More than just another day!

Lynnsy Logue, Broker
The Real Estate Lady ®

 After  many days, just looking through the 

 garden, walking on the paths to see who 

    made it through these last months, finally

    bundling the branches and bagging

   the sticks, trimming the ivy and blowing thedriveway clear of smaller debris while 

l  listening to the chimes and going in and out 

   of the   basement, the garden center, I felt

   calmed. My role as a real estate broker

almost always has center stage and as I have set my cap to write for my blog and facebook as routinely as possible, and polish the websites and learn a new interface, a review of the week past comes to mind:1.  Article I posted from The Charlotte Observer regarding trash pick up costs: Charging condos and apartments for trash pickup might be difficult because all condos are not seated in a midrise or high rise. There are many duplexes, and many triplexes, and yes, even  houses that are legally defined as condominiums and most often there might be just a handful on one small section of a street. Thinking about cost when it might be more expensive to collect from just a few or one on a street. Just sayin’. When I created my database twenty years ago, I made data sheets for each one, how I know for sure.2. Condo CanDo’s® Repeats: An article from 2007,South End and The Abbott and hats off to Tony Pressley. Charlotte has had some remarkable folks who put their stamp on a district or section. Paul Broom did that for NoDa and made it a hot spot.3. And then there is Smokey Bissel and Ballantyne, Ervin Construction and Raintree, when the corner of 16 and 51 was really country. ( Did you know there are over twenty condominiums/townhomes in Raintree?) John Crosland and Beverly Woods( to name but one), George Goodyear and Mountainbrook and many others.4. And my current fascination with inspections and windows and the terrain of the inspection process in real estate…nd windows with broken thermal seals.5. And lastly, the CE class Friday afternoon, a required class because our Charlotte MLS is owned by National Association of Realtors, and I am a student at Superior School of Real Estate with Bill Gallagher, the very best and brightest teacher and friend. Our schedule is taking shape. I go forward camera in hand and notebook riding shotgun.
 Spring is in the air!
Disclosure:

i On listings: the brokers Exchange, Zillow and  Trulia provide a bulk of listings from the Multiple Listing sources, to find all of Charlotte, NC and surrounding areas including the mountains, www.carolinahomes.com for everything.

Coming attractions:



Scott and Jeff: The Gladiators

I am writing the story of my latest encounter with
THE INSPECTIONS
and the issue of windows and broken thermal seals in a town home I have under contract-representing seller.



The Odyssey of The Seal.

The day was long and I wanted to get the story to you, but seriously, I am falling off my medicine ball.,

 EXPOSE: Inspections and the art of The Find!

will be continued tomorrow  because I am very tired.
 Here are pictures of my gladiators

 taking it to the MAXX and saving my day.



 Thanks, guys!
Scott and Jeff.

The Rabbit Hole-Hello! Are you down there?

From The Charlotte Observer, Steve Harrison, this morning.

The city of Charlotte is considering eliminating garbage collection for more than 135,000 condominiums, townhomes and apartments, a change that would save $3.4 million, officials said. But the city’s discussion of the issue has prompted an outcry from condominium and townhome residents, who likely wouldn’t get a tax cut for the 

reduced service.“That doesn’t make it fair,” said Elizabeth Wallace, president of the Renaissance on Carmel II Homeowners Association. “This would impact thousands of people.”

City officials say the change would better align it with other cities. If City Council approves the reduction, it could go into effect later this year.

In addition to questions about property tax fairness, the change could impact low-income families, making it more expensive to live in the city.

A goal of City Council is to make the city more affordable, especially as some older neighborhoods gentrify.

Charlotte charges single-family homes $25 annual fee for picking up trash. Condo and apartment developments pay the $25 for each unit.

That doesn’t cover the cost of the service, however.

The city has estimated the true cost of garbage collection for single-family homes is $186 a year. The cost for apartments – which use large dumpsters – is about $55 per unit.

The city uses general fund money, which is mostly funded by property taxes, to pay the difference.

Under the plan being discussed, the apartments and condos would no longer pay the $25 annual garbage fee to the city. But there hasn’t been any talk about lowering the property tax rate to compensate for the lost service. The city also wouldn’t provide apartments and condos with the pickup of bulky items.

Condominium, townhome and apartment dwellers might then have to pay higher fees to their homeowners association to pay for a private company to pick up their trash.

“Residents should not be punished for their housing choice,” said Bryan Holladay, who works in government affairs for the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association. “It is not equitable that multifamily would only receive some of the city services while single family gets all the city services.”

Assistant City Manager Hyong Yi said the city is trying to determine what’s the appropriate level of trash service to provide.

“We provide a level of service that most other cities don’t provide,” he said.

Holladay said that may be true. Be he believes those cities pay for garbage through fees, not property taxes.

Not all townhomes and condos would be impacted. Duplexes, triplexes and complexes with no more than four units would still receive city trash pickup.

The proposal would classify larger apartment, condominium and townhome complexes as commercial property, which don’t currently receive garbage collection.(Apartments have the option of using the city for trash collection. The city uses a private contractor for apartments.

The city has struggled with the best way to pay for trash collection.

The city’s decision to use a blend of fees and property taxes for trash pickup makes it difficult to make changes to trash service.

Yi said the city may have a future discussion about the best way to pay for trash collection.

The city is planning two meetings about the issue. The first is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center in room 267.

This is exciting for me. And Condo CanDo® is beside herself. We only hope I can improve the quality. What is important is the date. Many of the articles I clipped have the published date or a handwritten date and some have none but I can come close by reading the article. This is history and I think interesting given where South End is now and the futures of condominiums. Tony Pressley was a visionary and also courageous . He was the person responsible in large part for claiming the brown fields, cleaning it up and Presto! Gave us South End. Here is his vision and I really like them because they are classic, workable for Live Work and urban. Thanks, Tony!

Rendering of 400 North Church with marketing text.My experiment continues.I took the rendering through Publisher to get the surprint.I want to scan news articles as OCR and pass through word so they are more legible.If you know an easier better way, please let me know.Have some articles in the Condo CanDo®  Archivesthat would be super to publish here with photos or sketches.Hang on. Thank you.

400 North Chruch, The picture is from long ago. I loved the courtyard most and the great mail boxes
 inside, like The Plaza in NYC

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

 I have been scanning and piecing news reports of 400 North Church Street when it launched and before but somehow keep running into headwind.This is a normal occurrence when I start a project without knowing what I am doing.

 So stay tuned, please, I'll be back.

Oh, let me write one thing about this project, when we were completing our offer, we discovered that then, the parking spaces were leased and belonged to the bank. This is important because above all....you must read the documents. And another recent example, a woodsman and world traveler found a town home he liked along with the Mrs. but...his truck overhung the driveway, it is a big gorgeous truck, but somehow not well received.
Or allowed.

Read the fine print. I'll be back when my eyes clear. 

Here she comes...
400 North Church Street!
The first of the very uptown condominiums
 and one of my very favorites, still!
And yes, I sold one of the very first
and was close by through all the construction.

Notes will follow.
From Condo Cando's® archives.

Back to work!

To the Church on the corner of Hawthorne and Central,

"Thanks, so long, it was fun, so glad to know you. Goodbye."

The church occupied an important corner. It was a crossroads of sorts. From legitimate to questionable. So it was an excellent location. The arched doorways and repeat on windows reminded me of waves sometimes and then the stained glass windows told bible stories and I would look at every one carefully or the ones I could see from wherever I was waiting for the lights to change. I never really got out and walked around.  But I could imagine over the decades I drove past either from town or to town or to the hospital, there were weddings and funerals, and sermons and prayers and hymns and wakes, and dinners and bible study and children playing and people crying and celebrating life and death. That is what I think churches do. We go in and out and stay a while, some longer than others, we eventually leave. Maybe move to the country to another church, maybe out of town, maybe we just give up and don’t believe anymore. We let go.

Then the church is empty. Then a business comes. Then it is empty again for a long, long time. I am imagining this because it changed over the years. The energy changed. The windows were sold or taken but removed. It looked abandoned. Empty. Used.

I kept thinking I should go by, take some pictures, but that intersection begs forgiveness. The night before I went I saw the final preparations and I got there the next morning, but the dismantling was in progress. I parked and walked over and started clicking. I was upset thinking here is another of our places, they are all gone or going. An older man(not older than me) was standing by one of the big crushing machines. He was about my height, had a long white pony tail and beard, wore an old leather hat much like mine and baggy corduroys much like mine, a rough wool coat, dark or dirty with big pockets, I know it well, and leather boots caked in mud, yep…he walked away and around the church…click…click…click. I was trying to draw in the blue sky, the hollow sockets and open mouth in broken brick and tattered timbers and then he was standing in front me and harshly said,”You know if something happens, the insurance won’t cover you.” I said, “Thanks, I know.”

I walked up to him and said,”Sad.” He shook his head. I said,”Another one.”

He asked not expecting an answer, “How long has it been vacant?”
I answered, “I don’t know. A long time.”

He replied, “It is falling apart. A brick could fall and hurt someone. No one wanted it or cared for it. It has been left. It is empty.”

He was right. I can complain because my city is morphing into another era and I cannot stop it.

Like aging, we can’t stop the process but we can slow it down.

 I just wish it weren’t happening so fast.