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Archive for May, 2010

Statesville’s Friday After Five Concerts

Posted in Iredell County, Quality of Life, Real Estate, Statesville, tagged , , , , on May 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Tonight is the kickoff for this summer’s concert series in Statesville called Friday After Five.  It runs from 5:30PM to 8:30PM.  There’s beer, wine, soft drinks and food available for purchase.  See more information and the entire summer schedule HERE.

Tonight’s band is the legendary Catalinas.  I remember that name from back when I was still in high school.  Back then, if you went somewhere that the Catalinas were playing, you knew you were in for a good time.  Have not seen them in a long time.  There have been a few personnel changes since then.  I doubt that a bunch of 70 year olds can party down for that long at a time.  I know that back then I played tenor sax in a local beach music band know as the Just Six band (although we eventually fudged and added a seventh player).  We could start at seven and play until midnight before we were worn out.  Now, I’d say a spirited half hour would probably finish us off.

Check out downtown Statesville.  Got some neat things happening there.

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There’s Life in the Real Estate Market

Posted in Finance, General Real Estate Market, Real Estate, tagged , , , , on May 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

People are always asking me if I think the real estate market is coming back.  Since I just came back from my third real estate closing of the month (woo hoo!) (two in Troutman, NC), I’d have to say that yes, there is some reassuring activity out there.  None of these closings were motivated by the first time or repeat buyer tax incentives, but in terms of the overall market, I’m sure that those incentives had some positive effect.  But the fact that there are ready, willing and able buyers out there who simply have a change in their lives that dictates a move should make us feel better about future prospects.  Granted, this is talking about the number of sales.  There is still a lot of downward pressure on prices nationwide and locally- good news for buyers, not so much for sellers.  Still, sellers should keep in mind that if they take less in selling their property, they will likely pay less for its replacement.

An interesting development in favor of continuing improvement in the real estate market is that until recently, for a variety of reasons we expected the mortgage rates to start edging up.  However, the European debt problems have sent investors back to our shores in such a way that the outcome is a continuation of low mortgage rate availability.   With reasonably good income and credit numbers, 30 year fixed rates can still be had under 5%.  Don’t know how long that will last since the expectation is that the financial gurus will come up with a plan that reduces the stress from that “crisis.”  If that happens in a few weeks, then we’d expect the rates to get back to an upward creep.  If you’re thinking of buying, many lenders have programs that allow you to lock in a low rate for a reasonable period of time so that you have time to work through a transaction.

I think that we’re in recovery, but it will be slow and come in fits and spurts.  That’s better than none at all.

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My Daughter’s New Old Home

Posted in Home Maintenance, Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , on May 25, 2010 | 1 Comment »

My daughter Kathryn and her husband Ron just last Friday closed on their new 100+ year old home in Washington, DC.  We’ve been monitoring the progress on this deal for quite some time, particularly after they found out (after going under contract) that the seller had neglected to mention that he was going through bankruptcy.  This complicated things considerably.  Still, the kids had faith and persevered through the process that took longer than it might have otherwise.  One concern was that it had to close by June 30 in order to qualify for the first time homebuyer tax incentive, so that’s no longer an issue.

Their house, as I understand it, has good bones, but needs some refurbishment.  They got a loan that will provide some funds for that, but a little sweat equity will always improve your investment.  Kathryn and Ron got right into it, and sent a photo of Kathryn in demolition mode.  As a parent, I’m really impressed to see her working so hard, assuming she didn’t just pose for the picture and then hand Ron the crowbar and gloves.  I’m sure she’s at it full-bore.  It’s just like when I was a kid, I never liked the idea of working in the family garden, but when I had my own, it was a whole ‘nother deal.  The fruit is sweeter when it is your own, and so it is with houses.

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Iredell County and City Planners’ Report

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, Quality of Life, Real Estate, Statesville, Troutman, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

The Charlotte Regional Realtor Association recently hosted a presentation in Mooresville of the local government planners from Iredell County, Statesville, Troutman and Mooresville.  We Realtors meet with them every year to get an overview of what’s going on in the county and to get to know the planners better so that we can get questions asked more easily during the rest of the year.  Here are a few comments from them that might interest you.

- Since the year 2000, Iredell County has grown by 21.5%.  During the slowest growth year, we still added about 2,500 people.

- There is little activity right now on approving new subdivisions.  One reason is that there are now 12,000 lots in various subdivisions that are approved but vacant in Iredell County.

- The new baseball park between Mooresville and Troutman will have a huge positive impact on the local hospitality and retail businesses during the summer season.  This should eventually help our tax revenues, too.

- Troutman is applying for grants to help develop a town park on land next to the town hall.

- As previously mentioned, the J. Hoyt Hayes Memorial Troutman Library will open on May 25.  This will be a great asset to our local quality of life.  (By the way, if you have an Iredell library card already, then you’re good to go.)

- Troutman still expects to have a Wal-Mart built at Exit 42.  Just don’t have firm dates yet.  Maybe they’ll want to be there for the baseball parents and kids!

- Statesville has some great looking plans for improving the downtown area and the Shelton Avenue corridor.  The town is working on how much they can invest in improving theses “streetscapes” as an investment in attracting businesses (mixed with some residential) to these areas.

- Larkin is still somewhere on the stove, if not on the front burner.  The developers are working on finding some bond financing to get going.  See Statesville Record & Landmark update HERE.

- Mooresville’s population has grown 100% in the last 10 years to around 30,000 plus.  We’ll see when the census numbers are in.

- Lowe’s corporate campus is now projected when complete to have 12,000 employees.  That’s a big reason for the need for improved roads and interchanges that serve that area.

- As mentioned already, Langtree at the Lake is starting to make some forward progress.

- Planners are cautiously optimistic about the progress of the re-purposing of the old Burlington Mills complex on Main Street.  Hopefully, the furniture retailer is just the start of more worthwhile development there.

- The Brawley School Road improvements west of Williamson Rd. are scheduled for completion by summer of 2011. The improvements east of Williamson Rd. are scheduled for completion by summer of 2013.

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Langtree at the Lake Update

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , , , , on May 19, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I recently met with Brad Howard, one of the principles developing Langtree at the Lake, to find out the latest news on the development.  The economic slowdown has significantly changed the original schedule for this developement, but Brad was upbeat and feeling good since the Town of Mooresville had just recently let contracts for the construction of utilities that will serve the development.  The upcoming availability of utilities is likely to be the catalyst that will really get things moving in various parts of the development.  Here are some comments he gave me on what’s coming up at Langtree at the Lake.

The first properties that will be available for occupancy will be a commercial complex that will anchor one corner of the overall Langtree development.  It is owned by R. L. West Properties who plan 58,000 sq. ft of office space, 24,000 sq. ft of retail space and a convenience store.  This segment is planned for completion in June of 2011.

The second component will be a 300 room, 12 story Embassy Suites Hotel with 80,000 sq. ft of meeting space with construction set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The second quarter of 2011 will see the start of construction of 300 luxury residential apartments along with 40,000 sq. ft. of additional retail space- think Birkdale-ish.

Finally, plans are being prepared for Langtree Executive Park near the Lowe’s corporate campus.  This is where I understand the Friends of the Animals sanctuary will be that is being supported by NASCAR driver Greg Biffle’s Greg Biffle Foundation.

The success of developments like Langtree at the Lake and the new baseball park are important to Iredell County’s tax base and tax revenue.  Recent news of local government cutbacks, including school expenses, underscore the need to attract business that can help the residents pay for the services provided by city and county government.  No, it’s not good for us to go after such developments without regard to possible negative impacts on the local community, but it’s clear that communities that shun well-planned development are setting themselves up to dry up and blow away.

Lets hope these developments are planned and executed well and that we’ll all enjoy the benefits of having them in our community.

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How Many Square Feet is That House?

Posted in General Real Estate Market, Real Estate, tagged , , , , , , , on May 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Our office’s Realtors go on weekly property tours to see newly listed houses.  This helps us respond better to questions when we are taking calls for the office and also allows us to provide the listing agent and seller with our opinions on pricing, condition, staging, and other variables that affect how quickly the property will sell. 

One of the houses we visited recently had a basement with an unusually low ceiling.  We don’t run into that often, so we were a little fuzzy in trying to remember the rules that are established by the NC Real Estate Commission for measuring a situation like this.  I decided to look it up when I got back to the office, and I thought you might be interested, too.  If we didn’t have these standards, which are also used by appraisers, by the way, we might have situations where people are claiming valuable living area in parts of a property that would not be really useable space.

In the case of ceiling height, there are several details to keep in mind.  The situation we see most often is in an upstairs room with a knee wall and slanted ceiling going up to an area of flat ceiling.  In that case, we can include only the portion of the room with a ceiling height of at least 5 feet if at least 50% of the finished area of the room has a ceiling height of at least 7 feet.  We see that in a lot of bonus rooms.  Sometimes, there is finished floor below a ceiling height of less than 5 feet that we can’t count.  In all rooms, the ceiling height must be at least 7 feet except under beams, ducts, etc. where the ceiling height must be at least 6 feet 4 inches.

Another thing that many people don’t know is that we measure by taking the dimensions from the outside of the entire heated area of a house.  That means that the outside wall thickness is included in the total square foot figure.  Sounds a bit strange, I know, but that actually gets more consistent results than trying to measure each room and adding them all together.  As long as all houses are measured this way so that comparisons of one house to another are consistent, then that fact is not so important.

In our area, when houses are on the market our MLS just reports a square footage range according to a standard formula.  One of the main reasons for that is so that buyers will compare their choices for possible purchase based on the perceived value of the house in accommodating the living requirements of the buyer and family.  Because of design differences, houses should no more be valued purely on the basis of total square feet than they might be on the basis of total weight.  Square footage gives you only an approximate idea of how well a house will meet your family’s needs.  The design is a major factor for that decision, too, along with quite a few other variables.

There are lots of other details in the standard way we measure houses.  If you have any questions about this, give me a call or an email.

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Mooresville is Rockin’ This Weekend

Posted in Iredell County, Lake Norman, Mooresville, Quality of Life, Real Estate, tagged , on May 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

There’s lots to do this weekend in Mooresville, NC, and it won’t cost you an “arm and a leg.”

Friday evening, May 14, from 6:00PM til 9:00PM we have the monthly Art Walk.  Check out the galleries, stores, restaurants and music in the downtown area.  Also at 6:30PM at the Town Hall Lawn, the Music on Main Concert Series will present a free concert by the Craig Woolard Band playing cool beach music.

Saturday the downtown area will host the annual Race City Festival with 180 vendor booths, a full slate of entertainment and all kinds of food. 

Saturday night, Mooresville High School’s Roland R. Morgan Auditorium will host the 3rd annual Miss Race City USA Scholarship Pageant.  Tickets are $10 adults, $5 students, children under 3 no charge.

Can you stand it?  Plan to be exhausted and rest all day Sunday!

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Lease Goes with Sale of Rental Property

Posted in Finance, General Real Estate Market, Real Estate, tagged , , , , , on May 13, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Did you know that if you own rental property and wish to sell it,  any current written lease will transfer with the property to the new owner?  This can be used to the owner’s advantage since a property with a current lease and positive cash flow is more attractive to a new rental property owner.  Think of it this way- if a person buys a property with the intention of leasing it, they have to be concerned with the time and cost of getting a good renter in the property.  It may take weeks or months to do this, while during this time, the owner is getting no positive cash flow from the property.  If you sell a property that has current renters who have kept the property in good condition and paid their rent on time, then that is a very valuable asset to the new owner.

We can offer a property for sale and for rent at the same time.  If it sells first, it may go to an owner who intends to live there and will likely be willing to pay a somewhat higher price than an investor.  If it rents first, then it will be more attractive to sell to investors and will likely get a higher price than if it were vacant when sold.

If there are current renters with a written lease, the owner should explain to them that he/she plans to sell the property, but that their lease protects the renters for the term of the lease.  A new owner has to honor the terms of the current lease.

Let me know if you have questions about this.

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Old Friends and Real Estate

Posted in General Real Estate Market, Real Estate, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I met for dinner last night with a bunch of my old buds from my Duke Power (Energy) days.  I spent the better part of my adult life there working with a bunch of great folks, and we still get together occasionally.  This dinner (euphemism for beer and nachos) was on the occasion of the retirement of Don who I’ve known since around 1974.  We always have a nice time when we get together for some funny talk and some semi-serious talk.  The subject of my post-Duke career in real estate came up, and a comment was made about how they could never consider being in sales.  This is a bunch of engineers, so you can understand.  I told them that while I was working at Duke, I thought about that from time to time since I can’t stand for a “salesman” of any sort to try to get me to buy something.  That just turns me off totally.  My Duke buds just couldn’t believe that I was able to do that successfully.

The answer of course is that this is not what I do when working with real estate buyers and sellers.  I wouldn’t even be in this business if I hadn’t done a stint after Duke with a technical company as a manager who also got involved in helping the company’s clients buy products that worked best for them.  I found that I actually enjoyed listening to and understanding what people want, and helping them reach their goals.  That eventually led to my investigating real estate and finding that, properly done, the job of a Realtor is not to push someone to buy something, but to listen to wants and preferences, help people clarify their priorities, then help them find the right properties to consider and negotiate a transaction that is in their best interest.  The flip side of this is as a listing agent I won’t try to push a person to buy my listing.  The correct and honest thing to do is to present the property in such a positive and complete way that if it is a good match for a buyer, it will be obvious to the buyer.  That includes helping the seller price the property competitively.

I explained all of that to my friends.  I also explained that any Realtor who is interested in referral business, the very best kind of business there is, will do everything he or she can to be sure that the client has no regrets in hindsight.  A happy client will send me future business and be happy that they can recommend me confidently.  So, yes, you could say I’m working this way out of self-interest because I need future business to stay afloat.  But the nice thing is that the style of business that brings referrals for future business is the style of business that makes clients happy, now and in the future. 

That’s a win-win situation.

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Troutman Library’s Sneak Peek

Posted in Iredell County, Quality of Life, Real Estate, Troutman, tagged , , , on May 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Last Sunday the J. Hoyt Hayes Memorial Troutman Library held a Sneak Peek fundraiser in preparation for the opening later on in May.  At last night’s meeting of the Citizens for the Troutman Library, president Winkie Powell pronounced the event a success with good attendance and compliments from many visitors.

The library is scheduled to open on May 25th at 11:00AM, and a formal dedication will be scheduled when everything is running smoothly.  Weekday hours will be 11:00AM until 8:00PM. Weekend hours will be 9:00AM until 6:00 PM.  Efforts are underway to form a Troutman chapter of Iredell Friends of the Library who will provide additional support to the operation of the library.  Volunteers are also needed to help run the library.  Volunteers have already put in around 350 hours helping get the new library ready to go.  Another 5,000 books are scheduled to be delivered this week in addition to those already shelved, plus some great youth summer reading programs are being planned to get local kids involved with the library.

HERE is an article from the Mooresville Tribune with more details on the library.

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