fairly close campsites and was thinking about Mt. Magazine, near Paris, Arkansas, but somehow had a mental slip and booked at the other park located on top of some mountain and accidentally booked our campsite at Petit Jean State Park. Now, it didn't seem like a huge deal until I realized I had to drive 2 hours instead of only 1 hour to get there. In addition, it would only be myself and my 5 year old daughter and my 6 year old son until my brother, Russell, brought Mackenzie, my 11 year old the next day. Well, Petit Jean, I'm proud to announce, was not a disappointment. As you can tell by the pictures, we had a blast hiking the many trails Petit Jean has to offer.

This picture of the beautiful Pine trees was taken looking straight up right in the middle of our campsite. When I called for the reservation the very nice lady on the phone asked, "Do you a camp site with a lot of trees, a medium amount of trees or not very many trees?" We opted for the "medium" tree campsite.

Saturday morning we started our first hike around 9:00am after a few chocolate donuts and orange juice. I was quite proud of my 5 and 6 year old kids because they hiked around 2 miles up to one of the lookout points over the waterfall. Once we made it to the top I fed them sprite and pringles as a reward. I was very careful not to over do it with the young ones or I would pay for it later.... It's a fine line between tiring them out so they sleep well and making them down right cranky!

Saturday afternoon my brother brought my oldest child to join us for one night at camp and hiking on Sunday, this was the day to over-do-it! We stared Sunday morning at the main overlook of the waterfall and made our way down a normal hiking trail. As we neared the bottom we notice a more primitive trail that led to a beautiful stream at the bottom of the valley between the huge bluffs. Now, I consider myself a fairly good planner, you know, bring a backpack with water, snacks, flashlights for the caves, etc....but it never occured to me to bring TOILET PAPER! As the kids were playing in the stream and having a good time using their hiking sticks, Jackson, my 6 year old, has a near panic attack for the need for a bathroom, and when I say bathroom, I don't mean "go wee wee behind a tree". I mean, he had to go! As you can tell by the rest of the pictures of hiking, we now call Jackson "One-Sock".

We eventually got back on the main trail and reconnected to the trail we had completed the previous day but decided to go around the other direction in order to see more of the natural wonders like the massive rocks I had read about. After another 30 minutes or more of walking we came to some awesom rocks and I had Mackenzie, Caroline and "One-Sock" pose like they were holding the rock. By this time I'm starting to get "Dad, will you carry me?!?" After walking past the rock formations we ran into some other hikers where I asked "How much further to the traihead?". The answer wasn't what I was looking for..."Well you're exactly half way!" "Half way! What the ...how can we only be half way...these kids are getting tired...and so am I". So like any good dad would, I took turns carrying the two little ones until we reached the next trailhead. It was then that I realized we weren't at the trailhead where the car was parked... how depressing... we still needed to complete another trail after having completed two other complete trails!!! Did I mentin I had a 5 year old and a 6 year old and just finished around 4 miles of hiking??? So we didn't have a choice but to keep hiking and keep taking turns carrying the exhausted kids.

Although it was one of the most tiring and challenging of camping trips it was still a success and ultimately I was blown away by the beauty and the facilities at Petit Jean State Park.

Be sure and check out my other blog on "Why camping with three kids is a lot like the real estate business"

Kevin King, ABR, CRS, GRLA

King Realty Group

Broker/Owner

email me

In December we announced that the new 15" Box truck was on its way and simply awaiting the graphics to be added and on January 18th it was complete.

A BIG THANKS goes out to our sponsors: ARVEST BANK, "Check It!" Home Inspections, Gary Somerville, Scot Shaw with State Farm Insurance and the whole gang at Terminator Pest Control for helping to make the moving truck possible for our clients. Please help support them as much as possible.

The truck includes 12 moving/furiture blankets and an appliance dolly as well as a convenience ramp for easy accessabilty to the bed of the truck. Call your favorite real estate company in Fort Smith at 479-242-4000 to get details on using this truck for your next move. 

I can't help but feel like the Fort Smith Real Estate market as the year ends feels more like Thanksgiving than it does New Years Day! I guess that's because the King Realty Group has a lot to be thankful for as 2007 comes to a close. KRG has finished the year as the number four office over all in the River Valley area in only our second full year of being in business (according to the Fort Smith Board of Realtors MLS)! Our market continues to have much smaller indications of a softening market than any of the other major market across the state. As a matter of fact we're only off of last years numbers about 3% of residential sales volume closed.

Another notable is that we are in the process of expanding our office from 2,000 square feet to over 4,000 square feet to accomodate more training and office facilities for some more of Fort Smith's best Realtors.

We welcome the newest member of the King Realty Group Team, Larry Ruth.

Larry Brings many years of business experience to KRG as the former owner and operator of four AM/FM Broadcasting radio station. We look forward to having Larry at KRG as a great asset and if you know Larry personally you know he is simply a really nice guy to be around. Call Larry today for your Fort Smith area real estate needs at 479-806-6406 or email him at LKR0713@earthlink.net

Thanks again, Greater Fort Smith for helping to make King Realty Group the fastest growing real esate company in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

King Realty Group is proud to announce the newest in benefits to it's clients. By the end of 2007 KRG will be offering it's customers the use of a free moving truck (local moves only). The graphics are currently being designed and several local companies have assited in sponsoring the moving truck including: Arvest Bank (Thanks Maria, Les and Amanda), Check It Home Inspections, Gary Somerville, has also agreed to sponsor the truck. For your next home inspection call 479-221-1621. Terminator Structural Pest has also sponsored the truck, call Terminator for your next termite or pest control treatment at 479-783-6200.

Scot Shaw - State Farm recently committed to helping sponsor the truck and if you've been around Fort Smith at all you know that Scot is a real go-getter when it comes to your insurance needs. Call Scot at 479-452-8700.

Current and past KRG clients are welcome to call or email to reserve this truck for your next move at 479-242-4000. (Must be 25+ with current insurance card.

Thanks for making KRG one of the best real estate companies in the Greater Fort Smith area.

With the looming rumors of the housing market taking a down turn, it's important to remember that opportunities will also arise. Just like the stock market has opportunities in an up or down market, so does the housing market. The amount of supply of houses for sale in Fort Smith continues to grow minimally while the number of buyers has dwindled slightly. The net effect is more supply than demand therefore prices go down because sellers are competing with each other to try and capture the few buyers that are active in the marketplace.

Absorption rate is something else to consider, like a retailer tracks the amount of time it takes to turn over the inventory currently available. For example, if 66 homes have sold over the last 11 months (an average of 6 per month), divided into the current inventory of 36...that equals 6 monhs of inventory on the market. Meaning that of the current inventory on the market, it should be completely gone, statistically, by the end of 6 months.

Lets look at some real numbers for Sebastian County:

(Data based on Fort Smith Board of Realtors MLS)

If you break the numbers down even greater it equates to 73% of the units sold this year being under $150,000. Then from $150,000-$200,000 makes up another 11% of the units sold or 84% of the units sold this year are under $200,000 while 16% of the remaining units sold are of the $200,000+ price range.

I hope this information is helpful and allows you to understand the current market in this area. Going back to opportunity...when a market is soft it creates GREAT buying opportunities. You might keep an eye out for short sales or HUD repos and VA foreclosures. These can be found at www.citysidecorp.com , www.ocwen.com , www.myfir.com , and as always check the current market listings right here at www.kingrealtygroup.net (advanced search).

Remember that the greatest tool you can have in the process of buying or selling real property is that of a good, well educated real estate agent who knows the stats on the local market. For more information on this report call King Realty Group today at 479-242-4000.

Kevin King ABR, CRS, GRLA

Broker/Owner - King Realty Group

Year to date numbers for Fort Smith and Sebastian County indicate that the average price per home is actually up by 2% this year so far, however the Arkansas Realtors Association went on to say that the number of units sold YTD is off by 6% compared to last year and the total volume of residential properties sold is only down by 4%. Compared to what I've heard is happening on the coasts...I'll take it!

So what does this really mean?

Lots of inventory on the market with limited numbers of buyers means more supply than demand and prices drop. SO...It's a GREAT time to buy!

Interest Rates have dipped again to all time lows and will continue to stay low with rates dipping below 6%.

Of the residential properties in Fort Smith that have sold this year 73% were under $150,000. From $150,000-$200,000 accounted for another 11%. In otherwords, 84% of all of the transactions so far in 2007 were UNDER $200,000!

With restructuring in the sub-prime lending market we will see more stringent lending pracices for buyers with low credit scores or little money money to put down. Foreclosures will continue to rise because many new home owners have little or no equity in their property and may choose to simply walk away in tough financial times. Courthouse auctions and bank-owned(REO) properties will continue to be buying opportunities for those ready with cash.

Because of the restructuring of the subprime lending market I predict that rental property will see a renewed surge in demand by renters and investors alike in the rental property market.

More than ever it is important to seek the counsel of a competent real estate agent who understands the changes in this market. Call King Realty Group today and let us know how we can help. 479-242-4000.

Kevin King, ABR, CRS, GRLA

Broker/Owner - King Realty Group

Fort Smith, AR