Jeff Craig Broker, Realtor, CSP

Carolina 'Shine Fest, Madison NC, Nov. 21 & 22

Tour the only legal distillery in North Carolina: Piedmont Distillers. See and learn how and authentic Moonshine Still works. Meet NASCAR Legend Junior Johnson. Music by Matt Stillwell, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Local Blues Legends & More.Junior Johnson's Midnight Moon and Catdaddy Moonshine Cocktails.Largest Collection of Authentic Bootlegging Cars; 7 Generations of Stock Cars.NC BBQ & other tasty Treats.Visit www.Carolinashinefst.com for more informationFree Admission & Parking

Festivale Italiano 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009 from 12:00pm - 6:00pm

The goal of Festivale Italiano is to embrace the entire Greensboro community and to provide food, activities, education, art, and atmosphere that is truly Italian. This is our opportunity to step forward to celebrate a wonderful culture and a very important segment of our community! Authentic food, drink, music, art, education, bike ride, games - everything Italian will be celebrated.

Downtown residents will certainly want to open their windows to catch the wonderful aroma as local restaurants prepare food for the day, listen to the traditional Italian music and entertainment, and to feel the excitement as hundreds of families fill the streets of downtown Greensboro on this Sunday afternoon!

It's time for a change. Who knows what it will bring for me.

After three years as a sales and marketing manager for a custom builder, I'll be leaving the company this week. It's really a mutual decision, that we both regret, but know is necessary.

I don't care how much the President and those in power in Washington claim the recession is over, it just aint so! But, I truly believe the next year will be better for home sales.

I will likely get back into general brokerage and try to represent several builders. With so many leaving real estate over the last year, I think it's actually a good time to get back into it. I also believe all the people who have put off buying new homes over the last year or so, will feel more confident about the economy and decide it's time to make that big move.

So, I'm a little sad at leaving a company I enjoyed working for, but look forward to new opportunites and a brighter future for all of us.

There are some local builders in my area that have been building custom homes for years. When I moved here twenty years ago, they already had reputations as the best builders in town. Fast forward twenty years and they are still here and still have the reputations and high brand recognition.

Well, it's not always deserved. One of these builders still gets a big chunk of the local business, based mainly on reputation. That would be great if he deserved it. Now please don't go thinking I just have a case of sour grapes because I'm not getting that business. OK, maybe just a little :-) But, time after time, especially during the annual Parade of Homes, I have people going through our spec homes telling me how much better the quality of our construction is and how our attention to detail is so much better. Frequently the other builder's homes are priced several hundred thousand dollars higher than ours.

So, the general perception is that they are still the best builder in town, yet it just may not be the case any more. I would never bad mouth another builder when dealing with a potential client. But, how does one change those perceptions? I suppose that good marketing comes strongly into play here. How does any business get the word out that they are just as good , if not better at what they do. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Keep an eye on your garbage! You never know where who's looking at it.

My wife and I have been feverishly cleaning out all the junk we've accumulated over ten years. We are staging for our listing next week. So we had about a dozen large bags filled with garbage, which I placed out in front of our home last night, for pick up today.

Around ten last night, my wife called me to the window in our dining room. There was a truck pulled over in front of my home. Two people were going through the garbage bags. It was dark, so i couldn't make out all that was going on. I didn't think too much of it. I just assumed they were looking for anything salvageable. After they were done, they moved on to my neighbors garbage.

This morning on my way out to work, I went to put some newspapers in the recycling bin. I also wanted to make sure the "treasure hunters" had not made a mess out front. Well, they had indeed made a mess and about half of the bags were gone. I started to clean up the mess and saw an envelope sitting on the street. I picked it up to find an unopened bank statement for my wife. Yikes!!! I can only hope it was the only one there. Who knows what they were really looking for. Who knows if they picked up another bank statement.

We are normally extremely careful about shredding anything that may have personal information in it. I honestly don't know how that slipped by us. But, it just goes to show, you can't be too careful. So, I will carefully monitor our bank accounts and credit card statements for a while. I have personally been through identity theft before and it was not fun. It took several years to get everything straightened out.

So, keep any eye on your garbage. Make sure thete's nothing in it to get you in financial hot water.