How do we value a home?

I took this picture on a March 2007 weekend near "The Point" on Emerald Isle, NC. It has to be one of my favorite spots . The mix of sand, waves, and wind makes this a special spot. Still in the grand scale of things, the housing the area if not this particular spot is pretty affordable for many people today.

It was fun snapping this photo from the widow's walk of a really nice home just across the street from the water. It's listed for $1,099,000. There are lots of homes in the area for list, but this is definitely a special one partially due to the location.

The whole area is spectacular with great views of the sun setting over the sound and the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. If you walk down the street by a few houses, you come to the access to "The Point."

There you will see a wide strand of sand and one of the most spectacular vistas on the coast. It is a great place to gather at sunset. You do not have to preview many homes along the coast to learn that the proximity to water has a lot to do with the price. This really nice beach cottage lists for $549,000. It is a great location, but perhaps with not as spectacular views as the other spot. It's also a smaller place.

Still on the beach much of your money goes for location and not house. Over on the mainland just a few miles from the beach you can find a place like this one for $339,900. On the mainland while still near the water you can end up with a lot of house just a few miles from the beach. This listing of ours at 126 White Heron Lane is a good example.

Of course if you want it all there are places that meet that criteria also. Bahama Breeze which is right on the beach with fantastic view, beach access, and its own home theater is a great example.

All of this proves that when buying houses, the equation to happiness and finding a place that meets your specific needs can be a little complicated. It pays to take the time to have someone helping you find that spot of personal paradise.

Of course if you never try to find that perfect place, you never will. There are lots of homes on the market right now. If you want a great choice, now is the time to start looking.

Emerald Isle, NC Saint Patrick's Day Festival

The Emerald Isle Saint Patrick's Day Festival promised to be my first taste of a local festival. With the water warming, temperatures showing some promise and even some Bradford Pears starting to bloom, I was a little worried when the Saturday of the event turned out to coincide with the arrival of yet another taste of cooler Canadian air. Fortunately the cooler temperatures did little to cool the enthusiasm of the crowds. As I swung onto Emerald Drive from the bridge, it was not long before I saw cars parked everywhere along Emerald Isle's main drag.

The main event was hosted in the parking lot of Emerald Plantation Shopping Center by Food Lion. I was impressed by how many vendors could be placed in and around the shopping center. There were a number of craft booths, displaying several types of artwork including herons, fish, both painted wooden. Then there were booths with handicrafts such as hand bags, book marks, candles and clothing. There was even a table of homemade preserves. The Emerald Isle Fire and EMS Departments were there along with groups as varied as Angels for Animals and the Emerald Isle Parrot Head Club.

The kids had plenty there to entertain them, including rides and face painting. I saw a few folks with green hair and even one person who appeared to have painted all his exposed skin green. I did not see any blue skin from the somewhat chilly temperatures or people on the climbing wall. I did see a few folks warming their hands around some portable outdoor heaters, but most people seemed to ignore the weather and were having a great time.

The Budwiser Beer Tent appeared to be packed. There was live music and music from one of the radio stations. The music certainly added a festive air to the event.

Then there were the food tents and carts which had offerings ranging from Collard Sandwiches to almost every type of festival food that there is, including ribbon fries and funnel cakes. I was trying to stay away from the food so I could be prepared for the later in the day Oyster Roast in Swansboro so I ended up just taking home a pound of barbecue. It turned out to particularly delicious barbecue which I had watched them hand chop and season at the booth. Unfortunately the wind was blowing when I snapped a picture of the booth. It folded the sign so I will have to go another year guessing who made the barbecue which turned out to some of the best that I have had since my youth.

It brought back memories of containers of barbecue that a friend, who was farmer in Kernersville, NC, used to bring us as samples from their yearly cook off during their spring horse show. The Emerald Isle Festival barbecue was nearly perfect with just the right mixture of crispy outer crust and lean meat mixed with a spicy vinegar based sauce. My congratulations to the anonymous King of the Barbecue.

My only regret is that I missed the Port City Pipes & Drums. I assume they must have played earlier and left or perhaps were taking a well deserved break in the beer tent when I visited.

I have posted pictures at http://coastalnc.org/saintpatricksday

I know one thing, I have to find the maker of that barbecue before next year.

What is a view worth?

The simple answer is that it depends. This picture was taken from in front of an Oasis beach condo/town home in Atlantic Beach, NC. If you want to walk out the door of your own home and see this particular view, then it will cost around $750K to make ones of these homes yours.

Actually when it comes to being on the beach these days, that price is a bargain. Get in touch with me if you want to explore that thought a little more. Still if you just want to visit and rent a piece of paradise, the prices are much lower. Of course none of us really own a view.

A view is more than just the land. It is the light, the sky, the water, and the interaction between all of the elements. There's actually a public access parking area just behind the spot where I took this picture so timing is also important. You likely wouldn't find this same view during the fourth of July week. This picture was taken on a cool March 8, 2007. Actually it might be a long time before you could get this exact view again.

Still this was a particularly nice view with a 4WD truck headed down a mostly deserted beach with very nice light. I especially like the softness of the sand, shadows, sky, and water. It makes for a calming view or actually a very inexpensive digital image that I can enjoy for a long time.

I took the picture with my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 camera. It does a really nice job taking pictures with a true 16:9 aspect ratio. A good example is this sunrise over the White Oak River.

Getting that view required rolling out of bed very early and standing, almost shivering, in the early morning air at the Centennial Park in Swansboro, NC. In my old neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia, most of my neighbors know that they might catch me out on the deck early in the morning snapping pictures of the sun rising over the Blue Ridge Mountains. I have taken thousands of pictures of the sun bathing downtown Roanoke in early morning light.

It takes some dedication to take pictures of sunrises. Anyone can take pictures of sunsets.

Of course anyone who gets up early and has a digital camera can take pictures of sunrises. They might not have as a good a location as we do in Roanoke, VA, but in theory they could find a spot. Still snapping pictures with a digital camera is not like the work of an artist who might paint something that they see only in their mind's eye.

I recently got the chance to meet Mary Warshaw, an artist living in Beaufort, NC. Mary also does a blog on Beaufort. As an artist she can do much more to create an image than I can even with all the tools in a fancy digital camera.

Having taken several rides on the Mystery tour boat which cruises Beaufort inlet and Taylor's Creek, I can almost imagine Mary's beautiful print, "I’m Home—Beaufort Waterfront and the Meka II."

The Beaufort waterfront, fortunately for those of us who missed the days of sailing ships hasn't really changed a lot. Through Mary's imagination and skill, we can see what Beaufort looked like long ago as the ships came home from the sea.

While the home with the view of the beach goes for only $750K and is a deal when compared to other homes with a similar beach view, Mary's prints are even more reasonable with prices as low as $45.

You can even enjoy them far away from the coast. I have one being framed now to hang on the wall in our mountain home in Roanoke.

Contemplating cosmic changes in real estate

I made the decision to become a Realtor® last July. As in any life changing decision, there were a number of factors. I wanted to be in an industry that valued individual contribution. Working with people where I could develop a relationship was also important to me.

My vision of real estate came from my own experience of receiving dedicated personal service when buying and selling houses over the years. While I found houses of interest on the Internet when we did our last purchase, we ended up buying one that we had never seen on a computer. A great local agent at Bluewater GMAC Real Estate in Cape Carteret, NC found us just the right spot after showing us plenty of places we couldn't see digitally.

Now as I am coming up to speed as a Realtor® here on the Southern Outer Banks of North Carolina (SOBX), I find that there is a huge push for real estate brokers to embrace the Internet. It is true that more and more customers are doing their initial searches on the Internet. The younger the people, the more likely they are to depend on some Internet help at first.

I believe that the Internet can add value to real estate transaction. I am a huge believer in technology used properly. However, I think people who believe that the Internet is going to drive all the costs out real transaction are misleading themselves or others whom they're trying to capture as customers. Adding technology to real estate purchases is not going to be the same as pay at the pump, ATM, or self checkout at the grocery store. Technology hasn't driven down our banking, grocery, or gasoline costs.

Buying real estate is also not like buying a car. While the Internet helps intelligent car purchasers save some money, it hasn't help much with my service costs at the local dealership.

Real estate is still a local market unless you just don't care where you live. Buying a home is far more complicated than any other purchase and comes with lots of potential pitfalls. The reason many people think that real estate transactions are easy is that they have been fortunate to have had some very good real estate brokers working with them. The number of things that can go wrong in a real estate transaction are amazing. Having nearly 24X7 human help during this process can protect the largest investment that you will likely ever make in your lifetime.

While the Internet can truly help, it is still important to have trained professionals doing a great job for each client who wants to find the right place to invest money in real estate, whether it is the perfect place for a second home, or the right spot for a great retirement home. There is no getting away from real estate requiring lots of shoe leather hitting the pavement or in our case lots of sandals on the sand.

While the real estate business is going to change dramatically just as many others have, it's not going to change to the point where working with quality professionals isn't important.

A post on one of my other blogs deals with an article which hinted that real estate professionals are on their way out because they don't add value equal to the commission that they charge. The post, "Old school at times and proud of it," is a detailed commentary on the subject and explains many of the complexities of the subject.

In this market, I think most sellers will find that a great Realtor® is worth every penny they charge.

While it may be very easy to buy a property right now, buying it and buying it right are two different things. Selling homes today requires all the professional help you can afford.

Our technological infirmity

Today it's possible to buy some amazing technology for very little. Look at flash drives which can haul around digital music, pictures, and documents. For the most part you plug them into your computer and copy information to and from them. I recently saw that you could buy Turbo Tax on a flash drive.

The unfortunate thing is that most technology isn't like a flash drive. I have some wonderful ink jet printers. They produce pictures with quality as stunning as is possible to transfer to paper or canvas. Well at least they do that when the stars are aligned, and I am holding my mouth at the correct angle.

Last night I was trying to print a few real estate listings from the Multi-Listing Service. My printer burped. The output from the printer which had been perfect all day, turned nearly unreadable. I tried cleaning the printer nozzles. That didn't work. I tried my wife's prescription when faced with malfeasance from any of our electronic devices. I turned it off and decided to let it rest overnight.

I even waited until after lunch before facing the printer once again. In a couple of hours of working with all my tricks I managed to get things back on track. Most people would have given up or thrown the printer over the cliff.

It occurred to me after this battle of humans and technology that we have reached the point that we can afford more technology than we can understand. It used to be that technology was expensive and came with people who understood how to make it work.

When something didn't work, we could call someone who might be able to explain why it didn't work.

Today technology is so inexpensive that there are very few people involved except the people who don't know out to make it work once they have purchased it.

Certainly the people selling most of the technology don't understand it. I wrote about the mostly clueless technology sales force when I faced the challenge of buying a new fax, printer, scanner, and copy machine which is more popularly known as an "AIO" device.

These are wonderful devices which cost very little considering how much they do when they are actually working. I wrote a couple of posts about my experiences getting a home office going with my AIO, a laser printer, a Mac computer, and a Windows/Linux computer. The first post, "HP AIO Photosmart C6180 and Mac OSX," and the second one, "The not so reluctant home system engineer," have some enlightening comments. Some very intelligent people, even with the help of some supposed experts, can't get all the features of these AIO devices to reliably work.

Printers aren't the only problems. I recently went out looking for a wide angle camera to take pictures of homes for my new career as a Realtor® in what I like to call my coastal North Carolina paradise. I wasn't surprised that once I got outside of a photo store, few people even understood what I was asking. In fact even in the photo store I probably knew as much about wide angle digital cameras as the sales people.

I guess the lesson is that it isn't too hard to buy more technology than you can use or at least keep working reliably. With wireless networks, cell phones that can do almost anything, and $1,200 laptops that can even do video conferencing along with the rest of modern computer tasks, we are awash in technology.

Now if we just had some people who understood how all of it works. At least I have some great photographs that I have managed to keep on the web. The one thing that works almost all the time is my Firefox browser, and for that I've glad. I even heard that Microsoft is backing off in features in their Office Products.

Perhaps we are at the technological peak, and we can hope that things will get easier and more reliable instead of getting more and more complex.

The challenge that all businesses face

I just wrote a post, "The real challenge for Apple & OS X." In it I talk about how it isn't good enough for Apple to be just "better" than the new Windows version, Vista.

In order to just hold their own, Apple must be geometrically better than Windows offerings. This is no different than the scenario faced by many other businesses that do not hold the dominant position in their market. It's even the case for local businesses. If you are the new guy in town, just being "better" is not enough.

The question boils down to how do you show enough real value to a customer in order to convince them to give you a fair shot at their business. In the computer business, it is really hard, because staying where you are is often easier than doing something different. Change can be tough.

When I helped to sell email services, often the key differentiator was just being there when the customer called and being able to jump through whatever hoops needed to solve their problems. Most often that meant having enough well trained people to answers their questions and guide them through the initial sign-up procedures. Surprisingly we had a few people who thought Saturday or Sunday would be good days to switch email providers. That meant some Saturday afternoons doing coverage like I wrote about in "The Saturday afternoon technologist, electronic hair."

The real estate world which I've recently joined has long been accustomed to working Saturday and Sunday afternoon if necessary. If we aren't around to catch the customers when they walk into the door, someone else will be.

Even companies like Apple that are product focused really need to keep their customer facing side as effective as possible. Just having stores where people can meet with dedicated and knowledgeable Apple people has been a huge success for Apple. Still as it is with all large companies, finding the right person or the right answer can be challenging. When I was at Apple, at least once a month some poor lost soul would finally get routed to my desk after a month long decent into phone tree hell while looking for someone at Apple Federal.

The other key to responding to customers is actually listening to them. In the last three years I've had a fair amount of experience with real estate agents. I also been hauled to a large number of houses that the minute I saw them, I knew we were wasting our time and the time of real estate agents. The agents had not listened to me or they would have figured out that I wanted a house with some beach characteristics instead of a two story colonial.

I'm really curious to see how Apple does with the iPhone. Apple is of the belief that you have to tell customers what to buy instead of building products with the help of customers. That's one of the main reasons Apple products seem to be headed more towards a closed ecosystem. If you aren't trying to make your products work with your customers' stuff, my guess is that it won't.

In real estate we have to listen to our customers who often become our clients. Once they become clients, we have to put their interests before ours.

It's a totally different relationship than you find in the computer world. There companies buying products have been known to be stuck with equipment made obsolete by an announcement of new products. Sometimes it happens before the purchased products even make it to someone's desk.

Of course that doesn't make for happy customers.

It turns out that the best way to get another customer is to do a really good job for the one that you already have. Happy customers can be very effective sales people for a company

In Apple's case the customers have gone that one step further and in effect become tremendous evangelists for the company. Should Apple ever lose that army of Mac users, it would be very hard to continue to be successful.

I'm actually glad to be in a world where my success is measured by how successful I am in meeting the customer needs not just today but over time. If more companies measured their employees that way, we would see more companies responsive to customers and fewer ones who just throw their products over the wall with the hopes that someone will purchase them.

Incremental improvement to meet customer suggestions might not be the best way to define new product categories, but it is a great way to build customer loyalty even if you aren't the biggest player in town or the market.

The Apple iPhone Day

Today was a big day for Apple, they stripped "Computer" from their company name and firmly entrenched themselves as a consumer products company.

The company that once produced the computer for the rest of us, is now trying to cement its reputation as the place to go for all the coolest gadgets.

As a long time user of Apple's computers, I hope this even greater dedication to consumer gadgets doesn't mean the computer part of Apple is going to be ignored, but based on today's announcements, it seems that just might be the case.

I am not exactly a heavy cell phone user, so spending $499 for one of the iPhones is probably something I'm not going to do. I am sure there will be a rush to buy this newest Apple gadget, but my life is not complex enough that I need all the features that Apple has packed into iPhone. I often can't even find my cell phone. I figure that I'm better off with a Noika that is two years old.

I made a prediction today. I am guessing Apple may have reached its pinnacle today. We will see if I'm right or wrong in six months to a year. I think Apple will do well with the iPhone. I just don't think it will be another iPod. I could be wrong, it won't be the first time when it comes to Apple. The one thing that might change my prediction is if Apple releases OS X for Intel hardware made by other manufacturers. That would be huge, but it's not likely to happen unless the dynamics of Apple's business change.

Based on what I have seen Apple is fully committed to requiring proprietary hardware to join the chosen circle of Apple users. I don't think that is going to change.

I wonder how big that circle of Apple users can get before they get tired of dancing only to Apple's tunes? I hate to drag up this, but seems to me that Steve once promised never to introduce products before they would ship. Actually that the only kind of products he seems to introduce these days.

On another note, if you're a small or medium company interested in email, today I posted an article, "Email Services for Businesses," which explains why I think this should be the year of email service outsourcing.