Merry Christmas Columbus. You Know, There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays…

Written by: Joe Peffer

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The Goldilocks Quotient – How big of a Columbus home is ‘Just Right’ for you?

Written by: Joe Peffer

How small is the smallest home you could live in daily and still be comfortable? Is bigger always better? Is left over money at the end of the month a big enough incentive to simplify your housing needs? I like the idea of these tiny 100 square foot homes like the one in the video for places like that plot of land in Hocking Hills you just bought with a big pond and great views. While a tiny home may not always be practical, I hope that when you are contemplating the size of your next home that you stop to think about that ‘just right’ size. I’ll call it the Goldilocks Quotient. There, I just coined a new phrase.

Conventional wisdom around the country is that Buyers care less these days about getting the biggest house they can buy with their money and more about getting a house that’s just right and suits their needs.  It’s been said that Buyers are looking for greener options and homes that are more economically friendly to heat and live in on a daily basis. It’s not a new phenomena and I’ve written about it before.

Over the last Sixty Days in Columbus, the average square feet of  the 761 homes that sold was 1,550 and the median was 1,410 square feet. In the same time frame Ten years ago, the 1,419 homes that sold (!wow, nearly twice as many homes in the same period!) averaged 1447 square feet.  So maybe the average Columbus home that has sold on the market has gone down by about 100 square feet over the last ten years. It’s Columbus so many of the homes are in older established neighborhoods and the amount of room inside those homes is what was when they were built 20, 40 80 years ago. Ditto with inner ring suburbs like Bexley, Grandview and Worthington. These communities aren’t building tons of new homes which would be an interesting way to track Columbus Homebuyer requirements but they obviously offer bigger and smaller homes. A more detailed look into Columbus Home Buyers’ preferences over the years may tell us more than this cursory information but this post is more to get you thinking than it is stocked with data.

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Helpful Columbus Open House Visitor Researches Construction Date – 1st time for everything

Written by: Joe Peffer

If you’re looking at ages on homes for sale in Columbus, Ohio, you’ll notice that many homes in areas surrounding downtown appear to have been built in 1920.  Many Columbus homes date to 1920 because, as I understand it, there was a fire at the courthouse in that year and the actual dates of construction on many of Columbus’ older homes was simply reset to 1920.  I’ve never confirmed that though and I know that City Hall burned in 1921 so that may be the actual case but….

On Sunday I held an open house at my listing on 1224 Fair Avenue in Olde Towne East. It was the first open house we have had and it generated somewhere between 150-200 visitors.  Of course, it helped that the Olde Towne East tour of historic homes was happening around it on that day and that the garden next door was on the tour.

Even before I closed up the Open House -which was dated to sometime between 1900-1910, I had this email from one of the day’s visitors…

“I went through your open house today on Fair Avenue.  I got home and poked around in some online sources and thought you might like to know  for your marketing purposes that the house WAS around as early as 1900 (Thomas M. Lilley – the original owner is listed as living there in the 1900 Census).  He and his wife Ida lived there with her two parents and a servant.   Sometime between 1910 and 1920, they moved to Los Angeles, but must have maintained the residence here in Columbus.   They had two sons, but neither made it past a year old.  The entire family is buried at Greenlawn.   Thomas is listed as a bookbinder, the superintendent of the State Book Bindery, and as an insurance salesman in California.   No clue if that’s of any interest to you, but I always like to know who built the houses!  Good luck with your sale!”

I was amazed that he was able to go into so much detail in so little time — Thanks Hal!  Currently the best place to research your home is the 3rd floor of the Columbus Library (which, by the way, was built by the same person who built and lived in my house!). Maybe some day soon I will do a post about researching your Columbus home’s history.

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Clintonville Charmer! and the Lack of Originality in Columbus MLS Remarks

Written by: Joe Peffer

The Original Clintonville Charmer. 79 Acton sold in 1996 for $145,545

You’d be amazed how often I read the remarks on a new listing, check out the history of the listing in the Columbus MLS, and find the EXACT same remarks the previous agent used. It’s uncanny. Sometimes the remarks are in the entirety, sometimes it’s most of the old remarks with a few fresh ones thrown in or maybe it’s simply an obviously borrowed phrase from a past listing.

The whole idea simply proves my point about how unoriginal and lazy many real estate agents are — and I’m not even talking about maximizing views of the home in front of potential home buyer’s eyeballs (i.e. marketing).

Every once in a while you find a phrase that sticks through the years. “Clintonville Charmer” is one in particular. It was in the description of a home that came on the market today in the 500 block of Acton and it got me thinking about how over-used some descriptive phrases are in the Columbus MLS, “Charmer” being one of them.

The phrase Clintonville Charmer has been used to describe a home for sale in Clintonville 145 times since the inception of the modern Columbus multiple listing service. Most recently today. The earliest recorded use of the phrase seems to be on another Acton house -79 Acton Pictured Above- on the market 13 days in May and June of 1996 before selling for $145,545.

Anatomy of a Clintonville Charmer:

4 Active Clintonville Charmers averaging 1,728 sf listed at an avg of $154.25/sf

117 all time Sold Clintonville Charmers averaging 58 days on market and 1,455 sf

2 Clintonville Charmers that are in contract currently for $148/sf on average and both, coicidentally, on East Pacemont

I look at listings all day long and see some doozies. What descriptions of Columbus homes for sale have caught your eye over the years?

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Like Having a Realtor in Your Pocket…

Written by: Joe Peffer

I’m always on the lookout for ways to make your home search fun, interesting and easy. Because Delicious Real Estate is consistently at the top of the technology curve – finding ways to make your buying and selling experience better while saving time and money – we’ve been test driving different home search applications as they come on the market. iphone or desktop, mobile or laptop, I try to pass along place to look and tell you what’s hot.
This new Realtor.com iphone ap is hot. It is easily the best in class. Check it out…

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How to Turn your $8,000 Columbus Home Buyer tax credit into $9,000….. or more

Written by: Joe Peffer

It's all part of constructing a better Real Estate Brokerage Model

If there is anyone out there in Central Ohio still considering the purchase of their first home, now is the time. I am not a cheerleader type, especially for the same sort of party line that all real estate agents are eschewing right now.

That said, the truth is, there’s never been a better time to buy your first home. Interest rates are at historically low levels and thought to be increasing soon. Housing stock, even at this time of year, is plentitful and growing and less expensive than it may have been a couple years ago.

And, oh yeah, there is an $8,000 tax credit for first time Buyers and a $6,500 tax credit for Sellers. There’s never been a better time to buy your first home. Until now.

Delicious Real Estate is rebating cash back to all buyers.

• $1,000 to Buyers of homes $135,000 and over
• $2,000 to Buyers of homes $235,000 and over
• $3,000 to Buyers of homes $335,000 and over

Just like the tax credit, this offer only extends to any buyer who is in contract on a home by April 30, 2010.  Unlike the tax credit, this offer is not limited to first time buyers, rather it is open to any buyer.

*Buyers must be pre-approved by lender of choice.

*Homes must be in Franklin or contiguous Counties.

*The rebate will mentioned in the purchase contract for the home and listed on the settlement statement as required by state law.

*You must know the secret password which means you read to at least the middle of the post. The secret password is “Go Clippers!”

*Call, email or stop by for more information

Why am I doing this?

1. I’m driven to prove that a better buying and selling experience is possible for less.
2. I want to get the Delicious Real Estate name out in the world more than I have in the first year of the Firm’s existence.
3. I’m concerned Read the rest of this entry »

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My House is Bigger than Your House. How Much Columbus Home is too Much?

Written by: Joe Peffer

This book has spawned an entire 'Not so big' lifestyle movement

The average American home has grown over the last 30 years from 1,645 square feet to 2,219 sq ft while the number of children families are having has decreased over the same time–as have lot sizes.

How much space do you need for the way that you live? In addition to being  more expensive, is it somehow unethical to buy more home than you need ?

The average (of 5,902) Columbus single family home that sold in 2009 was  1,515 SF which speaks to the age of most Columbus homes. Expand that to Franklin County(10,746 homes sold in Franklin County in ‘09) and the average square feet jumps to 1,762.

Americans like a little elbow room. They also enjoy trading up…homes, cars, jobs.  Sometimes keeping up with the neighbors means Read the rest of this entry »

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