We recently staged a wonderful home in Cortlant Meadows located in the Orchards of North Roanoke County for Joan Turner of Long & Foster Real Estate. This home offers many extra features and some of the best views in the Roanoke Valley. Furniture and accessories made a huge difference in this home. By adding furniture and accessories to a large empty space, you can transform it into a room that is warm and appealing. Check out our before and after photos.

Before:

After Staging:

As the real estate industry contracts, to survive you need to add more value to your client relationships than the next agent. To do that, you need to deeply understand the challenges your clients face, and be the first agent to present new ideas to your clients that may offer them real value.

One area that clients struggle with is building equity.

They want to extract equity to make further investments, but struggle to find extra cash monthly for extra principal payments. Or, they want to get their primary home paid off in time to retire free-and-clear. (Baby Boomers, in particular, are starting to wake up to the fact that they have to have a better strategy for taking control of their home financing to pay it off on their retirement schedule, not the lender's.) Either way, they need help achieving their goals. So, add value to your relationships by introducing clients to new financing tools that help build equity more aggressively, without straining their personal finances.

The most interesting product to date that helps accelerate equity build-up is the Home Ownership Accelerator^®, a loan that combines a fully-functional checking account with a first-position line-of-credit. This innovative combination allows the client to flow all of their monthly cash flow against their own loan balance instead of lending it to the bank. Doing this saves interest charges, which become extra principal reduction. Compound these savings each month, and the client can significantly accelerate their loan pay-off, often by as much as twenty years!

A recent article in The New York Times noted the arrival of loans like the Home Ownership Accelerator as a viable financing alternative.

"For borrowers who cannot face the prospect of paying more interest than principal over the course of a loan, mortgage lenders have begun to offer alternatives more aggressively. (Lenders) have unveiled mortgage products in the past year that allow borrowers with good credit and above-average incomes to accelerate their payoff schedule and reduce their overall interest liability, all without increasing their monthly mortgage payment.

''These aren't for everyone,'' said Tom LaMalfa, founding partner of Wholesale Access Research and Consulting, a financial industry consulting firm based in Columbia, Md. ''But for those who are reasonably affluent and good savers, it makes a good deal of sense and reduces the overall loan cost.''

Doing the right thing by your clients will pay off for you, too. A paid-down loan means more available equity for new real estate purchases. A paid-off loan creates a happy client willing to send more referrals. Keep your clients on the cutting edge of home financing. Introduce them to products like the Home Ownership Accelerator.

Please feel free to call/email & let's set up a conference call to talk about other options now available. Specializing in Virginia, Tennessee, California, Florida, & North Carolina...

Josh Perrington - 1^st Metropolitan Mortgage | Roanoke, VA

Josh@1st-Metropolitan.com | www.1st-Metropolitan.com | Direct: 540.904.0842

The market is tighter than ever and if you are in search of a way to get tough deals done look no further. I am an experienced local lender who knows what to do. Whether your a realtor looking to work with someone you can trust who has built a reputable business. Call me today and once you deal with me you will see that I have a passion land talent like no other for what I do. I look forward to working more for you!

Sincerely,

Jason R Bialek

So a little over a week ago was my 30th birthday, and I had the best party! I invited almost 50 friends to join me in an old-school rollerskating party at Star City Family FunZone. I had about 20 attend, and we had a blast. I used http://www.evite.com/ to send out e-invitations and found their designs neat and their system easy to keep track of everyone.

I was happy to discover that Thursday nights are All-You-Can-Eat-Pizza nights, included with the price of admission, so food was covered. I wasn't allowed to bring my own cake in, but they do provide them, if you plan ahead enough to order one--which I didn't. They also have an indoor playland for kids and air hockey. It was family-friendly, yet still exciting and different enough to thrill my single friends. I would definitely do it again and look forward to perhaps starting to skate again more often...just like in elementary school.

Spring is right around the corner and the Smith Mountain Striper Club is holding it's kickoff event this Saturday. The March Madness Tournament is an annual event and this is the club's first tournament of 2008. The Striper's Club has approximately 600 members and to participate in the tournament you must be a member or guest of a member. There will be prize money and the tournament begins on Saturday at 12:01am. Anglers can fish on either Smith Mountain Lake or Leesville Lake, from land or boat.

The club also assists the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in it's annual stocking of the lake with fingerling stripers.

The club puts out a monthly newsletter, the Smith Mountain Lake Striper Club Bulletin. For more information on striper fishing, or a membership application, contact:

Angie Behan, President

(540)793-2420

acbehan3528@aol.com

or write

Smith Mountain Striper Club

P.O. Box 785

Hardy, VA 24101

Would you like more information about Smith Mountain Lake? Contact:

Debbie Malone, Realtor RE/MAX 1st Olympic 20395 Timberlake Rd Lynchburg, Va 24502

(434)546-0369 malone1981@aol.com Member: Roanoke Valley Assn. of Realtors

Lynchburg Assn. of Realtors

MSN Money recently reported on real estate in 290 metro markets thoughout the country. Though Florida and Califorina markets have been hard hit, Texas, Utah and Washington have seen increases and several Virginia markets fared well. Lynchburg, Virginia is ranked at 34. To read the entire report go to MSN MONEY.

Price appreciation as of December 31 -by percentage

Metro Area Rank 1 quarter 1 year 5 years

Lynchburg 34 1.37 5.36 45.7

Charlottesville 45 .99 4.77 70.56

Richmond 74 .19 3.75 61.3

Roanoke 96 -.46 2.96 41.08

City rankings are listed by metropolitan areas. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight House Price Index is published on a quarterly basis and tracks average house-price changes in repeat sales or refinancings of the same single-family properties. The index is based on analysis of data obtained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from more than 30 million repeat transactions over the past 30 years.

Posted by

Debbie Malone, Realtor RE/MAX 1st Olympic 20395 Timberlake Rd Lynchburg, VA 24502

(434)546-0369 malone1981@aol.com

I've had the pleasure of using TG Electrical Services in the past & was impressed with Travis's experience and advice. All too often, it's hard to find an Electrician you can trust in the Roanoke, VA area & it's nice to have someone now to rely on...instead of frantically flipping through the Yellow Pages and picking the one with the prettiest ad. (Come on, we've all done that!)

Travis issued the following letter to all of his past clients & I wanted to take a moment to pass along... Enjoy!

In the recent week, many homes in the Roanoke, VA area lost power for up to six days. Lose of power contributes to lose of heat, food, hot water, and generally the way of life you and your family are accustomed.

This problem can easily be resolved for future power outages. Let me share with you how this can be accomplished. Contact T.G. Electrical for a free in home consultation on the benefits of installing a Back Up Generator System. Generators keep power on when there is an outage, so the comforts of your home remain intact.

Call us and we will advise you and your family on size and features of the generator that is right for your home.

DON'T BE LEFT IN THE DARK, AGAIN! T.G. Electrical also offers a wide variety of home electrical repairs and maintenance.

Call now and take advantage of 20% off your next electrical job. (New customers only) Offer Expires 4/31/08

Sincerely, Travis L. Gaylor T.G. Electrical Services L.L.C. 540-580-2940

travisgaylor@yahoo.com www.tgelectricalservices.servicemagicpro.com

Provided by: Josh Perrington, Gateway Mortgage Group Roanoke, VA