Juanita's Blog on Life and Real Estate in Sumter, SC

I'm late again, sorry about that.  Lots of stuff going on -- none of it real estate related, regretfully.   In the last two weeks of February (15-18 Feb 2009): Eighty properties were newly listed, one of which was a duplicate so actually there were only 79. These are all residences; I did not inc...

In the first two weeks of February (February 1-14) 2009:Eighty-seven homes were newly listed.  These are all residences; I did not include land or commercial properties.  I looked only at Sumter and the surrounding area. The lowest list price is $9,000 for a not-quite 60-year-old bungalow on whic...

I suppose I could file this one under, "How stupid do these people think I am?" I have a Point2Agent website which helpfully notifies me whenever anyone leaves a note for me.  This one appeared as "feedback on your website."  Here is the message, in its entirety, all caps as it appeared originall...

’m late with this update, sorry about that.   In the last two weeks  of January (January 19 – 31, 2009): Fifty-seven new home sales listings hit the market.  These are all residences, I did not include land or commercial properties, and I also only looked at the market in and around Sumter.  The ...

Lots of numbers, I hope I don’t make your eyes glaze over. In the past two weeks (January 4 – 18, 2009): Sixty three new sales listings hit the market.  Of those that were homes (rather than land or commercial), the lowest list price was $22,000 (bank-owned, and according to the listing agent the...

December is historically a slow month.  People aren't thinking about buying houses.  They're thinking about Christmas presents, and what sort of toys the kids want, and how on earth they're going to pay for all that stuff....  So I was wondering, even with all the bad news floating around, how di...

I keep my real estate earnings on Excel spreadsheets, so I can keep track of how much I bring in. It helps me estimate how much in taxes I'll owe, as nothing is withheld. In 2005, my first year as a Realtor® (I started working in July), I sold bupkes. So no math problems there. In 2006, my produc...

I hate people.  Well, okay, not really.  But I can't say I appreciate being lied to.   Sunday afternoon I was on duty at our model home in a growing subdivision.  We used to have two model homes (in two subdivisions) but when one of our builders' companies left they took one with them. So we only...

There is a house we had listed in our office (before I was working here) in 2006.  It was a new construction (built in 2005, actually, and sold in February 2006). It has four bedrooms, four and a half baths, 3000 square feet, and sits on 2 acres. It has a sunroom, a garage that accommodates 3 car...

I am reminded of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." My listing with the cat odor problem now has a missing seller problem. My sellers have disappeared.  Odd, no?  They put their house on the market, move, then shut off their cell phones so I can't reach them.  If someone come...