Jim Robinson, Realtor Extraordinaire
We had coffee the other day, here at the electronic cottage, with a very interesting person, a realtor from Smythe, Cramer/Howard Hanna who has a good grasp of the real-estate realities of our northern Ohio market. His name is Jim Robinson, and his name has kept cropping up in conversations lately when we talk with our friends about houses in Archwood-Denison, Tremont, and Lakewood, so we decided we needed to meet him. Based on our initial contact, we feel very strongly that he?s a good person to get to know.
Our conversation, our coffee-talk, ranged broadly, and a few interesting points surfaced.
1. Archwood-Denison, and Ward 15 in general, is a location that is ideally situated geographically and reasonably priced right now. It?s market position is that it can be considered an ?up and coming? place to live where you have location, location, location, quality structures, off-street parking, built-up intrinsic value, and access alleys?just like the ?New Urbanism,? except in this case we might term it ?authentic urbanism.? In short, we?ve got it all, and it?s available right now at bargain prices. And, there?s tons of green space as well as ambient breezes here in the ?Uplands.?
2. The Brooklyn Centre Historical Society provides the ?Reflections from Brooklyn Centre? book, 324 pages of local lore that few if any other neighborhoods can say they have. (The Cleveland Public Library, downtown branch, just ordered 10 copies, by the way.)
3. Young people should think about returning to the common-sense money ideas of their grandparents and great-grandparents, buying their first property as a rental property, living in part of it, and expanding their holdings as their financial resources allow. Single-family homes are a reward for doing well, building equity, and managing rental property wisely. Owner proximity to rental property and owner availability to tenants is key to the success of landlords and the growth of value in the properties.
4. Owner occupancy is critical to the financial success and the prosperity of a neighborhood. People moving from their first homes or children inheriting houses need to be mindful that once an owner-occupied property becomes rental property, it stays rental property, and rental property does not sell at the same premium price that owner-occupied property does?sometimes, it?s 15% less. Furthermore, there is a glut of housing for rent right now, and much has been vacant for a very long time. Upscalers and inheritors may be better off selling immediately instead of undergoing the depreciation typically inherent in the conversion to rental property.
5. Average residential real-estate appreciation in the area is, over the long haul, around 4% per year.
6. The Mercedarian Order, at St. Rocco?s and Mount Carmel, has been instrumental in helping build strong neighborhoods, and continues to do so.
7. We need to be talking more about attractive, innovative in-fill housing as well as fixing what treasures we?ve got. There is very little true ?junk? in Archwood-Denison, and young people would be well-served to discover the values available there now.
Anyway, Jim is an interesting person and a true professional whose opinions and ideas we value. Go see more about him at http://jamesrobinson.howardhanna.com/site.cfm
He is the only one we know in this area who is ?Designated as an Historic Home Sale Specialist by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.?