Special offer

Alexander City, AL Real Estate News

There are now many bank owned foreclosures or REO properties on the market at Lake Martin. We are no different from anywhere else in the country in that respect. What is different about Lake Martin foreclosures is the curious choice that some banks or mortgage companies make when selecting a broker or real estate company.  I have talked to quite a few lately, and have compiled a few quick reasons why banks will struggle to unload their REO inventory at Lake Martin: 1.  Your agent is not a member of the Lake Martin MLS click here to read the other 3 reasons on my blog Lake Martin Voice
Comments 1
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
The waterfront property sales in the Lake Martin MLS* ended the year by tying 2007’s December sales of 4. When we looked at November 2008 sales for Lake Martin, we saw that 2008 monthly sales were starting to beat 2007.  How did we finish the year? To answer this question, and see a lot more graphs and analysis, CLICK HERE for my blog Lake Martin Voice  
Comments 0
CNBC re-ran the story on HealthSouth founder and former CEO Richard Scrushy - On a show called “American Greed.”  Not exactly the sort of bio that any businessman wants. Every story I have ever read or watched about Scrushy inevitably mentions his “Lake Martin mansion.” Don’t get me wrong, it is a mansion all right.  By almost anyone’s standards. CLICK HERE to go to my lake martin blog to read more
Comments 1
On Friday January 23, 2009 the Lake Martin waterfront home of 216 Harrison Road, Dadeville, Alabama (map here) will be auctioned off on the steps of the Tallapoosa County Courthouse, downtown Dadeville. This is a rare type of auction in that, as far as I can tell, it is NOT a property tax auction.  It it NOT a home being auctioned by a private auctioneer, so therefore it has NOT been heavily promoted or advertised.  The only promotion I could find has been the customary notification in the legal section of the Dadeville Record. Click here to go to my blog Lake Martin Voice to get a copy of the official legal announcement that last ran in the Dadeville Record on January 1, 2009.
Comments 1
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Lake Martin’s newest deli and grocery - Catherine’s Market at Russell Crossroads - officially opened on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.  I went by there today for lunch to check out the inside of the store and deli.  It was really nice, a first class operation. As advertised, the market section had lots of cool, higher end grocery items.  The wine shop was well stocked.  I even found my favorite Rioja. I didn’t scrutinize the meat counter very closely, but I am sure that it is nice. Click here to see more pics and get the menu from my real estate blog Lake Martin Voice.
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Since I have a waterfront lot listed for sale in Lake Martin’s The Ridge, I get a lot of questions about the various amenities of the Ridge. One of the huge benefits to owning a waterfront home or town home in the Ridge is access to all of the “stuff.” Though I have been in the neighborhood countless times, I had never been by road to The Ridge’s Beach Park before yesterday.  It was really nice, it has a big covered pavilion, changing / rest rooms, and, of course, a big beach.  The water view is of Lake Martin icons Chimney and Acapulco Rock Islands. While I was there, I also hiked a bit on some Ridge Trails (download a map). The developer, Russell Lands, has done a really nice job about incorporating off the water features here.  There are tons of mulch lined trails through the woods, ...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
One of the great things about working around Lake Martin is that occasionally you bump into some really crazy folks. The other day I met Kyle Walton and a bunch of his buddies who are professional wakeskaters and /or wake boarders. click here to watch the video on my blog Lake Martin Voice
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
My family recently moved to a new-to-us home (fyi my “old” home sold in 2 days).  The new home is on a septic tank system, whereas the old one was tied in to the sewer system of the City of Montgomery.  This got me to thinking about a claim my father has long made, that is, those “flushable” wipes they sell these days may be flushable, but they are bad for septic systems as they do not properly disintegrate like toilet paper does. I did some research, then an experiment.  The results made me immediately think about homeowners on Lake Martin, as I would hazard a guess that 99% of waterfront homes on Lake Martin are on some sort of septic system. THE EXPERIMENT:  Do “flushable” wipes degrade like toilet paper? Modus: Following the suggestion from this site, I took 3 separate Tupperware bo...
Comments 1
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
  In the November issue of Lake Magazine - Lake Martin Edition -  Nikki Reeves sent out an email to interview local real estate agents. The topic was the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors (LMAAR).  She also interviewed the past presidents of LMAAR about the past, present, and future of the Lake Martin real estate area.  You can click on the above link to read the other folks’ quotes. Of course, I am never shy about supplying my honest thoughts.  I sent an email to Nikki with the below. The part that she used is highlighted in yellow.  After reading the article, I can see why she didn’t use the other parts of my quotes.  They wouldn’t have fit in with the tenor and tack of the others. Here’s the text of my email: Nikki- some thoughts on LMAA...
Comments 1
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
One of my listings for sale is 302 Villas On The Harbor, a 1 bed 1 bath condo in Lake Martin’s Stillwaters Community.  The Villas On The Harbor sits right next door to Harbor Pointe Marina, and Harbor Pointe Condos. I got a challenging email the other day from Ron Botterbusch, Broker of RB Commercial Properties in Montgomery.  He said: Click here to read what he asked on my blog Lake Martin Voice
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
If I drive directly to my office from home, I never glimpse Lake Martin. So sometimes (read Mondays) when I am headed to the office, and need some inspiration or a reminder about what I am really doing, I drive to Kowaliga Bridge, take in the view, and turn around refreshed.  Today it was really helpful, especially after hearing so much bad news lately about the real estate industry. If you talk to families that have owned or rented Lake Martin homes for a long time, you will never hear them say, “boy we enjoyed the lake house, except for the late 1970s’ oil crisis” or “golly, the failure of the savings and loan banks in 1987 really screwed up my weekends at Lake Martin.”  Nope. Instead I hear comments like “that lake house has been the only place I can really relax” or “my favorite pic...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
To respond to some readers’ comments, I thought I would publish a few more statistics from the Lake Martin MLS* waterfront home sales for August 2008. Before I get into it, let me first caution all readers not to draw broad conclusions about the Lake Martin real estate market from the following two graphs.  I still maintain that looking too deeply into monthly sales statistics may be misleading, since we have such a very small market in terms of number of sales.  It just doesn’t make for a very good sampling pool when there are only 20 sales. So again I stress, this is for illustrative purposes only.  Keep in mind that you are only looking at 20 sales, only in the month of August. The chart below makes a great case study as to why I am loathe to use trend analysis on monthly sales stati...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Lake Martin MLS* waterfront home sales did not match the sun and fun for August 2008. July 2008 waterfront home sales turned in a winner, beating 2007’s mark and giving us hope of the start of a rally. To read the results and see my 3 charts, CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY BLOG LAKE MARTIN VOICE
Comments 0
If you’re wanting to find out more about The Preserve at Stoney Ridge on Lake Martin, please see the below video I shot to show the amenities, just click the play arrow below: CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON MY BLOG LAKE MARTIN VOICE
Comments 0
I was over in the Pleasure Point area the other day, going by two homes for sale that I have listed over there. One is on Claytons Lane and the other in on Captains Road. If you are ever riding around in that section of Blue Creek, off of Tallapoosa County Road 34, you might find it interesting that there is an old cemetery off of, you guessed it, Old Cemetery Road. I snapped these pics: Click here for the pictures on my blog LAKE MARTIN VOICE.
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Lake Martin Voice readers have noticed this for a while now, but we have recently undergone a redesign. I did this to try and keep my blog on the positive tip of usability and reader friendliness, without indulging myself in a bunch of geeky add ons that distract. That being said, by far the most popular element of the redesign as been the new way to search the Lake Martin MLS. CLICK HERE TO READ THE POST ON MY BLOG LAKE MARTIN VOICE
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
To continue the post I did yesterday on Lake Martin’s  Deadening Alpine Trail, I wanted to include these photos of the Cherokee Ridge Trail. The Cherokee Ridge Trail is also maintained by the (duh) Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail Association.  Its trailhead is on the Scenic Overlook, on Overlook Drive off of Highway 50, just east of Martin Dam.  It’s kind of near Ghost Hollow and Whiskey Ridge if you know where they are. The Scenic Overlook offers stupendous views of Lake Martin, looking west, all the way to Kowaliga Bridge, with a little bit of a vision to the south (Martin Dam) and the northeast towards Chimney Rock. If you ever want to get a sense of the VASTness of Lake Martin, head here.  Take a picnic, there are lots of little tables and lots of paved parking.  From there you can driv...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Yesterday I was showing homes for sale in a Lake Martin neighborhood called The Harbor.  It is a development that is about eight or nine years old.  It is located off of Overlook Drive, just east of the Martin Dam, off of Highway 50. I was through around 6 PM, and the sun was starting to set.  The air was cool, not very humid, basically it was perfect weather. As I was leaving, I decided to stop by the trailhead of the Deadening Alpine Trail.  It is a 3.6 mile loop trail and part of the Cherokee Ridge trail system of Lake Martin.  This system is maintained by the Cherokee Ridge Trail Association.  The trail runs over land owned by Alabama Power.  The trailhead itself is accessed by going into the neighborhood of The Harbor, then taking a left on Long Branch.  The drive to the parking lo...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Russell Lands is building Russell Crossroads - that will be, as they put it,  “a ‘town center’ in the heart of the Russell Lands family of developments on  44,000 acre Lake Martin.” It is being built on Highway 63, just north of Windermere Road.  The town center will serve as resource for the neighborhoods of The Ridge, Windermere, Windover, Trillium, Willow Point, and for that matter, anywhere else on Lake Martin.  Judging from their plans, and the players that they have committed, my candid take is that this will be very good for the Lake Martin community.  There will be a high end grocery called Catherine’s Market, which will also have a deli.  The first phase will also include The Springhouse Restaurant - “fine dining in a casual atmosphere.”  Future plans call for a Hot and Hot Res...
Comments 0
By John Coley
(Coley Real Estate)
Lake Martin waterfront sales surged in July.The Lake Martin MLS* shows 15 closed sales in July, up from 7 in June, and 36% greater than July 2007 sales of 11.   Is this the rally point Lake Martin sellers have been praying for? Will this surge carry into August and the fall? Only time will tell. Buyers of Lake Martin real estate don't need to worry, there are plenty of properties still for sale.  Even though the number of waterfront homes sold rose, so did the "active listings" aka homes that are "For Sale" rose also.  The active listings in July 2008 was 527 as compared to 510 in June 2008. FOR MORE GRAPHS AND INFO, please go to my blog LAKE MARTIN VOICE
Comments 0
Explore Alexander City, AL
Alexander City, AL Real Estate Professionals