EtotheP.COM

Charlotte, NC luxury home construction going strong!

2008-08-25T11:52:00.005-04:00

K2C Real Estate Solutions is readying to begin construction of a $5 million gated community in Ballantyne that will target empty nesters.

Cobblestone Row will feature seven European-style houses designed by Carolina Design Group that will start in the $600,000s.

Home builder Carolina Construction Group expects to start building in about 60 to 90 days, with the homes being complete in six to eight months. Cobblestone Row will be on Community House Road just south of Bryant Farms Road, near the Morrison YMCA.

Cobblestone Row will offer empty nesters smaller houses without sacrificing high-end amenities, says Matt Alexander, vice president of sales of Charlotte-based K2C.

If you are interested in these homes, or other luxury Charlotte area homes, email me at eric@thecharlottegroup.com

Creative Solutions!

2008-07-30T12:34:00.005-04:00

Things don't always go as planned in a real estate transaction. To asisst other Realtors out there, I figured I would share an occasional example of how we creatively overcame an obstacle in a transaction. Hope it helps!

OBSTACLE

Recently, I was working as a buyers agent for a client that needed to change the contracted closing date, because he was going to be out of town officiating his sisters wedding. The original closing date was set for a Friday, and we were requesting that it be moved up to Tuesday to give him time to move in before going out of town for the wedding.

We persistently let the sellers agent know about our request to change the closing date, and the only response the sellers agent would give us was, "I haven't heard back yet from my clients."

Finally, 3 days before closing, the sellers agent informed me that his client was willing to reschedule the closing date IF my clients would waive the $1,000 in repairs to be performed by the seller according to the repair request.

SOLUTION

I explained to my client how I perceived that this agent, and his client, were trying to use the issue of the closing date as an opportunity to avoid performing the costly repairs needed on the property.

So, instead of conceeding the repairs to make the closing date work, here is what we decided to do to help our client...

I called the local POD company and had one delivered to their apartment that day. I told them to fill it with all their stuff, close Friday morning as scheduled, and I will handle the rest. Needless to say, when they returned on Sunday night, all their things were sitting in the driveway of their new home. Because of this solution my client had a stress-free move, closed on time, and attended his sisters wedding without having to worry about what was going on with his move.

Incase you're wondering...we did purchase the POD for our client. Chalk it up to getting a client for life!

why I use Salesforce.com

2008-07-28T22:35:00.005-04:00

In real estate, and sales for that matter, managing relationships is a vital part of business. With life as busy as it is these days, and no assistant to help me out, I desperately need a good CRM to help me stay in touch with the right people and to manage my time effectively. Here are the key reasons why I landed on salesforce.com as the solution for me.

This CRM is hosted on the web. All my notes and contacts are kept on their servers, so I don't have to worry about losing my information if I ever decide to throw my laptop into Lake Norman. Also, because it is web based, I can use this to connect to this, so that I can make more of this.
Price. $99 per year for a single user. Broken up into 4 quarterly payments of 25. That's a whole lot better than 39.99 per month for Top Producer 7i. $380 to be exact.
It is all mine. I don't have to share the database with other salespeople, thus finding myself having to sift through other people's information to find what I am looking for. What can I say...I'm selfish.
One word. MOBILE. Check this out.

For multi-user enterprise type solutions, I have heard great things about this, but you'll have to try it for yourself. If you need help with it, call these guys, and tell them I sent you.

#7 is a GREAT place to be!

2008-07-28T21:16:00.008-04:00

According to this, Charlotte, NC is the 7th best city to purchase a home in right now.

Forbes magazine says that the median home price in Charlotte, NC went up to $205,400 in 2007, this from $180,900 in 2005. An increase of $24,500 over the last two years would be an impressive statistic in a normal housing market, but with the housing turmoil we have experienced as a nation the last few years, these numbers have become a lot more encouraging.

Forbes also points out that Charlotte's vacancy rate is just a bit above the national average at 3.1%, reflecting a lot of homes that are going to quickly be sold once the market begins to resolidify itself.

Couple that with this happening over the weekend, it looks like we're on the right track to getting back to business as usual.