Troy 's Blog

Affordable Alternative to Downtown Condos: Grandview Heights

2008-03-25T08:18:54Z

As city leaders and the community as a whole have been buzzing about the downtown condo developments, another community has been quietly becoming one of the hottest areas for real estate in Columbus for graduate students, young professionals and medical residents alike: Grandview Heights.

Although many young professionals and grad students want to live close to where things are happening, many do not want the parking hassles, noise, and most importantly, the prices associated with downtown living.

The prices of downtown condos have raised while other prices have stabilized, and in some cases dipped a little bit, depending on the area. The downtown prices have risen to a point where many young professionals and especially students are not comfortable with the pricing, especially for the space and the parking hassles, and that is where Grandview comes into play.

Grandview Heights offers condos and small homes in a small, close-knit community that gives the feeling of suburban living with the conveniences of being close to downtown. With downtown Columbus and the Arena District only a five minute taxi ride away, this community has become very attractive to young professionals.

With apartments being converted into condos starting in the low $100,000's it is the best of both worlds for many Columbus-area young professionals. Many of these condos allow you to choose granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, a stackable washer and dryer and even the option of a brand new furnace and A/C, and still have a final price of under $130,000 with a low condo fee that includes heat and a pool.

This is a great community and a great value and I encourage anyone that might be interested in these condos or the homes that start around $150,000 to take a look at this community. Feel free to give me a call directly at 614-750-2144.

Is now the time to buy? Lots of people think so....

2008-02-13T11:20:40Z

By Troy Marsh, The Gold Key Experts (2/13/2008)

Over the last few weeks, I personally, as well as many of my colleagues that I have spoken to, have seen a fairly large uptick in traffic, offers and homes going into contract. Personally I have had clients involved in multiple offer situations twice in the last three weeks. Yesterday I had a client who started looking one week ago and two of the eight properties that he really liked had gone into contract within the last seven days. The media seems to be behind the curve on things and effecting how buyers who have not yet made a decision continue to look at the market.

The majority of the agents that I have talked to have spoken about the $100-225k price range being the busiest, which is mostly first-time home buyers or the "move up" sellers that are selling their homes to first-time home buyers. The problem with the media being behind the curve is that many buyers continue to "buy" the news that it is a severe buyers market and they can wait until they are ready, no matter how nice or well priced the home is, instead of pulling the trigger on a house they really like because the media says it will "be there forever."

A week and a half ago I had three showings in Delaware County in the $150,000-$170,000 range with a buyer who had been involved in a multiple offer situation the weekend before. Out of the three houses we looked at, one listing agent called and said they had received an offer the same day we looked at it (now currently in contract) and another one of the houses we saw, which we ended up making an offer on, received a second offer the next day and put us into another multiple offer situation.

The Columbus Ohio real estate market is still a great place to buy a home, even if you are in this "busy" price range. The good thing for all the buyers out there is that the sellers are still listening to the same media who are saying that prices are going down and the market is bad. This has done two things:

•1) Allows buyers to continue to get GREAT buys

•2) Keeps unmotivated sellers out of the market

In my opinion, the reason for the increase in traffic is for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that interest rates are at historic lows around 5.5 percent average for a 30 yr. fixed mortgage over the last month. That allows people to afford a more expensive house for the same amount of money. The second reason is that due to the number of foreclosures and the tightening of the credit market, rental rates and competition have risen substantially. Foreclosures affect the rental market because the foreclosed households are not eligible to purchase a home right away and therefore are required to rent, and because the number of foreclosures in Ohio increased by over 80 percent last year over the previous year. This has injected a large number of renters into the market. The tightening of the credit market has also pushed many renters that have spotty credit histories out of the buying market until they get their credit back on track.

The drop in interest rates and the competitive rental market has taken away the price benefit of renting. These factors in combination with obvious benefits such as painting your walls the color that you want and having the freedom to do what you want in a home or condo that you own, has made this a very attractive time to buy for many first-time home buyers who over the last couple years felt like renting was a more attractive alternative to buying.

Short Sale and Tax Relief (Good Real Estate News)

2007-12-26T13:58:31Z

Last Friday, December 21, 2007, President Bush signed into law a bill that will temporarily (for 3 years) keep households that negotiate a short sale on their home from having to pay income tax on the difference between the sales price and the owed mortgage amount. This is a great relief for many homeowners who are stuck in adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) that they can't afford and anyone else who simply can't pay their mortgage because of job loss, etc.

I see this as a very big step in the right direction for the struggling real estate markets across the nation and here in the Midwest in particular. In Ohio we have a large problem with foreclosures and the media has been so kind as to point this out on an almost daily basis. This bill has the potential to have a very positive effect on this problem and there are a couple of big reasons why.

Traditionally, foreclosures are often homes that are beat up and abused by their former owners. This is not a surprising outcome of the process, but it makes the re-sale of the home much harder and usually causes a larger reduction in price. With this bill being signed into law it will make the pre-foreclosure sale (otherwise known as a short sale) an even more attractive option than before. This bill will truly allow the homeowner to put this whole thing behind them and allow them to have the credit benefits as well.

In my experience short sale properties, although not perfect, tend to be in much better condition than many foreclosures because the seller has an interest and benefit in selling the property. A short sale allowing the seller to wash their hands of the matter completely also makes the likelihood and length of vacancy much shorter than a foreclosure, which in Franklin county can take up to 18 months to complete. This also helps the resale value of the neighborhood and helps to keep the homes from bringing down the whole area by adding to crime and becoming an eyesore.

Although short sales are not the type of sales we would like to see in the real estate market for overall prices, they pale in comparison to the effects of the same number of vacant foreclosures taking up to 18 months to sell at auction before they are even marketed to the public.

Troy Marsh
Lead Buyer's Specialist & Listing Partner
The Gold Key Experts
Keller Williams Capital Partners Realty
500 W. Wilson Bridge Rd., Suite 260
Worthington, OH 43085
614.750.2144 - Direct
614.364.7544- Fax
TroyRE@gmail.com - Email
www.TheGoldKeyExperts.com

Internet on Planes…. Sounds great, but is it really?

2007-10-19T11:44:50Z

The thought of in-flight Internet access first sounded incredible, you can actually get things done on the plane: access your desktop remotely, instant message with friends, respond to email, write a blog and also make phone calls. The list was sounding great until that last phrase, make phone calls.

As I read the article about Alaska Airlines installing Wi-Fi in their fleet of Boeing 737 airplanes it sounded great until I clicked on the "related articles" at the bottom. It went into detail on how both Southwest and Jet Blue are planning similar ideas and Jet Blue may even be going into a contract with Skype.

For those of you not familiar with Skype, it started out as a way to call other "Skype" users over the Internet similar to the way you chat with fellow AIM or Yahoo Messenger users, but has developed into a way to call any phone number, land line or cell phone across the world for free and for a fee can be assigned a phone number as receive phone calls as well. It uses voice over Internet protocol, commonly known as VOIP which makes phone calls through an Internet connection.

For years, airlines have used what I consider a bogus excuse for not allowing cell phones, that is, that the radio frequency used by the pilots to talk to air traffic control could be somehow interrupted by the use of cell phones, although police never seem to have an issue using similar radio frequencies surrounded by cell phone users... have you ever picked up a police radio call on your cell phone?

Although I think it is bogus I did enjoy the excuse, especially during travel. On a recent trip to Austin, Texas, as I was sitting on a plane and looking around, I noticed many different people sitting around me. I can't imagine what kind of conversations they would be having if I was sitting next to them and they were able to use their cell phone.

Can you imagine the 16-year-old girl who is coming back from vacation and has just received a call from her friend that her boyfriend, who she planned to spend the rest of her life with, has just cheated on her with her other best friend? What about the person who thinks that if it is loud on the other end of the phone that screaming into the phone is the only way the other person will hear?

I love the idea of Wi-Fi access and air travel, but let's keep the noise on the plane down to a crying baby or two and some quite conversation amongst passengers.

Inspection Dilemma: Not Really a Dilemma at All

2007-10-17T13:28:14Z

It always surprises me when I get this question: "Do I really need to get a home inspection?"

The easy answer to that is ABSOLUTELY, for a number of different reasons that all boil down to the fact that you want to know that you are getting a good home. I don't have this question come up too often, but every once in a while I will have a client that absolutely doesn't want an inspection, and most of the time, after pointing out all the benefits, they decide it is a good idea. But sometimes they still think it is not.

Let's take a look at one reason why someone would choose not to have an inspection: they had a bad experience in the past. One huge problem we have in the state of Ohio is that in our state home inspectors are NOT REQUIRED to be licensed.

I had a client who paid $400 for a home inspection. The inspector showed up for 20 minutes and gave a clean inspection report for the home. The client later found out that there were problems and the inspector was nowhere to be found. Although I don't know for sure that this was due to an unlicensed inspector, it would not surprise me if that was the case.

This highlights the importance of working with an inspector that has a good reputation, at the very least through the Better Business Bureau, and preferably a referral from someone that you know and trust.

The second reason and probably the most popular excuse to not have an inspection is the cost. In our current market the cost of a home inspection can range from $200 - $500 and sometimes more, depending on the size and age of the home.

That being said, also in our current market we have many sellers that are very motivated and willing to make repairs. Over the last year I have seen a sharp rise in the willingness of sellers to do repairs that a year or two ago they were not willing to do. This means that most buyers will at least make their money back (if not more) on repairs that they are asking the sellers to do, all due to a good home inspection. I have seen buyers save thousands of dollars because of an issue that may have been concealed in a crawl space or attic that would have been missed without a home inspection.

An inspection is an invaluable tool that cannot be substituted or glossed over, because if you do, you may pay later. When we look at a home we aren't crawling in the attic, flushing every toilet or walking the roof, but the home inspector will.

As a buyer, if you make the choice to not get a home inspection or get a 30 minute inspection done by a family member, you risk more than not having the seller do the repairs. When you try to sell the property in five years, the person who buys your house may have a professional home inspection and you may be the one that ends up paying for things that could have been taken care of before you purchased the home.

Bottom Line: Everyone Needs A Home Inspection