I would like to anounce to all my clients and website visitors that effective the week of February 11 that I have joined the Helen Adams Realty. I am very excited to be joining one of the top real estate firms in the Charlotte area. I believe that Helen Adams has a track record of showing a strong commitment to customer service and client satisfaction. This fact coupled with my own desire to further my client services has made this a perfect fir for me. I look forward to working with all he professionals at Helen Adams Realty and taking my business to the next level.
Lake Wylie, Charlotte - Announcing a price reduction on 7227 High Point Ct, a 3,600 sq. ft., 3 bath, 3 bdrm single story. Now 
MLS® $499,000 - Waterfront. Client must sell bring all offers. subject to bank approval short sale
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Weddington Chase, Waxhaw - Announcing a price reduction on 8016 Stonehaven Dr, a 4,430 sq. ft., 4 bath, 5 bdrm single story. Now MLS® $530,000 - Well Below Market Value.
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Lake Wylie, Charlotte - Announcing a price reduction on 7227 High Point Ct, a 3,600 sq. ft., 3 bath, 3 bdrm single story. Now MLS® $555,000 - Waterfront.
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Weddington Chase, Waxhaw - Announcing a price reduction on 8016 Stonehaven Dr, a 4,430 sq. ft., 4 bath, 5 bdrm single story. Now MLS® $575,000 - Well Below Market Value.
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As the real estate market continues to stabilize, sellers may find that their property remains on the market significantly longer than the days of “list today, sold tomorrow.” There is also more competition for buyers. So, it can be frustrating to put your home on the market, expecting a fast sale, only to find that after six months you’re still waiting for an offer. This is especially true if you need to move quickly and leave your unsold home vacant.
Besides creating a marketing challenge, a vacant home can also be a target for vandalism. Here are strategies you can use to hasten a sale and protect your property during the process.
· Instead of producing a spacious appearance, an empty room tends to look smaller than a furnished room. So, leave behind a few select pieces of furniture and keep the window treatments in place. A chair or lamp on a small table will confer a sense of scale and help potential buyers gauge whether their furniture will fit the space.
· If you decide to remove the furniture, have the house cleaned and painted. Furniture, rugs and decorations tend to hide or minimize imperfections. When furniture and artwork have been removed, every blemish and bruise becomes accentuated, faded paint and wallpaper become more noticeable and scratches and nicks stand out.
· Repaint brightly and boldly colored rooms to a neutral tone. What was an eye-popping room when fully-furnished may appear stark and small when empty.
· To thwart unwelcome visits, give the house a lived-in look. Set a couple of lamps on timers, and ask a neighbor or friend check on the house daily to collect mail, park a car in the driveway, and close and open drapes and windows. Continue using a gardening service or hire someone to cut the grass regularly. During the winter months, arrange to have snow shoveled from the walks and driveway.
· If available, consider employing a home manager or house sitter. At little or no cost to homeowners, the house is furnished and decorated for show-to-sell condition. Most companies require home managers to mow the lawn, shovel snow, even pay pool maintenance and utilities. Having someone living on site discourages vandalism, protects against deterioration and weather hazards and may even reduce insurance costs. (Check with your insurance carrier.)
· Leave the utilities connected. Depending on the season, make sure the thermostat in the house is set at a comfortable level. You don't want a potential buyer to run through the home because it is too hot or cold.
· Review your homeowner's insurance policy with your insurance agent to find out what the stipulations and coverage pertain to your vacant home.
· Find a real estate professional with experience selling vacant houses. Often, these sales professionals specialize in relocation. You want to make sure that you are comfortable with your lines of communication. If you will be residing in another town, come up with an agreement on how often your representative will check on the home and what should be done if a problem develops.
Although a vacant house presents certain challenges, it does not need to be difficult to sell.
Charlotte has not been spared from the slumping real estate market that this country has been experienceing in the past 2 years. The bright spot is that we are not getting hammered like some other parts of the country (California, Florida, Nevada) because our market was not feasted upon by all the speculators looking for the quick buck. Charlotte is a conservative banking town and while property values have certainly increased over the past years, they have not run out of control. Is our market down? Yes. But even though sales are off about 35% from last year our property values are not taking a nose dive but have decreased slightly. There are some good opportunities in the market with forclosures and builder discounts, however those sellers who have a good home priced correctly are having good success in moving these properties. Now is a great time to be buying a home. With mortgage rates still in the 6% range and the best selection of homes that this market has seen in quite a few years..... Buy! Buy! Buy! I will caution though not every seller in this market is going to accept your low ball offer for their quality home in a good neighborhood.
I am always looking for new methods to get exposure for my client listings and get these properties sold. You Tube is another means to get exposure for properties. If your real estate agent is not using all the resource to get your listings sold give me a call and let me show you what a marketing program is all about.
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Attachment(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KasthjVMzBU
Park Square, Matthews - Announcing a new property listing 348 Park square Pl, a 1,468 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm 2 story. Now MLS® $172,000 - In the Heart of Matthews.
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Attachment(s): 348 Park Square 017.JPG
Note that this information is outdated.
Forbes magazine article about Charlotte real estate market
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New to the market 1031 Park West Dr, a 1,404 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm 3 story. Now MLS® $277,000 - 3 Bdr Townhome. Award winning David Furman Design. This property is a rare find for the Dilworth area. Walk to shopping, resturants, Freedom Park. Minutes from center city. This property won't last long.
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Stage it, sell it
It can pay to market your home before putting it on the market
CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
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DAVID T. FOSTER III/Observer Staff
Chris Slaymon (left) of CORT furniture rental unpacks a picture frame as Michael Moulton, broker-in-charge at Bee Home Solutions, directs the installation of new furnishings brought into one of his company’s houses last week. Moulton often stages a home that he is selling to give prospective buyers an idea of the living space in the house.
A slowing housing market is usually considered bad economic news. But for CORT furniture rental, it has meant business growth.
The Charlotte store has been expanding in a new niche market called staging -- filling a house for sale with simple-but-chic furniture to give it warmth and class. It's using props to engineer an idea of domestic bliss for a marketing edge -- down to artwork, rugs and plants.
As home sales have declined in the Charlotte region amid a national mortgage lending crisis, the trend of staging single family homes has shown up more often in the region. A chapter of the national organization of professional stagers opened here two years ago and membership has doubled in just the past year to 20.
CORT, a Virginia-based nationwide chain, has seen its staging business for private homes grow in the Charlotte area from almost nothing three years ago to about $30,000 a month, said Jarrod Clay, senior account executive for Charlotte's only CORT location. Staging accounts for about 15 percent of the store's revenue, surging in the past year, he said. "It's more than quadrupled. It's leaps and bounds."
CORT provides furniture directly to homeowners, who can rent prepackaged rooms already designed that are delivered and later picked up. The store also rents to the independent professionals or "stagers" popping up on the Charlotte scene. They work with homeowners, real estate investors and homebuilders. They rent furniture or have their own stock, Clay said.
Homes used to sell so quickly in Charlotte there wasn't the need for private homeowners to stage or for agents to consider unorthodox marketing strategies, said Lisa Hines, an accredited stager in Charlotte and real estate agent with Wilkinson and Associates.
"Now, it's slower, and agents are having to do everything they can to sell those homes," she said.
Local housing sales fluctuated up and down by single-digit percentages starting in September 2006, which saw the first drop in closings in more than three years. Then came the summertime sales blues, which brought falling closings by double-digit percentages for each summer month compared to last year.
Local stagers, who often have backgrounds in design, say homes sell quicker after they've been decked out. The statistics bear it out, says Phyllis Graham, who owns Charlotte's Show Homes franchise and is also president of the Charlotte chapter of staging professionals.
The International Association of Home Staging Professionals says that nationally the homes sell in roughly half the time.
Staging is not a panacea for a dead market or an inferior home, Graham said. Some houses just won't sell quickly or near the asking price, no matter how the furniture is arranged. But for most homes, the effect can be dramatic, she said.
Graham staged a Charlotte home for Mason "Chip" Smith. His now-80-year-old mother lived there for 10 years but needed to move into an assisted living facility. Graham moved out much of the older furniture, which was "wall-to-wall" and had cluttered the house.
She put in some of her own furniture and paid attention to the smaller details, such as replacing a bed comforter and playing background music during showings, Smith said. It sold last spring inside of two months for close to the asking price, Smith said.
"It was so dramatic. She made the small house seem so big," said Smith, who is chief executive of Mullen Publications, which prints newspapers for high schools and colleges. "It's really perfect for baby boomers. You're already caregivers for your parents, and then you have to go in and market their home."
Staging first took shape in Charlotte about three years ago with homebuilders dressing up their newly built properties. The phenomenon moved from new homes to existing homes as real estate agents began looking for an extra edge in the slowing market.
Marcyne Touchton started Domaine Staging in Charlotte only a year ago but said she feels like a veteran in the young Charlotte industry.
"I've had three clients in a month and a half, and they want it staged before they even got an agent," she said. "It increases your chances. What do you do when you go to sell your car? You detail it, of course."
Independent designers and CORT have been staging homes since the 1980s in California, where it first became commonplace. "You wouldn't consider selling a home there without first having it staged," Graham said.
The concept crept eastward due in part to the recent popularity of home makeover reality shows. It has reached extremes in other cities, where some sellers have added stand-in family pets and hired attractive actors to pose as husband and wife engaged in domestic banter.
But stagers usually recommend staying away from those faux personal touches because each buyer should be able to imagine the home belongs to them.
Graham said staging is smart real estate marketing but hiring actors can cross an ethical line. She includes a plaque at each house saying it's been staged. She also advertises the homes as staged to let real estate agents know the properties will be made up and worth a visit, she said.
Hines said successful staging works on the principle that the open space of a home should flow. Clutter is the enemy because buyers can be distracted or turned off, she said. She has to fight to persuade clients to box up and hide their stacks of books and papers, and collections of figurines. She said they resist: "It's a lot of work, basically moving out while you're still living there."
Real estate investor Michael Moulton, whose company Bee Home Solutions buys four or five investment properties a month, started staging about eight months ago. He studied sales figures last month and decided a house he wanted to sell on the edge of the modest Merry Oaks neighborhood needed to be staged.
He hired CORT to deliver furniture Monday to the remodeled, three-bedroom house. He chose furniture with earth tones and simple styles, as well as artwork and a bowl of potpourri. The queen bed in the back bedroom would not be slept in. No one would eat dinner at the dark wood table in the kitchen.
Moulton said there's no way to know for sure the effect on any particular property for sale. But he believes it improves the chances of selling a home faster and close to the asking price than if it were left empty or filled with too much furniture. Bee Home buys and sells investment properties and also rents. The 1,400-square-foot house staged Monday has been on the market since the previous week and is listed at $194,500, he said.
"We want them to imagine this is their home," Moulton said. "A lot of the buyers don't have any imagination at all."
Christopher D. Kirkpatrick:704-358-5169
SETTING THE STAGE YOURSELF
Homeowners can go to www.stagedhomes.com for tips on preparing homes for sale. Those include:
• Clear unnecessary objects from furniture and kitchen countertops. If it hasn't been used for three months, put it away.
• Clear refrigerator fronts of messages and pictures. A sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.
• Remove unnecessary items from bathroom countertops, tubs, shower stalls and toilet tops. Keep only the most needed items in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors.
• Rearrange or remove some of the furniture in the house, if necessary. Thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger. Take down or rearrange certain pictures or objects on walls.
• During showings turn on all lights and lamps. Have radio on during the day for viewings.
• Clear patios or decks of all small items, such as small planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues and toys.
• Check paint condition of the house -- especially the front door and trim.
Source: Stagedhomes.com
TO STAGE OR NOT TO STAGE?
• The International Association of Home Staging Professionals, which has a two-year-old Charlotte chapter and offers professional seminars, says staged homes sell faster. The chapter's membership handled 20 Charlotte-area homes in the past three months that sold after an average 42 days on the market, according to its president, Phyllis Graham. That compares to a 116-day average for the broader, Charlotte market, according to August figures from Carolina Multiple Listing Services.
• Homeowners looking to transform the interior of their property for a sale can hire a professional stager or take some basic steps on their own to entice potential buyers. Phyllis Graham, president of the local chapter, says homeowners should expect to pay $1 to $1.25 a square foot, or 1 percent of the list price, for a professional, who will furnish and arrange the interiors. Stagers also work with homeowners' existing furniture. CORT furniture rental allows homeowners to do some of their own staging. The company offers prepackaged rooms of furniture from $500 to $3,000 a month, depending on the size of the house.
Parking in high style
Luxury condo project's car elevators save enough space so historic Carolina Theatre can stay intact
DOUG SMITH
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Liquid Designs
Elevators in Charlotte's next condo high-rise will deliver owners and their cars right to the door.
It's an innovative way to ensure privacy -- you stay in the car as you rise to your unit -- but it also saves space that would be chewed up by parking ramps.
The developers of 20-story Encore, billed as "showplace living at the Carolina Theatre," plan to install car elevators along with passenger elevators to help preserve the 80-year-old theater at North Tryon and East Sixth streets.
Charlottean Jim Donnelly's Pursuit Group LLC has taken over as lead developer and revised the $65 million project since the city approved partner Camden Management Partners' contract in April 2006 to buy the property.
Pursuit Group plans 20 "boutique" units selling for $1.7 million to $5 million instead of Camden's earlier proposed 35-story, 125-unit tower, where the most expensive condos would have been priced in the low $300,000s.
As lenders tighten credit in a slowing housing market, Donnelly believes small, unique projects have a better chance of getting financing and selling out.
The Trust, his eight-unit conversion of the former Home Federal Savings and Loan Building at 139 S. Tryon St. sold out at prices ranging from $1.5 to $3 million. Residents are to move in starting in February.
In that upper-end niche, Donnelly said, buyers are more financially secure and less focused on short-term capital markets and interest rates.
On Encore, he said his team is evaluating financing terms offered by three large banks.
He's not concerned that lenders typically require at least 50 percent of the units be sold in advance of construction.
Donnelly said he doesn't believe he will have difficulty selling 10 condos based on his experience at The Trust, where buyers had to be turned away.
Encore is more than just dwelling units.
The project would include three floors of offices (5,000 square feet each), a restaurant level, a theater lounge floor, an amenities floor for residents and a 1,400-seat auditorium for movies, live entertainment, charitable benefits and corporate events.
For Charlotte history lovers, who have been trying to secure a future for the Carolina since it went dark in 1978, there's no question this is a Next Big Thing.
Carolina Theatre Preservation Society President Charlie Clayton is pleased with the redesign.
"They've had me involved from the very beginning," he said. "I like the architecture. I like the way they incorporate the original facade and emphasize the marquee out front."
The developers expect to spend $5 million on the theater, and the society plans to raise millions more to return it to its original grandeur, Clayton said.
The city has agreed to help the developers and theater operator Ark Management with arts programming through annual grants based on the project's property taxes.
Mitigating the impact of parking was perhaps the most significant change Donnelly's team made to keep the theater in tact and improve the project's feasibility, Clayton said.
Past proposals included spiral ramps that would have required shaving off some of the theater to build condos atop several parking levels, he said.
"This would have been done a long time ago if it hadn't been for the parking problem," Clayton said.
Clay Landers of Atlanta-based Camden said, "Parking was the biggest constraint to the site" when he initiated the project three years ago. "This is a very creative solution," he said.
Car elevators are more common in cities where land is expensive and scarce. Donnelly, who co-founded an Internet travel site named IgoUgo.com, said he became acquainted with the technology during his travels.
Encore owners would enter the garage and condos on the Sixth Street side. Theater patrons would have a separate entrance on the Tryon Street side to the Carolina lobby and no access to the residential portion.
Donnelly said the project was designed so condo owners can be as private as they like, never mingling unless they choose to do so.
A restaurant would be cantilevered over Tryon Street at the seventh level.
A rooftop terrace with a lap pool for swimming and a smaller pool for cooling off would be open only to residents.
Residential condos with balconies overlooking Tryon would be on floors eight through 20 with one or two units, 3,000 to 7,000 square feet, per floor.
Pre-construction buyers would have some flexibility to design their spaces and window configurations. High-end finishes, fixtures and appliances would be standard. Owners could combine units horizontally or vertically.
Each condo would have either two or four parking spaces within a few feet of the owner's door. Residents who don't need as many spaces could convert them to other uses.
Separate passenger elevators open directly into residences.
Donnelly said the developers expected to sell the office space but would consider leasing. No commercial prices have been set.
He would like to break ground in March and complete the project by late fall 2009.
The next step is an extension of the developers' theater purchase agreement with the city.
City economic development director Tom Flynn, who's familiar with the plan, said his staff will recommend an extension to the City Council next month.
Developers Change With the Market
Encore shows how condo developers adjust to conditions in a changing housing market.Clay Landers of Camden Management Partners said that in the three years since he initiated a plan for a 35-story tower with 125 units on the Carolina Theatre site, construction prices and interest rates rose, meaning he would have to raise prices higher than his maximum $300,000s to make that project work.
"That got out of the scope of what my company does," he said. "We don't understand that higher price point."
He went shopping for a partner and found Jim Donnelly of Pursuit Group, who has experience with high-end condos.
Donnelly, believing that the market now favors a smaller, more upscale product revised the project to include just 20 units priced from $1.7 million to $5 million.
In light of the housing downturn, real estate analysts are paying close attention to uptown, where 20 high-rise projects are open, under construction or being considered.
Boulevard Centro became the first developer to pull the plug on a tower, when it dropped plans in April for a 25-story condo-hotel next to Bobcats Arena. Eighty buyers had signed up for 117 units, but the developer said constraints of the small site and rising construction costs made it impossible to build.
Encore Overview
• Location: North Tryon and East Sixth streets, incorporating the historic Carolina Theatre.
• Size: 20 stories with restored theater, restaurant, offices and 20 residential condos.
• Prices: $1.7 to $5 million for 3,000- to 7,000-square-foot units.
• Theater: To be operated by Ark Management with plans for live entertainment, movies, charitable benefits, corporate meetings.
• Condo amenities: Car elevators, rooftop terrace with pools, balconies, residents' amenities floor.
• Developers: Pursuit Group LLC with Camden Management Partners. Pursuit's main team consists of Jim Donnelly, Scott Bianchi and Jim Kunevicius.
• Architect: Liquid Design.
• Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease.
• History: Project started three years ago when lawyer Ruffin Pearce Jr. of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, then a Carolina Theatre Preservation Society member, began working with Camden's Clay Landers on a development-restoration idea.
• Sales Center: 221 S. Tryon St.
• Information: www.encorecharlotte.com
Doug Smith
Brandywine, Matthews - The 2 story at 2308 Chateau Ct has been sold.
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Brandywine, Matthews - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 2308 Chateau Ct on June 16 from 2:00 AM to 5:00 AM.
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