ENTER TO WIN:

One lucky reader at Shanna’s Blog on All Things Real Estate is going to win 2 tickets to the Home Improvement Show at Franklin County Veterans Memorial  in Columbus, Ohio.  The show runs Friday-Sunday, Febraruy 17-19th 2012.  To enter, just leave a comment below.

Extra Entries: (You must leave a separate comment for each extra entry)

• Blog about this giveaway and post a link to your blog post in the comments below (2 entries)
• Comment on any other non-giveaway post on this blog (1 entry)
• Follow SLafontaine on Twitter (1 entry)
• “Like” Shanna Lafontaine, GRI-Real Estate Professional on Facebook (1 entry)

Giveaway Rules: Giveaway ends Friday, February 10th at 11:59 am EST. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only. All entries must have a valid email in blog profile or leave email address in comments.  The winner will be selected by random.org and will have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

The first thing that caught my attention was the big stone outdoor fireplace that Rochell Landscape had built for the expo.

  My husband has wanted an outdoor fireplace for a while, and if you add a pizza oven you’d have him sold.  This beautiful fireplace retails for about $13,000.

I always enjoy seeing very cool slabs of granite and the counter companies didn’t let me down.  The first piece is from Danzig Construction which the sales guy told me they like to call Buckeye granite. I bet they sell a lot of this for people making Ohio State basements.

 

"silver sparkle" granite

Next up what what I thought was a piece of granite from Distinctive Marble & Granite, but it is actually onyx, which is translucent which makes for a great light up bar, or something other cool counter. It is pricey at $120/square foot, and doesn’t wear or stand up as well as granite or quartz but wow does it have some pizzazz!

Last but not least I stopped by a booth that had very cool solar powered vents and 21st century daylight options.  Think sunlights for 2020, they are called Solatube and allow beautiful natural light into interior rooms.  Capital City Daylighting has a whole series for bathrooms, hallways, kitchens, and living spaces.  Check out their website for better pictures, but here is what the outside of the Solatube looks like that sit on the outside roof and allow light in.

Lots of other cools things I saw like custom sheds, eclipse fabric umbrellas for outdoor spaces, and some beautiful landscaping and hardscape work.  I highly suggest taking time to visit one of the many home expos in Columbus if you are considering any updating or just want to see the latest and greatest!

 Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

I was going through my pictures on my phone yesterday thanks to some fun pictures while showing houses over the weekend and came up with this one from the summer I’d forgotten about.

Nothing says great curb appeal like a basket pretending to grow a house light out of it.  I think at this point, we’d judged the inside of the house without even seeing it.  My people weren’t basket people so the house didn’t bode well for them.  As much as I would like to tell you that people look past your decorating and cosmetics when they are looking for a home, most of them don’t.  If your decorating tastes run very eclectic or niched you may want to consider toning it down for the sake of selling your home.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

Central Ohio saw 19,956 single family and condominium home sales during the year 2011. This market had 19,700 residential home sales the previous year which put 2011 just 1.3 percent behind 2010 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.

“We were neck and neck with 2010 home sales going in to December,” said Jim Coridan, 2012 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “But sales fell flat during the holidays so we ended the year just over one percent below the previous year.”

“Considering 2010 included above average sales due to the last six months of the home buyer tax credits, we’re still pretty pleased.”

July through November showed healthy increases in sales, anywhere from seven to 23 percent more than the previous year. But December home sales dropped to 1,347 representing an 8.9 percent drop from the 1,479 sales in December of 2010 and ending hopes that 2011 would outsell 2010.

The number of homes for sale in the market continued to decline during 2011 helping to bring the local market back into balance. The total number of homes for sale at the end of the year (11,398) was 28.8 percent lower than the previous year (16,019).

“This is great news for central Ohio,” adds Coridan. “Inventory during the housing boom years escalated sometimes reaching over 30 percent more than is customary for the central Ohio housing market. Since then, REALTORS® have been struggling to sell the excess homes as buyers dwindled.”

The lower inventory brought the months supply under control. A healthy market has a 6.5 to 7-month supply of homes, meaning if no new homes were added to the market, it would take about 6.5 or 7 months to sell all the available homes.

The drop in listings and elevated sales during the second half of 2011 brought the year-end months supply down to 6.6, more in keeping with levels seen during 2005. During the last few years, the months supply has regularly been in the double digits and was as high as 12.5 in November 2008.

Homes spent an average of 100 days on the market during 2011, a reduction of four days from the average time to sell a home in 2010.

The average sale price of a home in 2011 was $156,428 which is 2.2 percent lower than the average price of homes sold in 2010 ($160,020).

School districts experiencing the highest home sales in 2011 included Columbus, South-Western (Galloway & Grove City), Olentangy, Hilliard, Westerville, Dublin, Worthington, Groveport Madison and New Albany.

Cities averaging the highest home sale prices included New Albany, Dublin, Riverlea, Bexley, Upper Arlington, German Village, Grandview Heights and downtown Columbus.

Click here to view the December sortable housing market report by area.
Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Athens, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingum, Perry and Ross Counties.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

One lucky reader at Shanna’s Blog on All Things Real Estate is going to win 2 tickets to the Build, Remodel & Landscape Expo Home Improvement Show at Columbus Convention Center  in Columbus, Ohio.  The show runs Friday-Sunday, January 27-29, 2012.  To enter, just leave a comment below.

Extra Entries: (You must leave a separate comment for each extra entry)

• Blog about this giveaway and post a link to your blog post in the comments below (2 entries)
• Comment on any other non-giveaway post on this blog (1 entry)
• Follow SLafontaine on Twitter (1 entry)
• “Like” Shanna Lafontaine, GRI-Real Estate Professional on Facebook (1 entry)

Giveaway Rules: Giveaway ends Wednesday, January 25th at 11:59 am EST. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only. All entries must have a valid email in blog profile or leave email address in comments.  The winner will be selected by random.org and will have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

Whether your looking for a multi-million dollar home or something a little bit more modest, I’d love to help you.  Send me a message or call me and I’d be happy to meet with you, no hassle and help you plan your home buying experience.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

(If you can’t see the video, please click HERE.)

Educating consumers has always been so important to me because educated consumers make better (think easier) clients, so what started out as a brochure for my personal clients has turned into an eBook for consumers to help guide you through the steps of buying a home in greater Columbus.  I’m sure most of this applies to a lot of areas and most of Ohio, but remember that real estate is hyper-local, so I’ve written this for central Ohio specifically.

Sign up below to receive Free Buyer’s Guide: Your First Home an 8 page eBook that will guide you from finding a Realtor all the way through closing and all the important steps in between.  I’ve also included my most important tips for each stage.

 Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

Check out SFGate for Unsexy House From 2012 Edition.

Here is a bonus picture, just because I’m feeling nice today.

Which is worse, only 3/4 of the house or the blur?  I can’t decide.Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.

With 2011 almost over and looking forward to 2012, I thought it would be nice to take a look at 2011 and see what posts preformed the best with my readers.  I decided to divide the posts into two sections since I talk about Columbus and local things that are non-real estate related and then obviously, I talk about real estate.  

Non-Real Estate

1. IHOP Coming to Hilliard
2. Sawmill Road IHOP Coming Soon
3. New Restaurants Coming to Sawmill Rd
4. Extreme Home Makeover Home Edition Coming to Ohio
5. Organic Grocery to Open at Polaris

Real Estate

1. Showing Houses Bathroom Funny
2. #3 in RE/MAX Central & Northern Ohio!
3. 15 Items Not to Have Lying Out in Your House During Showings
4. To Fence or Not to Fence?
5. What Happens When a Home Appraisal Comes in Low?

I think one thing is obvious, people in Columbus are serious about their restaurants!  Thanks for supporting the the blog in 2011 and I look forward to creating more quality content in 2012.  What was your favorite blog post of 2011?Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.