As you know I love giving clients and readers of this blog a “heads up,” so here you go again!

By the end of the week this classic Shandon bungalow will hit Columbia’s real estate market. This attractive all brick, corner lot home features around 1,500 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. Check out that roof line.

3403 Wheat Street is the on the corner of Wheat and Ott. Only two blocks from “The Devine Street Corridor,” the “Wheat Street” location speaks for itself. It gets better. 3403 Wheat is about a one’ish minute walk to EarthFare and CVS, and a five minute walk to MoMo’s, Zas, Cantina 76, and Henry’s. If you’re a Shandon enthusiast and “like to do stuff,” this house is a winner.

I’ll post more pics in a few days, but in the meantime if you or anyone you know would like to know more about this classic Shandon bungalow please call 803-758-1669, or email fjones@cbunited.com or amandaqpayne@live.com for more details or to schedule a showing.

Thank you!

FJ

Having just typed about the return of “The Hotsheet,” this post gives me a prime opportunity to illustrate how awesome it is for it to be back. Here’s why: While many Realtors wouldn’t think of advertising friendly competitor’s listings on their blogs or websites, I don’t mind at all. After all, I used to get told pretty frequently, “I like how you put them all up there,” which was music to my ears. Step two, and what I’m actually getting at – Our buyer clients and/or readers of this blog know of our listings before anyone else, and before the homes for sale even have a chance to hit “The Hotsheet,” or any other website. Sellers love it. Buyers love it. Win/Win. Enter the home above.

On Monday morning 232 Walker Street (between Duncan and Monroe) will hit Downtown Columbia’s real estate market. At over 2,600 sq. feet, this Shandon home has an open floor plan, modern kitchen with granite slab and new backsplash, an awesome screened porch complete with embedded hot tub, large deck, fully fenced backyard, covered parking, circular driveway, and a private master bath that looks and feels like it belongs in a sleek hotel suite. It’s nice.

This section of Walker Street is right in the middle of Columbia’s popular Shandon neighborhood. If you know Shandon well, you may be aware of the vacant lot for sale on the corner of Duncan and Walker. This house is right next door. It’s a desireable spot, to say the least.

If you or anyone you know would like to know more or view this home, please call 803-758-1669 or email fjones@cbunited.com or amandaqpayne@live.com.

I’ll post a link when it hits the market, and more photos as Amy sends them to me. The pic above is just a quick camera phone drive-by shot.

Thank you!

FJ

As incredible as 2012 was for our little real estate team, we’re tapping it off with a stellar listing…on the very last day.

While I don’t want to give too many details away before it hits the syndicated sites like www.Realtor.com or www.Zillow.com, the pics above are a pretty good clue that an awesome property is about to hit the Columbia, S.C. real estate market.

Some readers may recognize the house immediately as I sold it a few years back, albeit it’s in a completely different level of luxury this go’round.

Stay tuned for more details.  For a few more hints, the home is on one of the “River Streets” in Wales Garden and sports an owner’s suite a celebrity would enjoy.

Sure ’nuff, it might be the coolest house to hit the 29205 real estate market in a long time.

More to come…

FJ

If we’re friends on Facebook, you may have noticed I attended Marcus Lattimore’s “Happy Birthday/Get Well” party Monday afternoon.   As I approached the event, I was more and more impressed with every step.

Here’s where I’m coming from with this.  I loved my four years at USC, and thoroughly enjoy living so close to campus (about two blocks).  I attend almost every home game (or in a parking lot somewhere), and casually attend away games.  That said, I don’t pretend to be near the die hard football fan many of my friends are.  However, this Marcus Lattimore episode has bothered me, big time.

Admittedly, I haven’t been to every game this year, and (regretfully) didn’t attend “College Game Day” at The Horseshoe when ESPN was here for the UGA game.  I did feel compelled, however, to attend this event for Marcus.  After all, given the venue was four blocks from my office, how bothered would I have truly been if I didn’t get off my a** for a few minutes to celebrate this young man who has now given two knees, perhaps to the the peril of a multi-million dollar contract to our Alma mater?  It just didn’t make sense to me not to attend, and I’m glad I did.

I think it would be awesome if he could tote the ball for the Gamecocks again, but in the grand scheme of things Gamecock football isn’t what’s on the top of my mind.  The #2 thing that was stuck in my head was his future, or lack thereof, at the next level of football.  Ugh.  Just, UGH!! The pics/video of his mother compounded this exponentially.

On Sunday morning, however, the thing that bothered me so much is the vision of Marcus sitting up on the field (before the trainers arrived to lay him down) looking down at his leg.  If you remember, the time between the end of the USC vs. Tenn game and the next day, rumors were swirling that his femur was broken, all four ligaments were torn apart, and that his athletic career was over.  Again, I couldn’t shake the vision out of my head imagining the thoughts Marcus must have had looking down at his mangled leg.  Once again, the video of his mom watching was just heart ripping.

By 2:00 PM on Sunday, we heard at least a hope of good news. This made things marginally better, but leading up to that had us all welling up in our chests for the young man.

I’ve never met Marcus Lattiimore, and may never.  However, for the reasons above (and that I’ve heard time and again that he’s an awesome human being) I wanted to drop everything today to attend this particular event, even for a few minutes.

The pic above is a quick snapshot of the crowd around 5:15ish.  I wish I’d thought to bring the fish eye or wide angle lens, as the pic doesn’t do the scene justice.  I have no idea how many were in attendance, but at the time I snapped this shot, Gamecock/Lattimore fans were still walking up the brick side walk in droves.

Side note: What the University of Tennessee did on Saturday afternoon was first class, and still has folks all around the country spellbound.  Like everyone else, I’ve never seen that before and it speaks volumes to the admiration Marcus Lattimore has nationally.  I especially was impressed how a few of the UT players made their way all the way up to the cart.  It was a gruesome scene for Marcus Lattimore, but a grand theater of sportsmanship.

This may be a little out of the ordinary, but given I prefer the blog be a beacon of information as opposed to a personal sales source, I’m going with it.

The house in the picture above, on Portobello Rd in Lake Katherine, hit the market today. As I don’t represent the seller, I don’t know much about it (yet), other than it has 2,837 sq. feet, with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, and the asking price is $425,000.

Portobello is a popular street and homes don’t often hit the market here. If you or anyone you know would like to check it out, give us a ring or email fjones@cbunited.com or amandaqpayne@live.com.

As I typed above, this isn’t my listing. However, it’s probable that just as many buyers read this blog as sellers, and therefore I feel compelled to keep good information “out there,” as long as I disclose what’s going on. After all, the seller wants an offer, and the listing agent wants what’s best for the seller. If this blog is the vessel that produces that, then there you go! Moreover, the info will be on all the syndicated sites (Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia) any day now.

Another note: I know of a home coming to market in King’s Grant in the $625,000 range. Nice one, on an interior cul-de-sac lot.

Thank you!

FJ

PS: I doubt the little red corvette in the photo comes with the sale!

While I’d love to tap this keyboard about everything that went right this past weekend in Columbia, SC, I fully recognize that readers don’t necessarily need “Deep Thoughts, @ Realtor” with every blog post. That said, I’ll type two fast ones…

1)  Everyone likes an fantastic photograph. They’re the ones that make us look over the entire image, and even the four corners to see if we can find the ‘story’ it’s telling. Of all the pics I’ve seen from the UGA weekend, the two above are my favorites. They may be a little stretched because I’m not a sizing expert, but you get the idea. Scroll up and look around a little. They’re good.

2)  Our friends @ Clemson like to proclaim that their teams entrance is “The most exciting 25 seconds in college football.” It’s not.

Williams-Brice Stadium jumping to “Sandstorm”, combined with the new video on the “Beast Board” and crazy-loud well-smoked “2001”, is probably as good or better than any program or franchise (college or pro) in the country. Mix this cocktail with a 7:00 PM start time, and that pretty much does it. Add the emotion of what happened before the band took the field this weekend… that’s it. Argument over.

Like the trend the University of Oregon set with their uniforms, I fully expect other big-time football schools to step up their pre-game entrances using USC as the standard. To be clear, I haven’t been to too many games outside of Williams-Brice. That said, I’ve been to UGA, UNC, Tennessee, and Clemson (many times) which is an OK snapshot (especially given Clemson claims to be the best). In short, the folks that make “The Show” at Williams-Brice Stadium have produced the flagship atmosphere for all others to emulate.

Don’t get me wrong, Clemson puts on a good show (I’m from Anderson, and grew up a Clemson fan). The bagillion orange balloons, “The Hill,” and the booming cannon can get a Clemson crowd fired up. Even so, it’s just not the same. Sure, I’m biased, but I’m confident I have a good handle on this one. Again, Williams-Brice is as good as it gets.

I’ll bet schools start looking for ways to rival USC’s entrance.  After all, the energy is over the top, and on some level must matter to four and five star recruits.