Many consumers consider selling their home directly but eventually turn to REALTORS®. Smart home sellers realize they need the expertise in pricing their home, making connections with REALTORS® working with buyers, arranging and staffing open houses, and coordinating with other professionals in the sales process.

Only about half of all real estate agents are REALTORS® – the top half, in our not-so-humble opinion. REALTORS® work independently, for small agencies, or for large brokerages. They help people buy and sell residential or commercial properties, vacation homes, and land; they conduct appraisals; they operate in the United States and in other countries; some specialize in auctions; and others are buyer’s representatives.

With private, secured underground parking, Legends of Magnolia Condominiums is the ultimate combination of convenience and luxury in the downtown University area.  The Legends is a 54-unit luxury condominium development located at 234 West Magnolia Avenue in Auburn across from campus.

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I’m the agent on duty at Legends of Magnolia today.  I’m headed up now to the fourth floor to the model unit for some photos to post.  More to come in a bit.

Nearly half the homes sold in March – 48.2 percent – were purchased by first-time buyers, according to a survey of more than 1,500 real estate practitioners by Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance.

“Many observers had felt that the pool of first time home buyers had been depleted last fall,” Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys, said in a statement. “Instead, the normal spring-summer buying season is combining with the tax credit to produce blow-out results for first-time home buyers.”

Source: Reuters news (04/19/2010)

I’m always looking for simple, yet elegant ways to stage homes. This beautiful place setting is compliments of Karen Turner of Prestige Properties. I discovered it during a visit to a great townhouse I recently visited at Olde World Townhomes. This development is completely sold out as of March.

Pending home sales rose in February, potentially signaling a second surge of home sales in response to the home buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in February, rose 8.2 percent to 97.6 from a downwardly revised 90.2 in January, and remains 17.3 percent above February 2009 when it was 83.2. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which usually occur with a lag time of one or two months.

There’s still time to take advantage of the $8000.00 tax credit as long as the contract is signed prior to April 30th and closing occurs by June 30th.

This custom home is unique and with all the extras. The view of the golf course is incredible. Detailed, lush landscaping with many focal areas. This house was built with a backup generator desidgned to provide H/A, refrigeration, lights and hot water in case of power outage. How’s that for being prepared. The details throughout the house are tastefully elegant. Screened porch off master.

Auburn Open House Weekend

Weichert Realtors, Porter Properties will be opening the doors to many of our homes this weekend, April 10-11. This event, The Alabama Open House, will coincide with the REALTOR^® Nationwide Open House.

This is a great opportunity for residents to not only view a large selection of homes, but to take advantage of the tax credit before the deadline.  The tax credit, worth up to $8,000, is only applicable if the purchase contract is signed by April 30th.

FEATURED HOMES

3405 Tifton Lane, Opelika, Alabama

This custom home is unique and with all the extras. The view of the golf course is incredible. Detailed, lush landscaping with many focal areas. This house was built with a backup generator desidgned to provide H/A, refrigeration, lights and hot water in case of power outage. How’s that for being prepared. The details throughout the house are tastefully elegant. Screened porch off master.

3901 Eagle Ridge Lane, Opelika, Alabama

This home is an approved short sale and can close within 30 days.  It features crown molding, granite counter tops, tray ceilings, garden tub/separate shower. It’s in a great location off of Opelika Rd.

Here in Auburn, we don’t get a lot of snow, so it’s truly been a winter wonderland.  When a winter storm warning occurs, Realtors® are not only nervous about their own homes, but those of their clients who are vacant.  We are hoping that the winterizing efforts of the homeowners were done properly to avoid the potential for burst water pipes and we are busy as soon as the roads clear going around to those vacant properties, checking to make sure that nothing is amiss.  We always recommend that homeowners hire a professional to winterize their home and to notify their insurance company that the home is vacant.

For those who are shopping for Auburn and Lee County foreclosures or are looking to buy any property that’s been sitting empty, it’s important to have a professional go out and inspect the plumbing prior to turning on the water in a home.  In most cases, the buyer is responsible for hiring a home inspector during the purchasing process. In order for the home inspection to be done, the water must be turned on.  If the pipes have burst over the winter, or if for some other reason the plumbing is compromised, a disaster can occur.  With the many details in the closing process, the risk of flooding may be overlooked by buyers and sellers who are inexperienced in the process. This is where the expertise of the real estate professional comes in.  We will recommend to the parties that a professional in the Auburn area be brought in to run an air pressure test on the water pipes to make sure that everything is intact and then systemically restore the water to the home.  This air pressure test is relatively inexpensive compared to the repair costs for water damage.

As a real estate professional here in Auburn, I’m familiar with the many things that must be taken into consideration when putting a property on the market such as the risks to vacant homes   Although I’m not legally responsible for the damage that may occur from improper winterization, the last thing I want to see is a flooded home. I’m here to consult with homeowners to familiarize them with the issues that can occur and I do everything I can to help them with the successful marketing of their home.

At a recent reception, our company, Weichert Realtors Porter Properties, gave away prizes to the realtors for their excellent work this year.  One of the prizes was a free home staging from a great staging company here in Auburn.

I know the idea, of course, was to use the staging on a client’s home, but I couldn’t help thinking that if I won, I’d be tempted to use it on my own home!

Selling your home is fraught with many emotional upheavals and as a Realtor, I don’t take “invading” my client’s homes lightly.   Here I am someone who spends their day getting other’s homes picture perfect, but I come home to…

For one thing, the sewing machine has been sitting on the desk for two months.  I pulled it out hoping I’d get inspiration from it and take a “minute” to do some mending. Meanwhile, the mail and miscellaneous paperwork that should be where the sewing machine is, are now making a permanent pile on my bedroom dresser.

It’s a domino effect.  I don’t want to hang the clothes that need mending in the closet, so they’re folded in a neat pile in a corner of the closet floor.  Ok, so, yeah, the pile isn’t so neat anymore.  I’ve done this exercise more than once before.  The truth is that by the time I get around to mending them, the kids will have outgrown them anyway, so I need to just toss them out and sell the dang sewing machine!

Oh, but I do love the idea of getting the mending accomplished. And it’s just these kinds of emotional attachments and the resulting work-arounds and inconvenience they cause in our daily lives that makes your house uniquely your home…your nest.  Now if some expert home stager comes in here and suggests that I “declutter” starting with the bills on the dresser and the sewing machine on the desk, they are really going to hit a nerve!  To put the sewing machine away having not completed my task is to….admit defeat!

All real estate licensees are not the same. Only real estate licensees who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® are properly called REALTORS®. They proudly display the REALTOR “®” logo on their business card or other marketing and sales literature. REALTORS® are committed to treat all parties to a transaction honestly.

REALTORS® subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are expected to maintain a higher level of knowledge of the process of buying and selling real estate.

An independent survey reports that 84% of home buyers would use the same REALTOR® again.