I took a fun tour of the new Wilson YMCA in the New Park neighborhood of East Montgomery today.  For those of you who have yet to see it, I’ve posted a few pics below.

Where I grew up, the YMCA wasn’t a huge program, but the YMCA in Montgomery is a big part of daily life.  There are 15 locations in the River Region offering facilities for group exercise, athletic fields, water parks,weight rooms, gymnasiums – and the list goes on.  A lot of youth sports (football, soccer, basketball, etc.) are played through the YMCA, and childcare (”Childwatch”) is offered at some locations.

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.

In case you misplaced your flier, here are the Montgomery County, AL, monthly clean-up dates.  On the last Saturday of each month, you can dispose of that large stuff you’ve been wanting to get rid of, but won’t fit in your trash can for regular, weekly pick up.

Yes!  So long broken basketball goal that has been sitting behind my fence for a year and a half !  The flyer says there will even be workers at each site to help you unload the stuff you bring.  Won’t it feel great to kiss that pile of junk goodbye (in a legal and responsible way)!

(This service is REALLY helpful to those who move into a different house in 2010 – if you’ve moved recently you know the kinds of stuff you are left with . . .)

All locations will be open  from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

Here are the DATES (again, these are the last Saturdays of each month of 2010):

January 30, February 27, March 27, April 24, May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, and September 25.

Here are the LOCATIONS:

Hope Hull: Vacant grocery store at railroad tracks (Wasden Road)

Mount Meigs/Pike Road:  Belser Blvd. in Bridle Brook subdivision OR County Lot Office across from The Feed Lot

Pine Level:  Pine Level Park (across from Sikes and Kohn)

Pintlala: Pintlala Elementary School

Ramer:  Transfer Station (County Road 12, Hickory Grove Road)

For more details about exactly what can and cannot be unloaded (toxic waste, items with freon, etc.) click here or call (334) 832-1210.

For those who live within the Montgomery city limits, your bulk trash is collected every 1st and 3rd Saturday from 9:00 am – 2:30 pm at city Public Schools.  Call (334) 241-2750 or click here for more info.

Just because you’ve driven past Chantilly Parkway on Vaughn Road does not mean everything that lays before you is part of the Town of Pike Road, AL.  Even passing through the light at CVS on Vaughn and Pike Roads is not a clear threshold to the municipality of the Town of Pike Road.

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.

Montgomery, AL, like any real estate market, will always have its share of people selling their property themselves – aka For Sale By Owner or FSBO (pr FIZZ-bo).  And that’s fine with me.  I am not one of those realtors that looks down on FSBOs.  I think it is up to me as a real estate agent to prove to the FSBO prospect that I will save them time and make them money if I list and help sell their River Region home or lot.

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!

One of my favorite things about having kids in Montgomery, AL, is the presence of kid’s clothing/toys/gear consignment sales like Kids Carousel. These sales are usually twice a year (spring/summer and fall/winter) and are HUGE: think hundreds of consignors and locations like Garrett Coliseum.

So what’s the deal?  Do people really buy other people’s used stuff? YES!  Do consignors really make money at these sales? YES!!

For those of you who have never been to one of these events, here’s how it works:

1) You can simply come and shop during public shopping days.

2) You can consign items and shop early.  There is usually a minimum number of items you must consign (15) in order to be a consignor.  Log onto the website, enter your gently used items, and print out tags.  Bring your tagged items during the “check in” days before the sale and get a priority shopping pass.  You are now part of a select group that gets to shop early AND make money from items you sell!

3) You can volunteer to work a few shifts during the sale and shop even earlier.  Workers must be consignors, and receive “payment” for their time by getting to shop before the consignors.  Volunteer requirements are varied, so check each sale’s website for specifics.

Again – these sales are huge (hundreds of consignors at each, with a minimum of 15 items to consign), and they don’t take junk.  You’d be hard pressed to find better deals on all sizes of kids’ clothing, baby gear, toys, shoes, furniture, etc, so check one out.

Kids Carousel has a spring/summer sale coming up next month at the old Sam’s Club building across from Best Buy on the Eastern Blvd. “Take-In” days are Feb.13-22, and the sale runs from Feb. 27 – March 6.  To consign, click here for the Kids Carousel website or call Stacie at (334) 286-4689.

When you get that check after the sale, you’ll be ready to start tagging for the next one!

Just a quick reminder:

If you’re considering a Montgomery Public School magnet program for your child next year (2010-2011 academic year), get your applications in by January 29, 2010.

Need an application?  click here

Want to know more about magnet schools in Montgomery?  click here

Have any words of wisdom for families applying for a magnet program?  Leave your thoughts in the “comments” box below. We’d love to have your feedback.

Tucked beside the large Wylnakes neighborhood in East Montgomery, AL is a little enclave called Wyndridge. It is a Lowder development, but does not feel like a contrived neighborhood.  While there is a mixture of large, medium, and smaller lots/homes, there are also custom homes, trees, and a feeling that Wyndridge has developed over time, rather than over night.

I took the pictures above on a quick drive-through yesterday afternoon to give you a feel for the homes in the neighborhood. The homes in Wyndridge are on the pricier end of East Montgomery real estate.  Today (January 19, 2010) there are 14 homes listed for sale in Wyndridge ranging from $299,900 (2148 sq. ft.) to $689,900 (4885 sq. ft.). Neighborhood amenities include tennis courts, ponds and sidewalks, and landscaped common areas.

Wyndridge is accessed off of Halcyon Boulevard, making it VERY close to the Shoppes at Eastchase, Peppertree shopping center, the Sturbridge neighborhood and I-85.

Something unique to Wyndridge is the live children’s nativity during the Christmas holidays.  Children from the neighborhood take part in recreating the nativity scene, and are joined by live animals brought in for the occasion.

To see any of the homes for sale in Wyndridge, or any homes in the Montgomery area MLS, give us a call.  We’d love to help you with your house hunt!

StoneyBrooke Plantation is a planned community in East Montgomery, AL.  I recently visited a friend’s home in StoneyBrooke and realized I hadn’t blogged it yet.  So here we go . . .

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).

Sturbridge, a popular neighborhood in east Montgomery, has two big ponds at its Vaughn Road entrance.  I was shocked to see that one of them is nearly completely frozen over in about half inch thick ice.

Buyers relocating from up north might say, “what’s the big deal?” But let me tell you, for central Alabama, a frozen pond is a rare occurrence.  This recent cold snap is breaking records.

I was running errands with my kids yesterday in the Vaughn Road area and was surprised to see some bigger kids playing at the edge of the pond.  They were breaking off big hunks of ice and throwing them back on the iced surface.  We paused to take some pictures and the below video.  For Alabamians, this is surreal.

Hey readers – does anyone else have some good cold weather photos and videos, in Sturbridge or the rest of Montgomery? Leave a comment or reply below and let the rest of us see!

The dirt was moving in Cawfield this morning.  Yep – tractors were out pushing the red soil around in this east Montgomery neighborhood right off of Pike Road.

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.