Highest- and lowest-priced single-family home sales from July 16 – July 22

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HIGHEST

Listing agent: Jim Fagan, Cottingham Chalk Hayes

Selling agent: Kelley Bohrer, HM Properties

Sold price: $1.733 million

Square feet: 7,002

Jim Fagan is on track to have a great year. As a broker with Charlotte-based Cottingham Chalk Hayes, Fagan said he had 15 closings in all of 2011, and already has 15 through late July of 2012.

One of those was this 7,002-square-foot home in Dilworth.

“This was a beautiful house, and one thing that made it stand out was its Cape Code architecture,” Fagan said. “We had the home under contract initially within just a few days of going on the market in May. We had a number of interested parties and had a backup offer on the property, which doesn’t always happen.”

And Fagan said the backup offer was a good thing, as the original buyers who put the home under contract in May backed out of the deal in July. Enter Kelley Bohrer.

“I called up Jim and told him my buyers were interested, even though it was under contract at that time,” said Bohrer, a broker with Charlotte-based HM Properties. “It is a fabulous home that was on a premier street in Dilworth, and it had a beautiful wrap-around porch.”

Fagan said the sellers, David and Heather Hill, were pleased with the backup offer. The buyer’s name was not available at press time.

Bohrer said she too is much busier than she was in 2011, adding that the existence of a backup offer for this home in Dilworth, while still rare, was becoming more common.

“We are seeing a lot more homes with multiple offers,” she said. “To me that means the market is heading in the right direction.”

Closing thoughts: Fagan said real estate agents unfamiliar with the high-end market should consider educating themselves on it.

“I think the types of homes you are dealing with and the variety of architecture and construction and the needs of the high end buyers and sellers are different,” he said.

Bohrer agreed, with this piece of advice for any would-be high-end real estate agents, whether working with sellers or buyers: “You need to go see all the other houses in that price range and be able to sound intelligent to your client about each particular house.”

LOWEST

Listing agent: Davis Armstrong, Armstrong Realty Group

Selling agent: Davis Armstrong, Armstrong Realty Group

Sold price: $4,600

Square feet: 1,260

Davis Armstrong never had to work so hard for a $4,600 sale. The home needed repairs, plus work on the carpet and paint. But he said the truly difficult part was getting the bank to agree to the price for a short sale.

“Working with the bank was a big hurdle to overcome, but before I could even start that I had to find the homeowner,” Armstrong said.

The homeowner, Kalila Wilson, had simply left in 2011. Armstrong said he saw the home in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood of Charlotte late last year and thought it would be a good purchase for a Raleigh-based not-for-profit group he works with, Self Help Community Development Corporation. The group purchases homes in subdivisions, repairs and sometimes remodels them and sells them to first-time homebuyers, Armstrong said.

“They work in two subdivisions in Charlotte, Peachtree Hills and Greer Heights,” he said. “Most of the properties they purchase and rehab, they actually lose money on. But they help people get homes who probably couldn’t afford them otherwise.”

Armstrong said the unique situation made it easy for him to be both the listing and selling agent, once he found Wilson. He said he scoured the web using Google, Facebook and Twitter to track her down.

“She had moved out of the state, but she said she was willing to work on the short sale,” Armstrong said. “I found her in February of this year and was able to get the deal done with Wells Fargo just this month. So, it wasn’t quick.”

Armstrong said his usual home sale is closer to the $150,000 range, and his business has been increasing this year compared with last year. He said he had five closings in 2011, and he’s already had 10 this year.

Closing thoughts: Armstrong said his advice to other agents wanting to do short sales like this one was to stand their ground.

“Don’t let the big banks push you around,” Armstrong said. “We know our business, and banks are definitely not in the real estate business; they are in the money business. Lots of the banks have many different stipulations and processes for how a short sale goes. And even with those rules written down they always have something extra for you to do. If you get too much resistance, you might as well just count on that house going into foreclosure and the short sale never taking place.”

 A look at the highest-priced sales in other Charlotte-area counties:

Alexander County

1714 St. Clair Road, Taylorsville
Sold price: $187,000
Square feet: 2,280

Anson County

975 Traywick Road, Peachland
Sold price: $217,000
Square feet: 2,002

Cabarrus County

6001 Cress Road, Concord
Sold price: $610,000
Square feet: 2,956

Gaston County

413 Maymont Drive, Cramerton
Sold price: $780,000
Square feet: 5,734

Iredell County

121 Callicutt Trail, Mooresville
Sold price: $652,000
Square feet: 5,900

Lincoln County

3726 Lake Shore Road, Denver
Sold price: $392,000
Square feet: 2,510

Mecklenburg County

2505 Chelsea Place Court, Charlotte
Sold price: $875,000
Square feet: 3,387

Montgomery County

206 Balsam Circle, Troy
Sold price: $315,000
Square feet: 1,450

Stanly County

30431 Tom Road, Albemarle
Sold price: $121,500
Square feet: 1,358

Union County

9218 Woodhall Lake Drive, Waxhaw
Sold price: $1.125 million
Square feet: 8,206

 Home sales data and photos are copyright 2012 Carolina Multiple Listing Services Inc.