Everyone Loves a Parade...

Each autumn, High Point holds its annual Parade of Homes and, usually, Duke Brothers participates. Personally, I am very proud of our entry this year but I acknowledge the competition is strong.

If you haven’t seen our home at 2513 Duke’s Hollow Court, please join us October 7&8 or 14&15. Also, check out our website for details. www.DukeBrothers.com

Covenants and HOAs

For whatever reason, one of the most contentious factors in residing in an organized neighborhood seems to be the covenants. Some covenants are strict. For example, some neighborhood covenants require you to have the same mailbox as everybody else.

Quail Run’s, on the other hand, mostly just wants you to take some pride in your surroundings and ask, for instance, that you not have junk cars on your property, not to own livestock as pets, and not to leave your RV in your driveway.

When we began developing “The Estates,” the City required us to create detention ponds for the new section. As a result, we also had to create a homeowners association whose money would go toward maintaining the ponds. This HOA was incorporated into the covenants of the new section of the neighborhood and therefore anyone who closes on a Duke Brothers home would get a copy of the covenants.

Any real estate agent and attorney worth their salt should ask about and discover this information before or during a transaction. The HOA fee should be paid at closing and the covenants should certainly be received before hand.

These days, one should presume, moving into an organized neighborhood (as opposed to a house that dwells on a busy road or out in the country) that there will indeed be an HOA.

If one of your requirements upon moving to a new home is that there is not an HOA, tell your REALTOR^® about this. If you are not represented by a REALTOR^® when buying new construction, ask the builder and, by all means, remind your attorney. Getting familiar with the covenants of a neighborhood BEFORE you move in makes it clear whether your lifestyle is compatible with that neighborhood.

North Carolina- Awesome real estate value for the dollar

A new article in the Tar Heel REALTOR publication that we real estate types receive talks about how different NC seems to be from the rest of the country. Luckily, this is a positive thing.

When the “bubble” was at its apex only a year or two ago, I was a bit dismayed that the Triad was not involved at first. It was a sellers market and, frankly, it would have been nice to reap some of the benefits from that. However, we in the Triad can honestly say our market is not overpriced.

I have lived in this area for 16 years and even though housing costs have gone up, we are still nowhere near some of the more expensive places to live in the country- New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York etc… Even North Carolina’s biggest cities are reasonable compared to those states.

Tim Kent, the Executive Vice President of the North Carolina Association of REALTORS points out in an article this month that while the rest of the country is feeling the bubble burst, North Carolina is not only doing well, our sales are up.

The prediction is that nationwide, home sales should be down 6.5% by the end of the year from last year. However, North Carolina shows our sales UP 9% in existing home sales for the first half of 2006.

Ahh, yet another reason why its good to live in NC!

P. S. Check out this article in the Business Journal:

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2006/09/04/daily20.html?jst=b_ln_hl