Archive for April, 2008
New Home Community - Bellemont at Cary Park
April 29th, 2008 Categories: Cary, New Construction Homes
A new community has opened in the popular Cary Park area. It is a small neighborhood of 64 home sites called Bellemont at Cary Park. I was just there at a broker open house a few weeks ago and was quite impressed.
Piccola Builders is building custom homes at Bellemont with lots of attention to detail. Prices start in the mid $300s. These homes feature upgrades such as screened porches, unfinished walk-up attics, tankless water heaters, granite countertops, gas stoves, trey ceilings, hardwoods in the living areas, and ceramic tile in the bathrooms. Some homes even have basements. A rare find in our market. The models we toured feel well built and look great.
Here is a list of homes currently for sale in Bellemont at Cary Park
2925 sq/ft, 3BR/2.5BA, basement, $408,174
3120 sq/ft, 3BR/3.5BA, basement, $440,772
3120 sq/ft, 5BR/4.5BA, $408,870
2999 sq/ft, 5BR/4.5BA, $393,500
There are currently up to $10,000 in discount options and up to $3,000 in builder paid closing costs available for a limited time, with certain restrictions.
This location cannot be beat, especially if you work in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area. Folks who work at IBM, Cisco, Ericsson, SAS, or any of the other high tech employers at the park will really appreciate the short drive to work.
And there are plenty of amenities nearby too. The Cary Park Club with 2 pools, a waterslide, playground and clubhouse is available to all Bellemont residents. There is also a 28 acre lake nearby and 2 miles of walking trails. Just a few blocks away is the brand new Cary Park Village Center which I’m told will be home to very good assortment of restaurants and shops.
If this sound like a place you want to know more about, just give me a call at 919-602-7000, or send me an email.
Search all Cary homes for sale
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The Salute To Our Troops in Downtown Raleigh - The Photo Edition
April 28th, 2008 Categories: Downtown, Odds and Ends
The Salute To Our Troops parade and celebration in Downtown Raleigh on Saturday was awesome. It was a humbling moment standing there and watching this huge tribute to the brave men and women who are willing to voluntarily put themselves in harms way, if need be, and make the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I can be safe and free.
We have lots of military bases here in North Carolina. Even so, it’s easy to forget that these guys and gals, our neighbors, stand ready to serve whenever called upon.
I do not know what words I might write here that would be sufficient to express the gratitude that I feel towards our armed forces. So, I’ll try quoting something that was said a long time ago.
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Enjoy the photos… and yes, that is Senator Elizabeth Dole on the Harley.
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Salute Our Troops Parade and Celebration in Downtown Raleigh
April 26th, 2008 Categories: Downtown, Odds and Ends
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I’m headed to downtown Raleigh to enjoy the Salute The Troops parade and celebration this morning. There will be a military flyover at 10:00am followed by a parade that starts at Fayetteville Street and continues down Salisbury Street past the Capital building. After the parade there will be lots of military equipment and the like on display. There will even be several NASCAR teams there, displaying some race cars I presume?
This is a really cool event. In addition to all the fun and sights for civilians like me, There is a whole bunch of special stuff for active military and their families. Just for our military families, there are dozens of games and activities, a nice catered lunch, free access to Marbles Kids Museum, and free access to the opening night Carolina RailHawks (professional soccer) game.
I hope to see you there as we take a few moments to celebrate all that our military service men and women do to keep us free and safe. I’ll take my camera and post some photos later on.
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New Home Search Tool Up And Running
April 25th, 2008 Categories: Buying a Home
I am so excited. I have installed a brand new home search tool on this blog that you’re just gonna love. Now I know what you’re thinking… this guy doesn’t have much to get excited about if he is all worked up over a new home search tool. Hey, keep reading, this thing is really cool and just might get you excited too!
It is a software service from Best Home Pro that features a map based search along with decision making tools that can help you sort and sift through the hundreds of homes that might typically show up in a search. When set up properly, this awesome tool can produce a pretty impresive top 10 list of homes that fit the exact criteria you specify.
If you register your email address, the system can send you an update whenever a new home is listed that makes it into your top 10 list, or when a home sells and allows another home to move up to the list. It does this using a direct link to the Triangle MLS that is updated daily so that you are seeing very fresh information on homes listed for sale.
I’ll be writing more about Best Home Pro in the coming weeks. If you want to get started right away, click the link below, or the Search For Homes button over on the right. Enjoy!
Search ALL Triangle Homes For Sale
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Back To Normal
April 25th, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
Last night I saw one of the most beautiful sights I have witnessed in a very long time. I logged on to this blog and saw that all of my content had been fully restored. That was a really big sigh of relief for me.
The more I thought about all the hours I had put in writing the four months of articles that have been missing for over a week, the more panic I experienced. The people that host my blog, The Real Estate Tomato, had been telling me all along not to worry, that it was all safe and sound. But I didn’t listen. I worried anyway.
I just want to say a public thank you to Jim, Molly (you know who you are!), and everyone at The Real Estate Tomato for doing such a wonderful job of recovering from the attack that a bunch of us bloggers suffered almost two weeks ago.
Now back to blogging and selling houses!
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The Times They Are a Changing - Pricing Homes To Sell
April 24th, 2008 Categories: Selling a Home
I did a market analysis today for a new listing and the very first thing I looked at was comparable active listings. Last year I would have looked at comparable sold listings first. That was before we had 9,000 plus active homes listed for sale in Wake County.
The name of the game today is beating the competition. And there’s plenty of it too. Buyers have choices. Lots of them. Last year I could list a home and sell it in a couple of months, maybe a couple of weeks, as long as I priced it in line with recent sales.
Recent sales are still important for setting a max price. But the competition must be beat if you want to sell a home in the Raleigh market today. The value proposition, condition for a certain price, is king. I can get a little more money for my clients and sell their homes a lot faster if the home looks better than the competition.
As important as pricing is, presentation and marketing are just as important now. All this stuff has been important in the past. It’s just that now I can almost predict the order houses will sell in a neighborhood based on price and condition.
Preparation will make you money. Staging is money well spent. Inspecting your home and making repairs before putting it on the market helps too.
Thinking about putting your home on the market any time soon? Don’t take anything for granted.
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Raleigh Home Seller Seminar
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Events, Selling a Home
| May 13, 2008 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
You’re invited to a FREE seminar on How To Sell Your Home For Top Dollar In A Challenging Market. Come hear a panel of experts discuss how to edge out the competition. With local residential real estate inventory up and home sales down, this is a message that needs to be heard.
Learn how to:
- determine a competitive market price that will net you more money
- stage your home to beat the competition
- create curb appeal that draws buyers like a magnet
- calculate net proceeds to determine your bottom line
- pre-qualify potential buyers to minimize your risk
Refreshments will be provided.
Tuesday - May 13th at 6:30pm
Reserve your place today by calling Tonya at 919-882-2175 or sending an email to tmartin(at)wrstarkey(dot)com
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3 Choices When Facing Foreclosure
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Mortgage and Finance
The bad news is foreclosures are on the rise here in Wake County, just like they are in most of the country. The good news is the rate of increase is not nearly as bad here as in most other real estate markets.
Even though we are doing better than many areas with regards to increases in foreclosures, the sad part is that good people are still facing this problem right here in our local communities. If you are behind on your mortgage payments, and don’t think you have the ability to get current, you have three choices.
Let Your Home Go Into Foreclosure
This is not a good choice. Your credit can be ruined for 7 years. You will not be able to buy anything on credit for a very long time. You could end up still responsible to the bank for the costs of foreclosing on your home. Debt collectors will follow you wherever you go in their efforts to collect the outstanding balance.
By the way, the banks really do not want to foreclose on homes. It costs them a ton of money each time they do it. It’s a lose-lose proposition for homeowners and banks alike.
If you let your home go into foreclosure, it’s too late. No one can help you at that point.
Renegotiate Your Mortgage
Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to renegotiate the terms of your mortgage. The key thing to remember here is that banks really do not want your home. They are not in the real estate business. They are in the banking business.
If you want to stay in your home, this might be a good option. Most of the time it can be done with minimal damage to your credit. Much of this will depend on how many payments you miss before seeking help.
Ask for help early. I have experience with renegotiating mortgages and will be glad to try to help. Just give me a call, but please call as soon as you realize you’re in trouble.
Negotiate a Short Sale With the Bank
If there is no way you can afford to stay in the home, then a short sale may be a viable solution. This is where you find a buyer for your home and negotiate with the bank to settle for less that what is owed on the loan. If you are successful, the bank accepts the offer and your credit report shows several late payments followed by a satisfied in full remark.
If all goes well, you will walk away with your credit in far better shape than it would be as a result of foreclosure, and you will not owe the outstanding amount to the bank. I have experience with short sales too. Again, just call me and I’ll try to help. Just don’t wait too long. Call as soon as you realize there is a problem
Don’t be too proud to ask for help
I’ve had several past clients contact me recently to ask for advice for people they know who are at risk of losing their homes. More often than not I get these phone calls after many payments have been missed and the bank has hired a collection firm to start hassling the homeowner. I cannot over emphasize how important it is to reach out for help sooner, rather than later.
If you, or someone you know, is facing possible foreclosure, call me or email me as soon as possible. Foreclosure is the very worst choice, out of the three available to you, that you could possibly make. Anybody can get in a jam. Asking for help is always the best choice.
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Back From The Attack
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
If you’ve stopped by this blog in the past week, you have witnessed the aftermath of a vicious hacker attack. Raleigh Real Estate Talk and 19 other real estate blogs were the subject of a criminal attack, according to the people who host our sites.
As of right now I’m back up, although 4 months of articles are still missing. I’m told the missing months should be restored soon. It’s been a different kind of week to say the least.
To be honest, I’ve been able to keep myself pretty busy while my host has worked feverishly to put my blog back together again. I’ve had several new clients to serve and a couple of closings to schedule. That’s what it’s all about anyway. Helping people navigate through the sometimes perilous process of buying and selling homes.
I have had a few moments to reflect on why someone would want to do such a malicious and destructive thing to people whom he or she presumably did not even know. There is no answer to that question. But what they meant for harm has resulted in some good.
I’ve heard from quite a few people who enjoy reading what I write and who use the home search tools here on a regular basis. It has made me realize that this humble little blog serves more people that I thought, and that they depend on the information that is posted here.
I just want everyone to know that Raleigh Real Estate Talk is back and here to stay. By the way, there’s lots of new stuff coming soon. A new search home tool that you’re gonna love. You’ll also see the launch of a new way to organize information on a community by community basis. And I’m more committed now than ever before to writing something every day.
I missed everyone and It’s really good to be back!
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If The Radon Levels In Your Home Are High Don’t Inhale
April 10th, 2008 Categories: Buying a Home, Real Estate Tips
Several months ago, I sold a new construction home and as usual, I insisted that some language be added to the builder’s contract giving my buyers the right to test for high radon levels, and the right to demand that any high levels that were discovered be remediated. My buyers ended up being very glad this language was added for their protection.
As it turned out, this home tested positive for high radon levels. Real high. The EPA says that radon levels over 4.0 pico curies (there’s my fancy word for the day) can cause long term health problems and death. That’s right, death. It’s not much fun to talk about, but 20,000 people die each year from lung cancer linked to exposure to high levels of radon gas. The average level in this home was 20 pico curies. This is serious stuff.
The radon issue in the home I sold was taken care of with a relatively simple foundation fan system that was installed at the builder’s expense. The radon levels in this home retested at far below the EPA threshold. My buyers can now breath easy. They shouldn’t ever have to worry about radon again.
Had my clients not had an agent who was willing to negotiate the additional terms regarding radon testing and responsibility for remediation into the contract, they could have ended up paying for the solution themselves. Or, worse. They might have never known what they were breathing.
I remember the first time I heard about the dangers of radon gas back in real estate school. It sounded pretty scary to me. I figured that with the seriousness of the issue, all buyers must surely have access to information on the dangers as well as the right to test and either have the seller fix any problems, or terminate their contract. When I began my real estate business back in 2002 I found the reality to be quite different.
The good news is that the standard North Carolina real estate contract used for resale homes includes really good terms that protect the buyer with regards to radon. The bad news is that when I explain that part of the contract to my buyers, they typically have never heard of radon gas before.
Most of the homes I list for sale have never been tested. I always ask at the listing appointment. Can you imagine selling your home and discovering from the buyer’s radon test that you have been inhaling high levels for years? Now you are struck with fear of the unknown effects on your health and you must install a system that could have protected you. The time to test for radon is when you buy a home.
Sometimes it feels pretty lonely counseling home buyers on the merits of having a $140 test done that could save their life. I’ve had listing agents tell me there is nothing to worry about because they don’t know of any radon issues in the area. I’ve had builders and their agents tell me the same thing. And their contracts usually just ignore the issue altogether.
I’m sure my buyer clients wonder why I’m sometimes the first person they have ever heard talk about the health risks of radon in such a passionate way. And their doubts may be strengthened when, as it turns out most of the time, they pay for the test and the radon levels in their new home are normal. Is it worth $140 to know if you are at risk of developing lung cancer from a gas you cannot smell, see, or taste? I think so.
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