Sarah Moore, CRS

It is so easy to win! Just go to Facebook and locate the page: LIVE CHARLOTTE 365 AND HIT 'LIKE". We need 350 likes by April 1 to have the drawing. Tell all your friends and share our site. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Live-Charlotte-365/208518255886785

Learn all about Charlotte and the surronding areas including restaurants, events, festivals, schools, and much more.

I am amazed at all those that are sitting on the fence during this amazing buyers market. Not only do we have amazing inventory, the interest rates are incredibly low. This increases your buying power without increasing your payments. Many renters out there, you could be paying far less in home ownership that you can renting.

I have a first time home buyer who is saving over $400 /month with a home purchase. That is crazy. Imagine what saving that $400 /month could do for your future. Invested it could be worth a fortune in time. Otherwise, you are just throwing it away each month.

First time home buyers have alot of options out there today. USDA Financing allows for 100% Financing (you must qualify and the home must be in the USDA specific location) however these are great deals. Bond money can offer $8000 downpayment assistance to first time home buyers who meet the income requirements. This can be used for closing costs and downpayment as well. Credit Unions are another wonderful source of 100% financing.

Even if you don't have alot of money to invest in a home, home ownership can still be achieved. I caution you to save as much as you can because home ownership comes with home repairs. Always plan ahead. But if you are saving money each month owning a home you can afford to do repairs and have money left over for savings as well.

If you want to find out more about any of these programs, contact me. I would love to help you find the home of your dreams.

This year, my family decided that we would like more than anything else to have time together. My daughter is in college a couple of hours away and time together is precious. This also makes me realize that my 10 year old will soon be gone to college as well. Time is fleeting. With that being said, we decided that we would give up Christmas presents and take a vacation together. Because we were giving up presents we decided to give them to someone else this year.

My children chose The Tucker Hospice House in Concord NC. This is where my grandmother spent her last 2 months. She was amazing! She lived to be 100 and see 100 Christmases. It snowed more her last Christmas in Concord than I have ever seen. I believe that my grandmother, who loved snow as she was from Kentucky was blessed with snow during her final days.

The Tucker Hospice House would be her final home. An amazing place. PEACEFUL, COMFORTING, QUIET, BEAUTIFUL, SOLITUDE, SUPPORT, LOVE! These are all things that come to mind when I think of the Tucker House. A beautiful lodge like home filled with peacful decor and the holidays is transformed into a wonderland. Beautiful trees and views outside as well as a roaring fireplace with beautiful trees to set the holiday spirit for those who are experiencing unimaginable grief and pain.

We spent Thanksgiving thru New Years at the Tucker Hospice House. At times, hungry and tired but never wanted to leave. With no restaurants around you either brought something or had to leave and get food and return. In addition, days were long and any time someone would enter bearing song, stories, gifts or yummy treats brightened our days. I will never forget someone delivering warm baked banana bread one afternoon. We were hungry and the snacks in the vending machine did not satisfy. Boy that banana bread did the trick. Warmed our hearts and filled our tummies.

Thanksgiving Day, my family took the Tucker Hospice House handmade placemats for their Holiday Meal, fresh baked cookies, prepackaged snacks from chips to candies to crackers, hot cocoa, holiday window cling decorations and more. The house was quiet and as we walked the halls passing my grandmothers old room, I noticed an elderly woman alone. I continued to walk and all the rooms were quiet....no visitors anywhere. Just patients sleeping and quiet. It was I in the afternoon and not one visitor in site. My heart broke. I hope that the patients were cheered up by a little gift on Thanksgiving.

Through this I realized that our giving was important. Not to be recognized or to be seen. Really to not be seen or heard. Just silent and quiet. Gifts quietly dropped in each patients room to brighten their day and put a little smile on their face. My Grandmother Willa Mae Hurst receiving gifts from a stranger over the holidays. My grandmother was 99 in this photo.

We will be doing this through the holiday season. It has blessed my family and I hope others as well. If you are interested in helping with the Tucker Hospice House in Kannaplis NC let me know. I will be glad to help you in any way I can.

Give back during the Holidays. Give back always but the Holidays are especially hard for those in the hospital or at a Hospice House. A simple gesture can fill the hearts of many. May your holiday be richly blessed.

Do you ever wonder about the short sale seller? Are they really distressed? Why are the banks being so difficult? What is really happening.

Many people who short sell their home have no choice. They have fallen on hardships that can't be overcome. Hardships like divorce, illness, job loss, military deployment and much more. Live changing events that cause them to loose their home to a short sale. Asking the bank to take less than what is owed to allow the sale of the home. Asking the bank to "take the hit" on behalf of the sellers misfortune.

It happens, life is going along well and BAM!!!!! Your in trouble and you have to make the heart wrenching decision to short sale your house! It is embarrasing, ego deflating and comes with it's own list of ramifications well beyond the economic distress they are in.

Now, that being said, it is hard to stand by and watch those who "claim hardship" and try to short sell their house. Should their be more stringent rules for the seller distress? Maybe.

Let' talk about the "Tale of Two Homes". Recently I watched two separate homeowners short selling their homes. Both had two very nice homes. Their current homes lavish, filled with all the extras one would want...upgrades galore. Thier former homes....on the market at various times...still nice locations but the owners neglected to add the upgrades that would have made them marketable with the current competition in the neighborhood. Both owners wanted top dollar for their former homes despite the fact that they lacked any upgrades worthy of top price. In fact, the top price they wanted exceeded the top price of many that had sold in the same neighborhood with more upgrades and more desirable floorplans.

Both former homes failed to sell. Infact they remained overpriced and out of date! Both sellers proclaimed throughout the process, "I am not paying for those upgrades, the buyer can!" "I have plenty of money to pay both mortgages as long as I have to but I am not giving away my house!"

Now both are short selling their lavish newer homes and REMODELING THEIR FORMER HOMES. Yes, while asking the bank to take less than what is owed because of a "hardship", they are landscaping, putting in granite, new cabinets, new bathrooms, hardwood flooring, new carpeting, new appliances, new light fixtures, upfitting the homes with all the latest upgrades in todays market. In addition, they are taking fixtures, upraded features and more from the LAVISH HOME and putting it in their former homes...leaving the LAVIS Homes raped of their glory.

Did I mention that both of these "former homes" are less than 10 years old, in the same neighborhood the Lavish Homes are in? Thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on their former homes while asking the bank to take the hit on the Lavish Home!

Hardship or strategic move? You decide! If you have enough of a "hardship" to make the bank take a huge hit....should you be able to remodel your other home with thousands of dollars that you could use to sell your current home. Is the system broken? Should this be allowed? Who is policing this type of activity? Should this be a crime?

What do you think?