\n
‘No’ Vote May Hit You Where You Live<\/H3>
\n
\n![](\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6081\/6133582947_a56306ddf6_m.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nBy Mike Hill
\n
\nValdosta resident
\n
\nRealtor<\/p>\n\nI’m not qualified to talk about the quality of school systems in Valdosta
\nor Lowndes County, probably a rare admission these days. I am qualified
\nto talk about the damage done to Valdosta residential real estate by
\nthe perception that one system is better than the other. It ain’t pretty
\nand it’s getting worse.<\/p>\n
\nI’ve been a Realtor since 1976, when newcomers couldn’t house hunt
\nuntil they rolled in with the kids, dogs and all the furniture looking
\nfor yard signs and a local newspaper, which led them to agents and
\nproperty managers, who then sold or rented them a home. Boy, has that
\nchanged!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nI’ve got friends teaching or retired from both city and county
\nsystems who tell me that a good education is available from either system
\nfor students who want one. But newcomers concerned about their children’s
\neducation have consistently been getting a different message long before
\nthey ever see a “sale” or “rent” sign here.<\/p>\n
\nUnlike even 10 years ago, Internet magic now allows newcomers to arrive
\narmed with all the statistical knowledge our two school boards provide,
\nplus state and federal statistics. And right or wrong, the perception
\nthose statistics create that one system is better or worse than the
\nother travels like gossip between anybody anywhere in the world with an
\nInternet connection who has or can create the slightest link to anybody
\nin Valdosta\/Lowndes County with one.<\/p>\n
\nHow do I know this? Because families walking into my real estate office
\nto buy or rent “in the county school district” who have never been here
\nbefore has been consistently increasing for years. Newcomers concerned
\nabout their children’s education will sacrifice a garage or fenced yard
\nfrom the “wish list” for their new home, plus make higher payments, for a
\ncounty location. It irks me that retired city school superintendent Sam
\nAllen has publicly accused Realtors of adding to a problem that started
\nwell before he retired from the city school system. Realtors, he has
\npublicly stated, avoid showing houses for sale in city school districts.<\/p>\n
\nSpace isn’t available to address the absurdity of that statement,
\nexcept to quote the other side of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold
\nrules.” The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel
\nand hits the gas. The client started driving the car the minute he got
\ninto the passenger seat with his checkbook and knew where he wanted to go
\nbefore he and his family came to town. Accurate or not, perceptions about
\ndifferences in our split school system exist, with serious consequences
\nin several different directions that aren’t going away. Industries may
\navoid us, for instance, and we’ll never know how many jobs we lost. In
\nreal estate, “perception” makes the value of a house on the city side
\nof a street worth less than an identical house on the county side of
\nthe street.<\/p>\n
\nNeither of those things are good and without change, it’s not going to
\nget any better, either.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally, some truth from the Chamber! “Unification” has nothing to do with education, and everything to do with “He who has the gold rules.” Not any Realtors’ fault of course, “The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas.” So they’d rather destroy public education through a proven failed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,14,15,49,3305,19,21,22,332],"tags":[1487,3593,1636,3594,8705,8701,861,7,805,95,1486,3410,1635,6],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-fvcs","category-history","category-planning","category-politics","category-vlcoc","tag-ballot","tag-cash","tag-consolidation","tag-county-schools","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-gold","tag-lowndes-county","tag-money","tag-real-estate","tag-referendum","tag-schools","tag-unification","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nor Lowndes County, probably a rare admission these days. I am qualified
\nto talk about the damage done to Valdosta residential real estate by
\nthe perception that one system is better than the other. It ain’t pretty
\nand it’s getting worse.<\/p>\n
\nuntil they rolled in with the kids, dogs and all the furniture looking
\nfor yard signs and a local newspaper, which led them to agents and
\nproperty managers, who then sold or rented them a home. Boy, has that
\nchanged!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nI’ve got friends teaching or retired from both city and county
\nsystems who tell me that a good education is available from either system
\nfor students who want one. But newcomers concerned about their children’s
\neducation have consistently been getting a different message long before
\nthey ever see a “sale” or “rent” sign here.<\/p>\n
\nUnlike even 10 years ago, Internet magic now allows newcomers to arrive
\narmed with all the statistical knowledge our two school boards provide,
\nplus state and federal statistics. And right or wrong, the perception
\nthose statistics create that one system is better or worse than the
\nother travels like gossip between anybody anywhere in the world with an
\nInternet connection who has or can create the slightest link to anybody
\nin Valdosta\/Lowndes County with one.<\/p>\n
\nHow do I know this? Because families walking into my real estate office
\nto buy or rent “in the county school district” who have never been here
\nbefore has been consistently increasing for years. Newcomers concerned
\nabout their children’s education will sacrifice a garage or fenced yard
\nfrom the “wish list” for their new home, plus make higher payments, for a
\ncounty location. It irks me that retired city school superintendent Sam
\nAllen has publicly accused Realtors of adding to a problem that started
\nwell before he retired from the city school system. Realtors, he has
\npublicly stated, avoid showing houses for sale in city school districts.<\/p>\n
\nSpace isn’t available to address the absurdity of that statement,
\nexcept to quote the other side of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold
\nrules.” The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel
\nand hits the gas. The client started driving the car the minute he got
\ninto the passenger seat with his checkbook and knew where he wanted to go
\nbefore he and his family came to town. Accurate or not, perceptions about
\ndifferences in our split school system exist, with serious consequences
\nin several different directions that aren’t going away. Industries may
\navoid us, for instance, and we’ll never know how many jobs we lost. In
\nreal estate, “perception” makes the value of a house on the city side
\nof a street worth less than an identical house on the county side of
\nthe street.<\/p>\n
\nNeither of those things are good and without change, it’s not going to
\nget any better, either.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally, some truth from the Chamber! “Unification” has nothing to do with education, and everything to do with “He who has the gold rules.” Not any Realtors’ fault of course, “The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas.” So they’d rather destroy public education through a proven failed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,14,15,49,3305,19,21,22,332],"tags":[1487,3593,1636,3594,8705,8701,861,7,805,95,1486,3410,1635,6],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-fvcs","category-history","category-planning","category-politics","category-vlcoc","tag-ballot","tag-cash","tag-consolidation","tag-county-schools","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-gold","tag-lowndes-county","tag-money","tag-real-estate","tag-referendum","tag-schools","tag-unification","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}