Well after a ton of effort and time, I've finally launched my newest website www.ScottFreeAds.com. This is a Free Classified Ad website for my area of Northwest Ohio.
Like everyone else in this economy, I've been trying to find ways to make my dollar stretch farther and I just have a hard time paying for classified ads in our local newspaper for both personal and business use.
Statistics tell us that the vast majority of people are no longer using print media to get their information but rather going directly to the internet. This is proven everyday as more and more newspapers go out of business or file for bankruptcy.
I've tried to use Craig's List, but my surrounding communities are too small to be listed and too far away from the nearest large city.
On top of all that I wanted to be able to do more with my ads. I wanted to add pictures, video, pdf files, links and all sorts of different web tools.
Thus, www.ScottFreeAds.com was born. It's a website that allows Free classified ads for individuals and businesses. The businessess are limited some as I don't want the whole site being pictures of used cars from lots or every real estate agents homes. It is primarily made for individuals for their buying, selling, bartering, finding jobs etc.
There are sponsored ad spaces available for anyone who would want. The prices are just a fraction of what the local newspaper charges. The ads offer a web page within the site that allows videos, links and pdf downloads.
The same goes for help wanted ads. Employers can place a classified ad then get their own web page within the site to highlight the job specifices, add a contact me form, print off an application etc. There are lots of choices. The help wanted ads also have a small fee, but nothing compared to the newspaper and the options are great.
If you get a chance, check out the new site and drop me a not to tell me what you think. I would even be willing to maybe partner with you in your community to get this going there.
The election is finally over, the holidays have passed and the new year is in full swing. In addition to all that the new stimulus tax credit for first time homebuyers is here and the weather is showing promise of warmth and sunshine. Because of all of that the market is beginning to thaw out just a little bit here in the Defiance area. The problem is, of course, the job market continues to struggle here. GM has decided to layoff 250 employees. Defiance Metal products just laid off 93 this week and a plant in Continental is shutting down.
I'm hoping to see some changes real soon, but I don't expect a lot in the near future. The bright side is prices and interest rates are still at very low levels.
Defiance County Market Conditions For the Week of: Mar. 7, 2009- Mar. 14, 2009
Active Listings: 291 New Listings: 17 Price Changes: 9 New Pending: 5 Total Pending: 16 Solds: 8 Contingent: 21 Withdrawals: 3 Expireds: 4
Here's some great information that I received today from Biran Fedderke at National City Mortgage. I found it very informative and thought you'd like it too. If you have questions his contact information is at the bottom.
HERE IS WHAT THE MARKET IS DOING TODAY
Current Trend Direction: Sideways to Lower
Risks favor: Floating with prices just above support
Current Price of FNMA 4.5% Bond: $100.22, -9bp
The unemployment line is getting even longer...Initial Jobless Claims rose 36,000 last week to 667,000, worse than the 625,000 expected and the highest level since October of 1982. The number of people collecting benefits reached a record high, rising 114,000 to 5.11 million.
New Home Purchases dropped 10.2% to an annual pace of 309,000 versus estimates of 324,000, the lowest level since data collection began in 1963. The median price decreased 13.5% to $201,100, the most in almost four decades. The number of new homes for sale at the end of the month fell 3.1% to 342,000. The supply of homes at the current sales rate surged to a record 13.3 months' worth.
Durable Goods Orders fell for a sixth straight month both domestically and from foreign demand as the global recession marches on. Orders for Durable Goods, from washing machines to airplanes, fell 5.2% in January versus estimates of a 2.5% drop. After excluding transportation orders, durables dropped 2.5% when estimates were looking for a loss of 2.2%.
General Motors posted an enormous and larger than expected $9.6B loss for the 4th quarter. Even after a stiff round of bad economic news and sour corporate earnings, Stocks are showing some resiliency and are trading higher.
More paper - another round of government auctions this afternoon in the form of $22B 7-yr Notes. Yesterday's $32B offering didn't go over that well and the $94B total hitting the market this week has weighed on the entire Bond Market.
We are switching to a Floating bias, after maintaining a locking stance for the past couple of weeks. Prices are trading just above support at $100.12, a level that has served as a good floor in recent weeks. Should prices fall beneath $100.12, the Bond could easily drop another 60bp or so to the next clear floor of support - in which case you will be hearing from us.
Brian L. Fedderke Mortgage Loan Consultant National City Mortgage, a division of National City Bank 701 N. Perry St. Locator 09-3193 Napoleon, Ohio 43545
With the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 by President Obama on Tuesday in Denver the prospect for first time home buyers to cash in continued. The new act continues a tax credit for first time home buyers, that is people who haven't owned a home in the past three years, and in fact increased it. Below is a description posted by the National Association of Realtors.
The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules: the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser's income tax liability. If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the purchaser.
The change that stands out the most is the credit does not require repayment. The previous bill required the purchaser to repay the money over a period of time out of future tax returns. From what I understand, the amount is equal to 10% of the purchase price with a maximum of $8,000. So, if someone were to purchase a home for $80,000 or more they would get a $8,000 tax credit! In my opinion, THAT'S AWESOME!
With interest rates being as low as they are, combined with this, anyone who has been sitting on the fence about buying that first home should act NOW!
I'm sorry for the delay in writing for the last week or so, but I was at our annual conference for GMAC Real estate and this year they decided to take a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and Belize City, Belize. It was a great trip to relax and learn some new stuff and get ready for a new year in real estate. I'm excited about the future of GMAC and some of the changes that are going on. I thought that I'd give you a little taste of what we were able to experience this past week. Above is a picture my wife took at Cozumel. Enjoy and don't get too jealous.
Here's the wrap-up for the week as of 12:00 today. It looks like the market is starting to chug forward a little as there 4 new homes pending closing and 20 that are contingent. The stats show there are several new listings, but some of those are the expireds that have renewed their listings.
Today is February 6, 2009 Here are The Market Stats for the Week of Feb. 1- Feb. 6
Active Listings: 273 New Listings: 15 Price Changes: 12 New Pending: 4 Total Pending: 9 Solds: 2 Contingent: 20 Withdrawals: 0 Expireds: 29
Here's a picture of a new listing I have this week. It's a 3 bedroom foreclosed home in Hicksville, Ohio that needs some love to bring it back in shape.
"What do I do? I'm not quite sure how to go about this.”
~The number one question I hear when helping people buy a home.
I’ve written an ebook to answer that question.
Buying a Home In Today's Market What Everyone Should Know Before They Buy a Home
Here are some of the things you’ll learn:
What steps do you need to go through in order to buy a home and in what order?
How do you position yourself to save THOUSANDS of dollars when you buy a home?
What are some the advantages of using the services of a real estate agent?
What is the best way to find a home?
What forms will be necessary to buy a home?
Do you need a lot of money to buy a home?
Here are a couple of excerpts from the book’s introduction:
I still remember when Dawn and I bought our very first home. It was the summer of 1996 and we had been living in a bug infested apartment for way too long. We spent hours driving around neighborhoods looking for yard signs. We eventually called one of the agents and ended up buying a home. We still didn't know the process but, at least, had a home. Looking back now on those days of naivete, I realize how much we didn't know and how much money we threw away due to our ignorance. They say knowledge is power and I'd have to agree because the amount of money we lost in that first transaction proved we had neither knowledge or power.
Does your current job pay you $100 per hour? If not, realize that the time you spend getting knowledge in the home buying process can easily save you thousands of dollars. I see homes bought all the time where the buyer saves $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 and sometimes more, simply because they were empowered with knowledge. Think how many hours you would have to work at your job to make that kind of money. Now think of what it would be like to just throw it away. Homes are bought every day and every day thousands upon thousands of dollars of hard earned money is thrown away by home buyers simply because they did not take the time necessary to learn how to buy a home.
Today is February 3, 2009 Defiance County Information
Active Listings: 270 New Listings: 5 Price Reductions: 4 New Pending: 1 Total Pending: 8 Solds: 0 Contingent: 21 Withdrawals: 0 Expireds: 0
Also, I was able to get a new listing today at 624 N. Main St. in Hicksville, Ohio. It's a forclosure and in in need of some help, but not so much that it wouldn't make a good investment property or cheap living. Here's a picture.
Here are the statistics from this weekend in Defiance County.
Today is February 22, 2009 Defiance County Information From the Weekend
Active Listings: 274 New Listings: 3 Price Reductions: 0 New Pending: 0 Total Pending: 7 Solds: 0 Contingent: 16 Withdrawals: 0 Expireds: 28
There were a lot of expired listings this weekend, but those stats are a tad bit deceiving. About half of them were from a group of lots in one neighborhood being sold by one individual. We still have an abundance of active listings and market pressures are keeping prices low.
Now that we've made it through the Holidays, the new year and the installment of a new president, the market activity seems to have picked up a little. The just seems to be a little more "chatter" and a few more home showings. These are good signs for our local market.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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