Savannah Real Estate Blog

Contrary to the word on the street, selling a condo in today’s real estate environment is still possible, although it is not always as easy as it used to be. I am constantly surprised to hear from neighbors and even some real estate professionals that “banks will not finance condos anymore”. That is just not true! Not to toot my own horn too much but last month was a great month for my clients and me, as we successfully closed three transactions and of those three, two were condos. One was at the gardens on Jones (pictured below) and my buyer got a good deal at an even $300K. She is planning on retiring here and decided the time was right to buy and rent it for a couple of years until she can make her much anticipated move to Savannah from New York City, where she works for The New York City Library.

I have blogged this project before and this sale marks another turn around for this project which has always been a favorite of mine but had hit another slow patch recently as it had when I blogged it before. When we wrote our contract there had only been one sale (in July) the entire past year at a price that was quite a bit higher. One other closed in late November for $312,500 making for a total of three sales the entire year. The Auction which had just taken place at News Press Place helped justify our attitude about its value. A big thanks goes to Chris Vogler and the team of Michael Caputo at Bank of America Home Loans here in Savannah who helped make this sale go very smoothly. The key to successfully buying property in today’s market is to ALWAYS use a good real estate agent and get a GOOD local lender who understands condo financing like Chris does! I have one out-of-town lender horror story I will be glad to share with you, just ask me.

More about the recent condo sale at 302 Lorch Street and Savannah Area 2009 sales coming in my next blog! One of my new year’s resolutions? To blog more frequently!

Until Next Time

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty Coastal Area Partners

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Here is the latest activity report from our local MLS system. It is a tremendous amount of data that is continuously being collected and is compiled monthly and usually available around the 9th of every month. In time, as the information accumulates, comparing the month-by-month numbers helps to indicate the trends in things like DOM (days on market), List price to sales price ratios, dollar volume and number of closings, average sales prices and the (usually) additional inventory as a result of new listings versus sales and expired listings. The data is broken down by area and property type so if you are interested in a particular part of town, the numbers are there for you. Please feel free to view the data and if you like what you see, please let me know or have any suggestions and I will continue to post these reports as they become available. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any specific questions! As I was not able to load the data directly here, I have included a link where you can download or just view all 9 pages:      RonMelander.com 

Until Next Time,

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty

Savannah Downtown

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Savannah Tap unveiled it’s interactive city guides last week. I crowded around at the Savannah Visitor’s Center and test drove Tap and found it to be a very user-friendly addition to the stacks of brochures and maps. Within seconds I was able to find restaurants, shopping, and city services mapped out and texted to my phone. I love this new wave of advancement Savannah seems to be taking on.

Another interesting development come from Live Oak Public Libraries, spanning Downtown to Tybee, which has gone completely electronic. From any computer I can find a book, place a hold, select pickup location, and receive an email when it is ready for pickup. Also the library emails a reminder a few days before they are due back. Really a fantastic service!

The Savannah Morning News has laid out their answer to decline on paper sales. Go digital! Every morning as a Savannah News subscriber the paper is electronically delivered to me via email. The paper is laid out exactly as the physical edition. I flip through, enhance the images when needed and save my favorite Vox Popoli.

Automation, ease of use, and shear convenience describe these wonderful tools. Keep it up Savannah!

Until Next Time,

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty, Savannah Downtown

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I still well remember meeting Josh and Kelley Keller when they first came downtown. First Josh as he jogged around the neighborhood while I kneeled in the flower beds at Kaye and Don Kole’s house and then a few months later, Kelley at a party thrown by neighbors Jackie and Ken Sirlin. A delightful couple with a growing family, Josh and Kelley are two beautiful people in their 30s and Josh is the managing partner for the local Verizon retail outlets here in Savannah with a teritory of coastal Florida, Georgia & South Carolina. As thier family grew, the Kellers simply ran out of room at the beautiful townhouse they are now selling on Troup Square which they renovated and expanded over the past several years. Not everyone realizes how many families are being raised downtown. I know of lots of them! So many people are under the impression it just happens on the Islands or Southside but I want you to know that kids can be brought up just fine in the Landmark Historic District, thank you very much!

There were not many opportunities for a house with room for expansion like the one they found at 233 Abercorn Street. The Molina House had been languishing for several years and when the most recent owner decided to sell it in 2006, at the peak of the market (originally asking 1.9milion). They priced it a wee bit too high from the begining and as the market got cooler and cooler they began to drop the price (not fast enough!) and It finally sold for $965,000 on May 19th, 2008. But it is not a bad thing for Savannah when this happens, especially judging by what is now occurring almost a year later. What was around 5,000 square feet when they bought it will be about 6,800 heated and cooled square feet when they finish! Everytime I look I see something new; granite replacement front steps, enclosure of the additions on the back, a new wrought iron exterior stair rail made to look exactly like a historic one would have looked. It just goes on and on and the inside will be fully renovated as well, naturally. Free standing with a side garden and streets on the other three sides, they have lots of great light here, not true with so many of the row houses in Savannah. Congratulations to the Kellers on a great project, another enhancement we can all be proud of in Savannah’s Landmark Historic District!

Until Next Time,

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty Savannah Downtown

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Trendsetting New York and New Jersey residents Richard and Joanna Rothbard have recently re-launched their AN AMERICAN CRAFTSMAN store at 223 West Broughton Street in Savannah. The Savannah store, which originally opened in 2008 and is their forth location, has just had a major face lift inside and out including new windows for the upper floor, the use of which is still to be determined. (Should they go retail upstairs like the adjoining Urban Outfitters Store? Or make more interesting residential loft space with perhaps a roof garden?)

LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS BY RESPONDING TO THIS BLOG!

Unlike so many of the nationals locating in Savannah these days, An American Craftsman is actually a family owned company with a forward looking vision for a vibrant future in Savannah. They also have two beautiful locations in New York City at Rockefeller Center (60 West 50th Street) and the Sheraton Manhattan Hotel (790 7th Ave. @ 52nd Street).

Additionally, if you are going to be up north this summer, visit Richard and Joanna at one of the outdoor shows they organize every year in the Berkshires about 20 minutes from the store they have at Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Lots of interesting things continue to move forward in Savannah, a city worth landing in, investing in and living in!

Until Next Time

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty Savannah Downtown.

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What would Savannah be without her believers? Mary & Ernie Friedman, (aka The Savannah Land Company), and Walter Carson (aka The Carson Company) are such people and they make us all that much luckier to be living in Savannah! Imagine my feeling of joy when I drove by this site on the 11th of February during the ceremonial kick off. Please check out this article in The Savannah Tribune for more information. Today I took another photograph as the project continues to progress. The building process, called “tilt-up wall construction”, is a relatively new technique for the local builders but is a huge time and money saver. As far as I know, the folks at Frogtown Lofts in Downtown Savannah were the first to use this process in Savannah back first in 2005 at Starland Lofts and again in 2007 with the walls (a USGBC LEED certified product) provided by Wecco of Charleston. Savannah keeps on trucking along! Click these photos to enlarge them!

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Even though we have been having a relentless winter in the northern parts of our great country, and although I have had to move in my potted plants three times so far, spring is around the corner and in the air! You can just feel it! Stroll by the fountain in Forsyth Park and inhale – that moist air is a harbinger of better days ahead!

I'm enjoying my new Real Estate affiliation. When talking with my team leader about being well balanced and healthy & happy, I recalled my love of bicycling in years past. So now, as a new personal health initiative, (I need to firm up a bit!), I am exercising by riding daily as part of my morning routine. I am loving it! It is amazing how much territory I can cover in 30-60 minutes and reminds me that not only is Savannah a great walking town, it is also an excellent biking town! Of course we have a great groundswell of support going on here for making Savannah more bike friendly like The Savannah Bicycle Campaign, and Dave Sanderson is a great advocate at Bicycle Savannah, LLC.

This new routine has also reminded me of just how much is going on in our historic neighborhoods in and around my downtown home despite the soft real estate market. One such project is the Old Fort in Forsyth Park. After a few years of being talked about and with plans now finalized, the Old Fort in Forsyth Park is currently being repurposed. Situated pretty much in the center of the park on the eastern side directly across from Richard Kessler’s beautiful Mansion Hotel, this project is funded by the City of Savannah and will be an asset to the community. Bill Dawers and others have written with frustration about the delays with this project but judging from the activity seen there recently, it will probably be operating before the end of the year! Hurray City of Savannah!! By the way, the pictures below enlarge when you click on them and for some conceptual drawings of what the future fort might look like after the renovations, please click on the “talked about” link above!

Until Next Time,

Ron Melander

Keller Williams Realty Savannah Downtown

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To follow up on my last blog, Here are six additional properties that closed in December, 2008 when I wrote part one of this piece on recent sales. As of today, an additional 5 properties of the 24 that were under contract have closed, a couple of them just after the first of the year (for tax reasons, some folks prefer to close in a new tax year, others prefer to close in the old tax year). One of the 24 properties “fell through” and is back on the market

 Before I begin, I'd like to proudly announce my new affiliation with Keller Williams Realty’s Savannah Downtown office at the corner of Broughton and Abercorn Street. I am SO excited! Leaving CBT after almost 4 years was a little emotional for me but I know I have done the right thing and I am now working with some of Savannah’s most successful Real Estate Professionals, folks that I have grown to admire over my past four years in Real Estate. I made this change at this time because I felt I needed the environment and support provided by this awesome team. I am truly inspired by the management and the company philosophy suits me so well: God, Family, & Business. If you are interested in learning more, like about the WI4C2TS belief system, please ask me, I will be glad to tell you more!

The sale of 18 West State Street on 12-22-08 struck me as quite a deal. Commercial space in a prime location downtown with a residential living space above and a basement for only $350,000? Very rare especially in livable condition and already occupied (in most Broughton Street locations, if you could ever find a reasonably priced building, they would normally be “raw space” upstairs requiring a lot of renovation expenses and time). Clearly this was an insider deal as it was listed and sold by agents in the same brokerage with 0 days on the market. I wish I had had a shot at it. I think it was worth more.

 The residences at Crawford Ward were built in 20005/6. They were pre-sold and then marketed for $650K with little success. They are now often owner occupied and are nicely built with a small courtyard or parking space and usually sell in the upper 4s and 5s depending on the unit. Some are larger than others with an additional wing between the buildings and some have nicer finishes, features. They are built back to back and the ones facing McDonough have room for a small front yard and a driveway. For me, they are a bit vertical and space for an elevator would have been great. With 3 beds, 2 & 1/2 baths and right on Price St., 416 E. McDonough St. was re-listed on 1-24-07 and sold on 12-12-2008 for $430K, less than what any of these townhomes had sold for recently. The seller of this one paid $475K for it in 2006.

426 East Saint Julian St. was lived in for many years by the sweetest lady I have ever met. She kept a colorful front garden and a small courtyard in back. An avid gardener, “Ms. Dorothy” always had interesting things going on. She, and her house, was one of a kind. Free standing on a lot allowing for a side garden and parking space and with just less than 1,000 SF, the house needed updating. One could bump out the kitchen onto the back porch by using some plans that had been drawn up many years ago. I predicted this property would sell for $400K and it did on 12-23-08 having originally been listed on 6-13-08 for $525K. 

That’s all for now, 

And until Next time, 

Ron Melander 

Keller Williams Realty Savannah Dowtown

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There has been quite a flurry of activity recently in Savannah’s Core Historic districts, an area I call the Golden Rectangle which is surrounded on the north by River Street, The South at Victory Drive, the West at Martin Luther Kind BLVD (formally West Broad Street) and to the east, East Broad Street. What with historic low interest rates and highly motivated sellers, some folks are getting off the side lines and finding some super deals! Here are a collection of 8 interesting sales that closed within the past month or so starting with the least expensive:

415 East Duffy is a three unit condo building and unit A had been originally listed for $198,000 in October of 2007, was relisted in August of 2008 for $145,500 and sold on 12-16-08 for $140,800, a fair price for a nice 2/1 Condo in the Victorian District with under 1000 square feet of living space.

This new construction duplex at 538 East 31st Street was first marketed in 2006 when it had just been built for over $100,000 more than what it finally sold for on 11-26-08 which was $148,000. The seller (investor) went belly up. This is a significant part of the market these days. The new buyer is “pinning it out” (splitting the parcel) and has immediately put up the half he does not want for $119,000. So if it sells for anywhere near the asking price, they will have a perfectly nice 2 bedroom/2 bath house in an edgy area one street away from a popular block of E. Anderson St. in the Thomas Square District for very little money!

308 East Duffy sold in December 2004 for $173,000. It had been renovated in 2000. In December 2008, it sold for $163,000! Yikes! Not good, but another example of a market trend that cannot be denied. This is in a nice area a few blocks from Forsyth Park.

511 East Perry is a sweet circa 1852 masonry row house near Crawford Square that was listed for sale on 10-23-08. One of my favorite friends used to live a few doors down and I have been in several of these. They are small 2/1/1s (2 bedroom. 1 and 1/2 half baths) at just over 1000 square feet but they have nice open floor plans, kitchens and a living room/dining room overlooking a small courtyard and one off street parking space in the lane. For someone wanting to be downtown and not in a condo, this was a reasonable choice selling for $269,000 on 12-12-2008

I remember well when our office first listed these two charming townhouses at 536/538 East Charlton Lane in September of 2005. I predicted they would and they did go under contract almost immediately for close to the asking price of $187,500. They were so nicely renovated by one of Savannah’s foremost restoration experts, ET Smith. Lots of nice features and 2 beds 2 baths up with a 1/2 bath down, the ideal example of how to make the most of a small space (each is under 1000 square feet). The right half just sold again on 12-04-08 for the full (after a couple of price reductions) asking price of $215,000. A draw back is very little outdoor space and no true parking adjacent.

This Parlor level 2/1 condo at 116 West Liberty with two off street parking places is just around the corner from the Civic Center. The buyer did well at a sales price of $225,000 on 12-5-2008, especially considering it had sold for $269,000 in October of 2005! Markets adjusting …..

15 East Jones Street was sold as an apartment building in January 2006 for $725,000. They had pinned it out for six separate condo units. Several investors bought in and they all did a very nice job of renovating each unit with the idea of SCAD students (Savannah College of Art and Design) or second home buyers. This is truly in the absolute best blocks of Jones Street just a few doors from Bull Street in the true center of the most desirable residential area of Savannah. Unit 1A (the “garden” level) which is slightly below street level had been fabulously renovated with recessed lighting and beautiful slate floors. This unit was sold in May of 2007 for $285,000 and then relisted as an attempted “flip” in January 2008 for $350,000! Well, with all the market changes, this unit sold on 11-25-08 for the exact same price it sold for in 2007.

Here is an example of extreme optimisim in our residential market coupled with harsh realities of today’s marketplace. This historic looking new construction 2/2/1 property with just over 1800 square feet was built in 2005 and the developer had nothing but the very best intentions when they created this row of three fabulous triplexes at the very eastern edge of the landmark District abutting East Broad Street on what had been vacant land. I have the list of all the thoughtful features this property included and the look inside was sort of beach-cottage like with white marble countertops and white cabinetry, an open floor plan with a great room feeling in the main living area open all the way to the roof of the second floor. A small courtyard and two car garage finished the picture. These were originally marketed in 2005 for over $600,000 each. This unit sold for $475,000 in July of 2006 which was around the same price the other two sold for. This was sold again this year on 12-1-08 as a short sale for only $347,500 - a steal? Or market reality? Clearly the current buyer probably did not pay much over what it actually cost to build this property for in 2005. This was a very difficult sale for all involved.

Six more properties to talk about next week including  sales all the way to one million dollars.

Until Next Time,

Ron Melander

Cora Bett Thomas Realty

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I swear there is no one smarter than those folks at SCAD. And the students that go there are pretty amazing too! Every fall when they return to Savannah after their summer break back home and/or abroad, Savannah is revitalized by the presence of this young upbeat group of faculty, students, and administration. And once again, the college has blessed us here with another fantastic renovation, now called Arnold Hall, opened for classes this past Monday, 9-15-08. The project was a little long in the making but very welcome indeed. Several years ago when the Chatham County School System decided to shed this huge school facility and SCAD eventually got hold of it, lots of folks got very excited about this part of town known as the Metropolitan area which is a part of The Thomas Square Historic District, very near the Starland neighborhood. Specifically, investors bought up other nearby properties and began making improvements in anticipation of the revolution that was coming (Starland itself is an example). The Sotile family also launched “Brady Street” which is a two block street between Barnard and Bull. In this project, houses that had become dilapidated where bought up and foundations were stabilized, new roofs put on and rot and termite damage repaired with the idea that others would come in and finish the work creating a new historic identity for this targeted area directly across from the entrance to The Richard Arnold School (now Arnold Hall). Lots of individuals also jumped in and all in all this is certainly is a different place than it was a few years ago. 

I took pictures back in late June and as there was only some landscaping to do, when I looked again a few weeks ago, I thought my older pictures were just fine. But when I drove by today and saw all those bicycles, I had to add in a few new pictures of those too. It is GREAT how many seem to be biking to Arnold Hall! What a great example for the rest of us. YOU GO SCAD!

Until next Time,

Ron Melander

Cora Bett Thomas Realty

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