Cary's Best Address

David’s Journal

I’ve taken off my real estate hat – just David -this section of my blog is dedicated to more personal thoughts and comments – maybe sermon notes from a recent message at Hope Community Church or A Book Review or just a random personal thought.


Four Wheel Driving on the Crystal Coast Beaches of North Carolina

David Williams takes a break for a little fun down at Atlantic Beach – Video shot while driving on Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. You can purchase a permit to drive on the beach between November and Mid March from the Atlantic Beach police department.  Atlantic beach is a short drive from Cary, North Carolina – about 2.5 hours – I 40 east to Hwy 70 – cross over the bridge in Morehead and you’re at the beach!

ask-cary-real-estatecary-homes-for-salecary-real-estate-logo-smcary-home-values-smcary-homes-for-sale-new-listings-sm

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »

Cary Group Preparing For Haiti Relief Trip

A tremendous amount of attention is  focused on Haiti right now as they recover from the massive earthquake.   People are scrambling trying to find a way they can help – well – here’s a way!

There is a local organization right here in Cary with infrastructure already in place in Haiti – they have a group leaving in the next 72-96 hours – they are looking for experienced medical / search & rescue or translators

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you know I have strong ties to Hope Community Church – Why do I bring this up?  Through the members of Hope Community Church a foundation was started several years ago – the Hope for Haiti Foundation – the group has been making trips to Haiti over the past several years – the foundation received a huge boost when Hope Community Church decided to purchase and renovate 2 buildings in Haiti for a hospital and dormitory – that’s right Cary’s Hope Community Church is building a hospital in Haiti!

Hope For Haiti Foundation

Hope Community Church Update on Haiti Operations

ask-cary-real-estatecary-homes-for-salecary-real-estate-logo-smcary-home-values-smcary-homes-for-sale-new-listings-sm

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »

Not Your Typical Cary Backyard – Adventures in Showings

Adventures in Showing Homes -

From time to time it’s fun to share parts of real estate that just aren’t covered in the normal training classes – over the years I’ve experienced lots of interesting situations – many of which occur while out showing property.

Take this weekend for example – I was out showing an older ranch home on 16 acres – (side note – this was not in Cary city limits! – it was a drive out to a more rural section of the area) back to the story – so I was showing this home on acreage to a set of buyers looking for a home with enough land to have horses. 

cary-land

If you’ve never looked at a home on 16 acres of land complete with barns etc it takes a while – someone in the group (protecting identities here) needed to use the bathroom and slipped back into the house – which was vacant  . . . and without water, any water, and no signs warning that the water was off . .  completely – including an empty toilet refill tank – well you just cant flush without water – which we didn’t have and we just couldn’t just leave the new colored water in the toilet – so – experieced agent into action – found a bucket on the property – walked down to the stream that runs through the 16 acres – filled the bucket with stream water – back to the house – filled the toilet tank with the stream water – problem solved – one toilet flush complete!

And you thought being a real estate agent was all glitz and glamor :)



ask-cary-real-estatecary-homes-for-salecary-real-estate-logo-smcary-home-values-smcary-homes-for-sale-new-listings-sm

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »

Christmas Eve at Hope Community Church, No Fish but 5,000 plus

Hope Community Church opened it’s doors on Christmas Eve for 4 identical worship services.  No fish, but over 5,000 people attended the services.

The 1,500 seat auditorium was nearly packed for all 4 services.  Okay, one clarification – the 4 services were not exactly identical – on paper they were supposed to be – the live donkey that made a brief appearance on stage the first few services decided to re-negotiate his contract and didn’t make it through all 4 services.   The people that attended experienced friendly volunteers eager to serve, incredibly talented musicians and singers, and even a little snow at the end, but most importantly it provided an open door on Christmas eve for any and all to come hear of God’s love.

Hope Community Church Cary Christmas Eve

ask-cary-real-estatecary-homes-for-salecary-real-estate-logo-smcary-home-values-smcary-homes-for-sale-new-listings-sm

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »

Christmas Eve Services at Hope Community Church

Looking for something special to do this Christmas Eve? Come Join me at Hope Community Church in CaryHope will have 4 Christmas Eve services – I’ll be there serving as a volunteer – if you see me please say hello!

Hope Community Church Cary Christmas Eve Service

Attend one of four identical services:

2:00 PM      3:30 PM *5:00 PM      6:30 PM

*Interpretation for the hearing impaired during the 5:00 pm service.

Come experience the music, drama and story that celebrate the wonder of Christmas.

ask-cary-real-estatecary-homes-for-salecary-real-estate-logo-smcary-home-values-smcary-homes-for-sale-new-listings-sm

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »

Conversations on a Plane, Home Seller is Looking for that Special ‘Someone”

I boarded a SouthWest Jet this morning at Raleigh-Durham, headed to sunny San Diego for the annual Realtor convention.  The inevitable happened – the conversation with a stranger – it was the gentleman on the adjoining aisle seat – after learning more than I really needed to know about him etc etc he asks what I do and where I’m headed – once the subject of real estate surfaced an interesting yet typical conversation unfolded – I thought to myself – I’m gonna blog about this!

I would do the cool dialogue format back and forth on what he said and what I said, but, ohm, just assume I was nodding and smiling

The gentleman is trying to sell his home – he has it listed with an ‘experienced’ agent but he is not willing to accept that his house is not worth what it was 2-3 years ago – granted it’s a high end subdivision and we are talking about a price swing over $100,000, I feel his pain – but his strategy is to just keep it priced at the old higher value “cause somebody will come along”

REALLY?   Somebody’s going to come along . . .

So even though a stock is trading at $50 a share you think somebody will offer you $75 a share cause that’s what it traded at 2 ½ years ago?   Who is this ‘someone’ and where do ‘they’ come from?  And what about the ‘experienced’ agent that has their sign in the front yard with a non realistic price?  Who is that helping?

As I nodded and smiled I played through the conversation in my head that I would be having with this gentleman if I was at his dining room table instead of an airplane – I know one thing for sure – my sign would not be in the yard of a grossly overpriced listing.

Lot’s of thoughts are dancing through my head on information I could share about fair market value, absorption rates etc – but you probably don’t want to hear about that right now and I’m off to bed – need a good nights sleep for a full day of Convention tomorrow!

Posted via email from David Williams

Written by David Williams | Discussion: 1 Comment »

Ski Lifts, Elevators & Cary Real Estate

Ski lifts, Elevators & Real Estate – As I enjoyed the slopes yesterday I made an interesting observation – I’ve always found people much more talkative while riding a ski lift than  an elevator, ever noticed that? Why is that? Both are transporting you from one spot to another – Is it the outdoor air on the lift? Is it the fact that you are all bundled up and have a sense of anonymity?

What does this have to do with real estate? Let’s play this out – while chatting it up on the ski lift one of the first questions is going to be “What do you do?” Once someone hears ‘real estate’ then the follow-up question is a variation of “How’s the real estate market?”

So – How is the real estate market??? 

The real estate instructor/trainer side of me wants to break out a dry erase board, but I will spare you the classroom version. The fact is, it’s not an easy question to answer – here’s why – if the person is asking about the overall real estate market across the country that’s one thing, but in reality when people ask the question, what they really want to know is how the real estate market is doing in their area! More specifically they want to know their homes market value. How is their real estate investment performing.

It’s ironic that most people get real estate market news from national news media outlets when, for the average person, what they are interested in is their local market. I’ve always found getting your real estate market reports from the national media is comparable to a national weather forecast – you are not going to here “Today in the U.S. it’s going to be 68 and sunny – just like the weather, real estate market conditions are local and can vary drastically!

One of the best looks at local market conditions is to determine if it’s a buyers market or a sellers market – this is a process that examines how many homes are for sale compared to available buyers. Yes, basic supply and demand – Want to Know more about how ‘experts’ determine if it’s a buyer or seller market? Want to see how you can better understand your local market? Then Check out this post: Buyer or Seller Market – How Do You Know & What does it mean to me?

Written by David Williams | Discussion: No Comments »