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Archive for the 'Professional Associate reVIEWS' Category
There are few things in life as exciting as buying a North Georgia Mountain Home. However, since homes are one of the largest purchases most of us will ever make, home buyers should take reasonable steps to protect themselves in the home buying process. This series of posts will contain some general suggestions on how buyers can do this.
The information that I am providing to you is taken from Form F-13 Protect Yourself When Buying A Home from the Georgia Association of REALTORS®, Inc.
2. Have The Home Inspected By A Professional Home Inspector.
Home inspectors help buyers evaluate the condition of the home based upon one or more visual inspections of the property. Most homes have at least a few items that will need to be repaired and / or replaced. A professional home inspector can assist in identifying these items by performing an inspection of the property. Requests for repairs are normally received more favorably by sellers when the need for the repair has been documented in the report of a professional home inspector. Many home inspectors are members of professional associations that, among other things, require their members to perform standardized inspection of the property. Buyers are encouraged to ask inspectors about their qualifications and expertise in inspecting homes before selecting an inspector.
Please check back soon for the 3rd way to protect yourself when buying a home. Should you have any questions or concerns before then, please feel free to Contact Me, or call me at 706-994-8686 for any Real Estate advice you might be seeking.
Click Here – If you missed the #1 Way To Protect Yourself When Buying A Mountain Home
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United Community Banks Inc. was the highest ranked Southeastern bank in terms of customer satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study published Thursday.
Blairsville, Ga.-based United Community Banks (NASDAQ: UCBI) scored an 815 and “among the best” ranking in the annual study. The Southeast average score was 768.
The scores are based on an 1,000-point scale. The study analyzes customer satisfaction with the retail banking experience based on account activities, account information, facility, fees, problem resolution and product offerings.
Congratulations UCB!
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Taxes are due April 15 and if you’re among the millions of Americans who wait until the last week to file, here’s a video interview that could help you reduce your federal tax liability.
Originally broadcast by NBC’s The Today Show, the 4-minute piece reviews various tax credits and deductions, plus some recent tax law changes. A few of the topics covered include:
- Tax filers receiving larger “personal exemptions” in 2009 versus 2008
- Unemployment income recipients being required pay taxes beyond the first $2,400 received
- The “first time” home buyer credit being extended to non-first time home buyers for up to $6,500
The interview also talks about how taking a parent, child or other family member into your home may change your tax filing status and reduce your tax liability.
Even if you’ve filed your taxes already, watch the video above. You may find that you missed a potential deduction. If that’s the case, consider filing an amended return with the IRS to recapture the credits you left on the table. Most times, the benefits of re-filing will outweigh the costs of doing it.
Be sure to talk with your tax professional for personal tax advice.
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Today (which should have been about a week ago……sorry about that Tonia) I have the pleasure of introducing to you a North Georgia Mountain Native girl who left us (momentarily) for the Big City to pursue her career in Home Staging. I was fortunate enough to become acquainted with Tonia through my social media networking. She has graciously accepted my invitation to guest author a post here on “The Porch!” So without further a due, please meet Tonia Mosteller of Redesign + More of Charlotte, NC.
“Home Staging” is not a new term and it is not interior design, but for many homeowners and real estate agents the concept of “Professional Home Staging” is shedding new light on how to promote a home in the real estate marketplace. In past years, homeowners were left to their own discretion as far as preparing for home showings. How important is it to you for a fast sell? Is your home holding you back?
While Realtors(R) are experts in the field of selling and closing, many do not have the extra time to focus on the staging a home, this is why we offer a Realtor(R) Partnership Program to help provide an outstanding service to local Real Estate companies in the counties we service. At Redesign + More we don’t sell homes, we are experts at helping Realtors(R) sell homes, therefore providing you with a happy client and a fast sell! Your clients are important to you and important to us. Let us show them how home staging can cost considerably less than their ” first price reduction“. Offering your clients a home staging consultation as a listing incentive will set you apart and give your listings the most competitive edge in the market.
What is Home Staging?
Professional home stagers are experts in the “art” of preparing a home for resale and appeal to the largest number of buyers. Home staging transforms a home by highlighting the best features and creating warmth, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture, and even create “slam on the brakes” curb appeal for your home. With the aid of a professional home stager, your house can make a notable first impression on potential home buyers. For vacant homes, home staging with just the right amount of accessories and furniture creates a living space the buyer can “see” themselves living in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws and creates a fast sell.
Top 5 Benefits for a Realtor(R) to use a Professional Home Stager
1. Avoid having to communicate negative aspects of your client’s home.
2. Marketing exposure for your listing that will provide national exposure, will be featured on our website and other sites with a link to your listing page.
3. It’s a fact! Staged homes are shown more often, increasing Realtor(R) exposure.
4. Staging your listings builds a reputation for excellence in marketing.
5. Save money and precious time: Shorter marketing time means less money spent on advertising and earn more commission.
Staged Listings sell quicker and receive higher offers than non-staged homes.
First Impressions
As the real estate industry often stresses, the “first impression” is the key factor in selling your home. A potential buyer has made up their 
mind 15 seconds after they step in the front door. They were already forming an opinion of your home as they pulled into your driveway! That really doesn’t leave too much room for fault does it? Remember, “The way you live in your home, and the way you market and sell your house are two different things.”
“To achieve the greatest possible outcome,” a home should always be presented at its best the first time around. So make your home stand out from the rest, and set the stage. You shouldn’t worry about the stresses of getting your home ready for the market. Did you know in most cases home staging is LESS than your first price reduction? Which would you prefer “Sold” or “Price Reduced”? Contact Me or give me a call today at 704.651.8878 for your home staging consultation.
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How many of you have procrastinated in downloading your pictures from your digital camera because you just don’t want to take the time to process the pictures, re-size for uploads, add filters, touch them up, or even organize them into folders? Well I know from experience that if you are in the Real Estate, pictures sells houses, and the more pictures you have the better the chance you have of someone taking a look at your clients property.
Well have I got a solution for you. Batchphoto is a powerful photo manipulation program that makes it easy to convert, re-size, watermark, annotate, touch-up, apply affects and rename hundreds of photos in a single operation. Instead of enhancing and adjusting pictures individually, Batchphoto lets you select a group of images, define a series of edits, and apply them in a single operation.
It is AMAZING! An absolute must for anyone who is constantly taking hours upon hours going through other inferior software products that make you re-size photos one-by-one. Before Batchphoto, it would literally take me hours to process photos for my listings. I would re-size all the photos that I would plan on using for the listings and put them in one folder, I would do the same for my Virtual Tours, and yet another for higher resolution use. It would take FOREVER! Now with Batchphoto I am done in minutes and I have so many more options that I love for use in my online social networking. One great feature that I love is the use of watermarks. I love taking photos of these beautiful North Georgia Mountains and sharing them online. Well, I noticed that many of my competitors were using my very own photos on their websites. Now that I have Batchphoto, I can put a watermark on the photos before I post them and it detours anyone from using my photos. This is just one of many features that I have discovered using Batchphoto.
So, you no longer have to fret and pile all of those images on your memory card putting off the dreaded job of processing those pictures. Now with the use of Batchphoto, you can be done in no time and back out doing what you love to do….taking pictures! Give it a try, you will be glad you did I promise.
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Blairsville Scottish Festival
When: June 13 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
June 14 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Where: Meeks Park in Blairsville, Georgia
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYCp3bx4ZJQ[/youtube]
The stage is set and if you listen you will hear the sounds of bagpipes, drums and sounds of Scotland come alive as the marching bands get the games underway. Be sure to visit the Clan tents, pitched along the Butternut Creek and pick out your favorite kilt. Visit the genealogy tent and find out if you might have a little Scottish in ya. You don’t want to miss seeing the competition of the cabor toss or who can run the kilted mile the fastest. Hungry? Visit one of the Scottish food vendors for a taste of Scotland.The Festival will feature an entire area designated exclusively for children’s events and activities with a fun as well as an educational twist. Children’s crafts and events make this festival fun for everyone in the family.
Please visit the Blairsville Scottish Festival site for more details and information.
**Voted Top 20 Event By The Souteastern Tourism Society**
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There’s a right way and a wrong way to transfer a home posthumously. The right way requires having a documented plan. The wrong way could stick your loved ones with a tax bill so large they may have to sell the home just to cover it.
With just 4 minutes for the segment, The Today Show rushes through some very important estate planning considerations, but that doesn’t make the points any less relevant.
Among the estate planning tips:
- Even a simple will can big protection
- For multiple beneficiaries, consider a trust agreement
- Avoid taxes by “selling” your home to heirs while you’re still living
Estate plans are simple, are cheap, and affords protection from the state and the IRS. Every homeowner should have one.
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Guest Author J. Byron Wyndham has written a post to help us understand a little more about Estates and how to go about ensuring that proper Title is obtained before listing a North Georgia Mountain Property and ultimately closing the sale at the Attorney’s office.
All Real Estate Agents need to be very careful when listing property that is part of, or coming from or through an estate or probate action.
In dealing with Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship, we do not have to worry about probate action. When one party dies, the Title is automatically transferred to the surviving Spouse, Partner, or Tenant. But sometimes the surviving Spouse, Partner, or Tenant thinks there is right of survivorship when actually there is not.
If the Title is coming from an Estate, or from a Surviving Spouse, Partner or Tenant, it is very prudent and advisable that the Listing Agent asks a lot of questions. The main problem we see when handling sales from an Estate is that often the Seller does not really know the status of Title within the Estate.
I once had an Executor tell me that he would be in my office to sign the Deed since he had full power as the Executor. We kept asking questions because we were unable to locate the Will and the Estate. We were concerned that the Estate was probated in a county other than where the property was located. After a lot of questions, and back and forth, I realized that the Will had never been probated. The “Executor” was named as the Executor in the Will but we had to explain to him that he was not the Executor until the Probate Court probated the will, named him the Executor, and granted him the appropriate powers.
It is so important to know the status of the Estate ahead of time. Sometimes we have to track down missing heirs, locate the original Will and even probate the Will prior to closing. So often the heirs know there is a problem but don’t know what to do about it. Estate issues need to be addressed prior to closing and not while everyone is sitting at the closing table.
Thanks Byron for your insight and thoughts on Estates and Title to Property. I guess from now on when I hear the word Estate, you better believe I will be asking a lot of questions. If you have any questions or concerns about Real Estate, I would be more than happy to assist you in anyway that I can. I may not know the answers, but I know who, where, and how to get the answers. So give me a call at 706.633.8186, or you can Contact Me now.
Thank you for coming up on “The Porch” today, and please come back each and every opportunity that you have.
Make it a GREAT day!
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Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have Mr. Jim Randel, the most trusted word in Real Estate, a Renowned Author, Attorney, and Commercial Real Estate Entrepreneur stumble upon The Front Porch willing to share his recent View of The Skinny On: The Housing Crisis with me. Now after receiving this Great Book and reading it, I wanted to share it with you.
This book is a very easy and quick read, yet Entertaining and Fun filled with illustrations of a Stick couple buying their first home. Maybe that is why it is called “The Skinny” On: The Housing Crisis because of the Stick people…I will have to ask Jim Randel. I got to tell you, if you want a good perspective on how we got in this mess, this book definitely needs to be added to your library.
Jim does a great job of explaining the COMPLETE home buying process from the buyer, all the way to the Overseas Investors that purchase the Mortgage Securities. It is a MUST READ for the First Time Homebuyer and it would be quite an eye opener for Real Estate Agents like myself to pick a copy up and read it….and Don’t tell me you don’t have the time! As a matter of fact, if you are a Mortgage Broker or a Real Estate Attorney, you could do yourself a HUGE Favor and pick up a copy for yourself as well. You can never have too much information to share with your customers and clients.
The Real Estate Buying Process Simply Explained. Great Job Jim!
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The Terminator Pest Control Service is a Family owned and operated Full Service Pest Control business in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains. They are located in Blue Ridge Georgia, and they service all of North Georgia as well Polk County Tennessee, and they have been in business since 1989.
They specialize in Residential Pest Control as well as Termite Control. They can handle all of your needs from Termite Pretreats to Official Georgia Wood Infestation Reports (Termite Letters), from a One-Time Pest Control Service to a Regular Service Program. Through the years They have been involved with practically every facet of Pest Control. They are constantly working and striving to improve, refine, and expand their services to their customers.
This month the Good Folks at The Terminator Pest Control Services wants to talk to us a little bit about how to control your outdoor fleas.
Controlling fleas outdoors should be approached in a similar manner as indoors.
You should always focus your treatments on the areas where your pet spends the majority of its time, a kennel, their sleeping or lounging areas, etc. Having to treat your entire lawn for fleas should not be necessary. Try treating the above areas with a liquid insecticide, this will be easier than using granules because granules require additional water.
Nematodes is another option for flea control in smaller outdoor areas which you may find beneficial. These are microscopic worms which feed on termites, grubs, crickets, flea larvae along with other insects they may encounter in the soil. Beneficial flea eating nematodes require moist soil in which to survive, therefore you will need to water at least twice weekly in the dry weather to help keep them alive.
One of the most important considerations in the treatment of flea control is adherence to the product label, this indicates the recommended amount of insecticide to use and how often to use the treatment. Fleas have a short life cycle and can become resistant to insecticides if their exposure is more often and to higher doses than is recommended.
To help prevent developing what could be termed super fleas in your lawn, treat your lawn using different insecticides in rotation at around 3 to 4 week intervals.
Many products and brands available on the market today for flea control contain the same or similar ingredients. Always READ the label prior to purchase to ensure the same chemical is not being used in successive treatments.
Fleas are now as common as the housefly within our environment. They live on a wide variety of hosts and develop large populations in a short periods of time. By using flea control products (Frontline, Advantage or Program) on your pet, effective reductions of the flea population will occur in a short space of time, ususally within 2 months. Treating weekly or monthly with flea controlling chemicals on soft furnishings and carpets within your home is also an aid to being rid of the cat flea and dog tick which may be there. Always follow the label directions given and again do not use more than the stated dose than is directed. Ticks and fleas are tough critters, but using these methods can be managed or eliminated altogether
I want to Thank CJ Green and all those at The Terminator Pest Control Services for all the hard work, great service and customer service that they have given all of my clients over the years. They truly do know how to take great care of their customers and mine. If you would like to contact The Terminator, you can call them at 1.800.422.2807, or you can email Amy Mason at amason@etcmail.com.
If you have any questions or concerns for me, as always you can give me a call at 706.633.8186, or you can email me at ChadL@KW.com. Also, please be sure to stop by and visit my new Real Estate Website and let me know what you think.
Make it a GREAT day!
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