Raleigh, North Carolina.  The Triangle continues to grow, more new homes are under construction, people continue to move in and the unemployment rate remains low and steady.  That’s the word from the N.C. Employment Security Commission and Wachovia Banks economist Mark Vitner.  The Triangle unemployment rate, for its eight county area, was 3.6% in March which was the same as it was in February.  For the state it was 4.5%.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Olde Towne is coming to Raleigh. The Olde Towne subdivision will include 2,400 homes, 5,000 plus residents an 18 hole golf course and 360,000 square feet of retail space.  Golf course homes at $500,000 and townhomes from $140,000 are just part of what area residents will be able to look forward to.  The 600 acre site is being developed in an area of the city where it is most needed, South-East Raleigh.  It is located on Rock Quarry Road and is only some six miles from downtown Raleigh.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

The demand for Wake County shopping centers continues to be red hot.  The 80,441 square foot Mini City shopping center at 4510 Capital Blvd. in Raleigh was sold to Water Investments of Charlotte for $6.2 million.  The 133,237 square foot Mill Pond Village at 3434 Kildaire Farm Road in Cary was sold for $9.1 million

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  There is a lot to know about roofing materials and a lot to consider when selecting the type you are going to use; especially in more expensive homes.  This is just a very quick overview of the five main types. 

ASPHALT SHINGLES:  Asphalt shingles are used on two out of every three homes.  They are relatively inexpensive, come in a broad range of colors, are easy to install, almost no maintenance required, you can walk on them and they are easy to repair.  Warranties range range from 20 to 50 years.  A twenty year three-tab shingle weighs approx. 200lb. per square while a 50 year shingle can weigh up to 500lb. per square. The difference is multiple layers and more asphalt.

WOOD ROOFING:  Wood shingles and shakes have been around for a long time.  Most people think they are the same thing. While they look much the same they are not.  Shakes are sawn or split in four different styles and are not as uniform as shingles and come in two grades.  Because they are irregular, 30-lb. roofing felt is interwoven between each course for extra protection from moisture.  This is not necessary with shingles.  Shingles are precisely cut and tapered to a specific thickness.  The surface is either sanded smooth or untouched and come in three sizes.  Both products are mostly made of western red cedar and are used to cover roofs and walls.  Other woods used are white oak, southern yellow pine, white cedar and Alaskan yellow cedar.  REMEMBER that all shingles and shakes will weather to gray within one or two years.  You can walk on wood roofing, it is suitable for complex roofing designs and they are easy to repair.  To help keep them dry, leaves should be swept off and not allowed to accumulate over long periods of time.

METAL ROOFS:  What are your choices?  Steel (which comes with several different types of coatings), corrugated-aluminum and standing-seam copper.  Roofing contractors who install metal roofs seem to prefer the standing-seem copper roofs because they look good  and are more durable.  The standing-seam panels have concealed fasteners.  As to the good and bad features, they require little maintenance and a lot of colors are available.  They are hard to install on complex roofs, difficult to repair and slippery to walk on.

SLATE:  Slate has been used for roofing for hundreds of years and they last longer than you or I will.  Slate is expensive and normally only used on very expensive homes.  A list of good and bad features pretty well tell the slate story.  On the good side, they require no maintenance and are suitable for complex roof designs.  On the “not so good” side, they shouldn’t be walked on and good installers are hard to find.  While repairs aren’t difficult they require ladders and staging.  Colors will vary according to batch and region.  Also, copper flashing and nails are recommended. 

ROOF TILES:  Roof tiles are either clay or concrete.   As interest in roof tiles has continued to increase over the years they have undergone considerable changes.  Colors used to be very limited.  Now, you can get about any color you want and finishes can be either glazed or dull.  You can now get tiles that are textured to look like wood shakes.  Both types of tile are fireproof and, if installed properly, are very wind resistent.  The good features are - they are fireproof and long lasting, now come in many colors, require no maintenance, are wind resistent and are very esthetically pleasing to look at.  The negative features are:  They are expensive, heavy, difficult to install, shouldn’t be walked on, are not suitable for complex roofs and good installers (depending on where you live) may be hard to find.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com  

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Winston Hotels is planning two hotels in the downtown area of Hillsborough Street.   The project will on the area bounded by Hillsborough, Edenton, West and Harrington streets.  One of the hotels is scheduled to be 25 stories high.  The other hotel will be a 120 room Hampton Inn. Part of the project will be 200 to 250 condos.  Another part of the project will be an 80 room Aloft, a lifestyle chain owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Winston hopes to file the site plan by the end of the summer.  Winston indicates that the company that purchased them, Inland American Real Estate Trust, has approved the deal.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com 

Raleigh, North Carolina.  I have been asked what a “Green” House really is so, without going overboard, I thought I would try to answer.  With the costs of heating and cooling homes continuing to increase more and more thought is being given as to how homes can be made more energy efficient.  More homeowners are evidencing an interest in how this can be done and therefore builders are as well.  The buzz words - green home, green house or green building are used basically interchangeably.  There is no precise meaning for them but rather a broad meaning having to do with the issues involved. There are some themes that are common to most programs.  A list of the factors involved that I saw in the March issue of Fine Homebuilding is as good and as quick as any I have seen.

* Site work that minimizes the environmental impact of the house during and after construction.  * Energy efficiency.  * Water efficiency  * Use of recycled materials and materials whose production can be sustained without harming people or the environment.  * Healthful indoor air quality.

As you can see it is a “package” of items rather than just that of using new and better insulation, a more energy efficient heating and cooling system, etc.  Also, the part of the country one lives in has a great deal to do with what this list would include.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Durham, North Carolina.  The 21 year old Springfield Apartments complex was sold to Triple Net Properties of Santa Ana, California.  Triple Net paid $18.1 million for the 288 units or $62,847 per unit.  This is 46% more than Steven D. Bell & Co. of Greensboro paid for the 32 acre property in 2004.  That is not a bad return on investment.

CB Richard Ellis data reports that $1.06 billion was paid for Triangle apartment projects during 2006 which is three times the ten year annual average.   

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  In its current issue, Forbes magazine does an article about the “Best Places for Business and Careers”.  It is based on job and income growth, business and living costs, the education of the work force, quality of life, cultural opportunites, crime rate and migration trends (forbes.com/bestplaces/).  Raleigh was listed as number 1 and Durham as number 7.  During 2006 42,742 people moved to the Raleigh-Cary area (which includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin Counties) while Durham picked up another 4,542. Also,in its May issue, Black Enterprise magazine ranks Raleigh-Durham as number 3 among the 10 best places for African-Americans to work and play (blackenterprise.com). 

It is all well and good to toot our own horn but for those of you who read this blog or any of the many articles about the Triangle area being written in magazines, newspapers, etc. it should also be pointed out that we also have our problems.  The bond issues come in waves to try and keep up with the demand for new schools.  The roads in the area, while excellent, continue to bear the brunt of an ever greater assult wave of automobiles and trucks and while there are many fine jobs in the area there is also a tremendous demand for them.  The job market is, indeed, VERY competitive.  For those of you considering coming to this area you might want to check the following web sites: RelocateTriangle.com and city-data.com/forum/.  If you have excellent job skills you should certainly consider the Triangle but, as with all important decisions in life, consider carefully and approach with caution!

For information about housing in the Triangle area please call me or email me at the number or address given below.  The more precise your questions are the better the information you receive will be.  We have many fine homes in most price ranges.  As with any strong job market the demand for lower priced homes is the strongest, most competitive and, at times, difficult to fill the need for.  I also suggest that a good place to get a quick flavor of the Triangle area and its housing market is to check back postings to my blog. 

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Staging.  Quite often this question can be restated as - TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL - which is often a result of the decision you make about the first question.  Even though the Triangle area is blessed with a strong job market and a relatively healthy housing market, it is not immune to the housing market problems affecting much of the rest of the nation.

Those of you with homes to sell now or in the near future have a lot of competition from both new and resale homes in every price range.  As always the question is “what do we do to get our home ready for market and get a leg up on the competition?”  From the git-go you already know most of the answers an agent will give you going in.  You know your home needs to be squeeky clean (most think there home is but in reality it quite often it isn’t even close to what it should be). You know you need to get rid of the clutter.  If necessary you may find it necessary to rent storage space to get the surplus “stuff” out of the house.  You know you need to fix those things that need to be fixed.  This is where a substantial majority of people fall flat on their faces. 

When it comes to repairs the thought is ”We will fix what we can and let the next guy take care of the rest!”  You don’t think that when you BUY a house so why should you think that the buyer of your home will accept that approach?  Furthermore, a potential buyer will almost always have a home inspection done that will lead to the laundry list of “here is what’s wrong and here’s what we want done”.  You know your home better than anyone else so if you know a move is coming up in the next few months make a list of the problems you know of and get a certain number PROPERLY taken care of each month.  This keeps these expenses from needing to be taken care of all at one time.  When I say properly taken care of, most of you are not plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. so hire people who can do the job and do it right.  I could go on about other things “you know” but let’s cut to the chase.

A service most sellers aren’t interested in and, for the most part, totally ignore is staging.  The lady of the house thinks she is as a good at decorating and arranging as anyone else and in making her home look its best.  Let me say that you paid for the home, you live in it and it it should enjoy it and have it  look how YOU want it to look - until it is time to sell it.  At that point you are the least objective about your home and how it looks.  Frankly, it doesn’t matter how good you think it looks. What does matter is how potential buyers think it looks.  Enter stage left - staging - - - maybe.

The need for staging comes at a time when it is most needed BUT at a time when the sellers expenses are at their highest. There are moving expenses, repair expenses (especially from a buyers home inspectors report), purchase of another home expenses, I could go on but the pain meter doesn’t make for good reading.  Thus, when an agent/broker suggests that staging would not only be helpful but needed in order for a home to have its greatest appeal and to garner the highest price, it is usually rejected out of hand.  “We don’t need that additional expense”.  The bottom line is that nine times out of ten you DO need that additional expense and it can make the difference in how long it takes your home to get sold (if at all) and at what price!

Good staging advice and actual staging can run from $200 to $2,500 - or more.  I can tell you that most of the time whatever you spend on staging will be made up (or more) by time and money (and sanity) saved by a quicker sale and what you don’t leave on the closing table per the final price received.  Nuff said!

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Morrisville, North Carolina.  Lutz Real Estate Investments and Capri Capital Partners purchased 11 flex buildings in Morrisville for $56.3 million.  Flex space vacancy rates have been very high in the Triangle in recent years climbing to 20.3% in 2003.  Now, a stong demand for area office buildings, increasing construction costs and increasing rents have cast a different look on flex space.  The current flex space vacancy rate of 14.4% is the lowest in five years and is causing investors across the nation to take a long hard look at such space the Triangle.  During 2006 investors spent nearly $270 million on warehouse and flex space in the Triangle which is about three times the annual average rate in the last 10 years.   

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com