Walnut Creek -- Grab your bike!

If you really love biking, running & hiking, check out my new listing at 180 Acorn Falls. This great house, is perfect if you want low maintenance but quick access to some of the best bike rides in Lexington (gorgeous Delong Road!), and great running opportunities through Jacobson Park which is easily accessed through the Traditions neighborhood next door. While it only takes a couple of minutes to get to Hamburg or downtown from the area, you're also only about 15 minutes to Raven Run Nature Sanctuary!

Floracliff Nature Sanctuary

Most Lexingtonians know about Raven Run Nature Preserve out on the Southeast side of Lexington. Personally, I've been hiking at Raven Run for years when I need a quick hike fix and don't have time to head to the Gorge for the day. The Herald-Leader highlighted three other Kentucky areas that are featured in a new book called Wildlands Philanthropy of which one, Floracliff Nature Sanctuary, is right here in Fayette County. I first heard about Floracliff a year ago or so and while haven't had a chance to get there myself, I wanted to share the link to their website. Unlike Raven Run, Floracliff is only open to the public on a very limited basis with guided hikes. You can click on the title above to access Floracliff's website which gives you upcoming events as well as more information about Floracliff.

465 Stratford -- Open Sunday

Please stop by on Sunday, November 16 between 1-3 p.m. to see 465 Stratford. Click the link below to check out this great listing that really is like a Chevy Chase home at a first-time home buyer price! http://www.moving2centralky.com/Nav.aspx/Page=/ListNow/Default.aspx

I love the Southland location and from this great home, you can enjoy walking to Slone's, Winchell's (and Dance Biz....okay only my daughter and her friends would be excited about that!) but truly Southland is such a great shopping area and this hCape Cod on Stratford really gives you an opportunity to step back in time and enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle!

Holiday Website

One of my clients just sent me the link to this great holiday website. Looks to be a great free source of recipes as well as other Santa fun. The cake recipes look especially yummy!

www.northpole.com/kitchen/cookbook/

Great New listings

Check out these three great new listings for buyers looking for move-in ready homes under $200,000:

465 Stratford Drive -- Great Southland area where you can walk to Slone's Grocery, Winchell's Restaurant, Good Foods and Marrika's. If I could live in a house under 2,000 square feet anymore, I think this would be it for me! Check out the details at http://tponline.realty-wire.com/Users/0C443165-71D8-499E-BDC3-225D9E97965C/{c859d328-c7c7-46ae-9a1a-212e391563e7}/{c859d328-c7c7-46ae-9a1a-212e391563e7}.pdf

832 Burkewood Drive -- In the Eastwood neighborhood barely outside New Circle and off Liberty Road. This neighborhood has matured beautifully in the last 10 years and with the Liberty Road cut through puts you just minutes away from both Hamburg and Downtown. Here are the details: http://tponline.realty-wire.com/Users/0C443165-71D8-499E-BDC3-225D9E97965C/{db980970-1a7e-466c-8b99-2b48555f84a9}/{db980970-1a7e-466c-8b99-2b48555f84a9}.pdf

and...

3805 Forsythe Court -- If you aren't familiar with the Plantation Subdivision this great neighborhood is just outside Man 0'War and offers easy access to Harrodsburg Road and Man O'War on the southside. Most of the homes were built in the late 1970s and have oversized yards by today's new neighborhood standard. No postage stamp here! This particular house has been beautifully renovated by the current owner and is an incredible deal for the condition, high-end treatments and square footage. Here's a link to the Home Feature Sheet:
http://tponline.realty-wire.com/Users/0C443165-71D8-499E-BDC3-225D9E97965C/{0b93ac0b-21de-484a-95e6-21b0bbb415f3}/{0b93ac0b-21de-484a-95e6-21b0bbb415f3}.pdf

You can also find virtual tours and links to all these properties on my website under Featured Homes at www.GwenMathews.com

Quick email tip

Not related to real esate, except that I learned this at a Real Estate conference, but if you hate junk email try this tip to reduce what you are getting. Set up a free gmail or yahoo account -- I have a new one, GwendaMathews@gmail.com -- very easy for me to remember what with using my name and all!!!-- that you use just for purposes of ordering on-line and getting information from websites that require an email address. With holiday shopping approaching, I'm much happier with the on-line ordering I'm doing knowing that the junk email won't be getting into my "good" email that comes directly into my phone, etc. and uselessly fills up my memory. I do check that account once a day but I can tell it's prevented a significant number of junk mails coming in my regular inbox.

You can set up a gmail account through Google (www.google.com). I promise it's really easy for even the technically challenged.

Now if I could only get rid of all the junk email that I already have...

Happy Halloween...

It should be a wonderful night for Lexington trick or treaters. One of my clients, new to Lexington, asked me our local trick or treat "rules" yesterday and I thought it might be helpful to post them here:

They're pretty simple: Trick or Treat is from 6-8. If you want visitors, turn on your porch lights! If you don't want them...turn off your porch light. I'm hopeful that we'll have lots of visitors at our house who won't be too afraid of my hairy pet spider. And, if my son (who'll be going as Hillary Clinton?!?!?) and his best friend Wyatt (aka John McCain, I hear) come to your door, do watch how much of your candy they take. I've overheard some things that make me worry for our neighbors!

Perhaps this is how NOT to stage a house for a successful showing!

Happy Halloween!!

Frosty morning--time to winterize!

Brrr...it's supposed to be 60 this afternoon but I can't believe it was 29 degrees this morning. Seems like it's way too cold for Lexington at the end of October. I'm going to need my mittens to trick or treat tomorrow night! Will Mathews has promised me all of his Reese Peanut Butter cups so I'm getting really excited and am thinking about fasting for the next 36 hours in preparation!

This frosty morning is a good reminder to check around outside your house for hoses that may still be attached to your house. I unscrewed one the other night during a walk-through and I can't tell you how many times broken hose bibs turn-up on home inspections. Also, most of us our turning our furnaces on for the first time this winter too. Don't forget to change your furnace filter and if you have gas heat, it's a good time to make sure that you have a working CO2 detector. While you're at it, it's also recommended to check your smoke alarms when the time changes.

Have a great morning!

Holy Cow & many many thanks...

Boy was I surprised when I got a call yesterday morning to tell me to read the newspaper! I was voted Lexington's #2 Favorite Realtor in the Herald-Leader Reader's Choice Awards! I still can't believe it and I'm pretty sure they meant me even if they did put 2 "t"s in Mathews. Thank you so much to everybody who took the time to vote for me. I am unbelievably honored!

no good news...at least not in our paper...

Just heard a funny and true story about our local media and the housing market (and by funny, what I mean to say is ironic). Apparently our LBAR president was interviewed about the housing market in Lexington by the Herald-Leader. After hearing the statistics that our real estate market isn't really suffering, especially in comparison to news from the rest of the country, the reporter decided that the article wouldn't be worth writing and passed on the story. Hmmm...seems to me that maybe our community would like hearing some good news.

mileage calculator

This is too cool and a great tool for home buyers & sellers trying to figure out walking distances from a house to a particular spot like a school, library, etc. In fact, I could probably play with it all day which I'd better not since I need to set up some house showings for tomorrow! I found it trying to figure out how far one of my favorite runs is (just over 4 miles by the way in case you're curious...) but everything relates to real estate if you're a Realtor, right?

Thanks to Google earth maps, you can use this fantastic link http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to go from one starting point to another. I popped in my house as the starting point and dragged it around using points where the road curves and bends for my running route all the way back home. The best part was that I use a cut through from my neighborhood into another neighborhood that I've never been able to calculate by car because it's just a foot path. This let me put a point on the end of my street onto the street I cut through too. I did figure out that you have to be pretty meticulous in plotting the various bends in the road.

Local market news

News from our local Board statistics reinforce that real estate really is local. In spite of all the dreadful news we keep hearing, compared to last September, single family residential sales are up 1% while townhouses and condos are down 2%. Existing home sales are up 1.4% for the same time period. Existing home sale median sales price is unchanged when comparing September 08 to September 07. Inventory is down 7% while pending inventory is up 0.9%. The Housing Affordability Index jumped to 164 in September because of slightly falling mortgage rates. Overall, September 08 vs. September 07 shows more market improvement than a year over year, year-to-date comparison.

In my own micro world of real estate, my statistics from last year to this year compares favorably. Hopefully, my 2009 will continue to buck the negative news in the media and will compare equally well.