So what’s the new Wilson facility like?  The first distinguishing factor is that it is part of the new development, New Park, off of Ray Thorington Road.  It is right behind the new Wilson Elementary School, and shares its gym with Wilson students during the morning hours.

Right now it has a gym, a weight room, a group exercise room (one class per day, M-F), and a Childwatch area.  It sits on 16.5 acres so there is room to expand – in the lobby are the site plans for other phases of development that include a pool and water park area.

Childwatch hours at the Wilson Y are 8:30-10:30 am and 4:30-7:00 am.  You can let your young children play in this area while you exercise. Y basketball teams are meeting in the gym on weeknights for practice.

One of the reasons the YMCA is such a big deal in Montgomery is the membership fee:  a family membership costs $59 a month ($100 sign up fee), and members can use all 15 facilities.  Members pay only 1/2 of the registration fee for sports programs, too.

For more information about a YMCA membership, go to ymcamontgomery.org.

It’s just not that simple.

The map above (from the Town of Pike Road website, click on it to enlarge) shows the patchwork that is east Montgomery County.  The map below (from the City of Montgomery website) details city trash pickup days, and on the lower right hand side of the map the patchwork of Montgomery City/Montgomery County/Town of Pike Road is evident here, too.

How does this affect the east Montgomery house hunter?

For example, you could research a home on Saw Tooth Loop in the Woodland Creek subdivision.  The neighborhood is across Vaughn Road from Bridle Brook, which is a Town of Pike Road community.  The street address for homes in Woodland Creek say “Pike Road, AL.”  But this home is actually zoned for City of Montgomery amenities: sewer, trash, schools.  Unless current zoning changes, it would not be zoned for a future Pike Road School.  Confusing?  Sure.

In 2008, in the neighborhood of Merry Station, all but one of about 20 homes were incorporated into the Town of Pike Road.  One home was zoned Montgomery County.  How did the homeowners figure this out?  They had to do a little research.  That home has since been incorporated into the Town of Pike Road.

So why does it matter? Different reasons for different buyers.  Some might prefer City of Montgomery services?  Some might want to be zoned for the possibility of a future Pike Road school system? And designations can sometimes be changed . . .

The main point if that if you have a preference, you’ll need to do a little digging.  Looking at the street address alone will not suffice.

The folks at the Town Hall in Pike Road are a big help.  So is having a knowledgeable Realtor working for you.  Give us a call and let us do the digging for you.

That being said, there will always be a segment of people that choose to sell their real estate themselves, without the help of an agent.  So I figure I might as well be helpful in case the FSBO experiment doesn’t go well, maybe they’ll call me.  They often do.

I read a great article for advice to FSBOs in the Wall Street Journal.  Click here to read it.  It had a lot of helpful sales strategies for FSBOs.

I would add to the article these suggestions to anyone selling their Montgomery property themselves:

3RiversRecon’s Tips to any Montgomery For Sale By Owner:

1.    Get Your Own Website – Go to a domain seller like godaddy.com and buy your own website address.  If your home’s address is 123 Montgomery Street – buy www.123Montgomery.com or whatever is available.  The shorter the better.  I do this for all of my listings.  Use this on your flyers and advertisements.  If you advertise your home on something like fsbo.com, its website will be something incoherent like www.fsbo.com/e34h3449ir4827 – no buyer can remember that, especially one who has been driving around looking at homes for hours.  Once you have bought your site through godaddy, go to the control panel and choose “domain forwarding” to point the site to the long one at fsbo dot com.  That way anyone who types 123Montgomery.com in their browser will be taken automatically to the fsbo site.

2.  Buy Custom Signs – Those “For Sale By Owner” signs you buy for $3 at WalMart might be appropriate for your used go-cart that you put out on Highway 231, but do you really think it conveys the right image to someone you are asking to spend $200,000 for a  home ?   Make them double sided for greater visibility.  I would go ahead and buy 2 so that you can switch them out to avoid being faded or dirty.  Also be sure to get an “info tube” thing at WalMart or Home Depot so you can put some flyers with your sign.

3.  Make Effective Flyers – You start by taking great pictures of your home or lot.  Then spend the money and have them printed by a high quality color LASER printer.  Go to Kinko’s if you have no color laser printer of your own.  Get them to go ahead and run 150 copies while they’re at it.  The big cost here is the setup for a new print job, each additional copy is not as expensive, so you might as well print them all at one stop.  If you’re putting the flyers in the info tubes in the signs, don’t waste a lot of space by pictures of the outside.  They know what the outside looks like.  Just use one or two so that they can easily remember which one is yours (odds are that yours is the 10th flyer they have pulled that day).  If you are putting the flyer elsewhere then include more pictures.  Most Montgomery buyers are concerned about the school zones, so highlight that.

4.  Be Available At An Instant To Talk Or Show The Home – Put your cell phone number on all advertisements.  Don’t confuse buyers by giving your home phone, your office phone, your fax, etc.  Just one will do.  Then KEEP THE CELL PHONE ON YOU at all times.  When it rings, answer it.  If you don’t answer the phone, the majority of buyers will move along and not leave a message.  If they want to see it now, show it now.

5. Call Or Email Me With Questions – Every property on the Montgomery MLS is unique, with its own special selling points to promote and challenges to overcome to a potential buyer.  If you’re stumped, give me a shout.  I am glad to help you think of an answer, even if you plan to continue to sell it yourself.

Do you have another helpful FSBO tip for the rest of the River Region?  Leave a comment below and help us all out!

It’s a Lowder Development (think Deer Creek and Woodland Creek neighborhoods on Vaughn Road), so if it seems very familiar, you’re right. It’s most unique feature is its proximity to I-85 – just off the I-85/Mitylene exit.   On the google map below, StoneyBrooke is red marker “A” (Deer Creek is “B” and Woodland Creek is “H”).

There is a large common area with a pond and picnic pavilion, plus a large playground.  The neighborhood is divided into pods according to lot size (50′, 60′, and 70′ lots), and has sidewalks and landscaped “greenscapes” throughout.  There is no pool or neighborhood clubhouse.

StoneyBrooke has existing homes for sale plus lots for building new homes.  As of today (Jan. 7, 2010) asking prices for the 6 homes available on the Montgomery Area MLS range from $192,000 (1655 sq. ft.) – $269,900 (2,433 sq. ft.).

If you like new construction and a walkable neighborhood with amenities,  plus you want to be super-close to I-85, StoneyBrooke might be a good fit.  Give us a call – we can help buyers with any listing in the Montgomery Area MLS (and it costs buyers nothing more to have a Realtor working for them).

Today (January 7, 2010) the Montgomery Area MLS shows there are 25 lots for sale in Cawfield for $59,900. There is currently one house built in the subdivision.  According to the MLS, all lots are at least 85′ wide and there is a 2000 sqaure foot minimum for new homes. Cawfield is zoned for Halcyon Elementary, Georgia Washington Jr. High, and Jeff Davis High School

Cawfield is next to the Lochshire neighborhood on the portion of Pike Road  between Vaughn Road and Hwy 80.  It’s also close to Bridle Brook, Woodland Creek, and Merry Station, and right across Pike Road from Grace Episcopal Church.  It’s about a 5 minute drive to the Shoppes at East Chase, the Chantilly Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and I-85.

The subdivision was sold to a new developer in September 2009.  It should be noted that lots in Cawfield have a Montgomery street address and claim City of Montgomery sewer service on the MLS.  In this section of East Montgomery, neighborhoods/lots can be zoned for the City of Montgomery, Montgomery County, or the Town of Pike Road. It’s kind of a patchwork, so if you have a preference, be sure to ask when looking for real estate in this area.

If you’re interested in building a new home in Cawfield, we’re not the listing agent, but we can help buyers with any property in the Montgomery area.  Give us a call and let us help you make an informed real estate decision.

A future network of nature trails will showcase that beauty and connect the communities of Pike Road.  These trails will accommodate “walkers, joggers and bicyclists as well as horseback riders” (Town of Pike Road website). The Pike Road community encompasses a LOT of land, and the trail will be a way to begin to connect these areas.

A $700,000 grant has been approved to begin the project, and Pike Road has purchased property for the trail head and trail end. It’s an Alabama Department of Transportation grant program, and will take some time to complete.

According to the Town of Pike Road website, the first 14.7 miles of the trail will run from Highway 231 to Flowers Road. I don’t have specifics, but according to my google map, this is the general area below (Hwy 231 runs up the middle of the map, with Flowers Road at the red marker):

I can’t run all 14.7 miles at once (yet!), but since East Montgomery isn’t known for its mountainous terrain, at least I stand a chance with the first 5.  We’ll update you when the trail is ready for action.

To read more about the Town of Pike Road, see their official website, and see more posts from the Pike Road section of our blog.

If you’ve never been to The Waters, or are interested in the community life in Pike Road, this would be a great event to attend.  It’s a picturesque development year-round.  I can imagine it is beautiful during the holidays.

For more picture of The Waters development, click here

Farmhouse Kitchen in the Town of Hampstead in Montgomery, AL, is a gem of a restaurant. We knew it had a good chance of being cool simply because it’s part of this unique East Montgomery development, but what about the food?

We ate dinner there last night and it exceeded our expectations.  Here are 4 reasons we love Farmhouse Kitchen:

1) Staff – This has to be #1 on our list because the service and hospitality were excellent.   We ate as part of a large group, but the servers and staff took care of our every need with ease.  I even got a hug when we left!  It’s not contrived hospitality – it’s the real deal.

2) Food – We tried the shrimp and grits, and it was fabulous.  Easily one of the best renditions of this dish we’ve had.  The skillet cornbread that’s brought to the table before the meal was fought over, and the homemade vanilla ice cream on top of our pecan pie was far better than any we’ve made in our own ice cream churn.

Fresh tomato, cucumber and onion with vinaigrette

Shrimp and Grits in a HUGE bowl

Chocolate cake

3)  Atmosphere – Open and casual, you would not mind bringing your kids for lunch or dinner.  The decor is simple and comfortable, but not hokey or contrived to be “country.”  It serves a purpose and does not get in the way of the experience (which is the food).

4)  Location – If you haven’t been to Hampstead, head south on Taylor Road and take a tour.  We had fun walking the main street and enjoying the architecture before the rest of our group arrived. It’s definitely an escape from the strip mall experience.  We both commented that it would be fun to live in Hampstead and have a great place to eat within walking distance.

Forget chain restaurant, greasy, “country” cooking.  Farmhouse Kitchen is more like eating at your grandmother’s. And the service is just as good!

For a menu and hours of operation, click here.

New construction in Lochshire

New construction in Lochshire

New construction in Cawfield

What does this mean?  I’m not making any predictions about the market, but I will say I haven’t seen much new building going on in the past year.

It’s nice to see a little real estate action.

Have you noticed new construction in your area of the River Region?  Comment below and let us know what’s going on in your neighborhood.

If you’d like to find a new construction home or any property in the Montgomery MLS, give us a call.  We’d love to help!

Now, while building prices are low,  they are considering adding a second story to the former Fine Foods Market building, creating a large auditorium area for community events. The first floor of the building will be used for Town Council offices and a meeting hall.

Here are some pics of the building:

New Pike Road Town Hall and shopping center

New Pike Road Town Hall

New Pike Road Town Hall

To learn more, click here for an article from the Montgomery Advertiser.