This past week, I was in a Real Estate class for four days, from 8:30AM until 5:30PM. It was part of a series of classes to gain the real estate designation of GRI (Graduate, Realtor Institute). The reason I decided to take the class was not just for the designation but more to learn and be a better Realtor for my clients. I learned quite a bit, and even after all these years of being a Realtor, there are so many more things to learn! I realize that most people have no idea what the initials...

Recently I read some statistics on Real Estate and advertising. Apparantly, more and more people have access to the internet and less and less people read the newspapers. Makes you wonder why we keep telling our sellers that advertising dollars is the way to go! Another Real Estate Myth...busted! It is like telling your sellers that you'll do an Open House for them when we all know that the purpose of an Open House is to get more clients for the Agent.

I posted an ad on Craigslist...

Right now, with this slow housing market, buyers coming from other areas have the misconception that our prices are falling like prices in California and Florida. Since Wake County never had a "bubble", we have no bubble to burst.

Our appreciation has always been slow and steady. The reason some sellers ARE having to drop their prices is due to supply and demand. With fewer NC buyers able to sell their FL and NY houses, there are fewer buyers in NC. More and more houses...

People ask me all the time...how important is price? Sellers do not like to hear it, especially in a slow market, but price is more important now than it has ever been.

Why? We have an oversupply of homes on the market. More supply, less demand equals lower prices. No, we don't have the "bubble" that Florida and Calif. had so we have no bubble to burst but we do have ALOT of homes on the market. We also have less buyers due to the slowdown in the areas that they are...

When working with relocating familes, I like to educate them to the "issues" within our area because sometimes they don't even know the questions they should be asking!

Some of the issues that I address are:

Stucco
Radon
Lead Paint
Asbestos
Underground Fuel Storage Tanks
Polybutelyne Piping
Siding, as in Masonite
Private Roads
WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL assignments
Termites
Restrictive Covenants...