Charming Haymount Home

I am really excited about my newest listing at 405 Glenville Ave. This home is conveniently located off Ft. Bragg Rd. in the much desirable Haymount area of Fayetteville. It is 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and nearly 1300 square feet. When the current owner bought the house he did many updates to the home, most notably the kitchen.  Another big improvement to the house is the large laundry closet which is a rarity for this type of home.  Most of these homes have the washer and dryer directly in the kitchen.  The home also includes a driveway that leads to a detached one car garage.  The owners have this home in great condition and beautifully decorated. Offered at $149,000.

Multiple Offers

Photo courtesy of: www.paradigmedge.com

When the market is slow multiple offers on one property is not something that is very common.  Recently we have seen this come back which is a great sign for the market.  How you deal with multiple offers can be very critical in making your real estate deal work.

The third year I was in real estate I had a buyer who wrote offers on 3 different homes and all 3 had multiple offers.  The first 2 homes they did not get.  The third home they ended up having their contract accepted only after writing an offer $2,500 over asking price.  The thing I remember most about this is how bad they were kicking themselves for not offering more in order to get the first home which they liked a lot more than the home they ended up with.  They knew that there were multiple offers on the home and they didn't make their highest and best.  There is nothing wrong with paying full price for a home especially if you love it.  Many people get too caught up in negotiating and don't keep in mind that they actually want the home.  My advice when you are making an offer on a home with multiple offers is to cut the negotiations and go ahead and make  your highest and best offer.

Anyone selling their home would love to have multiple offers, but if not negotiated correctly you could end up with nothing.  As a realtor I have to have my sellers permission to let the buyers agent know if there are competing offers on the property.  The reason is that if 2 buyers are making offers on the same house and find out that there are multiple offers, they may decide they do not want to get in a bidding war and withdraw their offer.  If this happens me as the realtor can not be the cause of this.  I will say that I do think that it does benefit the seller to let this be known.  In this circumstance the seller needs to remain reasonable during negotiations.  They also need to look at the whole offer and not just the bottom line price.  If one buyer is pre-qualified with a reputable lender that buyers offer should be strongly considered.  You don't want to take the highest offer only to have the deal fall apart in 3 weeks because of the loan.  Also look at all contingencies.  Do either of the buyers need to sell their home first?  If so is their home under contract.  These are all things to look at.

321 McAllister St.

If you have driven by the corner of W. Rowan and McAllister St. during the past few years you may have seen my sign on a vacant lot.  More recently you would have seen a couple of homes being built on the lot.  Well, yesterday one of them became completely finished.  The home directly on the corner is 321 McAllister and is the one that I have listed.  The one next to it will not go on the market because the builder is going to move into it himself.  This is rare Haymount new construction.  I have always loved newer homes and  the charm of older established neighborhoods.  This is one of the few circumstances where the two meet.  This masterpiece of a home is offered at $279,950 and is between 2200 and 2400 square feet.  It has a large open floor plan with a master suite downstairs and 3 bedrooms upstairs. 

Earlier this week I purchased a Canon Rebel T1i camera and yesterday had the opportunity to photograph this house.  Needless to say this was the most fun I have had photographing a house.  Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took. You can check out all of the photos that I took by viewing the photo tour here. Enjoy

Neighborhood Spotlight: Stonebridge and Autumn Chase

After a month of being busy and having a case of writers block I am ready to get back on track with Selling Fayetteville.  Today I want to spotlight two attached neighborhoods that many people may not know about, Stonebridge and Autumn Chase.  This is an area that I am very fond of considering I bought my first home in Autumn Chase and still own it today.  Normally when I refer to one of these neighborhoods I get the question, "Where is that?".  Once I tell them, "You know the neighborhood beside Ashley Elementary School?" they almost always know what I am referring to.  For those of you that don't, Autumn Chase and Stonebridge are located off of Robeson Street close to where you exit to get on HWY 87.  It is very convenient to downtown Fayetteville. 

Autumn Chase is made up town homes and patio home ranging from 1200 to 1800 square feet.  The neighborhood was built in the mid 90's.  It has a very comfortable feel.  I have very fond memories of walking the neighborhood with Lauren and my dog at that time Charlie. Homes rarely go on the market for sale and when they do they tend to sell fast.  In fact currently there is only one home on the market in Autumn Chase, a 1200 square foot patio home for $172,000.  That seems to be a little high but would be great if it sold for that.  Like I said, I still own real estate in that neighborhood.  In the past year 2 homes have gone to closing, a 2 bedroom 2 bath 1300 square foot home for $154,000 and a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 1600 sq foot home for 1,626.  Here are photos of the homes sold over the last year.

1766 Potomac Rd. 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths sold for $186,000

1761 Potomac Rd 2 bedroom 2 baths sold for $154,000

Stonebridge is the larger neighborhood that borders Autumn Chase.  There are a row of town homes on the back side of Autumn Chase that are considered to be part of Stonebridge. The town homes typically sell anywhere from $125,000 to $150,000. Eventually that street turns into the larger homes in Stonebridge which are typically 2,000 to 3,000 square feet.  These homes were built in the mid 90's to early 2000's.  This is a really beautiful area where the residents take great pride in their homes and lawns.  Currently there are 7 homes for sale in Stonebridge, 1 of which is a town home and 5 homes that have sold in the last year, 1 of which is a town home.  Here are some examples of homes currently for sale in Stonebridge.

844 Duval Dr. 4 bedroom 2.5 baths $220,000

2927 Dark Branch Rd. 3 bedroom 2 baths $189,900

870 Duval Dr. 4 bedrooms 2.5 baths $219,000
Virtual Tour

Lunch and Learn

Yesterday I had the great opportunity to be a part of a panel discussing the home buying process at the Fayetteville Young Professionals monthly Lunch and Learn.  We had a wonderful turnout and a great discussion which included several intelligent questions from those in attendance.  I always enjoy talking about real estate with people that are not in the business.  It reassures me of what points my profession needs to get across to the general public.  I think that in every business we take for granite that public understands what we do and how our business works.  What becomes easy and routine for you is in fact not that at all. Not that real estate is routine because every day a new twist can be thrown in to your day, but things such as pricing and marketing a home which are second nature for me are actually very difficult things which have become easy to me. This applies to all lines of work.

Fayetteville Young Professionals or (FYP) is such a great organization in Fayetteville.  It is an organization under the Chamber of Commerce in which young people are given great opportunities to network, learn valuable information, and in the end grow as professionals.  If you live in Fayetteville and are under the age of 40 I strongly encourage you to join FYP. More information about FYP including how to join can be found at http://www.fayyp.org/

Visiting Ft. McPherson

Last week Lauren and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Ft. McPherson, GA. and participate in the BRAC housing fair which took place in the commons on post.  With the exception of a few times when I was a kid this was the first opportunity that I have had to visit a military base.  I was completely blown away with how beautiful the area was inside the gates.  Ft. McPherson was full of rolling hills, landscaped walking trails, and an incredible golf course that looked as nice as many country clubs. 

We arrived at 10:00 a.m to set up for a 12:00 start to the housing fair.  The first half hour or so was very slow and some people began to wonder if there would be more more vendors than customers.  After the slow start people began to circulate around the room and we had a steady flow until the event was over at 4:00 p.m.  After speaking with several people one thing became very clear, everyone was looking to rent.    Most people are unable to sell there home in the greater Atlanta area and are unable to carry two mortgages.  Many people have been told they would only be at Ft. Bragg for 18 months and others just wanted to rent in order to scope out the area before making a decision of where to live in the area.  There were about 140 relocating soldiers who attended the fair so overall this is a small sample of the total number of people who will make the move to Ft. Bragg.  Estimates now show between 10,000 and 20,000 new residents will relocate to Ft. Bragg because of BRAC.  My company has a huge property management department that manages around 1,100 properties so we were able to provide great information to those who were there.  We were able to have many great conversations with the soldiers there about Fayetteville and what the city has to offer.  Because Lauren moved here from D.C she could relate to everyone there about moving from a big city to Fayetteville.

Overall I thought our trip was a success.  Although it was a little disappointing to find out that so many people were looking to rent instead of buy, we had a great presence there that I think made a huge impact.    This is also a great time for people to consider purchasing a larger home and renting the current home they are in.  That is a great way to own rental property at a good interest rate without having to put down a large down payment.

Realtors and lenders setting up booths at the Ft. McPherson housing fair

view of the golf course from the Commons at Ft. McPherson