About Sedgwick County, 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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Lisel and I spent last Saturday at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita Kansas. The Zoo here is quite possibly the coolest piece of real estate in Wichita. We love the Zoo. Opening in 1971, it's among the 20 largest Zoos in the country.

Out Zoo is nationally renowned and ranks among the best by visitors and visiting officials alike. This place is home to something like over 2000 different animals in large (for the most part) naturalistic exhibits. So much to do and see a full day could easily be spent at this Zoo. The admission fee is a great value for all the entertainment you get.

As you enter the Zoo right after the Cargill Learning Center you will happen upon a flock of brightly colored Pink Flamingos. One of which is no longer here but remains quite famous as it flew the coop and is spotted in different places around the country.

The Zoo has everything from a domestic animal petting area with animals and themes from around the world to exotic animals to places to dine and rest from all the walking you do.

It seems almost every year there are new and grand things being done at the Sedgwick County Zoo This year is the year of the tiger. A brand new and spectacular tiger exhibit opened up.

Some of the newer and really cool places include the Downing Gorilla forest, the just recently opened and one of my favorites, The Penguin Cove and a habitat for the king of the jungle. The last exhibit you'll see on the way out is the Koch Orangutan and Chimpanzee Habitat housing, you guessed it, Orangutans and Chimpanzees.

The Zoo itself is divided into sections from around the world. Just about all the continents are represented by the animals that inhabit them. There's North America with Grizzly bears, otters and wolves. A South American jungle , Australia and it's kangaroos and Asian animals. Africa is the biggest with the most large mammals. There are hippos, elephants, giraffes, rhinos and loads of others are to seen.

Birds, rodents and other small mammals are abundant throughout the different exhibits. Lots of colorful parrots and little creatures scurrying about interact directly with visitors as you wander through their natural habitat. A good job has been done placing the animals in natural and roomy surroundings.

Other than all the great animals to be seen and learned from, the Zoo offers different programs too. Zoobilee is a concert and the biggest fund raising event of the year. It's also famous around these parts as the place to be and be seen. At Zoobilee there is lots of food and adult beverages to be had.

Around Halloween every year there is The Night Of The Living Zoo. A night to celebrate Halloween in grand fashion. There are events around all the holidays, a creature feature night where a full length movie is shown in the Cargill Learning Center and many other special events throughout the year.

This Zoo is really something you should see. If your ever in town or even close by it's worth the trip. Our world class Sedgwick County Zoo is just one more of the many attributes for Wichita Kansas to be proud of.

You know ya wanna live here!!

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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Final Friday for Wichita Kansas sounds like the title of a disaster or apocalyptic movie. It's no such thing here in Wichita and several other cities across the country like Cincinnati, Dallas and Nelsonville, Ohio to name a few. It is in fact a celebration of arts and culture. An art gallery crawl where crowds of people stroll around downtown to the many different art and photography galleries.

Some of the galleries include the Mead Street Gallery, Gallery XII, Bruce Ward Photos, Mosaic gallery, and many others. The City Arts building in the Warren Theater Plaza has 3 floors of artists exhibiting there finest work.

Often there are fun activities for the public to participate in at City arts. Last Friday they had their Apple macs out and were letting people play with software imaging. The fun was making pictures of yourself in different and unusal ways. You could then email them to yourself and have them to keep. City Arts also offers lots of different classes throughout the year.

Final Friday isn't just all about art. The many bars and restaurants downtown have live music, good food and other activities going on. There are coffee shops, like the espresso house that have live shows. This week there was a talented band playing Irish music at the back of the shop.

There's the Qline, a trolley, for riding around in if you don't like to walk and a horse drawn carriage is also available for those out for a little romance.

In the plaza a drum circle meets every Final Friday and people are welcome to sit in and beat a little rhythm for awhilewith the drum masters. Across from the drum circle the fountains in the plaza provide a nice distraction for the kids who can be heard from blocks away "whoopin' it up" and laughing. A nice break for the parents to sit and enjoy.

Some of the popular shops are open late for those like to browse and buy.

There's ice cream to be had, activities for the kids and adults alike and lots of people. Chances are you'll run into some of your friends and on occasion old friends not seen in a long time.

Final Fridays in Wichita are well worth the trip down town once a month to get out and shake it up a little.