Kelsey Earl

Kelsey Earl Your Realtor Friend🌟
KW South Valley

09/21/2026

The route you drove in September is not the route in February. Ask about the worst month.

A few things worth adding to the checklist in this one.

On the survey: ask the title company first whether there is already a recorded plat or survey in the file, because there often is and it costs you nothing. A new boundary survey is a separate thing you order and pay for, and it takes time — so if you want one, build it into your deadlines rather than discovering it during inspection.

On the second route: drive it in the worst conditions the property sees, not the day you happen to be out there. If you are looking in good weather, ask the seller and the neighbors what it looks like after a storm or in snow.

And the one almost nobody asks: can a full-size truck actually make it? A moving truck, a propane delivery, a septic pump truck, a concrete truck. Grade, turns and width decide that, and finding out after closing is expensive.

Off Grid 3 covered the difference between a road existing and having the recorded right to use it — that one matters more than people expect, so watch it if you missed it.

Next episode is septic: what the system was permitted for, versus how many bedrooms you are planning to use.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/21/2026

Utah has 2 different median home prices, and they are not the same number.

Both come from the same report: the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, “State of the State’s Housing Market: 2025-2026,” published September 2026, using first-quarter 2026 data.

$559,900 is the median sale price for single-family homes only. That is the figure attached to Utah ranking 10th most expensive in the country.

$520,000 is the median sale price across all housing types, condos and townhomes included, up from $500,000 a year earlier.

So when someone quotes you “the Utah median,” ask which one they mean. If you are shopping condos or townhomes, the single-family number is not your number. If you are selling a single-family home, the all-types number is not yours either.

And a statewide median can only tell you the direction of the whole state. It cannot price your house. For that you need what actually sold near you, recently, in your size and condition.

One more figure from the same report: 26,053 permitted residential units statewide in 2025. Those are permits issued, not homes finished.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/20/2026

2 of those 3 are fixed the day you buy the house. Only 1 is adjustable.

That’s the part worth sitting with. Location never changes. Condition only changes with money and time, and usually more of both than people expect. Price is the only one you can move the week you list — which is exactly why it ends up doing the work of compensating for the other two.

Worth saying plainly: condition, location and price aren’t the only things driving what a home sells for. Timing and the lot itself matter too. Those 3 are just the ones a seller has any say over.

And a buyer isn’t comparing your house to what you remember about it. They’re comparing it to the other 4 they walked through that same Saturday.

If you’re thinking about selling, I’m happy to look at where your home actually sits against what’s active right now.

Kelsey Earl, Keller Williams South Valley, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/20/2026

The typical home goes under contract in a median of 27 days. Half take longer.

That’s the number behind step 2, and it’s the useful one — if you’re past a month with no offers, that’s information, not bad luck (Zillow, August 2026 market report, national, published 9/8/2026).

On step 2, one clarification worth having: your competition is not what sold 6 months ago. It’s the active listings a buyer will tour the same weekend as yours. Solds set the floor. Actives set the competition, and they’re the ones a buyer is actually comparing you to.

On step 3, get specific before you list, not during. Your walk-away number and your must-be-out date both belong on paper in week 1, because every one of those decisions gets more expensive the longer the house sits.

And on step 1 — the photos are the showing most buyers actually attend. Deep clean for the camera first, the open house second.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/20/2026

66% of builders used sales incentives last month. That’s what you’re up against.

Here’s the part that doesn’t get explained: a builder’s low rate is real money for the buyer, but it isn’t free. It’s bought down, and the cost of it is sitting somewhere in that price. Worth asking what the same home costs without the incentive attached.

And the reason you can negotiate when they mostly can’t — a builder will usually protect the base price, because that number becomes the comp for every unit they still have to sell. You’re one house, not a price sheet. That flexibility is genuinely yours.

Which means you can pull the same lever they’re pulling. Instead of only dropping your price, you can offer a concession the buyer’s lender puts toward buying their rate down. Same money out of your pocket, different headline. That’s a conversation for before you list, not after the second price cut — and one for your agent and a lender together. I’m a Realtor, not a lender.

Figures: NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, September 2026 — 66% of builders reported using sales incentives, up from 63% in August; 38% cut prices, average cut 6%. National, newly built single-family homes.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/19/2026

Why houses end up with price drops: 26.3% of listings had one in August.

Almost nobody plans for that. It’s what happens when the launch price was aimed at what the seller wanted instead of where buyers were actually looking. For scale, the typical home that sells goes under contract in a median of 27 days — half take longer, half take less (Zillow, August 2026 market report, national figures, published 9/8/2026).

The bracket thing is the part worth chewing on. Buyers set a filter and then never scroll past it, so a house priced a couple thousand dollars above a round number doesn’t get rejected by those buyers — it never reaches them. That’s the whole difference between pricing right and pricing low.

And this is the other half of what I said about pricing high and coming down. Chasing the market in small drops is not the same as making one correct adjustment. Price is also not your only lever — a concession toward the buyer’s rate is another one, and that’s a decision to make before you list, not after the second cut.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/19/2026

Sellers, your camera can watch. Whether it can listen is a different question.

Filming your own house? Normal. Recording what people say in it? That’s the part to run past an attorney first. Utah’s rule hinges on somebody in the conversation agreeing to be recorded, and a seller sitting at work while 2 buyers chat in the kitchen isn’t part of that conversation (Utah Code 77-23a-4). I’m a Realtor, not a lawyer.

Buyers, 2 more places to zip it: the driveway, because doorbell cameras hear the street, and the final walk-through, when everyone relaxes and says the quiet part out loud.

And tell your agent what you’re actually willing to pay before you walk in. They’re on camera too.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/19/2026

It works the other way too — here’s what to ask them.

You’re allowed to ask questions back. Why is the seller moving. How long it’s been on the market. Whether an offer already fell through. What the seller’s ideal closing date is. They may or may not answer — that’s between them and their seller — but nobody’s offended by the question, and the answers change what you’d offer. Same thing in a builder’s model home: that agent is there for the builder, so ask them too. One question protects you, the other one helps you.

What’s the best question you’ve ever asked at a showing?

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/18/2026

After you close, there’s a form — and the 90-day clock starts when it arrives, not at closing.

The exemption usually carries over on its own. The Utah State Tax Commission (revised July 2025) says most homes that are sold and used as residences are presumed to continue as residences, so it’s ongoing without a new application. But some counties require an application to claim it, and the rest require a signed residential property declaration when title transfers to a new owner — due within 90 days of receiving the form. If you’re in the home less than the full calendar year, submit an application regardless. The exemption is state law; how you claim it is administered county by county.

The one-per-household rule is statute, not guidance. Utah Code 59-2-103 limits it to “one primary residence per household,” and defines a household as people living in the same dwelling who share its furnishings, facilities, accommodations and expenses.

No Prop 13 here either — the same section taxes property on its fair market value “as valued on January 1.” Nothing locks in at what you paid.

Buying before you sell? Ask which house is carrying the exemption during the overlap.

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

09/18/2026

The final walkthrough is where you catch this.

That’s not the day you admire the house. It’s the day you check that what was there is still there, and you walk the yard as carefully as you walk the kitchen. Do it before you sign at closing, because that’s the last point where you still have leverage. The exact standard in the contract is that the home is left in the same general condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted — holes in a flower bed aren’t ordinary wear and tear. And it’s the same rule that decides whether the fridge stays. Did you walk the yard on your final walkthrough, or just the house?

Kelsey Earl, journalist turned Realtor, born and raised in Utah, Salt Lake to St. George, 801-419-8917, [email protected], Your lifelong friend in real estate 🌟

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