CASEY DURANGO. Greensboro Realtor®.

Well, it’s actually Winston-Salem. But as it’s just down I-40 a ways, jobs in Winston impact Greensboro.

The News & Record and other outlets are reporting that Caterpillar will be opening a plant in Winston, bringing hundreds of jobs. This is another “get” for the area, along with HondaJet and an American Express data center is good news.

One step at a time, right?

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Tags: Caterpillar, jobs in Greensboro, jobs in Winston-Salem, News & Record

Greensboro was recently named a “hot” housing market by Money Magazine. That’s nice and all, but what really matters is how many times pen is put to paper and properties close. By that measure, June was indeed hot for Greensboro real estate.

There were 348* closed properties in the nine residential zip codes in Greensboro. That’s up about 34% from June 2009 when there were 259 closed properties. (This is only slightly lower than June 2008, which had 388 closings, but down 19% from June 2007, when there were 428 properties closed….>meh<…)

This was the 5th straight month of improving numbers.

The average closed price is up as well, at $172,052 which is 5% higher than last June ($163,663).

The sales data by zip codes shows that almost all had year-over-year increase in sales. Only 27406 was flat. Two zips, 27401 and 27455 actually had more closings in June 2010 than in the previous two years.

The sales numbers for July will be a test, since the effects of the federal home buyer tax credit will have passed for the most part. But for now, let’s celebrate this hot, hot June.

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Tags: Greensboro housing statistics, Money Magazine, Multiple Listing Service, Triad MLS

If they only knew! June was the hottest month we’ve had around here.

Of course, Money Magazine is referring to things economical, not climatological. In this case, it seems our city has a hot housing market, and they provide a map of the country with comparisons:

Click to view larger image (PDF)

This may come as something of a shock to the owners of the 3200+ properties currently on the market in Greensboro, but it indicates that, as rough as things may feel now, we’re better off than many other places in the country.

And we take good news however we can get it.

_____________________________________________________________
The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Tags: Greensboro housing market, Money Magazine, News & Record

I am working with a couple who are looking for a larger home to accommodate their growing family. During a recent showing appointment where we had been to about half a dozen properties looking for a “possible maybe” candidate for their next home, we were making final plans to get their existing home on the market. They, like most folks, need to sell before they can buy. We discussed what finishing touches they need to make to their place and what they can expect once officially on the market.

The wife was getting visibly more tense as talked about her home being shown, having open houses, photos being taken and posted online. She then asked, “Which do you think is more stressful: buying or selling”?

“Selling”, I replied, without hesitation.

While the home buying process can seem scary and intimidating, selling is downright nerve-wracking.

To have the best result when trying to sell your home, you need to put its best foot forward. You are inviting total strangers to come inside where you eat, sleep, bathe and unwind. You set yourself up for criticism and rejection. Let’s face it, unless you are fortunate enough to have the first person who comes through your home make and offer, you are by definition being rejected by every person who looks and takes a pass.

It’s like not being in grade and not being picked for kickball all over again.

And you need to remain in a constant state of readiness. No dishes in the sink, no carpets left un-vacuumed, dust-bunnies constantly being corralled. And you need to leave for a couple of hours at a time, whether you have somewhere to go or not. And for most sellers you can’t buy your next house until somebody decides to buy yours so your life is on hold waiting for some stranger to step up to the plate.

All in all, its a dreadful experience.

But its one where, when completed, you get to move to the next part of your life.

Just be prepared to be stressed. And excited. And disappointed. And gratified.

And whenever in doubt, vacuum.

_____________________________________________________________
The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

While the current supply of listings is not the highest it’s been in Greensboro, it isn’t far from it. And the average list price is nearer the bottom of the range rather than the top.

What does all this mean to buyers, sellers and to those interested in their own property values?

It means things are pretty cruddy for you if are trying to sell your house and things are pretty good for you if you’re looking to buy.

This has been the case for some time now. (I would like to compare inventory and prices for this week compared to the same time last year, but I was so demoralized after months of bad news in 2009 that I took I hiatus from stats for several weeks. Now my pity party is over and comparative data will be the name of the game from now on – no matter how gross.)

This is not to say nothing is moving Properties are selling. In the next day or so I’ll post about the June sales numbers, which were higher than May as well as higher than last June. A large part of that is undoubtedly due to the late, great federal home buyers tax credit. But, still.

The long and the short of it is, if you want to sell your house, clean it, de-clutter it, make it smell nice and price it properly.

That last thing is key. The whole issue with so much inventory is that, if you have a house to sell, there are that many more people who have one to sell at about the same size, location, school district, etc.,  You have to make your home the one that buyers can most easily see themselves purchasing and moving into with the fewest hassles.

Getting back to the numbers, the 27410 zip code continues to have the lion’s share of listings: 674.

27405, 27406 and 27406 are neck and neck and neck with 443, 446 and 445. (27405 & 27406 also have the greatest number and greatest percentage of foreclosures.

The average list price for the week, including all property types, is about $222K. What will spending about that amount buy you? Here’s an example. (Click on the photo for more information):

2209 W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC $214,900 (MLS#572063)

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

Tags: 2209 W. Friendly Ave, greensboro housing inventory, MLS#572063, Multiple Listing Service, Triad MLS

One of the nifty feature of our local newspaper, The News & Record, is an online map of yard sales. (There’s also an online map of break-ins, but let’s keep happy thoughts for a minute).

Here is a view of it, with thanks to Mike Fuchs at The Bargain Blog. (Click on it to go to an interactive version on the News & Record site.)

Map of Greensboro Yard Sales for July 17, 2010

Happy bargain hunting!

_____________________________________________________________
The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Tags: Greensboro yard sales, Mike Fuchs, The Bargain Blog, The News & Record

The new tax rates have been set for Guilford County. You can see them here (PDF).

To figure what your tax bill is going to be when it is mailed out later this month, find your municipality – for example, Greensboro – and multiply that total rate (1.3699) by the tax value of your property, in hundreds. That is, a tax value of $100,000 would mean you multiply the tax rate by 1000. (If you don’t know the tax value of your property, go to the Guilford County Tax website and pull up your address)

This rate is slightly lower than the 2009 rate of 1.3274

The upshot is, if your house has a property tax value of $100,000, your tax bill this years will be $1,369.90. Last year it was $1,327.40.

It’s rare but not unheard of that property tax rates decline one year to the next. In Guilford County, tax movement in the rate is usually fairly small, whatever direction it goes.

It’s when property values are reassessed that things get really exciting. That is done only once every eight years in Guilford County, so there is the chance for wide differences from one valuation to the next. The next revaluation will occur in 2012.

Hmmm. The same year the Mayan calendar says it’s all going to end.

We should be so lucky, right?

[UPDATE: My friend, the very smart Realtor Candice Joyce, commented on this post with the following:

That’s the rate per $100 of assessed tax value so don’t forget to place a decimal point before last two digits…..or divide value by 100 then multiply by tax rate=same result.

Thanks, Candice. (Math. Ick.)

_____________________________________________________________
The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Tags: Greensboro property taxes, Guilford County tax rate

Greensboro is becoming a center for words that didn’t exist recently. FIrst it was “aerotropolis“, with HondaJet, TIMCO, FedEx and the like finding homes here. And now it’s “nanoscience”.

No, it’s not the study of grandmothers.

It’s the study of other tiny things.

Greensboro is where two universities – NC A&T and UNC Greensboro – are joining to create a school offering degrees in nanoscience and nanoengineering. This article in the News & Record explains it all very well.

I’ll just say that this is another milestone in Greensboro’s transition from mills and tobacco fields to industries that are just starting out. We like that.

Maybe the next thing will indeed be a center for the study of grandmothers. They sure can be odd little creatures.

Tags: Aerosphere, FedEx in Greensboro, HondaJet, Jonnelle Davis, NC A&T, News & Record, School of Nanoscience, TIMCO, UNCG

This is a question that virtually every buyer with whom I’ve worked in that last three years has asked in one way or another.

The answer is: No.

It’s understandable that those of us with active empathy centers in our brains may feel badly, walking through a vacant house that was home to someone and from which that someone was kicked out. But the sad fact is that, whatever damage might be done to the former owner’s credit, state of mind and life situation has already happened by the time you as a buyer walk through the front door. You are not taking advantage of someone else’s misfortune. You are looking at a property owned by a bank.

A bank.

And a bank is about as far from being a sympathetic figure as you’re likely to find in this historically grotesque economic chapter in American history.

If you still feel pangs of guilt, consider this: Buying that foreclosure will remove it from the market, thereby reducing the surplus population. I mean, surplus inventory.

Sorry. All this real estate drama has me in a Dickensian frame of mind.

So, look at all homes that meet your needs. Make your decision on which one rings your chimes, regardless of the circumstance of the seller.

That’s how it’s done.

Tags: buying foreclosures

As I’ve written before, the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina (which includes Guilford, Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth,, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry and Yadkin counties) is shaping up to be something of a data center..uh…center. And now The News & Record reports that Microsoft is considering us as well.

This is all quite preliminary and it may not come to be. But the fact that such a power house is thinking of a $120M investment is further proof that Greensboro and the surrounding communities can look forward hopefully.

That’s my pleasant Friday morning thought. Now, back to work.

Tags: jobs in Greensboro, Microsoft data center, Piedmont Triad Partnership, The News & Record