One of the many things I love about living in South Louisiana is the fact that I can garden year round. In Canada, where I from, you have to plant everything in the spring (after what you hope is the last freeze) and you gather one big crop at the end of the summer. Here, in south Louisiana, we have spring, fall, and winter gardens, in which we plant different vegetables.

Pictured here is what I got out of my garden today. The tomatoes are a variety of grape tomatoes I tried for the first time this year. This one plant has been producing loads all summer long and it is still going. As for the bell peppers, I planted them in the spring but they got a very slow start (I’m not sure why). The plants now look good, are producing well, and will likely continue for another couple of months. Peppers and tomatoes are spring/summer crops here and the plants usually die with the first frost.

When we have more vegetables than what we can eat, we preserve them in several ways. Peppers are great as they can just be chopped and frozen in small quantities to use in recipes when needed. Tomatoes can be canned in jars to use in spaghetti sauce or any tomato based sauce.

Below is one of my fall/late summer tomatoe plants, which are now starting to have small fruits in them. This is my second time trying fall tomatoes and I wasn’t very successful the first time. We shall see!

In the next 3-4 weeks, I will start planting my winter garden and if everything goes well, we will have fresh vegetables from late December to April. Winter vegetables that I plant include carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and spinach. When I plant my vegetables, I always look at the Farmer’s almanac first to see which days are good. To tell you the truth, I don’t know that it really works, but old time gardeners here follow the almanac and I’m just not willing to try another way, just in case…

The best days to plant in October this year are 1, 2, 28, 29, 30 for above ground crops, and 10, 11 for below ground crops. If you live in the south and you haven’t tried gardening yet, you should. It does take a little bit of time and work but the rewards are great and it is a great relaxing activity (sure helps me keep my sanity). If you have a garden and are willing to share your secrets, I’m all ears!

My Colleagues J.R. and Shelia High will be hosting an open house this Sunday, September 27th from 2 to 4 @ 208 Clem Dr. Please go by to see this great family home located in the center of Lafayette off of South College. This home features 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, formal dinning and living rooms and a very large den with lots of windows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This home features 2865sqft of living area and is offered for $279,000, which is $97/sqft. There is also an inground pool, a double garage with work area and the owners have just installed a brand new CleanEffects Trane A/C system downstairs, which removes more than 99% of the influenza A (including swine flu or H1N1) from a home’s filtered air (cost was 12K).

Directions: from Johnston St., turn on South College towards Pinhook, turn right on Clem and follow Clem to the left at the “T”. Home will be on your right.

Click here for more details and photos of this great home.

One comment we often hear as real estate professionals is “I’m selling my home myself to save the commission.” That is fine so long as you don’t think that your potential buyers don’t know that.

In fact, did you know that there are only 4 kinds of buyers out there? That’s right, 4. And they are either working with a Realtor or they, too, will want to save the commission. If you have a “For Sale By Owner” sign in your yard, everyone knows that you are not paying a commission to a professional.

1. First time home buyers: They are the most likely to seek the help of a professional because they do not know all the ins and outs of the home buying process. Even if they come across your home and like it, they will want their agent involved. Being open to working with a buyer’s agent and paying at least some commission might help you get your home sold.

2. Relocating buyer: They, too, usually work with a real estate agent because they are not in town, yet. Again, if you are willing to pay a buyer’s agent commission, you may be able to work with one of these buyers and sell your home, that is, if you are available to show it when this buyer is in town house shopping. If not, they might just buy your neighbor’s house because it’s listed and on a lockbox and they were actually able to view it.

3. Moving up (or moving down) buyers: They tend to feel more confident about the process because they have been there before. However, if they choose to work on their own, they’ll negotiate you down on your price to save some of the commission themselves. Since 2 out of 3 FSBO that go under contract do not close when no Realtor is involved, it might not matter if you split the would-have-been commission with this buyer. The question is: can you get them to the closing table?

4. Investors: Probably the most savvy buyer out there and you can bet that they will not pay you a commission to work the sale of your home for you. Unless you are an investor yourself and you’ve sold many homes in the past, this buyer knows more about the process than you do and he/she knows that they will have to do all the work. And, unless you are an awesome negotiator, you will not save money if your buyer is an investor. Not a penny.

There you have it! These are the only 4 kinds of buyers out there, no more, no less.

Here’s another way to look at it: appraisers do not care about the commission. Your house is worth what it is worth, whether or not there is a commission involved. For example, if you live in a neighborhood where homes of similar age and sizes sell for 150K, then your home is worth 150K.

With a 6% listing commission, you would have to pay 9K in commission, usually split between the listing and the selling brokers (if two agents are involved). If you sell on your own, you are not going to save the full 9K. Buyers will want to split those savings with you and might only offer you 145K for your home. If this is acceptable to you, all is good, but your savings are now down to 4K. If you calculate 2 or 3 months extra on the market (and 2-3 months of extra house payments), the advertising and signs costs, and the time involved in showing your home numerous times to buyers who may or may not qualify to buy it, is it really worth the aggravation? Besides, getting an offer/contract on your home is the easy part. Do you know what to do if you ever get that far?

I know what my time is worth, do you?

According to the local MLS statistics, the foreclosure rate in Lafayette, LA and Acadiana remains low so far for 2009.

Of the 1147 homes currently on the market in Lafayette parish, only 13 are listed as REOs (real estate owned) or approximately 1% while in Acadiana, a total of 50 properties are listed as REOs of the 2088 homes that are on the market (about 2%).

The average price for an REO in Lafayette parish is 118K ($70/sqft) while it is 76K in all of Acadiana ($46/sqft).

Of course, because of their lower prices, REOs tend to sell faster. In Acadiana, of the 2274 homes that sold so far in 2009, 205 were listed as REOs (9%). In lafayette parish, 75 or the 1599 sold homes in 2009 were REOs (or 4.6%).

If you are a buyer or investor interested in REOs, email me and I will send you an updated list of available properties in Lafayette parish and Acadiana.

I will be hosting an open house this Sunday, September 20th, from 2 to 4 pm at 208 Clem Dr. in Lafayette. Come view this wonderful, large family home located right in the middle of town and yet, in a quiet neighborhood with very little traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This home features 2865 square feet of living area, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, formal living and dinning room and a large den with tons of windows overlooking the pool in the back yard.

This home has much to offer and at $97/sqft, it is a great buy. Come see for yourself, this Sunday between 2 and 4!