Greensboro, NC

Sorry I have been slow to get back to you with a new blog post. I've been writing for a couple national companies for some "all new" training programs and seminars. Watch for them as we have tried to be innovative in our approach to some older information while providing a lot of new information for you. I'm excited about what we have come up with and will be letting you know more as we release the information.

We have some meetings coming up shortly with HUD and I'll attempt to find out more about the rumors that I have been hearing about the "investor 203k" program going back into use. If that would happen you would really see some properties sold.

Hi fellow stagers,

I found this cool wall art that I wanted to share. If you want something different instead of framed art or canvas art, check this out. The only thing is, you stick them to the wall, but it says they are with 3M backing. As long as they don't pull the paint off, I would definitely try them. They come in white so you can spray paint them the color you want. How cool is that? Here is some more info. You can do a search on Wallter and there are many places that sell them. If anyone has tried them, I'd love to hear what you think. http://2modern.com/designer/Wallter/Wallter-Circles-Wall-Application?leadsource=DTI

Hi everyone,

I'm having a dilemma. How would you arrange the furniture in this room? The fireplace is throwing me off. I'm staging it next weekend. Here are some pictures, and thanks in advance. I admire all of your work and your comments and suggestions. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Here is the room from upstairs.

Here is the room from standing in the kitchen, as you can see, it opens to the kitchen

Here is the view from standing next to the fireplace

Here is the view looking from the room into the kitchen

The following numbers are the New Listings/Current Actives for May 2009

Source - Triad MLS

County	New Listings	Current Actives
Guilford	790	5231
Forsyth	557	4014
Davidson	187	1386
Randolph	123	791
Davie	49	497
Stokes	39	344
Surry	61	480
Yadkin	18	121
Alamance	76	469
Rockingham	73	639

The following numbers are the sold homes in each county for May - 2008 vs 2009

Source - Triad MLS

County	SOLDS May 2008	SOLDS May 2009
Guilford	582	356
Forsyth	418	305
Davidson	123	91
Randolph	74	70
Davie	50	19
Stokes	35	20
Surry	25	20
Yadkin	11	10
Alamance	50	26
Rockingham	47	30

I just read this on realtor.org

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.

Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

"We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a down payment," Donovan says.

He says FHA's approved lenders will be permitted to "monetize" the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.