Patty completed her SRES® (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) designation today.  By earning her SRES® designation, Patty has demonstrated necessary knowledge and expertise to counsel clients age 50-plus through major financial and lifestyle transitions invovled in relocating, refinancing, or selling the family home.

As an SRES®, Patty brings:

• A customized approach to home selling for the 50+ market, including how their current living situation fits into their overall plan
• Expertise and patience without condescention
• An awareness of options and solid, reliable referrals for specific situations to explore those options
• A variety of choices to reduce out-of-pocket expenses, gain cash, or create or defer income streams to either stay independent or finance assistance

If you or anyone you know is age 50+ and considering buying or selling a home in Vancouver/Clark County WA, call Patty at (360) 258-2459 or email PattyCarroll@SellingClarkCounty.com.

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

Yesterday, we announced a new program by which our seller clients can elect to have us make a donation to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure upon the sale of their home.  Today, we adding a second option for them:

Children's Miracle Network

Children's Miracle Network and RE/MAX are joined by their desire to provide local community hospitals with modern tools and information. Since RE/MAX became the exclusive real estate sponsor of Children's Miracle Network in 1992, RE/MAX Associates have raised nearly $75 million for the cause.

Founded in 1983, Children's Miracle Network generates health care funds and awareness programs to benefit children. The nonprofit organization's 170 participating hospitals across North America help 17 million children annually.

RE/MAX Associates raise funds for Children's Miracle Network in a variety of ways, including:

 

• Pledging a contribution derived from each transaction involving a RE/MAX Miracle Home®.
• Staging fundraising events - from local golf tournaments to parking-lot flea markets.
• Handling the phones at the organization's annual telethon fundraising event, the largest of its kind in the world.

Miracle Home® Program

When you list your home with us, you may choose to have it designated as a Miracle Home®.  If it is, we will make a contribution to Doernbecher Children's Hospital Foundation / OHSU once the transaction is complete. The funds raised here in Vancouver / Clark County will remain in the Oregon / SW Washington area to benefit local families.

Make Miracles Happen!

If you and/or someone you know are considering selling a home and would like to help make miracles happen, please contact Patty & Scott Carroll at (360) 258-2459 or visit our web site at www.SellingClarkCounty.com.

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

Sold for the Cure^TM

As RE/MAX Sales Associates who have had their lives touched by cancer, we actively support our company's Sold for the Cure^TM program.  The program gives sellers an opportunity to designate their home as a Sold for the Cure property when they list it with us.  Upon successful completion of the sales transaction, we will make a donation to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure of Oregon & SW Washington.

Breast Cancer Facts

Breast cancer is among the leading types of cancer.  According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women will have invasive breast cancer some time during her life.  The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 35.  At this time, breast cancer death rates are declining thanks, in part, to the work of organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.  In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure, we have invested nearly $1 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

RE/MAX Supports Susan G. Komen for the Cure

RE/MAX is a proud national sponsor of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and a member of the Komen Million Dollar Council.  The Komen Million Dollar Council is a special group of corporate partners. In addition to a financial contribution of at least $1 million, members of the Million Dollar Council like RE/MAX has been found to have new and innovative ways to spread two important messages: 1) early detection saves lives and 2) only through research can we find a cure.

If you and/or someone you know are considering selling a home and would like to help support the fight against breast cancer, please contact Patty & Scott Carroll at (360) 258-2459 or visit our web site at www.SellingClarkCounty.com.

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

We were tagged for a Super 8 Me-Me by Ann Heitland and we did them individually.

1.  Who is your favorite musical artist?  The Beatles, loved the music and the hair. In fifth grade a friend and I spent an entire day creating a dance to the song "Come Together', then we made our mothers sit and watch. They were really pretty patient ... thinking back, it sucked.

2.  Who is your favorite artist?  I love a lot of art but two of my favorite artists are Tomasz Rut and Misha Lenn.

3.  Who is your favorite blogger?  Can anyone really have just one? A few of my faves are Dustin Luther, Ardell DellaLoggia, Jason Crouch, Greg Nino and Todd Clark.

4.  If you could meet anyone (alive or dead) who would it be and what is the most interesting thing about them? John Lennon is someone that I would have loved to sit down and chat with. What a talented singer and writer he was sending hope, love and peace through his music.

5.  What did you want to be when you grew up?  Well there were a couple of things. First there was the  Playboy Bunny (it was the 60's and I was a teenager, enough said on that one) and then it was an actress or something in sales. I once did a "what is your ideal job test", to see what the best job for me would be and it said that I should be a talk show host like Oprah or an Air Traffic Controller. So I became a Realtor instead, lol.

6.  What is the most interesting piece of trivia that you know?  Slugs have 4 noses yuk...where's the salt!

7.  If you could live in any point in history what would it be and why?  It would have been in the 50's. I love the cars, I love Lucy, Elvis, American Bandstand and the pace of life back then. My husband Scott picked this one too, hmmm maybe this means I should get a poodle skirt.

8.  What is the most interesting job you have ever held? It technically isn't considered a job, but we were foster parents to 22 children and every day was interesting for sure!

OK ... Now I am supposed to Meme 8 more people. But who? So how about this, the first 8 people that let me know that they want to take a crack at it get it. But better hurry I only have 8 spots!

#1 - Kim Harris, Sound Realty

#2 -

#3 -

#4 -

#5 -

#6 -

#7 -

#8 -

Patty Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

Well, it happened.  We were tagged by Ann Heitland, Associate Broker, CRS, GRI , ABR ~ Flagstaff Real Estate/Community in Flagstaff, AZ for Super 8 MeMe.  The first thing we realized was that Patty and I had different opinions of the MeMe thing.  In discussing the questions, we also learned that we had different answers to many (if not all)!  That said, we are responding to Ann's tag individually.

For me (Scott) ... I was torn about responding at all.  While I felt honored that we were selected by Ann as one of her eight (of the currently 92,934) AR members to be tagged, I had also read a few of the MeMe posts and considered them to be nothing more than an electronic chain letter ... and I HATE chain letters.  Then again, being relatively new to blogging and AR, we were concerned that a failure to respond may be taken as a lack of support of the AR community and/or a personal slight toward Ann.  We went so far as to ask Jon Washburn his opinion!  He assured us that we should not feel pressured to respond, but that he personally thinks that "meme's are cool and add to the community".  With that in mind, here are my answers:

1.  Who is your favorite musical artist?  I like a lot of artists, though my wife will tell you that I need to update my musical taste.  I enjoy Styx, Foreigner, Journey ... and other music of the 80s.  The one artist that really impresses me, though, is Josh Groban.

2.  Who is your favorite artist?  My wife and I started buying art on cruise ships.  We own work by a number of different artists and many different styles.  My favorite, though, is Tomasz Rut.

3.  Who is your favorite blogger?  I can't say that I have a favorite blogger.  I enjoy reading so many and learn something from nearly all of them.  I think I'm going to have to grow in my understanding of what I believe to be important for a blog before I'll be able to pick out a favorite blogger.

4.  If you could meet anyone (alive or dead) who would it be and what is the most interesting thing about them?  I would like to meet Bill Gates.  The things I find most interesting about him are his extraordinary business successes and his far-reaching philanthropic efforts.

5.  What did you want to be when you grew up?  As a young boy, I wanted to be an astronaut.  When I got older and started giving my occupation some serious consideration, I wanted to be an optometrist.  When I learned that required college classes including dissecting cadavers, I quickly changed my mind!

6.  What is the most interesting piece of trivia that you know?  The origin of the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" dates back to when printers set headlines and copy by hand using movable type.  If you have ever seen old type, you know that the letters are mirror images of the regular alphabet. Lower-case P's look very similar to Q's and vice versa.  "Mind your P's and Q's" was a reminder not to mix up the letters when putting them back in the rack after being used.

7.  If you could live in any point in history what would it be and why?  I suppose the 1950s.  It seems that, in many ways, life was more simple and I have always loved the clothes, the music and the cars!

8.  What is the most interesting job you have ever held?  I'd have to say being a real estate agent is the most interesting job I've had.  It is ever changing, completely unpredictable and sometimes frustrating; but it gives me the opportunity to make a good living, help others, and work with my wife, who I love very much.

Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

May data was recently released by RMLS and it shows that the number of homes for sale in Clark County is climbing again.  In the month of May, there were 5,048 active listings (up from 4,775 in April).  There were 400 homes sold in this same period (up from 386 in April).  This translates to 12.6 months of inventory (active listings divided by the number of closed sales).  Another way to look at the inventory calculation is at the current rate of home sales, it would take 12.6 months to sell everything that is currently on the market, assuming no other homes were listed in that period.

Following is a graphic representation of monthly inventory levels starting in January 2006 through May 2008:

SOURCE: Based on data reported by RMLS.  Graph created by Patty & Scott Carroll.

The high inventory levels is both a function of an increase in the number of homes for sale and a decline in the number of completed sales.  Comparing May 2008 with May 2005, active listings have increased 370.1% (5,048 v. 1,364).  For the same months, closed sales declined by 41.9% (400 v. 689).

This, combined with continued low interest rates, seems to signal opportunity for saavy buyers.  If you or someone you know are considering buying a home in the Vancouver WA / Clark County area, please give us a call.  Be sure and ask about our VIP Benefits that can save our buyer clients up to $1,200.*

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

* Call or Visit Our Web Site for More Details