Money Talks...

In recent months there has been so much media attention to the housing and mortgage industry and all of it negative. There is a bright side to all this in spite of the media reports. Mortgage lending had gotten out of hand and needed to be reined in. There were individuals in the profession ,who for a nice commission check, put people in homes they could not afford. Now those homeowners have been foreclosed on and the numbers are growing every day. The mortgage loan officer is on to another "profession".
Since we are talking about housing/real estate the old addage of location, location, location is true. Our wonderful area has not been affected as other areas of the country have. Most North Carolina cities are showing growth in home sales and in appreciation and certainly the Wilmington area is one of those "survivor" cities. I have been in the mortgage profession 28 years and I don't believe there has been a better time to purchase a new home. We have an inventory of homes that offers a good selection. Builders such as the builders in Marsh Oaks are offering great incentives. Interest rates are still at record low levels, recently as low as 5% for a 30 year fixed rate.
If you are thinking about a new home, now is the time. Don't wait until interest rates and home prices go up.

BRENDA MCDONALD, VP
Lumina Mortgage Company
219 Racine Dr., Suite A
Wilmington, NC 28403
910-202-8225 Direct
910-452-0997 Fax
http://www.blogger.com/www.luminamortgage.com

When in Doubt, Throw it Out!

Many of my "future" Marsh Oaks homeowners would be present day homeowners if they could just get their home to sell. A hot topic these days is "Staging". When a listing agent mutters these words, questions are immediately raised in the homeowners mind. What does it mean? How much will I need to spend? And finally, does my home really look THAT bad?

To answer those questions I turned to Mary Virginia Freeman. Mary Virginia recently joined the Hagood Homes staff as their design coordinator. Among other accolades, she has many years experience in the real estate field in an upscale resort area in South Carolina.

For the next several weeks we will bring you a series "Staging a Home For Sale".

Enjoy!


It's a fact: over 83% of the "stuff" in our homes is completely unnecessary for sustaining life. For those of you who are collectors of stuffed bears or ceramic giraffes or books or record albums or basseball caps or whatever your passion, your percentage is probably closer to 97%. Remember the old saying, "your collections are junk and my collections are treasures"? collections tend to make a home look cluttered and rooms appear small.

Tip #1: Box up those collections, books, etc and put them in a storage unit... NOT in your garage or the closet or the extra bedroom.

If you have children at home, let them choose just enough toys to fill the toy shelf, remove the rest. Put the boxes of toys at the front of the storage unit. A trip to the storage unit to "trade out" toys every few weeks can actually be a lot of fun.

If you have more than 7 pots and pans in your pantry and you are not a caterer or chef, then you have too many. See tip #1.

There is absolutely no reason to have 36 plastic cups or 25 plastic storage containers. This excess only makes your cabinets appear inadequate and yes, buyers do look inside kitchen cabinets.

Flat surfaces in the home, such as tables and counter tops need to be free of clutter. Yes, yesterday's newspaper, bulls, coupons, homework, book bags, the button that came off of your coat three months ago and that one glove to which you cannont find the mate is... clutter! And while we are at it, that adorable collection of tteapots or salt and pepper shakers is clutter as well. See tip #1.

Don't forget the yard with all those charming gnomes or the garage. The same rules apply to these areas as it does to the interior of the home. No doubt that piece of driftwood that you have been dragging around from house to house will be needed someday, but right now it has no use and it needs to GO!

Selling a house takes your time and effort. You must be ruthless when it comes to paring down and throwing out. and this is ONLY STEP ONE!