About Madison County, MS

Deerfield, Madison, MS (Residential)

Imagine living in a quiet, wooded community where you and your family can leave the pressures of the world behind and spend precious quality time together in a peaceful, unspoiled, natural environment.

Imagine living in Deerfield's newest phase where every day offers relaxed, down-to-earth enjoyment. The gracious homes of Deerfield offer a variety of styles, floor plans and prices to fit every lifestyle. Beautiful homes dot the landscape surrounding a championship golf course designed to provide a total golfing experience. The small-town atmosphere, an increasingly desirable ingredient in the choice of where to live, is the essence of Deerfield living. Suggesting a better quality of life, it offers a less hectic, less crowded environment where the lifestyle is casual, easy and comfortable. Call Dee C. Denton, Broker at 856.0009 ext. 20 for more information.

Homes from $140,000's to over $450,000

Map & Directions

Exit I-55 north at Gluckstadt. Turn east and follow signs to Hwy. 51, continuing east on Yandall Road. Turn north on Old Canton Road. North Deerfield Drive will be the first right.

The Drawbacks to Buying Foreclosures

The Condition of Foreclosed Homes

By Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com

Price-conscious home buyers are lured by the low prices advertised for properties in foreclosure. They hope to show up at the auction and win the lowest bid. However, many of these homes are not available for inspection prior to purchase. Is it smart to buy a home that you cannot inspect? Could be if the price was low enough to compensate you for the amount of work that might be required to bring the condition of the home to market standards.

Before you rush forward to buy a foreclosure, stop to think about some of the drawbacks and repercussions if you can't get in the house to inspect the interior.

Who Is Living at the Property?

If the property is occupied, the successful bidder is typically responsible for removing the occupants, who may not be the previous owners. They could be relatives or friends of the owners, renters or squatters. You might have to evict them.

• If you are unfamiliar with eviction processes, you should hire a lawyer to handle it for you.

• Be aware that tenants who are sued for eviction sometimes retaliate.

• A better solution might be to pay or bribe the occupants to leave.

Non-Owner Occupied Homes

One such home in Yolo County, California, was rented to a dubious couple: a former convict recently released on parole and his partner with sketchy credit, who flinched at loud noises like a domestic abuse victim.

The seller, unaware that his deed of trust contained an "assignment of rents" -- meaning the lender had a right to collect the rent if the owner did not make his payments -- stopped paying on his piggyback loans and didn't much care who he rented to as long as they paid him. Fully intending to pocket the rents and forget about his mortgage loans, the seller listed the rental for sale. His agent made an initial attempt to gain access to the home. The ex-con, a neo-Nazi with a shaved head, massive tattoos and holding back a barking pit bull, peeked through the door and then slammed it in the agent's face.

Soon as the For Sale sign was planted in the lawn, the tenants stopped paying rent. Neither the lender nor the seller could collect any money from the tenants. The agent could not show the property. This was an ugly situation. The lender (who held both the first and the second loan) filed for foreclosure and vowed to file a deficiency judgment against the seller, which junior lenders can do in California if the loans were not purchase money.

Condition of Foreclosed Homes

Because these homes are purchased "as is" from the lender or HUD, there is no guarantee of condition. Sometimes it is possible to inspect these homes prior to making an offer but sometimes, as in the above example of the home in California, access is not granted.

When sellers realize they are about to lose their homes through foreclosure, it's not uncommon for them to stop caring about the home.

• If something breaks or malfunctions, they aren't going to fix it.

• If they are angry or desperate enough, it's possible they might actually destroy the house. An effective way to flood the home is to turn on all the water faucets, plug the drains and leave. Others smash out walls, then pull out the copper pipes and wiring to sell as scrap metal.

• Owners will also sell the appliances and kitchen cabinets.

• Some horrible-excuse-for-human beings even leave animals behind, locked inside without food or water.

Buying foreclosures is not for the faint of heart. It's best handled by the pros and is not recommended for first-time home buyers. I don't care what seminar you attended -- if it's not giving you this information, it's not preparing you for reality. More Home Buying / Selling Quick Tips

The Home Stage Cheat Sheet

6 Easy Ways to Make Your Property More Appealing to Buyers
(by Luke Mullins - US News and World Report)

Faced with a massive glut of unsold homes, many would-be sellers are struggling to make their properties stand out in today's downtrodden real estate market. But while the economic head winds are beyond property owners' control, author Barb Schwarz says they can dramatically improve their chances of making a sale by devoting attention to an often-overlooked corner of real estate marketing: home staging.

Schwarz, the CEO of StagedHomes.com, was a pioneer in home staging back in the early 1970s and has used the techniques to sell properties ever since. "The goal [of home staging] is for the buyer to mentally move in," Schwarz says. "If they cannot mentally feel and see themselves living here, you've lost them." Schwarz offers six simple tips to help home sellers better position themselves in a sluggish market.

Get them inside. The first thing a prospective buyer notices about a home is not the living room but the front yard. "A lot of people think staging is the inside only," Schwarz says. "[But] we've got to stage the outside to get them inside." So cut the grass, trim the hedges, rake those leaves, sweep the sidewalks, and power-wash the driveway. And make sure you don't have too many potted plants scattered around the property. "Nothing dead," Schwarz says. "You'd be amazed how many people have dead plants in their yards."

Pretend you're camping. Schwarz says a cluttered room will appear too small to buyers. "Clutter eats equity," she says. Schwarz tells homeowners to go through each room of the house and divide their belongings into two piles: "keep" and "give up." Items in the "keep" pile will be used to stage the room, while those in the "give up" pile should be stored elsewhere. "Pretend you are camping," she says. "When you go camping, you are not taking all those books, right?"

The decluttered rooms may appear bare to the seller, but the buyer won't think so. "We are not selling your things.... We are selling the space," Schwarz says. "And buyers cannot visualize when there is too much [stuff] in the room." Decluttering a home's outdoor spaces is important, too, she says.

Balance hard and soft surfaces. When staging a particular room, it's essential to have a good balance of hard surfaces, such as a coffee-table top, and soft surfaces, like a carpet, Schwarz says. For example, a room with a cushy, 7-foot-long sofa, a love seat, and four La-Z-Boy recliners has too many soft surfaces and not enough hard surfaces. "The room is sinking," she says. "It's all too heavy." Instead, consider getting rid of the La-Z-Boys and the love seat, replacing them with two wingback chairs. "If you have hardwood floors but no rugs, it's too hard," Schwarz says. "So you want to add a rug."

Work in ones or threes. Schwarz recommends arranging items on top of hard surfaces in ones or threes.

You would place three items-say, a lamp, a plant, and a book-on top of a larger hard surface, like an end table. "You take away the plant and the book, it's too bare," she says. "[But if] you put 10 things on it, it's overdone." The three items should be closely grouped together in a triangle shape. "I draw a triangle for my clients," Schwarz says. "I say, 'Here is the end table-let's superimpose a triangle on top of it.' " For hard surfaces with less area, however, a single item will do.

Decide from the doorway. Since would-be buyers will get their first impression of each room from the doorway, homeowners should use that perspective to judge their staging work. "Do your work, go back to the doorway. Do some more, go back to the doorway," Schwarz says. That way, you'll be better able to ensure that each room appeals to buyers.

Make your place "Q-Tip clean." A properly staged home should be immaculate-"Q-Tip clean," as Schwarz puts it. "I mean Q-Tips getting dead flies out of your windowsill [and] going around the bottom of your toilet on the floor," she says. The purpose of ensuring the house is spotless is more than simply making it presentable. If a home is unkempt, a buyer will wonder what other, less visible problems may come with the property, Schwarz says. "They'll say, 'Gosh, if they live like this, what don't they take care of that I can't see?'"

Madison Among '10 Best' For Families In U.S.

Family Circle

has named Madison, MS, one of the

Top

Ten Towns for Families

in America. Family Circle Magazine,

working in conjunction with On Board, a New York City based

research firm, delved into the things Americans most want in a

hometown. Their results culminated from "a first of its kind

investigation to identify the best communities across the

country that combine big city opportunities with suburban

charm." They sought out "locations that offer an ideal blend of

good jobs, top rated schools, wide open spaces and a lot less

stress." Their findings and the ten cities selected will appear in the August 2007 issue of

Family Circle

which will be on the newsstands July 10th.

The Family Circle and On Board's ten top towns came from "a list of 1,850

places with populations between 15,000 and 150,000." From that list, "800 localities

were selected based on family-friendly criteria including low crime rate, health care, air

quality, green space, schools, and jobs. Family Circle assessed which towns best met

those standards and ranked them according to state. The winners were selected from the

highest-rated towns in the top 10 states nationwide."

Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler said she was humbled by the announcement. "It is

an honor to be chosen as one of Family Circle's inner circle of cities. Their definition of

ideal hometown life is very true to our daily dreams and desires for Madison. Familysaid that in all the ten cities selected, Moms and Dads are hands on - they

Circle

volunteer in schools and coach sports. Of course, volunteerism is what really makes a

community. Churches and the volunteer spirit are in essence the backbone of any town.

I salute Family Circle for understanding this and for caring about hometown America in

such a special way. I am grateful for all the benefits that Mississippi brings into the life

of every community. This is the people's award."

Published 15 times a year by Meredith Corporation, with a circulation of 3.9

million and 20 million readers, Family Circle is one of the most widely read monthly

magazines in the world. Family Circle provides smart, relevant advice, sensible

solutions, and inspiration in a voice that encourages and celebrates success in its pages

and online at www.familycircle.com. Family Circle has always been committed to

women's issues and in 1973 became the first women's magazine to fully underwrite a

professional women's sporting event, the Family Circle Cup, an annual women's tennis

tournament held in April in Charleston, S.C., at Family Circle Magazine Stadium.

Family Circle

also partners with CBS Television's The Early Show for a monthly on-air

segment with Hannah Storm called "In the Family Circle."

What is 2 to 1000 times greater inside than out, is impossible to see but at the same time has the potential to damage your eyes, can cause dizziness and nausea, and vaporizes at normal temperature and atmosphere? You guessed it…VOCs or volatile organic compounds.

Many of us spend more than 90% of our time indoors. Clean indoor air is as important as breathing. Some of the most critical factors influencing indoor air pollution concern our ability to eliminate or reduce specific sources such as tobacco smoke, radon, chemical irritants, and pesticides. It’s also as important that you control moisture, which can lead to mold growth and bacteria.

Ideally, it would be best to prevent these pollutants from being released in the first place, but that is not always possible or practical. An increased focus on proper ventilation can play a critical role in determining whether our indoor environment is healthy or not.

As a green building verifier my role is to help eliminate these conditions by teaching practical and proper building practices.

Listen to this National Public Radio program (Windows Media Player) conducted at Syracuse University on indoor air quality.

To learn more about VOCs and how to eliminate poor indoor air quality during construction contact Gary N Smith toll free at 877.809.6139 or visit him online at http://www.garynsmith.net.