In Real Estate, the Devil is in the Details

Tuesday I attended the City of Raleigh Public Works committee meeting because there was an item on the agenda that impacted some of my listings. Parking. Go figure. Being last on the agenda meant sitting through a few other topics. Normally people dread this activity, but I think it is fascinating to hear the debates and comments. I always learn something.

Tonight's topic was assessments. Being a public works committee, it was about sewer becoming available to neighborhoods outside the city. The agenda item was specific to a few lots, but several people from the neighborhood were present to dispute the assessment.

The link to real estate is that there were several homeowners present at the meeting who claim that they never knew about the assessment. One in particular had recently purchased the property. The date of the assessment notification was 2004, according to comments made. That's six years ago. An assessment is a material fact. Right there in the Residential Property Disclosure statement (required by property owners selling their homes) it asks, #18, "Lawsuits, foreclosures, bankruptcy, tenancies, judgements, tax liens, PROPOSED ASSESSMENTS, (all caps for emphasis on my part), mechanics liens, materialmen's liens, or notice from any government agency that could affect title to the property?" If yes, you check the box.

This form exists to disclose all necessary items to the next owner. If an owner lies, the agent may have no way of knowing. But what I think is necessary, in some cases, is for the agent to cite examples of the types of things that the homeowner may have forgotten about. An agent asking "have you gotten any letters from the City, even going back several years?" might prompt an owner to remember something. A helpful agent can educate the homeowner on why these answers are important. Not to say that didn't happen here, but things like this make me want to polish my own procedures to help homeowners do the right thing.

After sitting through this meeting tonight, you better believe that if I am ever involved in a listing or purchase on the outskirts of the city, I am checking that assessment website! Or even calling the city. And making double sure that the owner has not received notice from anyone. I didn't realize the time lag between notification and actual billing. It can be years. But HOA's can have assessments, too, so condos aren't off the hook.

This woman in particular would never have bought that property if she knew a $4000 assessment was coming. Who is to blame? The previous homeowner. Should the real estate agent have known? Was there a real estate agent? Normally the attorney would catch it if no one else did. Somehow, it was missed. And now this woman is on the hook.

I feel for her. I really do. She had done everything she thought necessary. She has all her paperwork. She is organized. You can tell she's on top of things. These meetings really let you see how one small misstep in a real estate transaction can impact a person. Was there evidence of something new? Was there still fresh construction from the installation? If so, that should have been a clue to someone to ask questions.

Buying a house is more than finding the right layout and view from the backyard. There is a whole team of people that work for you. Your agent, your lender, your attorney, and anyone else that comes into the picture - inspectors, contractors, etc. If they do a good job they should help prevent things like this from happening, which is what they are being paid to do - look out for your best interests. (Disclaimer - I'm sure there are things that people can't possibly know about. Unfortunately there's a first time for everything).

I came away from this meeting with the idea that all agents should go to at least 3 meetings with their county or city related to property before getting their license so that they can be aware of how things work. It's one thing to read it in a book. It's quite another to see things in reality, with real people and real money.

What happened here? Did the homeowner simply forget? Maybe that's the case. But as an agent, I think we need to remind sellers and buyers about these things and walk them through the paperwork so that they understand why the questions are being asked. I know I'm adding a few more items to my usual checklist.

Top 5 Apps for Raleigh

Last week I attended the 3rd annual Internet Summit, held here in our backyard at the Raleigh Convention Center. One of the key messages from the various speakers was that mobile is huge, and somewhat related to that, I noticed that Raleigh is a little sparse on the localized apps. Most attendees were from out of town and they were looking for places to go. Yelp, for most cities, is a critical tool for finding restaurants or other services close to where you are. Pulling up Yelp from the Convention Center produced a few options, but there were plenty of places missing (send a note to your favorite place now - tell them to get with it!).

So what is out there? Here are my top 5. This list is made up of apps that I use almost daily as a downtown resident. I welcome your thoughts.

R-Line - This free circulator bus will take you to all the hot spots downtown. The bus comes by every 15 minutes or so and the app lets you know when it's coming.


WRAL - Local news, but I confess that I use this app more for weather and traffic more than anything else.


See Click Fix - I just downloaded this a few days ago, but I look forward to pointing out all sorts of sidewalk or other issues around the city that need attention.

Triangle Business Journal - Latest news.



Yelp - Yelp could be great as long as it gets populated with reviews. So make sure to review your favorite places. Even if you're familiar with all the restaurants, it's still nice to have something to refresh your memory.

A few restaurants have apps that let you know their latest specials, but I didn't want to single out one over the other. If you're not a WRAL fan, ABC 11, News 14 Carolina and a few radio stations also have apps.

What are your favorite apps for Raleigh?

Solar Panels Installed Downtown

For those that live high above the streets of Downtown Raleigh, the view is fabulous. You can see for miles. But when you look a few blocks away, you mostly see the tops of parking decks and large HVAC units on top of office buildings. It's a wasteland of white, gray and black that has SO much potential.

So today when I looked outside and saw solar panels being installed on the giant, flat roof of the back part of the Terry Sanford Federal Building (I thought it was a post office), I was thrilled! Something shiny to look at, plus the obvious efficient use of space on the roof to generate power.

I recently read about solar panels on the roof of the Convention Center, but haven't seen anything published about this. Alas, a quick Google search (easier once I realized the name of the actual building) brought me to the contractor doing the work with lovely updates on their Facebook page.

Next up - top off all of the existing parking decks with something green.

Activity on Wilmington / Martin

Took a stroll this morning to get some coffee and noticed that there was some demolition / cleaning up going on over at 237 S Wilmington St. I wandered over and asked one of the workers what was going on. They already had a truckload of debris and were sweeping up the sidewalk. The inside was just a giant empty space, but he said that they were prepping it for a restaurant/night club. Two levels.

The tax records show Carpenter Jensen Ventures as the owners, but I expect that it has been leased to someone. I've always thought that the building would make a great restaurant, what with all the windows in the front. Hopefully they'll clean up the facade a bit as well.

Hopscotch Sets the Standard for Downtown Raleigh Events

Music makes you feel young. That’s all there is to it. A song might remind you of a friend, an event, a special time in your life. Music makes you feel good, angry, happy, sad. You name it.

Having said that, I’m not a music geek or one of those people that knows about bands long before they become mainstream. But I am loving this Hopscotch event. I had only heard of one of the bands on the schedule. Well, maybe two, but I didn’t realize I knew their songs til I heard them play.

Anyway, the whole point here is that I think Hopscotch has done wonderful things for Downtown Raleigh. I can be pretty cynical sometimes and I have plenty of friends that are the same way and we sit around and complain about how Durham stole this and Raleigh can’t get it together with that. Downtown, for a long time, seemed to be (and still does sometimes) morphing into a Miami scene –basically a place to get dressed up and go out late. Not that something like that is terrible, but there just doesn’t seem to be anything else for the rest of us other than more bars. A thriving downtown needs diversity and lots of different things to do. Hopscotch has definitely kicked Raleigh's ass into gear.

What I love about Hopscotch is that, despite the Hipster-haters, it isn’t all hipsters! I’ve seen older folks, high school folks, nerdy types, fashionistas, and just plain ol’ regular people in jeans and a t-shirt looking for good music. It's an event for everyone with all types of music in all types of venues.

I used to have a friend that would keep me posted on all the latest cool music, but he moved away, had a child, and found better things to do. So I languished in the new music part of my life – my own fault. So I took the chance to visit the venues at Hopscotch that had music that I might not have ever heard. I took in some honky tonk at Lincoln Theater the first night, listened to Pictureplane at Berkeley (very new to me!), back to Lincoln for American Aquarium (his voice got on my nerves), so over to Pour House for Sleepy Sun, and back to Lincoln for Lucero.

Night two brought The Rosebuds and Broken Social Scene (LOVED it - will be downloading later). But I didn’t get the whole Panda Bear thing. He had three songs to convince me to stay, but it was all just droning sound.. not for me. And when there are so many other bands to choose from, I’m not sticking around! So over to Pour House for Ryan Gustafson who killed it, then to Tir Na Nog for my guys Kingsbury Manx, then bounced around a bit from Kings (Sightings?? Is that music??), to Deep South for Erin McKeown (boy, she's tiny, but powerful!) and Caitlin Cary and Matthew Douglas.

Whew!

Day three was even better with Public Enemy kicking things off with an intro from the Helping Hand Mission band that rolled through the crowd, beating their drums to warm up the audience. The funny part is that I probably couldn’t name one Public Enemy song. Sure, once they started up I recognized a few. They put on a great show and I stood there in the rain and soaked up every bit of it. I’ve never felt so much bass in all my life. The hair on my arms was bouncing. Oh, and let's not forget Flav's new line of drinks. Chateau Le Flav. I'm not kidding.

The great thing about living downtown is that you can stand in the rain, walk two blocks, change or dry your clothes, and get back out there in a matter of 15 minutes. I love it!

TigerCity, Bear in Heaven and Megafaun rounded out the last night for me. My feet are killing me, but it was all worth it. I learned all kinds of new music. I might not be able to hear for the next three days, but there’s no better medicine to make you feel young and alive than live music. Plus, it proved that Downtown Raleigh can support these kinds of events.

Thank you Hopscotch!

P.S. On a more shallow note, the mustache seems to be making a comeback. A few of the bands on day 3 seemed to have a 70's/80's blend between disco and lots of keyboards. And the mustache and floppy hair made me think they were channeling Barry Gibb. Just sayin..

Faces of Downtown Raleigh

Three years later and I still love my guys at Sosta Cafe. Check out the guest post I wrote for the DLA here.

A Visit to Bloomsbury Estates

Wow. I have to say that I am impressed with Bloomsbury Estates. I dropped by yesterday because I hadn't seen the inside since it was finished. Last time I was there was for a walk-through when all the floors had been poured and they were starting to frame out the rooms.

Whatever your feelings about the location, the interior more than makes up for it. It feels like one big house with separate rooms. There's an intimacy to the hallways that gives you a cozy feel. Wood doors for each unit's main entry and dark carpet keep the halls from feeling like a hotel. The first floor common area is covered in dark wood and it feels like a library out of your rich uncle's house.

The units aren't exactly alike. I noticed three major design schemes; modern, traditional, and sort of an in-between. My favorite views were definitely to the east and north. Look east and you have downtown (shown above). It's just gorgeous. But the view to the north is all green. All you can see are the treetops between Hargett and Hillsborough street. If you want a residential feel, definitely pick a condo on the north side.

I didn't stay long enough to really critique the place. Some layouts had very long living areas which made me wonder how you would place your furniture, but that's the great thing about condos. People are so creative, I'm sure someone will figure it out. The only thing I really noticed was the bathroom vanities. As someone who has lived with pedestal sinks for the last five years, I am in heaven now with a huge bathroom countertop with tons of storage. But the units at Bloomsbury all have pedestal sinks. I'm sure you could change it. And they definitely contribute to the look of the place. They do make up for it with lots of built-in wall cabinet storage in most units, but not all units had those. The showers were beautiful, too, but very narrow.

Overall, the finishes inside are unique for downtown. It definitely looks and feels more like a house than a condo inside. That's what I love about downtown Raleigh. Each building has something unique to offer, and Bloomsbury has given buyers another great choice.