Katie and I built a Ball home in Chilesburg a few years back and love it here. Soon after, while helping my friends Chris and Amy find a new home, I suggested our neighborhood, and they fell in love with it, too. It has a nice combination of price, location, amenities, schools and aesthetics that, I believe, will only make it better and better as it ages.

Chris and Amy are looking to move to be closer to Chris’ job in Georgetown, so they recently asked me to sell their house on Jouett Creek. An important part of what I do as a buying agent is to help clients pick good homes that will be highly desirable and marketable when they go to sell. I was a fan of this house and neighborhood when they picked it, and it will likely sell easily this go around.

Interesting tidbit: Did you know that, at the time this blog post is written, only 83 homes in the popular Chilesburg neighborhood can currently claim Athens-Chilesburg Elementary as their primary assigned school? Of those, only 2 are for sale—and this is one of them. And this is the view from the front yard of the house. Now THAT’s a neighborhood school.

Chilesburg has a series of recreational paths throughout the neighborhood. Great for exercise and leisure.

A big advantage to this particular home is that it’s move-in ready. I came over a couple weeks ahead of photographing it to make suggestions for improvements, but honestly, they already had it looking pretty dang sweet.

Chilesburg also has ponds, greenspace, mature trees and protected wetlands. Again, those types of things give a neighborhood charm. Lifestyle is important to consider when you’re buying, both for the obvious benefit you’ll gain while you live there, but also for the marketability when you go to sell.

This is one of the ponds in Chilesburg and its fountain that lights up at night. Definitely cool for those folks whose houses back up to it.

And what does this turtle have to do with anything? Meet Elmer. Chris and Amy found him while on a picnic (not in Chilesburg) recently. He came home with them and was living happily in a tank on their kitchen counter. He’s now in our family room visiting for a few weeks while their house is being shown to prospective buyers. He’s enjoying the change of scenery, and we’re enjoying having  another pet, even if on loan.

Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to read up more on this particular listing, you can go HERE. If you’d like to stay in touch with me, HERE is the best place. Take care!  -shaun

Four years ago, I helped a sweet person named Jennifer buy her first home. She picked a townhome in Eastend, which is inside Man-O-War between Richmond Rd and Todds, not too far from the new Liberty Elementary. Of all the places she looked at before buying, here’s what ultimately tipped the scale in favor of this one.

• being minutes from her job downtown
• being close to the interstate, so she could visit with her out-0f-town family easily and often
• being right around the corner from all the shopping and dining in Hamburg
• a price that would mean having a mortgage payment less than what she’d spend to rent something similar
• not having to mess with a bunch of lawn mowing and exterior maintenance
• recent renovations, which meant she could move in all her cute furniture and decor and be settled quickly
• Eastend feels like a community—warm and welcoming

When Katie and I bought our first home, we went with a townhome. We were able to buy it under that 100K threshold, which was awesome, since we were newly married and recent grads.  We’ve moved on since then, but I’m so thankful we started with a townhome. Jennifer is like us. She’s ready to sell her first home. It’s been loved and enjoyed. And at $85,000? Geez…I’m thinking it’s going to sell pretty dang quickly. What do you think?

I hope you enjoy the photographs. I spent almost 2 hours out there shooting!

***UPDATE*** The listing below ended up selling in 16 days for almost 98 percent of the original asking price...Not too shabby.

We’ve all heard that real estate is all about “location, location, location.” It’s true to a certain extent, but having a popular location really isn’t enough when it comes time to sell. It’s a finely-tuned combination of the following:

Location
Condition
Price
Exposure

• If the location and/or condition isn’t the best, you’ll need to offset things with a lower price.

• If the location is awesome, you’ll likely have good results (provided, of course, that the house’s condition is par for the course).

• If you’re priced competitively, you’ll be on the radar. If you’re overpriced, buyers and their agents won’t even find your home. They’ll be looking in the correct price range instead.

• Without exposure on the MLS, none of the above will be of much help. You’ll have very little exposure to where the buyers and their agents are looking. It’s not impossible to sell FSBO. It’s just very difficult to be found.

• And finally—If the first thing online that buyers and their agents see isn’t the best possible representation of your home, its features and its ambiance, I believe you’re missing out.

Yesterday I listed a home on Lexington’s southside. Wyndham Downs is pretty sweet location-wise. Think Clays Mill, outside Man-O-War. Right around the corner from Copperfield. In addition to having a great combination of public schools (Garden Springs, Beaumont, Dunbar), you’re really close to plenty of parks, sports fields, restaurants and shopping. This home comes with access to a private neighborhood pool. Big plus? It’s only three doors away from Waverly Park. This is huge.

But again—location isn’t enough.

We have it priced competitively. It’s condition is great. It’s on the MLS. But what I believe will ultimately separate it from the mix is the photography.

I spent two hours there shooting. I may be a bit obsessive, but I want my real estate photos to look like they should be in a magazine. Not just to show off the “bricks and sticks,” as they say. But instead, to present the soul of the home and its location.

Here are my favorites:

And just in case you’ve become just a tad bit curious about all the details of this home, you can find it HERE. Hope you like what I’ve done with the listing!

Thanks for stopping by!  -shaun

My listings tend to sell pretty quickly.  How do I do it?

1)Excellent photography. In addition to selling real estate, I’m also a professional photographer.  Works out really well for my clients!  Their homes end up looking like they’re straight out of a magazine.  With nearly all buyers and all of the buyers’ agents looking at listings online first, it only makes sense to make a good first impression.  Before photographing each property, I go by a few days ahead of time to make suggestions to the sellers on what they might wanna do staging-wise.  Probably all the same things you see on HGTV, but sometimes it’s nice for people to get an outside perspective.

2)Interesting remarks. If I see another listing that says “Cute 3BR ranch. Must see!”, I’m going to scream.  When people are looking through hundreds of possible properties, it’s important to stand out.  I think my marketing remarks break through the noise better.

3)Accurate pricing. The best listing price is one that’s based on comparable solds, as well competitive with other active listings.  I love crunching numbers.  Overpriced listings don’t get shown, because people look for homes in the price range they can afford.  In the 99K-500K range during 2010 (as of today—10/3/2010), the 2300+ properties sold in Lexington went for around 97.5% of the listing price.

4)Not with print advertising or open houses…LOL. I’ve found them both to be a big waste of time and money.  Most print advertising and open houses are done to benefit the agent, since it’s a great way for them to meet new clients.  The best part?  Since I don’t needlessly spend dollars and energy on print advertising and open houses, the listing commission I charge is really reasonable.  Because I tend to sell houses really quickly AND at a reasonable commission, I get a lot of word-of-mouth referrals. Win-win.

It’s not rocket-science, but I’ve got my system down, and it works.  Whether you’re looking to get your house listed ASAP, or if you’re just interested in knowing how it might stack up in the current market, give me a shout HERE.  I’d love to chat with you!