About Kent County, DE

With the looming date just over the horizon, the National Association of Realtors will begin a push campaign in the next few weeks to get Congress to extend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act tax credit beyond the deadline of November. It has been a boom for first-time buyers and NAR is trying to help prevent a slowdown as a result of the tax credit end. Send your Congressional Representative a note to support this extension. Today, being September 14th, leaves little to no room for first timers to take advantage of this credit and with short sales, it would be virtually impossible to qualify if someone contracted today. Let's not lose the momentum, contact your representative today.

With the growing emphasis on 'going green,' there is a niche in housing manufacturing that has been rearing its green head and is right in the forefront of this revolution. Many prospective buyers say they don't want to look at modular homes, mistakingly believing they are inferior to on-site stick built homes. When you look at the process, modular homes are actually more efficiently built and cheaper to purchase than stick built homes. The manufacturing process itself is more prone to controlled efficiency. There are no sub-contractors that may or may not show up at the job site like with a stick built home. The warehouses in most manufactured building plants are stocked with all the necessary lumber and hardware, so there's no wasted time and fuel driving to the hardware store getting more materials. Modular home models have preplanned templates to follow so there's less waste in cutting lumber. My grandfather used to say "measure twice and cut once" and manufactured housing has this down to a science. Many modular home builders have a handle on recyling lumber and other materials. Ever look at a stick built home job site? Not a pretty picture sometimes. Ever tour a modular home plant? Greatly improved! The only time workers need to show up at the home site, is to build the foundation, and then to set the home and roof in place. A greatly reduced neighborhood intrusion process than with month's long stick building. Let your buyer know modular homes are built indoors under temperature controlled environments and each phase of the work is under quality control scrutiny. The bottom line in all this. A modular home is every bit as good or better than a stick built home and the average price per square foot is about 35% less than the traditional on-site built home. Maybe the next time your client says, 'no modulars please' ask them if they would like to take a tour of your local modular home plant. I think they might be pleased and come away with a different perspective.

I was recently in a seminar where the ugly topic of short sales was part of the discussion. The usual horror stories and screaming in the night, you know what I mean. In any event, someone made the suggestion that before you take a listing for a short sale, do a lien search (no, not a title search) on the property in order to determine who has a piece of the pie. For example, a person may be short selling their home and completely forgot about a local bond loan they took out that does not have to be paid until selling. How many people would remember that after 10 or 15 years? They haven't been paying on it so they figure it was a freebe. Most folks would believe it was something the state government gave them (how generous right?) as a gift to buy their home. It's also good to know how many subordinate loans will have to be waded through to get those 3rd party approvals. Doing a lien search might not even be a bad idea for someone selling their home even when it is not a short sale. How about this scenario. Mr. Seller says I want to sell my house for $200,000. Ok Mr. Seller, let's put it on the market for you. Three days goes by and you get an offer. (I know, 3 days, yeah right! Hey it's a story, lighten up.) Anyways, you get this offer for $195,000 and Mr Seller says, I'll take it. Great, we have a deal! ooops, not so fast. After subtracting commissions, transfer taxes, etc, Mr. Seller is short in satisfying his loan that he took out 15 years ago. Why? because he forgot he took out a HELOC. Mr. Seller thinks, Hey it's a line of credit. Hello, it's a loan Mr. Seller and guess what, there's a second lien on your house as a result. Well, I think you get the gist of this. What do you think, good idea, not a good idea?

Each year in May, Keller Williams Realty participates in the Keller Williams Community RED Day. RED stands for Renew, Energize, and Donate. It is an initiative focused on giving back to our local communities in the form of rehabbing a home, cleaning up local sites such as walking trails, roadways, parks and playgrounds, providing food for the hungry at the local food kitchen, or any other service that improves the community. Our next service date is May 13, 2010. This RED Day is a small part of what we do at Keller Williams Realty Central DE. As a local market center, we are constantly working on projects with KW Cares, local and national.

One of our local ongoing programs (with great love and care) is Kevin's Room. Here is Kevin's remarkable story:

Kevin is 18. At age 12, following a medical procedure, he became unable to walk and his condition has declined rapidly over the years. Doctors have not been able to officially diagnose Kevin. Kevin stopped walking at 12 years of age in January of 2003. He cannot speak at all but does have his sight and hearing. He had spinal surgery in December 2007 and stayed in the children's hospital until March of 2008 with several complications. He requires diapers, pads and is being fed via a feeding tube. His medical insurance helps with the diapers, pads and formula, but does not include mouth swabs or adapters that are used for inserting his medicines. The carpeting in the house makes it difficult to move him about in his wheel chair. He has a hospital bed, Hoyer for lifting, but his room is so small that the equipment cannot be negotiated properly. The bathroom is not accessible to him for baths and showers, so he is confined to bed baths. There is a makeshift ramp over the garage steps which is the only way departing/entering the home. He is completely dependent upon the care of others. Upon hearing about Kevin's needs the Agents "team" at Keller Williams Realty Central Delaware moved into high gear. We created the Kevin's Room Project and began a fundraising crusade. The day that this story was shared with the team, we all vowed to make Kevin's Room a reality. We were able to raise almost $2,000 with our first challenge to our agents. On August 8, 2009 we held a Benefit Car Wash and Bake Sale for Kevin's Room. We raised $700 for the cause. We are planning a spaghetti dinner and a sponsored walk in the near future and are developing additional fund raising events. Kevin's Room- The actual project will consist of enlarging his existing room to hopefully include a wheelchair accessible bathroom so that he can enjoy a shower or bath. Installation of hardwood floors to make it easier to move about the home and installation of a storage space to store all his medical necessities. Sherry, Kevin's Mother, shared with us the difficulties of seeing her baby become helpless more and more each day. She prays that a miracle will happen and that one day her son will walk and speak again. She stated that she is not sure what time GOD will allow her to keep her son - but is grateful for the time that she does have and will embrace each day as if it were her last. We have received an outpouring from the community as Kevin has touched many lives during his time at the local special need school and hospitals; his smile being described as one that would melt your heart. We are dedicated to making Kevin's Room a reality. Please join us in this crusade to make a small miracle come true.

If you would like to donate your time or resources, we'd love to hear from you! CLICK HERE

According to Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist, the pending home sales nationwide are clearly turning in a postive direction. The affordablility of homes with the added tax credit incentive, are driving up the home sales. A leading 'forward looking' indicator, the Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July 2009, increased by 3.2% over the June 2009 contracts signed. This also represents a 12% increase over July 2008 contracts. Many home shoppers seem to be seeking those gems brought to the surface by lower home prices. According to Yun, the typical home mortgage now represents less than 25% of a middle-income families monthly income and the payments are the lowest on record dating back 39 years, to 1970. This equates to both greater affordability and rock solid financial purchases.

One thing that is not clear. Once the Fed's tax credit is pulled, what will happen to those pending home sales statistics. It would seem there will be a lull or slight decrease the first quarter after Dec 2009, since the incentive is no longer there. Now is the time to turn those home owner wanna be's into homeowners.

Read the full NAR, Realtor.org article here: http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2009090101?OpenDocument