Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Welcome! Whether you are selling or buying, Team Jodi will provide you with the very best in real estate counsel and service. You can come to us for all your information on Chapel Hill , Carrboro, Durham , Hillsborough, Pittsboro, Raleigh, Cary and Apex North Carolina real estate.
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October 2008
Oct. 17, 2008
I finally got off the dime and signed up via ZipForms for electronic signatures through Docusign. With my client in India and the buyers in North Carolina, it became imperative to move the contract electronically with no printing and faxing. The electronic signature process is pretty cool. Once you create and upload your contract documents you define who will get the contracts for signature and in what sequence. Once someone finishes, an email is sent to the next person in line. You and the sender of the documents can track the movement/history on line. It is a wonderful thing to go paperless and in situations like this is is much better than having the tablet. For $12.95 a month, I think this is well worth it.
As an experienced realtor, I can make the home buying or selling process easier and more convenient for you - in this case through technology!
Oct. 17, 2008
I think it is critical to monitor the local real estate market and to provide updated market statistics/information to the public. I provide these market updates throughout the year, based on information supplied to me by Stacey Andfinsen at Birch Appraisals. Click here to see my first quarter market update. Now that we are through the second quarter, provided below are the newest figures for Wake County, the home of Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Wake Forest.
What Is Happening With Inventory & List Prices?
Second quarter inventory increased 25% compared to the second quarter in 2007. Average list prices increased 1% to slightly more than $368,500.
What is Happening With Closings And The Average Sales Price?
In June, the number of closings decreased by 35% compared with the same time frame in 2007. Average sales prices for all homes increased 1% in June and the average sales price for re-sale homes only increased 1.2%.
How Long Are Houses Staying On The Market?
The average days on market for closed sales in Wake County increased to 85 days in 2008 vs. 70 days in 2007.
Are Houses Appreciating?
The current rate of appreciation in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area is significantly better than the average rate experienced nationally. The U.S. is at -4.8%, North Carolina is 3.59%, Wake County is 4.8% and the South East is -2.95%.
This information was provided to Team Jodi by a local appraiser, Stacey Andfinsen with the Birch Appraisal Group of Cary, North Carolina. Click here to learn more about Team Jodi and our services.
If you are looking to list your home in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange or Durham County North Carolina, call Team Jodi toll free at 888-TeamJodi (888-326-5634), email us at Jodi@TeamJodi.com or visit us at www.TeamJodi.com.
See also:
Oct. 17, 2008
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
The Chapel Hill Carrboro School System has an incredible Dual Language, or Language Immersion, program for both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. The program began in 2002. My daughter started in the Spanish Program in Kindergarten and she just entered Middle School and is in the first Middle School Dual Language Program. It is very cool to have a 10 year old that is bilingual, especially since she comes from a family where her parents are not fluent in another language. It is the goal of this program that the children be both bilingual and biliterate. It is also an incredible learning environment when your child can learn side by side with an equal amount of native speakers. In this program, the kids really work together and learn from each other.
The Spanish Program is at Carrboro Elementary and the Mandarin Chinese Program is at Glenwood Elementary. From the time the kids are in Kindergarten they spend 50% of their school day speaking in the target language. Throughout elementary school my daughter took math, science or language arts in Spanish. This was matched by an equal amount of time spent on these subjects speaking English.
The program has matured to the point where the first classes in both Spanish and Chinese have gradated to Middle School. The Spanish and Chinese Middle School Dual Language Programs are at McDougle Middle School. At the Middle School Level the kids have two classes that are 100% in the target language. These are the standard course of study for the 6th Grade Social Studies Curriculum and a Language and Cultural Arts Class. This of course is combined with the other classes in Math, Science and a second Language Arts that are taught in English.
To learn more about the Dual Language Program in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC, visit the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District site at:
http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=34596
Also, read the article where the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools were honored for the Dual Language Program:
http://ciu.northcarolina.edu/docs/CHCCS_press_release_Finished_Copy.pdf
Finally, the Elementary and Middle School web sites are:
Carrboro Elementary:
http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=2
Glenwood Elementary:
http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/club/default.php?sectiondetailid=14042&sc
McDougle Middle School
http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=12
How our students are doing in surrounding counties is shown in recent SAT scores and in special enrichment programs offered in the schools. See:
Oct. 17, 2008
Every year I seem to have the year of something. One year it was the year of the cracked heat exchanger, or termites or structural issues. Recently, I had issues with one seller client and one buyer... [Read More]
Oct. 17, 2008
Inman News just posted an exciting article titled, "7 MLSs Agree to Share, Exchange Data." Essentially, seven multiple listing services in Northern California will share and exchange MLS da... [Read More]
Oct. 17, 2008
Home Warranties have proven to be a great negotiating tool for both buyers and sellers. I put them on all of the homes I list for sale in Chapel Hill, Durham and the surrounding area. Most home warranties can be initiated at the time of listing the home and therefore provides coverage to the seller during the listing period. It is amazing how many things can go wrong when you put your home on the market. Invariably, a toilet will leak, the dishwasher or microwave will break or the air conditioning or heat will stop working. For a modest co-payment, typically $45, the home warranty company will send out a technician to fix the problem. In those cases where things are broken beyond repair, they may even replace the item.
Now, we all know home warranty companies are insurance companies and they like to fight claims. As the listing agent that uses home warranties all the time, this gives you leverage to work on your sales agent to get the job done. It is amazing how well this works!
In addition to the above, home warranties really do work as great negotiating tools. For example, when items are brought up on a home inspection, and there is a transferable warranty in place, the seller can often times negotiate fewer repairs. A few months ago, I had a transaction where the house had a septic system. When the repair request came in, my seller actually refused to make any repairs because they had given the buyer a good sum for closing costs and they threw furniture into the deal. It was now up to me to make this deal work!
Thankfully, there was a home warranty in place and I was paying for it to transfer to the buyer at closing. I learned that the most important thing to the buyers was ensuring that the septic system was ok. I increased the coverage on the home warranty to cover the septic (this cost an additional $75) and the buyers where happy. I was more than happy to spend less than $500 on the warranty to make the deal work and get paid for all of my hard work on listing and marketing the house as well as negotiating the deal.
I have seen time and time again where home warranties really help. I put them on all of my listings and I pay for it. This is a great listing tool as well as a win win for buyers and sellers throughout the transaction.
If you are looking to list your home in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange or Durham County North Carolina, call Team Jodi toll free at 888-TeamJodi (888-326-5634), email us at Jodi@TeamJodi.com or visit us at www.TeamJodi.com.
Oct. 17, 2008
In light of recent soaring foreclosure filings in North Carolina - 24% from June 2008 and 125% from July, 2007 - Governor Mike Easley signed a bill to offer relief to homeowners and banks alike. The North Carolina Foreclosure Prevention Project requires that both homeowners and the state's bank commissioner must receive 45 days notice before a foreclosure is filed and also allows the bank commissioner to extend any foreclosure filing notice by 30 days. During this time, the state would negotiate with the homeowner and mortgage holder on their loan interest rate and payments. Easley estimates that that the law could help over 25,000 families stay in their homes and prevent losses to the banks which often reach 40% on a foreclosed loan.
In a news release, he said, "The program is the first of its kind in the nation that makes sure homeowners and lenders avoid foreclosures, where everyone ends up a loser. Our goal is to help bring borrowers and lenders together so that the family gets to keep their home and the bank does not lose money on the loan." The program will not cost the taxpayers anything.
Since his days as Attorney General, Easley has fought predatory lenders, promoted legislation to limit the amount mortgage brokers could charge, added buyer protections to adjustable rate mortgages, and required lenders to extend loans it line with a borrower's ability to pay. His efforts have made North Carolina a model in the nation for protecting buyers from unscrupulous lenders. The state has fewer subprime loans, half the national average of adjustable rate mortgages, and significantly less mortgage fraud than the national average. Since North Carolina ranks second in the nation in the number of financial institutions based in the state, Easley believes that if a plan to ease the impact of foreclosure gets the support of bankers here, it could work elsewhere.
For those people that find themselves in financial hardship or distress and have missed one or more mortgage payments or are about to, there are choices and ways to avoid foreclosure. If you want to know the price of your home or ask a question, go to www.shortsalesinnc.com and register and I will get back to you right away or contact me at Jodi@TeamJodi.com. For more detailed information about what is a short sale and how do you qualify also read my post titled, "Can Short Sales or Pre-Foreclosures Work in Chapel Hill, Durham and Orange County?"
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