The Settlement at Willow Grove in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Back in the day when I rode horses, a favorite place to ride was the Kleinpeter Farm on Perkins Road. Fast forward to today, and now we have this upscale planned community for people with a busy lifestyle - The Settlement at Willow Grove.



The rooftops tell the story of the types of homes you will find here Low maintenance yards, a feeling of community with the design of the subdivision. Central to that concept is the extensive incorporation of green spaces and tree-lined walkways opening to 10 beautifully designed parks featuring landscaped gardens, fountains and benches. At the back of the subdivision is a lovely park with playground equipment, pool with poolhouse, and ampitheater setting. Just imagine strolling the sidewalks or riding your bike to the pool.





Your neighborhood is self contained and yet, you are steps away from Perkins Rowe with restaurants, shops, and a movie theater and also the larger, Mall of Louisiana!


When you think of the homes for sale in the Settlement at Willow Grow, the first person you think of is Gayle Carmouche with LaFosse Home Builders. Her track record of bringing upscale homes to many owners in River Ranch in Lafayette has been repeated here in the Settlement at Willow Grove. Whether you are interested in one of her spec homes or a custom build, you will not find a builder more attentive to your needs. LaFosse Home Builders are represented by RE/MAX First Agents, Pat Wattam and Dorsey Peek.





At the front of the subdivision you will find the Village Village Center. A Bistro is already open and you can see the progress as the businesses are built. This harkens back to the idea of a village square, complete with brick pavers and an eclectic mixture of charming shops, restaurants and offices. Central to the center will be a pedestrian plaza featuring a 16 foot fountain, benches and trees, offering the perfect verandas for relaxing, sipping coffee or taking a stroll. Activities such as concerts and special events will beckon residents to the plaza to enjoy The Village’s ambiance and energy.

Located in the heart of Baton Rouge on Perkins Road between Bluebonnet and Siegen Lane - The Settlement at Willow Grove, coupled with LaFosse Home Builders, gives you a great selection of homes to choose from. For more information contact Pat Wattam at RE/MAX First.

Mardi Gras and the Spring Market

After a winter we all are not used to, Mardi Gras, thank goodness, is here with good weather to boot. As the temps heated up this past week in Baton Rouge, 79 degrees, the buyers are back out looking at houses, offers are coming in - just a sign of things to come. With a strong economy and low unemployment, the Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate market will see another banner year in 2014. We always thought the 'Katrina' years would not be beat, but we proved ourselves wrong on that in 2012 on my team - our best year ever! Last year sales were even stronger. The best evidence of that is the amount of inventory on the market. Baton Rouge has shrunk to a 4 month supply of available houses, and Ascension Parish runs between 2 and 3 months. What has that done to pricing? So far, we haven't seen prices approach the Katrina years but if inventory remains low, prices have to rise. If interest rates remain low, then prices will climb. If interest rates rise, as expected, then prices will stay stable as they always have in our area. So, if you are thinking of selling, give us a call. We will help you decide what you need to do to get your house ready for market. If you are thinking of buying, then set up a buyer counseling interview so we can show you how to go about finding the perfect house and making it yours!! The Pat Wattam Team at RE/MAX First is always here to help!

Get Ready to Sell Your House in the Spring

As winter slowly starts to turn to spring and flowers start blooming, grass turn green, and the weather gets warmer people start thinking about putting their home up for sale. There is a reason we have the majority of real estate closings in the summer - it's when children are out of school and moving is easier! For you sellers to get ready to capitalize on this, there are 3 main things you need to do to get your house ready for the spring market. 1. Have the home professionally inspected. You want someone to look at your home objectively. All of us live with little quirky things in our house, but the next buyer doesn't want to giggle the knob to make something turn on! It's better to find out the issues before you negotiate a price with a buyer and then they have a home Inspection and you now have to spend thousands of dollars on things that should have been taken care of earlier! I have seen this more often than not! Once you have completed the inspection and any repairs then move on to the next step! 2. De-clutter and de-personalize the house. Remember, you don't need to have all your personal collections out to show them off to the buyer. You want the buyer to be able to visualize themselves and their collectibles in their new home. Be brutal. Get rid of all that stuff! In staging we call anything smaller than a bowling ball 'house dandruff'!!!! I have a LOT of dandruff in my home and I'll bet you do too!!! So that special group of collections you have - whether it's snow village or all those family photos - all of that needs to be put away. Counter tops need to be cleared off, 90% of the stuff in the bookshelves needs to be boxed up and put away. And those closets! If yours looks like mine, then box it up, move it to climate controlled storage until it's time to bring it to the new house. Once you have de-cluttered and cleaned take a photo of each room with your cell phone. Take a hard look. This is how your house will look on the internet. Does it still look cluttered? Do you need to remove some furniture, take more things off the wall? If not, move on to the next, really fun step! 3. Now it's time to stage the house from outside to in. The outside has to be attractive to 'invite' a buyer inside. Fresh mulch and flowers can make the front of the house fresh - as will power washing the drive way and sidewalk as well as the house, or freshening up the paint with current colors (Please, no mauve, pink, blue, etc). Then, with the help of a stager or professional decorator you can make decisions on color. No weird or bight colors and as much as I love red - most people do not! You can't go wrong with warm neutral wall colors. You just have one shot at hooking a buyer so make sure that everything is ready before going on the market. Your house needs to be prettier than the competition. The neutral colors will help the buyer see their own furniture and decorations in the house and generate an offer for you! You want to make the buyer feel compelled to make an offer before they let it slip away! And give yourself a time frame and a budget to get the house ready. The Pat Wattam Team is here to help you make your dreams come true. Let us come take a look at your house with you and give you some tips and suggestions. We can show you what the other homes for sale look like so that you can decide how much of the house needs to be redone in order to sell. Give us a call and take advantage of the spring market!

Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate Market Update

This graph shows how steady the Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate Market remains. Our average price has remained this steady pretty much for the past 5 years. Of course, after hurricane Katrina we did see a bump in prices, but those leveled out pretty quickly. We have a very healthy real estate market with an average days on market now of about 92, if you look at East Baton Rouge, Ascension, and Livingston grouped together.

We do have more homes on the market but plenty are selling. If you want to keep up with homes for sale and sold with 1/2 mile of your house in the Greater Baton Rouge Area, you can sign up for an automated, monthly service from Market Snapshot.

As always, please let us know if you have any real estate questions you would like us to answer or, if you are planning a move, give us a call to help you make it as smooth and stress free as possible!! Pat Wattam

An Exciting Time to Buy a Home

With the roller coaster ride Wall Street is experiencing, again, many people are reconsidering the stability of real estate as an investment. You know, even in the markets that are suffering, it is a great time to buy because of the ability to buy a GREAT house for a low price. I would be all over that if I were in that market!!! I mean, people can actually buy the dream home that could not have began to afford several years ago. Even if they lose money if they have a house to sell, they will more than make up for it on the home they are buying.

If you aren't in a depressed market, the fact that interest rates dropped below 6% (we were getting 5.5% one day last week!) allows anyone to take advantage of their market! Here in the Greater Baton Rouge Area not only do we have low interest rates and good loan products if you have a decent credit score (560-580) we can find a loan product that meets your needs. We also have the First Time Home Buyer Bond Money that is now available, Rural Development Loans with 100% financing (and you don't have to be in a rural area to take advantage of this program), plus FHA loans with only 3% down!!!

This is a very exciting time to be in the real estate market!!