About Warren County, OH

Lebanon's The Golden Lamb Joins Greater Cincinnati Independent Restaurants!

EASILY Lebanon's most famous landmark and with good reason, The Golden Lamb has joined the Greater Cincinnati Independent Restaurant association. Open for business since 1803, you can just feel the history of this restaurant/inn, and with good reason! The Golden Lamb is THE oldest continuously running business in Ohio. Now the building may have changed a bit over the centuries, but the reason it has succeeded has not.

A sense of history, solid comfort food, a convenient location (in the heart of Lebanon on the northwest intersection of Broadway & Main), all add up to a destination worth visiting. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, The Golden Lamb has been visited by many famous dignitaries and celebrities over the 200+ years of operation, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Daniel Webster and did we mention, TWELVE U.S. Presidents?? From William Henry Harrison to George W. Bush, the Golden Lamb has attracted it's share of political big hitters!

So what does The Golden Lamb joining Greater Cincinnati Independent Restaurant 27 member association mean?

Participation in events like Greater Cincinnati Independent Restaurant's Spring Restaurant Week with three course tasting menus for bargain prices like $26.12! Additionally, when you dine at The Golden Lamb you can now earn points in the Greater Cincinnati Independents' Rewards program! Earn points at ANY of the participating restaurants and redeem them for gift certificates that you can use at ANY of the participating restaurants! And these 27 restaurants offer some of Cincinnati's best dining and are located throughout northern Kentucky, Cincinnati and now all the way to Lebanon!

So the next time you're going out to dine out, you might want to add The Golden Lamb to your list! You can enjoy a stroll through historic downtown Lebanon AND have a great meal.

For reservations, you can visit www.OpenTable.com or call 513-932-5065.

Open Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday & Saturday 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. There's plenty of parking in the immediate vicinity too!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

P.S. Need to buy or sell a Warren County area home? Just call The Liz Spear Team of RE/MAX Elite!

Lebanon Bob Evans Restaurant Closing!!

How can it be?? The parking lot is always crowded??? With that location at SR123 and Stubbs Mills it's a perfect place! How can they possibly be closing? Don't take away my blueberry pancakes, those biscuits and sausage gravy and those Wildfire items and the pies?? SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!

Well, it is so, BUT it's only for a week! The area Bob Evans restaurants have been doing so well that they've decided to give them facelifts inside! New furniture, a new decor, but the same great food, you're just going to have to wait a bit, or head to one of the other area Bob Evans (like the one at the I-71 Kings Mill interchange or the one down on Mason Montgomery Road).

The Lebanon Bob Evans will close February 19th at 8 p.m. and reopen 7 a.m. on February 26th. So either get your fill of Bob Evans before they shut down, or prepare to do some road tripping!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

P.S. Need to buy or sell a Warren County area home? Just call The Liz Spear Team of RE/MAX Elite!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Decisions. We're faced with them continually, sometimes subconsciously, sometimes major life events that we may spend days or weeks mulling before reaching that conclusion.

Some decisions have little impact, and some can be life altering.

The decisions you make regarding home ownership can fall into the life altering category. We're not trying to scare you here, but decisions you make today can have far reaching impact to your emotional happiness, your financial security and much more.

Now while we as REALTORS® can't totally protect you from everything bad (as much as we'd love to), what we can do is provide you the best possible advice to make your home ownership decisions.

Home sellers:
It includes our providing a THOROUGH price evaluation and a net proceeds sheet (no surprises at the closing table). That price evaluation is going to tell you quite a bit about your available options: yes or no to selling, straight sale, short sale, loan modification or another option?

We can provide you a list of things to do to your home to optimize your opportunity to sell, and to move your home up in the expected sale price band. Ultimately it's up to you to make the decisions as to which to implement and which to bypass.

And if you decide to sell, we'll keep you informed to keep your decision making process provided with the best current info on your competition and how to meet your goals.

And when that purchase offer does come, we'll again be providing you with our best advice: to counter (or not), what terms to be concerned about (sometimes price isn't the ONLY decision point), how to protect yourself without blowing up the deal. We've talked more than a few sellers down off the proverbial ledge over the years.

Home buyers:
In our view, the best decision making starts with getting with your mortgage professional to find out what you can and can't afford to do. THEN the next most important thing is finding a REALTOR® who can guide you through the process.

Hiring these two assistants are both critical elements to your short and long term success. And yes, we think having a REALTOR® is critical even if you're planning on buying new construction! Do you have any idea how many times we've talked to people who are essentially trapped in their home because they overpaid that builder while they were "saving" money by not using an agent?

Now as you go through the home buying process, there are decisions you'll make that while they may fit your "right now" conditions, may really hurt you later. For instance in our area, buying a subdivision home WITHOUT a basement is a killer to selling a home. Those homes are some of the toughest resales we ever encounter. It can be done, but you'll probably have go sell for much less and take much longer.

One of our specialties is working expired listings, homes that didn't sell with their first (or second, or third) agent. And often that failure to sell has NOTHING to do with the listing agent's adequacy, but everything to do with the decisions made when purchasing the home. A common thread is someone got a "good deal" when they bought....because the home was next to a major road, in a less than desirable school district, on a corner lot, didn't have that basement, etc. Those are all acceptable decisions to make PROVIDING you are aware of the potential consequences years down the road.

Now as your buyer's agent, we can provide you with as much advice as you'd like. Contract offer strategies, the importance of home inspections, what you can do with a particular home, our experience with the neighborhoods you're considering, community pros and cons, and much more.

Ultimately, when you're buying or selling a Warren County area home, we'll put our experience to work for you to provide you the best possible inputs to making your final decisions. We'll be doing everything we can to protect YOUR best interests and help you make the best possible decisions!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

P.S. Want to know more about how we can help you? That's easy! Just give us a call and let's talk!

29th Annual Lebanon Quilt and Fiber Arts Show & Sale March 2-4 2012

Remember those intricate quilts grandma used to make? Little snips of fabric arranged into intricate colorful patterns? Literally works of art!

Well quilting isn't an extinct art, and the Warren County Historical Society is helping keep the quilting heartbeat going with it's 29th Annual Lebanon Quilt & Fiber Arts Show & Sale!

Where: Warren County History Center in Downtown Lebanon (on South Broadway just down from the Library)

When: March 2, 3 & 4. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on the 2nd & 3rd, 11 a.m to 4 p.m. on the 4th

Cost: $6

Parking: There are a number of free parking municipal lots in the immediate neighborhood.

What: Well of course quilts, and lots of them! But also vendors from as far away as Texas and Massachusetts (get the feeling this show is a big deal if they'll travel that far?). The vendors will offer quilt patterns, books, new and antique quilts, crafts and of course fabrics for those quilts, including some vintage fabrics!

There's even a few special exhibits of some quilting masters! And some of the historic downtown Lebanon shops will be joining in the fun with quilts on display in their shop windows!

All proceeds benefit the Warren County Historical Society. For more information, visit www.wchsmuseum.org or call 513.032.1817.

So mark your calendars now and don't miss it!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

P.S. Need help buying or selling a Warren County area home? We'll make sure it's not as intricate as making quilts while still keeping your interests covered! Just give The Liz Spear Team of RE/MAX Elite a call for a no hassle, no pressure conversation!

Lebanon Ohio 45036 Single Family Home Residential Market Report January 2012 Update

The Lebanon Ohio residential real estate market has shown good stability through 2011. While not really appreciating in value, at least prices have been stable. So how did the Lebanon area perform for January? We'll answer that question and more by expanding on our 2010 & 2011 Lebanon residential real estate market report.

All data is derived from the Cincinnati MLS system. If any homes traded hands without a REALTOR® involved, then it won't be reflected in this report. All data is for the Lebanon school district, so data is not limited solely to Lebanon city limits.

With Lebanon being named one of Ohio's 5 best Hometowns by Ohio Magazine for 2012, there's a lot to draw residents to Lebanon! A fantastic historic downtown that is a frequent host to some great festivals, great schools and easy access to dining and shopping. And with it's central Warren County location, and SR63, SR48, I71 and I75 providing access, you've got easy commuting capability to either Cincinnati or Dayton! And don't forget Countryside YMCA, the world's LARGEST YMCA!

Lebanon offers more affordable housing than the neighboring Mason at a full range of price points: from entry level older homes, to medium priced communities to luxury homes.

So, on to the data!

First up is the number of single family homes sold on a month by month basis for 2010, 2011 and now starting with 2012:

Next is the median price summary chart.


So what is the data telling us? At first glance you might think the news is pretty bad. ONLY 10 homes sold in January? That's only about HALF of the previous two Januarys!! But what the chart doesn't show you is there are 44 homes pending! That's right, 44 homes under contract, waiting to close! Now a fair number of these may be in the waiting mode because someone else has to sell their home first, so don't expect to see all 44 homes closed on our next Lebanon market report. Sometimes that wait can be months!

And what is the data on median price telling us? Well that doesn't look great either, but with only 10 data points the price is easily moved. Homes sold from $12,000 to $359,900. In this case, there were two foreclosure type sales BELOW $25,000. Now those aren't typical selling prices for the Lebanon area, and if you saw those two homes you'd understand why they were practically given away! We expect to see more typical home prices in the coming months.

So what does this mean to you as a Lebanon single family home owner? Foreclosed/short sale single family homes are having an impact. If they're in decent condition, they ARE competition for you. DO NOT expect a quick sale unless you've got a unique home with a VERY aggressive price. If you live in one of Lebanon's abundant subdivisions, you have significant competition. For an evaluation of your home's marketability, please contact us.

So what does this mean to you as a potential Lebanon home buyer? There is a LOT of inventory to pick from! 206 Lebanon homes for sale in Cincinnati MLS ranging in price from $20,000 to $1.45 MILLION dollars. There is a match for whatever price point suits your budget. There are some foreclosed/short sale home available on the market, but they're not always the best bargain depending on your need to have a new home and how much cash flow you have for repairs after closing. With a stable market, and fantastic interest rates, you don't have to rush and buy just ANY home, but FOR NOW it would appear you can take a more leisurely approach to finding the right home. However, once you've identified it, DON'T delay in taking action! If it appeals to you it may very well appeal to someone else! If you're interested in buying a Lebanon area home, please contact us with your needs and we'll help you find the right Lebanon community for you!

Serving Lebanon's home buyers and sellers,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

P.S. Like any of the three homes pictured? They're all Liz Spear Team of RE/MAX Elite listings. Click the picture to go to their webpages for more information!