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Floyd Properties explores house design, valued features

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Last article we examined several factors you need to consider when purchasing a home. Today we are going to go more in depth concerning what house design and house features make people like or value a home most.

 

 

In national surveys, almost all buyers list the following features as important to them:
• Separate Laundry Room
• Walk-in Kitchen Pantry
• Front porch and rear porch/deck
• Hardwood floors in the main living area
• A full bath on the first floor
• Walk-in closet in the Main Bedroom
• Eat-in Kitchen
• Dining Room
• Garage Storage space.

 

Some other interesting statistics about what buyers looked for in 2023
• 67% of buyers wanted a single-family home
• 60% of buyers prefered a new home
• 85% wanted an open-concept kitchen and dining room
• 40% of buyers thought about accessibility when shopping for homes
• 42% of recent and prospective home buyers want a two-car garage
• 75% of real estate agents still say that stainless steel is the most popular appliance finish, and it's now available in different colors

 

In addition, Floyd Properties and Development Inc. has found that higher-end buyers also like these upgrade features:
• Specialty Flooring
• Arches and Pillars
• Nook Spaces
• Areas that can host large gatherings
• Kitchen upgrades such as granite or quarts countertops; large ranges with dedicated fans and hoods; butler pantries; specialty shelving
• Bathroom upgrades such as showers with multiple heads, and separate and stand-alone soaking tubs.

 

Along with these higher-end upgrades, Floyd Properties is planning some Idea Homes to explore some elite design features such as:
• Integration of the outdoors by using multiple sliding glass doors or accordion doors to open to the outside
• Range hood pot fillers
• Outdoor kitchen areas
• Advanced smart technology such as remote check cameras to adjust lights, air temperature and to lock or unlock doors.
• Special purpose rooms

 

What do you think?

Floor Properties invites the public to help design these houses and add features. Just go to https://floydproperties.com/ and give your opinion on what upgrade features you would like to see in the Idea Houses.

Don’t subsidize new major league baseball team

pexels tim gouw 139762Will North Carolina snag one of two new Major League Baseball franchises? That’s what Gov. Roy Cooper, Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon, and other civic and business leaders are hoping.

They’re prepping a bid for a team to be based either in Raleigh or Charlotte. As soon as MLB announces its process and timeline, they’ll try to make their Carolina baseball dream a reality.

I couldn’t care less, frankly. I don’t follow professional sports closely — and even if I did, my interest would be in football, not baseball. Still, it’s a free country. If MLB does decide to expand to 32 teams and a North Carolina ownership group uses its own resources to go after a franchise, fine by me.

That’s not what will happen, however. The prospective owners will demand that taxpayers subsidize their team by building a ballpark for it. They’ll argue that such a project will expand our economy and create new jobs. This is, in a word, false.

 

“Sports stadiums are provably ineffective economic development tools,” writes John Mozena, a fellow with the Better Cities Project. “Once you look past rosy economic impact predictions and the glittering stadium renderings, the evidence of decades’ worth of real-world results from across the country is crystal clear: Stadiums strike out when it comes to economic development.”

Last September, the Journal of Economic Surveys published a comprehensive review by three university professors of more than 130 academic studies of the issue. The results “confirm the decades-old consensus of very limited economic impacts of professional sports teams and stadiums,” the authors wrote. “Even with added nonpecuniary social benefits from quality-of-life externalities and civic pride, welfare improvements from hosting teams tend to fall well short of covering public outlays.”

In other words, it costs taxpayers more to subsidize a sports enterprise than they get back in benefits.

Some taxpayers don’t mind, of course. They are superfans who regularly attend games and derive personal enjoyment from following the team. But most residents compelled to subsidize the stadium don’t fit this description. The only way the math works for them is to benefit indirectly — by attracting legions of free-spending fans from elsewhere, or to raise the national profile of their community in ways that promote growth and development.

That’s always the promise. It’s rarely the result. “Nearly all empirical studies find little to no tangible impacts of sports teams and facilities on local economic activity,” the professors concluded, “and the level of venue subsidies typically provided far exceeds any observed economic benefits.”

On other issues, competing philosophical camps may hurl competing studies at each other. That’s not the case here. In 2016, three scholars affiliated with the left-of-center Brookings Institution wrote that “decades of academic studies consistently find no discernible positive relationship between sports facilities and local economic development, income growth, or job creation.”

Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute, made a similar point in a 2022 column. “A city or county does not see net economic growth from subsidizing stadiums,” he wrote. “This is one of the most consistent findings in economics.”

Now, I wasn’t born yesterday. And I’m hardly new to the stadium beat. Although the case against sports subsidies is solid, I knew full well that advocates of a Carolina team will lobby aggressively to grab our money to fund their pet project. Some politicians will fold quickly (as Governor Cooper already has). But others will understand that a tax dollar spent on a baseball park represents a tax dollar not spent on a core public service, or not available to taxpayers to spend on a good or service of their choice.

Fiscal conservatives should be ready for a long fight. We should block any attempt to use state revenues or regional authorities to subsidize a ballpark. And we should urge our city and county officials not to get distracted by shiny objects like sports franchises. They have far more important issues to work on.

Editor’s Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Whoa on the woe

pexels anna shvets 3962261"Woe is me” is much in the air these days, likely ginned up by the 2024 election cycle.

Actually, it is more like “woe is us,” as millions of Americans decry the direction they see our nation and the world taking. Here are some of our Chicken Little fears. Our culture is increasingly violent, facilitated by out-of-control gun ownership—more guns than Americans.

Covid threatened our lives, and human-induced climate change threatens to make the earth uninhabitable. Technology in general and A.I. in particular could get so smart, they could take control of everything, even if we humans fail to realize it. Our nation is on the brink of being overtaken by a possibly deranged, fascist dictator.

And what if ongoing global conflicts trigger World War III? Is it wise to turn life-threatening issues such as A.I. development, climate change, and space exploration over to the private sector?

The list of woes goes and goes.

Tyler Austin Harper, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College in Maine, recently published an article in the New York Times, addressing what he terms “extinction panics.” Working from the adage that everything old is new again, Harper asserts that such panics occur about every hundred years and that this one has arrived right on schedule. The last one struck us in the 1920s.

 

The extinction panic of the 20th century has much in common with the one we are experiencing. The world had just survived a flu pandemic, estimated to have killed 50 million people across the globe. There were no effective treatments, much less vaccines to prevent it. The US economy seemed to be roaring, but it got so heated that it ultimately crashed in 1929, triggering the Great Depression.

Fueling that extinction panic was the spread of fascism in Europe, which by 1939 had blossomed into what became World War II and which ended with the world’s first atomic explosions. More than 200-thousand people died almost instantly, with hundreds of thousands more maimed and/or sickened.

It is almost impossible to miss the parallels.

Harper quotes from HG Wells’ 1928 book, The Way the World is Going, which still resonates a century later. “Human life is different from what it has ever been before, and it is rapidly becoming more different….Perhaps never in the whole history of life has there been a living species subjected to so fiercely urgent, many-sided and comprehensive a process of changes as ours today. None at least that has survived. Transformation or extinction have been nature’s invariable alternatives. Ours is a species in an intense phase of transition.”

Hard to argue with that.

Harper himself seems more optimistic than Wells. He writes in the Times, “as for machine-age angst, there’s a lesson to learn here, too: Our panics are often puffed up, our predictions simply wrong.

Human life and labor were not superseded by machines, as some in the 1920s predicted. Or in the 1960s or in the 1980s, two other flash-in-the-pan periods of A.I. hype. The takeaway is not that we shouldn’t be worried but that we shouldn’t panic. Foretelling doom is an ancient human hobby, but we don’t appear to be very good at it.”

As for this writer, the threats seem very real and increasingly urgent. But our “species,” as Wells identified us, has indeed survived millennia by using our big brains and probably some dumb luck.
We do see what is facing us, and if we really are smart, we will choose to act on these threats, not to ignore them.

The Chamber of Commerce gets it right!

chamber 1Without a doubt, Nat Robertson, President/CEO of the Fayetteville Area Chamber of Commerce, and staff celebrated their 125th Anniversary in style last week at The Carolina Barn, where over 300 attendees representing local Fayetteville businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations gathered together for the Chamber's Annual Awards dinner.

Before Robertson joined the organization, the Chamber suffered from dwindling membership, a lack of relevant programming, and poor leadership.

Wow! What a difference a year makes! Robertson is breaking records in making the Chamber relevant to the business community and growing its membership. In addition, he is initiating new programs, fine-tuning existing ones, and offering many new value-added benefits to Chamber members.

His hard work and dedication manifested when they celebrated this highly anticipated event. If there were any doubts about whether our Chamber was on the right path in rebuilding and fulfilling its vital role as an advocate for businesses and community, they exist no longer.

With 15 Chamber of Commerce Achievement Awards and dozens of well-qualified and deserving nominees, it was evident that the Chamber did the due diligence needed to select the most deserving recipients.
For ample proof, you only had to look no further than the recipient of the Realtors Cup, former President of the Fayetteville Technical Community College, Dr. Larry Keen—and Mac Healy as one of three George Breece Legacy Award honorees.

 

Keen retired from FTCC after 16 years at the helm. The Realtors Cup is the highest honor and most prestigious Chamber award. The Longleaf Pine Realtors organizations sponsor it. It is presented to the individual who has contributed outstandingly to the Fayetteville community's economic, civic, and cultural growth.

In addition to being a great guy, that pretty much defines Dr. Larry Keen to a tee. The fifty-plus past recipients of the Realtors Cup read like a distinguished Who's Who list of men and women who positively influenced and enhanced our quality of life.

As mentioned, the other notable indication the Chamber carefully evaluated the qualifications of their honorees was naming Mac Healy as one of the recipients of the George Breece Legacy Award.
This award honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Chamber and the community. No one does that better, in my opinion, than Mac. He is probably the most generous and humble servant this community has.

Undoubtedly, Mac continually goes above and beyond when it comes to investing energy, time, resources, and commitment to the Fayetteville community. He follows in his father's footsteps.
Fritz Healy was also a great benefactor to the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Mac is a legacy, and he will leave a legacy. Fritz Healy would be proud. As the adage says, "The apple never falls far from the tree."

Some might say that Mac should be considered for The Realtors Cup. However, he's already been bestowed that honor in 2017. Our community needs more people like Larry Keen and Mac Healy.
To all the Chamber 2023 Annual Award winners, we say "Congratulations." My singling out Healy and Keen was only to accentuate that our Chamber of Commerce is dedicated and committed to recognizing and honoring the people, businesses, and organizations making this community enjoyable and liveable.

Make sure you read the complete list of Chamber Award winners on page 8. You will see for yourself: The Chamber Got it Right!

Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

Timing the market: When is the best time to sell your business?

pexels rdne stock project 8292794

You’ve spent years building and growing your business. You’ve dedicated so much of your time and energy to ensuring its success, but it can be challenging to determine when the best time is to sell.

People sell businesses for a variety of reasons. When preparing a plan for selling your business, it’s a good idea to be straightforward and honest about what it would take to prepare your company for a potential transaction. You should also develop a strategy and timeline for hitting those benchmarks. But remember, this is a guideline and it’s not set in stone.

 

 

Reasons for selling

Certainly, events can result in the need to sell your business sooner or later than you intended. However, it is wise for any business owner to spend some time considering their situation and what events may make the sale of their business necessary. Having a plan is a smart idea to prevent some headaches if you must sell sooner than you anticipated.

First, consider your financial security. For instance, will the sale of your business support your current lifestyle? You will need to consider any existing debts you have, and your cash flow needs for now and the future. Do you have other sources of income and potential long-term expenses that can be used for these debts and expenses? Investigating if the current economic environment is favorable to selling is also important.

Next, evaluate what your personal and family concerns may be around the sale of your business. Some people may need to consider selling due to a lifestyle change such as divorce or illness. You may be dealing with a conflict with your business partner that requires you to sell your business. Finally, many people are interested in selling their business simply to have more personal time or because they want to retire.

Finally, many entrepreneurs are constantly seeking their next challenge. If you have a new business interest, you may be contemplating selling your existing company. This happens when you have already achieved all your personal goals for that business. Or you may be interested in running a less intensive or hands-on business. Another reason may be that you feel someone else is needed to run the business to help it go to the next level.

 Understanding timing

Businesses have life cycles, just like living creatures. One way to evaluate the best time to sell your business is by honestly evaluating where your business is in its life. There are five stages:

Is your business new and just finding its feet? Then, it is a start-up.

The second stage is when the business grows, and you build a name, clientele, and profitability.

The middle phase occurs when the initial growth spurt slows, but you still have forward momentum.

The fourth stage happens when your profits have leveled off, and you sustain a flat growth plane.

The fifth and final stage occurs when revenues are sliding, indicating that your business is in decline.

Visualize your business’s life cycle on a bell curve. You are likely to get the best price when your business is in the sustaining phase. Waiting until past the sustaining phase may be too late in terms of maximizing buyer interest and your profitability.

 

Transworld Business Advisors has a team of brokers with expertise in selling businesses in a wide range of industries and a proven process to match sellers with qualified buyers. We know that selling your business can be a lot of work, but with the right help to manage the process, the sale experience can be much less stressful. For a free consultation, contact Ashley Kelsey with Transworld Business Advisors of Eastern NC at 910-302-6447 or email akelsey@tworld.com.

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