South Carolina

Look at the difference staging makes in this house!

11-07-09

Michele Reneau, Realtor, CRS, ABR, GRI ~ Charleston, SC Relocation Expert

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Office: (843) 814-6680

We just took a listing that has previous been on the market in Goose Creek for over 10 months. When we reviewed the past listings prior to our listing appointment, we instantly knew the problem(s) and how we could improve the odds of selling. The problem was presentation. It's the first rule in marketing IMHO. The product must be appealing and packaged properly. This is a lovely home with a fabulous floorplan in a wonderful community but the previous listings didn't convey this. If buyers don't like what they see in the photos, they aren't going to step in the door.

During the first listing, the house was occupied and wasn't showcase properly to entice a buyer. This home is in a neighborhood competing with new construction and a model home making it irrestible to buyers. In second listing, the house was vacant. The rooms looked small, lonely and forgotten. This home needed the dining room needed to be painted and the house needed to be staged. The transformation made by Melissa Marro of First Impressions is amazing as showcased in the photos below. We are expecting amazing results and can wait to report back. What do you think? Which house photos are going to make a buyer schedule a showing? They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe they can several be worth a few thousand dollars in saving carrying costs and helping a seller retain more of their equity. I wish I would have met this seller sooner because I believe if we had taken this listing sooner and made these changes, they would have sold sooner and at a higher price since the market has changed in the last 10 months when they went on the market.

Staging before and after-vacant, occupied

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Tax Credit extened and EXPANDED!!

11-07-09

Sheila Newton Team

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Office: (864) 225-1205 x3

Mobile: (864) 940-6377
Secondary: (864) 940-6377

It is official... the Tax credit was extended... Below is a chart to explain the deadlines and requirements.. Hope you find it helpfull!!

Feature	Original Program	Extension
Deadline	Must fund by Nov. 30, 2009 (WFHM deadline was Oct. 30)	The measure is written differently so that a sales contract must be in place by April 30, 2010 - but homeowners have an additional 60 days to close.
Dollar Amount and Eligibility	Up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers (or 10 percent of the purchase price of the residence) if purchased Jan. 1 - Dec. 1, 2009 A FTHB was defined as someone who had not owned a home during the previous three years	Up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers *- OR -* $6,500 for current homeowners who have lived in their current residence for 5 consecutive years and are purchasing their next property
Income Cap	$75,000 (individual) $150,000 (married couples)	$125,000 (individual) $225,000 (married couples) Increases in the cap make the measure available to a broader group of customers.
Purchase Price	N/A	$800,000 or less
Repayment requirement	Must live in home for 3 years or be required to repay the credit	Same
Documentation to be used	The actual form needed to request the tax credit	Documentation requirements and process still TBD.

1 Comment

Tax Credit extened and EXPANDED!!

11-07-09

Sheila Newton Team

view my blog
Office: (864) 225-1205 x3

Mobile: (864) 940-6377
Secondary: (864) 940-6377

It is official... the Tax credit was extended... Below is a chart to explain the deadlines and requirements.. Hope you find it helpfull!!

Feature	Original Program	Extension
Deadline	Must fund by Nov. 30, 2009 (WFHM deadline was Oct. 30)	The measure is written differently so that a sales contract must be in place by April 30, 2010 - but homeowners have an additional 60 days to close.
Dollar Amount and Eligibility	Up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers (or 10 percent of the purchase price of the residence) if purchased Jan. 1 - Dec. 1, 2009 A FTHB was defined as someone who had not owned a home during the previous three years	Up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers *- OR -* $6,500 for current homeowners who have lived in their current residence for 5 consecutive years and are purchasing their next property
Income Cap	$75,000 (individual) $150,000 (married couples)	$125,000 (individual) $225,000 (married couples) Increases in the cap make the measure available to a broader group of customers.
Purchase Price	N/A	$800,000 or less
Repayment requirement	Must live in home for 3 years or be required to repay the credit	Same
Documentation to be used	The actual form needed to request the tax credit	Documentation requirements and process still TBD.

1 Comment

Does your Website Need W3C Validation?

11-06-09

Neil Narula

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Office: (843) 375-9263

Mobile: (484) 888-6431
Secondary: (610) 701-9995

Since my website is getting an overhaul, one of the things im looking at is how to get my site to the very top of Google... and besides the normal SEO stuff, a key component is keeping your code tight!

Although it's not yet proved without doubt that W3C validation gives you better search engine rankings, it's sure that errors in your code can cause you big problems. Converting your website pages to XHTML will help you <read more here>

Note... there is a link to a website that will validate your website by checking your domain... be sure to bookmark the above and you can find the validator here: http://validator.w3.org/

Best,

neil

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Is your network very slow while Symantec endpoint protection is enabled?

11-06-09

Neil Narula

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Office: (843) 375-9263

Mobile: (484) 888-6431
Secondary: (610) 701-9995

Question:

What is endpoint protection doing to my network that will be slowing software over the network. I have setup exceptions for the program files folders of the programs in question and the shared network drive. Also i have setup exceptions for the myob database file exception which is .myo and the other program affected which is .mdb.

The problem goes away when we disable the antivirus shield on the client computers.

How can i fix this issue?

Answer:

Change Settings | Configure Antivirus and AntiSpyware Protection | File System Auto-Protect

File Types change to selected

Options | untick Scan files on network drives

Advanced | Scan when a file is modified

Floppies | untick if your machines have no floppy drive |

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Change Settings | Client Management | Schedules Updates

Change the Frequency to daily : and select a time ( lunch is usually a good time )

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Scan for threats :

If you have a scheduled scan you may want to tune the settings for better performance

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Other things to note , if you have SEP installed on servers you may want to add exceptions for certain services such as Domain Controllers , SMS , WSUS , SQL and other applications like Email.

If clients have local copies of their emails , outlook , notes , groupwise you may want to exclude this directory from threat protection.

incidentally : MR3 is the latest release of the software you should be able to download from symantec's file connect website : https://fileconnect.symantec.com/licenselogin.jsp

It gives greater performance that previous version which may also help.

Please Note:

My website is being overhauled.

I spent hours just working with new technology and really got it pretty fancy, but it was soooo convoluted with stuff that it's time to do a redesign.

It will be up at the end of the November so please make a note of it so i can start posting Q&A up there!!! http://www.nknarula.com

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