Charleston area homes, Buyers Broker, BuyersAgent, Josephine Traina Gleason

Charleston Buyer's Broker Blog

Bee Street Lofts
Posted By - Josephine Traina Gleason - 11/24/2009
Why has Bee Street Lofts become the address of choice for Charleston doctors, medical residents and medical staff? Located across the street from Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, less than a block from MUSC and minutes from Roper/St. Francis Hospital, living at Bee Street Lofts adds hours to their day with little or no commute. Instead of fighting traffic, they're all ready home, relaxing in contemporary, stress-free luxury at Bee Street Lofts. Quickly becoming known as THE place to live on the Charleston peninsula, Bee Street Lofts provides discerning homeowners the finest in luxury urban architecture where attention has been paid to every detail. Here, you'll find one, two and three bedroom open floor plans with soaring ceilings, gourmet kitchens, granite countertops, luxurious baths with whirlpool tubs and travertine floors. Select homes offer wine chillers, built-in wine racks and breathtaking views of the Ashley River. What are you waiting for? Leave your stress behind. The time is NOW to trade up from your existing home or buy new as a first-time homebuyer. Best of all? Right now, take advantage of No Money Down, No PMI, No First Year Homeowner Dues! No Kidding! And, for a limited time, utilize the extended Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit to put thousands in your pocket! Don't miss out! Come experience the ease of luxury urban mid-rise condominium living. Call Josephine Traina Gleason today for your personal tour and make Bee Streets Lofts your new home. 843-793-4023

Nothing Could Be FinerThanTo Be In South Carolina
Posted By - Josephine - 07/31/2009
From the Battery to the Beaches, Charleston invites you with its warm friendly charm, historichomes, beaches, arts, museums, waterfront park. There is so much to see and do. The architecure will intrigue you, and you will fall in love with our fair city just as we all did before we moved here. The fretwork, iron gates, stained glass, neoclassicism, colonial, victorian, federalist home styles will show you Charleston's 300 year history. That is why it is named the most European city in the Nation. Charleston has more churches than any place in the nation and is named the "Holy City". Here are but a few of my favorite pictures of Paradise, a city named Charleston.

REAL ESTATE TIPS

Posted By - Josephine T. Gleason - 06/16/2009

Real Estate Tips brought to you by Josephine T. Gleason

WHEN AND WHAT TO REMODEL:

When remodeling your home, any major repairs must yield increasing returns. For example, if you spend $1,000 to enhance part of your home, it must yield more than $1,000 when you are ready to sell your home. These areas show increasing returns:

· Bathroom remodeling

· Master suite addition

· Bathroom addition

· Family room addition

· Roof replacement

· Window replacement

Hiring A Remodeling Contractor

· Get written estimates from at least three contractors

· Check references, including past clients

· Call local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau to ensure there are no complaints

· Make sure your contract is clear and specifies what the job entails, including time, price and changes

· Do not pay in full.
Make a down payment on
services rendered.

· Check that all permits, licenses and insurance needs are met by the contractor

· Many contracts have a 3-Day Rescission
to protect you should you change your mind!

· Ask who will do the work. Will it be the contractor or what portion will be sub-contracted?

· Ensure that all work completed complies with local building codes and/or regulations.

· Hold contractors responsible for clean up and any damage that occurs during work completed

· Guarantee that materials used are what
you requested

· Once you are satisfied, then make the
final payment

TAKE FIVE! Five Handy Household Tips

· Kitchen odors? Boil lemon and orange slices in water on the stove with a few cinnamon
sticks and cloves for added scent.

· Is your garbage disposal smelly? Throw some baking soda and citrus peel in the garbage disposal and grind away.

· Double bag your trash can to add strength—place a dryer sheet in the bottom for deodorizing.

· Smelly Shoes? Simply fill a tube sock with kitty litter, baking soda, or tea leaves; tie the end closed; and place the in shoes when you're not wearing them. These sachets can be used over and over in any kind of shoe.

· Dust the television with a sheet of fabric softener. The static guard in the sheet will keep dust from re-settling.

Sitter Safety Tips!

In situations where you're in charge, such as baby sitting or caring for someone with a health condition, you need to be prepared in advance for emergencies. Here are some things you can do so you can respond quickly if something happens:

· Make sure there's a list of emergency numbers near each telephone in the house. Most areas in the United States are covered by 911 service. If not, be sure that Police, Fire, Rescue, and Medical and Poison Control numbers are listed.

· Make sure you have the phone number and location where the child's parents will be and, if possible, a cell phone or pager number. If it's a true emergency - a child you're caring for has stopped breathing, for example -always call 911 first and then call the parent.

· Make sure the home or building you're in has working
smoke alarms.

· If you're looking after someone with a health condition,
know when the person needs to take any medications - particularly medicines for breathing or heart problems. Have the person's insurance information on hand in case you need to rush to the hospital. It's a good idea to keep all this information written down near the phone so that you can find it quickly if you need it.

· Make sure your family or the family you're caring for has a fire escape plan and that children know their outdoor meeting point in case of an emergency.

· Take a first-aid class to learn CPR so you'll be prepared to help someone in an emergency.

· Keep a first-aid kit in the house and know how to use it.

A History Lesson
Posted By - JosephineTrainaGleason - 05/26/2009
"The Only Thing We Have To Fear, is Fear Itself" part 2 A history lesson on real estate cycles... About every ten to twelve years, as an average, real estate values tend to double in most major metropolitan areas. For example, in the 1920s, the original colonial homes sold for just under $2,500 in Long Island, New York. Since then, real estate prices have doubled almost eight times over the last 80 years. That averages out to a 100% increase approximately every ten years. An interesting note is that about every ten to twelve years, real estate values must correct before they enter their next "doubling cycle." It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when The evolutionary process is three steps forward and one step backwards. For example, imagine a 100% increase occurring in three steps of one-third parts each. The last market cycle of the 1980s was one in which real estate values doubled, followed by a correction of the early 1990s, which equated to a 20% to 30% decrease over a three to five year period. This cycle was then followed by the post-millennium cycle boom of 100% from the last high point of the previous cycle. We are now in the naturally-occurring phase of a correction in the cycle. This essential and beneficial adjustment gives the market pause to reflect and gather momentum and strength for the next doubling cycle. This has occurred time and time again because the long-term demand for housing is growing an exponential rate based on population growth to almost double in the United States by 2050. This will continue to drive prices higher as it has for the last 100 years. Since we now know based on history that nearly all real estate prices will double again, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when your existing houses will sell. Sharing these facts with your prospective buyers will put them in the right frame of mind to buy now versus next year if they plan on staying in the home more than five years. If a buyer is apprehensive about being the right time to buy, ask him if he'd like to buy his parent's home for the price they paid for it--the answer will be obviously "yes." If it bleeds, it leads There's an old expression in the media business, "If it bleeds, it leads." In other words, the media loves to cover negative news more than positive because it sells better. When the real estate market is in turmoil, the media loves to run these negative headlines to keep reminding people how bad things are. When buyers hear the bad news, it affects demand because the negative news drives fear, which makes buyers worry about whether the time is right to buy a home. Is the media simply reporting the news or does the media actually affect the news in this regard? The answer is obviously both. The media reporting negative news alone can't shape a real estate market. However, since perception is often reality, when buyers are spooked, they may shy away from buying. This affects lenders, builders, real estate agents, and other professionals who rely on the real estate business for their income. It becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy because things get worse, and the media again reminds us how bad things are. But, are things really as bad as the media reports? At the time of this article, the numbers certainly do reflect falling home prices and rising foreclosures. When you hear that foreclosures have doubled or even tripled in a particular area, this may sound catastrophic at first until you realize that the vast majority of homes (97% to 99%, depending on the local market) are NOT in foreclosure. Despite the doom and gloom, there's always a buyer for a well-kept home offered at the right price and terms. In short, don't read the paper if you want to keep a positive attitude and sell your homes fast!

The Only Thing That We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself
Posted By - Josephine - 05/19/2009
” The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself” Franklin Delano Roosevelt Inaugural address. 1932 . ‘I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now’. History Does Repeat Itself! 67 years ago, our country was in a similar place. America is the greatest country in the world, and we will survive. Real Estate has pulled us out of every recession Now is the time for all men and women to come to the aid of their country! Bring our economy back, invest in the American Dream. Real estate is the most time-tested real estate investment. Josephine Traina Gleason, Broker Associate Josephine@danielravenelsir.com