Wichita, KS

The Kansas State Fair is like a whole world unto itself. Just forty minutes west of Wichita the fair is close to the best little city in Kansas.

One can easily get lost in time and space while wandering around the 280 acres of buildings, rides, fairways and commercial vendors. There is so much to see and so much to do it all can't possibly be done in a single outing.

Get there first thing in the morning on the first weekend. That's the best time to see all the many different animals before or shortly after they are judged. There are cows of many different varieties. More than one breed of goat (my personal favorite among the mammals), sheep, and many beautiful horses. Even llamas, or alpaca as the ones at the fair are, make an appearance.

After the buildings that are a temporary home to these mammals the birds have some real estate of their own. Inside the rabbit and bird complex you can find chickens of many different and quite interesting varieties. There are also ducks, geese and pigeons of lots of different sizes and shapes. You never knew there were so many different kinds of rabbits.

The fairway is something that Kansas can be proud of. Full of rides for all ages and tolerances. Tall scary ones, super fast spinning ones and slow easy rides for those more tame souls. There's Loads of games to win prizes at, cotton candy to eat, a fun house and much, much more.

If Competition is your game you'll find plenty of that at The Kansas State Fair.

A building dedicated to the domestic arts is full of beautiful hand made quilts of every size, baked goods and knitting, all judged for ribbons. There's even cooking demonstrations.

There's the livestock competitions. The beasts are all groomed and pampered to look their best then paraded around in front of the judges and public to be admired. Who has the best looking cow, sheep, goat or even chicken. Whatever it may be. Some really beautiful animals are to seen here.

4-H is a big part of the Kansas State Fair. Young people learning about ranching, farming and life. A really great program. Boy scouts and girl scouts make their presence known also.

Kansas is a big agricultural state so there's plenty of vegetables and such to be judged. Can't forget about wheat in Kansas. You can learn all about wheat at the fair. Where it comes from, how it's harvested and what it's used for. Yep, wheat is a pretty big deal in Kansas. Not just wheat either, lot's of different crops are on display here and there's lots to learn about them.

When your hungry it's not hard to find a good place to eat something. Food vendors of all kinds are strategically placed about the fairgrounds to ensure no one goes hungry while enjoying the fun.

One thing you won't want to forget when you come to the Fair is a good pair of walking shoes. There is so much to do and see you'll be on your feet all day racing from one cool thing to another. While there are plenty of places to sit in the shade and rest, you'll want to be sure not to miss any of the fun!

The Kansas State Fair is just one more great thing about Wichita Kansas.

You know ya wanna live here!!

Disclosure Q&A - The Law doesn't exempt FSBO's

Q.  I was going to list my home with a real estate agent, but I was told that I'd then have to let buyers know about the water problems in my basement.  If I sell it on my own, I don't have to do a disclosure, right?

A. One important thing that For Sale By Owners often forget, and traditional sellers too, is the rule of disclosure.  By law, you have to disclose something of material fact about the property.  That means that if you KNOW something is wrong with the house or area, you can't just hide it.   As a Realtor®, we also have to disclose material facts about the home.  

Sometimes, a seller thinks that since if he tells his agent and we HAVE to tell a buyer, they can get around this by either not telling their agent, or selling the home themselves.  But this is just not true.   Yes, you might get away with not telling this, in either case.  However - should the fact be discovered during the transaction or even in the future after it's closed and changed hands, you could be sued beyond your wildest dreams for non-disclosure of a material fact.   And that's really not fun.  While Kansas does not have a specific statute addressing this in a real estate transaction, it is covered under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, which can be found in statutes Ch 50, Article 6, and various statutes addressing fraud and fraud by silence.

Often, it's found during the listing period - agents are generally trained and attuned to spot signs of trouble for their buyer clients.  We are not experts, but long experience and training has taught us red flags to point out for further research.   Homes are also subject to a home inspection, during which a buyer can bring in numerous experts and check things out.    Even if the defect is not uncovered during all this, that does not mean you are excused!  

What's considered a material defect/fact about the property?  
Anything that would affect the value or possibly affect the value of the home.  

This includes things like leaks, broken items, cracks, recurrent water problems, frequent wind damage, particular dangers in a neighborhood such as landfills, water contamination, EMF fields, etc.  The best thing to do is fill out that property disclosure form and fill it out fully, to the best of your knowledge, hiding nothing.

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Here Fico, here boy!

No wait - Fico isn't the family pooch, FICO is something much bigger and something many of us don't understand, but are affected by daily. Particularly those of us looking to buy a home or make any other financed purchase.

Here's a brief overview of what FICO is and what it means to you.

FICO is just another credit score. Your credit score is a number that summarizes your risk to anyone loaning to you, and FICO is just one of the corporations that calculates your credit risk. It stands for Fair Isaac COrporation - FICO! It's the most popular score used by lenders to determine your risk to them. When a lender orders a FICO score, they can order it from any of the three agencies that maintain credit reports. The FICO is calculated at that given time, based on the information on that agency's credit report right then.

• Make sure you check your credit reports yearly for accuracy - it's free!
• When YOU order your own score, make sure you're ordering a FICO so you see what the bank sees.

FICO scores can range from 300 - 850! The higher the score, the lower the risk you are perceived to be to the lender. This generally translates into better approvals and better rates and terms on financing. A person with an awesome FICO is considered to have a great ability at maintaining their payments, credit, etc. Someone with a much much lower score is seen to maybe not be ready for a checkbook much less a loan.

Here's some of the big things that go into calculating your FICO score:

• Types of Credit you have (revolving, installments, etc)
• New Credit - including inquiries
• Length of overall Credit History
• Payment History - this is the biggest factor
• Amounts Owed - this is the 2nd biggest factor

From these and their importance, you can obviously guess that the recommendations are:

• Have a mix of credit types to show your ability to handle various credit lines, but not too many!
• Open credit you need, but don't open credit just for fun! Keep inquiries to a minimum - when applying for loans, do your inquiries as close together as possible so they register as one product search and not as though you're opening 10 mortgages.
• Obviously the longer you have a history the more data they have to calculate and the more time you've proven yourself. This of course can only get better with time.
• Pay on time, every time. As late payments fade in time, they'll affect you less. Set up automatic payments of at least the minimum on all your cards so that you are never late. Your FICO will thank you.
• The more you owe, the more overextended you look, the more risk that one thing going wrong will send you into financial disaster and the banks will lose all their money on you. So basically, try to keep your balances down to less than 30% of your limit.

For more information about FICO and how it affects you, visit http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation



photo courtesy of Trinity Credit Services, creative commons license, Flickr.

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For more information about getting ready to purchase a home,
drop me a line or call anytime!

Sheree Wilkerson

cell/txt 316.461.0575
sheree@rwwichita.com

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You have saved your money, planned, made a list of all you want, and had plans drawn up. The new home you have always dreamed of is now ready to be built. Next task is finding a builder.

Do your research throughly. The best way to find a builder is through referrals. Find other people who have built with them and ask questions. If you already have found a good Realtor, get them to help. It can not be stressed enough the importance of finding a good and reputable builder.

There are good builders and bad ones. The one constant is that they are in it for a profit and are looking out first for their own best interest. Sure they may do quality work, maybe even be honest and ethical, but the fact remains that in their minds they come first.

When times are good every one and his brother wants to be a builder. It's amazing the number of small building companies that pop up. A lot of these are questionable operations and if a downturn in the economy comes along you may just get stuck with a half built home and a lot of wasted money. After the market does some weeding most of the companies left are good ones with a solid financial foundation. Even these reputable companies need to cut costs and find ways to save money and if their working on your house....well.

That leaves you, as the future homeowner pretty much at their mercy. You can read books, watch HG TV and it seems every new homeowner has done some “remodeling”. Nothing can prepare you for the actual construction of your home. You can't be there 24/7 to make sure it's being done right and to your standards. It's not the builder that does the work, but subcontractors. It's not the subcontractors that do the work for the most part, but their employees and those employees don't really care much about you and your dream home. Mostly they care about quitting time and the weekend.

Having spent nearly 20 years in the construction business, 10 of that in management, I saw a lot of what goes on. We were the people that watched over your house as it was being built and while we genuinely cared for the interest of our clients, the builders interests is always number one. Loyalty to the company and whatever policies it may have is key to collecting your paycheck.

That is why it is essential to have someone knowledgeable in the industry watching out for you and your interest. That is why you must have a Realtor. A Realtor will know their way around the local building scene. He or she will be able to recommend builders that maybe they have worked with or have some knowledge of. Having help to negotiate tricky building contracts always favoring the builder is a must for success on your project. When the time comes for the several different walk throughs that building a home requires, you will have someone watching out for your best interests. Last is the final walk through to make sure everything is done right and complete. It will be just you, the builder and his staff. That's when you need a Realtor most. Their there to watch the Builder for you. At the closing table his/her job is to make certain no surprises appear and that your building and closing experience are a good one. That will give you piece of mind and the insurance that your dream home is built to your dream standards.

Now you and your family can live happily ever after.

Wichita was just rated the #2 metro area out of the top 90 in the U.S. for the least commute time for residents and least traffic delays.

McConnell AFB has added 15 air refueling tankers to the 31 tankers already based in Wichita. By October, 48 tankers will be based in the "Air Capital". With the additional people, and projects being completed to support the new planes there will be a $500 million dollar a year impact for the metro area. The KC-135 tankers arrived from bases in North Dakota, California and Georgia. Wichita is now home to one of the largest tanker bases in the USAF.

Cessna has formally cancelled the Columbus Wide Body Business jet. They are paying back $10 million in bonds already given to them by the city and the county. Cessna will revisit the concept once the Business jet market returns.

There have been approximately 12,000 lay offs announced or completed in the last year in the Aviation sector in Wichita since last summer. These lay offs are projected to last 15-18 months before call backs start.

The new 15,000 seat downtown arena is being completed faster than planned. It may be finished 3 months a head of schedule. The arena was fully paid for by a 30 month 1/2 cent increase to the local sales tax.