Alpharetta Real Estate Homes for Sale

This post is not really specific to Alpharetta or North Fulton real estate, but I’ve recently become minorly obsessed with doors.  The door on a house is equivalent to the nose on a face.  It makes a statement; and the nose and face should somewhat go together.  Sometimes it is the homeowners who are responsible for a “bad nose."  This would be like poor application of face makeup.  Yes, the door color on a house is your chance for self expression, but we have all see that lady in the mall who has eyebrows basically painted on her face.  There comes a point when self expression is just plain misguided.  Take this house for example, in the Hunters Oaks subdivision in Alpharetta. Do you like this door?  Would you put it on your house?  Would you consider painting it if you owned this house and were going to sell?  Would you want to live across the street from this house? My wife actually likes this door.  She thinks it looks Scandinavian.  My wife likes IKEA, too.  I don’t like either. My problem with the door is not so much the color, but that the color doesn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.  This door might be great in a seaside neighborhood (or a suburb of Stockholm) where other homes had brightly painted doors, but in Alpharetta, GA, it doesn’t work.  Neighborhoods definitely derive value from a consistent appearance of the houses.  That is why homeowner’s associations have architectural control committees.  The Brierfield subdivision on Mid-Broadwell Road has restrictions that require homeowners to paint the exterior of their homes from a defined color pallet.  Apparently that is not the case in Hunters Oaks. Sometimes - and more often - it is the architect who is responsible for a bad nose job on a house.  Take this $800,000 house in Highland Manor in Milton.  I love the floorplan of this house, but the architect was asleep at the drawing board when he penciled the front door and entrance.  This door/nose is way too puny for the house/face.  The windows (called “lights” in door parlance) above and around the door are nice, but they don’t remedy the fact that the door is just too small.  Putting the windows around the door is like piercing your nose:  It might decorate it, but it doesn’t make it bigger or easier to blow! An $800,000 house needs a statement door, not a single nostril after thought.  You want to make a big entrance into a house like this, because behind that door is a nice open, tiled foyer. We’ll finish with a rising trend I’ve seen in front doors:  iron.  Many high end builders in Milton are installing them in new construction and I’ve seen homeowners around Alpharetta doing “nose jobs” on their existing homes.  They look fantastic on all styles of homes, offer great security, have a good heft to them and require little maintenance.  They make a statement. I wish I had before and after pictures of these two houses, but here are the after pictures of two recent nose jobs, one in the St Ives neighborhood and the other across the street in Medlock Bridge.  These owners, in my opinion, have definitely increased the value of their homes and its marketability were they to sell. I often get asked:  “How do I increase the value of my home?” Or, “If I were to do something what would help me sell my house faster?"  The usual answer you’ll hear is to upgrade the kitchen and master bath.  I’d submit that you consider upgrading your front door.  Give your house a nose job. Which house would you rather own?  The green door house or the iron door house?  

http://www.alpharettarealestatehomes.com/0038DF

This post is a little off my normal real estate related theme, but is something that affects North Fulton communities and something that affects its residents: Red Light Traffic Cameras. The old saying goes that “Green mean go; Red means stop; and yellow means drive like hell.” That is not the case any longer in Roswell and Alpharetta since the installation of cameras at two major intersections in Roswell and seven in Alpharetta. Believe me when I tell you that I know exactly where these nine intersections are and that I absolutely hit the breaks when the light turns yellow. I’m conditioned now. I have no doubt in the effectiveness of the cameras preventing people from running red lights because I’ve noticed a change in my own behavior. I actually consider my actions before proceeding through a yellow light.

Alpharetta Red Light Cameras North Point Parkway and Haynes Bridge Road Main Street (Highway 9) and Academy Street Old Milton Parkway and North Point Parkway Old Milton Parkway and Haynes Bridge Road Old Milton Parkway and Main Street (Highway 9) West Side Parkway and Windward Parkway North Point Pkwy at Mansell Rd

Roswell Red Light Cameras Roswell Road (Highway 9) and Mansell Rd Roswell Road (Highway 9) and Holcomb Bridge Rd

When the lights were first installed I was afraid that I’d been caught a couple of times and wondered if I’d be getting a notice in the mail, but fortunately nothing arrived. However, the threat alone of a fine is enough to make me change my driving behavior. I’ve also learned that a violation is defined as crossing the “stop line” with your front tires after the light has turned red. So why are people so upset with the cameras? House Bill 77 has been introduced in the Georgia House to do away with the cameras altogether. House Bill 590 has been introduced to reduce the maximum fine from $70 to $35. I believe that people are upset because they see the cities making literally millions of dollars on fines from the cameras. Alpharetta has collected over a million dollars from its seven monitored intersections from July 2006 through June 2007. Roswell is on track to collect about $700,000 annually from its two monitored intersections. Citizens feel it is sneaky, though, of their local government to use this “backhanded” way to fill their coffers. More accurately, I think that people are just very frustrated with traffic and fell they shouldn’t be fined anymore for occasionally slipping through an intersection. After all, the slow traffic is penalty enough. To me it is a safety issue. As a realtor, I drive in Alpharetta and Roswell a LOT. I routinely see people run lights and stop signs and I’ve seen so many near misses I’ve lost count. If cameras change the driving behavior of other people like they have me, then that is a good thing and something I support. The evidence is that is actually the case: Revenue from the cameras in Alpharetta is actually down in 2007 from 2006. That indicates fewer people running lights. The City of Johns Creek doesn’t have any red light cameras yet, but is considering them – and frankly needs them along highway 141. Mayor Bodker says he is opposed to them if they are only revenue generators for the city. First of all, I believe they actually reduce the worst kind of traffic accidents, but even if they don’t, what is wrong with enforcing the traffic laws and raising revenues that way? We tax “sin” in this country all the time with cigarette and alcohol taxes. Is running a red light a sin? If you T-bone and kill someone it is. If it were possible to finance a government by fine revenues and sin taxes wouldn’t it be great to rely less on property and sales taxes? I digress… In a recent survey of Alpharetta residents, 2,602 people responded to a question about various priorities in the area of traffic and roads. Installing more red light cameras was at the bottom of the list. When asked how they would like to control litter, respondents overwhelming said enforce litter laws and impose fines. Yet when it comes to traffic, people don’t seem to want to enforce the law and impose fines. To me, it is a lot like workplace drug testing. If you don’t have anything to hide, why would you oppose it. Now, if you don’t agree with the law itself, then that is a different problem, but the drug tests and the traffic cameras simply enforce the letter of the law. The problem is that they enforce them too well for some people. In the end, traffic is the issue. More precisely, getting from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time with limited frustration without killing each other is the issue. My vote would be for more red light cameras and earmarking the revenue for traffic improvements: more turn lanes, longer turn lanes, intersection improvements, light timing, etc. Ask anyone around here and traffic is the number one issue. The red light cameras just bring it to focus with the right shutter speed.

http://www.alpharettarealestatehomes.com/0038C6