It's late 2009 and the consumer credit world is still in turmoil! You have MANY new changes:
1) You have a new credit law, The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which partially became law in August 2009 and will completely become law in either February of 2010 or December 1, 2009 if Democrats have their way.
2) You have a new FICO® score,FICO 08, which is now live and commercially available at all three of the credit reporting agencies. This new FICO score promises to do a better job of predicting future credit risk.
3) You have millions of credit card holders who have seen their credit limits reduced, accounts closed, interest rates increased and/or their minimum payment requirements increased.
4) In addition you have billions in lost home equity, which means no more safety net for those consumers who have excessive credit card debt.
5) You have debt settlement companies aggressively marketing their services like vultures circling a dying carcass without fully disclosing the downside of possible lawsuits and severe credit damage to their customers who use their services.
6) And finally, you have media and the undereducated that are spreading fallacies about the credit world, and are causing panic.
All in all, it's a tough environment to survive and thrive in. Here are what I believe are the most important things that we consumers should be focused on over the next 24 months:
Continue to Improve Your Credit Scores
Continue to make your payments on time regardless of what you read or hear - Debt settlement companies would have you believe that the best way to serve you is to suggest that you stop making your payment to your credit card issuers. The theory is that a lender who isn't getting paid might be more flexible for a consumer who isn't making their payments. I guess it's the "I'm lucky to get something" hypothesis. The problem is that many credit card issuers will gladly work with their debtors and work out settlements or payment plans directly, without the intervention of debt settlement companies. This helps them to collect more than what they'd get from a 3rd party settlement company and it will also mean that you are paying them more of what you owe them, which is a good thing. It will also protect you from litigation should the credit card issuer grow tired of you avoiding them at a debt settlement company's request.
Pay down your debt to no more than 10% - The new FICO score, FICO 08, is more sensitive about your revolving utilization percentage, which is the relationship between your balances and limits on credit card accounts. This means those of you who are highly utilized will suffer more as lenders continue to convert to this newer credit score, and many have already made the switch.If you can't get your balances to less than 10% of your credit limits then get them as low as possible and your score will benefit. Why is this important? It's simple. Lenders are being more critical about credit scores than in the past 36 months. A good score, say 700, two years ago would have gotten you approved at their best deal a lender had going. Today it will get you approved but not with the best terms. Shoot for 750 to ensure you of the best terms. And, be aware that mortgage lenders not only want 750 but they also want a larger down payment in many cases.
More Cards Are Better, Shoot for Five -This is counter intuitive but we're living in a bizarre credit world. Those of you who have less than five credit cards are in a bad position. A bad position because of a couple of reasons, which are:
You have fewer options if one of your credit card issuers changes your terms - Tens of millions of consumer have seen the terms of their credit card accounts changed adversely over the past 18 to 24 months. This means lower credit limits, higher rates, higher minimum payments and closed accounts in some cases. If you have only one or two cards then you leave yourself without options should one or more of your credit card issuers start misbehaving. And for those of you who think you're immune from this because you have good FICO scores, think again. FICO released a study several months ago that showed that, at a 2 to 1 ratio, cardholders who saw their credit limits decreased had median FICO score of 770. Nobody is immune.With more cards you give yourself the option to move your business elsewhere and not lose the access to the capital that a credit card provides.
Think About Litigation If You Know You're Right - Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA) lawsuits are going to eclipse 8,500 this year, which will easily be a record. According to John Ulzheimer, a professional expert witness, "many consumer are finding that they can't get legitimate errors corrected on their credit reports. The choice they have is to live with it for seven years or take someone to court and force them to listen."Many collection agencies are finding it hard to avoid lawsuits despite a huge growth in outstanding delinquent receivables. Some are calling for a revamping if the FDCPA but any politician that chooses to reduce consumer protections at this time in history is asking to be voted out of office.
External curb appeal is very important when you are planning on selling your home. Your yard should appear as if it takes care of itself. Over 85% of potential home buyers are starting their search for a new home on the Internet. After a home buyer looks online they are going to drive by your property and take a look at the external curb appeal.
Here are some home staging tips for the outside of your home:
1. You should be able to see the front door clearly from the street. Please trim any trees or bushes that are blocking the front door.
2. All your trees in the front yard need to be trimmed and fresh mulch needs to be put down in all your planter beds.
3. There should be no weeds growing out of your planter or flower beds, please remove them.
4. Your grass needs to be cut and edged along all the walkways and the driveway.
5. All external lighting fixtures need to be in working order and have the highest wattage bulb installed in them. There needs to be a light left on at night to show the house number and your front door area.
6. All trash, toys, and debris should not be visible from the street. We certainly do not want to turn off any potential buyers in this market.
7. Any fencing needs to be painted or powerwashed, so it will appear clean and new.
8. If the driveway or walkway has any stains, please powerwash them to remove any unsightly stains or spots.
9. During winter months, always clear walkways and the driveway as soon as possible.
10. During summer months, always have planters with flowers on either sides of the front door to frame the door and draw the attantion in from the street.
Good luck with your home sale.
-Kate
Kate's Home Staging and Redesign now sells semi-custom window coverings at discount prices. Our window coverings include roman shades, Levolor and Dynasty blinds, faux wood blinds, bamboo blinds, woven wood blinds, cornices, valances, sheers, and drapes. Our roman shades can be ordered in 100% pure silk, linen, cotton, or designer fabric. We also offer Benjamin Moore color consultations and test color boards, interior decorating, home staging, and redesign. Please visit http://www.kateshomestaging.com for more info or call 845-538-3623. All window covering appointments include a free 30 minute design consultation for the same room. We serve Passaic County and Bergen County of New Jersey and Rockland County and Orange County of New York, basically the lower Hudson Valley. We are an affiliate member of the Passaic County of Realtors, a member of RESA, ASHSR.
Great starter home! Home qualifies for 100% Financing with Rural Development. Zero down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance. Contact us to get qualified today!
Home offers 3 bedrooms, 1 bath with 1,179 sq. ft. of living space. A few of the features include a woodburning stove, hardwood floors, separate laundry room, kitchen island, fenced in yard with a 14 x 20 shed. Home is situated on a .63 acre lot!
Conveniently located just a few miles south of Patuxent River Naval Air Station, shopping and restaurants.
For additional information or to schedule a viewing appointment, contact Chris Minion or Rita Minion.
Southern Maryland Is A Great Place To Visit...... An Even Better Place To Live!
Discover Southern Maryland.....where relaxation is a lifestyle, not a vacation.
We consider Southern Maryland an excellent place to reside and would love to share with you our enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. Our local expertise & extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a home in Southern Maryland.
We Specialize in a Variety of Properties: Waterfront Properties, Vacation Homes, Second Homes, First Time Home Buyers, Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Horse Properties & Relocation Services.
Date: Friday, November 27, 2009 - Saturday, November 28, 2009 Location: Historic St. Mary's City Time: 10 AM - 5 PM
Discover the ways Maryland's first citizens prepared for winter before supermarkets and department stores. Hands-on activities.
Cold weather is approaching and Maryland's first citizens are battening the hatches and keeping the home fires burning. Learn about making it through the winter without the luxury of department stores. Demonstrations and hands-on activities.
General Admission Fees:
Adults: $10
Seniors (60 plus): $8
Students (13-18 years or with college ID): $6
Child (6-12 years): $3.50 and 5 years & under Free
For more information call 800-762-1634 or 240-895-4990
Historic St. Mary's City is located off Route 5 in scenic Southern Maryland. Travel time is less than two hours from Washington, D.C. and Annapolis and less than three hours from Richmond and Baltimore.
The street address of the Visitor Center is 18751 Hogaboom Lane, St. Mary's City.
You are invited to come face to face with the past in one of America's most beautiful historical sites, Historic St. Mary's City.
Come visit, and make a little history of your own!
Southern Maryland Is A Great Place To Visit...... An Even Better Place To Live!
We consider Southern Maryland an excellent place to reside and would love to share with you our enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. Our local expertise & extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a home in Southern Maryland.
We Specialize in a Variety of Properties: Waterfront Properties, Vacation Homes, Second Homes, First Time Home Buyers, Investment Properties, Foreclosures, Horse Properties & Relocation Services.
For the last 800 years, building codes have allowed bathrooms to be built without exhaust fans.
Exhaust fans aren't even a requirement here in Minnesota! This is a great example of how building codes are only minimum standards. I thought about this while doing a home inspection at a rental home in Minneapolis. The outdoor temperature was about 45 degrees, and every single window in the home was covered with condensation, which was also dripping down the walls.
Oh, and there were no fans installed.
Bathrooms need exhaust fans to help eliminate moisture problems, plain and simple. When people take showers and baths, moisture gets pumped in to the air. During the winter, this moisture condenses on windows and walls, and often makes it's way in to the attic space through attic bypasses, where it will create frost.
Minnesota requires windows in bathrooms that provide a total glazed area of at least three square feet, and half of that must be openable. The exception to this rule comes when a bath fan is installed that will exhaust at least 50 cubic feet per minute, or a continuous exhaust system such as a Heat Recovery Ventilator exhausts at least 20 cubic feet per minute.
The idea of someone actually opening a window on a cold winter day in Minnesota to help reduce moisture in the bathroom is ridiculous. If you live in a house without an exhaust fan in a bathroom that gets used for showers or baths, install one. Your house will thank you for it.
If you're going to install a fan, here are a few tips to make sure your house is happy with the fan.
Choose a good fan. You'll want to balance noise level, performance, and price. If you buy a cheap noisy fan, you probably won't even want to turn it on.
Make the exhaust duct short. A proper exhaust duct will be as short as possible and take as few turns as possible. The longer the duct and the more twists and turns it takes, the less air flow. A fan rated for 80 cubic feet per minute (CFM) assumes the fan has no duct. As soon as a duct gets added, the actual CFM goes down. I've inspected hundreds of houses where there is barely any air flow at bath fan exhausts. If the bath fan is located in the basement and the duct runs up to the roof at the second story, air flow will be pretty pathetic.
Insulate the duct where it passes through unconditioned spaces, such as the attic. If you don't, moisture will condense it the duct, and might drip down and stain the ceiling. I once inspected a house in Richfield where the exhaust duct was uninsulated in the attic, and so much moisture had accumulated in the duct that it was completely filled with water! The photo at right shows me holding my flashlight up against the duct - this is one of my favorite photos ever. Click the thumbnail to see the full version.
Don't use a standard switch to control the fan. When a single switch controls the fan, people turn the fan on while in the shower or maybe after the shower, and turn the fan off when leaving the room. The problem is that the fan doesn't run long enough to remove enough moisture. A better solution would be to install a timer that runs for at least a half hour, or install a humidity sensing fan.
Preferred Staging firmly believes that every property is unique, so when we approach a house for staging, we need to take into consideration all of the wonderful features that the house has to offer. We stage each house to highlight its best features, and work with the challenges. Each house, therefore, is staged a little bit differently.
Last week we staged a fabulous house in the Evermay area of McLean, Virginia. It's a split level house with a large and open front foyer, which is very welcoming. However, from the foyer you can see into every main room of the house - the dining room, kitchen and family room, living room, and finished basement. What a view! And this was our main challenge - to stage each room visible from the front foyer so that it was warm and welcoming, but also with focal points that would invite buyers to walk into the rooms to experience each space further. The longer a buyer will linger in a room, the more interested they can become, and hopefully envisioning themselves living in that room. This is a major first step in the buying process.
Our team staged this large house in just one day, and when the Realtor stopped by as we were finishing up, he stood in the foyer and looked around him and into each room. He was thrilled with the results!
The Broker's Open the next day was a huge success, and we are expecting a sale in the very near future! Before and after photos of this property can be found on the Preferred Staging gallery.
With cooler weather, it's time to make hot chocolate and enjoy warmth of the fire in the fireplace. Staging the Fireplace when the house is for sale makes the Fireplace a desirable selling feature of the home. Nothing is more appealing than warm firelight on a blustery day.
This fireplace is in the dining area and the place for romantic firelit dinners.
PLAIN JANE BEFORE STAGING!
BEING STAGED
Staging Complete:
More Fireplace Staged Photos!
FIREPLACE STAGED!
ANOTHER FIREPLACE BEFORE STAGING:
AFTER STAGING! WHAT A CONTRAST!
This fireplace is in a modest three bedroom home that could have benefited from an updated fireplace screen, but hey, the house is sold!!!! A fireplace is a natural focal point of a living room and should be shown to be staged even in the off season, too hot for a fire in the fireplace. Here on the mantel of this fireplace are two battery operated candles perfectly safe to add a little "fire lit" image. In staging the fireplace to sell, no personal photos, trophies, stuffed animal heads are necessary. Use an odd number to dress a mantle such as three objects on the fireplace mantle is a good number. You will want the fireplace to look inviting but not cluttered. If in doubt take one object back away one object at a time until you are satisfied with the look. Of course one person's cozy is another person's cluttered. In staging, error on the streamlined side!
When you're ready to sell for results, call Abilene's most experienced home stager and Accredited Staging Professional and licensed REALTOR at 325-721-2429.
It's an age-old problem with small houses: how do you make the spaces look larger and more functional so the spaces don't seem so SMALL??
This problem is even tougher in a condo where all the spaces are small. Cindy Montgomery in our Showhomes Minneapolis office emailed me these photos to explain how she divides up small spaces and uses small-footprint furniture to enlarge a room:
I believe that the more activites a buyer can see themselves doing in a space, large or small, the more attracive the home becomes. Great job, Cindy!
JUST WHAT IS IT THAT REAL ESTATE LICENSEES DO?? Part I.
"YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT . . . " is to manage the orderly transfer of real property from a seller to a buyer. The average consumer doesn't understand a fraction of what we do to help them accomplish their goal.
SELLERS. Home sellers are presented a simple-to-complex marketing plan by listing agents prior to listing the property for sale. The listing agent promises to perform a series of showing, advertising activities geared to receiving contract offers.
BUYERS. Buyers are assisted in their home search by agent(s) who helps to locate, tour properties for sale, write and negotiate the contract and arranging for settlement services.
Sounds easy doesn't it? Actually it is, in the hands of experienced listing and buyers agents and ifnothing unusual occurs.
THE MOST HELPFUL AND LEAST UNDERSTOOD PART OF LISTING AND SELLING REAL PROPERTY is the complex and institutionalized systems which include the brokerages employing the licensed agents and brokers, the Multiple List Systems that make the homes for sale information available to licensees and now to the public, the board approved forms that provide consumer protections,
Achieving the consumer's goal of selling or buying real property requires the services of a variety of service providers in addition to the real estate licensee. Achieving the orderly transfer of real property from a seller to a buyerrequires services of vendors that perform critical tasks to help the consumer achieve their goal. The vendors include but are not limited to: mortgage providers, home inspectors, termite/radon inspectors, appraisers, title services which include or are managed by attorneys.
WOW! How do we keep up with all of these tasks that are necessary to get to the settlement table? I'm going to disclose a secret that will help many consumers understand how things can go so smoothly and the consumer's goal of selling and buying real estate is achieved.
IT'S ALL IN THE CONTRACT!
That's right. IT'S ALL IN THE CONTRACT!
Getting to the settlement table begins with the selection of an experienced listing or buyer's agent who will MANAGE THE CONTRACT OF SALE. To demonstrate the importance of understanding contract management, below are the titles included in a typical Contract of Sale.
Description of Real Property
Price and Financing
Deed of Trust
Deposit
Down Payment
Settlement
Equipment, Maintenance and Condition
Utilities
Personal Property and Fixtures
Financing Terms
Appraisal
Purchasers Representations
Access to Property
Termite Inspection
Repairs
Damage and Loss
Title
Possession Date
Fees
Broker's Fee
Adjustments
Attorney's Fees
Performance
Default
Assignability
Definitions
Void Contract
Warranty
Listing agents and Buyers agents must not only understand the meaning and execution of each of these titles, they should help the seller or buyer understand the meaning of all parts of the contract that apply to their particular transaction.
Great opportunity for waterfront buyer! Engergy Star Home has very efficient utilities! This Colonial style home offers 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths with 2,264 sq. ft. of living space. A few of the amenities include spacious rooms, plenty of closet & storage space, unfinished basement with bathroom plumbing, 20 ft. pier on Mill Creek and nice views from many rooms. New 24 x 25 attached garage. Spacious rear deck (18 x 18), gas back up heat, motion floor lights & much more. Home shows great!
Home is located in a water access community, the Chesapeake Ranch Estates. A few of the community amenities include 2 beaches on the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Lariat & beach, airpark, clubhouse, horse stables, garden, ballfield, 2 boat ramps and playground.
Minutes to shopping, restaurants, marine activities & the resort town of Solomons. Convenient to Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Easy commute to DC/VA and Annapolis areas.
For additional information or to schedule a viewing appointment, contact Chris Minion or Rita Minion today.
DISCOVER WATERFRONT LIVING IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND.... where relaxation is a lifestyle, not a vacation!
We consider Southern Maryland an excellent place to reside and would love to share with you our enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. Our local expertise & extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a waterfront property in Southern Maryland.
We Specialize in a Variety of Properties: Waterfront Properties, Vacation Homes, Second Homes & Relocation Services.
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.
SELLERS. Home sellers are presented a simple-to-complex marketing plan by listing agents prior to listing the property for sale. The listing agent promises to perform a series of showing, advertising activities geared to receiving contract offers.
;)
;)
