Posts by : Allison Vanderveer

View the video for our new mid-island listing! 255 Village Drive: 2 bedroom/1 bath, $399,000. Ideal for primary, second home, or investment. Enjoy the peace and quiet of this updated and upgraded cottage! Call Roland: 912-230-4215

https://youtu.be/rdtLEDppLUI

215 Five Pounds Road
St. Simons Island, GA

MLS# 1615875 - Residential

This substantial brick and cedar residence should be on your 'house of dreams' list. Beautifully maintained home in a garden setting in one of our popular neighborhoods and convenient to everything. The kitchen is full-featured and is open to den / great room with wood-burning fireplace. A spacious second living room on the front of the house offers additional gathering space -- perfect for entertaining. The master bedroom is upstairs along with two additional bedrooms and a hall bath. A guest room and full bath are smartly appointed downstairs. This home has beautiful living spac...

https://youtu.be/_oRBNnb82ho

617 Neptune Way
St. Simons Island, GA

MLS# 1616317 - Residential

Gorgeous home in the Village backs up to the park! Beautifully renovated & updated: 3 bedrooms & 3 full baths in the main home PLUS 2 bedrooms & 1 full bath in the private garage apartment. Enjoy all-one-level living with a split bedroom plan. The delightful kitchen overlooks a comfortable great room with fireplace & built-ins. Ideal for entertaining with separate formal dining & formal living room. Off the kitchen is a sunny office with more built-ins & plenty of space for 2 desks. The master suite has a beautiful bath with a large walk-in shower, double vanities, & a huge closet with...

https://youtu.be/hSzbPbyVC-I

909 Champney Street
St. Simons Island, GA

MLS# 1614726 - Residential

What a fine home in a safe, and private golf community! Prepare to walk through the front door and be blown away! A magnificent residence perfect for those buyers looking for a place to spread out and enjoy. There are 5 bedrooms in the main house and a private apartment above the 3-car garage! The apartment has its own washer and dryer. Our home features fabulous living spaces, dramatic views across the marsh to The Hampton Club's signature holes, a salt in-ground pool with hot water spa, How about a steam shower in the activity room upstairs? How about a super, outdoor, screened r...

Yes, St. Simons, we do have growing pains. It's not the first time, but it is the first time in my 40 years here that we have an opportunity to make intelligent decisions benefiting future residents and visitors. And, to my limited vision, we're at a bit of a tilting point for this community.

This very week we've observed activity relating to two of my pet peeves: What are we going to do about a tree ordinance? Beach Renourishment; yes or no? And, the third, my personal pet 'mess': how about it, Commissioners, will you do what's necessary to fix infrastructure, most notably water & sewer and traffic congestion? 
We’ll speak to this in depth in a wrapper in the near future.

Today I'm vent...

BEACH RENOURISHMENT IS A TRICKY SUBJECT here on St. Simons Island. Tuesday's county commission called work session is where it officially came up, since Governor Deal has offered 10 Million to Tybee and St. Simons to be used to put sand on beaches. That's it in a nutshell.

BUT THAT'S NOT IT in a nutshell. It might be 'here we go again', as we did in 1992 when this issue was so polarized I thought our leadership, as well as our citizenry, might have taken lessons from Congress! There was no middle ground where a reasonable person could stand. My view was that it was the beach condo complexes and hotels catering to visitors, versus permanent residents -- homeowners in non-beach front areas...

Remember the fantasy flick Never Ending Story from the mid 1980's? A bullied boy retreats into the fantasy of a magical book telling the story of a magical land in need of a hero to save it. Just maybe we're that magical land of Fantasia, in need of heroes to save us -- mostly from ourselves.

If you venture down the sand trail leading to the ocean at Eighth Street on East Beach you'll encounter our very own 'Swamp of Sadness'. It seems as though a fierce monster ripped through the accreted lands eastward of the beachfront most lots, and snarled its way towards the primary dune slashing both giant pine and sturdy live oak and all under story indiscriminately. These things tend to happen o...

BROKER'S CORNER -- 'THE VALUE OF THE REAL VALUE'

One of the big questions for sellers and buyers in the real estate market is that of value; what's this property really worth? Market value, by definition, is what a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay for the property. And, of course, what a seller is willing to sell for. When these two sides shake hands, and when the transaction closes, we have established market value -- historical value, it's called.

SAFER THAN SAFE / A SECOND CAUSEWAY?

Through the years there has been a discussion about a 'second causeway' for St. Simons Island. There was a time when such talk was more than whimsical; I think there may have even been some preliminary investigation into the idea.

YOUR AGENT SHOULD BE KNOWLEDGABLE -- AN UNDERSTATEMENT! Last week found me in the mountains of North Carolina and in the back seat of a Realtor’s car doing what we in our business love: looking at property. Miss Paige was up front conversing with and asking questions of our driver. Although not my style, I sat mostly quiet in the back seat observing and listening. 

What came clear in this experience was a reminder that we Realtors are not just tour-guides, but professionals in our market place and valuable to our customers and clients. An old broker buddy once told me of his learning curve with young bucks he hired out of college when computers and electronic data bases were first being ...

INTEREST RATES.

Many years ago, when I broke into real estate sales, mortgage interest rates were pushed to nearly 19% for a brief period; that was the end of 1980. I had borrowed money for one of my first homes at 11.125 % in 1979 and considered myself lucky!

LONG OVERDUE SSI UPDATE FOR 2017. It's been a while since I posted the 'STATE OF REAL ESTATE' here on Saint Simons Island AND Coastal Georgia. So, here goes, from Roland's point of view.

2016 was a very strong year of recovery for real estate here in the Golden Isles. Indeed, our recovery began 2013 after the nightmarish 6 years of local downturn that began in early 2007. Actually, we couldn't see it, but things died in the fourth quarter of '06.

Then business began to return and we noticed LESS FORCLOSURES and LESS NEW LISTINGS and MORE INVENTORY TURNOVER. The upturn in business began in earnest, and without hiccups, in 2014. Slowly at first but now quick-paced, the market is heating u...