Sarah LeValley, Realtor

01/24/2025

Valentine is only 3 weeks away!!! Nothing says I Love You like a day of selfcare. Get your gift certificates here.

478.333.2210
225 Smithville Church Rd #300
Warner Robins, Ga 31047
spatwentytwo.com

10/05/2024

This event will take place at El Mural, hosted by Spa Twenty Two and The Lily Room Spa. Come join us and look like a professional at your next gathering.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/charcuterie-very-demure-tickets-1009968933267
El Mural
1291 S Houston Lake Rd
Warner Robins, Ga 31088

05/16/2024

Book now while you still have a chance!!

478.333.2210
spatwentytwo.com
225 Smithville Church Rd #300
Warner Robins, Ga 31088

04/29/2024

Mother's Day is only 2 weeks away!!! We will always love a spa day!! You cannot go wrong with a gift certificate.

478.333.2210
spatwentytwo.com
225 Smithville Church Rd #300
Warner Robin, Ga 31088

03/03/2024

Time for a change!!!! So thankful to be apart of this company!!

03/30/2023

07/28/2022

Getty Images

Mortgage rates fell after rising for two straight weeks, another indication that recession concerns are impacting the U.S. housing market.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 5.3%, mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. That is down from 5.54% last week and below the 13-year high of 5.81% recorded in June. At the beginning of the year, rates on America’s most common home loan hovered around 3.2%.

The 5.3% rate was recorded before the Federal Reserve’s announcement Wednesday that it would raise its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage point. While mortgage rates don’t automatically move when the Fed raises rates, they are heavily influenced by it. Mortgage rates are tied closely to the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, which tends to move in tandem with expectations for the Fed’s benchmark rate.

Over the past week, investors have piled into U.S. Treasurys, often seen as a haven during times of economic uncertainty. This week, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell to its lowest level since April. Yields fall when prices rise.

The U.S. economy shrank for the second quarter in a row, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Gross domestic product from residential investment, including the construction of single and multifamily homes and remodeling, fell 14%. This category accounts for between 3% and 5% of GDP, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“Housing tends to lead the rest of the economy, and we expect that pattern will hold this cycle as well,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Rising mortgage rates and continued double-digit price growth have made buying a home even less affordable, slowing the housing market in recent months. The median American household needed $2,398 to cover mortgage payments on a median-priced home in May, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That is a 25% increase from $1,916 in January.

Sales of existing homes have fallen for five straight months, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“We expect that this slower pace will remain through the summer, but buyers could return later this year if the Fed’s plans are better understood by the market and lead to less rate volatility,” Mr. Fratantoni said.

The post Mortgage Rates Fall to 5.3%, Continuing Volatile Stretch appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Mortgage rates fell after rising for two straight weeks, another indication that recession concerns are impacting the U.S. housing market.

07/28/2022

Getty Images / Realtor.com

Conan O’Brien and his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, are selling their beach property in Carpinteria, CA, according to the website Dirt.

They’re asking for $16.5 million for the two-building compound located about 1.5 hours north of Los Angeles.

The couple picked up the seriously nice spread in 2015 for $7.9 million and remodeled it “down to the studs,” the listing notes. The extensive work they did likely explains the hefty markup.

The beachside main home was built in 1957 and measures 2,142 square feet. It comes with 50 feet of beach frontage and newly redone interiors, including a great room with white oak flooring, a fireplace, and glass doors that open to a spacious deck.

Deck with dining space

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Great room with walls of glass

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Open kitchen with a breakfast bar

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The kitchen features stainless-steel appliances, granite counters, and a breakfast bar.

The two bedrooms, each with shutters and a wall of glass, open to a balcony and one bath.

Bedroom

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Bath

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The spacious deck features a built-in barbecue, seating area, and dining space. There are stairs that go to the sand.

Below the main house, there’s a room that can be used as a playroom or a gym. It includes a large-screen TV, laundry room, changing room with a shower, and surfboard or paddleboard storage.

Steps to the sand

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A detached guesthouse has two separate sleeping options: A one-bedroom with a wraparound deck is located above the two-car garage, and a lower-level, one-bedroom guest suite features garden views.

A four-car garage with a Tesla charging station completes the property. The half-acre grounds boast tropical landscaping as well as abundant off-street parking.

Conan, a Harvard grad, got his start writing for “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live.” He then landed his own talk show, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” on NBC in 1993. After an infamous and short run as the “Tonight Show” host, he moved to TBS with “Conan,” which ended in 2021.

Recently, he launched the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in addition to other shows on his Team Coco podcast network.

This spring, Sirius XM bought the podcast and his digital media business for a reported $150 million.

The post Conan O’Brien Needs a Buyer: He’s Selling His $16.5M Beach House appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

It’s no laughing matter. Comedian and TV host Conan O’Brien and his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, are selling their Carpinteria, CA, property.

07/28/2022

Photos courtesy of Bravo / via Instagram / Getty Images

It’s hard to scroll through social media or flip a channel without encountering a real estate influencer who is ready to either sell your home or make it more fabulous. And chances are, you are eager to hear what they have to say. After all, they are famous.

The rise of the ubiquitous real estate pro-celebrity makes sense. There are addictive reality TV shows like “Selling Sunset,” where you’ll binge on Grant Cardone‘s advice—along with his 4 million-plus, highly engaged followers on Instagram. Or maybe you tune in for makeover programming like HGTV’s “Property Brothers.”

“Selling Sunset”

Nino Munoz/Netflix

There are many TV shows battling for attention in the home improvement/selling space, and major stars have emerged from the most popular ones. Most are eager to expand their digital footprint with spinoff shows, Instagram feeds, and YouTube tutorials.

So is real estate “influencing” here to stay? We asked housing experts for their hot takes.

The HGTV factor

Tarek El Moussa of “Flip or Flop”

HGTV

Real estate agents have always played outsize roles in their cities and towns.

“When I was a child, my dad was well-known in our community after 30 years in the real estate market,” says Charles Catania, principal at Branding With Chuck, which provides executive branding services to real estate agents. “Realtors® are the purveyor of our housing hopes and dreams.”

But it was the advent of HGTV that allowed real estate pros to move from a local to a national stage.

The channel was launched more than 25 years ago, when the only home-improvement-focused national TV show was PBS’ informative (but relatively staid) “This Old House.” But HGTV shows didn’t begin gaining mass popularity until the early aftermath of the housing crash, according to the New York Times. Back then, everyone wanted to get in the housing game—and needed advice on how to buy, sell, and renovate their homes.

Since then, HGTV has not only redefined what we want from a home but also what we expect an agent to be.

“Reality shows on HGTV and Bravo made real estate agents much more influential,” says Rudy Boyd, an associate broker at Dwelling Michigan. “These days, there are numerous real estate agents with top Instagram feeds, who sometimes land or are featured on TV shows.”

The pandemic sped up the obsession

The before and after of a garage flip by Melissa McCarthy and Jenna Perusich on “The Great Giveback”

HGTV

Many homeowners focused on home improvement projects when everyone was home 24/7 during the COVID-19 pandemic. (While the U.S. economy shrank 3.5% in 2020, spending on home improvements grew 3%, to $420 billion.) The focus on everything home just cemented the obsession with real estate influencers.

“The pandemic definitely increased the visibility of real estate professionals,” says Marie Bromberg, a licensed real estate salesperson with New York City’s Compass. “Now, a home is never ‘done’ for many people. So there’s always motivation to change the entryway or the kitchen.”

The changing perception of what agents do

Now, real estate agents are no longer just people we turn to when we need a house.

“Their influence goes well beyond that, and we look to them for advice that covers the entire field of homes and real estate,” Boyd says.

The increased prominence of the real estate agent in social media and TV has drawn many people to try their hand at what they think will be a fun and highly lucrative gig.

The simmering desire to pivot to real estate came to a boiling point during the pandemic when many people reexamined their lives and careers. As a result, in 2020 and 2021, more than 156,000 people became real estate agents, a rise of 60% over the two previous years.

Some of the newcomers find a big disconnect between the business as seen on TV and as it exists in real life.

“Real estate has always been tough, but when people go into it after seeing a real estate agent on TV land a huge commission on a multimillion-dollar sale, it skews the perception of the job,” says Christina DeSimone, a licensed real estate salesperson for the Miranda Real Estate Group in Saratoga Springs, NY.

As a result, some agents dislike the phenomenon of influencers, because it makes real estate look like a get-rich-quick scheme instead of a long-term wealth-building tool.

“But I don’t blame agents for using influencing to boost their careers,” says Marina Vaamond, owner and founder of HouseCashin in Houston. “This is a societywide phenomenon.”

Influencing IRL

Most real estate agents take social media seriously—even those who recognize the flaws in how reality TV stars have portrayed the industry.

“I started posting my listings and videos of me sharing homebuying, decoration, and renovation tips on social media several years ago when a mentor gave me great advice,” says DeSimone. “He told me: ‘Don’t be a secret agent.’ What he meant is that you want people to know what you do—and to think of you when it’s time to buy or sell a house.”

The post When (and Why) Did Real Estate Agents Become Celebrities? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

The rise of the real estate influencer was the result of a confluence of factors—and it was slower than it may appear at first glance.

07/27/2022

Getty Images / Douglas Elliman / Realtor.com

Ivana Trump, the outsized personality and the first of Donald Trump‘s three wives, died earlier this month at the age of 73.

The glamorous fixture from the 1980s who oversaw interior design for The Trump Organization, brought her style of gaudy glitz to places like Trump Tower and the Plaza Hotel.

“If something could be leafed in gold or upholstered in damask, it was,” according to the Guardian, was her motto. That look became an essential element of the Trump brand.

After their highly publicized divorce in 1992, the businesswoman launched popular clothing and jewelry lines on the Home Shopping Network and QVC.

Her golden touch extends even after her death, with a legacy of high-end real estate. We offer up a tour of the swanky properties owned by the mother of Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump.

Greenwich, CT

While married, Ivana and Donald enjoyed a weekend retreat in the tony town of Greenwich, CT.

They purchased a waterfront estate there in 1982 for $4 million.

Ivana kept this residence when the couple divorced. In 1998, she sold it for $15 million.

Set on almost 6 acres, the 20,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom mansion came back on the market in 2018 for $45 million. It was the highest-priced home in Greenwich at the time. It was relisted in 2019 for $38.5 million, then reduced to $32 million the following year. There’s no record the home was sold.

The sellers renovated the home, specifically removing the gold leaf Ivana had added to the Georgian Colonial. They also added an indoor pool, a guest house, and a tennis court.

The luxe compound also includes a miniature golf course, outdoor pool, deep-water dock, three-story rotunda, and home theater.

Greenwich, CT, mansion that Donald and Ivana Trump once owned

Realtor.com

New York City, NY

Postdivorce, Ivana paid $2.5 million in 1992 for a terrific townhouse on the Upper East Side where she raised her children.

Naturally, she gave the turn-of-the-century property her design sensibility. That included gilded decor, chandeliers, and wall murals. The floor plan features a formal dining room, living room, and gym.

The interior spaces also feature a “leopard room,” with animal print decor. A spiral staircase extends to all seven levels of the home.

Ivana lived in this home for over 30 years and was found at the bottom of the staircase after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest.

In 2004, she gave the show “Extra” a tour of her residence.

Palm Beach, FL

Shortly after her divorce, Ivana also picked up a Spanish Mediterranean mansion in the upscale South Florida locale favored by the Trump family.

It is located about a half-mile from Mar-a-Lago, where Donald resides.

Ivana’s taste in Florida real estate seems to have been a profitable one.

She purchased her Palm Beach home in 1994 for $4.4 million. The home was listed in February 2014 for $18.9 million, then sold later that summer for $16.6 million.

The buyers renovated the 1920s-era residence and sold it this May for a whopping $73 million.

The nine-bedroom, 11-bathroom home features 12,352 square feet of living space on an acre parcel. It includes oceanfront land across the street, linked by an underground tunnel. The Addison Mizner–designed home was given landmark status in 1990.

Ivana also owned a smaller Palm Beach spread that she picked up in 1999 for $1.85 million. She apparently renovated the five-bedroom home but never moved in. Instead, she sold it in 2004 for $2.55 million. The 3,700 square-foot property included a separate guesthouse, pool, fountain, and gardens.

Miami Beach and beyond

Ivana picked up a Miami Beach pied à terre in 2009 for $635,000. The one-bedroom, 1.5-bath condo features downtown views, and the building residents have access to a pool and beach club.

She’s also said to have owned homes in London and St-Tropez in the south of France.

The post Peek Inside the Ritzy Real Estate of the Late Ivana Trump appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

The late Ivana Trump kept an interesting property portfolio. We delved into the dwellings of the first of Donald Trump’s three wives.