Brookfield Place

We are excited to announce that Brookfield Place is now selling! The process to develop this piece of land has been an adventure and an amazing experience. Last week, I was pleased to drive by and see pavement!!! Each of the 22 home sites will be designed and built custom per the client. It is exciting to be a part of a neighborhood from the beginning. We have had the opportunity to consider what makes a neighborhood a great place to live as well as a place that will hold its value over time.

With none of the lots backing up to anyone else and a beautiful green space in the center, there should be a home site that works for everyone. In order to secure a home site, buyers may provide a deposit that will hold the lot for a period of time. An extra deposit will secure the home throughout construction and allow clients to avoid having to get a construction loan or move twice. Each home will be custom designed by Joel Spoon and then built by our construction company, Spoon Construction. We are pleased to see the variety of home plans individuals are interested in and the wonderful people we get to work with.

Check out the Brookfield Place link on the Spoon Real Estate web site for more information about lot availability and pricing.

Happy House Hunting!
Robyn

Columbus Indiana Real Estate Market Condition!

After coming back from the National Convention for the National Association of Realtors, I feel it is important to take some time to reflect on our market here in Columbus, Indiana. My suspicion was proven correct: there are some really tough real estate markets out there across the country, but ours is NOT one of them. The areas that seem to have been hardest are the coastal areas and major metropolitan areas. I spoke with a Realtor from Ft Myers, Florida where they have seen their supply of homes multipy by nearly 5 x in the past year. Needless to say, the demand for homes has not only not gone up, but actually gone down!!!

In all fairness, many of these coastal areas in Florida and California have seen massive increases in home values over the past five years. Builders and Realtors alike have been speculating new home and condominium construction at an alarming rate...a rate that the demand did not keep up with. Coupled with risky loans, the market in those areas are in big trouble.

Columbus, Indiana is another story. We, like most smaller communities in the midwest, never saw the massive home appreciation like these big metro areas. Our unemployment rate is low, interest rates are low, and our supply of homes is in pretty good balance with our demand. Many of our homes locally have seen healthy appreciation because of the reasonable number of homes available for sale. If you are interested in some information about the value of your home, feel free to contact me at rspoon@spoonrealestate.com. A free CMA is yours for the asking.

Our national news has been telling some pretty scary stories about high foreclosure rates, bad mortgage programs, and tough real estate markets. All of these stories are true in the context of their location, but real estate continues to be a local economic condition. Today is a great time to buy and sell in Columbus, Indiana. Great loan programs from local lenders, wonderful existing and new construction homes are available, and there are buyers for your existing home.

Be sure to price your home right, make sure it is in good resale condition, and hire a great Realtor to represent you. There is a house out there for you and a great loan program to make it all come together.

Interested in attending an open house? The Columbus Board of Realtors has a great new site for open houses!
All for now. Happy House Hunting!

Knowledge is everything!

I am getting ready to head over to the convention center for my final day here at the National Association of Realtors National Convention. For some reason, I am always surprised at how much information and knowledge I am able to compile at an event like this. It is refreshing to see Realtors from all over the country come together to hone their skills. What an amazing group of people.

Absorption Rate Pricing, Economic Updates, Technology, Photography skills, advertising skills, negotiating skills, and more. All around me I see people here trying to improve their management and leadership skills. I am proud to be part of this group, and I can't wait to get back to Columbus, Indiana to use the skills I have learned about real estate, the housing market, avoiding foreclosure, advertising and marketing the homes we have listed, and being the best managing/owning broker I can be.

Until next time...