Keeping with the real estate theme here on the blog, I've been thinking about some favorite movies in which property plays a role.

My husband and I started talking about this when we stopped productive behavior one day to sit in front of the TV to watch, for the zillionth time, the Tom Hanks/Shelley Long vehicle, "The Money Pit."  I suppose that movie never gets old for us because it came out in the mid-80s about the same time we were buying our first house. No matter what painful repair we were dealing with in our mid-century ranch, it was far worse at The Money Pit.

So grab some popcorn, check out my list and weigh in with your own favorite real estate flicks in the comments section:

The Money Pit -- Who hasn't had a listing like this and roofers who looked like the Shirk Brothers?

Poltergeist -- Scary things happen when a subdivision is built over a cemetery.

The Shining -- Even scarier things can happen in abandoned commercial real estate.

Blazing Saddles -- The town of Rock Ridge is in jeopardy from the evil railroad developer.

Field of Dreams -- "If you build it, they will come." But remember, not everyone will appreciate a ballpark in their cornfield. It's murder on your yield.

Shrek -- The loveable ogre fights to save his swamp from cartoon eminent domain.

Glengarry Glen Ross -- "Put that coffee down. Coffee's for closers only." And, "We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."

Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- Ferris' mom is a real estate agent. Not much of a connection, but I love the movie.

The Brady Bunch Movie -- The Evil broker next door needs the innocent Bradys to sign away their beloved home.

Animal House -- OK, it's a stretch, but this is what can heppen when you have bad renters.

Pacific Heights -- Another lousy tenant.

The War of the Roses -- Worst divorce fight over property ever.

Gone with the Wind -- "Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts."

We'll let feisty Mr. O'Hara have the last word on this topic. See you at the movies!

As we zoom toward the end of the year, my Goshen Realty Group partner, Kristina, and I have been looking over our closed transactions to spot our business patterns and figure out how to build on successes for even better years in 2010 and 2011.

We want to know who are buyers are and where our next buyers are coming from.

In recent months, we've seen a surge of buyers in our territory -- St. Louis' southwestern Illinois suburbs -- coming from a specific group: young, single men buying their first homes.

These savvy buyers with good jobs were under 30 years of age and all of them understood that -- given their incomes -- throwing money away on monthly rent for any longer than necessary was foolish. They have made up 25 percent of our buyer business.

Married couples have made up 33 percent of our buyer business. They've been a mix of first-time and move-up buyers, with first-timers taking the lead. Another 33 percent of our buyer business has come from non-traditional households. Those transactions included parents buying homes for their college students attending Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, unmarried couples sharing a household, and adult children buying homes for their aging parents' use.

Surprising us was the fact that only eight percent of our business has come from single women. (Come on, ladies! We'll talk to you about this issue in a separate post. We might have to channel Beyonce's "Single Ladies" tune to get you revved up about home ownership!) The numbers of single women buyers are much higher nationally.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) surveys home buyers every year to help us thnderstand the big picture in American homebuying. The latest report was released this week.

According to NAR, "One of the most important changes in this year's survey was shaped by record home affordability and the availability of the first-time home buyer tax credit-the share of first-time buyers."

In 2009, NAR's survey found that 47 percent of all home purchases between July 2008 and June 2009 were first timers. (Compare that to 40-41 percent in an average prior year). This is the biggest number of first-time buyers in more than 18 years.

Nationally, the figures continued -- mostly -- to mirror our local findings. NAR says the typical first-time home buyer was 30 years old with a median income just over $60,000. NAR also found that repeat buyers were 48 years old with a median income of just over $88,000.

Here's where our Goshen Realty Group figures veered off from NAR. The NAR survey found that 25 percent of first-time buyers are single females, and 12 percent are single males. Married couples were 49 percent of first-timers. The rest of the national pie is made up of buyers in a variety of living and joint ownership arrangements.

Two-thirds of first-time buyers told NAR that they purchased simply because of their desire to own a home of their own. Repeat buyers said they purchased their home for a large variety of reasons, including a job-related relocation or a personal move, desire for bigger home, or a change in their family needs.

OK, I apologize to Wm. Shakespeare for twisting his lovely words -- "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by another other name would smell as sweet." from Romeo and Juliet for the headline on this post, but I couldn't resist a little literary fun this morning.

What did Shakespeare mean?  Scholars will tell you that he may have been poking fun at the rival Rose Theatre, but his point in the context of the play was that it mattered what something IS, not what it is CALLED.

So what is a room?  Often my sellers will ask me why one portion of their home "counts" as living space on the MLS listing for their property and another does not. After all, they live in the whole house, don't they?

The vagueries of room count notwithstanding, there is an accepted method to the madness. A room, according to the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard, is a finished and enclosed space that is suitable for year-round use. It will have walls, floors and a ceiling similar to the rest of the house.

These common rooms ARE included in a home's room count:

• Living Room
• Dining Room
• Great Room
• Media Room
• Kitchen
• Bedroom
• Sitting Room
• Breakfast Nook (if separate from the kitchen)
• Game Room
• Sun Room (if it is heated)
• Finished Basement Rooms

These common rooms ARE NOT included in a home's room count:

• Bathroom
• Laundry Room
• Mud Room
• Utility Room
• Foyers
• Hallways
• Unfinished Basement Rooms
• Unheated Sun Rooms
• Garage
• Walk-in Closets (even if it is bigger than my college apartment)
  

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the possible rooms in any home. I've been in Victorian homes that have Card Rooms and Parlors and in new homes that have Craft Rooms and other redefined and renamed living spaces.

Realtor readers: I'd love it if you would weigh in on whether your association uses a different standard or has interesting issues with room counts.

And now, "a thousand time, good night!"

I find a lot of our buyers are excited about seeing an older refrigerator in a house they're considering purchasing. Their first reaction is, "Let's get the appliance we want for the kitchen after we move in and move this bad boy to the garage/laundry room/wherever as the "Beer Fridge!" 

Maybe it's because we're from the metro area where "The King of Beers" has been brewed since the 1800s, but the feeling about a secondary refrigerator is almost universal here in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs. Even people who don't, uh, "indulge," see the appeal of an ugly duckling fridge in an unseen part of the house for party trays, soda, the Thanksgiving turkey, etc.

But, from time to time there is a refrigeration unit so unsavory or unneeded in a newly acquired home that there is no place of refuge, no corner dark enough to hide it from sight. That's when you're faced with a new question, "What do I do with this old fridge?"

Believe it or not, Ameren, the Illinois utility company, has a solution. Their Act On Energy Refrigerator and Freezer Recycling Program will haul it away for FREE and will pay you $35 for getting rid of it. This works for old freezers too.

Who doesn't want something back from Ameren? Call 866-899-9088 or click on the Act On Energy web site to schedule your free pick up.

Why are they doing this? It seems for every old appliance you turn off in your household, Ameren figures you can save up to $100 in annual energy costs. This could be the gift that keeps on giving.

What are the rules?  You have to be an Ameren Illinois Utilities residential electric customer and the refrigerator or freezer must be in working (cooling) condition. The unit has to have been made before 1993 and be from 10 to 27 cubic feet in size.

So if that Harvest Gold, Avocado or Coppertone appliance has no place in your new stainless-steel kitchen, call Ameren and turn a bad fridge into cold cash.

Yes, I know little flash-frozen ice cream pellets might not be everyone's idea of a gourmet food experience, but I found the idea of a free-standing Dippin' Dots store that just recently opened in Edwardsville too interesting to resist.

Dippin' Dots is typically found served from a cart at stadium events. Here in the St. Louis region, the Edward Jones Dome, Busch Stadium and Scottrade Center (or as my husband -- who has refused to follow its many name changes -- calls it, "that place they play hockey") all have a DD vendor cart. It also is ubiquitous at attractions such as Six Flags theme parks, zoos (including our own Saint Louis Zoo) and any place you see families gathered for a day of fun.

For those of you who haven't experienced a Dippin' Dot, here's a litle background on the company and its claim to fame:

Back in 1988, a microbiologist named Curt Jones used his scientific knowhow to create these teensy, round bits of ice cream, sherbet and yogurt. (We have to assume it was a slow day at the lab.)

Jones' "high-tech, cryogenic freezing process" takes place at the company's Paducah, KY facilities not too many hours from our home in Southweestern Illinois. (He actually started the company in his parents' Grand Chain, Illinois garage in Pulaski County.)

The ice cream flavors are flash frozen with liquid nitrogen, then packaged and shipped to retail locations.

Dippin' Dots is a privately owned company, so -- sadly -- there is no opportunity for dot lovers to buy stock in the operation.That's probably for the best, as the company can grow while keeping quality and customers in mind, not just stockholders.

Which leads us back to the franchised DD store that opened recently in Edwardsville. In addition to getting a clear, plastic cup filled with dots in the traditional manner, customers can enjoy the following types of treats: dot cakes, dotwiches (ice cream sandwiches), milkshakes, floats, sundaes and a big variety of toppings. You also can get Dots 'n Cream which is traditional ice cream blended with DD.

Dot flavors vary by location and by visit, but some of the favorites include Banana Split, Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, Cookies n Cream, Birthday Cake, Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, Rainbow Ice, Strawberry Cheesecake, Orange Sherbet, S'mores and Peanut Butter Chip. Fudge and Vanilla also come in no-sugar-added versions. If someone in your family has allergy issues, just ask the staff. They have information on the treats' contents. Note that DD is also Kosher-Dairy.

I had a cup of S'mores -- chocolate with graham cracker pieces and marshmallows -- and my Goshen Realty Group partner, Kristina, had Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt. As we finished our treats, we watched a group of moms and kids who had just gotten out of school come in and press their faces against the glass cases. Most of the younger customers ended up with Bubble Gum or Cotton Candy. A couple dove into Birthday Cake. The kids seemed to enjoy eating blue food.

What does it taste like? Your first spoonful of Dippin' Dots is going to present your mouth with a crunchy-yet-smooth texture and a tingly burst of fresh flavor. They do melt as time passes so be sure to actually eat the little beads while you're playing with them in the cup.

Here's a link to a $1 off coupon to try Dippin' Dots for yourself. When you visit the Edwardsville store, tell them the Goshen Gourmet sent you.

PS --With Christmas, Hanukah and other gift-giving holidays approaching, you also might want to consider getting your little gourmet his or her own dot maker. Here's a link to the Dippin' Dots machine available at Toys R Us.

The Edwardsville Dippin' Dots is located in Edwardsville Crossing at 215 Harvard Drive. (That's the new plaza behind Dierberg's.)

As the seat of Madison County, the home of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the site of an acclaimed school district, Edwardsville can give the impression of being out of reach to some home buyers.

Not so! There are a number of affordable homes on the market right now in Edwardsville.

Click here to see a list of homes currently for sale in Edwardsville, Illinois priced at under $100,000.

Click here to see a list of homes for sale in Edwardsville priced between $100,000 and $150,000.

Some homes in the very lowest price ranges in any community may be listed as needing some "TLC," or "tender loving care." That's generally a kindly shorthand for "fixer-upper home." Many will require mostly cosmetic changes and some need more extensive repairs. Only you can decide how much effort you are able to afford -- in both time and cash -- to put into making an ugly ducking home look like a swan.

If one of these homes touches your buying button, we also can discuss a HUD 203K loan with your good, local lender. The 203K will allow you to rehabilitate the property and roll the money you need to restore the home right in to your home loan. Hud provides this extra money -- up to a $35,000 cap -- to help with neighborhood revitalization. Or, if you go outside of Edwardsville just a bit, you may qualify for a Rual Development Loan which allows 100 percent financing.

Don't forget that right now you also have an opportunity to take advantage of the up to $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers if you are in contract on your first home by April 30, 2010. And if you're an existing owner, you may be able to claim a $6,500 tax credit if you make a move. Always ask your tax advisor for information specific to your circumstances.

The poet T.S Eliot, who was born in St. Louis, called the Mississippi River, "a strong, brown god."  The river, he said, had a more profound influence on his life and his work than anything else in his past.

Here in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs we don't always embrace the "strong brown god," which is the overwhelming geographic feature  of our region, as closely as we should.

Sure we drive across the bridges to and from the neighboring state of Missouri, but aside from remarking that the river looks high or low, we don't pay much attention to the amazing big river that has inspired poets like Eliot, writers like Mark Twain, musicians like W.C. Handy and artists like John James Audubon down through the centuries.

Let's change that, shall we? Next beautiful day this fall, take a drive out to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and the Low Water Dam.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has created a terrific parking area   at the Low Water Dam on the Illinois banks. To get there, just take I-270 west to the Route 3 exit. Head south on Route 3 and turn west on Old Chain of Rocks Road. You'll cross over a canal onto Chouteau Island and from there will enter the Low Water Dam site. (My husband's family once owned farms on the river island before it was federalized for construction of the canal, so the spot is very special to us.)

You'll see people enjoying themselves fishing or --as I did  -- just watching the swirls and ebbs of the swift currents passing by. This portion of the Mississippi is closed to navigation. Barges and boats bypass the area in the Chain of Rocks Canal.

We saw large fish jumping around the shore and a red fox dashing off through the woods. The Mississippi hosts resident and migrating birds all through the year and the bird watching is great here and at the conservation areas near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers just a bit north.

Looming over the Low Water Dam is the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. This structure was the original Old Route 66 span across the Mississippi River. It opened in 1929 as a toll bridge and became part of Route 66 in 1936 to carry cars traveling the Mother Road from its origin in Chicago to the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California.

Today the National Historic Landmark bridge is open as one of the largest pedestrian and biking bridges in the world. It is owned by the city of Madison and operated by Trailnet, the non-profit organization that promotes active living, maintains and develops trails and anchors projects along the confluence of America's great rivers. You can learn more on Trailnet's site at www.trailnet.org.

Annual events on the bridge include the St. Louis Route 66 Festival on the first Saturday in October, Eagle days in January and a wide variety of bike rides that make use of the bridge. Individuals are welcome to use the bridge for recreation.

Park at the entrance to the bridge on the Illinois side for easiest access. Parking is open on the Missouri side for special events.

You can spot two of St. Louis' most interesting architectural features from the brige deck or from the parking lot at the Low Water Dam -- castles in the middle of the Mississippi. 

Built to look like Roman fortress and a Roman villa, the "castles" are actually water intake towers for the City of St. Louis' municipal water system which is located on the Missouri side of the river.

The green-roofed tower was built in 1894 and the other followed in 1915. Originally crews lived in the quarters inside the towers and reached them via a dyke from the shore.Today the unstaffed towers provide water to the waterworks via a pipe system.

(A couple of years ago, St. Louis was voted as having the best tasting municipal water in the nation, so the river castles must be doing something right!)

Enjoy our natural heritage along the Mississippi River. And come back to the blog to let me know what you find along the shores and trails.

He might not have been thinking about real estate when he said it, but Mark Twain gave a wonderful piece of advice to first-time homebuyers.The great American writer said:

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

I can't think of a better way to explain the process of buying a home for the first time.

JUST GET STARTED

How?  First, find a Realtor who will take the time to guide you step-by-step through, as Twain calls them, "the complex and overwhelming tasks" at hand. One task finished.

Your Realtor will help you find a lender who has successfully closed loans with them recently. Another task complete.

The lender will then work to pre-approve you so you can begin your home search understanding exactly how much home you can comfortably afford. Check that task off the list.

Your Realtor will consult with you to help you determine your wants and needs in your first home and will explain the difference between the two. As a good partner, your Realtor knows what questions to ask to help you to think clearly about your housing goals. Task done.

Next, you and your Realtor will search for homes that meet the criteria for your "needs" and offer as many of your "wants" as possible in your particular market. You'll see the best matches in person and narrow your top choices for a second look. Mark that task as done.

Once you find the home that works best for you, your Realtor will help you structure your offer and act on your behalf in negotiations with the seller through the seller's agent. Another finished task.

After you're successfully in contract, your Realtor will help you manage inspections, understand your title work and will keep in touch with your lender about your loan commitment. Your Realtor will make sure you meet your contract deadlines and will guide the transaction to closing as smoothly as possible. Task over. Goal achieved.

There are indeed many, many tasks involved in finding, negotiating for and closing on your first home. Taking the first step by just getting started will ease the journey from potential buyer to happy home owner.

Mr. Twain -- whose 175th birthday will be celebrated throughout 2010 in nearby Hannibal, Missouri -- also left us with a gem of advice about temptation.  So, if you're tempted to buy a house, remember:

"There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice." 

If you're reading this, you're not a coward. You're just one phone call or e-mail away from starting on your home buying tasks. Talk to you soon.

What started as an innovative company town is now one of the most popular residential neighborhoods in Edwardsville, Illinois.

The Leclaire neighborhood exemplifies the "look" of Edwardsville with its frame or brick homes, many of which were built in the Craftsman style.

The area is always on the radar of potential buyers who ask us to let them know as soon as the neighborhood's properties hit the market.

Here is a list of homes for sale in the historic Leclaire area of Edwardsville.

Founded in 1890 by industrialist N.O. Nelson, the Leclaire area was named for the Frenchman who developed profit sharing and inspired Nelson to create a place where his workers could experience the best possible living and working conditions.

The model town he built provided easy-to-afford housing, a park for recreation and schools for the workers at Nelson's plant which manufactured plumbing materials. Nelson's vision also encompassed his factory's architecture which was designed to provide natural light and fresh air for the workers -- amenities unheard of at a time when sweatshops were more the norm.

The streets in Leclaire were named for the presidents, writers, social reformers and other famous people who had inspired Nelson's new village. The streets maintain their names and their historic homes today.

Leclaire was incorporated into the city of Edwardsville in the 1930s and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

If you would like to know about Edwardsville's Leclaire homes as they come on the market, just sign up for a property manager account on our web site at www.GoshenRealtyGroup.com.