Greensboro, NC

Keep an eye on your garbage! You never know where who's looking at it.

My wife and I have been feverishly cleaning out all the junk we've accumulated over ten years. We are staging for our listing next week. So we had about a dozen large bags filled with garbage, which I placed out in front of our home last night, for pick up today.

Around ten last night, my wife called me to the window in our dining room. There was a truck pulled over in front of my home. Two people were going through the garbage bags. It was dark, so i couldn't make out all that was going on. I didn't think too much of it. I just assumed they were looking for anything salvageable. After they were done, they moved on to my neighbors garbage.

This morning on my way out to work, I went to put some newspapers in the recycling bin. I also wanted to make sure the "treasure hunters" had not made a mess out front. Well, they had indeed made a mess and about half of the bags were gone. I started to clean up the mess and saw an envelope sitting on the street. I picked it up to find an unopened bank statement for my wife. Yikes!!! I can only hope it was the only one there. Who knows what they were really looking for. Who knows if they picked up another bank statement.

We are normally extremely careful about shredding anything that may have personal information in it. I honestly don't know how that slipped by us. But, it just goes to show, you can't be too careful. So, I will carefully monitor our bank accounts and credit card statements for a while. I have personally been through identity theft before and it was not fun. It took several years to get everything straightened out.

So, keep any eye on your garbage. Make sure thete's nothing in it to get you in financial hot water.

Starmount is a beautiful, classic neighborhood located in Greensboro, NC that borders Starmount Forest Country Club. Starmount is a large neighborhood that is actually made up of two smaller neighborhoods, Starmount Forest and Starmount Farms. Homes in this neighborhood were built from 20 to 70+ years ago. The price range fluxuates greatly from the high $100,000s to $3,000,000s.

The 150 acres of Starmount Forest Country Club includes a meticulously maintained golf course, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and pools. The stately clubhouse is 32,000 square feet and features the latest amenities. Starmount Forest Country Club was completed in 1930 and it has had many additions and renovations since that time.

Starmount was named for the developer's wife, Blanche Sternberger. The name "Starmount" is the English translation for Sternberger, which is German in origin. Starmount is centrally located close to Friendly Center, downtown Greensboro and the beautiful Bog Gardens and Bicentennial Park.

Each month, a report with Starmount real estate information is posted on www.StarmountHouseValue.com. The report includes homes listed for sale, homes under contract and homes that have been sold year-to-date. It also has a link so Starmount homeowners can receive via email a detailed report on what their homes are worth. Be sure to check it out often to find out what is going on in Starmount. It also features links to market reports for other neighborhoods, such as Guilford Hills, Kirkwood, Lindley Park, and Sunset Hills, as well as the latest real estate information on the entire city of Greensboro, NC.

From a blog by Regis Skeehan, President of Piedmont Personal Builders.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) was quoted in Investor's Business Daily yesterday that there is now a deal in place among top democrats to extend the home buyer tax credit.

This follows on recent statement on October 26, 2009 from Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) reported by Bloomberg that the program would be extended "Later this week." Senator Nelson made the

President Barack Obama

statement while travelling on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to attend a speech in Jacksonville. President Obama has previously said that he will sign the home buyer tax credit extension if it reaches his desk.

We previously expressed doubt that the tax credit would get extended before its November 30, 2009 expiration date. Looks like we may be wrong.

Rumors are that the program extension would eliminate the first-time buyer restriction and allow "Step-Up" buyers who have lived in their current homes for at least 5 years to participate. The new tax credit would be for 10% of the home's purchase price with a cap of $7,290. Income limits for first-time buyers would remain at $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples. Step Up buyers would have income limits of $125,000 and $250,000, respectively. The credit would be limited to homes costing under $800,000. Homes must be under contract by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 30, 2010.

Exactly how this bizarre bucket of terms and conditions will play out is yet to be known. However, at best it's another half measure. Her are some potential problems with it:

1. What if you only owned a previous home for 2 years, or 4 years? Does that mean you don't qualify for the credit?

2. What if you owned a home for over 5 years, but just sold it to move to, say, Houston to take a new job. Now you no longer own a home and you are not a first-time buyer. Does your new home in Houston qualify for the credit?

3. What if you already wrote a contract to have a new home built before passage of the law, but it won't be completed till, maybe, February. Does your new home qualify?

Also, because of the short expiration date on the new program, this program will almost completely exclude the purchase of a new, custom-built, single-family home to be built to order for a buyer.

While there are a few Sun-Belt locations where a small, SF home can be built quickly, typically, a new custom home in most of the country takes about 8-to-9 months to complete from the date of contract.

How to fix that? Allow 2 months after contract to close on an existing home or completed builder's spec home, but allow, perhaps, 9 months to complete a home to be built.

Without such a provision, this extension will only help increase the sale of existing homes and builders' specs. This will create few new housing starts. Dont get me wrong, something is better than nothing. But it's another half measure.

Building New Homes Creates Jobs

Why worry about new homes to be built? Because that's where the jobs are. Very few jobs are created when an existing home or a builder's is sold. Amost all of the labor to build it was already incurred and paid for long ago.

But a new home has to be built, creating jobs today.

Not the news we would like to hear, especially for new home builders.

Sales of new homes dropped unexpectedly last month as the effects of a soon-to-expire tax credit for first-time owners started to wane.

The Commerce Department says sales fell 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 from a downwardly revised 417,000 in August. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a pace of 440,000.

It was the first decline since March. Sales in September were down 7.8 percent from a year ago.

The median sales price of $204,800 was off 9.1 percent from $225,200 a year earlier, but up 2.5 percent from August's level of $199,900.

Thinking of selling your home yourself? In this market it will be more challenging than ever. The same principles that help real estate professionals (such as me) sell homes should help you. Some of these techniques are as follows:

• You need to price extremely competitively – I offer a free service to FSBO’s (For Sale By Owner’s) to help them price their property at zanegerringer.com. No strings – no gimmicks. Just drop me a line or call.

• You need exposure to the marketplace – the internet is the place to be, and you need to have your property syndicated to all of the websites that folks are using to search for their new home.

• Don’t overlook the simple things – once you get people through the door, the home should be tidy – always look at the property through the eyes of the buyer. Anything perceived as work for them will be felt in your wallet or pocketbook should you receive an offer.

Truth be told, most buyers are looking at property with a real estate agent. If you are offering your house for sale by owner without advertising that you will co-broke with an agent (pay their fee of 3% or so) you are drastically hurting your chances. Or even worse, if you have it in your mind that you will not pay a fee to a buyer’s agent, then expect to take a big hit on the price to get your home sold and the number of days on market to climb.

There are always exceptions to the rules of course, and you might live in a great neighborhood or have someone that you know that would like to buy from you but for the rest of us it’s a matter of getting your home out there and being realistic about what to expect.

To learn more, and get the ball rolling on deciding which real estate model works for you, I encourage you to visit my site, drop me a line and take advantage of the FREE 30 minute for sale by owner (FSBO) consultation I provide as a service to my community.