Real Estate and Related Topics

You Used My Picture In Your Magazine, I'm Flattered.........I Think!

I saw one of my pictures in a real estate relocation magazine this week, it was kinda cool! It is one of my favourite pictures, in fact I use it on the front page of my web site, I use it on my business cards. I have used it in blog posts, I got a call from the owners of the store asking if they could have the link to send to their friends.

Here it is

What do you think? "I'm no Picasso, but do you like it?"
So What should I do, nothing, send them an email letting them know I know? I really don't mind them people using my pictures as long as they ask, that way I know where they'll be going. I really DO mind if people are using my blog posts and copying them or changing the headline, which reminds me someone else did that recently as well....time to call Lenn!
I need to look into the copyright issue as this is only going to get worse, content is king and people who don't want to do the work will copy!

I Need The Dog Whisperer

The Today Show reports That The Raleigh/Cary Real Estate Market Is Poised For Greatness.

The Today Show reported on The Inman News study that found that the Raleigh/Cary real estate market was the number one market in the country  to watch for a rebound.

Something that is evident to people close to the market here in the greater Raleigh/Cary area is that around the second week of December something clicked and people started coming out of the woodwork. Showings went up, you would call the showing service on a Saturday and get the answering machine, that hasn't happened since the Tax Credit!!

Inventory Is going down, there is a subdivision here in Clayton where the average number of homes on the market for the last three years hovered in the 70's......now 35.
Pre-sales are up dramatically, one builder I spoke with yesterday will have three pre-sales started in a month. In Portofino in Clayton, we have four pre-sales started or about to start, we have two homes under contract, both the same week-end.

As inventory drops the bargain hunters will be forced to start upping the prices they are willing to pay, supply and demand, then we should start to see prices stabilize and rise accordingly. Interest rates will rise along with them so, 3.89% or whatever low figure it is  will soon be gone for a long time.

The Greater Raleigh Area is made up of the bigger cities of Raleigh, Cary, Durham and Chapel Hill, but it is the many smaller communities in the vicinity that people include when they talk about the region known as The Triangle.

Come and see for yourself, weather is great, housing is affordable, schools are fantastic, beach is two hours away, golf courses are everywhere. Shopping, colleges NC State, Duke, UNC at Chapel Hill, and many more graduate smart engineers, doctors, nurses, farmers who came here for college, and now  love it so much they stay and find work here.

Krispy Kreme Challenge in Raleigh, NC is Spectacle Not To Be Missed.

The  8Th Annual Krispy Kreme Challenge took place yesterday in Raleigh, NC. The race which began as a dare between some NC State students has become a fantastic fund raiser for The NC Children's Hospital, this year they raised over $100,000.

The race starts at the NC State  Bell tower on Campus and takes you on a course of about three miles to the Krispy Kreme Donut Shop on Peace Street, there you eat a dozen doughnuts and race back another 2 miles to the finish line. Yep you read that right eat a dozen doughnuts in the middle of a race!!

The race attracted close to 8,000 runners, walkers and eaters, it became hugely popular after Sports Illustrated put it at  #85 on the “102 More Things You Gotta Do Before You Graduate” list. And now the challenge attracts runners from all over the country. It has a definite fun aspect with a lot of participants wearing costumes, teams all wearing the same outfits and lets be honest here, I couldn't eat a dozen doughnuts in a week let alone 10 minutes.

There are a number of techniques to pulling off this feat of bravado, the most common and recognised is to squish four doughnuts together, making them as flat as possible and stuff them in your gob, with large quantities of water. Another is to dip the doughnuts in water which removes some of the sugar, and the least favourite is to gorge the doughnuts and then throw up......Very few opted for this option, but some!

/>

Raleigh is a wonderful diverse city, which is growing by leaps and bounds and having a college campus downtown has a large role to play in that.

No I did not have a doughnut!

I went to take a video of this property after the surveyer had staked it, and came upon this beauty. I think he was all bark but I cannot confirm that!!

Caterpillar in Clayton Announces Big Expansion of Clayton Plant Adding 200 Jobs!

Great news on the job front for folks in Clayton, North Carolina, Caterpillar made the announcement on Wednesday February 2nd 2012 that they were expanding their current manufacturing facility in Clayton and would be adding 199 new positions. ( Wait for cheering to subside!).

The Caterpillar Plant on HWY 42 East in Clayton produces  small wheel loaders and when completed will be the world source for these types of machines.

The average pay will be $41,000, and along with manufacturing jobs there will be design and engineering jobs also.Caterpillar will add the jobs and additional facilities over the next five years.

This is a great sign for the Clayton and greater Raleigh area which was just selected to outperform all other real estate markets in the US.