Linda DeRusha Broker/Realtor, ABR

Well, it has been a pretty tough year for real estate, but I am so very thankful for the life that I am living here in North Carolina.

What am I thankful for?

How about my loving husband, Dennis? We have been married for almost forty years and we get along great and try to be supportive of each other, I am also thankful for my two children and my three wonderful grandchildren. We are all healthy, have our own homes and loving friends and family around us.

I am thankful that I am still surviving this crazy market. It has not been an easy year, but it has been productive and I have learned a lot. I have been fortunate enough to have helped my clients through difficult transactions. We are just having to work harder and be more creative to make it to closing.

I am thankful to live in this great country and to be given the opportunity to get up and go to work everyday. I realize that a lot of people are out of work, but the vast majority of Americans is working and still paying their bills.

I also would like to say "Thank you" to all the selfless people serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Yes, I know it's been a challenging year, but it will get better next year and we will all be stronger for having lived through the tough times.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just out---the latest release from the National Assoiciation of Realtors Housing Affordability Index, buyers can get the most home for their money since the 1970's.

According to NAR president, Charles McMillan, "Housing affordability is at a record high - the buying power of a typical family has risen significantly," he said. "With the drop in interest rates, a median-income family can afford a home costing $20,000 more than a year ago for the same monthly mortgage payment. With the strong housing stimulus, we are hopeful inventory will get trimmed and which will help prices stabilize in many areas by the end of this year."

This is great news, even though the pending home sales for January is down over January, 2008. The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

SO, BUYERS---TIME TO GET OFF THE FENCE!

If you have been considering buying a new home in Johnston county, North Carolina, give me a call at 919-418-7442 and I will be happy to help you in your search for a new home.

Linda W DeRusha

Re/Max Southland realty

620 NC Hwy 42 W

Clayton NC 27520

www.MoveToClaytonNC.com

www.lindawderusha.remax.com

HEY! CAN YOU BELEIVE ALL THIS SNOW? LOOKS LIKE A WINTER WONDERLAND HAS COME TO NORTH CAROLINA.

This is the first time that I have inserted a picture in my blog and I am having a hard time with it. I have inserted the picture, but there really is no place left to write about it. I think I need more practice. Anyway, the snow was beautiful coming down today, It was just the fat, fluffy snowflakes that are just perfect for making snowcream. So, of course I made snowcream for my grandkids. Everbybody loved it. Even though this is not the norm for us, it was really a gorgeous day here in North Carolina.

I saw this and thought you would enjoy it

Party Time - Yikes!
By Marni Jameson

It starts innocently. One night you're sitting by the fire with your significant other drinking eggnog that's probably too strong when one of you says, "We should have a holiday party."

The warm feeling grows and pretty soon you're on the phone; the word is out, and there's no going back.

Then reality hits: You have to clean the house! I mean clean beyond what any housekeeper can do. (Housekeepers can't throw away your clutter, magazines, and mail; they just make it straighter.) You look around anticipating the public humiliation. You imagine your guests wrinkling their noses and whispering, "Oh, they're that kind of family."

You start to notice everything you've been ignoring or stepping over: moldy socks behind the drapes, the dog's chew toy in the bread box, lice in the light fixture, the refrigerator that smells like cooked cabbage four weeks out, and the carpet stain where one of the dogs chewed up a watermelon-scented marker. Next thing, you're running around like your hair's on fire screaming, "Whose idea was this?"

Parties put the pressure on. Yet every holiday season I have at least one. To prepare, I dart through the house like a roller derby queen armed with Pledge, Mr. Clean and a stun gun. My goal isn't perfection. I gave that up years ago, along with the goals of six-pack abs and a caffeine-free existence. Some efforts aren't worth the agony.

But I do want my home to look better than usual, usual being a cross between the epicenter of a large earthquake and a frat house.

I start with a big basket and go room to room. I fill it with the flotsam and jetsam of our lives: unpaid bills, chewed gum wads, overdue library books, dull razors, dead flowers, burned out fireworks. When I get to my kids' rooms, I close the doors and put thick red "biohazard" tape over the doors.

I stand back and try to see my house as someone who has never seen it would. First, I want to know whether there are any more bombs inside. Then I get down to business. It's party time. I roll up my sleeves and start staging.

Although I have my own kamikaze way, I decide to call a staging pro. Dana Dickey is vice president of Interior Redesign Industry Specialists, a national organization based in Chicago whose members specialize in staging homes for sale and events.

"It's not that people don't want to pick up," she says. "They just stop noticing what other people do." She's being kind. Most of us avoid housework like the endodontist.

Beyond a good cleaning, here's what Dickey says to do to make your house party-ready:

• Clutter bust. Put all toys in one designated playroom, ideally with the kids, a pizza and a babysitter. Cut back your stack of books and magazines to two each, and the newspaper to that day's. Blast through the mail stack. Put what you can't throw away or file in a basket in the garage to sort after the party.

• Strip the refrigerator of all the kids' pictures and artwork. Open it and toss anything old, smelly or gross.

• Edit your stuff. If you must feature your angel collection, don't put out all 15, put out three of your prettiest, together. "Staging is all about selective decorating," says Dickey. "It's better to start with a clean surface and add a few carefully selected items, than figure out what to remove."

• Get the magazines out of the bathroom. "No one needs to know what you're reading in there. It conjures up a weird image." Speaking of weird images, I once went into a bathroom and found a laptop. Detail this space well. Set out clean guest towels. Remove anything embarrassing from the cabinets. People look.

• Edit your bulletin boards. Remove appointment cards and prescriptions. No one wants to know when your next colon screening is, or that your husband's on Viagra and you're on estrogen.

• Hide the laundry room. However, if your guests will be in there, dump all dirty clothes in the washer and close the lid. Put a tablecloth over the washer and dryer to make back-up counter space.

• Cut the lights. Switch 60-watt bulbs to 40-watt for softer ambience. Light candles. They hide a lot, including dust in corners and worry lines. Pillars burn longest. Avoid scented candles, which make some people sick.

• Do a walk through. Start at the front door. Plan where guests will put coats and purses, where they will head for a drink or food, and where they will go from there. Be sure the experience flows. If a place in your house usually becomes a bottleneck, rearrange furniture to open it. To move guests to another part of the house, put food there.

• Point the way. For large parties, place directional signs on easels that point to the coatroom, bar or kitchen. This frees you from being traffic cop.

• Or simply think twice before opening your big mother mouth and saying: Party at my place!

Marni Jameson is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of "The House Always Wins" (Da Capo). You can learn more about her and her book - which can be a nice housewarming gift or a tool to show buyers some great ideas for turning a house that isn't quite right into perfect - at www.marnijameson.com.

Visit the RE/MAX Times Online every week to read new feature articles, top-producer profiles, stories about valuable resources and more.

Comment on this story
E-mail your comments to editor@remax.net. Please include your full name, RE/MAX office, city and state or province. Comments will appear below.

Comments (0)

Copyright © 2008 Marni Jameson. All rights reserved. 12/8/08
Used by permission.

CONSUMER REPORTS LIST OF TOP TEN GIFTS FOR THE HOME

This report is courtesy of Realty Times magaxzine. I thought that it would be of interest to homeowners in Johnston county.

Top 10 Gifts That Really Hit Home by Broderick Perkins

Consumer Reports has taken a lot of guesswork out of holiday gift-giving by offering a host of top-rated goods to consider.

And of the "100 Top-Rated Products" CR tested this year, we took a look at both recommended items, those that CR believes deserves a gift-giver's consideration, and CR Best Buys, CR's recommended items that score high in both quality and relative affordability.

We further whittled the list down to the "Top 10 Top-Rated Gifts That Really Hit Home."

Here's what we found.

Home entertainment

Samsung 40-inch LCD HDTV, Model LN40A550, $1,300, "Best Buy"
CR calls this watcher a "top-notch 1080p set with excellent picture quality across the board." It was also selected for an ease-of-use menu system; images with excellent detail, great color, and "some of the deeper black levels we've seen on LCDs." Viewing at angles was considered only "average."

Vizio 47-inch LCD HDTV, Model VO47LF, $1,300, "Recommended"
An extra seven inches for the same price as the "Best Buy" above, the Vizio is "designed for those with big-screen dreams and an earthbound budget," but the model is no slouch when it comes to picture quality, 1080p resolution, a wide viewing angle, and four High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) inputs.

Nintendo's Wii gaming console, $250; Wii Fit software, balance board, $90, "Recommended"
Instead of passively watching those big screen TVs, you'll become an onscreen avatar performing yoga positions and practicing strength training, aerobics, and balance. You can knock off or keep off those seasonal binge-eating pounds and track your progress toward better health and fitness.

Kitchen and cooking

Amana bottom-freezer refrigerator, Model AFD2535DE[W], $1,550, "Best Buy"
This 36-inch, 25-cubic-foot, French-door fridge, has excellent temperature control, convenient pullout freezer drawers, and more usable space for leftovers and other goodies than most fridges in its class.

Black & Decker Smart Brew coffee maker, Model DCM2500, $35 "Best Buy"
The best drip coffeemaker among the 8-to-12-cup models CR tested, the B&D comes with programmable settings, easy pouring to offset the morning shakes before that first cup.

GE Profile countertop microwave, Model JES2251SJ[SS], $220, "Best Buy"
Earning the highest overall score of any large countertop microwave CR tested, the GE model includes intuitive touchpad controls and advanced cooking sensors that earned it excellent scores for auto defrost and ease of use. Sleek, stainless steel also looks better than the typical black box nukers.

Weber Q 200 portable grill, Model 396002, $190, "Recommended"
Called "the toast of any tailgate," this gas fired Weber heats evenly, but is equally capable at low-temperature slow cooking.

Home improvements, cleaning appliances

Electrolux Oxygen canister vacuum, Model EL6988, $400, "Recommended"
This puppy was available with rebates that slashed the price to below $200! And it cleans both hardwood floors and carpets. Considered a canister, it has an upright-like cleaning accessory that gives it the upright feel. This writer invested in one at the deep discount and says, "It really does suck! And that's a good thing."

Teragren Synergy bamboo flooring, Model TPF-SYN-Wheat, $7.50 per sq. ft., "Recommended"
A green gift designed to floor any recipient, bamboo grows quickly and is harvested, rather than cut down completely, so it's renewable. This variety of bamboo flooring, unlike others "actually beat oak and other hardwoods for toughness, and it also resisted color change, a problem in some bamboo flooring," says CR.

Benjamin Moore interior paint, Model Aura low luster, $55 gallon, "Recommended"
Don't knock it until you tried it as a gift that keeps on giving in the form of added value for that home equity minded person on your list. This is "finally" a paint with a low level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that performs as well as regular paint. The paint delivers excellent coverage, resisted staining and stood up to scrubbing. Available in 3,300 colors, this paint won't limit your options for being green.

Published: December 22, 2008

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.