Does a desire for two-person showers, travertine floors and granite countertops push home prices up? Housing economist Tom Lawler, a Vienna, Va., consultant, argues that it does — and says these cravings are partly responsible for ballooning home prices throughout much of this decade. In a subscription-only report, he notes that household spending for improvements for single-family homes increased to $1,900 last year from $1,100 in 1997, and that such spending will likely continue to rise, despite the slowdown in home sales and prices reported earlier this week by the National Association of Realtors.

Although the impact of these spruce ups is hard to gauge statistically — improvements often aren’t noted in public records — he estimates that overall, remodeling is responsible for 1% to 1.5% of home-price appreciation each year. So, while prices overall may continue to decline due to overbuilding, speculation and risky mortgages, remodeling will continue to add real value to many homes. (more…)

search for : ballooning home prices, National Association of Realtors, remodeling

Last year, the corn fed stove replaced pellet stoves as the hot new home heating appliance on the block. This year, with higher fossil fuel costs driving home heating concerns and global warming spreading environmental woes, the biomass burning appliance market is heating up with multi-fuel stoves that let you toss in everything from cherry pits to wheat. “What makes these stoves so appealing across the country is the fact that they are true biomass appliances. Depending on your geographical region, certain renewable fuels are in more abundant supply than others. Corn is readily available in the Midwest. Wood pellets are popular in the northeast.

The Magnum brand includes models that burn corn, wood pellets, wheat, barley, oats, durum, cherry pits and olive pits, as well as more traditional wood, pellet and corn burners, Haefner says. Sales of all their biomass fueled appliances has soared 500 percent over the past five years, driven by conscientious consumers who want to heat their homes with less pollution and reliance upon fossil fuels. With customers on a six-month waiting list, the firm is expanding facilities to crank out 75,000 biomass burners a year by 2007, doubling it’s current output. (more…)

search for : corn fed stove, pellet stoves, heating appliance, fossil fuel, home heating, multi-fuel stove

They represent the future of real estate in this time of uncertainty — 17 bright-eyed and eager students, median age 40, sitting for three hours in a classroom while I click slowly through a 50-slide Power Point presentation with embedded video and audio. These are small investors, a mixed group of young and old, Realtors and nonRealtors, and all ethnicities — a true mix of the modern-day urban market.

They want to know what I can tell them about renovating one-to-four unit properties cost-effectively, whether or not to hire an architect, what to look for in a contractor, what will put their rentals a cut above the others without breaking their budgets. These are not flippers. These folks are in for the long haul, agreeing with some expert who told me this week that this isn’t the time to experiment with real estate but to get serious about it. One of the experts whose video was embedded in the Power Point was Carl Dranoff, a developer who was one of the pioneers of the warehouse to loft conversion boom on the late ’70s to mid-’80s in many of our older cities. (more…)

search for : real estate, architect, contractor, , flippers

With a minimum of 500 to 600 full-time employees, Laurelmor, a Ginn Clubs & Resorts mountain-top project under way in Wilkes and Watauga counties, is expected to add more than $2 billion in property values if it is built out according to a 10-year plan. One selling point is that the property is close to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Laurelmor will be built in phases, with a master plan calling for about 1,500 homes, 1,000 condominium units or hotel rooms, two 18-hole golf courses, 50 miles of roads, a spa, water park, equestrian center, observatory and other amenities. Ginn plans to hold a sale of lots in October and to open in 2009. Ginn expects to have a sales day in October for a first phase. A spokesperson said that the company hasn’t made completed lot prices for Laurelmor, but that the most inexpensive lot would likely be around $500,000. Developers have told local officials that the minimum home size would be about 3,000 square feet, and some could be twice that big. (more…)

search for : Laurelmor, Ginn Clubs & Resorts, mountain-top, Wilkes, Watauga, property value, Blue Ridge Parkway, 8-hole golf course, spa, water park, equestrian center, observatory, minimum home size

When I first picked up “Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur” by James A. Randel, I wasn’t enthused by its bland, noncreative cover, which makes the book look dull and boring. Wrong. Instead, it is one of the best real estate books of 2006 so far because it tells how a super-successful investor evaluates real estate opportunities. What makes this new book so unusual is the self-deprecating author emphasizes his real estate mistakes as much as the highlights of his successes. The book’s title could have been “Real Estate Mistakes I Made But How I Succeeded Anyway.”

James A. Randel started with an excellent educational background from Columbia University where he obtained his law degree. Then he wisely became a real estate broker so he could participate in real estate commissions as well as practice law. When briefly mentioning his New York City residency during college years, Randel admits he didn’t spot the opportunities to buy run-down buildings near Columbia for upgrade profits by adding value. The book’s theme is “add value” whether you invest in raw land, houses, a fixer-upper factory building with potential for rezoning profits, or a run-down office building. What makes this book so special are the personal stories the author shares, emphasizing how he profited when he (and his investor partners) added value and how they lost money when their planning was faulty. (more…)

search for : Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur, real estate book, real estate commission

He shuffles around the corner clutching a typed notice in his hand, making his way past the Guilford County Clerk of Court’s administrative suite and down the long hallway where a continuous bulletin board stretches the length of the wall, subdivided into columns headed with numbers for the day of the month, each one containing a headache-inducing array of sale notices.

The special proceedings room at the Guilford County Courthouse is a modest-sized room with plate-glass windows facing Eugene Street. With waist-high cubicles arranged to fit three deputy clerks, it accommodates members of the public with a counter running most of the length of the room. The deputy clerks make easy small talk with the stream of buyers who come in to scour the “upset bid” pail, which holds foreclosure case files for 10 days after sale, and with the substitute trustees, who come in periodically to check on the progress of paperwork. Occasionally respondents, such as a distraught widow unclear about whether her house will be padlocked before the foreclosure sale, come in to ask for an explanation of procedural details. (more…)

search for : Guilford County Clerk of Court, foreclosure sale

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, most cities are now in a “buyer’s market” for home sales. That means there are more houses and condos listed for sale than there are qualified home buyers actively in the market. Nationally, home sales volume is down about 10 percent compared to 2005.

The best way to tell if your area is in a buyer’s or seller’s market is to check the average number of days homes are on the market before selling. When this number rises above 60 days, it’s definitely a buyer’s market. That means it’s a great time to be a buyer, but not such a great time to be a home seller. Another method is to look at the number of months’ supply of homes for sale at the current sales pace. Just divide the number of local homes sold during the last 30 days into the number of homes listed for sale. If the result is more than a six-month supply of homes, the oversupply of listed homes shows it’s a buyer’s market. Fall is usually the second-best season to sell a home (spring is the best because that is when the largest number of prospective home buyers are in the market). But 2006 is proving to be unusual. (more…)

search for : buyer’s market, prospective home buyer