Real Estate
What We Wished We’d Known
You’re buying a house for the first time. Everything seems like a dream: the crown molding, the old floors, the large yard. You can’t believe that someone will help you by lending money to make this your home. If you choose wisely, your home will make you happy every day. You can drink coffee in […]
In Praise of a Clean Slate
The New Year always excites me. I see it as a “clean slate,” and an opportunity both to start anew and to start new things. 2017 is no different. Last weekend I purged my closet of years’ accumulation of miscellaneous stuff. This past Friday our Hat Team met with a facilitator to brainstorm how better […]
REALTOR Wanted: Must Do Windows
In my 35 years in the residential real estate business, I’ve realized that some folks have a really jaded view of us REALTORS. Misunderstandings are common. We spend all day driving around in big fancy cars. We get to keep all of the commission that the seller pays. We are salaried and our broker pays […]
New Neighbors in Old Houses
We are friends and neighbors here on North Lewis Street in historic Capitol Heights. We share potluck dinners, drinks on front porches, and cookouts on back decks. We look out for each other’s house, pets and, well, each other. So when Fred and Bobby delivered the news they were moving to Hazel Hedge, we were […]
Help Wanted: Crafting the Real Estate Experience of the Future
Just because we live and work in the older and historic parts of town, don’t assume that Sandra Nickel Hat Team, REALTORS, is stuck in the past. On the contrary, we spend a lot of time talking about the future and how to make buying and/or selling a house a more pleasurable and satisfying experience. […]
Your Home Should Make You Smile
Monday morning I was out on my front porch when a dog and her owner passed by. Being the neighborly thing to do, I called out a greeting. She responded warmly and then introduced herself as a Perry Street resident, fairly new in the Garden District. “I love walking by your house,” she said warmly. […]
Making a List
No house is perfect. We’ve all got little things that need fixing. Some are piled on top of the vague aspirations that populate the “someday” pile. Someday we’ll replace that electrical outlet. Someday it’d be nice to have a brighter kitchen. Someday we really need to get around to repainting the front door. Other things […]
Inside King Lear’s House
For those who don’t know, MML is sponsored by the Hat Team Realtors. This means two things for our readers. First, you get to read all of our content without advertisements – a blessing in today’s increasingly ad-ridden Internet experience. Second, it means that sometimes we get to go look around in other people’s houses […]
The Death of the Midtown Middle Market
I don’t usually write “hard” real estate information for this publication, but today I’m making an exception. It’s worth making a rare detour because it’s really important for Midtown property owners to understand that there is no longer a “middle market.” There was a time (like when my husband and I were first time homebuyers) […]
Remembering Judge Johnson
In the Montgomery airport, there’s a new advertisement for the movie Selma, which was shot partly right here in town. The movie’s advertising slogan reads “One dream can change the world.” That’s catchy, and clearly calls back to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech at the 1963 March on Washington. Unfortunately, it reflects a common […]
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