About Hall County, GA

Reunion subdivision in Hoschton, GA will be holding it's annual Fall Festival with games, prizes, a chili-cookoff and all kinds of local vendors to check out. Tickets are $1 or 25 for $20.

Reunion subdivision by John Wieland has over 400 residents now (with 850 planned) and is in the heart of the Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Barrow county lines. Just outside of Braselton and down the road from Village at Deaton Creek, Reunion has that "neighborhood" feel.

This isn't the only thing Reunion does, Wendi a local resident said in an AJC article, "There's a social gathering every Friday night in the neighborhood, and with a full-time activities director, we have a constant stream of activities: movie night in the park, a fall festival, chili cook-off, holiday parties, a parade on the Fourth of July. It's just so much fun. I also love to shop in the area, we go to movies and out to dinner, but honestly, the neighborhood is so great that I'm content just staying home."

From Atlanta take 85 North, to exit Left on exit 120, make a left on Thompson Mill Road, and a right into the neighborhood.

Thank You all very much for helping me reach this landmark. #10 Appraiser on Active Rain. I promise to keep "Raining" with good content so that you will be proud of your contributions to this milestone. Please see those below who put me over the edge! Again, my thanks!

Can you put me over the edge on Active Rain? Just a few hundred from the number 10 spot.

Nick:

My husband grew up near Vermillion and I was there with him watching the boats come in many years ago. My husband wanted me to ask you...Have you ever had deep fried sour kraut balls at McGarvey's Restaurant in Vermillion.

Small world, he had not heard of the Backus sisters.

Thanks for helping me over the edge.

10

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We Need your help! http://www.supportlesli.com/

A very special Realtor in this area Lesli Smith (Lake Lanier Realtor) needs your help and donations. She and her husband own Lake Lanier Lodges just outside of Aqualand Marina. She has been battling Inflammatory Breast Cancer and it has spread to her brain. She had surgery at MD Anderson and is doing well, but she has a long road ahead of her. Please click on the link above to find out how you can help and PLEASE, PLEASE spread the word.

Also please note: Aqualand Marina http://www.aqualandmarina.com/ is having a "Day at the Lake" for Lesli. There will be Food, Music and a Boat Show. You can come and enjoy the day from Noon to 6:00 pm on Saturday October 25th, 2008 at the Marina. Please, Please pass this word along to all you know.

Thank you!

Saturday, October 25

Eats, Beats & Boats at Aqualand Marina

6800 Lights Ferry Rd, Flowery Branch GA

Noon - 6 pm

Music by "Riverside" from 2 - 6pm

~ "Taste-of" booths to sample local restaurant cuisine ~

~ Boat Show ~

~ Local Vendors ~

~ Arts & Crafts ~

~ Cake Walk & Bake Sale ~

~ Hayrides ~

~ Raffles ~

Log Cabin Rental Special ~ Lake Lanier Lodges

2 Bedrooms, Kitchen & Living Room ~ $89-$99 per night

www.lakelanierlodges.com 770-967-1804

$5 entry to non-Aqualand members

All proceeds are to help assist Lesli Smith, a local real estate

agent and owner of Lake Lanier Lodges Log Cabin and Boat

Rentals, with her medical treatments and transportation.

Lesli is battling her second fight with Cancer.

To rent a booth, contact Len Jernigan at Aqualand Marina

(770) 967-6811 or Teresa Smith at (770) 654-4173

www.SupportLesli.com

Happy Saturday everyone. It is beautiful here in North Georgia. Now to my post. Do you quote the square footage of a home to your clients. Most here DO NOT due to past law suits on incorrect information that was provided to buyers on the size of a home.

Well here is a thought for you and a nice touch to add to your listing marketing package that you can "sell" during your listing presentation to place you ahead of the pack.

What we are doing here in North Georgia is offering Realtors for a small fee a detailed sketch of the home you have just listed, which includes exterior measurements of the home, interior room placement and it breaks out the square footage on each level of the home.

Check out the masterpiece below...LOL. This was a 4 level lake home that we appraised recently. Anyway, once you have a nice looking sketch you can post it to your FMLS, MLS listings as an attachment, you can include it on the back of your flyers, keep some inside the home, wherever you think it will help you out.

Now, when someone calls on the home, you can tell them that you had this home professionally measured by an appraiser and the square footage is _______ and you can break it out by floor for them. How great is that?

When (not IF)..I am thinking positive here, the home goes under contract, you can advise the buyer or the buyers agent that you already have part of the appraisal complete. The appraiser has already been out to the home, inspected the interior and exterior, put together a sketch of the home and now all they have to do is finish the report by providing comparable sales and completing the appraisal report form. The appraisal can be completed quicker than if another appraiser has to come out to the home and start from scratch, etc. Plus the fee for the appraisal report will be reduced as they have already done the inspection and sketch.

We are charging $100.00 for each sketch unless we are dealing with a monster like the one below and then we would quote a fee for you.

So just a thought, especially on those larger homes or ones that have all sorts of weird angles, bay windows, etc, this would be a very nice added touch to your marketing package of the home you have listed and FEW Realtors are doing this so you can offer something new to your sellers and the buyers too!

The Homeowner may even foot the bill for the sketch so that they have accurate information going out to buyers, plus the buyer will now have a floor plan that they can see online or on your flyers before even stepping foot in the home.

Give it some thought and if any of you are in the areas we cover, give us a shout, we can help you out!

Have a great weekend......

I personally think the Debate was a Tie! Depending upon which news channel you listen to, Obama won.

As for Real Estate and how it will be affected by who our next president is, I have to go with McCain. I think Obama wants more and more for the lower and middle class and that is what got us into this problem in the first place, forcing the lending institutions to give loans to those who really could not afford to pay the monthly payments. Sure there are lots of other issues that come into play here, like fraudulent lending, appraising, borrowing, etc. but we need to get back to basics, like proving you can pay the debt back to the bank and strong oversight of these large organiations who did what they pleased and raked in the big bucks while millions were losing their homes.

I am a firm believer that you do what it takes to get by and not wait for the Government to bail you out and McCain while having to go along with this Bail Out, wants certain stips that will ensure that we are never here again and that the CEO's don't get rich over the deal.

With all that being said here is what I really think should happen, divide $700 billion among the voting public in the USA and this will end our financial crisis almost over night. Someone figured this out, you may have seen it floating around the Internet. If every 18+ year old in the USA (legal citizens) were paid from this pot of money AND we gave back a certain percentage to the Government in Taxes, we would each get somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000. Now that is wise use of OUR tax money don't you think?

So who do you think will be better for the Real Estate Profession and Why? Weigh in if you Dare.

Have a great weekend everyone!