A couple of weeks ago her kids decided to celebrate their mom’s birthday and their parents’ anniversary and make home-made ice cream — but wow! What homemade ice cream! Peanut butter! Chocolate! Mango! We’re making ourselves hungry, and we know there’s not ice cream like that available for miles – not since the “Inside Scoop” closed in Chapel Hill! A special cake had been ordered, and Vivian knew just where to get the perfect chocolate cake…..and more importantly, what to write on top. After much thought and gathering of advice from various friends and relatives, she chose “To my better half” to celebrate her marriage, her husband, and the fact that she’s been married half her life. We’re not giving away numbers here because we want to have a job next week – although honestly, if you ask Vivian, she’ll tell you. Or you can look at the picture and guess.

So – here’s to Crazy Viv – with all the fun, all the spontaneity, and all that outside the box zest you bring to our lives and the lives of others. Happy birthday, Vivian, and Happy Anniversary Vivian and Sim! May you have many, many more.

From your very sneaky help – K and S

Here’s help.

1. Search Engines. Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are the three main search engines. You can search by town – “House for sale in Chapel Hill, NC“, by zip code – “Buy a home in 27514″, or by neighborhood or even school district – “Homes for sale in Woodcroft Durham, NC” If you’re searching by neighborhood or school zone, include the city and state. You can also further qualify your search by adding “for sale by owner”, “condominium”, or even “foreclosure”.

You’ll be presented with thousands of results, which can be overwhelming. So you may prefer a more specialized option.

2. Real Estate Directories. In the last several years, some really great real estate portals have been designed that let you refine your search for a home. Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Realtor.com, and ActiveRain.com are only a few of the great options available. You can choose to search by home size, price, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, amenities, and (of course) location. These sites allow you to save your searches, and they’ll even notify you when something matching your search comes on the market. Some of the real estate directories also have forums so you can ask questions about a neighborhood or buying options.

3. Social Media Outlets. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites offer a more interactive and personal way to search for a home. In addition to finding out what properties they are listing, you can get to know individual real estate agents and see how they interact and respond to their clients.

4. Individual sites. Brokers and individual agents most often have websites of their own. A good agent website will display current listings, contact information, and important information about buying a home. A great website usually means that an agent is up to date with the market, and truly cares about meeting the needs of clients like you.

Getting online to find a home is something that anyone can do. But being able to navigate all the choices effectively isn’t easy. If you’re feeling like you’re getting tangled in the web of internet options for buying a home, give me a call. Together, we’ll find the house that you can turn into your home!

1. Major renovations. Most of the time, you won’t sell a home faster because of major renovations. Adding a bedroom, creating a gourmet kitchen, or installing a hot tub probably won’t make much difference to your average buyer, and you may actually price yourself out of range for the neighborhood where your home is located.

2. High end carpet. It’s a great idea to replace dirty, worn, or dated carpet. But when you pick out the replacement, don’t choose the most expensive grade or brand on the market. A new carpet looks new, no matter the price, so a buyer will get the look and feel of your house at its best. But whether you install new carpet or not, a lot of buyers will immediately change it, and get their own new flooring with the color, style, and brand that they want to match their new home.

Note: Sometimes, if a carpet isn’t too far gone, I encourage my clients to give buyers a carpet allowance. I just staged a home for sale in Durham, and I had a flooring company give carpet samples for prospective buyers to see. It gave This gives the best of both worlds for a savvy seller – and buyer.

3. New appliances. Whether you are leaving your appliances in your home or taking them with you, take a serious look at the units to see if they are so bad that they overshadow the good points of your kitchen. If they don’t, new appliances aren’t important enough for someone to want to seal the deal immediately. If you feel you must replace them, consider renting for a week or two, or buying nice used models. (Craig’s List is a great place for this!) You don’t need to install dishwashers and everything else to improve your home. You just need to do enough to get it to sell.

4. Retiling. If you have problem tiling spots, don’t retile the whole room. Give the tile a good scrub down. Remove and replace dirty or broken caulk. Then, replace cracked or chipped tile.

5. Pool. Many years ago, a pool was a hot selling point for a home. Today, most people don’t need or want pools. The expense, the liability, and safety concerns will actually keep some people from even considering a home that has a swimming pool – and in some cases – even a hot tub.

So – even though it’s hot in Chapel Hill – don’t sweat it. Concentrate your energy and your resources on things that will give you the biggest return in selling price – and in a fast sell.

It may be easy for you to overlook cracked tiling in the kitchen, holes from your son’s errant baseball, that dripping faucet in the laundry room, but for a prospective buyer, these are red flags that may indicate your home hasn’t been well maintained.

Here’s a list of some easy fixes to problems that you might overlook:

Open and shut. Make sure that each door in your home closes and locks properly. Buyers may mistakenly think that a sagging door signals a serious foundation problem.

Light work. Put in new light bulbs in every room. The clean, bright light from a new bulb will make your home shine.

Squeaky clean. Clean your home from the attic to the basement! Don’t forget to dust blinds, vaccuum out light fixtures, and wash fingerprints off odd spots – like the ceiling. Pay particular attention to the windows. Recently, I found myself frantically cleaning some dirty windows at a home that I listed and that house sold in a week. (Your mileage may vary – but clean windows won’t hurt!)

Under pressure. Pressure wash the exterior of your home. Make sure you clean all of the exterior of the house itself – bricks and siding, foundation and eaves. You should also pay particular attention to the steps, porches, decks, sidewalks, and driveways. Every inch of your home should be pristine.

Worn out. Replace anything worn. Take a look at faucets and other plumbing fixtures. Check your light fixtures; make sure your switches aren’t cracked or dirty. Examine rugs in entry ways, carpet on the steps, handles on your cabinets.

Yard for sale. Get your yard in shape. Trim bushes and weed your flower beds. Make sure your lawn is edged and mulched nicely. It’s been really dry lately in Chapel Hill, so if you have plants that look anemic, water and fertilize them – or replace them as needed. Remove any branches or leaves from your yard.

Up on the roof. Check your roof and gutters for damage, dirt, leaves, and debris. Give a good initial clean out, and then keep your eye on it after any rain or wind.

Got your number. Make sure your house number is easily visible from the street. You want every buyer to find you easily!

So go ahead. Sweat the small stuff. These little things may just make your home sell a whole lot faster!

PS Don’t forget that staging your house for sale is another great way to get your house sold!

Like the garden. One of the things I have done is plant a wonderful garden. But I had to turn our sprinkler system off. I normally use 4000 gallons of water a month; one month this year I used 33,000 gallons – that’s $523. I turned off the system. Of course now that the garden is well established, it doesn’t need to be watered unless there is a drought. But still, I don’t spend time in the garden because I’m a wienie and like AC and don’t like mosquitoes.

And that’s just one of the reasons. And it will take time to make a final decision. But I’m thinking about it, asking myself where I want to spend the next 20 years before retirement.

I think I want to move to the city. When I think of vacations, I always pick a city. I like to walk in a city. I love nature, but I want to go walking in the city. So I want to move from my home in Chapel Hill surburbia to downtown.

So the question is this – am I going to move to downtown Carrboro or downtown Durham? I want to be in a vibrant downtown. If I live in Carrboro, like everybody else I want to be in walking distance of Weaver Street Market – which is the center of town. I own a rental house there. Is it one that I want to renovate and make it our own? My husband doesn’t.

So, we’re looking at downtown Durham which is going through an incredible revitalization. They’re even planning a store that will be like Weaver Street Market!

Stay tuned…

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the guy; on the contrary we had a great conversation, and hit it off right away. But as he explained what he needs, and what his house is like, I knew I wasn’t the right real estate agent for him.

This client has a luxury home – a niche luxury home to be exact. It needs to be marketed hard. And I don’t have the contacts with buyers. It wasn’t fair to him. I don’t want to just have a listing for the sake of having my name on the for sale sign in front of the house. If I can’t give it the hands on service it deserves, I’m not going to sign a contract.

The client was very appreciative of my honesty and said he would recommend me to his partner who also has a great house to sell in an area of Chapel Hill that will sell.

And I AM the right person for that house!

PS Check out my other homes listed for sale – houses I’m getting ready to turn into homes!

Absorption rate is the rate that houses sell in a given area during a certain time period. We real estate professionals depend on these figures to determine trends in the market. Suppose there are 1,000 homes for sale in your hometown, and every month, 100 houses are sold. That means that if the pattern of 100 houses selling each month continues, it would take 10 months to exhaust the supply of houses.

An inclining absorption rate means the sellers are happy – more houses are selling – and selling faster. Sellers are more likely to get a sale at or close to their asking price. In this market, lots of houses are for sale – we’re not exactly seeing many areas with inclining absorption rates.

On the other hand, a declining trend means fewer houses are selling. This creates a positive environment for first time home buyers. Incentives such as reduced house prices and lower closing costs are usually available during a declining trend. And right now, we have been in a declining trend for a while. This is really good news for first time home buyers and real estate investors.

So – absorption rate is one of those real estate vocabulary terms that are important to buyers and sellers, one of the pieces of knowledge that can put you just a little bit ahead of the curve. And now you know what it is, and can understand what your real estate agent is talking about, and how it relates to your situation.

Durham is filled with great houses that have renovations started but not finished and the houses are now for sale. So you want to take out a wall to open up the face, finish the floors with hardwood, kitchen needs work, bathroom needs work, might need new HVAC or lighting, electrical or plumbing. Maybe you could do the whole thing for $30,000 to $50,000 and you will have a fabulous house. But – how do you get the money?

One way is to work with a local bank that is invested in the community. They will make a loan and hold it themselves – in other words, they won’t sell it to a secondary market. They’re going to want an appraisal to the house as is and what the house will value when the renovations are completed. They will often loan up to 80% of the total cost of the project. If you’ve got a hamburger priced house that you can turn into steak, contact me. I work with several banks that would be interested in talking to you.

Give me a call. Let’s find you a house you can turn into a home!

PS Take a look at this home in Durham just waiting for your loving care!

One of my current clients is going to need some assistance in buying her first home, so I was very relieved to find that this wonderful program is still going to be an option. NCHFA has proven to be very beneficial to some of my clients. I’ve been able to help several first time home buyers get a loan by referring them to a lender that works with NCHFA. One client got an $1800 tax credit, good for each year for as long as they hold their mortgage. Someone else got $8000, and another qualified for $4000 in downpayment assistance.

If you’re a first time home buyer in North Carolina, I’d love to help you find a preferred lender that can work with you. Give me a call today, and talk about your options!

Offering service to those with modest incomes, the NCHFA’s HomeFirst mortgages have helped many NC residents to own their piece of the American dream. If you are a first time home buyer in North Carolina, with moderate income and decent credit, you may be eligible for the various programs offered by the NCHFA.

NCHFA offers mortgages at below market interest rates with its FirstHome product. Its Mortgage Credit Certificate is a tax credit for up to 20% of mortgage interest paid for a specified period of time. (One of my clients will get an $1800 tax credit yearly for the life of their mortgage!) The DAP Down Payment Assistance is an interest-free, deferred second mortgage that can pay down payment and closing costs. Amounts vary. I’ve seen $8000 and $4000!

There are preferred lenders throughout the state of North Carolina that work with the NCHFA. These individuals will guide you through the financial side of the process, from application to closing. They’ll help you get the needed documentation for qualifying and work with the NCHFA while your mortgage is finalized. I have a great working relationship with some of the preferred lenders, and would love to put you in touch with someone who can help you.

If you’re a first time home buyer in North Carolina, give me a call today, and let’s get you into a house that you can call home!