January 2011
30 posts
5 tags
Garrett and Lane on the USS Yorktown
Image by larry wfu via Flickr
(Editorial Note: I am an active parent and volunteer with our local Cub Scout Pack. We recently took a trip to Charleston, SC, to visit Fort Sumter and to spend the night on the Fighting Lady, the USS Yorktown. This is part of the account that I wrote for our Pack’s website.)
After the Fort Sumter experience, it was time to head to our ship, and home...
7 tags
53 Cool Concepts... Part XL...
Image via Wikipedia
A few years back, when the Miata nameplate was relatively new, someone got the bright idea to drop a 5.0L Ford V8 into one… and then they made a kit, the Monster Miata. But that just wouldn’t do for a Concept Car…
But dropping a Mazda Rotary engine, from an RX8 would make sense…
The stock Miata MX-5 is powered by a 167hp I4 engine. It makes...
6 tags
Have You Seen the Commercial?
I’m sure you’ve seen it… the commercial with the mom that is trying to find the sport her son is good at… She tries football then baseball. She gets him out on the golf course. She shoots tennis balls at him. Finally, he is singing in the choir, he is good at it and he is happy.
I certainly can understand the sentiment. As a parent, I want my children to ‘find...
8 tags
Norcross, GA, Market Report, December 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Market stats for Norcross GA, November, 2010 indicate that there were 365 properties on the market. Overall, there is about a 10.2 month supply of properties. November was a thrashing… 30 v 47 in 2009. December was better, but still only 35 sales for Dec 2010 compared to 41 the year prior.
In the sub-$200k arena, there were 219 listings, with about 7.4 ...
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Wayback Wednesday... Can You Fix This?
Two years ago I wrote a post about fixing things for my son (now I have to fix things for two of them…). Last week I had a closing that fit the post…
As a Dad, part of my job is fixing things. As a Real Estate Agent, part of my job is fixing things. Luckily I don’t have to glue/weld, nail or pop things back together in houses… although I have had to help a property or...
7 tags
Buford, GA, Market Report, December 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Market stats for Buford, GA, November, 2010 indicate that there were 566 properties on the market. Overall, there was about an 10.2 month supply of properties. December was slightly above last year (62 v 52 for 2009). But it was also a pretty substantial bump from November (44 sales). There were 83 sales in June and an Absorption Rate under 8.5 months.
In...
8 tags
Sugar Hill, GA, Market Report, December 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Market stats for Sugar Hill, GA , December, 2010 indicate that there are 241 properties on the market. Overall, there is about an 12.7 month supply of properties. Sales have been fairly steady since July, but inventories have been rising, and along with it, the number of months of inventory (that is the wrong way…)
for Sugar Hill homes priced under...
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53 Cool Concepts... Part XXXIX...
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Chevy has been building Suburbans since 1935. It is THE longest surviving nameplate in the world. And Suburbans are ubiquitous. They have been built by Chevy, GMC, Holden (GM’s Australian division)Chevrolet Mexico and Chevrolet Brazil… even Cadillac has a version.
In general, Suburbans have evolved into two variants, seriously luxurious and robust working...
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Suwanee, GA, Market Report, December 2010
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Market stats for Suwanee, GA, December, 2010 indicate that there are 548 properties on the market. Overall, there is about an 10.8 month supply of properties. There was less that 8 months of inventory as recently as June. Even though inventories are down since then, sales are also down.
In the Under $200k arena, there are 165 listings in Suwanee, GA,...
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Photo Friday... Say Cheese...
What can be more fun than an Airshow? And Dobbins Air Reserve Base has been holding one for years (missing a couple of years… but not many). And the stars of the show are the Blue Angels.
The 2010 was on 16th July. It was a great time, with the Blue Angels, Canadian Snowbirds and several other aerobatic groups and individuals. There were also a LOT of display aircraft onsite, including...
14 tags
The WRONG Top ten List to be on...
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Yahoo News recently published an article titled “The Eight States Running Out of Homebuyers”. (I know, I said 10… they say 8, but they mentioned that Colorado and South Carolina barely missed inclusion).
Georgia ranked #6…
I’ll cut to the chase and give you the list. Check out the article for the details on each state…
Michigan
...
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Wayback Wednesday... The Price IS Right (or it...
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Do you want to actually SELL your house, or just put it up for sale? I talk with sellers pretty regularly that seem to just want to have their home up for sale…
“We want to test the market.”
“If we can got our price…”
“We aren’t going to give it away.”
You get the idea, right?
And this isn’t the market to...
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Duluth, GA, Market Report, December 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Preliminary stats for Duluth, December, 2010 indicated that there were 543 properties on the market. Overall, there is about an 9.1 month supply of properties. Months of Inventory has been increasing for the last couple of months, until this month. Sales in December were 66, compared to 57 a year earlier. It is worth noting that almost every segment in...
8 tags
Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, December 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Market stats for Lawrenceville, December, 2010, indicate that there are 1594 properties on the market. Overall, there is about an 9.9 month supply of properties. In 2009, sales for December jumped between November and December (166 to 175). For 2010, December sales jumped to 176 from 153 in November.
For Lawrenceville Homes Under $200k, there are 1347 ...
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53 Cool Concept Cars... Part XXXVIII
Image by Chad Horwedel via Flickr
You can buy a Mustang GT Convertible. You can buy a Camaro SS Convertible. You can’t buy a Challenger SRT-8 Convertible… and that is just wrong.
It is seriously wrong. Let’s change that.
Chrysler Group should be penning up a Challenger SRT-8 Convertible as we speak. The new 2011 Challenger has a new 392ci engine (6.4L for those so...
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Lilburn, GA Market Report, December 2010
Image by mjp* via Flickr
Market stats for Lilburn, December, 2010, indicates that there are 379properties on the market (as of December 31st). Overall, there is about a 10.9 month supply of properties. Lilburn is actually mid-pack among cities in Gwinnett County. The Absorption Rates had been getting worse since August, but December clocked an improvement from 11.8 months...
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Photo Friday... Driving on the Ice
Even if you don’t live around Atlanta, you’d have to be hiding under a rock not to have heard about our weather this week. It has been pretty wild. Snow and Ice…
We got ice, followed by snow… followed by ice. Then melt and refreeze. Lots of ice.
That is one of the primary differences between “Southern Snow Events” and what happens up north. Almost whenever...
8 tags
I'm Always Up For a Good Surprise..
Image via Wikipedia
I was working over the market data for Gwinnett County, GA… outside of Atlanta. And the numbers were a bit surprising. They were good… Almost across the board…
Why am I not excited? I want to be excited. I want to shout to the world that Gwinnett County’s real estate market has turned.
But I’m skeptical…
Generally, December has to...
6 tags
Wayback Wednesday... Keeping the Mystery Alive...
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Mystery attracts, right? That mysterious woman or man has an allure because of the unknown qualities they may possess. You don’t know their background or their motivation. And so, the coolest possibilities are projected upon them.
But is that the case in real estate?
Two years ago I wrote a post with my take. There are a lot of agents that think that they can...
6 tags
Winter Driving Tips... Georgia Style...
Image via Wikipedia
I will admit that I am a transplanted Northerner. I grew up in Michigan (and Virginia)… and moved here from Minnesota, 21 years ago. After 6 winters in MN, I learned a few things about driving in the snow… and after 21 years here in Georgia, I learned a few more things.
First, a Word for Recent Transplanted Northerners
This is NOT the snow you drove in in...
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Gwinnett County GA Overall Market Report... ...
Image via Wikipedia
Here are the final numbers for Gwinnett County Home sales for November, 2010.
At the end of November, 2010, there were 6,017 homes on the market in Gwinnett County, GA. As usual, we have a drop off in listings during the Holiday Season. November listings were down from October. December also showed a decrease. While this is a lot of listings, it is low compared to...
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53 Cool Concept Cars... Part XXXVII...
Image by Chad Horwedel via Flickr
Son, you’re going to drive me to drinkin’ if you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln.
Back before World War II, the hottest, most powerful cars were luxury cars. Cadillac and Lincoln were in a power war with 8 cylinder, 12 cylinder and finally 16 cylinder engines… Meanwhile, in Europe, Bentley was supercharging… as...
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Lane's Prognostications for 2011...
Image by thinkpanama via Flickr
We’ll see how well I peg this.
Lane’s Predictions for 2011…
Looking back over the last year or two in real estate market reports, there are a few things that have been jumping out at me.
For over two years I have been hearing about the millions of homes in “Shadow Inventory”. These are properties in the foreclosure process, or...
To Do Lists… GOALS ToDo Free… →
Remember from the intro post, these are the primary requirements I have for a To Do app for my phone/computer/the cloud…
Among the requirements I have for a to do list are:
Repeating Tasks… I…
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Photo Friday... Hiking in the Sky
[caption id=”attachment_28975” align=”alignleft” width=”300” caption=”Testing his fear of heights…”][/caption]
This is the new thing. Each Friday, I will feature a photo. Many will be local. Some may be real estate related. Others will be definately not local, and might not be related to real estate. Cars, people, vacation, homes,...
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Wayback Wednesday... Looking at the Mechanics of...
This post was to appear yesterday, but was pre-empted. I am presenting it today. Sorry for the delay.
Image via Wikipedia
Two years ago I got a bug in my bonnet because it didn’t seem like I was seeing enough pictures for new listings. A couple of months prior, one of our local Multiple Listings Services, FMLS, had raised the number of pictures that could be attached to the listing...
2 tags
Rest In Peace, Mike.
Yesterday I received a sad bit of news. My friend Mike passed away. Mike and I hadn’t kept up the last couple of years, but I will miss him nonetheless.
I was going through a divorce in 1998. There were three friends that I leaned on heavily during that period. Mike was one of them. We spent some time talking, and he really helped me through that difficult time. A couple weeks after...
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Just a personal note... Hi.
[caption id=”attachment_29203” align=”alignleft” width=”300” caption=”From our family…”][/caption]
I haven’t just said Hi in quite a while. So I thought, with the beginning of the new year upon us, I would take a moment to do just that. Nothing real estate in this post…
Hello.
Obviously, I am a Car Guy. I always have...
8 tags
Norcross, GA, Market Report, November 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Market stats for Norcross, November, 2010 indicate that there were 386 properties on the market. Overall, there is about a 10.3 month supply of properties. October and September sales were down v 2009 (42 v 57 and 43 v 55), but August was way up (52 v 43). November was a thrashing… 27 v 47 in 2009.
In the sub-$200k arena, there were 215 listings, with ...
6 tags
Here is a Resolution...
Image by richtpt via Flickr
The new year is always a time we make resolutions. They are all but inevitable…
Lose weight
Quit smoking
Eat better
Spend more time with the kids
Get a better job
Finally go on a vacation
You get the idea… But those are all introverted.
What about doing something completely different… volunteer!
There are a LOT of kids that need great...