I feel a little guilty here. It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted anything even though there are plenty of great things happening in Durham that enhance our ability to market luxury homes . Being on vacation would be a decent excuse but the truth is I’ve been working harder then ever mostly on a consulting gig to re-launch what was already to best home search tool available anywhere…and it is being developed right here in our hometown of Durham, North Carolina by BestHomePro. The older version is what is on the search page of this site. Even this older version is the most comprehensive tool available but it takes some playing around with to really understand and take advantage of. Besides allowing you to search on over 60 features (most search tools typically allow a number in the low teens) the new version was specifically designed for ease of use and speed. Adjusting the search area on the map or changing one of the other search parameters automatically changes the results. The mapping capability also lets you see where important community features like schools, medical facilities and shopping are located relative to the search results.

For an agent or blogger like myself that is focused geographically, BestHomePro allows the creation of pre-set “search strings.” For example, on a page that describes the Hope Valley Neighborhood, I can put a link that pulls up a search focused on the area around the country club. I plan to add these as soon as the new version is ready for prime time which should be within the next two weeks.

If you would like to take a peek at the prototype system you can click the link. It is still a little “buggy” and may not allow you to save searches but you can see the improvements. If you want to use the old system, all the features are available and any saved searches will still be available after the conversion the new version.

The lead editorial today in the Durham Herald-Sun is headlined “Durham’s message is getting around.” It sites a poll that seems to confirm that the residents of Wake and Orange counties increasingly have a favorable view of Durham. It cites the efforts of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Durham, Inc. for doing a better job of telling Durham’s story.

One can agree with everything the editorial states but still have mixed feelings about it’s appearance at this point in the game. Why now? The editorial writers didn’t just notice the dramatic developments or the impact they would have on our neighbors to the east and west.

Of more concern, however, is why more Realtors, especially in the luxury market segment where homes need wide exposure, aren’t actively promoting Durham and her neighborhoods more aggressively around the Triangle. The copy I see on “e-flyers” and on Realtor.com is still focused on the bricks and mortar and ignores half the experience of owning a home in the Durham Community. Amenities like the DBAP sell the community. Many people risked their reputations and political careers to push the DBAP and now the Performing Arts Center. It could be that we’ve been defensive for so long that we’ve forgotten how to be proud of our community. How often do we encounter phrases in copy like “prominent Durham address” or “in the heart of historic Hope Valley.” This is not false pride. This is not spin. This is not hype.  This is the duty we owe to our clients to show their homes in the best possible light.

The Durham Luxury Home Report for 2008, discusses in more detail specifically how to use the Durham’s growing list of amenities to promote luxury home sales. This is available in a pdf format and does not require that you register or provide any information.

Fortune Small Business recently ranked Durham number 12 in the country in its list of the 100 best places to live and launch a business. The complete list and the write up on Durham is linked here at the CNNMoney website.

The short write-up is what you might expect about the high-tech environment, cultural opportunities, restaurants, college sports rivalries, etc. There are a couple of links on the page that are also quite interesting. The first is to comments submitted by readers as “Talk back. What do you think of Durham.” Some are very negative but most of the negative ones are from people that used to live in Durham or live in Raleigh. (more…)

If you are interested in how luxury homes are being marketed locally you can spend about a half hour on line and learn a lot. As a Broker and REALTOR I have direct access to the information in the Triangle Multiple Listing Service but a better way to get the broad picture is to use the REALTOR.com search which is available to anyone. This morning there are 84 Durham County listings of at least $700,000 or more. Interestingly, if you do the same search on REALTOR.com you get 90 listings. The difference appears to be that on REALTOR.com there are several Colvard Farms listings that are there because they are in the 27713 zip code and have a Durham address. (There are a total of 139 homes over $700,000 for sale in Chatham, by the way.)

On Realtor.com here are some things to look for: (more…)

I’ve just added a link to the website of the Hope Valley Neighborhood Association to the “blogroll” on the left sidebar of this site. Don Stanger, the current president of the association informs me that there are some upgrades to the site in the works that will include over 100 pictures which have been taken to support the neighborhood’s application for National Historic Register status. The current homepage has links to two stories in the News and Observer written by Durham journalist/historian Jim Wise about the history of Hope Valley and current efforts to preserve and document this history. One of the stories has a fabulous anecdote about a couple that recently relocated from San Francisco and why they bought a home in Hope Valley. I urge anyone interested to read the story themselves. What I found very interesting was that they intended to tear down the 50’s colonial on the lot and build one more suitable to their lifestyle but compatible to the surroundings. The point is they bought the neighborhood not the “shelter” represented by the old house. It would be interesting to know how this couple learned about Hope Valley but I’d be surprised if it was from a buyer agent located in Wake or Orange counties where almost 20 times the number of luxury homes were sold than there were in Durham.  Because there are so many agents in these two markets it makes sense that they would get the biggest share of potential buyers, especially those who haven’t already indicated a community preference. The Durham Luxury Real Estate Report available from a link in the left sidebar details why these less tangible benefits must be communicated in the marketing materials for any luxury home on the market along with reasons why the agents should show homes in Durham.

Of course, it’s historical significance isn’t the only thing that makes Hope Valley attractive.  Ironically, according to Jim Wise it was originally placed where it is to be beyond the trolley line to discourage those without automobiles from moving there. Now, of course, it is very convenient to the major employment centers and the best shopping in the Triangle. The existance of an active and involved neighborhood association also says a lot positive about the community. And then there’s the Hope Valley Country Club…but more about that in another post. 

I had lunch yesterday with a mortgage executive at his office in Cary. He had read the post a few days ago about the drastic price reduction ($23M to $12M) of what is still the most expensive listing in the Triangle. It turns out the original owner was an acquaintence of his and he had attended a political fund raising event there back in 2000. Because I’m neither a gossip nor a journalist who has checked his facts, I’m not going to share the story details. I will say that the home was built the way it was with a purpose in mind beyond shelter or a comfortable home, a point common to many luxury homes that is often overlooked in their marketing. (more…)

In the free report available from the link on the sidebar I mention that I wrote much of the report during a period that I was also involved in a Rotary Club project to build a Habitat house in east Durham. Yesterday I attended a dedication ceremony for that house and one directly across the street that was sponsored by several Durham congregations. Everyone involved in these projects including the full time Americorp volunteers, are there to help folks struggling to realize the American Dream of home ownership.  However, it also became clear to me that a possibly unintended consequence is that it helps the whole community by giving it something to be proud of.

Anyone who hasn’t ventured east on Main Street from downtown in a few years might be surprised how the corridor is being transformed. These Habitat houses are on Franklin St. which runs parallel to Main for a few blocks on either side of Alston Avenue. The west end of Franklin ends at the old Golden Belt plant which is being transformed by Andy Rothschild’s Scientific Properties into a mixed use facility for an emphasis on the arts, especially studio space for artists.  For anybody interested in a very detailed review with pictures of what this is all about, I recommend another blog called “BullCityRising.” A link to the site is on the left sidebar and you can go directly to the post last month about Golden Belt by clicking here. If you explore the whole blog you will see that it covers this kind of development much better than either of the two local newspapers. It is this kind of information that must be reported over and over again to burnish our image and improve our real estate markets.  If you are interested in what else Habitat has going on in Durham, click here.

My siblings and I have talked about a commune since the 60’s and when I shared this picture with them we decided that this was a good way to create and organize the living spaces. I’m not sure how this group worked out the plumbing, but maybe the real purpose was art and not function.  If it is art then that’s what makes it similar to luxury real estate. (more…)

Nature takes over

One of my first memories of downtown Durham (when “downtown” was still lower case) was of a fox running down Chapel Hill Street past the empty storefronts where the Civic Center is now east towards the post office. I’d just moved to Durham to become the Marketing Director of Central Carolina Bank.  I’d left a position with a much larger bank in downtown Richmond and an office in a brand new building with a spectacular view of the historic Virginia state capital that Thomas Jefferson designed. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The fox seemed to symbolize nature reclaiming the barren streets of my new community. (more…)