Raleigh Homes Realty

Residential real estate in Raleigh, N.C.

3 Things to Remember if Your Home is For Sale During the Holidays

You followed your Realtor’s suggestions to declutter and de-personalize your home so that any potential buyers can picture their family living in your house instead of your family.  But now the holiday season has arrived and you’re stressing out about all of your decorations and traditions and wondering how to handle it. What should you do? The most important thing is don’t let your house being on the market interfere with your family’s traditions and enjoyment of the holidays. Here are the top three things to remember that can lower your stress and increase your holiday cheer.

1.  Chill.  This is still your home, the home where you and your family are living and making priceless holiday memories.

2.  Holiday decorations are pretty and holiday baking smells great.  This combination can even make your house more attractive to any potential buyers

3.  The market slows down considerably over the holidays.  For the most part, only serious buyers are out looking at houses this time of year.  And a serious buyer has different priorities.  Holiday decorations won’t deter a buyer with limited time to choose their new home.

 

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Selling Your Home: How Do School Enrollment Caps Affect You?

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Are you thinking of putting your home on the market and you’re worried because the base school for your address has an enrollment cap?

It is true that a desirable school district is usually high on the priority list of what home buyers are looking for.  And because of the tremendous population growth we’ve experienced in Wake County, there are 20 Wake County schools with enrollment caps for the 2014-2015 school year.  (A school with an enrollment cap has reached its maximum capacity and new students are assigned to an “overflow school” and provided transportation.)

School districts can be a very important factor  in calculating your home’s value and resale potential.  If your home is located in a sought-after school’s attendance area, this increases your home’s market value.  Yes, even with an enrollment cap on the local school.  Why is this still true? Because not all buyers have children or children of the age that would attend the school, or maybe their children attend a private school, or charter schools or magnet schools are what interest them.  And an enrollment cap is a temporary, stop-gap solution to allow the school system to catch up with our area’s growth.  But while we know that it is temporary, there is not really a  way to predict the length of time an enrollment cap will be in place at any particular school. Fortunately, our schools regularly win national awards and there are fabulous choices all over the county.

So don’t let an enrollment cap on your base school stop you from putting your home on the market if you’re ready to move.  The old adage of “location, location, location” still rings true and being located in a popular area with a good local school adds value to your home, even with the temporary cap.

 

 

Home Buying and School Enrollment Caps

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A downside to living in one of the fastest-growing areas of the country can be the ability of the infrastructure to keep up with the growth rate. Where does this really come into play for home buyers?  Schools!  Because of the tremendous population growth we’ve experienced in Wake County, there are 20 Wake County schools with enrollment caps for the 2014-2015 school year.  A school with an enrollment cap has reached its maximum capacity and new students are assigned to an “overflow school” and provided transportation.

School districts can be a very important factor when buying a new home. Families are searching for just the right house in a particular school attendance zone, so a school with capped enrollment can be a deal-breaker.  Your Realtor should always be aware of this vital piece of information on any property for sale in Wake County.  Fortunately, our schools regularly win national awards and there are fabulous choices all over the county. If your first choice school has an enrollment cap and your children are already school-age, then the best thing to do may be to look at other homes and other schools.  Helping to find the best home for you and your family is my specialty!

Wake County Public School System has made it easy to check for enrollment caps and attendance zones for any address in Wake County.  Don’t be caught by surprise on the first day of school!

 

Downtown Raleigh at Hargett, Martin, Bloodworth & East

Lincoln Apartments Downtown Raleigh

 

Lincoln Apartments Downtown Raleigh

The building being constructed in Downtown Raleigh near Moore Square Middle School that takes up the full city block of Martin Street, Bloodworth Street, East Street, and Hargett Street  is a project called The Lincoln Apartments.  The plans call for 224 residential apartment units ready for occupancy in the summer of 2015.

This block was cleared several years ago in preparation for development. Here is the Google Maps street view where you can see how this block looked in May 2013.

 

Downtown Raleigh at Martin and Blount

 

Skyhouse Raleigh

The new mixed-use building being constructed near Moore Square and City Market at the corner of Martin Street and Blount Street in Downtown Raleigh is a project called Skyhouse.  The plans call for 23 floors of residential apartments with retail on the ground floor and a rooftop pool ready for occupancy in December 2014.

And I love this very cool Google Maps tool that shows this corner beginning in 2007.

 

The James B. Hunt Library at N.C. State

The James B. Hunt Library on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus is winning awards right and left.  And after experiencing a guided tour of this amazing building, I see why it’s garnering so much wide-scale attention since opening in 2013.  Featuring a very cool, 2-million-volume capacity bookbot, quiet study areas, spaces for collaboration, fully-equipped music rooms, 3-D printers, a video game lab, and even a sustainable rain garden on a roof area, this beautiful library seems to have everything a 21st-century college student could possibly need or want. There are free mobile tour apps for Apple or Android.  Or better yet, experience it yourself and join a walk-in tour on Wednesdays at 9:30, Fridays at 3:30, and the second Saturday of each month at 10:30.

And then there are the chairs.  Chairs?  What’s special about the chairs? There are more than 80 different styles of chairs at the Hunt Library. We tested out and photographed a sampling of them.

I love this video detailing the story of the Hunt Library: