Archive for December, 2006
Christmas House in Crabapple
categories: Stuff I like to talk about
Every neighborhood has one: The Christmas House. Crabapple Chase, which is one of the anchor neighborhoods for Crabapple Crossing Elementary School and one of the “original subdivisions” in Alpharetta has a whole street.
But even on Brookhill Crossing Lane, one house stands out. I don’t need to tell you exactly which one. You’ll find it easily.
When I was a kid, my family used to drive around after dinner during the Christmas Season and look at Christmas lights: no cute little white lights and bobbing reindeer - big, multi-colored bulbs. My favorite effect was the spotlight that had a colored filter in front that turned, and as it did the house would change from green to blue to red to yellow.
Then the gas crisis came along and we all started driving 55 MPH and stopped cruising for Christmas lights. This year, however, at the insistance of my wife we revived the tradition even in the era of $2.50 per gallon gas. We checked out 
White Columns, Triple Crown and Six Hills, all high-end Milton neighborhoods that had had some nicely decorated homes. Then my wife insisted that we “go check out that great house in Crabapple Chase.” We weren’t disappointed.
I’m not sure exactly how many lights are on the house or how many miles of extension cords, but every single tree and bush is covered. Even the trees in the back yard are covered. Add to that some lawn decorations and Rudolph won’t have trouble finding Brookhill Crossing. Santa’s helper greets passers-by with Christmas music and hands out 1,000 candy canes a year.
I do have a second favorite Christmas house in Alpharetta/Milton. Every year it has a big sleigh and Santa with tons of lights, but it is a bit harder to view because it is not in a subdivision and the house sits back off the street. But if you are driving down Cogburn Road across the street from the new King’s Ridge Christian School, you’ll see a Georgian colonial style home with a sprawling lawn full of lights and cheer.
Merry Christmas to everyone and enjoy the lights.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Four Atlanta Counties Have High Potential for Elevated Radon
categories: Buyers
Which is greater: the risk of claims against title after you’ve closed or the risk of radon poisoning?
I don’t know the answer, but I do know that both are small numbers. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a risk seeker, but I certainly believe that a lot of insurance is sold through fear peddling. I carry the highest deductibles I can on my home owners and health insurance. I sometimes even eat food after its expiration date ;->
Radon is one of those risks that I would have typically ignored in the past - particularly here in the South where radon is practically a non-issue. However, January is National Radon Action month, so I thought I’d do my little part to promote awareness in the Atlanta and North Fulton areas.
I didn’t realize it until recently, but there are four counties in Georgia where indoor radon is predicted to be greater the 4 pico curies per liter, which is the safe level established by the EPA.
The EPA has mapped the entire country and assigned each county to either zone 1, 2 or 3, with zone 1 having the highest potential for unsafe indoor readings.
None of this would really matter much if the four affected counties were sparsely populated but they happen to constitute the heart of Atlanta: Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb counties.
None of this would matter either if a high level of radon just caused your hair to curl, but it doesn’t. Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that is found in the soil and enters buildings through cracks in the foundation and basement floor. The risk is breathing the gas and you have to be exposed for a period of years to cause cancer.
The EPA reports that radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers.
According to the EPA, radon is responsible for 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year and 2,900 of these people have never smoked.
So, what do you do if you are a buyer in the Atlanta area? The easy answer is test for it during the inspection phase of your purchase. Although the test is relatively simple, radon testing is usually not included in the standard home inspection; however, you can stipulate that you want one. The extra charge is around a $100 and there are different types of tests so inquire about what you are getting. There are some free home test kits if you are just curious and you want to do it yourself to avoid a premature death…oh, now I’m fear peddling!
In the end, Georgia is a “buyer beware” state, so the onus is on the buyer to discover any problems with the property. In my humble, not-always-so-risk-adverse opinion, $100 is not much to pay in the grand scheme of things to rule out the presence of a known carcinogen, particularly when you are probably going to pay three to four times that for owner’s title insurance.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 1 Comment »
Alpharetta City Center is a Go - Demolition to begin May 1
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate
On Wednesday, the Fulton County Commission unanimously agreed to participate in the Tax Allocation District that will fund the Alpharetta City Center project. This means that the county will contribute its share of the property taxes that would not otherwise have been generated “but for” the development of the project to fund the debt for the project.
Next stop is the Fulton Board of Education to get them to pledge their share of the “but for” property tax revenue. But I heard this week that demolition of the exiting City Hall and surrounding building will begin May 1st. For more details, you can check out www.alpharetta.ga.us.
This is a major step in creating an actual Downtown area for Alpharetta. Most of the original downtown burned years and year ago and today downtown is not much more than a block-long facade on Main Street (Hwy. 9). Today it is a place you pass through on your way somewhere else; certainly not a destination. But that will hopefully change with the City Center bring a place to gather, walk, browse and even live. Mostly it will give Alpharetta an identity, a center, a place to recognize as the center of the city.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Roswell Could Claim a Stake on GA-400 with Roswell East
categories: New Construction, Roswell Real Estate
I think they could have come up with a more creative name, Roswell Station would have been an obvious start; but Roswell won’t be playing second fiddle to Alpharetta if the proposed Roswell East development is constructed.
The same developers who resurrected the I-85 I-75 split downtown with the Atlantic Station development have proposed a similar but smaller scale redevelopment of the southeast corner of GA-400 and Holcomb Bridge Road.
Pictured above, the Roswell East development would be a mixed use of commercial, office and 3000 units of residential. Green spaces (and green roof tops), lakes and walking paths would all be part of the plan. There would be four buildings in the 24-27 story range.
For some reason probably related to traffic flow, that section of Holcomb Bridge has always struggled. The CompUSA closed years ago and the Home Depot relocated earlier this year further down the road.
What’s left in that quadrant is an abandoned gas station, a Marriott property that I doubt ranks very high on your “must stay list” and the 312 unit King’s Ridge apartments. I recall reading somewhere that the apartments actually cost the city more money than they bring in in property taxes given the services required.
Charlie Brown, a long-time developer who did in fact develop Atlantic Station and even built some of the homes in Roswell neighborhoods like Brookfield West and Lake Charles, has put forth the vision for Roswell East and taken local input in the process. The vision incorporates all the buzz terms and current thought that comprises the “new urbanism”: mixed use village; city living in the suburbs; pedestrian orientation.
Development of that intersection into something significant can’t help but improve the economics of North Fulton and provide a destination work and live community. Traffic has always been the concern in that area and by mixing the traffic with both business and residential drivers, the hope is to even out the congestion throughout the day. Can it get any worse?
Certainly there is a lot of planning and revisions to be made to the plan. The developer is submitting data to the City of Roswell, which is then going to have staff review and report back to the City Council by the first of February.
If the development is eventually built, Roswell will have made its stake on the GA-400 corridor - and significantly increase its tax base. Stretching from The Perimeter where you have the King and Queen buildings, you’ll have Roswell East at Exit 7, Northpoint Mall at Exits 8 and 9, Prospect Park at Exit 10 and Windard at Exit 11. That is a pretty good lineup.
Exit 12 and Exit 13, within Forsyth County are the new frontier, with Exit 14 already being the oasis along GA-400 with the new hospital.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 8 Comments »
What’s This Large Amount for Title Insurance?
categories: Buyers
Do you buy title insurance? Should you buy title insurance?
Buyer’s get confused by title insurance all the time and, unless their agent has prepared them, often ask a lot of questions at closing about the cost and necessity of getting it. This is usually an awkward moment because the person answering the question, the closing attorney, also has a substantial stake in your decision. The attorney also has a canned response - and I’ve seen them give a glare to an agent who brings up the topic or asks questions.
I wish this could be a short post, but as I think about it, I’m not sure it can be.
First, what title insurance does is protect you against any flaws in the title of the property you are buying before you buy it. The person selling the property has to actually own it, that is, have title to it. If they don’t own it without other parties having a claim to it, then you can’t buy it without also being subject to those claims.
During the closing process, the attorney hires a title examiner to do a title search on the property. This person goes to the county courthouse (or online) and researches the chain of ownership on the property and any liens filed against the property. If the title is “clean” you can proceed to closing. If it is not clean, then you need to “repair” the title, usually by clearing up any liens by paying back taxes, utilities bills, or anything else that has been “attached to the house.”
Once you have a clean title, you can close the purchase. However, at closing you will see a line on the settlement statement for title insurance. If you are financing the property, you must buy title insurance for the lender. This is called Lender’s insurance and it is paid on the loan amount.
You will also see an amount for Owner’s insurance. This is your coverage and it is based on the sale price, so it is more than the Lender’s coverage.
Title insurance costs around $2-$3 per thousand dollars insured. You have the option of buying this insurance. On a $400,000 house, you are looking at about $900-$1000 for both the lender’s and owner’s coverage.
I believe that most realtors just advise their clients to buy the insurance and be done with it. I never tell my clients to buy it or not buy it; different people have different tolerances for risk. I believe that I’m doing them a better service explaining what it is and how it works if they want to know. I would like them to be clear on exactly what they are buying. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
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