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by Michael Olear | Jul 11, 2015 | General, sell my house, Strange Things That Have Happened
Have you ever been looking at homes online, only to come across some truly abysmal photos of how a house has been staged? Check out the photos below to see some of the most shocking mistakes that real estate agents have made recently:
The sale on soda this week must have been to good to pass up… the stacked chairs in the corner are a nice touch as well.
The allocation of space here is impeccable; however if you need to blaze a trail through your own garage, it should be a clear indication that you have made a grave mistake.
Compared to the previous photos, this one doesn’t seem all that bad. However it is probably a better example of a situation you might face in your own home. It is important to remember that when staging for an open house; “less is more”. Which is to say, the less you have on counter-tops, end tables, etc. the better. Clutter, or even too much decoration is a distraction to the human eye; and it will take the potential buys attention away from what they should really be looking at; your home.
by Michael Olear | Sep 3, 2014 | Strange Things That Have Happened
In honor of the upcoming football weekend, we will attempt to answer this question: How many homes fit on a football field?
While the size of new homes seems to be growing, lot size has actually been shrinking since 2004– now at an average of 8,720 square feet. An acre of land is 43,560 square feet, meaning that lot sizes are just about 1/5 of an acre. A football field is about 1.1 acres of land.
If you placed a home with an average lot size (8,720) on the goal line, it would reach to about the 18 yard line. You could place 5 of these lots side by side on a field, and still have room for half a lot.
Simple answer: 5.5 homes.
But not all homes are the same.
Custom homes are where things get a little tricky; these are homes that don’t involve the work of a professional developer and are often built on “unconventional lots.” The average lot size for a custom home is just about 1 acre. Therefore, one custom home could sit on a football field, along with a tiny bit of their (faraway) neighbor’s land.
There’s also the issue of townhouses, which have an average lot size of 2,984 square feet. That means sixteen townhomes could sit on a football field.
by Michael Olear | Aug 14, 2014 | Buffalo, NY Real Estate, Strange Things That Have Happened
With a diverse history, its only natural that America would have some of the strangest town names. Read about the stories (or guesses) behind some of the strangest names for towns.
Bronzeville (Chicago)
Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville originated with the influx of black Americans who came to this city from the South during the Great Migration at the turn of the 20th century. It was said to be one of the largest black neighborhoods in Chicago by World War I.
In the 1930s, an editor at the Chicago Bee newspaper reportedly called the neighborhood Bronzeville, in proud recognition of residents’ skin color.
French Quarter (New Orleans)
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, established New Orleans on a patch of high ground along a bend in the Mississippi River. According to the National Park Service, which has designated the French Quarter a historic district, the neighborhood still nearly follows the city plan laid out in 1721. But fires destroyed most of the original French Colonial buildings in 1788 and 1794.
In fact, much of the French Quarter’s distinctive architecture, including the wrought-iron balconies, dates back to a subsequent period of Spanish rule.
The neighborhood, mainly spared from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is still a major tourist destination and a prime residential district.
Goose Hollow (Portland, Ore.)
Just a few minutes from downtown Portland, Goose Hollow is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the city. Its name reportedly comes from the 19th-century practice of local farmers letting their geese run free in the hollow, or gulch, that ran through the area.
According to the neighborhood’s website, Tracy J. Prince, author of the book “Portland’s Goose Hollow,” found an 1875 newspaper article that described the geese clearing entire vegetable patches as they traversed the neighborhood.
Buckhead (Atlanta)
The name of this posh Atlanta community comes from a general store and tavern founded by Henry Irby in 1837. Legend has it that Irby once killed a large deer and mounted the buck’s head in a prominent spot where it would be visible to tourists.
Flatiron District (New York City)
This Manhattan neighborhood gets its name from its signature tower, originally called the Fuller Building. It was one of the city’s tallest when it was completed in 1902. The 22-story building is on a triangular lot between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, and its shape reminded turn-of-the-century New Yorkers of a clothes iron. This led to the neighborhood’s current name, which didn’t stick until the 1980s.
The area has become fashionable in recent years with new restaurants, stores and housing. The New York Times recently wrote that new construction and the conversion of commercial and industrial space added more than 1,000 housing units to the area between 2000 and 2010. But bargain hunters should probably look elsewhere: The average list price here is $2.94 million as of April 25, according to Trulia.com.
by Michael Olear | Aug 7, 2014 | Strange Things That Have Happened
With a diverse history, its only natural that America would have some of the strangest town names. Read about the stories (or guesses) behind some of the strangest names for towns.
Dinkytown (Minneapolis)
This neighborhood near the University of Minnesota in east Minneapolis has been called Dinkytown since at least 1948, but locals disagree as to why.
The most popular theory: The name dates back to the 1930s and ’40s when trolley cars, nicknamed Dinkys, ran through the neighborhood.
Strawberry Mansion (Philadelphia)
This Lower North Philadelphia neighborhood takes its name from a building called the Strawberry Mansion in East Fairmount Park.
The center part of the mansion was built in the Federal style around 1790. The house’s second owner, Judge Joseph Hemphill, added two Greek Revival wings in the 1820s. His son grew strawberries on the property, hence the name.
Jamaica Plain (Boston)
This Boston neighborhood was established in the 1630s as part of the town of Roxbury, Mass. Many have assumed it is named after the Caribbean island, which the English took over in 1655. During Colonial times, New England was linked with England and Jamaica in a trade triangle involving sugar, slaves and rum.
But Jamaica Plain predates that period, and it is more likely that the neighborhood takes its name from the Anglicization of Kuchamakin, a leader in the Massachusett tribe when British settlers arrived.
Beerline B (Milwaukee)
This neighborhood along the Milwaukee River developed in the 1990s after the removal of the Beerline B railroad spur that once served Milwaukee’s Pabst, Blatz and Schlitz breweries. It adjoins Brewers Hill, a neighborhood with homes in a variety of styles — including Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival — from the 1850s to the 1920s.
Brewers Hill takes its name from the many brewery workers and owners who once called that neighborhood home. Beerline B, whose development has been much more recent, is mainly home to condominiums boasting views of the river and downtown.
Deco Ghetto (San Francisco)
This San Francisco neighborhood, centered on Market Street between Franklin and Guerrero streets, gets its informal name from the large number of Art Deco furniture stores that call the area home.
Also known as Mid-Market or the Hub, the neighborhood has more to offer than antique stores. Many cafes, bars, restaurants and boutiques have opened in the past decade.
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by Michael Olear | Aug 5, 2014 | Buyers, Strange Things That Have Happened
Looking for your next real estate investment? Why not buy the town of Aladdin, Wyoming, which is on the market for $1.5 million? The town’s current owner, who received it as a gift from her husband some 28 years ago, advertises the sale by hanging a sign on the door of the town’s century-old general store. She hopes that the new owner will see the town’s charm and keep it as is.
In its heyday, the town was home to some 200 people, most of them coal mine workers. Today, just about a dozen residents call Aladdin home.
What does the $1.5 million buy? The post office and general store, as well a bar, the current owner’s four-bedroom home and the property under the town’s trailer park are all included. And since there is no indoor plumbing or sewage system, an outhouse is also being thrown into the deal.
The store opened in 1896 and served as a commissary for coal workers. In the years since it has also become the town’s primary retailer post office, serving the full-time residents of Aladdin, as well as dozens of others who live nearby.
Brengle says she hasn’t gotten any offers to buy the town yet, but when she does, she says she’s not going anywhere. She plans to live in Aladdin as long as she can. “It’s so quiet and a great place to raise kids. It’s a wonderful place to live,” she said.
by Michael Olear | Jun 30, 2014 | Strange Things That Have Happened
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said that real estate agents who fly their own drones to take pictures or video of a listing are not engaged in “hobby or recreation.” Realtors who are found to be flying drones without commercial certification from the FAA will be fined.
Some real estate agents who fly drones to photograph listings have claimed that as long they are not charging money for the service, they qualify as hobbyists. Companies that provide drone photography or video for real estate brokers and agents will sometimes say they are charging for photo or video editing, not drone flights.
In a notice interpreting the special rule governing model aircraft, the FAA explicitly stated that “a Realtor using a model aircraft to photograph a property that he is trying to sell and using the photos in the property’s real estate listing” is not engaged in a hobby or recreation. Nor is “a person photographing a property or event and selling the photos to someone else.”
Realtors and other commercial drone operators “are subject to all existing FAA regulations, as well as future rule-making action,” the FAA said.
Haven’t seen the newest drone craze in action? Check out this video of a listing in New Mexico, which was shot using a drone.
