Charlotte Homes for Sale
Nina Hollander
(704)779-0813

One of the first things homebuyers look for when shopping for North Carolina real estate is the layout of the house. Like the location of the house and its overall size, layout is one of the things about a home that cannot be changed without a very large time and money investment.

In the current Charlotte real estate market, many of the things that make a house unique – its paint color, flooring, the kitchen counters, and even the size or type of the windows – are being upgraded to entice buyers. But if your home has a restricting layout, which makes the house look smaller, darker, or inaccessible, you might have a difficult time making a “quick fix” to increase your chances of a fast sale.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to make your NC home for sale more appealing. If you do have a layout that might be sending out the wrong signals, you can try the following.

Remove the clutter. Staging your house is an important part of any home selling process, but never more so than when your layout might be confining or restrictive. Extra furniture, shelves, tables, and even the rack where you hang your coats all add to the inaccessibility of the house as a whole. By displaying your space as open and clearly as possible, you are allowing homebuyers to see the house through fresh eyes.

Add room dividers. A very long (or even a tiny) living room or a bathroom that is taken up almost entirely by a washer and dryer can be a difficult sell, because buyers might not see how the space is livable. Room dividers, or screens set up in strategic locations, are one of the tricks that decorators often rely on to maximize space, since they add clean lines and more storage opportunities.

Open up the entryway. Although this task might require a little bit of construction work on your part, opening up the home’s foyer to make it more appealing and inviting is often all you need to do to allow your home to shine. Most homebuyers make a decision about a house within the first 6 seconds, so you have to make those seconds really count.

Adjust your bedrooms. If your Waxhaw house has adjoining bedrooms, or if your Fort Mill condo has a bedroom right off the kitchen, you might want to re-market the space. Few people want to sleep in a room that offers reduced privacy, but if you stage it and/or list it as an office, a library, a playroom, or even an add-on, homebuyers might be more tempted.

The NC real estate market is on its way up, but selling a home can still be a challenge – especially if you own a challenging home. By taking a little extra time to adjust the way you see your house, as well as the way it is presented to others, it is possible sell that house faster and with a higher price point.

Charlotte continues to make the news (see our post of May 17th). Most recently we saw the following good news:

• Charlotte was ranked 10th for economic growth in the past 50 years according to the US Burea of Economic Analysis! And our “next door” neighbor, South Carolina, ranked 11th! For a complete report on economic growth rankings.
• Kiplinger.com named Charlotte among the 10 best cities for college graduates preparing to enter the work force.

If you’ve been thinking about moving to Charlotte contact Carolinas Realty Partners–we can help smooth the transition as well as help you find your dream home!

Charlotte has been in the news a lot in recent weeks! Here’s just a sample of just some of the news putting Charlotte into the spotlight as a great place to live:

• Forbes Magazine included Charlotte in its list of best places to retire, based on its favorable housing and living costs, temperate climate, traffic, and access to excellent medical care.
• Charlotte was ranked #4 among the 100 largest US metropolitan areas in the small-business vitality index. This ranking of Charlotte as a city offering the best climate for small business creation and development,  is up from #31 just one year ago.
• A recent study by the Business Journals showed America’s 100 largest metropolitan markets wield more economic clout than any other nation in the workd and that the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill area ranked #25 with a GMP of over $110 billion.
• Charlotte area is home to nine corportations on Fortune Magazine’s annual list of the top 500 US companies. These companies include: Bank of America, Duke Energy Corp. Lowe’s Cos, Inc., Nucor Corp., Family Dollar Stores, Goodrich Corp., SPX Corp., Wells Fargo.  
• Charlotte added 5,100 jobs during 2010, placing the region in the top 50 best performing metro areas in the US.
• Charlotte is one of three North Carolina cities recently named among the top 50 “most socially networked” cities in the US, according to Men’s Health Magazine.
• Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor show that salaries in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord region rank the seventh highest in the South with an average annual pay of $43,890.
• Charlotte’s population (731,424) grew 35.2% since the 2000 Census based on data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, grew 32.2%  (919,628) during this time period. North Carolina (9.5 million) state population grew by 18.5% since 2000.
• Charlotte has been selected as the host city for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, beating out Cleveland, St Louis, and Minneapolis. It’s expected that this will bring huge visibility to Charlotte, along with new jobs, visitor spending, and business investment.
• Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte has been named one of the 50 Best Children’s Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for its pediatric nephrology program. Levine Children’s is the only hospital in the Charlotte area, and one of only 76 hospitals nationwide, to be recognized in the 2011-12 rankings. Read more: Levine Children’s Hospital honored | Charlotte Business Journal
• Kiplinger.com has named Charlotte among the 10 best cities for college graduates planning to enter the workforce!

If you’ve been thinking about moving to Charlotte contact Carolinas Realty Partners–we can help smooth the transition as well as help you find your dream home!

• CNBC news recently ranked North Carolina as most improved among America’s Top States for Business and 4th best in ranking. This is a move up from 9th in rank in 2009. In 2008 and 2007, North Carolina ranked 6th and 5th, respectively. These great ranking is on top of the ranking given it by Site Selection Magazine as the state with the top business climate for the last eight out of nine years. CEO Magazine also ranked North Carolina as the second-best state for business this year.
• North Carolina ranks #3 for hospitality job growth according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, having added some 26,600 jobs in the hospitality industry since 2005.  The leisure and hospitality industries include restaurants, bars, hotels, motels, theatres, museums, and professional sports teams.
• Business Facilities Magazine recently ranked Charlotte #5 among large metro area for economic growth potential, as well as #5 among the most-wired cities. North Carolina was ranked #4 for economic growth potential, #5 in work-force training, and #6 in business climate.
• North Carolina ranks #14 among the states in the number of solar jobs with an estimated 1,033 workers employed in the state’s solar industry. Projections are that solar industry jobs in North Carolina will increase some 37% in 2011.
• Premier, Inc., the Charlotte-based health-care alliance was ranked as the 4th best place to work in health care by Modern Healthcare Magazine–up five rankings since last year. It was also ranked #2 among large companies with 1,000+ employees.
• Charlotte was just ranked as the 16th-best major U.S. market in which to search for a job in November by the JuJu.com Job Search Difficulty Index. This was a good improvement over Charlotte’s 21st place position in October. Helping Charlotte’s job numbers are recent announcements from Foundation Financial Group that they will add 30 jobs in their University City Mortgage sales center by end of the first quarter 2011; as well as Shaw Power Group’s announcement with Toshiba Corp. that they will add 225 jobs to the 1,100 already in Charlotte.
• Charlotte ranked #55 in “brainpower” by Portfolio.com in a survey of residents in the 200 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. North Carolina did well with Durham and Raleigh also ranking high.

This kind of news keeps us bullish on Charlotte and North Carolina… and can’t help but help our housing recovery in the months to come. For more information about Charlotte and Fort Mill real estate values contact Carolinas Realty Partners.

Lots of new jobs coming to the Charlotte and Fort Mill metro areas! More employment opportunities mean better home prices for Charlotte real estate.

• Supermetal Structures, Inc, a Canadian company based in Saint-Romouald, Quebec will bring its first U.S. manufacturing facility to York County along with 125 jobs. The company will spend some  $6.6 million to begin production in the former Worthington Steel facility off Interstate 77 near the town of Catawba.
• Japanese insurer, Sompo, is moving its New York operations to Charlotte, bringing 46 jobs to the area as part of its joint venture with  with Royal & SunAlliance USA in 2003.
• Mortgage lender, Foundation Financial Group, says it will hire 50 workers in Charlotte by year end as part of a company-wide expansion.  The new positions include entry-level and high-wage jobs in sales, telemarketing, management and licensed loan officers.Swiss energy giant ABB Group plans a $90 million cable manufacturing plant in Huntersville that will have about 100 employees. Construction of the Huntersville plant is slated to start soon, with the facility expected to open in 2012. The average annual wage for the new jobs will be $64,008.
• Printing-technology company DNP (Dai Nippon Printing) IMS America Corp. plans to invest $24.8 million to expand its operations in Concord during the next three years, creating 37 jobs in addition to the 97 currently there.  The average annual wage for the jobs will be $46,757, excluding benefits versus the Cabarrus County average of$32,396.
• ISIS Fund Services USA Inc. has selected Charlotte for its first U.S. office. ISIS, an international hedge fund administrator based in Bermuda, plans to open a full-service office in Ballantyne to serve domestic and offshore hedge funds. The Charlotte operation will spearhead a U.S. expansion. ISIS is the second hedge fund administrator to open a Charlotte office this year. In June, Citco Hedge Fund Services announced it would open a major operation here, with plans to hire 250 employees over the next five years. Those jobs will pay on average of more than $78,000 plus bebefits.
• LendingTree.com, headquartered in Charlotte’s Ballantyne area, is expanding its Charlotte workforce by an additional 40 positions with plans to increase new hires in the near term by a total of 75 new positions.

If you’d like more information about any of these companies’ plans to expand in the Charlotte metro market, contact Carolinas Realty Partners.

16% of Charlotte’s employers expect to hire more workers during the third quarter according to a recent Manpower, Inc. survey–a 4% improvement over the same period last year. At the same time, we have also seen some great new job announcements in the Charlotte area in recent weeks:

• The American Red Cross plans to hire 450 new employees in their new call center.
• Citco Fund Services plans to create 258 jobs over the next five years at an average salary of $78,000.
• Morgan Stanley plans to hire 50 new people on top of the 35 already here in Charlotte for its private banking operation.
• Supermetal, a Canadian metal fabricator, plans to open a plant in York County, SC with up to 200 new jobs in the next five years. They will
• Jo-Mar Spinning plans to startup a spinning and twisting operation in Belmont which will generate some 100 new jobs.
• Advanced Textile Solutions plans to hire 127 people when it opens a manufacturing facility in Caldwell County to produce bullet-proof vests for the military and upholstery for airline seats.
• General Mills plans to establish a lab operation at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis.
• Magna Composites  (a Canadian auto-parts company) plans to create 327 new jobs in the coming four years at three Charlotte-area plants with an average pay of over $33,000 + benefits.
• Clearwater Paper plans to build a new factory in Shelby that will create some 250 jobs over five years.
• Ally Bank, NACA, Zenta Mortgage Services and Citgo have announced a plan to create 2,400 new jobs in the next five years.
• Intelagrid, a smart-grid technology start-up copany in Virginia, has decided to put its software development division in Charlotte, beginning with a five person office and hoping to grow to a 12 person office within the next two years.

Chief Executive Magazine’s annual Best & Worst States survey, which measures business conditions in all 50 states ranked North Carolina as #2 in their list of top five states in which to do business. (North Carolina has improved its ranking from third and fourth place in 2008 and 2007 respectively.)

With Charlotte well-positioned for a strong comeback in terms of employment, housing in Charlotte’s metro area can’t but be positively impacted by all this great news!

Lots of good news on the jobs expansion front here in the Charlotte area these days and the types of companies/jobs expanding here will be providing a healthy dose of economic and employment diversification for our area. This type of economic diversification portends good news for our real estate market as well!

• American Red Cross will be undertaking a 240,000 sqaure foot expansion of its facility here, which will add some 267 new jobs in the near term and potentially 1,000 new jobs in the future.
• Siemens announced its second expansion in Charlotte in less than one year, which is expected to bring in 800+ jobs, $170 million in local investment over the next five years. These jobs are expected to pay $65,000 per year on average.
• Nutramax Laboratories and Nutramax Manufacturing in Maryland, which make health and nutrition products for both people and animals as announced plans to invest more than $12 million dollars in Lancaster County in South Carolina and expects to hire 200+ people over the next five years.

If you’re looking for a job in the Charlotte area, you should know about two upcoming job fairs.

The WBTV Road to Recovery Employment Expo is being held on Wednesay, April 28th from 11:00am till 3:00pm at the Concord Mills Mall in Concord, North Carolina. This event helps job seekers meet the key employers in the Charlotte area who are currently hiring.  Your can meet directly with hiring managers, as well as learn about local career opportunities. And this event is free for job seekers. Just come armed with your resume–both printed and digital copies.

WBTV is also providing an online way to upload your resume at www.CarolinaJobTracker.com, where you can create an account and upload your resume to the data base.

The IGNITESpring Job Fair 2010, sponsored by LocalJobs.com, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Workforce Development Board amongst others, is being held Tuesday, May 4th in the Circle Court at South Park Mall on Sharon Road.

This particular job fair targets sales representatives, nurses, engineers, software developers, accountants, finance, banking, IT professionals. Most positions will pay in the $50,000+ range. To register: www.regonline.com/ignitespring2010. The event is free for job seekers.

According to Forbes.com, the Charlotte metro area ranks as the 17th best in the country for business and careers. This is out of 200 metro areas studied/measured. Charlotte rankings among the 200 metro areas were as follows:

• Cost of doing business: #42
• Economic growth projected: #36
• Job growth projected: #31
• Educational attainment: #53
• Net migration: #7

Fortune magazine also came out with the Fortune 500 companies and their rankings for 2010.  North Carolina has 14 Fortune 500 companies, with 8  in the Charlotte area.  Bank of America, Lowes, Duke Energy, Nucor, Goodrich, Sonic Automotive, SPX>

A strong employment base is very important to the long term economic outlook for our area and should have dramatic impact on home values over time. More great reasons to buy a home in our area sooner rather than later!

There’s more great news on jobs in the Charlotte metro area! Hewitt Associates plan to add 463 new jobs in the next three years.  Hewitt provides human resources, healthcare, payroll, and retirement services. According to Hewitt, these new jobs coming to Charlotte will pay an average salary of just under $44,000. According to David Swift, Vice President at Hewitt: “Charlotte is a great location for us to expand our business due to the available talent pool.”

The Charlotte Business Journal also announced earlier this week that a deal may soon be signed to build an intermodal yard at the Charlotte International Airport. This deal has been in the making for 12 years and would have enormous economic impact on our area, bringing in more than $7 billion in increased business in the next two decades and many more new jobs.

All this jobs news will benefit our housing demand and market and if you’re thinking of relocating to Charlotte, its a wonderful place to live with a strong business climate and a great international airport.