The Real Deal

By Sharman Egan Lagniappe columnist

A couple of columns ago, I wrote about moving to and from LA. Or to be more specific, I wrote about my friend Sherrie Quander who’s in the process of moving to our LA from the other LA. After 30 years in California, Sherrie is planning to sell her home there and buy a home somewhere in the Mobile area.

I thought it would be interesting to track her progress over a few columns, for insight into what the city of Mobile and our real estate market looks like to an outsider. Think HGTV’s “What You Get for the Money” and “House Hunters” with a local spin.

As you probably know, home prices in the other LA are, shall we say, a bit higher than they are here in Mobile. Sherrie thinks she can sell her 3 bedroom, 2 bath town home with 1,440 square feet and a two-car garage in the San Fernando Valley for somewhere in the low 300s. Then she hopes to buy something similar here (actually she’s hoping to get something larger, 1,500 to 2,000 square feet) at a price of $150,000 to $200,000. Not bad, if she can pull it off.

As reported in the previous column, Sherrie’s goal for buying a house looks reasonable. Based on my search of the local multiple listing service, she should have no trouble finding what she’s looking for in her price range (you can read the original 3/12/08 column at www.lagniappemobile.com).

On her most recent trip to Mobile in February, Sherrie looked at homes with her agent, Sheri Glavin, a Realtor with Keller-Williams Realty. Since Sherrie’s home in LA wasn’t under contract yet, she wasn’t in a position to make an offer yet. Her goal was to get familiar with the market. “I wanted to get a feel for the types of homes that are available. Where they are located and where the different types of homes are,” she said.

What was her first impression of the market here? “Mobile has character. I was blown away by how eclectic the houses are,” said Quander. “California isn’t old like Mobile so there are only certain types of houses.” Although she appreciates that aspect of Mobile’s housing stock, she has eliminated diverse Midtown from her list of neighborhoods for that reason. “Midtown is my least favorite neighborhood. Every house is different, and the energy on each street is different. I would have to look at them all.”

Quander also prefers a modern house. “I looked at a cute ‘30s house in Midtown but I couldn’t even get my furniture in the rooms,” she said. “I know a modern house won’t have the cuteness and uniqueness of an older house, but I really want a house with an open floor plan and a garage. That’s hard to find in older houses.”

She’s also eliminated the Eastern Shore from her list. Although she’ll be looking for a job here in human resources, she will also be the assistant minister of Conscious Mile Spiritual Center in Mobile, and she wants to live close to the church. “I don’t want to cross the bridge every day,” she said.

Quander said her favorite area of town was West Mobile. It’s convenient to the church and it offers the type of modern home she wants, in the right price range.

But first, of course, she has to sell her house, and it’s not exactly the best time to sell in LA, the epicenter of the real estate market meltdown. “Houses in my neighborhood maxed out at about $405,000 a year or so ago, and they’ve fallen since then,” Quander said.

Sherrie took a long time deciding to make the move – she’s been considering it since her first trip to Mobile last summer. Now that she’s made the decision, she’s ready to go. “I need to hurry up,” she said. Then in the next breath, she acknowledged that one of the things she’s looking forward to in Mobile is the friendliness of the people and the slower pace. “People enjoy talking to everyone here, in the post office, everywhere,” she said. “Nobody does that in LA. Maybe life is offering me something different here. It’s a way to change my speed.”

Nonetheless, Sherrie is ready to make the move so she listed her house at $325,000. It’s an aggressive price, and one she hoped would help move the house in a slow market. “Not many people are looking right now because of the weather,” she said in early February shortly after she listed her house. She explained that it’s raining there, something that only occurs for about a month in the winter. Apparently everyone stays home when it rains – can you imagine such a thing in Mobile, home of frequent monsoons?

So how are things going so far with Sherrie’s plan? “I have an offer!” she said when I spoke to her in mid-March after her house had been on the market less than two months. Because of slow market there, she and her agent are doing their best to accommodate the buyer’s requests. “We expect to be in escrow by Saturday. Sheri has been sending me listings from Mobile. As soon as we are in escrow, I can start looking at them seriously.”

Sharman Egan is Lagniappe lagniappe columnist. Contact her at Sharman@SharmanEgan.com.

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