Apex, North Carolina.  Trackside, a 170 acre project by Apex First Development has received the blessing of the Town Council.  The plan calls for 1,200 homes, condos and townhouses and 220,000 square feet of shops and offices.  The area is north of the Apex downtown area.  With Apex growing by leaps and bounds the developer would appear to have a “natural” in the making.  In the first quarter of this year alone Apex grew by 660 people.

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

Wake County, North Carolina.  If you need Wake County deed information going back to 1900 it is now available to you online at http://web.co.wake.nc.us/rdeeds/.  Detailed subdivision maps dating back to 1885 make it even easier to track property history.  The county has stored 1.1 terabytes of images on 22 servers.  This represents 4.7 millions surveys and maps, 48,000 page images and 19.7 documents.  So now (for good or bad - depending on how you want to look at it) your business, and your father’s and your grandfather’s business is everybody’s business.  You didn’t REALLY think there was any privacy left did you?

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

Triangle area, North Carolina.  Triangle existing home sales jumped 5.1% in April.  This is the second consecutive monthly increase.  Also, according to the Triangle Multiple Listing Service, the average sales price increased 2.3% to $231,549.  While the Triangle resale market is down about 1.4% for the year, to date, it is doing much better than the nation as a whole.  Also, the area’s continued strong job growth bodes well for sales for the balance of the year.

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

Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.  Chapel Hill’s Alexander Julian is teaming up with local builder Tom Bland to design and build homes from 1,800 to 3,000 square feet in size.  The price range will be from $240,000 to the low $300,000s.  Bland specializes in bungalow style homes. 

Julian, his wife Meagan and Bland have created eight designs for the homes.  Julian’s trademark colors will be featured throughout the homes (bye, bye builder beige) along with exotic hardwood floors, ceramic tile around fireplaes, more stone accents and porches.

The first Bland/Julian community will open this fall in the South Lakes community of Fuquay-Varina.

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

Raleigh, North Carolina - There are some two dozen Triangle companies producing learning games.  Included in the list are such companies as Epic Games, 3Dsolve, American Research Institute, Do2Learn and Virtual Heroes.

Corporate America is just beginning to realize the value of the products these companies produce.  I find that surprising when you consider the vast number of “how to” films and videos that have been done during the last 50 or 60 years; same deal - different package.  Some of the “game” software being produced in the Triangle trains cadets in land navigation and basic infantry tactics.  Ciscso Systems and Cold Stone Creamery have had simulations created to instruct employees in network assembly and how to make a top notch sundae.

Do2Learn creates games for children who have fetal alcohol syndrome and severe autism.  Epic Games, which has the smash hit video game Gears of War, has also produced “My Yard” in which Buddy the dog teaches children not to leave the yard or go into the street.  Call it games or “serious games” it is big business in its relative infancy and the sky is truly the limit for the potential uses.

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

Raleigh/Cary - It is not news to anyone that the real estate market has been taking it’s lumps all over the courtry.  The latest figures for the Triangle, specifically the new home market, show that closing were down 8.2% in the first quarter.  Two key factors in that decline were banks tightening their mortgage loan qualifiying requirements and the difficulties people coming to this area are having in selling their homes in the markets they are coming from.  All of which brings me to the subject of this blog.

If any of you in the Raleigh and Cary markets have gone through one or more listing agents, if your home has been on the market more than 160 days, if the marketing approaches used to try to get your home sold have been pretty much the same you probably assume there isn’t much you can do about it.  Not so.  There are a couple of things that can be done that you should know about if you are looking for action.  SO, if your listing agreement has run out or is about to (I cannot and will not solicit another agents listing), if you are looking for a change in how your home is marketed and if you will give me 30 minutes of your time - let’s talk.  There are some ground rules.  The price of your home must be $250,000 or more.  My listing period is 4 months not six months.  If I don’t have it sold in that length of time you are off the hook.  I don’t cut commissions.  If you have already had your home on the market for 6 months or more it has cost you far more than any 1% or 2% difference in commission rate.  Your home must be in good condition and you must be willing to do the things a seller would normally do to put the home in good position to sell.  I will not email you a description of what I do and I won’t discuss it on the phone.  This is to be certain that I may see your home in order to determine that, if properly marketed, it has a good chance to sell.  If you are interested call me and let’s arrange an appointment.  I know this sounds rather blunt but you have a problem that requires action - not stroking.

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

North Carolina.  Who are we?  What is the composition of North Carolina’s population?  To begin with there are 8.9 million North Carolinians - (+2.2% from 2005).  There are 6.1 million non-Hispanic whites - (+1.6% from 2005), 2 million blacks - (+2.1% from 2005), 603,000 Hispanics - (+ 7% from 2005), 191,000 Asians - (+3.2% from 2005) and 145,000 American Indians - (+1.9% from 2005).  The state’s median age is 36.4 years.  A whole lot of movin’ and shakin’ and changin’ going on. 

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

Raleigh, North Carolina.  The 106 unit Dutch Village apartments was purchased by Arbel of Miami.  Arbel is a condominium converter.  They paid $6.67 million or $62,925 per unit.  The complex is in West Raleigh close to Western Boulevard and Buck Jones Road.

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

Raleigh - The 270-unit Carrington at Briar Creek apartment complex was sold for $31.75 million or $117,593 per unit.  The purchaser, was Principal Real Estate of Des Moines, Iowa.  The northwest Wake apartment market  has been a target area for buyers because of the proximity to I-40 and Raleigh-Durham International Airport. 

John Fish (99) 696-3475   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Durham, North Carolina.  BD to expand Durham Plant.  BD (formerly Beckton Dickinson) will spend $25 million expanding its Durham facility in Treyburn Industrial Park.  The plant makes equipment used in drug research labs.  The expansion will also mean 100 more jobs.  While no salary information has been given the company will be looking for workers having manufacturing and technical skills including engineers.

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