Lee Stiber

11. By selling now, you may have the opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when many more houses are on the market for less money! This will allow you to sell high and buy low!

10. You can sell now for more money and we will provide for a dealayed closing or extended occupancy until early next year!

9. Even though your house will be on the market, you still have the option to restrict showings during the six or seven days around the Holidays!

8. January is traditionally the month for employees to begin new jobs. Since transferees cannot wait until Spring to buy, you need to be on the market during the Holidays to capture that market!

7. Some people must buy before the end of the year for tax reasons!

6. Buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than they do during the working week!

5. Buyers are more emotional during the Holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price!

4. Houses show better when decorated for the Holidays!

3. Since the supply of listings will dramatically increase in January, there will be less demand for your particular home! Less demand means less money for you!

2. Serious buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the Holidays and less competiton means more money for you!

And the number one reason.....

1. People who look for homes during the Holidays are more serious buyers!.

The Montgomery County Commissioners introduced a $481.9 million budget for 2009 Monday that calls for no tax increase and slashes expenditures in the face of declining revenues. The owner of a home assessed at $168,242, the county average, would continue to pay $453.41 for the county portion of their real estate taxes next year. The tax rate for the County portion of residents' real estate taxes will remain 2.695 mills. A mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. Increased expenditures and declining revenues left the Commissioners with a $42.5 million gap at the beginning of the budget process that had to be made up to avoid a tax increase. This budget reflects an overall reduction in expenditures of $2.5 million from the 2008 adopted budget.

One major area of savings is in health benefits for employees. The County will continue to provide employees with full health care coverage through Keystone HMO at a savings of $4.2 million. The budget is funded in part through a $19.5 million fund balance appropriation. That is a $13.5 million decrease in what was needed from that fund to balance last year's budget. The fund balance is essentially an emergency reserve fund that, through careful monitoring of spending and cost cutting, the Commissioners will maintain at $46.5 million in 2009.

A little early but some good info!

Horsham Township has received the following collection schedules for live holiday trees:

Allied Waste Services (this includes United Group Services customers)

• Saturday, January 3, 2009

For more information contact Allied Waste Services at 215-723-0400.

Ches-Mont Disposal

• Saturday, January 10, 2009

For more information contact Ches-Mont Disposal at 1-800-710-1333.

Horsham Township has not yet received a holiday tree collection schedule from Waste Management or G & C Waste Services.

Only live holiday trees will be picked up on these dates. Place tree at curb where you normally place your trash containers.

Durning a recent trip to Florida over the holidays to visit family I brought along my trusty Amex Card. For the past 10 years I have been faithfully using Amex to rack up points and also to run my business. I have never missed a payment, been late or carried a very high balance.

After a few days in Florida and wanted to have a little fun I tried to use the card for a dinner and to my surprise it was rejected. I ran home to pull up my account online only to find that my 50k credit line was reduced to $200.00. Needless to say, I was totally floored. I proceeded to call Amex and they stated the reason was due to the fact that I had a high balance and my credit report showed too many inquiries.

This didnt sound kosher to me so I did some internet research and found out that the same excuse I got it the one plenty of others have. People with great credit histories that are now being penalized for a companies desire to cut thier risk. While I understand the credit crisis is effecting everyone I do not feel that great customers should be penalized. What happened to customer service. After transferring my balance to another card I have vowed not to use Amex and to cash in my reward points before they decide to cut them off as well.

I think I would have been able to swallow this better should they have had the curtosey of informing me before a very embarrassing situation.

To all Amex carholders: Keep a close eye on your account as this is happening to 90% of thier customers.

As Thanksgiving 2008 comes to an end and everyone is recovering from their Turkey hangover I have come to question the "Thanks" part of the Holiday.

Over the past month our Keller Williams Office in Blue Bell, PA started an email chain in which each agent would give thanks for something in their life every day. The concept behind it was that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I was skeptical at first, however over time and being forced to actively think of something positive each morning put your mind in the right place for the rest of the day.

I have begun to implement this with some friends and family and have with the approach of the holiday have been asking them daily to give me one thing they are thankful for every day. I hope that others will implement this and hopefully realize that giving Thanks can be an all year process, not just for one day!