I guess part of being a realtor, even in the web 2.0 world, is cheesy self promotion, hence the obnoxious headline.

Alison Ketcham of the Birmingham News interviewed me in an article she did for the Sunday, July 22, 2008 paper. It was in the Real Estate section, page 22J.

She wrote the article about buying second homes, and what the current real estate market is doing to vacation home sales. She interviewed a developer on Lake Mitchell, a realtor that sells homes in the foothills of the Appalachians, and talked to me about Lake Martin. It should be on al.com pretty soon, when it is, I will link it in here.

I was really honored to be interviewed. Plus, the picture she used (below) was one of mine, of a home I have for sale, 1135 Lakeview Drive. It is a 3 bed, 2.5 bath home built by Bradley Pemberton of Landmark Construction and Development. We just dropped the price to $447,000 – click here for the direct link to watch an online video tour.

I mainly talked about how it is a buyer’s market, yet we still have historically low rates. Here is but an excerpt:

“Over the past 40 years or so Lake Martin property has appreciated at about 12 to 15 percent per year,” Coley said. That return combined with the fact that a vacation home provides a place to bring family together makes it a good investment.

“I tell buyers that historically Lake Martin has strong returns like a mutual fund, but it’s better,” Coley said. “Because 30 years later nobody says ‘Hey, didn’t we have fun sitting on the dock of that mutual fund?’ You can get a return on your investment, but nothing can replace the memories that you can make with your kids on the lake.”

“No one has warm and fuzzy feelings about their 401k plan, but they do have warm and fuzzy feelings about the lake.”

Thanks, Alison, for the mention in a well written article.

Here is the picture of 1135 Lakeview Drive that she used: