WaterFire on the River....

What a beautiful night to start the Waterfire season on Friday. Here is a photo of my friend, Beth, and my kids with the view of the fire on the water! The kids loved the fire dancers and I must say they were pretty amazing. The hula dancer was over the top! All of the kids were mesmerized! The music was lovely (Ladies of Longford) and it was a very balmy 70 degrees on the Scioto river with a spectacular view of downtown Columbus!

The web site can be accessed by clicking here

We will be back! Take care, Susan

Dreaming...

Green Home giveaway! Good Luck! Susan

Two True Stories About Fires...Be Careful!

Our family pet, Java, who definitely could have gotten up on the stove in her younger days!

A lot of people have heard about "Sweetpea" the infamous dog who started a fire in UA by jumping on the stove, bumping the knobs, and turning on the stove! There was not a lot of damage, except smoke throughout the home. It was a lot of work to get the home cleaned. The moral of the story is to place child safety locks on your stove if you have pets who might be mischievous. I had never thought of that!

Another friend in Hilliard woke up to fire trucks outside her home. She works the night shift and was in her jammies at 2:00 in the afternoon. Someone had flicked a cigarette out of their car and set her mulch ablaze. Thankfully, someone called the fire department before it got out of control.

Have a wonderful rest of the week! Susan

Memorial Run!

I just wanted to thank the many cub scouts who do their service days on holidays! What a great way to pay forward. Our troop passed out water to the Memorial Runners through Upper Arlington. It was fun, quick and a great service!

Judy Smith, from the Wainfor Advantage team came running through looking like a million bucks as usual! Way to go, Judy!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend with friends and family!

Take care, Susan

The Secret to Real Estate Succes in 2009

Know your market inside and out. Life is all about change, and out market has had a HUGE correction. Always use a professional full time real estate agent to represent your best interests. Life in the real estate world is complicated to put it mildly. There are new meanings and clarifications in short sales and the way they are approached is changing daily.

If you want to know more about the changing markets, give us a call!

Take care, Susan

Multiple Offers In a Down Market?

When was the last time anyone mentioned that multiple offers were coming in on a home? I remember writing a contract on the hood of a car making it contingent upon the buyer viewing it inside. Of course that was when real estate was moving fast!

Today, we had two cases of multiple offers and they were on homes which had been on the market for longer than 30 days. If you are seriously thinking of looking at homes, we may have seen the bottom of the market and there are so many to choose from at this point.

Come out and take a look at the homes that will be open this Sunday! We will have a list posted tomorrow!

Take care, Susan

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

This has to be my proudest moment thanks to my dear friend, Claudia for her support in the monumental day in my life! (click link) Being a Mom really is better than anything else that I can imagine. My kids make me smile every single day! Thank you to my hubby, Steve, for being a support every day!

Hope your Mother's Day is wonderful! Susan

ps anyone who thinks this is a serious posting, needs to understand my humor:)

Positive Stock News Today!

Bloomberg Report on the Stock Market...I'll personally take any good news they can send my way! What a good feeling to see at least a little change in the overall picture on one front!

Take care, Susan

Staged Homes Sell Faster ....

Have you been thinking of selling? Your real estate agent can assist you in helping you put your best foot forward by staging your home. Some agents have an accredited staging backgroud and some have a natural ability. I have a background in Textiles and Clothing and have used this to our advantage in the past.

Some things are just simple, really. Taking a leaf out of the dining room table to make the room appear larger, taking everything off of the countertops, packing clutter away in tubs to take to your new place etc.

One of my clients who had reduced the price of their home were open to the idea of putting hardwood floors into their home. This came from the feedback provided that for a $500,000 home, the family room felt like an apartment. Sure enough, we had $4800 worth of new hardwood floors installed, and it sold within a week. That was an investment that was well worth it in order to get the home sold in a time period were there were plenty of home to choose from.

I hope this was helpful! Take care, Susan