It's time to start planning the new home. You know that Chatham County has low taxes compared to in the Town of Chapel Hill and you like the location. There is also a good selection of lots on the market and you should be able to get a good deal.  That's where you decide to start looking.

Chris Brogan has written this great e book about personal branding that I want to share. I've had it open on my desktop for three days now and have downloaded it but don't want to close the tab because I want to refer to it everyday. (I don't print much of anything anymore). I realized that a good way to keep it handy would be to send it to ActiveRain. Here is where you can get your own copy. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/img/broganbranding.pdf
Personal Branding for the Business Professional (Chris Brogan) -

Buy the lot now? Or later?
You have been thinking about building your own home for a long time. It seems like all of the new houses you see are so cookie cutter and you have special, different design ideas that you would love to have in your new home. You know they wouldn't cost that much more to do but would make such a big difference.

It's a great time to buy land now but you know you'll need to sell your house before you start construction.

You decide to go to the bank to see about a loan to buy a lot so you can start planning while your home is on the market. It seems that only a few lenders do land and construction loans.

You were surprised to find out that land loans are only for 5-7 years and have a higher interest rate than houses. The banker told you that a formula often used is 5x the lot cost is about the home value. $500,000 is about you want to spend on the lot and house together and you have some money saved so you have the lender figure the payments on $80,000 of the $100,000 expected purchase price.  Wow! you'll be spending more than $1000 a month on the lot payment and you won't even be able to live there.

Maybe there is another way to do this. With the new lending regulations and the real estate market so slow in our area what would you do? Any ideas?

Last night Briar Chapel Hosted a special dinner celebration at Fearrington House for Realtors who have supported the neighborhood.The focus of the evening was food, fun, and wine.

Representatives of the builders were there. Shirley from Vanguard Homes was really happy about a weekend sale. Her buyer had been waiting to sell her home before she could buy and it finally happened!

I haven't been to Fearrington at night for a long time and I was amazed at how pretty it was with the lights hanging in the trees.

The dinner was held in the Garden Room which is popular for weddings and becomes an open air pavilion in nice weather. This night, the walls were down and there was a roaring fire in the huge fireplace.

The food was outstanding. It was a buffet and I had no idea when I got in line how extensive the menu was. I filled my plate with the smoked pork tenderloin with blue cheese bread pudding, then saw the rib eye with spinach and shrimp in remoulde sauce. I had to pass on the little southern fried chicken biscuits and many other dishes.

The light wasn't very good for my photos. When I got home  and excitedly showed the photos to my husband  he said it could be a plate from Wilbers- or anywhere, so here is a link to beautiful food photos from the Fearrington web site. He was probably just jealous!

Thanks Briar Chapel, real estate is hungry work!

After the hungry work of showing condos at Village Green in Chapel Hill I was ready for a snack. My clients had to go back to work so I enlisted Barb Pater to go with me and be in my video. I couldn’t wait to show off my new windshield video gadget.

Hi, I'm Marianne Howell Wright and looking at condos at Presque Isle Villas and Providence Glen in Chapel Hill is hungry work!

We had already spent several days investigating condos in Chapel Hill and  my client decided she wanted something built in the past several years that was close to I-40 and shopping but still in Chapel Hill on the bus line. So today we decided to take a look at Presque Isle and Providence Glen. Both neighborhoods were developed in the early 2000's and are located off Sage Rd. neat 15-501.


We started at Presque Isle. I have special feelings for this European style condo neighborhood with only 42 units, a pool, clubhouse and fitness center. I was one of the two listing agents when it was new and my team mate, Michele Connors and I sold the units. We also did all of the selections. Michele has moved to the coast and is Broker in Charge of Coldwell Banker First in Morehead City, NC. Eight years later I still represent the builder in his new home neighborhoods.

There are three basic floor plans at Presque Isle. All have one or two car garages Additional detached garages may be available with some units. Two of the plans are 2 bedroom, 2-2.5 baths and a larger end unit with 3 or 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. The sizes ranges from 1200 sq. ft. to around 2400 sq. ft. Prices range from around $225,000 to around $400,000. My client liked the larger end unit but it was a little over what she wanted to spend.

So we drove on over to Providence Glen.
These are stacked condos, 16 buildings, 3 stories, 4 units per floor,(192 condos) and all of the 2 or 3 bedroom condos are flats.  There is a pool, tennis and clubhouse. Prices range from The upper $170's to just under $300,000. The HOA has an excellent web site  http://www.providenceglen.com/Home_Page.html
The floor plans are excellent and my client liked the way the bedrooms were separated for privacy.

We had looked at quite a few condos and my client was starting to get confused. It was time for lunch. Searching for a new home is hungry work!! It was on to La Hacienda just down the street for some diet food.  No margaritas today but we did narrow things down and went back to my office to write an offer.

I'm a little late finishing my plan up this year and maybe a bit too ambitious but am looking forward to a great year. If you haven't done your 2010 goals yet here is a link to a short Smart goals worksheet. http://tiny.cc/75JrZ Use it as an outline for each goal and write your business plan from that. Randy Cox, broker in charge of my CBHPW Chapel Hill office, always has his door open and was a big help with my planning.

Southern Village

Last weekend I went to Southern Village with my sister,a friend and our dogs for the Walk for Paws. It was a  was a beautiful fall day, perfect for a walk down the tree lines streets of Southern Village.

 

 

Southern Village dates from the early 90's and was the first of the "new old neighborhoods" in the area. One of the models for the new neighborhood was Kentlands in Va. When the development of Southern Village first started I really wondered how it would turn out. I was familiar with Kentlands, my sister lived there, it was a wonderful neighborhood concept. But in Kentlands the land was level and Southern Village had so much topography....

How would they ever get it to look good with the density and hills? Well, it turned out great. The developers, D.R. Bryan , Bryan Properties, knew what they were doing and today is is a showplace neighborhood in Chapel Hill with a thriving commercial area. There is a main street with shops, restaurants, businesses, a church, and movie theater. The commons is a gathering place for events (like The Walk for Paws), a farmers market and outdoor movie showings.

I took photos of lots of homes and will add more including the condos and townhomes in another post.

After our walk we sat outside at Pazzo! on Market Street and shared a pizza and a bottle of wine. We people and dog watched until until almost dark!

Chatham County NC Real Estate

For years a visitor to the Triangle wouldn't hear much about Chatham County. It was missing from area maps and rarely mentioned in the local news and weather. I think that´s because it has been a rural county without a large center of population. Things are changing  fast now because of Chatham´s location surrounded by Orange, Durham and Wake Counties, completion of major roads, and the growing population of the Triangle.  Much of Chatham County is still very rural but North Chatham has seen quite a bit of growth in the past few years with the development of large planned neighborhoods like Briar Chapel.

 Why move to Chatham County? 

During the past 10 years or so the planning departments in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Raleigh have been requiring developers to cluster homes and leave areas of green space to help protect the environment. The result of this is most new home neighborhoods have small ¼ to 1/3 acre lots.  

Growth has been limited in Chatham because of the lack of sewer services to the county. New improvements in waste treatment systems such as spray irrigation have made development of large golf course neighborhoods with big lots a cost effective way for developers to go. It also offers new home buyers something that is in short supply in the Triangle, a new home on a large lot. Over the past few years so much land was approved for development that there is now an over supply of homes and there are some real deals to be found.

When I saw this sign while driving from Chapel Hill to Chatham County I thought the pro-development town council had put it up. I quickly realized a prankster had added DEVELOPERS PARADISE. This was right before our market entered the recession.

Schools

The school test scores vary across the county. In the North Chatham area the scores compare favorably with the rest of the Triangle. If you focus on the North Chatham schools,  Perry Harrison and North Chatham Middle and Elementary you will see that they are similar to the scores of the Chapel Hill schools which have the reputation as the best in the state.  A new high school is planned for North Chatham in the next few years. There is also the Woods Charter School, grades k-12  with an excellent reputation but a waiting list.

Chatham County ABC's Test Scores