Real Estate Information Archive

As demand for energy resources increases, officials in Southern Maryland have been looking for renewable and greener sources of energy. One option for renewable energy in Southern Maryland recently cleared a hurdle when the Charles County Board of Appeals granted a special exception for SMECO Solar to build the area’s first solar farm on land zoned for agricultural conservation.

Plans are in the works for a 5.5 megawatt solar farm to be built near Hughsville, Maryland by the Southern Maryland Electrical Cooperative. SMECO officials say the 48.5-acre farm will generate enough energy to power 1,200 homes or enough energy to run the St. Charles Towne Center Mall.

Co-op spokesman Tom Dennison told the Washington Post the solar farm will be owned and operated by SMECO and meets state requirements for renewable energy and customer demands. The state’s utilities are currently required by The Maryland Public Service Commission to use solar power for 0.1 percent of its energy output. This level will increase to 2 percent by 2022. State law requires 3 percent of utilities’ energy output to come from renewable energies. Dennison says SMECO currently meets these requirements through energy credits, biofuels and other natural resources.

The decision to build the solar farm has the support of local landowners and government officials and is expected to cost around $20 million to build. Federal grants and loans through the Department of Agriculture will help pay for the project. The cost-effective project will eventually pay for itself as SMECO owns the land the solar farm will be built on and the utility can generate solar credits.

Ten percent of the energy produced at the Hughesville location will be used for a new operation center near the solar farm and the rest will go to customers in Charles County.

The solar panels will be mounted on the ground and face away from traffic on nearby Route 5 to prevent glare that would distract drivers. A protective wetland zone on the south end of the property will stay protected and will not be affected by construction of the solar farm.  

The decision to build the first solar farm in Southern Maryland was made by SMECO in October of last year as new sites for renewable resources were sought.

Development plans still need to be approved by county officials but Dennison says they expect to break ground this summer and have the solar farm up and running by late 2012 or early 2013.

Parents along with local, state and the federal government have been looking at what our children are being taught in public schools for quite some time. From the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to the current debate on charter schools and school vouchers, there is concern about ensuring that students are learning. However, many schools are stepping up to the challenge of teaching in a new way through the use of technology.

The students in Charles County Schools have access to some of this new technology due to a partnership between Charles County Public Schools and the Community Bank of the Tri-County. Jim DiMisa of the CBTC recognized the need for students to have a solid grounding in financial training due to the dangers of credit card debt, uncertainty in the economy and the need to save for retirement.

At no cost to the school, the CBTC works to help create a program of online financial training using the Financial Literacy Platform for High Schools or EverFi™ system. This program is an online tutorial where the students learn in an interactive, visual format. It uses examples taken from real life using a format modeled in part on the popular and recognizable SimCity games. By using this format, the program walks the student through the training in which their financial decisions directly impact their online avatar’s life. These direct impacts bring home the lesson in a way traditional lecture and books simply cannot match.

The students using the program reap the benefits using a format which the United States Air Force found beneficial in its own training. By fashioning the lesson in the form of a familiar game, students learn the program faster so they have more time for learning rather than spending time digesting how to operate the program itself. The familiarity increases retention of the lessons and students enjoy the lesson as well.

The EverFi system trains students on a number of important financial concepts:

• Use and risk of Credit Cards
• Budgeting and Managing Debt
• Savings and Retirement Planning
• Different Loan types and College financing
• Home ownership versus renting
• How the U.S. financial system works
• Stock trading and how the Stock Exchange works

The overall reaction to the program has been very positive. Teachers enjoy being able to track their students’ progress through the program and they can provide one-on-one lessons as needed. Teachers also found students using the program were more knowledgeable and asked better questions in class. To everyone involved the program has been a win for the Charles County schools, the teachers, students and the community in general.

Charles County’s property values have encountered some tough sledding. The melt-down of the housing bubble, the fallout from the robo-signing scandal and an explosion of foreclosures have caused property values to drop all across the country. The housing market is still struggling to correct from the over-inflated boom era vales. Charles County, Maryland has been hit hard in this environment and seen median property values drop for the fourth year in a row. What does this mean for someone interested in moving to the area?  What affect does this steady decline have?

The Good and Bad of Declining Property Values

The key to looking at declining property values is to see that it’s not necessarily negative. Certainly those who whose home values were inflated are facing losing a lot of money. However, when one buys a home, there is always the risk the value will go down instead of up. In the volatile housing market of the last decade, many home buyers bought homes under the faulty idea that home values would always go up.

So now we are seeing a correction to where the market is returning to realistic home property values. To use one example, this presents an opportunity for buyers to buy a home which once sold for $450,000 for as low as $350,000 and to have confidence that this value will hold.

The bad, of course, is felt acutely if one happens to be the owner of a $450,000 mortgage on a home which now has a value of only $350,000. Another negative accrues to Charles County because it must make do with tax receipts on a home that has dropped $100,000 in value. This has led to tight budgets not only in Charles County but for counties across the nation. However, the current problems obscure the fact that Charles County remains an excellent place to live.

The Ground Truth

While property values have dropped for the fourth time in as many years, one has to remind oneself why they were high to begin with. The answer is simply that it was worth paying $450,000 to live in Charles County. Why? There are many reasons ranging from the scenic beauty of the area, to the excellent schools and colleges, to the availability of work in the Washington D.C. metro area. None of these factors have changed. So, in the short term there will be budget issues for city and county politicians to deal with, but the fact remains that Charles County is an attractive place to live.

Viewed from this standpoint, Charles County property values declining means prospective buyers are well positioned to be able to purchase a home and reap the rewards of a buyer’s market.

Buying a home is a big and lasting decision, just as selling a home is often a large part of a new stage in life. So the agent you choose to help you with the buying or selling of your home should be one who understands who you are, where you are in your home-ownership journey, and what you really need at this juncture.

Any agent can show you listings in your area, because every agent has access to the listings in the MLS, or Multiple Listing Service. In fact, in today’s Internet age, listings have become searchable by everyone. But choosing exclusive representation with an agent or team of agents means they are invested in you and your specific needs and goals. By committing to a single broker, they are in turn more committed to you.

So, how do you know whom to trust when buying or selling your home? An agent worth your commitment demonstrates their salt with their superior knowledge of the area in which you are trying to buy or sell a property. This includes expertise concerning area schools, market trends, employment rates, the state of the local economy, and much more. Also important is an agent’s record of success even in these rough economic times. And speaking of experience, an experienced agent can help buyers spot potential problems, including structural problems, design flaws or contractual issues, that might otherwise go undetected.

If this sounds like too tall of an order, then look to DeHanas Real Estate Service for a “realty” check!

The team at DeHanas Real Estate Service is the best in the Washington D.C., Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia area, with over fifteen years of experience and national recognition, including a nod from Realtor Magazine, which named DeHanas one of the top 100 sales teams in the country.

Real estate in the Washington D.C., Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia area is varied, with properties ranging from rural to urban, large to small, and home prices ranging from $75,000 to the millions. It’s a lot of ground to cover, and whether you are buying or selling a home, you need to know that your agent knows this real estate better than anyone else. Choose DeHanas whether you are selling your house or looking for the perfect place to call home, and they will commit their knowledge and reputation to making your real estate desires a reality.

As a real estate professional, I have found that educating the public is a large part of my business. You may remember the catch-phrase used by The Men’s Warehouse clothing company; “Our best customer is an educated customer.” No truer words have been spoken when it comes to selling residential real estate. When I work with a buyer or seller who is aware of the market conditions, and understands the value of ‘doing things right from the beginning’, there tends to be a much smoother, and gratifying experience for all involved.

So why is it that some homes sit on the market and never sell (and current statistics indicate that 41% of the homes on the market in Southern Maryland will not sell), while others sell in a relatively short period of time? Two reasons; “sellability” and “Pricing”. When you make improvements to a home, like replacing the carpeting, freshening up the paint and sprucing up the landscaping, you are adding to the sellability, not to be confused with “Value”. The afore mentioned improvements do not create value. The second reason is “price”, and the biggest reason homes do not sell.

There is a common misconception about the difference between a Comparative Market Analysis, commonly known as a CMA, usually prepared by a licensed real estate agent, and an appraisal, which must be compiled by a licensed appraiser. Unfortunately, sellers will often times confuse market value with market price, which prompts unrealistic expectations of what their home will sell for.

Keeping in mind that ‘a home is worth only what a buyer is willing to pay for it’, it stands to reason that when supply outweighs demand there is more to chose from, putting pressure on pricing, and thus creating a buyers market. Maryland real estate cannot be lumped, as a whole, into one category.  There are parts of it that are experiencing significant price pressure, while other areas, like Southern Maryland are seeing flat to only slightly negative appreciation.

The secret to pricing a home that will sell (here is the real tell-all) is to price it 2%-5% in front of the market comparisons in the direction of the trend.  In an up trending market, you would price a home higher than the last home sold for, while in a down trending market, a home should be priced slightly lower that the last group of comparisons sold for.  In Charles County, for example, recent home-sale statistics show the average ‘sold’ price was –1.44% over homes sold a year ago. If you want to sell your home under the current conditions, you would price it about 2% below the CMA recommended price for your property.

Often I will hear a seller say that “it appraised for more”…….And here is the reason for confusion; there are a number of reasons a seller will get an appraisal. It could be for a home equity line, a refi, a bridge loan, or an appraisal of resale. Each of these appraisals is compiled for different reasons, and is merely supporting documentation that is required by the bank to justify the loan they have made to the homeowner. It is not uncommon at all for three different appraisals to have three different values. Also, the typical comparison appraisal only uses 3 comparables, while a CMA generated by a real estate agent uses all of the comparables within the neighborhood, providing a larger picture of the market trend. Also, the information in a CMA and an appraisal is only good for 30 days. Don’t rely on the pricing opinion you received 3 months earlier, as it will have changed.

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