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Chelmsleigh Neighborhood, Bloomfield Hills

Nestled behind the charming brick and stone gates at the corner of Lahser and Lone Pine, lies one of Bloomfield Hills most sought after neighborhoods: Chelmsleigh. The winding roads reveal impressive custom homes on estate sized lots.

The full legal name of the subdivision bears the name of Judson Bradway, who is credited as being a Realtor who played a leading role in defining Bloomfield Hills as a community of luxury homes.

Today, there are less than 80 homes in Chelmsleigh, and they vary considerably in style and architecture. The oldest is the landmark Vernor Stone house at 4778 Lahser, which was been recognized by the Detroit Historical Society, among others. Most of the homes were built between 1950 and present day, and they range between 4,000 and 10,000 square feet.

Chelmsleigh is in the award winning Bloomfield Hills school district.

At the moment, there are five homes in the Chelmsleigh area on the market:

  • 4774 Stoneleigh is listed for $2,750,000
  • 859 Sunningdale is listed for $2,490,000
  • 4600 Lahser is listed for $1,700,000
  • 4701 Ardmore is listed for $1,699,600
  • My listing at 4800 Stoneleigh is listed for $895,000, presenting an incredible opportunity for someone to move into this fantastic neighborhood.
  • Dmitry featured in Detroit Free Press

    Dmitry Koublitsky spent 3 years working with his clients on a property tax assessment issue for a home in Bloomfield Hills. The issue went before the State of Michigan Tax Tribunal, which concurred with Dmitry and his client’s that their home was over-assessed and thus overtaxed. Dmitry’s clients recently received a significant refund for overpaid taxes. Here is the article from the Detroit Free Press.

    Birmingham’s Pleasant Street in Transformation


    Apparently living on Pleasant Street in Birmingham is really…pleasant. Forgive my bad pun.

    Aside from the patriotic American flags that residents proudly display on power polls lining the block between Lincoln and Woodward, there seems to be a building boom underway on Pleasant. Today I counted three new homes going up, two more with construction fencing and a 6th sporting the signs of Kevin Hart, a prominent local architect, indications that a major renovation could be in the works.

    Why Pleasant? The primary reason is it offers some of Birmingham’s largest lots. Many are over an acre, allowing homes up to 8,000 square feet to still have sizable yards to enjoy. We’ve seen skating rinks out front, pools in the back, lovely covered porches and even a putting green gracing yards on Pleasant Street.

    Turkia Mullin’s sister recently sold this beautiful home on Pleasant.

    The return of the builders to Birmingham certainly is not limited to Pleasant Street. It is exciting to see new homes going up in Quarton Lake Estates, Little San Francisco and in town, as builders and buyers have restored confidence in the housing market that is underscored by all that Birmingham has to offer.

    2011 Beverly Hills MI Home Prices UP 8.9%!

    Good things happened last year in the Village of Beverly Hills Michigan real estate market. While the number of homes sold remained basically unchanged with 167 homes transacting, average prices headed up to $214,585 in 2011, an 8.9% improvement over the average price of $197,066 in 2010.

    Also improving was average days on market, with a decline from 116 in 2010 to 103 in 2011.

    Average price per square foot increased from $99.89 to $108.46.

    The most expensive transaction in the Village of Beverly Hills in 2011 was at $505,000, and that is the only statistic that fell short of 2010 numbers, when the most expensive home sold transacted at $565,000.

    From many agents and buyers’ perspectives there was actually a shortage of inventory on the market in 2011, which helped to push up prices. We see this trend continuing into 2012.

    From Metro Detroit’s Most Expensive Home to Metro Detroit’s Most Expensive Foreclosure

    Novi Michigan

    Back in 2007, when I wrote a post about Metro Detroit’s Most Expensive Home on the Market, there are a number of things that I would not have predicted. First is that the home would some day fall in to foreclosure. In 2007, the local real estate market was riding high, and there were no red flags indicating the economic tsunami that laid ahead.

    I’ve since heard conflicting reports about the actual building cost of 21000 Turnberry in Novi, with estimates between $18,000,000 and $25,000,000. Since the home has changed hands, and the newest owner, my client, is a bank, my sources for verification of these details are a bit limited. This week though, I walked the property with one of the original listing agents, and learned much about the estate and it’s beginnings.

    Here are a few of the amenities I listed in my original post, with current comments in parentheses:

    • A bowling alley
    • 6 bedrooms (all en suite with wonderful tile selections in the baths)
    • 10 full baths, 3 powder rooms10 car garage (3 car attached to the house, a porte cochere to a garage with 3 more, and the guest house has capacity for the remaining 4)
    • His-and-her baths with Botticino limestone heated floors, 6 shower heads, and steam showers. (Separate walk-in closets, his and her sitting rooms and jetted tubs, laundry hookups in master suite)
    • Library with painted, paneled and wool paisley upholstered walls, herringbone leather floor.
    • A Cigar Bar (with hammered copper bar counter and fresco style painted ceiling)
    • A 3,200 square foot guest house (full bath)
    • A couple of waterfalls and a beautiful pool (with an outdoor kitchen, covered porch and stone water slide).
    • 24k gold chandeliers (all were removed).
    • A round wine tasting room (with hand painted ceiling and rustic wood beam flooring)
    • A meditation room (spectacular mosaic tile floor, hand painted ceiling)
    • PGA sanctioned 165 yard par three hole with bunkers.
    • Trout and bass ponds.Security gated property with 2 security stations
    The conservatory off the “his” side of the master suite was drenched in sun when we were showing the home to prospective purchasers on Monday. I could see it being one of my favorite places to sit and read a book in this house.  Though most of the rooms of the house were built to take advantage of the spectacular views of the carefully manicured property, this one stands out on a sunny day.
    The 5,000 bottle wine cellar in the basement is in perfect condition. It is joined in the walkout lower level by the bowling alley, a home theater space, work out room, the tiled meditation room, a billiards area, full kitchen/bar, and a guest room with a sauna and steam shower.
    The previously flat parcel was built up to its current rolling elevation and tons of stone were brought in the sculpt the land into the lovely site it is today.
    At a list price of $3,999,000, today’s buyer will be paying less than a quarter of original construction costs. Here are some current pictures of 21000 Turnberry.  And this video, created during a previously listing, shows what the home looked like in the last 2 years and what it could look like once again.  Opportunities like this are rarely presented.
    Showings by appointment only with proof of funds.

    Will you still respect me when I tell you it is NOT a buyer’s market?

    A few weeks ago I met an appraiser at a home I have listed in Royal Oak so that he could get the appraisal done for the buyer’s mortgage.  As we walked through the house, he said to me, “There won’t be a problem with the value, but you knew that, didn’t you?”  Well, I suspected, but I don’t take anything for granted.

    We talked for a long time about how busy we both are and how values are creeping up in the markets that keep me busiest.  Sometimes they are even bolting up, but I like to remain conservative about my market projections.  The appraiser confirmed he is seeing increasing values, but told me that the appraisers in his office are not yet willing to upgrade the overall market status on their appraisals from declining or balanced just because they know they will face increased scrutiny from underwriters.  Yet the evidence clearly points to increasing market values.  Ask any buyer who has tried to purchase a home in Birmingham lately about the competition they have faced.  It’s not easy to be a buyer right now, and I don’t see it getting any easier next year.

    I am often told by potential buyers, as they begin their search, “everyone knows it’s a buyer’s market.”  I have to find just the right way to tell them I don’t see it that way at all.  After YEARS of telling people their home is worth less than it was the previous year, I haven’t been saying that for the last few months.  I have comps that show neighboring homes selling for more than they would have last summer.  I see competitive offers on many well priced homes that are not short sales or foreclosures.  There are buyers out there who want to buy, and they are feeling the shortage of inventory.  We recently listed and sold a home in Birmingham’s Poppleton Park neighborhood and had multiple offers and over a dozen showings within the first 24 hours we were on the market.  The home sold for over asking price to a buyer who had become frustrated by the lack of choices available.

    I am ready to raise the flag and say the Birmingham Bloomfield real estate market is increasing in value.  People want to live in these communities and are showing that they are willing to pay “market value.”  Like it or not, the bargains of previous years are fewer and farther between.  That said, buyers are still able to purchase homes in areas they previously thought they might never be able to afford.  It’s still a great time to be a buyer, but I think the reality of the market might be quite different from commonly held assumptions and misinformation presented by the national media about the state of the housing market.

    Beverly Hills MI Real Estate Stats–First Half of 2011

    2011 has been a better year for residential real estate sales in Beverly Hills than 2010.  We’ve seen increasing prices and a shorter market times. The average sold price has risen 6.6%, from $195,500 to $208,000.  Average Days on Market has fallen from 100 days to 96.  The number of sales in the first half of both years was almost unchanged at 89/90, but in our opinion, this is primarily because there is an overall shortage of inventory this year.  There are buyers out there right now who simply are not able to find a house they want. 

    Prices would rise faster if appraisals could keep up.  So far this year, the highest closed sale in Beverly Hills was 19070 Bedford, a lovely 3 bedroom colonial that our office had listed.  The buyer paid $490,000 for the wonderfully updated 3,000 square foot home.

    We’ve compiled a free report with all of the single family home sales in the Village of Beverly Hills, MI in the first half of 2011 that is available for download. 

    If you are considering a move to or from Beverly Hills, we would be delighted to help you.

    The chart below is for all of area code 48025, so it encompasses, Beverly Hills, Franklin and Bingham Farms. It illustrates our contention that prices are on the rise and inventory has fallen.

    Real Estate Market Chart by Altos Research www.altosresearch.com

    Beverly Hills Community Garden: Growing COMMUNITY

    Beverly Hills community Garden Fence Building If there is one thing that we’ve loved about living in Beverly Hills, its the sense of community.  There is a commitment from local residents to making this a better place to live.  On a village wide level, we have events like the Halloween Hoot, Memorial Day Parade and Carnival, Movies in the Park and the Winter Family Fun Day that draw us together.

    Community volunteers have also put a tremendous effort this year in to raising funds for local education by working with children on a project to set a Guinness Book Record for the longest lemonade stand.  Dmitry, Katya and I will be at our stand in Beverly Park on Saturday, August 20th, and we hope to see you there.  It’s not too late to get your own stand and participate in the fun.

     229306_224738757542861_123976464285758_1069773_7687444_n Personally, I am taking great enjoyment in participating in the Beverly Hills Community Garden, which is in it’s first planting year.  The founders have done an exceptional job of creating a wonderful asset for Beverly Hills.  Thank you Matt Roman, and many others.

    We see all generations out working together in the garden, sharing in the excitement of seeing something grow.  Young children take great pleasure in discovering cucumbers hidden under leaves, and the squash, corn, melon and tomatoes soon to be ready for us all to enjoy.  And when they get bored, they wander over to the nearby playground to hang out. The garden has a special plot where the veggies will be donated to the hungry, and we can all add to that from the excess bounty in our personal plots. 

    249268_228853640464706_123976464285758_1105538_7800977_s Members have worked together to build a fence, till plots, learn about drip irrigation and spread a formerly gigantic pile of compost.  We’ve shared in fantastic educational events that have helped us all learn a thing or two about how to be better gardeners.

    Since we began planting in June, there hasn’t been a time that I have gone to visit my heirloom tomatoes that I have been there alone.  There are always a few other happy gardeners tending to their plot.  I just love walking around and seeing what other people have growing and how we all have different approaches to vegetable gardening. 

     229010_1957186043157_1047926040_32197523_1680574_s Personally, this is my most concerted attempt at using a method of composting called Comforter Compost, where I am actually composting right in the plot and attempting to build better soil right on site.  My garden looks very different from the others with it’s layers of Starbucks coffee grounds, spent straw and last years leaves piled over cardboard and burlap.  The tomato plants seem happy about their home though, and the earthworms I find under my layers look especially happy.  Ever the gardening optimist, I think next year will be even better as my soil begins to get really built up with decayed organic matter.  I will let you know how the tomatoes turn out!

    PS.  Thanks to the woman who was riding by on her bike with her son today and shouted out “Beautiful Garden!”.  I love that this community is embracing this new shining star!

    The Detroit News Left You Ill-Informed About The Metro Detroit Real Estate Market

    I admit the title is a bit of a tease, because the Detroit News does have a great LOCAL real estate section, so most LOCAL articles are spot on. But if my clients in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Beverly Hills, Royal Oak and surrounding cities believed today’s upsetting Detroit News headline, Detroit home sale prices lag in spring despite uptick elsewhere, then most of them would not be participating in our area’s extremely active real estate market.

    Ask any successful Birmingham Bloomfield Realtor and I imagine you will hear a story similar to ours. We are having one of our best years EVER. Our office, SKBK Sotheby’s is on track to have it’s best month EVER this month (and it is the oldest real estate office in Birmingham). Sales volume is up, and prices are rising along with it.

    Some time around February, when I don’t think most of us were really expecting it, the market turned overnight from a strong buyer’s market to a more balanced or even, in some cases, a seller’s market. You’ll find many a frustrated buyer out there today, racing from new listing to new listing, hoping to be the lucky one to have their offer accepted. It takes a few lumps as a buyer to accept that the reality you’ve been hearing about for the last few years is not the one you will experience when you make your own purchase.

    More than ever, it is a market that requires professional guidance on both sides of the transaction. We are not done with appraisal issues, by any means. Knowing what is coming on the market before it actually hits the MLS has also proved essential to many a buyer over the last few months.

    We’ve seen 10-15% appreciation on some houses in Birmingham that we visited last fall in anticipation of marketing them this spring. There are sales out there that support these new prices. We are still not back to historic highs, but it is wonderful to see a new stability in the market.

    So please, don’t let a headline generated by the Associated Press guide your sense of what your home may be worth or how it might sell today. Nor, if you are a buyer, should those articles give you a false sense of how you will use your fierce negotiating skills to beat the seller senseless. Those sweeping generalizations don’t apply and can cost you money and grief.

    5 Mistakes Home Sellers Should Never Make

    From AOL Real Estate: (http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/05/31/5-mistakes-home-sellers-should-never-make/)

    Trying to sell a home in today’s market requires courage, smarts and a fair amount of humble pie-eating. It’s a buyers’ market, which means sellers are expected to roll over and grovel appreciatively over each showing their agent landed.

    Sometimes, whether through ignorance or a last gasp of pride, sellers make one of these critical mistakes that actually worsens their situation. So if you are trying to sell a home, make sure you:

    1. Don’t move out with your furniture.

    Let’s say you’re no longer dancing to the unemployment blues and finally landed a job that happens to be in another city. You need to sell your house fast and relocate because there’s a paycheck with your name on it, but it’s 3,000 miles away. By all means, you can move post haste. Just don’t take your furniture with you. Nothing sells worse (and by worse, we mean for less money and takes much longer) than an empty house.

    Think about all those new developments you have toured. Which of the identical units looked the best? The ones with the furniture in them. Empty houses are cold and depressing. The rooms may look bigger without furniture but they also look soulless. Plus a house recently stripped of wall hangings often screams “paint me” at the top of its lungs.

    2. Don’t assume home-staging is just for the wealthy.

    Getting back to point No. 1, you want the house to look good and maybe your old La-Z-Boy lounger has passed its prime. Professional home-stagers are the magicians of the modern-day decorating world. They move things around, bring in a few pieces, stash away some of your junk and — voila! — your house looks like it’s worth $100,000 more than you’re asking and suddenly you have a buyer drooling. In fact, you might like the new look so much you don’t want to sell anymore.

    A study by Stagedhomes.com found that 94.6 percent of homes that were professionally staged sold within 33 days, compared to an average of 196 days for homes that are not staged. Staged homes stay on the market 83 percent less time than a home that has not been staged.

    Staging is something you should consider if you do need to move out your furniture.

    3. Don’t think your dog doesn’t smell.

    We here at AOL are pet-lovers. We even are allowed to bring our dogs to work with us. But we also know that not everyone shares our affection for our four-legged friends. In fact, it’s been estimated that 15 percent of the population is allergic to dogs and even more are allergic to cats.

    Pets need to be removed for showings. Crate them and leave the crate in the garage.

    But to focus on the odor issue. We often grow immune to smells that we live with. Many an ex-cigarette smoker has commented how he never smelled the cigarettes while he smoked them but now that he’s stopped, he can smell someone smoking in the next car on the highway. Same principle applies to dogs. Admit it: Can your pooch really roll around in the dog park and come home not a little odoriferous?

    Steam clean the carpets and upholstered furniture; launder the bedspreads if Fido has been known to sneak up on the bed; and ask a pet-less friend to give your house the sniff test.

    4. Don’t think that buyers will understand that you have kids and tolerate a little mess and clutter.

    It’s just not so, my friends. The perfect house showing, says just about every agent bearing a Realtor’s membership card, is one where the personal affects are missing. You want prospective buyers to be able to envision themselves living in this house. Your son’s Little League trophy belongs in the garage, packed in a box ready to be moved. Having clean bathrooms and kitchens are most critical. Nothing turns a buyer’s nose up more than dishes in the sink or a bathroom in need of a good cleaning.

    The declutter and cleanup advice applies to the outside of the house as well as the inside, said Jim Hamilton, regional vice president of National Association of Realtors. He says that 70 percent of the decision about whether to buy a home is made as the buyers drive up to it.

    5. Don’t price the house based on what you need to get out of it or what you think it is worth.