This beautiful church at the end of my street could be yours for $450,000. It comes with a 3,500+ sf annex. SO many possibilities, So unique.

If a Columbus area property has been grandfathered due to zoning issues, it may not be a big deal and it may seem good in some cases for the Buyer BUT Fannie/Freddie could certainly have a problem with this sort of situation.

Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve found the perfect property for your needs — maybe 787 East Broad Street, a gorgeous Church dating from 1903 that also happens to have a 3300 sf+ building that goes with it.

This is great, you can run your business out of the building and rehab the church into one of the most beautiful and unique homes in Central Ohio and still be easy walking distance to Broad and High. Wow, what a deal at $450,000. (No, Really, How can you pass this up!?)

Is it impossible to buy a property like this if the current zoning is different from the intended use zoning? No, but in case the property burns down or is partially destroyed, your lender may need proof from the city that they will allow it to be rebuilt as the current non-conforming use or the new non-conforming use.  That is the difficult part.

Need help navigating downtown Columbus Neighborhoods? Call me. 614-940-9100

As part of the Columbus Crossroads project, (i.e.-The I70-71 split fix by the ODOT) several ramp closures are in effect.

The ramp from 5th Avenue to I-71 south is closed until November 2012; the detour is Leonard Avenue.

These next two I use all the time but don’t mind the slightly less convenient alternates. Really, Downtown Columbus is so navigable and easy that these closures aren’t as big a deal as some whine about.

The ramp from I-670 east to Broad Street is closed permanently; the detour is Fourth Street to Goodale Avenue to High to Chestnut to Third to Broad, or I-670 east to Cleveland Avenue.

And the ramp from 71 south to Spring Street is closed until November 2013; the detour is Broad Street.

Need help navigating downtown Columbus Neighborhoods? Call me. 614-940-9100

I’ve helped many clients buy and sell Columbus Real Estate for sale this last summer, closed down Delicious Real Estate after a nearly three year run, and joined Re/Max Town Center as the Broker in Charge. Not to mention a still-not-finished attic build-out at my house.

Yes, I’ve railed against big box brokerages for years now but I do like the Re/Max model–it allows the agent to do what they do best and make their own decisions which benefit their clients. The company isn’t in the agent’s pocket for exhorbitant amounts of money and they provide outstanding resources for their agents.

The good news is that I’m able to keep the name that I’ve spent years branding alive as I operate under the Delicious Real Estate Group at RE/MAX  Town Center.

Re/Max has the most professional, experienced and informed agents in the business and nobody sells more real estate, locally, nationally and globally. Town Center is the biggest and the brightest of the locally owned franchises and after being asked a few times to come over help build something special, I acquiesced.  So far, I’m glad I did.

Besides, if I play my cards right, maybe I’ll get a ride in the hot air balloon.

2011 REMAX vs the Industry

What’s more important, the house or the community the house is in?

Sarah just closed on her home and she has some great advice for would-be home owners. The bottom line, it’s up to you. In a perfect world, you get both the perfect house and it is in the perfect neighborhood and it’s perfectly placed in that neighborhood.

The Real Estate Search isn’t a perfect arena though; sometimes something has to give.  That doesn’t mean you have to ’settle’ for less than what you want, it just means you may have to rearrange your expectations.

You’ll do fine, don’t worry.  If you’re looking for homes for sale in Bexley, Worthington, Grandview or Groveport, listen to Sarah, she just wrapped up her home search and she is wise.

The Original Clintonville Charmer. 79 Acton sold in 1996 for $145,545

You’d be amazed how often I read the remarks on a new listing, check out the history of the listing in the Columbus MLS, and find the EXACT same remarks the previous agent used. It’s uncanny. Sometimes the remarks are in the entirety, sometimes it’s most of the old remarks with a few fresh ones thrown in or maybe it’s simply an obviously borrowed phrase from a past listing.

The whole idea simply proves my point about how unoriginal and lazy many real estate agents are — and I’m not even talking about maximizing views of the home in front of potential home buyer’s eyeballs (i.e. marketing).

Every once in a while you find a phrase that sticks through the years. “Clintonville Charmer” is one in particular. It was in the description of a home that came on the market today in the 500 block of Acton and it got me thinking about how over-used some descriptive phrases are in the Columbus MLS, “Charmer” being one of them.

The phrase Clintonville Charmer has been used to describe a home for sale in Clintonville 145 times since the inception of the modern Columbus multiple listing service. Most recently today. The earliest recorded use of the phrase seems to be on another Acton house -79 Acton Pictured Above- on the market 13 days in May and June of 1996 before selling for $145,545.

Anatomy of a Clintonville Charmer:

4 Active Clintonville Charmers averaging 1,728 sf listed at an avg of $154.25/sf

117 all time Sold Clintonville Charmers averaging 58 days on market and 1,455 sf

2 Clintonville Charmers that are in contract currently for $148/sf on average and both, coicidentally, on East Pacemont

I look at listings all day long and see some doozies. What descriptions of Columbus homes for sale have caught your eye over the years?

Click Here to See the Today Show Segment.

Sometimes, having a Realtor with a stellar web presence pays off.  While it probably won’t create a sale, and despite the objections regarding the color of the dining room and the potential addition of an eat-in table in the kitchen, today’s airing of my listing at 1224 Fair Avenue received almost a full minute on National Television with the kitchen onscreen for ten full seconds.

If nothing else, it was enjoyable for the Sellers and the publicity can’t hurt. It all happened because the Delicious Real Estate Brand is tech savvy, distributed well across the Interet and  because I work hard for my clients. If this sounds like what you’re looking for in a Realtor, call or email me.

And, for the record, I think a small table in front of the brick fireplace in the kitchen would ruin the aesthetic that the kitchen has worked so hard to achieve. Yes, the space is there and yes potential buyers could easily have some eat-in space in the kitchen should they so chose.

I’ve always been a fan of City Center.  Everything everyone has ever pointed out about its faults, chiefly that it should have opened up to the streets surrounding it, has been true but it held a special place in the downtown retail fabric. I’m a buy-local guy and not a fan of big box retailers, malls or shopping itself but City Center was always close and always convenient. Parking was cheap and easy and chances are if our family had some kind of a retail need, we could fill it at City Center.

With the Annex in River South Condos literally just down the street finishing construction and Neighborhood Launch a stones throw away, will downtown Columbus condo buyers continue to consider living in the Center City now that City Center is gone?

Yes, they will. While the city of Columbus is touting a park to spring up from the ashes of the demolished mall, that is not the long term answer anyone wants to see in that prime spot. The City is talking to developers right now who are willing to put down their own money to build on the location. I’ve heard rumors of more condos, more apartments, major grocery, convenience and other retail stores in conjunction with class A office space.  It’ll happen.  Will we ever see another Macy’s type store downtown? Probably not. But maybe we could see some other fantastic possibilities.

Of possible interest from this and other sites regarding downtown retail and living…..

• Downtown Columbus’ Neighborhood Launch – a quick update

• Top 10 Chains We Wouldn’t Mind Seeing Downtown

• The Past, Present and Future of Retail in Columbus

• Population increase hasn’t translated into retail growth

Replacing Sidewalks can be a big job but a valuable one.

I’ve found that sidewalks tend to be a value added feature for buyers looking at Columbus Homes for sale. Most of my buyers buy homes inside of I-270 and most of my buyers prefer to have sidewalks for ease of travel when walking around the  neighborhood, for a safe place to meet and greet neighbors, for a safe way to travel through a community, for the perceived safety of theirs and the neighborhood children (I couldn’t find a study that says sidewalks keep children safer but since they keep kids and cars from being in the same place at the  same time, I have to think it’s true) and because they simply feel that a home, a community, needs sidewalks.

In a neighborhood like Clintonville, most streets have sidewalks but the sidewalks don’t necessarily extend the length of the street,ie-there are some that seem to end somewhat randomly as you get closer to Indianola – often only to be taken up again down the street. Also, some North – South streets in Clintonville have no sidewalks.

In slightly more urban areas like German Village or Victorian Village, you can pretty much count on sidewalks though you definitely can’t always count on them being in good repair. In German Village, for example, some of those sidewalks are well over 110 years old and they’re brick which is a bigger maintenance issue. This leads to the next point, the sidewalk is the homeowner’s responsibility. Not just for shoveling snow, but if the walk has cracks all over it and is falling apart the City of Columbus will ask you to fix it. Nicely the first time.

It’s a bit of a catch-22 for homeowners who might buy a house, based in part, because of the lovely trees up and down the block only to find that the roots of those trees have demolished the sidewalks and now they have to pay to replace the walk.

You might get lucky though. Smaller municipalities like Bexley have more discretion and money to throw at keeping sidewalks in good repair. This summer the city of Bexley went around and marked sidewalk squares to be replaced and replaced them on their own dime, sparing the homeowner the cost. (Yes, the money no doubt came from homeowners to begin with)  That won’t always be the case in Bexley and it’s not something you can count on happening anywhere else in greater Columbus.

In less urban areas and sprinkled throughout Columbus you might find communities with no sidewalks. These homes are usually a little farther from the street and the yards are big. Typically, these areas also have less traffic and less need for sidewalks and the poor children who live there never have the opportunity to break their mother’s back.

Despite living on one of the oldest blocks of the city, my sidewalks are unusually wide, probably 5 feet.  This adds to my overall love of my block and is a small luxury that I really enjoy, even if only in the back of my mind. Also, because my neighborhood is so urban there are people who walk up and down my street all the time. I love that about my street.

In Gahanna and Dublin there just aren’t random people walking down your street and the quotient of local flavor goes down because of it. I’m sure many Columbus area home buyers might find that comforting but I say if you’ve got sidewalks, use them.

I love that the guy in the studio starts out saying the  home is overpriced, then they flash the text that the interested buyers want to tear it down just as the Real Estate Agent is going on about it and it ends with the anchor complaining about the train whistle being heard from a $2.3million dollar home.