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Categoriesinternet marketingLife Real Estate Buyers Sellers Favorite LinksHomes of Madison CountyCentury 21 Steele & Associates Century 21 Julie Ryan, Realtor ArchivesJune 2007Let the mistakes I made, save you some troublePosted at 1:32 PM, Jun. 25, 2007Just three days after closing Escrow on what we thought was our dream home, the new neighbor down the street pulled into our driveway to let us know that she'd been trying to catch us there ever since we first looked at the house. Plans had already been finalized to put a new highway bypass just about a football field from our property line (and right through our neighbors house). We were out in the county so there weren't many neighbors and already we were about to lose what turned out to be our best neighbor. As soon as we found out, we called our "agent" ... well we thought she was OUR agent, but we didn't understand the laws of agency and didn't know that since we just called the name on the sign we really didn't have an agent. The agent we worked with wasn't the listing agent but she was in the same company (so she still represented the seller). The listing agent CLAIMED he didn't know what was going on with the property and that the sellers said they didn't know either, but we had already been told he was good friends with the sellers.... and we already knew that several mailings had gone out to the property owners regarding this bypass and the fact that in order to put in the bypass our road would be widened, as well (meaning that the local government was going to be buying about 20ft of frontage from us). In the end we decided to just stay put for the simple reason that we had no where else to go and had already put a lot of money into the property in the short time we had it. The house finally sold after 3 years on the market once the highway was finally finished. We learned some important lessons from this event that I would like to pass on to you. 1. Don't call the agent on the sign. If you are in the market for a house, get an agent that will represent YOU and your best interests and make sure that they know the area and the market. They aren't going to know EVERYTHING that may be going on in the area but they will have an idea. 2. If there's a lot of empty land next to your property, find out who owns it and what the plans are for the property. Even if it's not a new highway, it might be a shopping mall or an apartment complex or even just a new subdivision ... it doesn't matter what it is when you move in thinking "oh there's nothing next to us" and then a year later suddenly there is, you'd much rather have known ahead of time. 3. Talk to the neighbors. Before you buy, no matter how much you love the house and think you know the neighborhood, take the time to go knock on the doors of the neighbors and get to know them a bit and find out what they think of the neighborhood. If nothing else you may discover that you'd have a neighbor you couldn't stand to live next too (and again it's better to know early than late). June is National Home Ownership Month!Posted at 12:31 PM, Jun. 12, 2007Did you know that June is National Home Ownership Month!? Let's celebrate by sharing our favorite things about home ownership, I'll start. 1. Knowing that it's MINE Please feel free to comment with your own thoughts { 0 comments } { add comment } { Permanent Link }
View more entries tagged with: June, Home Ownership Month, Best Things About Home Ownership The Sky is Not FallingPosted at 12:09 PM, Jun. 12, 2007
Finally, an article that's positive. It's rather hard when you look across the broad spectrum and all you read and hear is "The Sky is Falling" when it comes to the Real Estate market. This article explains the obvious - Real Estate fluctuates! No really it does! Not only does it constantly fluctuate from market to market but within a market. For example while the news is constantly talking about the bubble bursting and sales being down, etc, when you look at my market - Huntsville AL and the surrounding areas - that is definately not the case. In this area we have a few very positive things happening which affect the Real Estate market. 1. BRAC - Huntsville is a military town, we are based around Redstone arsenal and much of our business is military related. The recent BRAC (Base Realignment and Closures Act) decision that not only decided once again to keep our base open but to bring thousands of new jobs to our base has had a booming affect on our market. While the numbers are not exactly clear what we do know is that many jobs are coming and that there are more jobs being created than we have people to fill the jobs. What this means... 2. And Influx of New People - unfortunately many people have a very distorted view of what Alabama is like. When they come to Huntsville they usually find that their preconceptions were misconceptions and that Alabama (at least this part of it) is nothing like they imagined. With so many new jobs being created not only through BRAC but through many other businesses moving here (many not related to the military), this means that many new people are moving here, add to that... 3. Low property values, and you've got a great market for housing. Until recently it made no sense to rent unless you had to and even now if you have decent credit in this area you can buy more of a house than you can rent for the same payment (or less). It's cheaper to buy than to rent. 4. Low Interest Rates - Despite the fact that they have been going up lately, they are still very low overall, allowing for many people to afford to buy who could not otherwise. All in all, Huntsville is an awesome market to be in. If you are considering investing in Real Estate, you may want to take a look at Huntsville Alabama where the property values are still low yet going up and we expect them to continue to rise steadily over the next 4 to 5 years (at least) as so many new jobs move into our area bringing new people with them. |
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