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Lincoln County passes 1 acre min lot size
8/2022
https://www.lakenormanpublications.com/articles/lincoln-county-imposes-new-minimum-lot-size-standards/
Bank of London Building First US Headquarters in Charlotte
one-independence-center-uptown-charlotte
The Bank of London has just announced plans to build its first US headquarters right here in Charlotte, creating 350 new jobs with a total annual payroll of $33 million…READ MORE
Zillow Group still wants to help people quickly sell their home.
The Seattle real estate giant announced a partnership with Opendoor that allows home sellers on Zillow’s platform to request an instant cash offer from Opendoor, one of the leading “iBuyer” companies that aim to make real estate transactions more seamless.
Zillow last year decided to shut down its own iBuyer business, Zillow Offers, marking a surprising end to an ambitious home-flipping bet that resulted in a $405 million write-down and a 25% workforce reduction. Zillow was unable to accurately forecast the price of homes and said the business ultimately required too much capital.
Now, Zillow users will still be able to get an instant cash offer for their home, but the transaction is facilitated by Opendoor. Zillow will get a referral fee when a customer sells to Opendoor.
Zillow CEO Rich Barton said the deal expands the company’s addressable market, allowing it to create a suite of seller services.
“This isn’t just a lead-gen distribution deal,” Barton said on a call with analysts Thursday. “This is going to be a deep integration.”
Barton said Zillow will take advantage of the investment it made developing Zillow Offers. More from Barton on the call:
“We invested quite a bit of time and treasure and IQ figuring out how to integrate the cash offer into our home details page and our user flow, to attract sellers to interact with us. All of those learnings can be brought to bear on this partnership. It’s interesting because it involves deep integration of the Opendoor offering into our set of services. That gives us the opportunity to quarterback the process and introduce our customers who request an Opendoor cash offer to Premier Agents, mortgages, Zillow closing services, and a myriad of other things that we have our hands on.”
Homesellers will be able to compare the cash offer from Opendoor to a traditional open-market sale that can be facilitated by a real estate agent from Zillow’s Premier Agent program.
Customers “can evaluate their selling options and easily package it with other Zillow services to buy and finance their next home,” Zillow Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Wacksman said in a statement.
Opendoor reached a $62 million settlement this week with the FTC, which said the company used misleading marketing practices and deceived customers “into thinking that they could make more money selling their home to Opendoor than on the open market using the traditional sales process.”
(Bigstock Image)
Zillow says the partnership with Opendoor builds on its strategy to offer a “housing super app,” described by executives earlier this year as a digital experience that “connects all the fragmented pieces of the moving process and brings them together on one transaction.”
“Building out a suite of complementary seller offerings over time opens up meaningful opportunities for us across agent transactions and adjacent services like mortgage and title & escrow,” Barton wrote in a shareholders letter Thursday, which you can read below. “When it’s fully rolled out, this will create another way for Zillow to serve potential sellers across more than 50 U.S. markets, while growing our business in the capital-light manner we described when we exited iBuying.”
Founded in 2014, Opendoor went public in 2020 and reported revenue of $8 billion in 2021, up from $2.6 billion the year prior. It was one of the first to use the iBuyer model, which gives homesellers the certainty and immediacy of an all-cash offer in exchange for paying a fee. Redfin and Offerpad also have their own iBuyer businesses.
In addition to fees, which are similar to real estate commissions, Opendoor also makes money on the difference between what it buys and sells a home for. It also offers ancillary services including home repairs and mortgage. The company acquired Seattle startup Pro.com last year. Its market capitalization is just below $3 billion, down from around $8 billion last year.
“For parents looking to upsize, a young professional moving for a new job, and millions of others who regularly use Zillow to explore their home selling options, we will provide them with the ability to move with a tap of a button,” Opendoor President Andrew Low Ah Kee said in a statement.
Zillow shares were down more than 10% Thursday after announcing its second quarter earnings report. Zillow’s stock is down nearly 40% this year. Its market capitalization is more than $9 billion.
Zillow 2Q22 Shareholders’ Letter by GeekWire on Scribd
Taylor Soper is GeekWire’s managing editor, responsible for coordinating the newsroom, planning coverage, and editing stories. A native of Portland, Ore., and graduate of the University of Washington, he was previously a GeekWire staff reporter, covering beats including startups and sports technology. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.
Massive Lake Norman nature park to offer miles of hiking, biking. Here are details.
Outdoors enthusiasts from across the Charlotte region are the target market of a 606-acre nature park underway on the northern tip of Lake Norman.
Mountain Creek Park in Sherrills Ford will feature 19 miles of hiking and mountain bike trails when it opens next summer or early fall, along with kayaking and paddleboarding, picnic areas and a fishing pier.
The $8.5 million Catawba County park, on Little Mountain Road off N.C. 150, also will include dog parks, playgrounds, pickleball courts and a park office-educational center. The park is 40 miles from uptown Charlotte.
Article: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article246553933.html
County Website with Design Info: http://www.catawbacountync.gov/county-services/parks/mountain-creek-park/
Habor Community Updates:
Proposed Development adjacent to the 150 bridge across the near The Blue Parrot.
Rezoning approved for proposed harbor community at Midway Marina
The Villages at Sherrills Ford
Development around the Villages at Sherrills Ford
Hwy 150 Expansion along the northern section of Lake Norman.
The project will be split into 2 parts. The dividing line will be near the Marshal Steam Plant.
Click image to see the pdf version
Highway expansion causes Mooresville businesses to close, relocate
Photos and Videos from NC DOT
Thousands of homes coming to eastern Lincoln County
New Subdivisions:
Fox Chase: 47 lots
Rock Creek: 150 lots
Sylvan Creek: 198 lots
Newton Crossing: 200 lots
Melwood: 200 lots
Westport Lakeside: 275 lots
Villages of Denver: 370 lots
Mariners Points: 80 lots
Canopy Creek: 152 lots
Killian Creek: 54 lots
Creek Park: 170 lots
Essex Homes: 215 lots
Wildbrook: 150 lots
Rivercross: 460 lots
Ingleside Farm: 422 lots
Trilogy: 1,250 lots
Carrington: 302 lots
Matthews-Heathers: 20 lots
