Archive for the 'New Construction' Category
Johns Creek Walk Means It: Live There and You Can Walk to Dinner
categories: Buyers, Crabapple, Johns Creek Real Estate, New Construction
When was the last time that you walked to get ice cream after dinner at home? When was the last time that you walked home from the bar after happy hour on Friday evening?
If you answered “Absolutely Never”, I’d believe you.
Around Alpharetta and the other cities in North Fulton – and around most of suburbia for that matter – we drive everywhere, usually because we have to. We live in neighborhoods with one road in and one road out and the only way to the grocery story is via Chevrolet.
We are starting to get some options, though. “Mixed use” developments are all the rage and starting to make their way onto the North Fulton real estate scene. Let’s not kid ourselves: As quaint as the idea sounds we aren’t going to get rid of our cars anytime soon and all of a sudden start walking and biking everywhere as if this were Manhattan or someplace in Europe. However, the occasional walk to a restaurant or shop would certainly be a move in the right direction and one of the aspects of life that is lost when you move from “in town” to the suburbs, or as we say in Atlanta, “outside the Perimeter.”
One of the best new examples of mixed use is Johns Creek Walk at State Bridge and Highway 141 being developed by Atlantic Realty Partners. While of Phase 1 is still underway, the finished product will consist of a mixture of single family “Manor Homes”, townhomes, apartments and retail/restaurant space. There are also resident amenities that include a nice pool, a 24 hour lounge/cyber cafe, meeting space and an exercise room.
Single Family Homes and Townhomes
In Phase 1, there are seventeen single family lots and currently only one Manor Home available, while two others are under construction at the mid $600k price point. There are six unsold vacant lots still available.
Thirteen of the 44 townhomes are sold. These are Artisan and Craftsman style townhomes with sloping roof lines, stone and brick exteriors and shake accents.
Apartments
There are also 210 units of apartments, which is the first apartment development in the Johns Creek area in 10–12 years. Local residents resist apartment buildings because of “the clientele” they attract, but the fact is that a mature real estate market needs to offer housing solutions for all segments of the economy and with the completion of the new Emory Hospital in Johns Creek and all the peripheral medical offices that are developing, there is a greater need for apartments.
Retail Space
My favorite part of Johns Creek Walk is the combination of the retail space to the residential space, which puts the “mix” in mixed use. There are clothing, children’s and computer stores; framing and art shops, a small grocery, a real estate office and a couple restaurants and bars. The sports bar has a TV in each booth so you can watch exactly which game you are interested in. Plus, Johns Creek Walk is catty corner to Super H Mart where you could easy walk to the grocery to to get your dried octopus and some kim chee.
Best of all, there is a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream store which I can only hope stays open late for those end of day chocolate issues. Image how easy it would be for a man if he lived in Johns Creek Walk with his pregnant wife. He could walk around the corner to fulfill her ice cream craving and would be only one mile from the hospital when the moment of truth arrived.
From a retailer’s perspective, the greatest thing about the retail space is that there are apartments in the back of the retail shops. This can either be used as a “back office” or for a true apartment for someone who wanted to actually combine their work and residential space or for someone who lived further away but found it convenient to literally sleep over at the store during the week, for instance.
Crabapple
Elsewhere in North Fulton, Crabapple has a chance to become more mixed use. I’m hopeful, but cautiously optimistic. As part of the new Crabapple Crossing development, there is some retail planned, but nothing other than an Italian restaurant, a dry cleaners (like we need another one of those!) and a women’s fitness studio has opened. I’m waiting for the ice cream store…or better yet, a gelato store. Then, I’ll actually park my car and walk around, but until then I’m still just driving through.
Vickery
Just north of Alpharetta, in Cumming, is another good, new example of mixed use, the Vickery community that includes awesome parks, amenities, retail and even a YMCA. It also has gelato!
In Alpharetta, Prospect Park, which is under construction at Old Milton and GA-400 will be mixed use and the Roswell East development at Holcomb Bridge and GA-400, which is currently “in hibernation” was also proposed to be mixed use with a lot of actual office space included in the design.
Mixed use is clearly a development model that is here to stay and making headway in North Fulton. Developers see it as a way to build higher density, which is necessary given the higher land costs and lack of any remaining large parcels of land. Politicians like it because more new development means more tax base and mixed use potentially means less car trips. Anything to alleviate traffic is good for politicians and the public alike. I’d be curious to know what you think of mixed use. Would you prefer to live in a “traditional neighborhood” or do you like the idea of being to run out for Ben and Jerry’s without the car keys?
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 4 Comments »
Lake Haven Progress is Slow, but Potential is Great
categories: Milton Real Estate, New Construction
Back at the new year, I promised more details on the new Lake Haven subdivision off Freemanville Road in the new City of Milton. It is slated to be another “high-end” development in Milton, but I think it stands out from the crowd because of the lake, the terrain, the location (closer to Alpharetta) and the amazing hardwoods that are on the property. They didn’t cut down all the trees…thank you!
To date, the only activity at Lake Haven has been the installation of the roads, curbs and the start of the front entrance. Apparently, like a lot of new developments in Milton and Johns Creek, time has been spent working with the new city to get properly permitted. I’m told that the neighborhood plat should be recorded any day now. Lake Haven is all dressed up with no where to go yet.
In total there are 61 lots, all about an acre. Sixteen of those lots surround the 7–acre lake. 
The picture on the right shows an arial view of the land before the roads were cut in. There is also a 100 foot waterfall south of the lake that is planned to have a nature trail along with 66 total acres of common space. The whole development is about 100 acres, giving you a density of roughly .6 homes per acre.
The finished homes in the neighborhood will range in price from $1.2MM and up. Of course, up…you can always go up! The lots in the front of the neighborhood along Freemanville start at $280K, and lots on the lake are $410k.
The neighborhood will not be gated and it will not have swim or tennis facilities. No swim/tennis is my only knock on the development (if it must be developed, that is ;->). No gate and no amenities will keep the homeowner’s association dues low and if you are building a million dollar home I suspose you can put in your own pool. However, my humble opinion is the a neighborhood pool – and it doesn’t have to be a junior olympic sized pool either – and a couple of tennis courts are a “nice to have” particularly if you are spending so much to live there in the first place. Plus it allows a greated sense of community as you can meet your neighbors at the pool on Friday after work or for tennis on Saturday morning.
If you are familiar with the Six Hills neighborhood, the look and feel that they hope to accomplish at Lake Haven will resemble the homes in the front portion of Six Hills: relaxed country look with shake roofs, front porches, breeze ways, etc.
To control the architecture in Lake Haven, the developer has put together a builders group which consists of some of the top builders in the area. Each builder has drawn by lottery three lots to date. If you want to purchase a particular lot you will be asked to work with the assigned builder if at all possible. Of course exceptions can always be made, but that is the model they have put in place.
The builders were initially required to build two spec homes each. However, with so many million dollar homes on the market in Milton, that requirement is likely to be reduced to one home per builder.
Three or four non-builder-assigned lots have been purchased to date with the buyers putting down $5,000 non-refundable deposits. Some of these people are ready to start construction as soon as the City of Milton gives the go-ahead, hopefully this Fall.
That leaves ony 19 of the 61 lots spoken for in some way or another, and in actualily, all the builder’s lots are available, too; you just need to try to work with that particular builder. There are a lot of great lots in Lake Haven and all of them have fantastic hardwood trees on them.
There are also some in the back of the neighborhood that back up to the Cooper Sandy Creek, so plently of opportunity still exists in this neighborhood, which I believe will ultimately become one of the nicer ones in Milton because of the small size of the neighborhood, the style of homes and the beautiful terrain and woods.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 2 Comments »
Buyers Should Use a REALTOR Even When Buying New Construction - Part 2
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, New Construction
I wrote earlier that one good reason to use a realtor when purchasing new construction is to manage issues around the inspection and to make sure you are buying a quality home. There are other reasons, too. We’ve run into other situations recently where buyers of new construction have had trouble and a realtor can help.
Earnest Money or Builder Deposit
When you purchase a new construction home often times the builder will ask for a “construction deposit”. This is different than earnest money. Earnest money is your “skin in the game.” It is your good faith that you will close the transaction, but it is refundable if any of the contingencies on the contract (typically financing, inspection and sometimes the sale of another home) are not released. Earnest money is held by a third party in an escrow account until the transaction is close.
As an agent representing buyers, our brokerage is always the third party holding the money. If there is ever a dispute over earnest money - and this does occur more often than you would think - the broker holding the money has some discretion on how it is dispersed. In other words, the broker can evaluate the facts of the case and use her best judgment to make a dispersal. If the other side does not agree there are defined dispute resolution procedures managed by the Georgia Real Estate Commission. However, at least with us holding the earnest money, the burden is really on the other side if they want to pick a fight and take it to the Commission.
Builder Deposits are different. A deposit is a deposit and is usually for the builder to complete certain finish items on the house to your tastes. Understandably builders want to get paid for modifications and finish items they put in a house for you and they reason that if you don’t wind up buying the house that they have invested on your behalf and may have to “undo your changes” in order to make the house appeal to another buyer.
The Missing $100k Deposit
We’ve had two cases recently where there have been issues with deposits. The first, we had a $100k deposit on a house (it was a big house) AND a contingency to sell the buyer’s home. The builder took the deposit and spent it (there are some cash starved builders in this economy) and the buyer’s home didn’t sell in time. Fortunately there were reputable real estate brokerages involved on both sides and the builder’s partner took out a personal loan to repay the deposit, but this could have gotten sticky.
The Lost $10k Deposit
In another case, a buyer put down $10k as a builder deposit. The inspection report then revealed significant issues with the home to the point where the buyer did not want to close. The builder refused to refund the deposit and even threatened to sue the buyers to make them perform under the terms of the contract and buy the house. The contract stated that repairs could be made after closing.
Realtors were not involved in this transaction and the buyer wound up walking away from his $10k deposit and the builder never pursued the lawsuit as far as we know.
Beware of the contracts that you sign with the builders. They are not the standard Georgia Association of Realtors contract and they are heavily slanted in favor of the builder. If you are not going to use a realtor, at least consider having an attorney review the contract before you sign. At a minimum, read the fine print yourself.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Buyers Should Use a REALTOR Even When Buying New Construction - Part 1
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, New Construction
Now that my client has moved in, I feel like I can tell this story. You see, my client used a REALTOR and he purchased a new construction home. The reason I mention this is because I humbly suggest that had he not had a realtor he wouldn’t be living in the new home he has today. If you ask him, he would say the same thing.
I’ve have occasionally worked with clients who believe that we can only help them with resale purchases. They see the new construction offices staffed with eager sales people who are brimming with brochures and think that is all the information they need - and that they might get a better deal if they “come without an agent.”
Indeed, I had one client who was relocating to Alpharetta. We started working together but he had a house to sell in North Virginia so we didn’t actively pursue anything. After a few months we reconnected and I learned that he had bought a new construction home. He told me that he felt he was able to get a better deal on his own: he paid full price for the house but got the builder to finished the basement for him.
It worked out okay for this client, although I believe an informed agent he could have negotiated a better deal: Builders are routinely reducing purchase prices by $25k, $50k, even $100k on million dollar plus homes. I just saw where one of my favorite homes in Canterbury on the Lake sold for $1.35M. That’s $100k less than the list price.
Back to my more recent client, though. He never would have achieved his goal of purchasing in Alpharetta had we not had the good fortune of working together. The home he selected was originally built as a model home in a nice new Peachtree Residential neighborhood. We elected to get an independent inspection. I always suggest this even though the home is brand new and the builder offers a warranty. You never know what you will find. Often buyers who don’t have an agent decide not to get an inspection because they figure how much can be wrong with a brand new house.
Our inspection report came back with page after page of defects, some of them structural and potentially deal killers. I read the report, called my client and told him, “We have our work cut out for us.” I was amazed that a top-end builder could produce a product with so many flaws. Where were the building inspectors in all this? I wondered if anyone from the county was actually walking into these house to inspect during construction.
Admittedly, private home inspectors can be overly picky in some cases; but in our case the inspector was very thorough and cited the building code of all the defects, although I felt the wording of the report was a bit inflamatory. If you read the report there would be no way you would buy the house: it sounded like the roof was falling in and the foundation splitting in two.
I knew this was a good house, though, and we had negotiated a good purchase price, so we went to work on the defects. I was simply AMAZED at the way Peachtree Residential stepped up, owned the issues and resolved them above and beyond the client’s (and my) expectations. Had Peachtree not been so agressive, this deal would have fallen apart.
Peachtree rebuilt decks, repoured concrete, reran duct work, added attic access and ventilation, obtained engineering reports and analysis and extended their structural warranty, to name just a few. They had workers crawling all over that house making everything just right and we closed on time with a happy client.
I wouldn’t say that it was an easy transaction. I will say that had the buyer and the builder not had a realtor to a server as “transactional lubricant” and to communicate each party’s concerns to the other in a way that was constructive and moved both sides closer to resolution, the transaction would not have closed even will all Peachtree’s efforts. And I’ll tell you, as much hard work and stress as it was, there was a great sense of satisfaction at closing for the value added in this process.
If everything were easy, there would be no need for realtors, attorneys, sports agents and the like. Things are NOT always easy though, and competent professionals can and do add value in new construction situations. Stay tuned here for more stories from the trenches on how a realtor can keep your marshmellows out of the fire when buying a new construction home.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Martha Stewart Homes Selling Like Hotcakes
categories: New Construction
Just an update on Martha Stewart since my earlier post: She is out of jail, but I guess that is old news.
What might not be widely known is that since getting out she has been busy selling houses. Well, that is not entirely accurate. The name “Martha Stewart” has been selling the homes along with the KB Homes sales staff at the Wynchase subdivision in Woodstock.
For all I know, she already does this, but Martha Stewart should market and sell pancake batter too. That’s because the homes in Wynchase are selling like hotcakes. Since March when they started selling Phase 1, thirty-three of fifty-four homes have been sold. No homes are completed yet, although a half dozen or so are under construction. The first closing is not scheduled until August.
Prices are going up, too. Since March, there have been three price increases already. The 3,616 square foot floorplan started at $275,000 as the base price and today is listed at $293,990. Fully appointed, this floorplan will wind up costing you between $400-$450k. Buyers spend about 20% of the base price on upgrades - and upgrades there are.
I’m not blown away by the aesthetics of the neighborhood, at least to start. After all, these are mass production homes built by a high volume builder. However, I’m sure that once the neighborhood is built out and matures it will be quite nice. There are some big power lines that run through the neighborhood that aren’t going anywhere. Plus, in Phase 1 there are only four basement lots, which is too bad because basements make a home much more valuable, let alone livable.
In this marriage between KB and Martha, KB clearly married up. The interior designs, floorplans (each plan is modeled after one of Stewart’s actual homes) and upgrades available make what might be ordinary houses pop. Walking into one is just like opening the cover of the Martha Stewart magazine: Clean, crisp design and great colors. How do you describe that look without using the words Martha Stewart in the description? You can’t. It is just like chicken tastes like, well, chicken. Martha Stewart designs looks like, well, Martha Stewart. And customers are eating it up, I’m sure to KB’s delight.
Some of the things I noticed, and remember I’m a man and only supposed to notice the yard, basement and number of cars you can fit in the garage, included the tub sinks in the bathrooms and the thick white balusters on the stair railing. While most high-end builders are using iron balusters, Martha has reverted back to white, albeit a thicker, heavier white for more substance that the typical ones you find in fifteen year old homes.
Also in white are the kitchen cabinets. No where else do you see white cabinets in a 2007 home. Everyone says they want cherry and maple cabinets and that white cabinets are passe. Not Martha. When accompanied by dark counters, dark floors and stainless hardware, fixtures and appliances, the feeling you get is not that you’re in a hospital, but rather inside the pages of her magazine.
All I know is that my wife would love it and we all understand the balance of power between the genders in the home selection process. Good move KB; you have a true product differentiator in Martha.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
Echelon and Georgia Tech Club Set New Standard in Alpharetta Area Golf
categories: Golf Communities, New Construction
It has been over 24 hours since I completed my first ever round at The Georgia Tech Club (at Echelon) and I can’t stop thinking about it. The experience was like a hot date when you’re eighteen - your mind is preoccupied for days afterwards.
The Georgia Tech Club is the best pure golf course in the area.
I really like the golf course at White Columns and I played Golf Club of Georgia at Windward last month and was very impressed, but The Georgia Tech Club wins my vote hands down. Every shot is demanding; every hole a new test and the entire place is in fantastic condition. Of course, with only 158 members so far, there is very little play. We had the course to ourselves on a Saturday morning. At nine o’clock, my car was the third in the parking lot.
The Manor Golf and Country Club (Tom Watson design) is getting all the attention in these parts, but from a pure golf perspective, I don’t see how it could be any better that The Georgia Tech Club. Of course, I haven’t played The Manor course yet so I reserve the right to change my mind. Every four years I somehow get an invitation to the presidential inauguration but my invite to play golf at The Manor has not shown up yet. Where are a guy’s friends when you need them? Hint; hint.
So, until I play The Manor, the top course in the area in my opinion is without a doubt The Georgia Tech Club. The Club could absolutely host a PGA Tour event…it is that good. It was designed to be that good and a test for the Georgia Tech golf team, which Golf Digest decreed the #1 Golf School in the country.
I played from the member tees and there were TWO sets of tees further back. From the tips, the course plays 7,558 yards long and has a slope rating of 154. From the member tees, the 139 slope rating is higher than most courses from the tips.
Real Estate not doing as well as the golf course.
The real estate situation at Echelon is a completely different story. As good as the Rees Jones golf course is, the Melrose Company hasn’t had as much success yet with the residential sales side of things.
Reports are that only three families have occupied residences in the community. The MLS system says that there are 12 homes for sale and only one sold in over a year. The homes for sale range from $1.2M to $4.4M. The homes will clearly match the golf course in terms of quality; they are awesome plans built by some of the area’s best builders. The question is whether they can be sold in this market.
Most of the lots in Phase 1 do appear to be sold in the 85 lot Phase 1, but most owners/builders haven’t started construction yet. Remaining lots go for $400-550k. That is expensive dirt. A phase 2 is in the plans on 100 acres that are in Fulton County adjoining to the south.
But for now, the shiny blue of the Crenshaw bent grass on those perfect greens is the most prominent feature of Echelon. The golf clubhouse has not even broken ground although the Echelon website says it will be finished in the Spring 2007. Nary a tennis ball has been hit or a swimming pool splashed in. For the time being, the golf shop is in a trailer in the parking lot and the cart barn is a party tent.
No matter…the golf is great and if you really appreciate a great course, you’ll love it and long to return…with your clubs and maybe with your golfing REALTOR!
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
New Crabapple Slab Homes Offer Great Skate Park
categories: Buyers, Crabapple, New Construction
Alpharetta and Milton are not just for horses and open space. Skateboarders are staking a claim in nearby Crabapple.
As higher density development approaches, signs of urban decay are alreay cropping up ;-> As if heelying in the grocery store were not enough, now there is a skateboard park in Crabapple! (My tongue is in my cheek you know…)
I witnessed the scene pictured on the left driving home Friday evening: a dozen or so of North Fulton’s most industrious young men who had converted new construction at Crabapple Crossing into a makeshift skate park.
Here’s the choice. You can pay $500,000 for a 4 bedroom home on a slab with a two-car garage - or you can turn it into a skate park. These young men hope that sales slump and their “park” is preserved because skating havens don’t abound in horse county.
The Crabapple Crossing neighborhood is one of a new kind of development in the area. Crabapple Crossroads by Williamscraft is across the street and offers a similar concept. Both these developments offer higher density, mixed use (major buzz word these days) communities with a focus on building “community” in the neighborhood by including sidewalks, courtyards and front porches. Perhaps that is just a way of putting a positive spin on higher density, but with the price of land, higher densities are inevitable.
Crabapple Crossing will have 21 single family homes and 16 garden homes, which are attached to each other. There will also be some commercial development as part of Crabapple Crossing and the vision is that a walking community will develop more within Crabapple, which consists mainly of a few antique shops and Miltons, a new restaurant that is getting good reviews from the locals.
Williamscraft goes so far as to say that, if you want “a little bit of NYC lifestyle in peaceful and placid 
surroundings”, then you should consider their community. You can get a Crabapple brownstone (shown on right) for only about $460,000 versus a few million in NYC…what a bargain!
Whether or not buyers elect for this product is still uncertain. My wife, who I must first say has lived (and liked living) in NYC, likes the concept. There is a community in South Forsyth county called Vickery that is also along these lines with mixed residential, commercial, green space, classical architecture, etc. and my wife likes this community, too, but that may also be because of the gelato shop.
Is my wife is typical of buyers? I bet not. However, she does like Martha Stewarts’ new home designs and I bet she is close to the mark that those will be hot sellers. However, Alpharetta/Crabapple/Milton is not New York City buy the longest stretch of the imagination as much as people want to embrace the romantic vision of pedestrians strolling along brick sidewalks ducking into interesting shops and bookstores and then relaxing on the patio for a coffee or cool drink.
My take at this time is that as idyllic as the vision is, the automobile is king in these parts, not the nikes. We don’t walk anywhere. Walking to the mailbox in August is about as far as anyone goes. I’m afraid to report that people in my neighborhood even drive their cars to the pool and tennis courts in the summer. Don’t want to get too much exercise or get too hot.
As far as homes go, what people tell me they want these days is space and privacy. They might not want the yard work that goes along with an acre lot, but they like the privacy and room for their kids to play.
How long it will take for Crabapple Crossing and Crabapple Crossroads to sell out is still to be seen. It will sell out; eventually everything sells it seems. John Wieland Homes is also building a new development in the area, which will add even more inventory. What is for certain is that the face of Crabapple is forever changed and there are going to be more people living there. For now, though, the boys are enjoying their skate park.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently No Comments »
New Construction vs. Resale in North Fulton
categories: New Construction
Since 2006, 1551 resale homes have sold in the 30004 and 30005 zip codes. Add to that 165 new construction sales in the same time period. Do the math and just less than one of every ten homes sold in this area is a brand spanking new home. Some buyers just plain prefer new; they don’t want a resale home.
There is a lot of talk in North Fulton about the amount of new construction taking place. Most of it is quite expensive: 45% of new construction is listed at over $750k; 80% is priced over $500k. Casual observers note that a lot of the new construction also seems to be sitting on the market, perhaps because of its price. The data proves this out: New construction has an “average days on market” of 112 compared to 52 days for resale homes.
This data point would lead you to think that maybe you could strike a good deal with one of these builders with inventory. Those builders must be motivated. The data prove otherwise.
For the 1551 resale homes, the sales price averaged 93% of list price after any closing costs paid by the seller were subtracted from the sales price.
For the 165 new construction purchases, sales price to list price is almost 100% (99.71% to be exact). What gives?
First of all, only thirteen of the new construction buyers paid exactly list price and received no closing cost assistance from the builder. Sixty-one buyers paid more than list price, presumably because they wanted upgrades or basement finishing. That leaves ninety-one buyers who didn’t want upgrades and/or negotiated a lower purchase price, and/or were able to get the builder to pay some closing costs. Some of these builder concessions were sizable: the average sales to list price for these ninety-one transactions was 94.22%, not too far from the average resale transaction.
What’s the moral to the story? Builders (and the builders’ agents in the sales centers) posture that “the price is the price.” They do this to maintain the price levels in the neighborhoods. However, in the end, everything can be negotiated, particularly if you don’t want any upgrades. Most of the builders in 30004 and 30005 are not the large track builders and they may be holding an inventory of $700k houses. My suggestion: get yourself a good realtor and make a reasonable offer.
Posted by Kevin Warmath | Currently 5 Comments »
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