The slushy snow falling early this morning was a bit hazardous while driving to work, but thankfully I did manage to get there without any issues. Fortunately for us, once the Noon hour arrived, the sun was shining brightly and the streets were drying off. Of course the northwest wind had to start up again, just to keep us from having a pleasant day outdoors.
It’s not going to surprise me in the least bit if 683 – 16th St. SE ends up being my next listing to go under contract because of the number recent showings we’ve been getting. There were two scheduled for today and another for tomorrow. I have an appointment to show it Monday afternoon, so that means thus far, there will be four showings in three days. In spite of it having a shared garage, that home has got up-side value going forward, written all over it. The neighbor has agreed to have the fence moved, which will make for better access to the side entrance door of the home. Given the quality of construction, its dry basement, and SE location, that’s all it needs is someone who can make those cosmetic improvements themselves, and after they’re finished, it would be definitely in the 120K price range.
Looking back on these past three month of office statistics, I can say if it continues for the remainder of this year, we’ll be just about where we need to be as far as sales. There are several listings already scheduled to be signed-up in the near future, so as long as they keep coming in and selling, we just may hit that mark.
With both 201 S. Vermont and 1125 W. State Street now reduced, I’m hoping and praying they’ll get under contract very soon. It makes me a little crazy when seeing far inferior properties selling, but not those two. I guess the both of them must have a spirit within that’s waiting for the “right-fit” buyers to arrive, because I can’t think of anything else that’s hindering them.
About all I did get accomplished on the real estate side, was to meet a buyer at a home she purchased about two weeks ago. She wanted another friend and relative to see it, along with taking measurements for some improvements she’ll be making. What came as the biggest surprise, was being called yesterday by her corporate lender to inform me her loan was fully approved. I was in shock. I’ll be alerting the abstract company as well as the title attorney that we’re on a fast-track now to get it closed early because it’s vacant and the buyer wants to move in as early as possible. If that loan closes extra-early without any hitches, I’ll likely be adding the contact info for that office to my list of mortgage lenders.
With some time to kill this afternoon, I got online to check and see if the deed was recorded on that stone building across from the Downtown office of First Citizens. It finally appeared, and when seeing who purchased it, I’m now wondering what they’re planning on doing with it. They took title under their corporate name, but yours truly knows who the owners are. Since they have a successful business, I’m now wondering if they’ve got something planned as a side-line, or possibly a hobby. Keep in mind, people of real wealth, don’t have to worry about making a go at a new business because their pockets are deep enough to weather just about any financial storm. I wish them well.
An older gentleman I know stopped by to chat a bit, and one of the things he mentioned, was the amount of “traffic” there’s been at that new liquor store across the street from the North Federal Casey’s. I couldn’t help mentioning that I rarely ever see any cars there, and his reply was, “That’s because you’re not out late.” What’s our North End turning into with all those liquor stores? My visitor today also added, “I told you there was gonna be trouble up there with all those liquor outlets.” All I could say was, “I remember.”
Just this past week I’ve been hearing from a number of people who’re planning to either build a new house, create an addition, or have a new garage built, and every one of them are saying that today’s costs of materials and labor, has them priced-out of doing anything, so they’re going to lay low until the prices come down. Hearing such news, is bad for Realtors because that means there won’t be any new construction of homes for those looking to bump up. If there’s nowhere to step-up, they don’t sell their existing homes. That’s but one example of cause and effect in real estate.
Another example of bottle-necking, are the many investors paying upwards of $100K for rental properties which should be going to first-time buyers. Over these past three months, I’ve been watching to see who’re the end purchasers of those cheaper homes, and not surprised when finding a large number of them being bought by investors. Personally, in all the years I’ve been marketing real estate, I’ve never seen such a feeding-frenzy with investors. Just this past week, a funky 4-plex in one of our not so popular districts, had a sale price of well over $120K. I personally wouldn’t take that property if someone gave it to me because I’ve seen some pretty bad things happening in and around it over the years. No thank you very much.
I just about lost it when reading what those retreating Russian troops did to those townspeople living near Kiev. My God in Heaven! How could such barbaric things be happening in these times? From the tying up of innocent civilians and shooting them, to using Ukrainian children as human shields in their convoys, all I can say is there’s going to be justice served either in this world or the next. As one of the commentators said, “Russia and their people are in the state of de-evolution.”, which I firmly agree. The free world must do everything they can to help those innocent people.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The true art of memory, is the art of attention.
