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Get Yourself Pampered This Week, and, The Pamperer Will Support a Great Cause

Get yourself pampered this week with a treatment at Re'Vive Salon and Spa. In order to help the Athens Area Association of Realtors reach it's over $70,000 goal, Re'Vive has offerred to share 30% of the proceeds it receives from patrons this week.

There are only two things you need to do in order to make this happen:

1. Make an appointment at Re'Vive Salon and Spa for one of their spa treatments between today, Sep 14 and Friday, Sep. 19.
   
2. Mention the AAAR 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk

and voila! Re'Vive will pledge 30% to this goal.

Details can be found in the flyer below:

Marty Winkler - Jazz, Blues & Folk Singer - Free Concert at the Athens-Clarke County Library, 3 P.M. Sunday Sep. 6

Marty Winkler, along with her partner Michael C. Steele, will be giving a free concert at the Athens-Clarke County Library on Sunday, Sep. 6. Marty and Michael will be presenting their original work as well as their versions of other artists music.

You can get a flavor of what to expect at the concert by visiting Marty's MySpace Music page. She will also be appearing in downtown Athens at the Melting Point, Saturday evening, Sep. 5. along with Jazz Enigma and Holly Belle.

The concert will be in the auditorium of the library and is sponsored by the Friends of the Athens-Clarke County Library.

Dine Out in Athens or Watkinsville GA and Help Find a Cure for Breast Cancer!

The Athens Area Association of Realtors (AAAR) is sponsoring a team for that 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk. AAAR has set a goal of raising $69,000.00 this year.

To help reach that goal, some Athens area restaurants have agreed to donate part of their proceeds from specific days and meals. If you are considering dining out on those days, please consider these restaurants:

The Daily Neighborhood Deli - Friday, July 31st, dinner only - reservations suggested

The Hilltop Grille - August 3 - 9, all meals

The Daily Neighborhood Deli - August 14 - dinner only

The Daily Neighborhood Deli is located at 2791 Monroe Highway, Watkinsville.

The menu for Fri, Jul 31 will be::

Option 1: Traditional spinach salad: bacon, red onion, hard boiled egg, creamy housemade dressing.

Seared scallops, lemon risotto, asparagus, pine nuts, balsamic gastrique. $16.95

Option 2: Antipasti, pesto ciabatta

Orecchieete, sausage, broccoli rabe, parmesan, arrabbiata sauce $15.95

Dinner is served from 5:30 - 8:30 PM

They would appreciate it if you would call and let them know that you are coming, but not absolutely necessary. Their phone number is 678-661-0303.

So, go out and have a great meal while helping a great cause!

Can You Use $8000 More for Your Down Payment?

I know that I can. Unfortunately, I do not qualify. But, if you are a first time home buyer, someone who hasn't owned your own home for at least 3 years, you just might be able to take advantage of this.

As of Friday, May 29, 2009, H.U.D. has approved the monetization of the $8000 tax credit. What that simply means is that the tax credit, however much your home purchase qualifies for, can be used for part of your down payment or closing costs. No, the government will not give you a check that you can take to closing, but, lenders are now free to consider this and apply it to your down payment or closing costs.

How this will be done has not yet been determined, but, it will most likely be in the form of a short term "bridge" loan that will be payable at the time you receive your tax credit. I have not seen any programs announced, but expect that within a few days the various banks and other lenders will have packages set up.

What does that mean to you? It will mean that you can possibly afford a more expensive home, or, that you can have lower house payments if you apply your credit to the down payment or closing costs.

Is it a wise thing to do, or the best thing to do for you? That, I cannot tell you. I don't know your situation, and, I am also not a financial adviser. You will need to work that out for yourself, or with the help of a qualified financial adviser.

If you would like more information on the First Time Home Buyer's Tax Credit, or, if you are interested in buying or selling your home or land in Athens-Clarke County, Jackson, Barrow, Madison, Oglethorpe and Oconee Counties, give me a call at 706-207-5290. Or, you can click here to email me with any inquiries. To search for homes and land in and around Athens, GA please visit my website, The Athens Real Estate Page.

So You Want to Sell Your Home - Lucky Part 13 - What's Cooking in the Kitchen?

A few posts ago I provided a list of how buyers prioritize the areas of the home they are viewing. After the curb appeal and the entryway, the most important area is the kitchen.

Today's kitchen is not longer the sole domain of the woman. More and more men are spending time in the kitchen doing the cooking. In my home I prepare most of the meals, although I do admit, my wife does most of the cleaning. Men don't just grill anymore, we bake, we steam, we souffle, we cook!

What does that mean? It means the kitchen now has to appeal functionally and attractive to buyers of both genders. The counters have to appear spacious, the cabinets accessible with a lot of storage, the lighting bright, and overall, movement between prep area to cooking area to serving area clear and uncluttered.

So what are the steps to making your kitchen appealing?

• Clean your kitchen until it shines - every square inch of it, paying special attention to the stove, oven, sink, counters, floor and refrigerator.
• Take care of any maintenance issues, fix your leaky faucets, replace faulty burners, replace burned out light bulbs. Make sure your drawers and cabinets open easily and without squeaks. Replace broken or worn drawer and cabinet pulls. Make sure any exhaust fans, as well as built in appliances, such as disposal, are all in working order.
• Empty the kitchen counter surfaces of all but the most often used and needed items. The more open counter space the more appealing the kitchen.
• Empty your cabinets and only return items that you use regularly. If you have place settings for 12 but only use 4, put at least 6 in storage. Put seasonal items, like Thanksgiving platters into storage until needed. Get rid of items that you don't use (like that second toaster) or put them into storage.
• Clean out your refrigerator and pantry. Get rid of old out dated foods. In the refrigerator, get rid of any fuzzy "science projects". Make sure the shelves and surfaces are clean. Keep only enough food for a couple of days in both the refrigerator and the pantry. Keep an open box of baking soda in an inconspicuous place in your refrigerator. And don't forget to take all those post its off of the refrigerator door.
  
• Wash your dishes after every meal. Ok, this one might be tough, but dirty dishes in the sink detracts from the perception of the kitchen. Even if you have a dishwasher, rinse the dishes well before placing them inside of it. You don't want any food smells when someone opens the dishwasher door. Wash your dishes daily in the dishwasher.
• Clean out under the sink. Get rid of cleaners, chemicals and everything else that you store under the sink but don't use regularly. You don't want to remind anyone that your gleaming kitchen takes work to keep it that way. Make sure that you clean under there also.
• Paint your walls. Even if it means removing wallpaper. Wallpaper is an even more personal selection than paint and if a buyer sees that he or she will need to remove wallpaper it may tilt the balance against your kitchen. Use a neutral color.
• Display flowers and fresh fruit, but don't over do it. And the key word is fresh, for both the flowers and the fruit.
• Oh-Oh that smell. Be careful what you cook while your home is for sale. Many foods leave odors, even if you have gotten used to them. If you like bacon, you may be better off getting it somewhere like Denny's. Bacon and other foods can leave lingering aromas that can and do turn some people off.
• You can feed Fido but don't leave any evidence of it. Put away the water and food dishes for your pets. They make both a trip and spill hazard.
  

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? But it really isn't and, you will like like the results when your home sells faster because you have taken care to present the most important (to the buyer) room in house in the best manner possible. Best of luck.

For information on buying or selling your home in Athens GA and the surrounding areas, call me at 706-207-5290 or click here to email me. You can visit my website, The Athens Real Estate Page to search for homes and land in and around Athens.

Thinking of Buying a Foreclosure?

Well here are some things to think about!

You may have heard on TV or radio, from your friends, from newspapers, magazines or the internet that there are some really good bargains out there in the foreclosure market. In fact, you see some ads about people purchasing homes for 10¢ on the dollar. They are even willing to sell you the information on where you can buy foreclosed homes and properties. But there are some things that they don’t tell you. Here are some of them:

You don’t have to pay for a list of foreclosures in your area – you can get this information for free in several ways. You can go to each banks foreclosure sight on the internet. Or, you can go to a Realtor® and he or she will do the work for you.

You get what you pay for – you may pay only 10¢ on the dollar but that is what the property is worth in today’s market. You get for that price because nobody would pay more.

Most foreclosed upon properties are distressed – In one form or another almost every foreclosed property is distressed, or has problems. They usually need work and many do not qualify for an FHA loan without significant repairs made. Sometimes it might only be repainting, carpet replacement and appliances replaced. Very often there is extensive work required to make the home live-able.

Cash is king – In the foreclosure market the cash buyer typically has the advantage. The bank or other owner of the foreclosed property will usually accept a cash offer over one that needs financing or appraisal approval.

Don’t just get pre-approved, get pre-committed – After cash, the purchase that has pre-committed funds is next in the pecking order. This means that if a loan is required, the lender has already committed to lending the purchaser the money. The only contingency is that the property meets the appraisal requirements. This is beyond pre-approval, where a credit check has been performed and the lender has determined that the client may be eligible to get a loan. And, it is certainly way beyond a pre-qualification which is not much more than recognition that the buyer is still breathing.

Don’t expect a quick response to your offer – most banks will wait for some time before responding to an offer. They are hoping for multiple offers to come in and will wait for that to happen. When they get multiple offers they will then issue a call for “highest and best” offer and will give a deadline for those to be received. Even if there is only one offer they will wait and then either negotiate or ask for highest and best.

You may have to offer, or pay, more than the asking price – Yep; this is a big surprise for many people. You may have to offer more than the asking price, especially when there are multiple offers on the same foreclosed property.

You will get special conditions from the bank before the offer is accepted – Most lenders of foreclosed properties will have special conditions or stipulations for the sale. This may require using a specific closing attorney that might be hundreds of miles away. It will almost always include a shortened due diligence period, the period you will need to perform all inspections, of the property, etc. They may even want you to be approved by a specific lender, although you won’t necessarily have to use that lender. The lender may, or may not, negotiate these conditions. So, if you have a particular attorney you would like to use to close with, you can attempt to negotiate that but don’t expect to have it happen.

Get your financing commitment before you start looking – Get that commitment for funding before you even start looking at a foreclosure. If you find one that you like, very often others will also like it. The best ones don’t stay on the market very long. Get that pre-commitment so that you don’t lose out on an opportunity by not being ready with all your financing requirements taken care of.

You can get renovation funds included in your loan – There is more likely than not going to be problems with a foreclosed home. It is possible to get a loan that will include funding to make any repairs/renovations required to bring the property up to standards to meet the loan eligibility. You can even add that deck, granite countertops, whatever renovations that you would like to make, if you qualify. Check with your lender on the programs available.

Work with someone familiar with the process – This is a strong recommendation. Work with a Realtor® that will guide you through the entire process and know the best ways to get you the property you want, whether for your own home or for an investment.

Armed with the above list, go ahead and look for that foreclosed property. You might not find your dream home, but you might very well find the home that you can make into the home of your dreams. And above all, be patient. You might not, probably won’t, win the first one, but keep it up, it will happen.

Note: This is not to be construed as financial advice or legal advice. Please check with an attorney for any legal recommendations and with a qualified lender for advice on getting pre-committed.

For information on buying or selling real estate in Athens and the surrounding counties, call me at 706-207-5290 or click here to email me. If you would like to search for properties available in this same area, please click to follow the link to The Athens Real Estate Page.