Ramblings of a Baltimore area Realtor

Welcome home to this gorgeous four bedroom 2.5 bathroom home.  This home was lovingly renovated and restored by it's current owner leaving the best of yesteryear and improving the rest to today using the best materials and incredible craftsmanship. 

The home features 5 fireplaces and hardwood floors throughout except in the family room which is carpeted. 

The home sits on 2.3 secluded acrest. The home is located in the Denton town limits but is surrounded by 2000 acres of farmland. Denton is a water privileged community and the community boat ramp is located across the street from the home. 

The huge eat in gourmet kitchen features lots of natural light and recessed lighting as well.  The kitchen has granite counters, top of the line appliances and hardwood floors.  This kitchen is amazing with lots of preparation area for those grand dinner parties in your new home.  Notice the window seat for family and guests to keep you company.

The formal dining room is spacious and perfect for dinner parties and entertaining.  There's another fireplace, hardwood floors, loads of natural light and a lovely chandalier.

The living room features another fireplace with lovely hardwood floors.  This home is impeccably decorated and could be featured in any designer magazine.    Large bright windows give lots of natural daylight and allow you to enjoy the outdoors while you are inside. 

The spacious family room is a great place for family and entertaining.  There is a staircase joining the family room to the bedrooms upstairs.  With carpeted floors, designer decorating and another fireplace.  This family room is warm and inviting just waiting for you to move right in.

The crowing glory of this home is the 2.3 secluded acres outside.  The landscaping is professionally done and besides the spacious interior there is an oversized garage with lots of space for storing the ride on lawn mower, boating equipment and all the outdoor toys.  Plus, there is an exterior building that is heated and wired for an office. 

Denton is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland within an easy commute to Annapolis to the Naval Academy or to DC.  Priced at just $559,000 this is a great place for family living or to just escape from the every day to.  Call or email today for your personal tour of this beautiful home. 

For more information please visit:  http://www.advancerealtyusa.com/mls=CM6534985

Welcome home!!  This 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bathroom home is ready and waiting for you to move right in.  No detail has been left undone and this house is filled with designer touches, straight out of a decorator magazine.  Affordably priced at just $165,000 and including a 2 car parking pad.  Run, don't walk to see this beauty before it's gone.

Starting from the moment you pull up in front, the front porch is wrapped for low maintenance, the floor is tile and the step treads are painted to match.  The spacious front porch is ready for your patio furniture. 

Open the front door and you will be greated with a spacious open living room with wood floors, crown molding graces the walls, new windows and panelled wainscotting appears on the walls along the stairs and the lower part of the dining room walls with a dual color paint scheme.  There is also a monitored alarm as you come in the front door and a closet to the right.  Then, there is the pass through to the kitchen, so you won't be missing anything while you are preparing your favorite meals.

Through the living room to the dining room.  where you'll find wall sconces on the arch and also on the exposed brick wall.  The open spacious floor plan allows for a variety of furniture layouts and great opportunity for entertaining.  In addition to the spacious room sizes there is a breakfast bar open to the kitchen. 

The kitchen is spacious with lots of cabinets for storage and lots of counter space for preparation.  Included in the cabinets are lots of drawers and a lazy susan lower cabinet.  The kitchen includes a gas range with microwave range hood over top, refrigerator, dishwasher and disposal.  The floors are ceramic tile.  The paint on the lower walls in the dining room picks up the highlights from the countertops.  The pendulum lights over the breakfast bar are a nice touch. 

 From the kitchen you can go through a doorway to the back foyer where you'll find a closet, built in desk and the half bath.  The half bath also has exposed brick and molding.

At the rear of the house is a small fenced yard and a 2 car parking pad. 

The basement is finished with pergo wood floors and a full bath for the convenience while entertaining or overnight guests who might use the family room for extra sleeping area.

The full size laundry room is located on the bedroom level and contains a full size washer and dryer and extra closet space for storage. 

The home features hardwood floors throughout except in the bathrooms and kitchen area where there is ceramic. 

The seller welcomes FHA, CDA and VA contracts. 

Sold for $165,000

You can see more details at http://www.homesdatabase.com/junepiperbrandon/BA6645823 

I have been writing a series of blogs on optimism in the housing market.  There really are so many reasons for optimism, yet, the media continues a constant barrage of negativity towards our marketplace. 

Another opportunity for business in our marketplace is with new home builders.  The state government passed a ruling that all builders agents must be licensed agents in the state of Maryland. 

Chapter 274 of the Laws of Maryland 2007 (HB1288)
Effective October 1, 2007, sales agents of new home builders in Maryland must hold real estate licenses issued by the Maryland Real Estate Commission. There are three categories of licenses issued by the Commission - broker, associate broker, and salesperson. Salespersons and associate brokers must be affiliated with a real estate brokerage that is headed by a broker. The broker is responsible for supervising the activities of the salespersons and associate brokers; they in turn offer real estate brokerage services through that brokerage.

So, builders are realizing they need agents again.  For a long time builders salespeople were not required to be licensed.  This is a great opportunity for agents to be approaching builders with the view of gaining them as clients and being the exclusive agent at the site and to list all properties in the multiple list and do regular open houses.  What a great opportunity!!!  Why aren't more agents running to the new home builders and developers to sign them up?

Here in Maryland we are leaving GE Supra behind and moving on to a new lockbox system - Sentrilock.  I have been confused and a little annoyed over the change, after all no one asked me if I was in favor and I wonder how many other realtors in Maryland were asked their opinion too.  My guess is, not many.

So, on February 4 I go to get in doctrinated and before I go I have to fax my board a list of all the lockboxes I own, including the ones that are currently on houses, that is so they know how many lockboxes they need.  Then on the day I have to pay them $175 for my card key and membership to the new system.  I just paid GE $62 earlier this month and $154 last year and $175 the year before.  And, the real kicker is now I find out that not all counties in Maryland are changing over to Sentrilock in February, PG County and the Greater Capital Board of Realtors aren't changing until December so if I sell in those counties not only do I have to have my keypad from GE but also my cardkey thing too. 

My partner is a member of GBBR and I'm a member of Anne Arundel County Board and GBBR has yet to notify my partner when he is to go in and register for his card. 

Does anyone else use Sentrilock?  Just curious.  What do other boards use?

It seems to me that this is just another way to take more money from realtors at a time when things are already tight with the market being as slow as it is. 

Or should I say, attempting to give referrals.

I live and work in Maryland, and in fact my office is located conveniently between Ft. Meade and Annapolis Naval Station and the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Station.  I could have the opportunity to send many outbound military referrals to other jurisdictions where military people might get relocated. 

For the last week I've been trying to send an outbound referral to Fayetteville, NC.  This referral is kind of special because he's my son and he's buying his first house and right now he's in Iraq and left the whole situation in my hands, because I'm the realtor.  So, I scoured the Active Rain list looking for a realtor in Fayetteville, NC and I've contacted 3, I even signed in on one of their websites explaining the situation.  I have not heard from any of them.

Now, I know this isn't a huge deal, nor is it even a big deal, but my son is fairly well connected with lots of friends who might also purchase homes eventually too.  But, in this cooling market to be presented with a hot lead who will buy a house and I don't even want a referral fee, I just want him to be well looked after and develop a relationship with another realtor to whom I can send other referrals.  But not to respond at all, not an email, not a no thank you, not a phone call is amazing to me.  What is wrong with these people?  If I were their broker, I would be asking them to remove their license - so it's a good thing I am not their broker. 

I just had to vent.

According to Associated press 30-year mortgages fall to 5.48%, lowest level in four years.  

1324 homes sold in Maryland in January 2008.  These buyers realize that market conditions are great, interest rates are great and prices have stabilized.

193 homes have sold in Baltimore County in January 1, 2008.

148 homes have sold in Anne Arundel County in January 1, 2008 (close to Ft. Meade and Annapolis Naval Station)

190 homes have sold in Baltimore City since January 1, 2008 (convenient to Ft. Meade, Annapolis Naval Station, Aberdeen Proving Ground and commutable to Washington DC)

64 homes sold in Harford County since January 1, 2008 (close to Aberdeen Proving Ground)

72 homes sold in Howard County since January 1, 2008 (close to Ft. Meade and Washington DC)

All these buyers realize that real estate is still the best investment and the best hedge against inflation.

There are some great home buyer opportunities available in Maryland today, don't wait too long or they will be gone.

Advance Realty Anne Arundel in conjunction with National City Mortgage is sponsoring a continuing education class to be offered at  our Perry Hall office located at 8640 Ridgely's Choice Dr. in Perry Hall on February 7.  The class will start at 5:00 pm in the training room on the lower level.

Pitfalls and Resolutions to Closing Your Deals - (3 Credit Hours - F)

Identify common problems that can prevent your deal from closing and discuss legal solutions to those problems. Topics discussed include: Liens, Judgments, BK, Survey Issues, Payoff Issues, Funding Issues, and much more.

 You must pre-register by emailing me at junepiperbrandon@advancerealtyusa.com or calling Nuria in my office 410-761-1550.  Space is limited so register early.

Do you target the FSBO market for leads?  Have you noticed that fewer and fewer sellers are going the for sale by owner route now? 

Seller's have caught on to the fact that it's not that easy to stick a sign in your front yard and put your house on the market and get it sold in a week.  Selling their home is hard work.  This comes as no surprise to us veteran realtors, but for the last few years all they had to do is put a for sale sign on the lawn and they'd have 5 offers in a week.  How hard is that?  And, why did they need to pay 6% commission for it? 

Seller's are now willing to pay more commission so there's less downward pressure on our commission dollar. 

There are still a few FSBO's out there, find out what their story is and if they will co op a commission.  But chances are you'll have an easier time listing their home and charging them full commission to sell it than a few years ago.  FSBO's are still a great source of business leads!!

Put together a great FSBO marketing package.  Include a market analysis of the home, community demographics, maybe a digital picture for the seller and some realtors even provide them with a for sale sign for their lawn.  Include your lead paint and residential property disclaimer - disclosures for the seller.  Chances are they will list at some point, probably sooner than later.  Give that FSBO a call and ask if you can drop off a copy of your FSBO information package and start listing those homes.

Yesterday I blogged about reasons for optimism in the real estate industry.  I talked about falling prices and how that is reason for optimism for buyers. 

Today I want to talk about how many real estate sales people have gotten out of the business now that the deals are harder to come by.

Have you called an office lately to talk to someone only to be told that Jane Doe is no longer there anymore and she has left the business?  This has happened to me a lot lately, emails are bounced back and phone numbers disconnected.  For those people who have left real estate and gone back to their regular jobs because they thought they'd make a fortune in real estate and it would be easy - good riddens. 

Why are you in real estate?  Why do you work every day chasing the deals, looking for buyers, looking for sellers and chasing the American Dream? 

I sell houses because I love it.  I love to see my buyer's faces at settlement when they finally realize that they just bought their first house and they never thought they'd be able to do it.  I love helping people find a home.  I love helping people sell their old home and buy a new one.  I love helping families grow into their homes. 

The fact that there are fewer real estate agents in the business means there's more business to go around.  So, get out there and find it.  Network, you never know where your next deal is going to come from.  Go to those Chamber breakfasts, go to the networking lunches, call your past clients and ask them for referrals.  I'm sure someone out there needs to buy a house or wants to buy a house or doesn't know that they could buy a house.  Networking is the key, wear your name tag with pride and hand out your business cards - they aren't doing you any good in the box or on the shelf or in your pocket.  There's plenty of business to go around and now there's fewer people to do it. 

Many people moving to Maryland suffer from sticker shock when they start to shop for homes.  Even with the realignment of prices after the boom prices are still high here.  THe employment rate is among the lowest in the country and more jobs are created every day.  And, now with BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) we are expecting the creation of at least 60000 more jobs here.  Not just the jobs associated with the bases themselves but also in support jobs in the communities.  Don't forget teachers, doctors, nurses, store clerks, postal workers, and the list goes on. 

Baltimore City offers over 200 unique neighborhoods with affordable pricing for new buyers.  There is something for everyone.  Live Baltimore, a not for profit organization promoting Baltimore City living, has a wonderful website that provides all kinds of information about many of the neighborhoods within Baltimore City.  It is amazing!!  http://www.livebaltimore.com

You can look at the neighborhoods and the demographics right there.  You can also look for qualified realtors to help you with your home search.  Resltors who have been educated in loan programs, grant programs and community awareness within the city.  It is a one stop shop for anyone wanting more information about the city. 

Just a few really interesting communities to consider:  Hamilton, Waltherson, Lauraville, Parkville, Mt. Washington, Montebello, Mayfield, Ednor Gardons, Guilford, Cantebury, Ashburton, Violetville, Federal Hill, Canton, Fell's Point, Highlandtown, Butcher's Hill, Hampden  just to name a few.  There are so many communities all with their own distinct personalities. 

And, remember you won't necessarily read all the great things about Baltimore City in the media.  Maybe public school education isn't for everyone, but Baltimore has a wonderful Charter School system too.  Don't rule it out because of negative media attention.