Really Simple Syndication

Catagories

Select Category Real Estate News summer of love westgate Celebrity Real Estate Dublin About Me? Columbus News Condos & Lofts For Home Buyers For Home Sellers Market Updates Mortgage/Finance Bexley Clintonville Olde Towne East Downtown Short North German Village Grandview

Archives

Select Month August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004

Connect

One of my listings was featured on the Today Show this morning

December 4th, 2009 categories: About Me?, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, Olde Towne East

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.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: 1 Comment »

Finally Official! Columbus Home Buyers and Sellers can take advantage of Extended Tax Credit

November 6th, 2009 categories: Bexley, Clintonville, Columbus News, Condos & Lofts, Downtown, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Market Updates, Mortgage/Finance, Olde Towne East, Real Estate News, Short North, westgate

This afternoon President Obama signed the bill into law that will extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30.

I’m surprised that they left the two month window but I think it’s very smart. Still, even if it were this week, I would not try to buy a short sale property or a foreclosure that doesn’t have the deed in the bank’s name even with the 7.5 month leeway.

Here’s the best part–a tax credit for SELLERS. The bill creates a $6,500 credit for those who buy a home after living in their current house at least five years. That will apply to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. The current credit defines a first-time homebuyer as someone who has not owned a residence within the past three years.

The credit will be available only for the purchase of principal residences priced at $800,000 or less.

This is huge. If you have owned your Columbus area home for at least five years–and I believe you must have lived in the home for at least five of the last eight years–you too can receive a credit. I can’t envision a scenario where you could claim both sides of the tax credits unless it was something along the lines of you selling your home and then turning around and buying the next home in your new spouse or girl/boyfriend’s name who has not owned a home.

The bill will raise the adjusted gross income cap to $125,000 for single filers and $225,000 for joint filers. The amount of the credit currently begins to phase out for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is more than $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.

This is important. It opens the tax credit up to a whole new set of first time buyers who were not previously eligible and who could, conceivably, purchase a home with a little higher price tag that this year’s crop of first time home buyers weren’t even looking at.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: No Comments »

Real Estate Market Updates for Your Favorite Columbus Neighborhood

October 8th, 2009 categories: Bexley, Clintonville, Condos & Lofts, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Market Updates, Olde Towne East, Short North

This is where you can find an update on what is happening in real estate in your favorite Columbus Neighborhood…

Clintonville

Greater Short North including Harrison West, Italian Village and Victorian Village

German Village and Brewery District

Schumacher Place and Merion Village

Greater Olde Towne East

Grandview Hieghts and Marblecliff

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: No Comments »

Sidewalks. Do they add value? Whose responsibility are sidewalks?

September 29th, 2009 categories: About Me?, Bexley, Clintonville, For Home Buyers, German Village, Olde Towne East, Short North

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.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: 1 Comment »

This Columbus Home has Instant Equity — Oh Really?

September 14th, 2009 categories: About Me?, Bexley, Clintonville, Downtown, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Market Updates, Olde Towne East, Real Estate News, Short North, westgate

I've always loved the stone pillars flanking this Bexley Home

Instant Equity. Two words anyone buying real estate in Clintonville, Bexley, Grandview, Downtown, Short North, Berwick, Westgate or anywhere else in Central Ohio love to hear.

The problem is, I’ve heard those two words too often lately. The problem is the context and the definition of instant equity.  In my opinion, anyone buying a home that has instant equity is anyone buying a home at a substantial discount to the Market Value of the  home. That range from selling price to market value equals instant equity (though the bank might not think so).

What I’ve heard a lot lately is something along these lines, “…and this Seller paid $338,500 for it just a few years ago and is selling it for only $299,900. That’s a lot of instant equity for your buyer!”

Hold on a minute Buster, who cares what the Seller paid for it! In today’s market, if the home the Seller paid $338,500 for in 2006 is only worth $290,000 then there is NO instant equity. It’s simply priced at or around market value. Market value simply means whatever the market (all you buyers out there in Columbus thinking of buying a home) is willing to pay for it.

Hold on though, because it works both ways…..I always tell Buyers that what the  Seller paid for the home has no bearing on what the home is worth.  That means if the Seller bought the Columbus home via foreclosure, at auction or even on the market with Instant Equity….ie-if the Seller got a deal…you can’t punish them when buying the house. They are the one who got the deal, they deserve to make a profit and the Buyer should anticipate paying market value for the home. Just because the Seller got a deal on the home doesn’t mean she has any obligation to pass that deal on to the Buyer.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: No Comments »

The Death of the American Dining Room

July 28th, 2009 categories: Bexley, Clintonville, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Olde Towne East, Short North, westgate

This is a post I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Over the last few years, Buyers have fallen on both sides of the  dining room fence.
The bottom line-Dining Rooms are like Fireplaces, everybody wants one but few use one. Americans love the idea of a dining room but how many families do you know that eat dinner together every night gathered around the dining room table? I do maybe 3 nights a week and I think that’s high. I also don’t have a formal dining room, rather a spot to fit a formal dining room table between the kitchen and living room, all of it open space.

When staging a home to sell, the  dining room better look like a dining room. If it exists, show it off.

If you live in Bexley or Upper Arlington or parts of Worthington and have a 4 bedroom house then buyers are looking for dining rooms and you’d better have one. If you have an $850,000 contemporary home in Upper  Arlington though, it’s OK to NOT have a dining room but instead have a large open space.

Grandview buyers like traditional floor plans and, obviously, so do Olde Towne East buyers – but those homes are so large that there’s plenty of space for everything. Clintonville buyers are always looking to maxamize space and I’ve seen many homes that live without a dining room but always  “re-install” it when it’s time to sell.

Eating space is important in German Village and so is historical accuracy.  Space, however, is often at a premium and a dining room just isn’t as important as it used to be. When those same German Village couples start their families and move to Bexley, though, it becomes more important, at least in theory.

Dining rooms are a hold over to pre-television, pre computers, pre-this-family-has-3-practices-and-a-music-lesson-tonight households. They just aren’t as important as they used to be. Eating dinner together as a family is a romantic notion that isn’t always feasible to follow-through on.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: No Comments »

Will the newly opened and refurbished Lincoln Theater revive Columbus Near East Side?

May 25th, 2009 categories: About Me?, Downtown, Olde Towne East

Only time will tell. The theater is in my backyard and we’ve been watching and hearing the progress for over two years now. All the hoopla regarding the opening has been a bit over the top and I’ve not been happy with the lack of objectivity regarding what the surrounding community and the lack of interest in those who live here. Today, though, I’m leaving all that aside because the finished product is spectacular and I can’t wait for my kids to grow up half a block away from this great Columbus treasure.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: 1 Comment »

HUD Secretary says Columbus area Home Buyers don’t have to wait for the Eight Grand tax credit

May 12th, 2009 categories: Bexley, Clintonville, Columbus News, Condos & Lofts, Downtown, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Mortgage/Finance, Olde Towne East, Real Estate News, Short North

Although nobody called me for the panel of distinguished guests at the mid-year meeting of the National Association of Realtors today in Washington D.C., I have found out that Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, decreed today that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow homeowners to use the $8,000 tax credit as a downpayment.

Secretary Donovan went on to say, “We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment,”  According to Donovan, the FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.

Is this great for Columbus area first time home buyers? You bet! You can read more about it here.

On the flip side, It seems to me that this is typical of the American ‘gotta-have-it-now’ mindset and all too reminiscent of the sort of ‘lend to anyone with a home buying twinkle in their eye’ mentality that got us into this mess.  Don’t have enough money for a down payment? No problem, here’s $8,000.

And, since you’re wondering anyway, that means that you could purchase about a $228,000 Columbus area home with no out of pocket down payment if you’re going with an FHA loan product and their 3.5% minimum down.

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: 2 Comments »

Historic Columbus Homes, Old Windows and New Ideas

March 24th, 2009 categories: Bexley, Clintonville, For Home Buyers, For Home Sellers, German Village, Grandview, Olde Towne East

I ran across a post today that made an impression on me. I show a lot of homes in the downtown neighborhoods where the homes can be as old they can be in Columbus–oldest maybe 140 years or so.

Many buyers fall in love with the homes themselves but not the idea of the upkeep and renovation that my be involved.  Original Windows, in particular, are a double edged sword—They’re obviously historically accurate and add character to the home but if they are beat up and inoperable or sometimes just old, buyers consider an astronomical price to replace them with like-kind and move on to the next house.

Why replace them at all? Because most people feel original windows can’t be energy efficient and no one wants to waste money. Plus, keeping the old windows is now cool because preservation is a defacto green lifestyle. Well, Mark Alan Hewitt wrote the following in this post. He’s an architect  & preservationist:

Authored by Joe Peffer | Discussion: 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries