A Yard is a Green Zone

I can’t imagine why anyone would not want to use their yard for more than just a field of green. For years, I have had a vegetable garden consisting of tomatos, peppers, beans, blueberries, squash, and others. I also have bushes. In back of my home is a natural green zone. No construction allowed. It is a forest by a small lake, Little Lake Jackson in northwest Leon County, Florida, just outside of Tallahassee. My joy is my garden. It is truly an extension of my feelings for nature. My yard is a green zone to me, both functionally, and aesthetically. Therefore, when I come home from work at the end of a busy day, I can look out at my garden, go out in it, refresh myself, clear my thoughts. I can put some water on my children, the vegetables, add or clean the mulch that I so utilize, pull some weeds, basically, clean out my garden. Yes, I am busy, and don’t have all the time I would like to have to spend in my green zone, working it and appreciating the ongoing growth of greenness with the colors of fruits, vegetables and flowers, but at least I can say that I do have a garden, and I do take time to get back to nature in my little green zone on earth. If you are an owner of a home, it is always a good time to work in your garden, or at least plan your projects for the garden, if the weather does not permit you to actually work it physically.

I look forward to September, when I can plant grapes to add to the green inventory in my yard. Today, I just planted several blueberry plants. Can’t wait to drink blueberry smoothies with my family.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR, e-PRO Certified
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor, Tallahassee, Florida
Direct 850-339-5753  http://KennethFach.com  Blog: Tallahassee.KenandRealEstate.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Find Real Estate Data Using Text Messaging

Be Prepared to Do Real Estate

Buyers and sellers need to go to the real estate agent with preparation. Like anything in life, being prepared is a prerequisite. I learned that early on in scouts, and try to read up on something, ask around, and lastly, go to the professional with the information I think the professional will need to better assist me.

BUYER PREPARATION:
1. Know how much home you can afford before taking the real estate agents precious time looking at homes. Speak with your mortgage company or bank contact. Get something in writing from the lender as to what your price range is. The agent can do a helpful search on what is available based on that price range.
2. Have adequate contact information for the agent. Be reachable via text messenging on your cell phone (one of my preferred ways to communicate), phone, email, and have other numbers if that would be helpful. Make sure you adjust your email filter so that your agent’s email is not sent to the spam box. It would be a good idea to provide your local address to.
3. Have a consistent schedule as to when you can meet to see properties.
4. Know your time frame for buying a home, or have a good idea. If you have a home to sell, get an idea of what the market is there, and set a realistic selling price so the home will sell in the time frame you want. Of course, the buyer will make the decision about buying the home. In this market, price is crucial.
5. If you have not bought a home, or have not bought a home recently, read up on the home buying process. My website at https://kennethfach.com/ has a presentation of the homebuying process. Real estate is real estate, but the laws and regulations change more often than not.
6. Be realistic in your negotiations through your real estate agent. The seller wants to reap a reward, just like you the buyer want to reap a reward. Don’t ask for the kingdom. Make the seller feel like he/she is a winner, but also you can be a winner to. It really is about both parties being successful, and having their needs met.
7. Use the JOTT system to record your To Dos, Reminders, and Thoughts about a home. It is very practical technology. Go to http://jott.com/. You get both a transcription of your verbalization, plus the audio version. I use Jott to organize my day, and record my thoughts. You can record notes on homes you see, since after seeing 5 plus homes, people’s memory start to get mixed up, and it is easy to confuse one feature of a home, with another home. Jott resolves that issue fast.

SELLER PREPARATION:
1. Know your location, what is going on in your neighborhood, what is on the market, and what has sold in the last 30 days. See your real estate agent for this information. She or he will have absorption rates for the neighborhood, and can tell you where in the price range your home should be place in order for it to likely sell in your time frame.
2.Let your agent know what your time frame. Pricing the property accordingly is crucial. Homes often stay on the market for months and months only because of price.
3. Get a home inspection right away, and resolve issues before the buyer complains about them. You will be in a better negotiating position if you present a shiny apple versus an apple with dark spots on it. Buyers can be very particular in this market, since there are plenty of other nice homes for sale. You may want to offer an allowance for carpet replacement, or a new refrigerator.
4. Ask your agent for staging tips and what suggestions agent may have for a more successful sale. There are professional stagers who can make your home shine.
5. Have copies of a survey, homeowners disclosure, homeowners association documents, and utility bill handy to provide to a potential buyer. Buyers want knowledge. Give them the information they want.
6. Do not rely on what neighbors say their homes sold for, or what advice they give you. Neighbors often lie about what they really sold their home for. I see this all the time. Neighbors say they sold their home for such an amount, but when I check the property records I find other numbers, and I do check more than one source for confirmation.
7. Remember, the buyer wants to be your solution: Selling your home so you can buy that other home you want. See the buyer as friend, not enemy. Support the buyer, but don’t give the castle away either.

Open Spaces and Crawfordville Neighborhoods

South of Tallahassee is Wakulla County, and the town of Crawfordville. This community is growing as the taxes are less, and real estate is more affordable for more people. There are many new home developments springing up in Wakulla County. Songbird is a newer neighborhood of single family homes, built between 2004 and 2005. There are currently, as of 7/15/2007, 15 listed homes available on the market ranging from the $174,000 to $314,900 with $237,413, the average price of a home, and $239,900, the median price. Many business professionals live in Songbird and other Crawfordville neighborhoods and take the 20 minute commute to Tallahasssee to work. Between Tallahassee and Crawfordville are national and state forest lands, Wakulla Springs State park, which is a popular swimming and picnic location, with a beautiful historic Inn on the natural springs that you can stay in. There is a good reataurant in the Inn as well, and good ice cream. We often go there to swim in the cold, clean natural spring water, take the glass bottom boat trip to see the manatees and other spring life. Wakulla Springs is where the old Tarzan movie was filmed. Crawfordville is about 20 minutes from Tallahassee, and less than an hour to the white sand dune beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

GMAIL Should be Used by Business Professionals

Too me, I have everything I need with Google’s GMAIL application. I have an email account with my website, an email account I used for business ideas, an email account I use with select customers, an email account branding my company, and social email accounts as well. I have all these email account forwarded to my GMAIL account for each control, and organization. Gmail gives me over 2,500 megabytes of storage space. Each email in a series of emails with the same person or persons, is a conversation, in Google language. I can give each conversation a label or I can archive the entire conversation of emails with the same label. Labels too me are far more convenient for ordering conversations then the use of folders. I have instant messenger, called GTALK, that is connected to my GMAIL account, so I can communicate in real time with customers or friends. Google offers me a great search technology so I can find messages easily. I can search in the search field by email address, word, phrase, name, date, or label. I always had a high admiration for Google search power. I get no unwanted popups or anoying ads. The ads I get are small, unobtrusive, and relevant to my searches. I can star any message that I feel is important. A star then identifies that message in my Archive. All messages not deleted can be archived. All messages received or sent will be found, also, in All Mail, which is listed on the left margin of the screen from amoung the GMAIL links. I especially like the Advanced Filter application. There I can control what kind of email I want to receive in my inbox, and which in my Spam box, or Trash box. With GMAIL, there is so much you can do to make it truly your friend in communication.

Tallahassee is in a Buyers Market

If you see all the new and resale homes on the market in Tallahasse, Leon County, Florida, and if you look at the absorption rates for neighborhoods, and the community at large, you will know that this is a Buyers market. If the absorption rate is 6 or more, that is a a buyers market. Well, the absorption rate in many neighborhoods is 11, or 22, or even highter. What that means, is that it will take 11, or 22, months to sale the entire inventory of homes given the market conditions of today. Driving around neighborhood, I see many more homes on the market than I did in 2006. What this means for buyers, is that there is a bigger inventory of homes to choose from, and buyers do not have to rush to make an offer on a home as fast as they would have to in a Sellers market. I remember 2004, when a home was on the market one day, and sold the next. That was a strong Sellers market, when sellers could almost sell for anything. Not so anymore. Now, most sellers are in a hurry to sell since their homes have been on the market for months. Speak with your real estate agent to find the absorption rate for your neighborhood, or a neighborhood you are interested in. Any real estate professional should be able to find that information. Absorption rate measures how long it will take to sell off the inventory of homes, and it defines the market. You simply divide the total number of homes on the market, by the number of homes that sold in that market in the last 30 days.