You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2008.
Source: AJC.com By: Stacy Shelton
Summer’s not sunk after all. The governor wants to give swimmers and backyard gardeners water.
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday offered a reprieve from the near-total ban on outdoor watering to the landscape industry, gardeners and thousands of neighborhood swimming pool associations, swim teams and private pool owners.
“Swim, kids, swim,” Perdue exhorted at an afternoon news conference in his office.
If local governments agree, pool-filling will be allowed and home and business owners will be able to hand-water landscaping and flower gardens for 25 minutes a day, between midnight and 10 am, on a three-day-week schedule. Watering with sprinklers would still be banned, except for watering newly installed landscapes.
A start date has not been set, and local governments could decide to keep the restrictions in place. They may need to: cities and counties still will have to meet the state-mandated 10 percent reduction in water use, although it will be seasonally adjusted.
Starting April 1, the new baseline will be the average amount of water used from April to September, when usage can be twice as high as in the winter months, mostly due to sprinkling lawns. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: MSN Real Estate)
The right phrasing in real-estate listings can speed a sale and even boost the final price, a Canadian study says. And here’s a tip: if you must sell, don’t put “must sell” in your ad.
In real-estate listings, what’s the difference between describing your home as “beautiful” versus “move-in condition”? About $12,500 on a $250,000 home.
Professor Paul Anglin, a real-estate economist in Guelph, Ontario, says that homes described as “beautiful” in real-estate listings sell for 5% more while “move-in condition” has no effect on sale price.
Anglin and his colleagues from the University of Windsor and researchers from Canada Mortgage and Housing examined about 20,000 real-estate listings and sales data in Windsor and Essex counties, Ontario, from between 1997 and early 2000. Among other things, they studied how listings’ phrasing affected sale prices and the length of time it took for the listings to close.
When speed is of the essence
Listings with the words “beautiful” or “gorgeous” sold 15% faster. “Landscaping” in a listing hastened a sale by 20%. Describing a property as in “move-in condition” quickened the sale by 12%. Calling a home a “handyman special” cut sale time by half (researchers excluded listings that used the term to describe a workshop or hobby area).
Other familiar jargon, such as “must see” or “vacant,” or including the information that a seller was moving, had virtually no effect on the time before a sale.
The kiss of death appears to be language that reeks of desperation — words such as “motivated” and “must sell.” These slowed sales by 30%. The term “ranch” house slowed sales by 10%. Properties described as rentals (income-producing) took 60% longer to sell. Read the rest of this entry »
Source: LuxuryPortfolio.com
Last year, after a trip through rural Canada, Montana and North Dakota, those grand expanses of wilderness and/or nothingness, I was relieved to get back to Chicago and city life. But now, after hardly leaving the city (except to travel to other cities) for quite a while, I am eager to escape. Seeing the movie Into the Wild made me want to shred my credit cards, burn my money, grow a beard* and hike through the wild to live on my own. Luckily, the end of the movie changed my mind before I took such drastic measures - but I did find a compromise that would allow me to get rid of my money (at least $52.5 million of it)* and immerse myself in nature: buying the Canaan Valley Ranch in Suches, Georgia. The 185-acre property in the North Georgia Mountains, with its lakes, streams, apple orchards and grazing horses, would certainly quench my thirst for escape. This soul-satisfying property is listed with Jenny Pruitt and Associates.
If exceptionally cold weather is forecast, provide protection to early flowering or tender plants by covering them with some type of cloth material. Remove the covering as soon as the weather moderates again.
Shrubs and Trees
Deciduous shrubs and tree are sill dormant enough to transplant this month, once the buds have begun to swell, it will be to late. Trees that weren’t fed last fall should be deep fed by punching a series of 1-2 inch holes two feet apart around the drip line and filled with an appropriate food. A mulch of well composted manure is also an excellent treat for your tree.
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Mid to late February is the time to fertilize shrubs and evergreens. Use an acid type rhododendron fertilizer to feed evergreens, conifers, broad leaf evergreens, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Use an all-purpose fertilizer to feed roses and other deciduous trees and shrubs. If you use dry type fertilizers, be sure to water it thoroughly.
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Prune your summer flowering shrubs now but be aware that spring bloomers have already produced their buds last fall, and pruning them now will result in the loss of flowers. Forsythia, quince, spirea and other early spring flowering shrubs should be pruned a little later, after they have finished flowering. Pruning to improve the shape of the plant, as well as to open up the center of the plant to good air circulation and sun exposure. Always start your pruning by removing all dead, decayed or broken branches.
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Trim back any branches that were damaged by the ravages of winter.
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Apply dormant oil fruit spray. Read the rest of this entry »
Source: Big Time Listings.com
Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey has very quietly sold a 4,806-square-foot, 39th-floor penthouse in Atlanta’s Buckhead area for $1,800,000.
The sale of the five-bedroom penthouse by Oprah, took place in June. Records show that on June 4, Winfrey’s Overground Railroad LLC company sold the unit, at 2660 Peachtree Road in the 40-story Park Place on Peachtree condominium building in Atlanta. The deal was recorded by Fulton County on June 15.
Oprah paid $1,515,000 in mid-2003 through her Overground Railroad LLC company for he eight-room unity, according to public records.
It’s unclear what Oprah’s use was for the unit during the years she owned it. She also owns a five-bedroom, 5,994-square-foot house on a 1.62-acre parcel at 4555 Stratford Drive in Douglasville, Ga. since buying it in 2005 for $825,000, according to public records.
Oprah isn’t the only well-known person who has owned a unit in the Park Place on Peachtree building. Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun has owned a sixth-floor unit in the building since buying it in 2001 for $467,500, according to public records.
Lou Manfredini shows how a new floor could be yours in just a weekend
Source: The Today Show By: Lou Manfredini
One of the best ways to change the look of a room in your home is to install a new floor. Twenty years ago it took quite a bit of skill to accomplish this task, and was best left to professionals. While many floor surfaces still need a pro to pull off, there are countless do-it-yourself materials out there, and in most cases you can transform your floor in as little as one weekend.
Here are some recommendations to get you started:
Let’s start with a bamboo floor - which will make your home look great, and also is less harmful to the environment. Although bamboo floors have been in the U.S. since the early 1990s, it’s important to remember that not all bamboo floors are alike. Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Washington state. They manufacture many different bamboo products for both residential and commercial applications. But their focus is not only in creating great products, but being responsible to the environment. Their studio line of pre-finished wide plank flooring uses environmentally safe adhesives during the manufacturing process and comes in different colors, finishes and graining. This flooring option clicks together and can be installed by just about anyone. The product itself sells for $6-$8 a square foot and installed the price is about $11-$13 a foot. Read the rest of this entry »
Source: AJC Homefinder
Janice Hayes, Realtor with Jenny Pruitt & Associates, finds that about 40 percent of her clients are first-time home buyers. She offers these tips if you’re thinking about buying your first home.
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First go see a lender. Find out where you are pricewise and if there are going to be any problems in financing. Then you’ve got time to work out glitches in your credit score before it’s time to apply for the loan. Interview three different lenders to find the best match for you.
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Take a look at listings. See what kind of house you like. See what kind of listings are available in the area you’re interested in.
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Consider your commute. You’ll get more house for the money the farther out you go, but you may spend more time in the car.
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Think about your interests. Do you need to be near parks for active recreation or would you rather have easy access to movies and restaurants?
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Find out about the schools. Even if you don’t have kids, buying in a good school district is important for resale.
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Rely on your Realtor to help you understand how to negotiate the contract.
Janice finds that buyers tend to be attracted to a certain kind of house. “Maybe it’s what they grew up with or always wished they had,” she says. “But we have to talk about whether this is really right for them. Why do they want a two-story home just for the two of them? What will they do about maintenance? I take them to see what they think they want, but I throw in a few other types of houses to get them to think differently.”
Hayes’ final advice? “Remember that you don’t have to live here forever, but you want to find something you can enjoy now and possibly sell down the road. Always keep that in mind.”
Source: AJC.comFor those first-time home buyers and even those looking to move up to a larger home, I offer a rather simple suggestion to start out 2008: Buy now.
Widely reported national statistics have shown a slump in the number of sales and price levels in the housing market not seen since the early 1990s. However, compared with national numbers, housing statistics in metro Atlanta paint a brighter picture, suggesting there might never be a better time to buy a home, which has created a buyer’s market.
Given Atlanta’s market stability, healthy economy, historically low interest rates, excess in the supply of new homes (yielding significant builder-to-buyer incentives) and the gains in energy and water efficiencies in new homes, this is an outstanding time to buy a home.
However, the window of opportunity is small. Despite news of record-level foreclosures, many economists and analysts believe loan defaults and foreclosures brought on by poor lending practices will begin to recede in the coming months, that the Atlanta market has bottomed out and that the housing market will soon show signs of a rebound, perhaps as early as mid-2008.
Recently, Roger Tutterow, professor of economics at Mercer University, provided some rather encouraging information at an economic briefing for the fourth quarter.
Home-buying conditions improved as measured by the most recent Metropolitan Atlanta Consumer Confidence Survey. As Tutterow noted, “We saw a significant improvement in consumers’ perceptions of home-buying conditions in the most recent consumer confidence survey. The combination of more product selection and improved affordability are driving this improvement.” Read the rest of this entry »
Think of a house as a consumer. About 21 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are generated from household energy use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A house that consumes less energy reduces greenhouse gases because less fossil fuel is required to operate it. Here are some simple greening options, along with more advanced approaches, as well:
Improve Energy Efficiency
Easy: Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, they require 75 percent less energy, produce 75 percent less heat and last up to 10 times longer.
Advanced: Switch to solar power. This clean energy source generates no air pollution and no noise. Panels installed today will produce energy for about 20 years with minimal maintenance.
Reduce Drafts
Easy: Plug leaks. Caulk and add weather-stripping to windows and doors to stop heat and air conditioning losses. Use expanding foam to fill gaps, especially between the living space and unheated areas such as the attic and garage. Leaky air ducts can decrease energy efficiency by as much as 20 percent.
Advanced: Add insulation. Homes more than 10 years old probably have insufficient insulation. Properly insulated houses not only use less energy, they also have better moisture control, meaning roofs and walls last longer. In addition to insulating outside walls and attics, owners should install in basement walls, floors above unheated garages or porches, cathedral ceilings, and crawl spaces.
Appliance Excesses
Easy: Unplug chargers, power adapters and appliances when they are not in use.
Advanced: Switch out older appliances–including dish and clothes washers, refrigerators, lighting fixtures, televisions, and even cordless phones — with energy saving models.
Avoid Super-Hot Water
Easy: Lower your water heater temperature. The average tank style water heater uses about 5 percent less energy for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit you reduce the temperature, according to the Department of Energy.
Advanced: Install tankless water heaters. These so-called “on demand” heaters warm water only when required, reducing energy losses associated with maintaining water temperature in a traditional storage tank. Tankless heaters range from $200 for an under-sink faucet to $1,500 for a high capacity unit, but according to the Energy Department, they use 45 percent to 60 percent less energy than traditional heaters and last twice as long.
Senior Vice President, Managing Broker - Sandy Springs office
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