Mallory Creek Plantation Stevens Fine Homes Leland Nc

\f0\fs24 \cf0 I'm Jay Seville with Wilmington Real Estate for you. And I'm here to talk to\ Wendy Melville, who is one of the top selling agents for Stevens Fine Homes. How are\ you doing today Wendy?\ \ I am fine Jay. How are you?\ \ Great, great. I had some basic questions about Mallory Creek, the\ community that you are representing in Leland, North Carolina. Number one, how many\ homes are in this development?\ \ We have roughly about 495 homes now built. When we\'92re finished\ out, it\'92s going to be over, way over a thousand.\ \ Wow that is amazing.\ construction?\ \ We\'92ve been out in Mallory Creek for six years.\ \ Fantastic. And how long does it take, let\'92s say someone finds, really likes\ the community and the amenities and how close it is to Wilmington downtown. How\ long does it take to have a home built?\ \ Roughly four months. From the time that you are under agreement and\ we get your commitment letter and you sign off in the design center, it takes four months.\ The first month is us getting our construction loan. So literally, it only takes a thousand\ dollars down from the buyer out to start the process.\ \ Only a thousand dollars down to buy a new home.\ \ Nothing else. A thousand [overlap]\ \ To start. Wow. Okay.\ \ How long has the community been under\ \ And in the first month is us getting our construction loan and then it\'92s\ the 90 days from start to finish.\ \ Right. Right. Now out here in Leland, are there USDA loans?\ \ Yes, yes.\ \ What is a USDA loans?\ \ A USDA loan is 100% financing. So that means you actually can\ come to the closing table with no money down.\ \ Right. And no money down now is hard to get unless you have a VA loan\ and a very small population gives VA loans. So down here, you can buy a brand new\ home with no money down and that\'92s a mind blowing value if you ask me as a realtor.\ \ Now, the design center, Wendy, I\'92ve sold, I\'92ve probably negotiated 10 million dollars of\ new home construction in Wilmington, in Northern Virginia, in Washington DC. So I\'92ve\ experienced a lot of new home builders and I was blown away by the design center of\ Stevens Fine Homes because it\'92s huge. It\'92s like walking into Home Depot or Lowe\'92s.\ \ Normally I\'92d go into the back closet of the sales office. I put three-inch squares of\ granite on the table and they say pick one. And they pick out two or three pieces of wood\ and say which floors do you want. And you walk out in ten minutes. And that\'92s new\ home designing by-and-large in many states.\ \ I mean, how long has Stevens Fine Homes had this design center? How long does an\ appointment take there for someone to design their house?\ \ Well we actually give you as much time as you would like. We don\'92t\ like to rush it. Generally we it can go from two hours to five hours. But we try to do two\ a day sometimes three.\ \ But it\'92s almost as close as you can get \ Right.\ as building a custom home at a\ 68 or \'96 between 68 and 75 dollars a square foot.\ \ Right. Oh that\'92s amazing. That\'92s amazing. Because my wife and I were\ looking to build a home a few years ago and it was going to be much more than 60 or 70\ dollars a square foot. What about Mallory Creek? What are few of the amenities here\ Wendy?\ \ We have a pool and a club house. We have sidewalks throughout the\ entire community. Street lamps throughout the entire community. You can tell there\'92s\ walking trails. We have woods, a lot of woods. At some of our home sites back up to the\ \ woods where you will never have in your home We have home sites that range from a quarter of an acre to three\ quarters of an acre.\ \ Oh! So you have larger lots too. And what are the price ranges?\ \ We have no \'96 well, we have some lot premiums. But the price range\ on the home including the lots range from $149,900.00 all the way up to $289,900.00.\ \ : Right. So for 150, one can have a brand new home. What\'92s the square\ footage on one of those homes?\ \ 1,402 for $149,900.00\ \ 1,402. Like a three bedroom, two bath?\ \ Yes.\ \ Right. And your larger homes, how much square foot is that?\ \ The largest home we have is a little over 4,000 square feet. We have\ homes that go for six bedrooms.\ \ Right. What\'92s that model called with 4,000 square foot?\ \ The Biltmore.\ \ The Biltmore. Ooh nice, nice.\ \ But the Palmer is going to be our new model which is down the road\ here in Pines. Which the Pines is our fourth phase that we\'92ve opened up in Mallory\ Creek since we\'92ve been here the last six years. We\'92ve already pre-sold seven homes in\ [overlap].\ \ Right.\ \ Two homeowners are already living in the neighborhood and we just\ recently started it within five or six months ago [Indiscernible] [00:04:29].\ \ Now how have sales been in 2012 compared to \'9110 and \'9111?\ \ Well we\'92re going to double our sales.\ Has it exploded?\ \ It\'92s exploded. We\'92ve sold 250-some homes already this year.\ \ Jay Seville: Right\ \ Wendy Melville: Um [Indiscernible] [00:04:39]. We are trying to hit 400.\ \ What? Oh my gosh. See, I\'92m a real estate blogger and I\'92ve been analyzing\ the market. And the conclusions I reached a few months ago was the market bottomed-\ out last year. Prices have started going up in all price brackets. And obviously, the big\ variable I noticed Wendy was in Wilmington anyway, the number of transactions from\ a year ago and fifteen months ago is up 33% combined with inventory having dropped\ 40%. That\'92s a huge cocktail recipe for a rebound market. So anyone who is going to\ wait till next year to buy a home is wasting money and they\'92re losing equity fast. Well\ thank you so much Wendy. I really appreciate everything you told us.\ \ And another thing I want to you that -\ \ Okay.\ \ You got the interest rates are at all time low.\ \ Yeah. They\'92re not going lower. It\'92s impossible.\ \ You need to get a 30-year at 3.25 and you know, there is no way you\ can get into a home at any less [Indiscernible] [00:05:32]\ \ Yeah. I experienced that with a home I own. The interest rate was 5.85 and\ now to get a home, I could afford a home that cost an extra $150,000.00 extra you know,\ and you have the same payment. Or I get the same home and my monthly cost is down\ 30%. I\'92m blown away by these interest rates. And yeah, now is the time to buy. For the\ first time in many years, now is the time to hop in and don\'92t wait another year. All right.\ Thanks Wendy. Good talk -\ \ Wendy, I\'92ve been looking at a lot of new homes in the Greater Wilmington, North\ Carolina area. Tell me about quality of construction. What sets Stevens Fine Homes\ apart from other builders?\ \ Well, not only are we the number one builder in the area, we also offer\ Stevens Energy Wise which pretty much gives you a radiant barrier roof sheathing on\ your roof with your R-38 instead of R-30 insulation in the ceilings.\ \ An R-15 instead of R-13 in the walls. That\'92s above -\ \ Stevens build ABOVE Code\ R-38 insulation instead of standard R-30 in the roof\ R-15 in the walls instead of R-13\ \ Code.\ \ Right.\ \ At no cost for our buyers.\ \ So I can say from my realtor experience, not many builders build above code\ and plan development. So it\'92s almost -\ \ And that they don\'92t charge you.\ \ That\'92s unheard off. That\'92s fantastic.\ \ Right. Exactly. We also seal off all of our HVAC work, all the duct\ work, everything. So you are not actually pulling any kind of insulation or dust out of the\ attic.\ \ Like the crawl space here or in the ceiling space area into your home.\ \ Fantastic.\ \ So all of this saves you roughly 60 to 80 dollars a month.\ \ That\'92s a lot of money. That goes towards a lot of Christmas presents.\ \ If you add it up to [overlap]. That\'92s exactly right.\ \ Or an extra vacay to Myrtle Beach or something. Great. Let\'92s go look at the\ map.\ \ All right.\ \ All right Wendy. Now some people, they don\'92t \'96 I find some people are a\ little - they don\'92t understand that Leland and crossing the river is not a big deal. You can\ be way south in Masonboro within Wilmington boundaries and it can take longer to get\ to downtown or up to Wilmington where the workplace is longer because of college road\ traffic than if you just live here in Mallory Creek. So explain the map to me.\ \ Right. Here we are on the store which is on 133.\ \ Right.\ \ All right. So you\'92re 10 minutes from Downtown Wilmington.\ \ Mm-hmm.\ \ You are only 10 miles from the hospital. We\'92ve clocked this. I mean\ [Indiscernible] [00:07:46] 10 miles from the hospital. 25 minutes from Wrightsville\ Beach or 25 minutes from Southport. So you\'92re actually centrally located to anything or\ everything you want. You are only \'96 Martin Luther King Boulevard is right here.\ \ Right.\ \ So you cross the bridge. You take 421 to Isabella Holmes and you\'92re\ down at Wrightsville Beach.\ \ Right. That\'92s amazing.\ \ Or 421 to 140 so if you want to hit 40 Interstate to get out of town, 15\ minutes you\'92re on 40.\ \ Right.\ \ I mean you can\'92t beat it. You\'92re simply located [overlap].\ \ So on the Leland side of the river, this is really convenient location.\ \ Most definitely. You are only three miles into Leland where you\ have all your grocery stores, all the shopping centers of Wal-Mart, all of that. We also,\ Mallory Creek Drive which this map would show that a little bit better.\ \ Yeah. Let\'92s see [overlap]\ \ Mallory Creek Drive, when you come in off of 133, we have a pool\ and clubhouse which I mentioned before.\ \ Yeah. I took a picture.\ \ HOA dues are 40 dollars a month. That\'92s it.\ \ Wow, that\'92s low.\ \ That\'92s it. It started out 25 six years ago. So for anyone that thinks that\ they can jump up. No.\ \ Right. They\'92re not bumping them up. That\'92s not how it works.\ \ Yeah. We have homeowners that are on the board that live here. So\ they always keep them down.\ \ Right. Okay.\ \ The Mallory Creek Drive, the plans and it\'92s going to happen. It will\ connect to Brunswick Forest.\ \ Okay. What does that mean? How does that help?\ \ Brunswick Forest mean, well there was actually a newspaper article\ last weekend. The villages above the forest -\ \ Which is going to be a whole new commercial section that\'92s opening\ up on 17.\ \ Wow.\ \ So instead of going three miles back up to Wilmington to Leland,\ you\'92ll only be a mile away.\ \ A mile away from this huge retail shop.\ \ Exactly.\ \ And how far will you be away from 17?\ \ One mile.\ \ Just one mile to get to 17. Zero traffic.\ \ Zero traffic. I mean Brunswick Forest will allow you to use the golf\ course. You can cut through that way. You can have a golf course in our neighborhood\ [Indiscernible] [00:09:27].\ \ Right.\ \ You know, so it saves a lot of gas.\ \ Cool.\ \ [Indiscernible] [00:09:31], there\'92s um Mm-hmm.\ \ m, one mile [overlap]\ \ Exciting. A lot of improvements are still underway.\ \ Exactly.\ \ That\'92s fantastic. All right. There we go.\ \ All right.\ \ Jay Seville \'96 team leader\ \ JustNewListings.com Team\ \ Realtor and writer for http://wilmington-real-estate.com blog}