There are lots of ways to shoot yourself in the foot if you’re trying to buy a home, in the Annapolis area or anywhere else for that matter. Quitting your job is one good way. There are others. Listen to what Ken has to say on the subject.

That’s right: grab your checkbook and give us a call because this wonderful waterfront compound in Shoreham Beach is priced to sell quickly.

There’s still plenty of summer left – heck, it hasn’t even officially begun – to squeeze tons of fun out of this lovely property. Situated on a third of an acre, this home has it all – especially for boaters. The private pier and bulkhead have been extensively improved and there are three boat lifts. Cruise into Annapolis in about 10 minutes. Baltimore or St. Michaels in about an hour.

Currently, the home has more than 4,000 finished square feet. The bonus? A framed but unfinished suite of rooms over the garage that can be finished as you please. This wing of the home is the perfect place to let one generation raise a ruckus while another enjoys a little privacy.

The sunsets? They’re just fabulous here. Indeed, if you’d like to preview the home you may want to schedule an evening showing so you can see it for yourself. We’d be happy to make the arrangements.

Footnote: There are 10 waterfront homes for sale in Edgewater with a 3+ car garage. The next least expensive home is priced $600,000 more than this one.

If you have any questions at all about this property, call me – Ken – at 410-507-7222. Or send me an email at kenhaedrich@gmail.com

Have a great weekend.

If you’re moving to the greater Annapolis area, Gambrills is a place you might want to consider – especially once you see the virtual tour of this home.

Gambrills is about 20 minutes west of Annapolis, just east of DC and south of Baltimore.

3101 Gosheff Lane is, in the owner’s words, “peaceful. The minute you make that right hand turn off of Rt 450 onto Patuxent River Road you enter a different world – the street is lined with trees. There are no noisy cars. It is secluded and full of nature.”

If the turnover in this relatively small community of Patuxent Run is any indication, others must agree that this is a wonderful place to call home: the last home we sold in this community of approximately 3 dozen homes was over 2 years ago. And there has only been one sale since.

The home itself? Incredible. Spacious…private…comfortable yet elegant. The large kitchen, great room, decks and large dining and living rooms make it a wonderful place to entertain.

When your day is done…or the party is over…slip into your private outdoor hot tub, under the gazebo, with a glass of wine – chosen from your own wine cellar.

Click here to see the virtual tour of 3101 Gosheff Lane.

And give us a call at 410-507-7222 if you’d like to take a private tour. But don’t expect this one to stay on the market for long.

In the previous post, I mentioned two of our most recent Annapolis waterfront listings – the more expensive of the two, 1134 River Bay Rd, priced at $1,725,000.

That’s not chump change in anyone’s book, but it’s also not the most expensive waterfront home that’s currently for sale in Annapolis – not by a nautical mile.

In fact, there are 46 others priced at or above the $1,725,000 mark.

Topping the list at $11,900,000 is 1514 Whitehall Rd, a 40-acre waterfront estate on Whitehall Creek. If that’s stretching your budget, 1810 Lindamoor – a 3-acre estate with 250′ of frontage on the Severn – might be more your style.

Click here to preview the most expensive Annapolis waterfront homes.

Not surprisingly, homes in this price range don’t typically sell like hotcakes. The average days-on-market for these homes is 295. Currently, there are 4 homes in this price range under contract.

If you would care to preview any of these homes, please call me at 410-507-7222; we’d be happy to discuss your needs, make the arrangements and be your guide to the Annapolis waterfront market.

And if you’d like to get on our hotlist of Annapolis waterfront homes, just send me an email at kenhaedrich@gmail.com and let me know. We’ll sign you right up.

If the number of calls we’re getting on our two newest waterfront listings is any indication, Annapolis is crawling with waterfront buyers in search of their new dream home.

1134 River Bay is the sort of one-of-a-kind, custom home that waterfront buyers only dream about. It was designed by renowned local architect, Catherine Purple Cherry, and if I had to describe it in a phrase it would be “elegantly comfortable.” If you lived here, you’d have very little incentive to ever leave home.

Stunning as the home is, it’s all about the water and the views here – views that stretch across the Magothy, out to Gibson Island and across the Bay. The walls of glass along the back of the home frame these views beautifully and bring the outside in.

My wife and partner – Bev Moss Haedrich – found this home for the current owner several years ago and it was love at first sight.

If your budget is closer to a million, our new listing at 361 Broadview Lane in Broadview Estates – off Riva Road – may be just what you’re looking for.

This traditional Colonial has 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, a sensational kitchen and sunlit dining area. The hardwoods on the main level are in excellent condition. The master suite is fabulous.

The lot sits well above Broad Creek and there are steps down to a private, deep-water pier.

Enjoy the virtual tours of these two properties. If you have any questions about either of them – or would like to arrange for a preview – please call me at 410-507-7222.

It’s going to be a busy Saturday for The Moss Haedrich Team of Keller Williams.

It’s National Open House Weekend – sponsored by the National Association of Realtors – and we’ve got four of our lovely listings lined up and ready to show off.

If you’re shopping for a townhome, we have two fab homes for sale in River Oaks in Edgewater, off Mayo Road (one is in the Enclaves at River Oaks.) I probably use this phrase more than I should, but both are “Pottery Barn perfect”, well priced, and in otherwise excellent condition.

If you’re searching for Annapolis waterfront, you know that it’s hard to find something spectacular for under a million. We have just such a listing – spectacular and under a million – and I’ll be at 361 Broadview Lane to show you around when you arrive. Look forward to meeting you.

Finally, we have a wonderful 4-bedroom, single family home that just “went active” last week in Revell Downs. It’s a Cape Cod, in beautiful shape, has a very large and private fenced backyard and sits in a cul-de-sac. What more could you ask for?

All of these homes will be open Saturday, April 10th, between 1:00PM and 3:00PM. We hope to see you there.

You can have a sneak peek of all the homes and find the addresses by clicking here.

We should know: we’ve lived here 9 years. And though we have – on occasion – thought about moving, we’re not really sure why we would want to.

We’re close to the action here, just a mile or two from the new Annapolis Towne Center. The mall is just a hop, skip and a jump. Routes 50 and 97 are a 5 minute drive….but it feels like we’re way out in the beautiful ‘burbs. The people are nice, the dogs friendly. What more could you ask for?

(Click to skip to the Riva Trace market report.)

The Overall Picture

Having sold more than $7,000,000 worth of homes in Riva Trace, we know it well – the condos, town homes and single family homes.

As with elsewhere in the greater Annapolis area, home prices have taken a hit in the last year or so. Sales have slowed, as well, with many owners waiting to sell until they feel the market has stabilized or started to improve.

When owners stay in their homes longer, they tend to make improvements and updates – which bodes well for the general well-being of the community and future owners who are sure to find quality homes here  at desirable prices.

Currently, there are 2 condos for rent, both 3rd floor, 2 level units. Another 3rd level unit just came to market this week at $345,000. One of our listings – a second floor, 2 bedroom condo – is under contract.

There are 4 active town home listings, at a high of $499,900 for an end unit on Gingerview…to a low of $359,900 on Cranes Crook.

You can find all the details here in the Riva Trace market report.

If you have questions about any of these listings or would like to schedule a showing, please contact my wife Bev at 410-353-2469. We’ll be happy to help.

If you’d like to get on our Riva Trace Hotlist – and have the latest sales and listings emailed to you as they happen – just email me at kenhaedrich@gmail.com and I’ll set you up.

And if you’re considering selling your Riva Trace home, please call. We’ll come by and have a look, give your our best no-pressure opinion of what your home is worth in this market, and show you precisely how we sell so many homes here.

When you sell real estate, your listings are like your children: you love them all and it’s hard to play favorites.

That being said, you can’t help but deeply appreciate the unique nature of certain homes, how special they are and confident that the next owner will feel a strong connection to the property.

This Davidsonville listing is one such home – a place where, whenever I step inside, I feel an immediate sense of calm and at-home-ness. If you’re looking for the McMansion-on-the-hill sort of thing, there are other options: 1015 Wayson isn’t even visible from the road and that, to me, is one of its greatest charms.

Sound interesting? Have a look, and if you’d like to see more, just give a call. And if you like to see more right now, here a click to the Virtual Tour for 1015 Wayson Way.

East of Loch Haven Road to the end of the Mayo Peninsula you’ll come across some of the nicest little communities in the Annapolis area – Selby on the Bay, Ponder Cove, Turkey Point, Mayo Beach and Beverly Beach, among others.

Shoreham Beach, too, where – as with so many other local maritime communities – older cottages mingle quite comfortably, thank you, with million dollar plus waterfront homes. Indeed, many of the more expensive properties ARE old cottages reincarnated.

Our newest listing – 3914 Bayside Drive, with 100′ of frontage on Ramsay Lake – began as a cottage more than half a century ago; a series of additions and improvements over the years make up the existing home, which sits on one of the largest lots in the community (a total of four 25′ by 100′ lots, side by side.)

The home was built to the owners’ tastes with custom cabinetry, features and special touches the owner likes to refer to as “hidden treasures.” Most notably – in the colder weather – is the radiant heat in the tiled floor of the central great room and kitchen. This is especially appealing for those of us who’d rather be barefoot on the beach somewhere warm. (Following this February’s weather, that’s pretty much all of us, I imagine.)

Other “hidden treasures” include a whole house sound system, venting skylights with rain sensors, extra-tall garage doors (think storage for your boat on a trailer), a summer kitchen for crab feasts or caterers, and a framed-but-unfinished suite of rooms – measuring 36′ by 36′ – over the triple garage. Depending on your needs and lifestyle, this could become a new master suite, guest or in-law suite, you name it.

Here’s a click to the Virtual Tour for 3914 Bayside. If you like what you see and want to arrange a private preview, give us a call at 410-507-7222 and we’d be happy to give you the tour. It’s a very special home with tons of appeal for anyone looking for a well-priced waterfront home in the greater Annapolis area.

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” – Yogi Berra

I’ve spent the last couple of hours – more time than I should have – reading what every blogger and apparent expert thinks the real estate market is going to do in 2010. Some of it is rosy, like stabilizing prices and strong sales. Some it much less so: predictions of many more foreclosures and higher interest rates.

I have no idea whether or not they’re right: most of these things happen WAY above my pay grade. But we – The Moss Haedrich Team - do have our boots in the trenches selling real estate here in the Annapolis area. We notice things, we see trends, so we thought perhaps you’d like to hear about some of the trends we’ve spotted for 2010.

1. Sellers doing less costly improvements. And why not? Why put five grand into replacing kitchen cabinets when a fresh coat of paint will spiff them up just fine? We just listed a home where the seller did just that. They look beautiful. It’s still crucial to make a home look fab prior to a sale. But sellers are getting smart about where they put their dollars in these equity-squeezed times.

2. An early spring market. Maybe because we’re already so busy. Unless we get some terrible weather in the next couple of months, it should be a very active first quarter. First-time and buy-up buyers can get their tax credits if they have a contract by April, so the early rush is on.

3. Buyers getting started earlier with their searches. Each month we talk to about 150 new potential home buyers. It’s not unusual to hear that they’re still 12+ months out on a purchase. They’re researching the market thoroughly, watching home sales and figuring our where the value is. Today’s home buyer is very well educated and they’re using the internet – and Realtors – to help get the information they need.

4. Speaking of Realtors, they’ll continue to be fewer of them – here in Anne Arundel county and everywhere else. The real estate business has changed dramatically in the last few years. It’s become more competitive, technology-driven, and there’s little room for those who haven’t kept up. More and more part timers and dabblers are getting our of the business altogether.

5. The home office is king. Our buyers want them, often two of them. Makes sense: the Great Recession has found more and more people starting businesses and working from home. If you’re selling a home, stage an extra bedroom as a sleek home office.

6. Excellent deals in new construction. We can’t believe what some of the spec and model homes are selling for in the Annapolis area. These subdivisions are dying for occupancy; they’re making great deals and throwing in all sorts of upgrades to get you in. Our new construction buyers are some of the happiest buyers out there.

7. Incredible deals at the high end of the market. This is the slowest segment of the market. Many of these homes have been sitting on the market for more than a year. The prices have nowhere to go but down.

8. First floor master suites and elevators. A lot of today’s baby boomers don’t spring up the steps the way we used to. First floor masters and elevators are hot with many of our buyers.

9. In-law suites. Another sign of the recession: combined households. We just sold a home in Edgewater that had a very large in-law suite, complete with kitchen, bedroom, living room and home office. Potential buyers flocked to see it.

10. Less infatuation among buyers for short sales. Short sale buyers often think they’re going to get a steal. Quite often, they’re getting nothing but frustration. It can takes months to get an answer from a bank about an offer. Buyers are getting fed up.