neighborhood

My crystal ball was clear that day

by John Rice

In the long-range, Lexington will eventually use all of its available land.  When that happens I think we’ll start to see a huge price difference between Lexington and the surrounding towns.  When the land becomes that valuable, we’ll see a lot of what are now cheap areas redeveloped.

That is what I said 7 years ago yesterday and it is happening.  I know this thanks to Facebook’s “On this Day” feature.  Besides being reminded that I had sushi for lunch with my wife on February 4th in 2013, I found an old blog post that was mainly about downtown.

All this is happening because there practically is no affordable housing in Lexington.  Builders have given up on the first time buyer market because the land costs them so much.  Why would they use their expensive land to build small/plain houses when there is so much money to be made building expensive/upscale houses?

We have practically built out to the urban service area……..aka the city limits.  There are few big tracts of land for the big builders to obtain.

That has forced buyers and investors into areas that 10 years ago were undesirable.  Downtown is a prime example because that is where the cheap land is….or was?

The Distillery District, between the time it was actually distilleries and trendy businesses, sat empty and was mostly industrial businesses and junkyards.  There were probably more rats than people down there on any given day back then.

The Newtown Pike extension is connecting Main Street to South Broadway right through a really depressing area of Lexington that few people ever knew existed.  Meanwhile, all the old tobacco warehouses along South Broadway are gone with apartments and businesses taking their place.

Then there is all the activity on the north end of downtown.  Jefferson Street.  NoLi. Midland Avenue.  Cool restaurants, bars and old housing stock.

Heck, even Cardinal Valley and many north end neighborhoods are becoming an acceptable location to young first times buyers with a tight budget wanting to live in this expensive town.

Many people will think all this is happening because people want to return to the urban core.  Lexington isn’t big enough to have true suburbs.  Plus, you can get to downtown from any where in any traffic within 30 minutes.   So I don’t think that is the main reason.  I think the reason is because infill projects and fixing up cheap houses are the only options for a town that is always growing and has run out of space.

 

LEXpert Neighborhood Review: Meadowthorpe

by John Rice

A friend of mine lives in a neighborhood she thought I should review.  When this neighborhood was new, it was waaaaay out on the west end of town.  The elementary school was the old Linlee Elementary on Georgetown Road.  Eventually this neighborhood got it’s own elementary school within the neighborhood.

You’re probably thinking I am talking about Masterson Station, huh?

Close.  It also starts with an M, but I am talking about Meadowthorpe.

Both neighborhoods have a lot of similarities.  Both were way the heck out on the west end of town when new.  Both are off of Leestown Road.  Both went to Linlee before having new elementary schools built within the neighborhood.  Both adjoin a park, although the one at Masterson Station is much bigger.

One of the biggest complaints I hear people say about Masterson and most newer neighborhoods is that they are too “Cookie Cutter.”  I was trying to find some old pictures of Meadowthorpe online.  No luck.  I have seen old pictures at the McDonald’s on Leestown Road.  Meadowthorpe looked just as bare and generic as any new neighborhood.  I am not bashing it here.  I just want to point out that about the only big difference between Meadowthope in 1949 and Meadowthorpe 2017 are the trees.  Landscaping is what gives the ambiance that turns a row of similar houses into a pretty street with character.  Imagine Chevy Chase without trees?  In 1949, I bet the first residents could not imagine what their neighborhood looks like today.   The same will happen to Masterson as the trees create a canopy.

Here is Meadowthorpe when New Circle Road was under construction.  This same shot today would be nothing but trees.  You wouldn’t see any houses.

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Meadowthorpe has an interesting history.  There was an old mansion where Pelican Lane is now.  It would have been about where you see the tall trees in the upper right hand corner of the above picture.  I think I remember seeing it when I was a kid.  It is long gone now and there are about 15 or so newer houses there.

There used to be an airport too.  Here is a link to see the whole history of the neighborhood.  It is pretty interesting!

http://mnalex.org/history/

So, back to today.  One of the things my friend likes most about the neighborhood is the strong sense of community.  It is a really friendly place to live.  There are a lot of people who have lived in the neighborhood for a long time as well as new people moving in.  She is close to downtown and the Pepper Distillery district.  It is also easy to get around town since you have that New Circle Road exit you just saw being built in the picture.

Most of the houses are ranches and cape cods from the late late 40s to the 50s.  Those newer ones on Pelican were built after 2000.  Most that I have seen have basements.  Prices seem to be from about $150k to close to $300k.  Most are in the $180-225k range.

Here is what to expect in this neighborhood.

 

I am really glad my friend likes her neighborhood so much because I was the one that suggested it to her when she bought it in 2007.

 

LEXborhoods: Beaumont Park

by John Rice

It’s the mid 1960s.  You’re out shopping for a brand new house.  You’ve got a nice budget.  You like the new booming southwest side of town, maybe because you want to be close to one of those new shopping things called a mall.  There is a brand new one on Harrodsburg Road called Turfland Mall.

You go on whatever the 60s version of the parade of new homes was called and you end up in Beaumont Park.  You like it because it is on the edge of town, right by the new beltline.  It is a little bare since all the trees are 4 feet tall, but that is okay because the houses have all those trendy features like a pass through between the kitchen and family room.  A private master bathroom.  Maybe faux wood beams and a fireplace that takes up a whole wall in the family room.

No surprise here, but NONE of these things are why anybody would pick Beaumont Park today.

Instead of being on the edge of town, it is considered close to town since it is inside that beltline called New Circle Road.

Those freshly planted twigs are now some of the most majestic trees in town.

Turfland Mall isn’t a mall any more, but is still an asset.

Today, people want to live in one of the 160 or so houses in Beaumont Park for very different reasons.  The location is great.  The tree lined streets are very pretty.  You get some of that mid-century coolness……but most of all it is because the lots are huge by today’s standards. (There is also a great city park in the middle of the neighborhood too.)

Before I show you a sample of some pictures I found online, I better tell you that most of the houses range from $200-300k depending on how big they are and how much they have been updated.  I have been in several.  Some have funky floor plans, so don’t.  Some are mostly original and others have been updated.

I wish all neighborhoods could age as well as Beaumont Park.

 

Check out how far away the houses are from the street.

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A city park with big trees right in the middle of the neighborhood.

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The depth of this backyard is pretty common.

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Another huge backyard.

MercuryImages.com

Best way to negotiate

by John Rice

Most people think negotiating is making the other party do what you want.   That works when one party has the power to force the other into submission.  Like if you’re an 18 wheeler trying to make a slow car get out of your way.  If you’re the President and can threaten nuclear war.  Fist fights.

Not in real estate.  That behavior typically is counter productive because the other party can usually find somebody nicer to work with and still come out better.

It is a seller’s market now.  Sellers have the upper hand since there are fewer houses for sale.  But they still can’t make a buyer do more than the buyer is willing to do.

Negotiating is getting the other party to do the most they are willing to do for you.  You get them there by thinking of which terms are the most important to them.  In a sale, you have price, inspection repairs, what stays with the house, closing date and possession date.  You also have to know which terms you have some wiggle room on.

Sometimes the timeline is more important than a little more money.  When I bought my current house, there were several other offers.  To compete, I asked the listing agent what plans the seller had made for moving.  They had not found a new house yet.  Since I was keeping my old house as a rental, I did not care when they moved out.  They had lived in the house for 20 years and taken good care of it, so I was not worried about them trashing the place.  I wrote the offer with us closing in 30 days and agreed to let the sellers rent back from me until they found a new house.  They stayed for 3 weeks after the closing.  Now, I know not many people can be THAT flexible, but it is a prime example of giving the other party something really appealing that was really of no value to me.  Conversely, I’ve had clients who needed to be in or out of a house on a short timeline.   I’ve even had clients who had a new fridge and let the seller take the one in the house for agreeing to a better price.

I sold a house last night and it is a prime example of good negotiating.  The buyer had a price in mind.  My seller had a price in mind.  It wasn’t the same price unfortunately.  We were $1000 apart.  This was a cash sale.  The house was sitting vacant.  The buyer offered to close sooner than originally stated and agreed to not ask for any repairs unless there was something majorly wrong with the place.

To my seller, this meant less interest to pay for a house to sit vacant.  Less to spend to insure and heat the place in the dead of winter.  No concern for having to do repairs.  All in all, it probably added up to $1000 in saving for him.

So, the buyer got his price and the seller effectively got his price too.  All because the buyer gave the seller something that was not important to him, but was of value to the seller.

This is how it should be done.

 

If I could have any house, this is it

by John Rice

I was out with a new client last week.  She told me that she had asked her husband which house he would pick if he could have any house in Lexington.  Eventually that house came on the market and they bought it.

It got me thinking about what house I would pick if I could have any house in town.

Here it is:

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As many of you know, I moved to Lexington in 1985, the same year I got my driver’s license.  It was a magical time of combining my love of driving and my love of houses.

I’ll never forget when I first saw this house.  I had never seen such a place except for on TV shows.  I remember thinking it was a very interesting piece of architecture.  At first, I really couldn’t tell if it was a house or an elementary school since a lot of modern/contemporary homes can look a little institutional.

There was no Google Earth back then.  No Bird’s Eye view unless you were in fact a bird.  The view from the street was all I had.  And I loved it.

I wondered what it would be like living there.  I was picturing all the goofy pastel furniture and art that were so popular in the mid 80s.  I pictured myself waking up in the house, putting on a mint green T-shirt with a light gray sports coat and white pants, then getting in my Ferrari and having an exciting day……because this was the type of house you’d see on Miami Vice.

 

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But, eventually reality sat in and I was a chubby teenager driving a green 1976 Chevy Chevette parked out front of this house.  To keep from getting the police called on me, I moved on.

The house last sold a few years ago for $2,500,000.  Still a bit out of my price range.

Here is the bird’s eye view I would have loved to have seen back then:

 

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See that house behind it?  I showed it a couple of months ago.  While I was in the backyard, I did walk over and touch the brick wall of the pool house.  That is the closest I have ever been to this house.

If you could live in any house, which one would you pick?