by Midi on January 30, 2012
A year ago, if a buyer asked me about five listings that had fallen out of the MLS, upon closer inspection, I would have found that those five listings had all expired or had been withdrawn by the owner. The other day, however, I looked into five listings for one of my buyers and discovered that two had recently sold, two were under contract and only one had been withdrawn by the seller.
To top things off… of the other five properties I tried to show the same buyer, two of them were actually under contract when I called to set up appointments. That hasn’t happened in a long while.
There had been a time during the ‘boom’ when every other property I called on to show would be under contract – many agents don’t bother to change the status of the listing and let them appear ‘active’ when in fact they are pending sales but that’s another story. More recently, any active listings I’d call to show were pretty much all available and the agents sounded relieved someone wanted to show it at all.
I firmly believe it is an indication that the market is changing and activity is on the rise. Just last week while sitting on the panel of the Glynn County Board of Equalization, one of the county appraisers, in defending the value of a property under appeal, cited several noteable land sales in the West Glynn area of the county where during the ‘boom’ growth had been rampant, but since the collapse, things had come to a halt. Hearing about all the land sales out there and then encountering the increased activity here on the Island makes me feel that things are definitely shifting.
I’ll pull some numbers and perhaps make some sort of graph for a future post soon… stay tuned!
by Midi on February 2, 2011
Usually by this time of the year, our Prelicense course is about to begin. This year, I had to delay things a bit, knowing the beginning of the year would be a bit busier than normal. I was also waiting to find a new location to hold the prelicense course. Given the smaller size of our classes, I have been forced to find ways to make this class profitable. The costs and time involved in preparing for the class had to be re-considered.
Well, last week, I happened to mention my location issue to one of our local brokers and they kindly offered us use of their conference room on St. Simons Island. I’ve checked it out and I think it will suit us perfectly! So we are in the process of working out the kinks in our schedule, get some marketing in place and hopefully, I will have another prelicense class going beginning in Mid-March.
So if you know someone who needs or wants to take the real estate prelicense course, let me know! Remember, this is the course required by the Georgia Real Estate Commission in order to sit for the state real estate exam. It is a 75 hour course, meets two nights a week plus two full Saturdays and as of right now, looks like it will begin mid-March – and end in Mid-June.
Will post more when everything gets finalized!
Tagged as:
georgia real estate prelicense
by Midi on September 8, 2010
There have been rumors but now it appears to be true. Apparently, Publix has an eye on St Simons Island for a new location. I’m told that years ago, they passed up the opportunity to be an anchor in the Shops at Sea Island because the space wouldn’t be large enough to fit their minimal footprint. That left the position open to Harris Teeter, whom, since the demise of the Pig – otherwise known as Piggly Wiggly – has been only one of two grocery stores on the Island – the other being Winn Dixie in the Retreat Plaza across the airport. Now with CVS’s upcoming move to the razed land across the street (see my previous post!), Harris Teeter is planning to expand once again to take up their space once it’s vacated.
One of my neighbors just called me to say that the lady who runs the little garden center/farmer’s market next to Bennie’s Red Barn told him that they were being evicted to make way for a Publix. Never realized there was that much room back there for a whole strip mall complete with a Publix as an anchor, but what you do know! I’m a bit torn on this subject. On the one hand, I love Publix. It was my preferred grocery store in Atlanta. On the other hand, this is just what the Island needs right now… more retail/commercial space. (I’m being heavily sarcastic here… considering we have commercial development all over the Island post-real-estate boom – such as the one across from the airport on Demere, the new office building sitting empty near the proposed Publix site, and of course, the giant, fancy, pretty one behind SunTrust on Sea Island Rd that no one even knows about – but trust me, it’s huge and very, very unoccupied. There are also plenty of vacant spaces at the Proffesional Bldg on Demere next to the Shops at Demere as well as the new buildings adjacent to and next to the movie theater behind Harris Teeter… just to name a few more.)
Well, the Publix thing isn’t a done deal yet. Apparently, they will be going up for a zoning request on the 21st. So if anyone is interested in learning more, supporting or protesting this zoning change request – then, well… I suppose you should plan to attend. So mark the calendar for Sept. 21 and stay tuned for more. And all this begs the questions: Does the Island really need another grocery store? I’m sure the folks at Harris Teeter don’t think so!
Tagged as:
harris teeter,
publix
