My IDX Search vendor, IDXBroker, has introduced a Home Search app for the iPhone.

  Specify app 4328

Click Here to download the IDXBroker iPhone App for "No Hassle" Triangle Home Search and Information

 

Alternately, you can go to my website and download the app through my blog there.

 

Now if you want to get details on a home, or listings on a street or in a subdivision, you can do that from the street in front of the home, off my website. You need only go to the Itunes App Store, and download the app. For free, of course.

 

And a vigorous app it is, complete with Google mapping. Blackberry and Android apps coming soon!

 

With 48% of all mobile browsing traffic coming via iPhone in September, 2009, this may be the biggest app to hit Cary, NC, this year!

 

You can get a little more information, although not a great deal of simple clarification from the folks at the Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Service Newsroom

 

Basically, get under contract to buy by April 30, 2010, and close on your purchase by June 30, 2010 to collect the $8,000 1st time buyer credit, or the previous owner's $6500 credit. Previous owners must have lived in the home for 5 of the previous 8 years prior to buying a new primary residence. With dwindling inventories of choice Cary area properties, due to sellers hunkering down, and fewer choices for buyers in the Cary, NC, real estate market, the $6500 credit may shake loose some homes that otherwise would not sell.

 

I believe this portends another frenzy of activity in March and April of 2010, and choked closing attorney offices in June, 2010.

I like shooting water photos. I think it is because I love the water, and knowing it is the sustenance of all life. Of course, a little light variation makes it even more fun for the camera.

Here are a few shots I have taken around North Carolina, mostly around Wake County. Some are State, County, or Municipal Parks. And, occasionally, there are common storm water retention ponds, although to be here they have to be dressed up a little. And, there are a few from Hatteras Island tossed in for good measure. Some really touch me, and I admit, some are a little mediocre. But I can tell you where each of them was taken!

This is my Water: Lakes, Streams, Rivers, and Beaches Set from Flickr.

We had a great time at the NC Zoo, and the weather was perfect for taking pictures. We get there in about an hour and 15 minutes from Cary.

 

I really get a kick out of shooting snapshots ofgiraffes and zebras, but the rocks and trees of autumn were also attention-getters.

 

North Carolina has the 2nd largest zoo in North America in acreage, and the most developed walking zoo. Our favorite approach is to take a tram or shuttle from the end we enter, all the way to the far entrance. We then walk back, having lunch somewhere along the way.

 

I was delighted with the crowd at the zoo on a November Saturday, considering there were very important college football games, initial college basketball games, and other entertainment options.

 

I put together a little slideshow including a few of the photos I shot.

 

 

The NC Zoological park is about 8 miles south of Asheboro, NC, and about 65 miles west of Cary, NC, being an easy drive along US 64 from Cary. We have Zoo Society memberships each year, so we support the maintenance and expansion of habitats even if we don't get out to the zoo. Right now, the zoo is about 60% through a fundraiser to add a new improved polar bear habitat, and additional polar bears.

You saw it here first.  Maybe.

It's off to President Obama.  "It" being the extension and expansion of the First Time Buyers' Tax Credit.

Here is the House of Representatives vote

If nothing else, that should get the closing attornies a hectic December 2009, and June 2010.

Gratuitous Graphic

I forsee a lot of 70 day closings coming up in April 2010, as folks try to hit the contract deadline and max out the closing time period.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Senate voted 98-0 to pass the extension and expansion of the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit.

As expected, $8,000 will be given to first timers, with an increase in income levels to define eligibility.  And the move up buyer may also qualify for $6500 in credit.

Expected to pass in the House and quickly to be signed into law by President Obama?

Whoopee.

Wait until the moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth starts in April, 2010, when it becomes clear that some folks have missed the boat.

Is this a new organic staging approach that didn't get enough publicity?  Is it a local Cary, NC, thing, or is it featured on "Divine Design?"  Or some other HGTV show?  "The Stagers," maybe?

Showed a home with multiple challenges today, and at the side of the front stoop was a skin shed from about a 30" snake.

Buyer pointed it out and laughed.  A lot harder than Mrs. Buyer did, by the way.

We had a nice chat about copperheads, vs. rattlers, vs. water moccasins. What fun!

The things you remember from a day on the roadshow...