This letter was published in the Brunswick Citizen on July 7th, 2005

     Dear editor-     

     As a Brunswick homeowner I appreciated your article on the rising values in our town.  Yes, Brunswick seems to be going through a transition from a hardened little burg to that of a best kept secret.  After that, who knows?  The sky is the limit and what Brunswick citizens do to stimulate the market is critical at this point in time.  

     Many of our town's homes are in dire need of paint jobs and repaired windows and it's things like that which will make potential buyers take a serious look at us.     My wife and I bought one of the town's ugliest houses in town in March, 2004.  Built in 1900, it has gone through serious periods of neglect and abuse, especially while it stood empty. We have put tens of thousands into refurbishing the interior and plan to do the exterior over the next year and a half.  Why?  It's simple math and something your article touched upon but missed the essential element: square footage pricing.  

     You wrote about the 'average selling prices', but you didn't detail what they actually sold for per square foot and that is what realtors list by.    A while back, I went to www.realtor,com .  I took all of the listed homes in Brunswick, totaled heir square footages and then totaled all of the asking prices.  When I worked out the math (I'm a former realtor) I came up with $222 per square foot.  That would imply that a simple 1,400 square foot home could now list at no less than $310,800.  It's no wonder that offers are coming in as quickly as they are when a home is only listed at $225,000.   Investors drool over opportunities like this.     

     A realtor's legal responsibility is to his client, but he/she also knows that the less expensive a home's listing price, the quicker the sale.  On a $200,000 sale with a 6% listing fee a realtor will lose only $600 if the price is dropped by 2% because the broker usually gets about half.  The home's seller takes a $4,000 hit in the wallet and that's not good.     If you sold your home for $200,000 and it could have sold for $250,000?  Hey, the realtor made a lightning fast sale and only lost $1,500 but will get to advertise that they sold it in only two days and get more business!   But by not holding out, the seller lost $44,000. Ouch!     

     It's important to note that this is absolutely not to imply that the Realtor did anything wrong.  They are educated, experienced professionals and pricing is always done within strict guidelines under penalty of law. The point is that the area is changing too quickly for their calculations to keep up.     

     But, hey!  If it sold in two days, it probably sold too cheaply, plain and simple.     

     Let's keep it realistic.  At $300,000 we'd be competing with those new homes that are about to spring up and new homes have a strong appeal, especially for first time homebuyers.  Still, there are plenty of people out there who prefer the 'townie' lifestyle versus urban sprawl and that, my friend, is the ace up our sleeves.  They desire to have a home that is unique and that they can work on to quench a thirst created by watching hundreds of hours of 'This Old House'.     Trust me, I'm one of them.     

     Garrett Park, Md. has both an old section and a suburban section. Practically everyone wishes they could afford a home in the historic area.     
     It's that way in Leesburg.     
     It's that way in Annapolis.     
     It's that way in Cape May, NJ.     
     In fact, you'll find it's that way in Frederick and every other town that has both new and older homes.  "Oh!  You live in Old Town?  I love it down there!"     (Remember I said that.  It will sound very familiar in just a few years.)     

     Our town's citizens still suffer from a sort of hangover from the days when Brunswick had a bit of a notoriety.  They don't have the fresh perspective of a potential homebuyer who can't afford a townhouse in Montgomery County that is listed for $500,000.
     These new buyers look at Brunswick and see Mayberry, not a town where the rail yard just shut down.     
     They see little festivals in the park and a classic Main Street full of neat little shops.     
     They see the beauty of the Potomac River and convenient access to the C&O Trail.  (Check out the prices of homes near that path in Potomac, Maryland!)     
     They see a pleasant ride on the MARC into the high-dollar employment areas versus a dismal ride at 12 mph on I-270.     

     We're about to see a time when newcomers will ask us, "How much did you pay for your home(?)" and our answers will make them envious. My mortgage is $340 for our humble 16 room monster.  In fact, we have so many rooms that we can't think of what to do with all of them.  We have a library, a parlor, a photo room, three bathrooms, a gym, a work shop and a big stone fireplace and even a veranda off the formal dining room.  The thick planked floors just add to the charm.  And my friends who live in the crime-ridden city?  They pay about $2,500 a month for a two bedroom/ two bath home where they've never even spoken to their neighbors.     

     Like I said, watch those square footage prices but at the same time we should all remember this:  here in town we have things no builder can create with nails and lumber .  The rough period in Brunswick's history is no different than a soldier's basic training.  It toughened the town and gave it something to talk about down at the diner but that's called 'history'.  Brunswick has a charm all its own and people will be willing to pay to share in it.  We shouldn't undersell ourselves now that the time has come to finally have all of our hard work  pay off. 

     Charles Sanders