About College Park's College Park Woods

I honestly think this FUNdraiser for the College Park Woods Swim Club was a good excuse for neighbors and friends who have known each other for years to get together and have a great meal and toss back a couple of Franklin's famous microbrews.

College Park Woods is this great community minutes from the University of MD that has this wonderful community pool. They get into water aerobics and everything. Of course, it's a Memorial Day to Labor Day kind of thing since it is, after all, an outdoor pool.

I wrote more about this with some great photos at this post.

In a plug for Franklin's -- they have these great FUNdraiser nights where they share 20% of the profits from anything your group comes in and buys. There are no restrictions on the time of day or the number in the group. They do have certain days they do it, though. You can check it out on their fund raising page.

They also have this really neat and quirky General Store attached to the restaurant that sells all the kinds of things you always wanted but could never find along with beer and wine.

It's really a great place!

I don't know if it's the interest rates, people getting tired of renting, a perception that home prices are pretty darn low (relative to recent home values) or what but homes are selling. At least a couple of my listings.

I serve a community near the University of MD called College Park Woods. It's a nice subdivision of single family homes built in the mid '60s. Community pool. Community park. Close to METRO and some fairly big employers (USDA, NASA, Archives, to name a few). So the location is good, the prices reasonable.

Yet, because of the "meltdown" and subsequent tightening of mortgage standards sales have slowed down pretty significantly and short sales have started to pop up.

Yet, if a Seller is not "in trouble" with their mortgage and actually have some equity they can sell their home. I went to settlement with one of my Seller clients on December 30th. It was a nice year-end gift that she was tickled to receive. The home was in good condition, the price was right and the Seller was willing to make repairs and negotiate on financial terms. I wrote a little bit more about this on this post.

The Buyer made creative use of FHA financing. It was a father/son deal where the owner occupant couldn't possibly qualify by himself but the co-signer (the father) was plenty qualified and FHA guidleines did not require him to actually live in the house. The buyers got a lot of the perks of FHA financing:

1. low rate
2. 30-year fixed
3. low down payment (3% in 2008)
4. the $7,500 first time home buyer credit (the son's first home)

So it all worked out wel for all concerned.

Hey, it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings and she ain't close, yet.