Christina Moock, REALTOR Cutler Real Estate

Have you ever pulled up in front of a house with a for sale sign and wondered what price it was, how many bedrooms it had, etc? Well, at Cutler Real Estate we now have a solution to provide you with instant property information right from your cell phone as you sit in front of the house.

The solution is Cutler Mobile MLS. The mobile MLS is very easy to use. Simply call 1-800-465-4556 and then enter the address or MLS # of the home you are interested in. You will be provided with an instant audio description of the home.

Contact me today to get registered to utilize this great tool! For questions or to register, please contact Chrissy Moock 330-936-2519 or by email to: chrissy@chrissymoock.com.

This morning my husband opened a piece of mail from Fifth Third Bank in regards to our home equity line. They said that according to a market study of our area, the value of our home has been significantly lowered. Because the value is lowered, they are lowering the amount of money available to us through the equity line. This doesn't really affect us because we have never really used the equity line, it was just the mortgage loan that worked for us when we bought our home.

We have known for a while that the value of our home is declining, however last year the auditor significantly raised the tax appraised value of our home, at least $20,000 higher than the home would ever sell for. I did all the paperwork required, submitted recent comps, and even met with the REALTOR who works at the auditor's office. They would only agree to lower the value of our home by a small amount.

Now I know that our city, county, and schools need the tax money to continue operating, but it just doesn't seem fair to be paying taxes on an amount that's higher than our home is worth. Is it being unrealistic to expect the auditor to use fair market value? I thought I had learned at one of our sales meetings at the office that the tax appraised value is usually lower than the fair market value of a house. I know they can't adjust the price of every home every year, but if we did sell our home this year at an amount that is way lower than the tax appraised value, would it be adjusted for the new owner?

Open Sunday Feb. 15th 2:00-4:00

2409 44th St. Plain township

2 bedroom 2 full bathroom home with a finished rec room and additional space in the basement for an office or 3rd bedroom. If you like entertaining, this home has a nice sized living room and dining room. Home also has a 2 car garage and sits on a double lot. View more info at: 2409 44th St.

To view other listings in Stark or Summit county, please visit: www.ChrissyMoock.com

Frustrated that your home hasn't sold? Have you thought about purchasing a St. Joseph statue to bury in your yard? There really is no proof that the statue helps the home sell, but in my experience it's worth a try. I took buyers through a home that had been on the market for about a week... inside the house was about 3 St. Joseph statues pointing towards the door. A few days later the buyers wrote an offer and the house was sold. Another client I know had purchased and buried a St. Joseph statue in his yard. After a few weeks with no offers, he became frustrated and dug the statue up. Did the home ever sell- no.

Here is an article that talks more about the St. Joseph statue. St. Joseph

If you are looking for something different to try to help get your home sold, why not try to St. Joseph statue? What have you got to lose?

Yesterday northeast Ohio was hit a snowstorm that dropped up to a foot of snow in some areas. Most schools were closed and even some employers closed down and allowed employees to stay home for the day. snowstorm

So, what did I do yesterday while it was snowing? Well, I had an appt. at 9:00 yesterday morning to show a house. I called the buyers to make sure they wanted to venture out into the storm and they were ready to go. We viewed the home, then went over to the office and wrote an offer on a house.

I had more showings scheduled at noon that day, so I called those buyers to make sure they wanted to venture out. Sure enough they did. They ended up picking me up at the office and driving because they had a truck with 4 wheel drive. We looked at 5 homes and found the perfect one. We headed back to the office, they spoke to their loan officer, and then we wrote an offer.

Sometimes our business comes at the strangest times. Who would think that anyone would have wanted to drive around and view homes during a big snowstorm?? I remember last year we had a huge snowstorm when I was supposed to be having an open house. The sellers cancelled the open house due to the weather and we didn't think anyone would come. Around the time the open house was supposed to start, I got a phone call from a person who was at the house and wanted to view it.

I think yesterday turned out to be a very productive and successful day in real estate, despite the 12 inches of snow! Share with me your snowstorm stories.