Darlene Sawyer-Lovern

I have been hearing a little about credit card companies lowering the limits on credit cards. I heard about it first hand when I received a notice of that in the mail. WOW.... what a slap in the face.

This puts a real damper on the percentage of the debt you are using (if you already had a balance)

I've been digging around trying to get to the bottom of WHY. I have read people with all credit scores have been hit with this. People in areas of high foreclosures have been hit with this. I have also read the credit card companies don't want you to have all that credit lying around just in case you loose your job or have an emergency.

I know that credit cards play a big role in your score. This just gives me the burning desire to get those cards paid off. Charge a little pay it off, and so on and so on and stick to it this time.

If you are in the market to buy a home "Watch Those Credit Cards" read your mail and check your balances. Even if your not - Protect yourself and your credit.

I found these tips you may find useful:

Oh and I went online, just a few minutes ago and submitted a credit increase. Do you think it will work?

Call when your ready for an Agent!

Where do I begin you ask?

Pull your credit report; you need to know where you stand.

You're entitled to one free credit report a year. Get all 3. TransUnion , Equifax, Experian. Don't be surprised if the 3 agencies do not contain all of the same information. Not all of your creditors report to all 3 agencies.

AnnualCreditReport.com is a good source to obtain those reports. You'll be asked several questions to verify that it is indeed you.

You should also get your credit scores. These will cost you, about $40.00 for all 3. Your credit score tells your history to lenders. Those will also be different from the 3 agencies. It's well worth the $40.00 to know before hand.

Check your reports - make sure all of the information on them is yours. If you find errors you will be able to dispute them. Also if you have any judgments or collections, those will need to be paid. Even if they are only $20.00! If that is your case, be sure to get a receipt and the name of the person you talked to on the phone that handled your payment (just in case). Hold on to them, a lender will want to see them if anything is left on your report when it is pulled.

Don't ignore any issues, handle them the best you can. How do you eat an elephant - one bite at a time!

If your score is around 620 or better you're in position to speak to a lender. Your debt to income ratio will also be looked at. Meaning how much money you make versus how much you pay out in debts, like car loans, credit cards.

Do you have a preferred lender? If not, I can recommend a few experts in the business.

Once you have gone through the loan process and are pre-approved, the lender will let you know how much home you can afford. That doesn't mean you are comfortable paying the mortgage on that amount. So give that some thought. Just because your approved for a certain amount doesn't mean you have to spend that amount. You have to consider your personal circumstances.

Once you know the amount you want to spend on your home, let the searching begin.

And as always I am here to help you with that process and all the process that follow to get you and your family to the closing table and in your new home. You need an agent working on your behalf. Did you know that 9.9 times out of 10 the seller is the one who pays the agents and not the buyers.

Please call or email me with any credit question or loan questions that you may have to make home ownership a reality.

Don't pay anyone to do credit repairs, you can do those yourself! Save that money and pay a debt.

To get the $8000.00 first time home buyers tax credit you need to be under contract by April 30th.

Talk to you soon!

The City of Norfolk is asking you to report potholes and broken sidewalks. This request comes after our recent snow storm.

Reports can be made to pworks@norfolk.gov or by calling 757-823-4050 - 24 hours a day. Also via the city's website - http://www.norfolk.gov/PublicWorks/pothole.asp.

Norfolk has made this easy for residents and future residents to participate. Report those Pot Holes!

Good News For Norfolk !

From the Virginian Pilot 2/1/10

When Derrick McCraw bought a house in South Bayview in 1992, he didn't think anything of the boarded-up white bungalow across the street.

After all, the empty building was the only one of its kind on a block lined by well-cared-for homes. McCraw figured the vacant house would soon be rented or sold.

But 18 years later, his picture- perfect house and lawn still face boarded-up windows. Tall grass and weeds have been a consiste nt problem, he said.

But maybe not for much longer.

Last summer, the empty house became one of the first properties in the city to be declared a derelict structure. Using a new state law passed in July, the city hopes to initially clean up 50 vacant, blighted buildings that have plagued neighborhoods such as McCraw's for years.

Under the program, property owners are given two choices: either fix up the building and get someone in it, or demolish it. Those who comply are given tax abatements on repairs and improvements and refunds on building permits. Those who don't face misdemeanor criminal charges for letting their buildings continue to sit empty.

The initiative has given McCraw hope.

"If he's charged criminally, he might do something then," he said of the empty bungalow's absentee owner.

Norfolk is the first city to use the new state law. Portsmouth residents also had pushed for the legislation, but that city is still working to identify properties it will go after, according to building official Doug Smith. He said he hopes to send notices to derelict property owners by this summer.

Norfolk began sending letters to problem property owners late last summer. They've already begun to see some success, city officials said.

Three vacant buildings - including a house on Sewells Point Road that neighbors had complained about for more than 15 years - have been torn down. Eight are under renovation. City officials are in talks with nine more owners about rehab work and have planned for six other houses to be demolished.

"It's not as fast as everybody would love it to be, but this many structures in this period of time - that's really impressive," said David Freeman, director of the city's Department of Neighborhood Preservation.

A year ago, Barney Street in Olde Huntersville slumped under the presence of four vacant houses. The street, only a block long, also had a huge, empty and decaying house that backed up to the end of it.

The buildings attracted drug users and homeless people, some of whom tore out copper pipes and punched holes in the walls.

City officials declared two of the houses unsafe. One sold at a city tax sale in the spring and the other sold in a bank foreclosure in August. Both investors pleaded with city officials to allow them the chance to renovate rather than demolish, showing plans for adding bathrooms and restoring historic touches such as ornate molding and 100-year-old fireplace mantels.

"They have to come through us to make sure we know exactly what they're doing," said Wayne Green, bureau manager of neighborhood revitalization. "We want quality products."

Today, the two houses have been th oroughly remodeled. Workers have replastered walls, installed heating systems, re-carpeted living rooms, tiled bathrooms and rewired every room to make up for power lines stolen by vagrants.

With work already started on Barney Street, the city put the two other vacant homes on the block in the derelict structure program, along with the large house on Washington Avenue that backs up to the end of the block. All three are under renovation.

"I really feel things are turning around here," investor Chris Egan said. "With the city getting on board, it helps. We've got a neighborhood now. And somebody's going to get themselves a nice house."

Kaneisha Heckstall owns two of the derelict homes. As soon as she purchased them in August, she received word that she needed to meet with city officials about her plans, and that she had a limited amount of time to do so.

"I was like, what did I do wrong - what did I buy?" she said.

Six months later, Heckstall is nearly done with the first house and underway on the second.

As she waited for an electrician to arrive on Wednesday, she spotted a familiar face walking down the street and shouted hello to city code specialist Sherry Atkins, who has kept close watch over all the construction on Barney Street.

"That's my city inspector," Heckstall said. "She's like a pit bull."

To city leaders, Heckstall's work and the renovations fa rther down the street are a major turnaround for the neighborhood.

The goal of tackling a concentration of troubled homes played into the city's choice of which properties to place on the derelict structures list, Green said. Codes officers looked at neglected or long time problem buildings and also took neighborhood suggestions, he said.

Despite success in places such as Barney Street, the program hasn't seen full cooperation. In some cases, such as the orange house in the 800 block of Tifton Street that is missing some of its siding and has two gaping holes in its roof, city officials haven't been able to find or contact property owners.

In others, owners have refused to act. For example, the owners of the vacant Bayview Motel in East Ocean View have denied that their building meets the threshold of the law. In those cases, Freeman said, the city plans to prosecute. Failing to fix up a derelict property carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a $1,000 fine. Freeman said city officials may apply the charge for every day action isn't taken.

"The people who are making the choices to board them up, they don't live it these neighborhoods," he said. "What we're trying to do is apply a tool-kit approach to those willing to submit a work plan. To those who are unresponsive, or defiant - we'll see them in court. They need to get held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com