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Uncategorized The Appraisal Came In $40,000 Low. Here’s What Happened Next. There’s a version of this story where my sellers lose forty thousand dollars. Here’s why that didn’t happen. I was the listing agent. The appraisal came in $40,000 below our contract price, and my first question wasn’t “How do we fix this?” It was “Is this appraisal actually accurate?” I didn’t think it was. So […]
Uncategorized What Does It Actually Cost to Live in Ames, Iowa? If you’re relocating to Ames — for Iowa State, for a job, for a fresh start — the question underneath all the other questions is usually: can I actually afford to live there? Short answer: Ames tends to run below the national average on overall cost of living, generally cited somewhere in the range of […]
Uncategorized How Much House Can You Actually Afford in Ames or Story County? Before you look at a single listing, there’s one conversation that saves everyone time: what can you actually afford, not what a website’s calculator guesses you can afford. Those are two different numbers, and mixing them up is the single most common thing I see trip up first-time buyers. A calculator looks at income and […]
Uncategorized What’s My Ames Home Actually Worth Right Now? The question I get more than any other is some version of: what’s my house actually worth? Here’s the honest answer: it depends on more than an algorithm can see. As of mid-2026, homes in the Ames area have been listing at a median price in the high $300,000s, spending roughly five weeks on the […]
Uncategorized Why Local Market Knowledge Beats a Zillow Comp Every Time One backs up to the wrong thing. One has a builder people trust. One has a floor plan buyers keep coming back to. One has resale appeal, and one doesn’t. None of that shows up in a basic online comp search. A newer agent, or a buyer doing their own research, can pull comps just […]
Uncategorized The 30-45 Day Countdown: Contract to Closing First-time buyers spend months preparing to purchase. Then they go under contract, and suddenly they’re scheduling inspections, securing insurance, signing paperwork, arranging utilities, and packing — all at the same time. That 30 to 45 day window between contract and closing goes by faster than almost anyone expects. It’s easy to assume the hard part […]
Uncategorized What Happens After Your House Sells in Four Days Most sellers think the hard part is finding a buyer. It’s not. The hard part is what happens after your house sells in four days and you’re standing in your kitchen thinking: well, now what. I see this every single spring. Someone lists, gets multiple offers, feels like a genius. Then it hits them — […]
Uncategorized The One Question to Ask Any Builder Before You Sign Quick question for anyone thinking about building new construction, and I mean this in the nicest way possible: do you actually know what you’re signing? It sounds simple going in. Pick a lot, pick a floor plan, watch a house appear. Then the contract shows up and it’s forty-some pages long, and suddenly you’re googling […]
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Uncategorized Why Buyers Keep Choosing Slater Over Ames or Ankeny Every week, someone asks me why buyers keep choosing Slater over somewhere with more name recognition. Here’s the honest answer. It’s a small town with real neighbors — the kind of place where people actually wave at you. It’s twenty to thirty minutes from Ankeny, Ames, or West Des Moines, so you’re never far from […]
Uncategorized Curb Appeal Matters More Than Most Sellers Think Buyers decide how they feel about your house before they ever walk through the front door. Most sellers don’t actually believe that until they’ve watched it happen in real time. I’m talking about the thirty seconds between pulling into the driveway and stepping onto the porch. That’s it. That’s when the decision gets made. Everything […]
Uncategorized The Model Home Rep Doesn’t Work for You This one catches people every time, so I’m just going to say it plainly: the rep sitting in that model home works for the builder. Not for you. Their job is to get you to sign on the dotted line for that builder’s product, at that builder’s price. That’s not a criticism of them — […]
Uncategorized Why More Buyers Are Choosing One-Level Living One of the biggest shifts I’m seeing right now isn’t a style of home. It’s how people want to live inside it. For years, buyers wanted bigger square footage and multiple levels — more space stacked vertically was the goal. Lately I’m hearing something different: “I don’t want stairs.” And it’s not because these buyers […]
Uncategorized Trailside: Why Buyers Keep Coming Back One of the questions I get all the time is: what makes Trailside different? The easiest answer is to go stand in the middle of one of these lots and just look around. Most new construction right now feels like you could shake hands with your neighbor through the kitchen window. Trailside isn’t that. What […]
Uncategorized Renting vs. Buying in Ames: What Actually Changes the Math Every August, I talk to people who just went through Ames’ big Aug. 1 lease turnover and are asking themselves the same question: is it time to stop renting? There’s no universal answer, but here’s how I’d think through it. Renting isn’t “wasting money” — it’s paying for flexibility. If you don’t know how long […]
Uncategorized What I Wish Every Buyer Knew Before Owning Land in Story County Story County has plenty of buyers who’ve never owned rural or ag land before, and it works differently than buying a house in town. After years of working both sides of this — helping people buy their first acreage and helping longtime landowners sell — here’s what I make sure every buyer understands going in. […]
Uncategorized Two Big Things Hitting Central Iowa Next Week: Farm Progress Show and Cyclone Kickoff Late summer in Central Iowa always has this one stretch where the ag world and the college-town energy collide, and this year it lands right on top of each other again. Farm Progress Show — Sept. 1-3, Central Iowa Expo This is one of the largest outdoor farm equipment and technology shows in the country, […]
Uncategorized What’s Happening in Ames This Week: Taste of Campustown, Lincoln Highway Days & More Ames doesn’t slow down in late August, and if you’re new to town — or you’ve lived here for years and just haven’t made it out lately — this stretch is worth clearing your calendar for. Taste of Campustown — Wednesday, Aug. 27, 4-8pm Welch Avenue turns into a walkable food festival for the evening, […]
Uncategorized The Questions I Get Asked the Most (Buying and Selling in Ames) After 10+ years doing this in Ames and Story County, a handful of questions come up in almost every conversation — whether it’s someone’s first house or their fifth. Here are the honest answers. “How much do I actually need for a down payment?” Less than most people think. Conventional loans can go as low […]
Uncategorized What Iowa State’s Return Means for the Ames Housing Market Every August, Iowa State’s return reshapes the Ames housing market. Here’s what relocating buyers need to know before the fall rush. Every August, something happens in Ames that most people don’t think about until it’s too late: Iowa State comes back. And with it comes a wave of faculty, staff, and researchers who need a […]
Uncategorized When Everyone’s Actually Moving in Ames (And What It Means for You) If you’ve ever wondered why moving trucks seem to take over Ames practically overnight, there’s a reason: August 1st. Between Iowa State’s lease cycle and the wave of students, faculty, and staff turning over housing all at once, Ames has one of the most concentrated move days you’ll find anywhere in the state. Most rental […]
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Matt Sievers
Ames
(515) 290-7950  |  (515) 233-2623  |  S63650000 IA   |  sievers@c21sre.com
S63650000 IA

(515) 290-7950
(515) 233-2623
sievers@c21sre.com

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