Open a newspaper or turn on the television, and it’s not hard to notice that the housing market isn’t doing so hot. But despite the slump, one home builder has something to smile about.

Atlanta-based John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods was ranked highest in customer satisfaction among new home builders in Atlanta and Charlotte in the 2008 New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study recently released by J.D. Power and Associates. This marks the second consecutive year that Wieland has ranked highest in the Atlanta and Charlotte market customer satisfaction studies.

“We’re excited to see these remarkable results for the second year in a row,” says Eric Price, Wieland president and CEO. “It’s an important achievement for our company,” “We’ve always maintained and will continue to maintain a strong focus on quality and our customer experience at every level of our organization. We’re grateful for the confidence our customers place in us. It will always be our goal to deliver the highest level of quality everyday.”

Now in its 12th year, the J.D. Power study measures nine factors that drive overall customer satisfaction (listed in order of importance):

• Builder warranty and customer service
• Construction manager
• Builder’s sales staff
• Home readiness
• Price and value
• Workmanship and materials
• Recreational facilities
• Builder’s design center and location

The study’s rankings are compiled from responses by new home buyers who have lived in their homes an average of four to 18 months.

John Wieland homes
Founded by John Wieland in 1970, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods is currently building in 60 neighborhoods with operations in Atlanta; Charlotte and Raleigh, NC; Charleston, SC; and Nashville, TN. In its 35-year history, the company has won more than 600 awards for excellence, including the industry’s top award, America’s Best Builder in 2005. Also named National Builder of the Year and a winner of the National Housing Quality Award, Wieland is the Southeast’s leading builder of move-up homes. Widely recognized for excellence in home design, quality and neighborhood planning, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods offers a selection of home and townhomes from the $200s to over $ 1 million.

So from all of us here at Homescape.com, congrats to John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods for a job well done!

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

You may have recently read about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) loan guarantee of $10 million of taxpayer dollars to revitalize the Double Oaks neighborhood in Charlotte, NC. A little fact about the HUD loan that isn’t mentioned in the government press release is that Double Oaks was one of the most blighted areas in Charlotte. The area was project housing at its worst, plagued by drugs, violence, gangs, and in the middle of it all were good folks with nowhere else to live.

What $10 million buys
The $10 million loan guaranteed to the city of Charlotte will allow the city to purchase 70 acres in the Double Oaks neighborhood. The loan is part of a $120 million project that will create new housing and retail space in the area. This purchase will complete the site assembly of 98 acres in preparation for the eventual development of 108,000 square feet of retail space and 940 new apartments, condominiums and single-family homes.

HUD’s loan guarantee will leverage $15 million in other public funding and $95 million in private sector investment to stimulate development of a new mixed-use community that includes a new grocery store, retail establishments, office space and mixed-income housing.

Plans by city officials to tear the exiting housing complexes down and, in the fashion of all big government, make it better themselves. City officials have said the project will involve a combination of public and private funding to make this a utopian neighborhood with a mix of low- and middle-income housing. While it sounds great on paper, the real question is, will it work?

Making it work
I was skeptical the first time Charlotte city officials embarked on a similar housing development project. They tore down the old projects at Earle Village, another area of urban blight, and replaced them with a townhouse community, where a certain number of units were allocated to low-income subsidized households and the remainder were sold to middle-income, mostly young professionals who had an eye for improving the community.

The new development has thus far created positive growth for the area. It’s been a few years since the community first broke ground, but crime levels haven’t returned to the dangerous levels of when the area was dominated by government-subsidized housing projects. Despite what some critics argued in the past, the low-income folks aren’t at war with the middle-income ones, and in fact, the lower-income folks are most likely being encouraged in their attempts to better themselves by living near other families working hard to create safer, more productive communities.

Do I like big government? No. Do I want private enterprise to fix the problems of society? Yes. But sometimes it takes a vision of shared responsibility to make a difference in an area and in people’s lives.

Want to know more about real estate in and around Charlotte, NC? Visit Charlotterealestatevoice.com or Leighbrownandassociates.com.

Are you looking to pack your bags and settle down somewhere else? To help your home search, check out Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine’s 2008 rankings of best cities in the country to live, work and play.

The 2008 Best Cities report looked for areas that have strong economies, abundant jobs, a reasonable cost of living and a thriving entertainment and leisure scene.

Here are the top 5 cities selected:

No. 1 Houston

Houston has reclaimed its title as energy capital of the U.S. and added aerospace, technology and medical companies to the mix, generating more than 100,000 jobs in 2007. Not only does the Houston metro area lead the nation in job growth, but also its cost of living stands well below the national average. Housing prices run half those of other metro areas its size. The median home price in Houston is $150,000, according to S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index.

View homes for sale in Houston

No. 2 Raleigh, NC

Raleigh remains a work in progress, but 2008 should be the turning point for this fast-growing southern city. The city’s new convention center will open this year, as will an adjoining Marriott hotel and the city’s tallest building, RBC Plaza. The Royal Bank of Canada’s U.S. headquarters is the kind of real estate local officials are seeking. The city has plans for more mix of office, condos and retail space. The average home price in Raleigh is $236,000, according to S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index.

View homes for sale in Raleigh

No. 3 Omaha, NE

Omaha today offers more than just sprawling farmland and roaming cows. This Midwest city continues to expand westward. Venture 10 miles southwest and you’ll come to Millard, a suburb known for its top-rated, nationally recognized public-school system. It’s a peaceful community with well-manicured lawns, sprawling subdivisions and shopping malls. Home prices are affordable, too. For example, a 3,000-square-foot, 4-bedroom home sells for about $350,000, while a 2,000-square-foot, 3-bedroom home goes for about $200,000.

View homes for sale in Omaha

No. 4 Boise, Idaho

Boise is the perfect destination for the nature enthusiasts and outdoorsman. From its world-class ski resorts to its pristine biking trails and rivers, the city does not lack in leisure activities. For those in search of a small-but-happening feel, the burgeoning suburb of Eagle is the place to go. This former farm town is known for its rich soil, which is ideal for the cultivation of red-wine grapes. The median home price in Boise is $232,000, according to Housingtracker.net.

View homes for sale in Boise

No. 5 Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs is enjoying a resurgence of national recognition for its quality of life and abundant job opportunities. A strong military presence — with U.S. Army and Air Force operations, as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy — adds fuel to the economy, as does the aerospace and defense sector attracted by the military. Customer service and information technology are taking off, with companies such as FedEx, T. Rowe Price and Progressive Insurance all adding jobs. You can buy a 4-bedroom, turn-of-the-century home a couple of miles north of downtown for $235,000, or a 5-bedroom, contemporary house near the Broadmoor hotel and the country club for $450,000.

View homes for sale in Colorado Springs

Other U.S. cities that rounded the top 10 include: Austin, TX; Fayetteville, AR; Sacramento, CA; Des Moines; and Provo, UT.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

If I read about “instant equity” in the Charlotte, NC, MLS or see it in someone’s advertisement one more time, I may just lose it. We as real estate professionals often wonder why in the world we’re not taken seriously. May I suggest that we have done this to ourselves? If a house truly has instant equity, you could turn around and sell it again the next day, heck the same afternoon, for more money.

While homes with instant equity could be realistic in some neck of the woods, with a few exceptions — and I mean few — that scenario really doesn’t exist here in Charlotte. A house can, and will sell if it’s properly priced and is in good condition. I think that’s a no-brainer. But our buyers are savvy. They’re shopping the available inventory to make an educated decision about a purchase. But there are some buyers, bless their hearts, that aren’t the quickest on their feet and may fall victim to really bad advice from some builder or agent looking to cash in.

Misleading the buyer
I’m just tired of folks who are advertising “$30,000 in instant equity,” when in reality, what they’re really pitching is a price reduction. Builder reps seem to be notorious with this kind of marketing. In their pretty little heads, they are really convinced that they are offering the deal of the century on a new construction. But this type of marketing can confuse buyers. Even some savvy buyers see the advertisement, and they start to think about how they can use the extra cash they’ll get back as their home appreciates even more. Aside from misleading the buyers with false advertising, the buyer starts to forget that it’s okay to negotiate with the builder to get an even better deal on the home. I'll say it again: It’s NOT instant equity. It’s a PRICE REDUCTION.

If a home didn’t sell, and you decide to tack on a lower price tag to lure in buyers, it makes it a price reduction. Call a spade a spade, and quit confusing people and creating false impressions of hope. If they’re getting a fair deal on a house, that’s a good market. We all want higher equity over time. But it ain’t INSTANT!

Want to know more about real estate in and around Charlotte NC? Visit Charlotterealestatevoice.com or Leighbrownandassociates.com.

Selling a house is stressful. I don’t think anyone who’s been through it will deny that. No matter how great your listing agent is or how perfectly staged it is or how low you’re asking price, if you won’t let buyers in to see it, they can’t and won’t buy it.

The real estate market in Charlotte, NC, is healthier compared to most across the country. We currently have about a five-and-a-half-month inventory available marketwide, according to the Carolina Multiple Listing Services. Any numbers geek will tell you that this inventory level indicates a balanced market. But let’s break it down into a number that means something to you. As of May 5, there are 2,1606 active listings in our MLS, which means that if you’re selling a home in Charlotte, you’ll have competition.

How to keep a buyer
It also means that when you get a call from Centralized Showing Service (can I tell you how delightful it is to have an MLS-wide appointment desk? Woo hoo!), you need to allow that showing. If you say NO to the showing, there is no guarantee that the buyer will come back. When they have plenty of other choices available, it’s just not likely. Now, I know that each home is unique (I will not get on my soapbox about Vinyl Villages in this post), and that each seller feels they have the ONLY perfect house on the market. But the fact of the matter is, when you have competition that are also well marketed, staged and priced aggressively, you will lose out if the buyer can’t get in the door.

As an agent who works with both sellers and buyers in Charlotte and surrounding areas (not on the same house, though. See my post about how much I don’t like dual agency, if you’re curious), I can tell you that one of the most annoying phone calls to get back from the appointment desk is the classic: “The seller has rescheduled your appointment from … to ….”

Perspective buyers should know that the showing agent and seller could have a packed schedule. It’s important that they shouldn’t insist on having a tour time changed on a whimsy. If buyers were plentiful and listings were scarce, it would be a different discussion. But when I’m out showing a property to buyers who must make a decision that very day, we don’t have the luxury of changing our viewing times for each house, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to see everything.

Scheduling a showing
Case in point: I was showing a property last week in the luxury home community of Highgate in Weddington, NC, which is just over the Union County line (this is about 30 minutes’ south of uptown/downtown Charlotte, NC). My buyers were in town at the last minute, because their home in another state had sold and they were in panic mode, and they needed to find a house to complete the move. I gave a day’s notice on showings, which is a lot of notice in this area. One of the sellers wanted to reschedule my showing for later in the day. The trouble was that we would have been done in Highgate by that time and moved onto another community in the area. So we had to cancel and could not view that home.

Within a short time frame, the listing agent had called to apologize for the seller and was begging for us to view the home in our original showing window. The seller panicked when the realization hit that we might not be able to adjust to their schedule. We had already traveled a good distance away from the community at this point, and my clients had already found three homes they really liked, so they decided it wasn’t worth the aggravation to go back (yes, my buyers chose not to go back when offered that option).

If Mr. and Mrs. Seller are not 100 percent on board and cooperative with the buyer’s agent and showing agent, it’s hard for your house to sell. I know it’s a pain to keep that house clean and to get up and go cruise the area at the drop of a hat. But if you truly want to sell, you have to adjust to the market. Realize that your competition is also stressed out about showings, but they’re accommodating them.

Buyers are looking for motivation right now, and when you don’t want to cooperate for showings, it tells them that you are not motivated and not serious about selling. Truly, I WANT to sell your house. But you have to work with me on it.

Leigh Brown