Glen Carbon, IL

Glen Carbon Illinois Scarecrow Contest 2011

The crows may be scared, but most residents of Glen Carbon, Illinois are just charmed by the whimsical scarecrows that have started popping up throughout the village this fall.

The second-annual Scarecrow Contest is underway and you still have time to enter your own straw creation.

Voting will be held at Village Hall on Saturday, October 1 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. (Glen Carbon residents are encouraged to drop by and vote for their favorites that day.)

If you'd like to enter a scarecrow in the individual/family/group or business categories, you can get the details here:

The G.L.E.N Committee runs the contest and encourages scarecrows that are "whimsical, humorous, lovable, and fun" for this family friendly contest. (They will disqualify entries that are too scary or are deemed inappropriate.) There is no entry fee for the contest.

The lovely lady scarecrow to the right is perched outside the Glen Carbon Centennial Library.

Scarecrows entered in the contest will be displayed in the lawn in front of Village Hall from 3 to 7 p.m. on Friday, September 30 where they will stay on view until Saturday, October 8, 2011.

This straw fellow is holding court in front of Village Hall:

And this one is located in front of Miner Square at Glen Carbon Road and Glen Crossing:

Glen Carbon Homecoming, June 17-18, 2011

It's time for the annual Glen Carbon Homecoming, Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18, 2011.

The lively festival takes place along Main Street in Old Town Glen Carbon, opening Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. Festivities will end at midnight on both nights.

Friday night the Well Hungarians (yes, that is their name) will perform under the Covered Bridge beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday, the Smash Band will rock downtown beginning at 8 p.m

Glen Carbon residents and visitors will enjoy carnival rides and games, a variety of food vendors, games of chance, pony rides and much more.

For the grownups, a beer garden, wine bar, Margarita stand and craft beer vendors will be on hand.

On Saturday, the Homecoming Parade kicks off at 5 p.m. and winds through Old Town Glen Carbon. Fireworks light up the night over the village's iconic covered bridge starting at 10 p.m.

Discounted carnival ride tickets are available at Sweeties (at the intersection of Glen Carbon Road and Glen Crossing Road) and the Glen Carbon Village Hall on Glen Carbon Road until 3 p.m. on June 17.

See you there!

Glen Carbon Short Sale Successfully Closed by Nancy & Kristina at Goshen Realty Group

If you're a homeowner facing possible foreclosure, please read this success story carefully. You do have options. Don't let the lender foreclose without first exploring a short sale of your property.

In a short sale, we will market your home to potential buyers at a price that reflects current market conditions and we will ask the lender to accept an offer that is less than the amount you owe on your current mortgage.

A short sale can be a long and complicated process, but it is worth it. A short sale minimizes the damage to the seller's credit rating that a foreclosure or bankruptcy could cause. A short sale can let you move on with your life.

Today we closed on this home (pictured) in the popular Savannah Crossing neighborhood of Glen Carbon, IL. It was a beautiful four-bedroom, three-bath home with more than 2,500 square feet of finished space. The sellers had purchased the home at the height of the market and unfortunately experienced significant hardship in their lives.

In negotiating this short sale with Citimortgage, we worked to bring the price in line with current market conditions in the expanding neighborhood. We also disputed the original BPO (that stands for Broker Price Opinion) that the lender used in valuing the home and received a second BPO that lowered the comparable value on the house to a level that would attract buyers.

We helped the sellers put together all of the paperwork their lender needed to advance the sale -- authorization letters, federal documents, tax paperwork, paycheck stubs and many other items that were needed to successfully close this Glen Carbon short sale.

If you've had a hardship in your life and can no longer afford to stay in your home, please call 618-791-8007 or email Nancy@GoshenRealtyGtoup.com. We can help make this process work as smoothly as possible and give you a new start.

Yes, it's cold and snowy right now, but soon it will be warm here on the middle coast in St. Louis' Illinois suburbs. And that's why you'll want a home with a beauiful pool, but without the hassle that goes along with it.

I have the solution. It's 3 Ginger Forest in the Ginger Creek neighborhood of Glen Carbon, Illinois. This is one of the few subdivisions in Madison County with a pool, clubhouse, tennis courts and fishing lake for the benefit of residents and their guests.

This charming home offers more than 2,700 square feet of living space on the main and upper levels. The entry foyer leads to a formal dining room on the left and a formal living room with pocket doors on the right. It's a floor plan just made for entertaining.

The kitchen is open to a breakfast area and spacious family room. And the kitchen includes one of my favorite features -- a walk-in pantry along with a laundry room leading to the two-car garage. All appliances, including double ovens, a cooktop, microwave, diswasher and washer/dryer are inclulded.

Hardwood floors cover the entire main floor.

Upstairs the split bedroom plan finds the master suite closed off behind butterfly doors. A vaulted ceiling and decorative windows enhance the private space. The home's three additional bedrooms are on the other side of the second floor surrounding a full bath.

The large yard is just over half an acre on a cul-de-sac lot. You can survey your kingdom (or queendom) from a cute screened-in porch reached from the breakfast area.

The Ginger Creek neighborhood is about three miles from I-270 and is located on IL-157 (Old Route 66). It's a great spot for commuters whether you work in Madison County, at Scott Air Force Base or in St. Louis city or county.

Get more details on 3 Ginger Forest.

To the left is the pool I mentioned at the beginning of this post. It's open from around Memorial Day to around Labor Day. There is always a lifeguard on duty during open hours. The pool is available for Ginger Creek residents and guests who are accompanied by a resident.

Ginger Creek also offers two tennis courts, a club house which can be rented for special events and a lake. The neighborhood includes many acres of common land where you'll find deer, turkey, foxes and all manner of fun-to-watch wildlife throughout the year.

In real estate today, the homes that sell faster and for top current market value are those that are properly prepared -- both inside and outside.

What do I mean by properly prepared?

These days everyone has heard of "staging" and may understand some of the elements of the stager's art. They include neutralizing colors, removing extraneous furnishings, depersonalizing your space by limiting collections and family photos and a variety of other very important tasks. All of that should happen PRIOR to putting your home on the market.

What your Realtor also should tell you is the brutal truth about your exterior. In particular, landscaping that has overgrown will be a distraction for potential buyers. Bushes may be so large that they keep buyers from evaluating your home's aesthetics or even its construction.

Walk around the outside of your home with your Realtor and discuss projects that should be completed before your home is listed for sale. A neutral party's opinion very often will help you see your lawn and landscape from a different perspective.

If weed barriers have broken down and you now have more weeds than rocks showing in your outside decor, it may be time for some drastic action. The Bobcat pictured in this post is removing 25-year-old landscaping that had overtaken a home in Glen Carbon, IL. The owners decided to remove everything from all four sides of the residence and start from scratch to give the home a contemporary and fresh exterior.

Your issues may not require the intervention of a professional landscaping team and a Bobcat, but they are just as important in the sale of your home. What should you look for? This is not an exhaustive list, but will provide you with a good start:

1.) Landscaping that hides your home's features must be severely trimmed or removed and replaced. Think about including more currently popular plants in your design such as native grasses, knockout roses and wildflowers and removing old-school bushes such as yews and junipers.

2.) Deferred tuckpointing on chimneys should be repaired.

3.) Peeling or chipped paint is a problem. This is especially important if your home might sell to someone using FHA or VA financing which requires certain fixes such as repairs to all peeling paint.

4.) Weeds peeking up from driveway cracks should be removed, or asphalt driveways that need to be re-sealed should be fixed.

5.) Scrutinize the area around your front door. Does the door need to be repainted? A potential buyer will spent a lot of time in front of your door while their agent is opening the home. What will they see?

6.) Exterior AC unit. -- does it need to be cleaned?

7.) How does your mailbox look? Maybe a quick paint job will help. If your mail box is in the shape of a giant fish or a football helmet, perhaps you need to rethink that when your home is for sale.

8.) Do you have a fence that needs to be repaired or replaced?

9.) Everyone needs a friend with a power washer. You'll be amazed and how your porches, decks patios and driveway will look after a good spritz from a power washer.

Above all, just try to look at your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. After all, you're in competition with a lot of inventory these days, including new construction homes that have that "new in a box" feeling. Show buyers how well your home has been maintained by sprucing up the outside. It will pay off for you in the end result, which we hope will be a quicker sale at favorable price.