It is the end of the day, January 17, 2008. In my review of the day, I thought about the podcast I posted earlier...and just had some random thoughts...and decided to just talk about those thoughts and publish. So...these are unscripted and random. Good Evening!
Lynnsy Logue, The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC

January 17, 2008
Chapter One…What prompted your decision to buy a home? Especially a Condo or Townhome?

First, we talked about our plan for joining forces with all of you, your wonderful and not-so wonderful condo experiences, putting our pens together and writing the book for ourselves and everyone else-The Book: The Definitive Charlotte Condominium Tutorial and Workbook for Buyers and Sellers and the Rest of Us.

Secondly, we did our due diligence as the North Carolina  Real Estate Commission wants…explaining about agency and who represents you and who we represent and how you know that information (it’s the brochure: Working With Real Estate Agents).

So, we are finally here…except the dedication. Drum roll, please…

Here’s looking at you…my fabulous clients. Over the years we have traveled long and wide…through condominiums and town homes and co-ops…uptown, downtown, historic, suburbs, rural, office condos…together we have bought and sold many, many. Thank you, thank you for the rich experience.

Chapter One.
You have decided you are going to buy a condo or maybe a townhouse.
I always like to know what prompted that decision? It matters.
Settling down as a single? What’s important?
Garage mostly for women.
Getting married?
Storage. Kitchen. Home office.
Expecting Children.
Stairs. Playgrounds. Accessible to schools.
Parent moving in or out.
Split bedroom. Separated living quarters. Steps.
Divorce.
Legal issues. Finances. Custody.
Scaling down.
Sorting out stuff.
Investment.
Being patient. Doing homework.
Second home?
Tax balance.

Knowing what prompted this move is very important to the broker helping you.
I always see my job as looking for problems and hurdles before they happen. And besides the financial aspect, what you want and need define he space. Helps sort through your
options. Shortens the chase. And is really fun.

Real estate in my book should be fun and exciting…I believe taking your time, doing our homework, asking a zillion questions pay off. I’ll take the questions I have posed and break them down and apart on the website.
Please join the conversation. Your stories are most welcomed.

Thank you.

Sunday January 12, 2008

In Between The Lines

Our Charlotte Condominium Tutorial and Workbook is off and running! Thank you for your response. Before I post the next chapter, I would like to answer the question posed by a reader from CurrentTV.com…NC-Why Condos? Good question.
For starters, it’s condos because having an interest and a passion for condominiums led to becoming a recognized expert. Now, I do not let that go to my head. There are over 11,000 agents in Mecklenburg County and everyone vies for a piece of the pie.

The “Condo� pie, however, can be more difficult and challenging than single family housing. From construction to financing, the path is long and winding. For instance there is a difference in financing options between condominiums and townhouses. And when a structure looks like a townhouse, it may well be a condo. So do you still need a survey?

And if it’s a condominium and you have refurbished the kitchen with granite and installed hardwoods throughout…oh, wait, wait…if you are on the second floor are you allowed to install hardwoods?

I am hoping that “the book� will cover all of the basics as well as many of the nuances.

Please join the conversation. Check out our website and you’ll find other interesting tidbits…like how many condos and townhouse in Charlotte have the word “Park� in their name. And how many duplicate names are there?

Why Condos? It is where I started. Yes, my brokerage covers horse farms, warehouses, commercial, mc mansions…after all, those early condo owners were upwardly mobile. Thanks.

It was a dark and stormy fall…little used words  like “sub-primeâ€?, kept flying through the air. Here In Charlotte, NC, Condo CanDo and I, The Real Estate Lady, just keep reading and comparing the national market with our local market. The Charlotte market is experiencing different woes. People can’t sell what they have in other states to get here, to make purchases of homes in Charlotte, NC. And the other problem is really not a problem. The correction to over-building was inevitable.. Builders overbuild. And they really have here in Charlotte. We’ve had our share of sub-prime, N.C. is 24th on the list of states with foreclosures.  Charlotte is a robust market and our foreclosure rate is equally robust. But all in all, Charlotte fares better than most. Our ranking is in the top three cities for appreciation with a modest 4.6%. One of our biggest challenges right now is the proliferation of high-rise condo towers in Center City Charlotte. I will detail that on our website: www.condocando.com.

And, of course, being a long-time, well experienced full-time real estate broker, I asked myself,â€?What can I do to help folks  sort this out. ? â€? Condo CanDo, my stalwart companion all these years came once again to the rescue. She said, “Let’s tell them what we know. Everything!â€? “Great idea, CCâ€?…and she added,â€?Let’s invite them in on our conversation about Charlotte’s Condo Market, what’s happening and where, but most importantly about buying and selling condos here.â€? We both looked at each other and smiled. We were laughing because we are performance oriented, love the Internet and enjoy people teaching us.
So, we sharpened our pencils…loosely translated to “ firedâ€? up our new laptop  and put on our thinking caps.
1.Condo CanDo and I will write a Tutorial and Workbook for Buying and Selling Condominiums in Charlotte,NC. The process will be organic. We will make changes, you can make comments,tell your stories, make suggestions.
2. We will write a chapter every week. We’ve created a loose outline. The chapters will be posted on our CondoCanDo website: www.CondoCanDo.com. After posting the written word on the CondoCanDoBlog, we will also have a commentary on each chapter on this podcast.

And this is where you come in…we invite you to comment, add information, offer suggestions or your own story about condos right here. We are listening. The conversation has started. Let us hear from you.

What do you want to know? We’re specialists. If we don’t know, we’ll tell you and go find the answer.

We’re off and flying.
The Real Estate Lady® and Condo CanDo®, Charlotte, NC
January 8, 2008

January 2, 2008


Voices of reason and honest perspective on the housing market….
from The Real Estate Lady in Charlotte, NC

I feel most of us have read every report, listened to the news about real estate, foreclosures, sub prime lending until we are blue in the face. I have…and besides news I was looking for voices of reason. I was searching for something more than an opinion. A shred or more of thoughtful discussion…people who had researched and parsed every avenue much as I have been doing.

So let me share with you portions from two articles. The first, I lift quotes from Ken Thompson, CEO of Wachovia. The second, statistics from  a well known real estate columnist, Kenneth Harney.

Ken Thompson:
"There's plenty of blame to go around," Thompson said. "I think lenders made loans to people who should have not received loans. I think that brokers were scrambling to put business on the books that should not have been done."

And in the capital markets, where many of the mortgages were packaged and sold as investments, "I think the rating agencies did a very poor job in rating those mortgage-backed securities," Thompson said.

Mr. Thompson very simply and quite candidly parsed the process.Thank you.


From Mr. Harney:
Enough. Everybody knows these tales of woe -- and more. It's been a lousy year. Could 2008 be better?

I think the odds are reasonable that it will.

Here's why: Even through the grimmest headlines of 2007, there were a number of positive underlying economic forces propping up real estate and keeping it from a true bust. If those forces continue, they should help cut the time needed for the correction cycle to bottom out and the historically inevitable recovery cycle to begin.

Take mortgage rates. Had the cost of money been significantly higher in 2006 and 2007, does anyone doubt that the delinquencies and foreclosures stemming from the toxic vintages of subprime loans would have been much worse?

But the 30-year fixed rates that hovered in the low 6 percent range for much of the year -- even in the high 5s for a couple of weeks -- allowed many borrowers to refinance into alternatives such as FHA or conventional Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans.

The recently announced national loan modification and rate-freeze effort should keep at least some -- no one knows how many -- struggling subprime homeowners out of foreclosure.

Steady, moderate national growth of new jobs, economic expansion and low inflation also helped the national housing market in 2007 and could do the same in 2008.

And to add my own note- all markets are not experiencing the same problems. Some markets like Seattle, Portland and Charlotte are holding their own. Other markets are feeling the pangs of  job loss, still others of double digit appreciation. The bubble we looked for came in different sizes.

And as tough as it may seem, I believe good will come of the correction.

Let’s go enjoy the day!