This site has been a bit neglected lately since the baby and spring market are here. Come and visit our Real Estate/Green Blog for Cincinnati Real Estate News and Cincinnati Green News!

I’m currently on Maternity leave and will be back to the blog in a few. Please check back later. Thanks!

Are you currently looking for a home and wanting to get in on that first time home buyer tax credit? Come and see all that the city of Norwood has to offer. We have 15 houses open from 12-4 this Saturday in every price range and area. Its a great way to see all that this community has to offer. There will be refreshments and prizes at most of the homes so be sure to check them all out.

I’d love to see you there! Simply click on the individual homes below to view the specifics.
Right now is a great time to buy in Norwood!

View Norwood Open House Tour - Oct 3, 2009 in a larger map

This is so exciting I had to post it on this blog as well.  For my readers who don’t know. I’ve got another blog which is dedicated to all thing green, real estate and Cincinnati related.  Check it out at www.encorecincinnati.com

For all my Norwood readers, would you be interested in something like this in our city?

Below is the post as well:

I blogged about it months ago.  A few of you even commented that if I bought the land you’d till the soil.  Well it turns out that City Council last week finally passed a plan for mini-farms.  What is a mini farm or an urban farm?  Well, its exactly what it sounds like: a small farm in an urban setting.  Why you ask?  Well, there is always a question of what to do with some of the vacant unusable city plots of land.  Most of them are unbuildable plots and just sit vacant and uncared for. Many major cities have started using these plats as small gardens and farms for city dwellers.  The exact details will be worked out in the next month.  City officials must decide how to lease the plots, and whether to charge anything. Lets hope they don’t.  Bring back the victory gardens of WWI & WWII.

How soon can we expect these little gardens of nutrition to start springing up?  Well, council expect 10 to 15 plots to be ready for growing this spring as a pilot project.  Yippee! Local food is where its at.  Lets help beautify the city.

I wonder if Norwood would be interested in something like this??

To read the full article in today’s enquirer click here.

I meet a ton of people looking to move (its my business right?). A lot of them get excited when they know about the opportunities and the people in a community. I’m always looking for ways to connect people.  I find that homeowners are most likely to stay in a community when they feel a sense of involvement and they like the people around them. But they usually don’t know where to start. Many communities have websites, but they’re not that great. They’re usually not up to date and they’re pretty un-user friendly. Unless you meet a friendly neighbor who is also involved, you probably don’t know much about your community.  When I moved to Norwood years ago, I had no idea all of the great opportunities they have to serve in the city.  I moved here because it was centrally located and it was in my price range.  However, since then I’ve grown to love it and have been seeking ways to help others get involved.

As some of you know I’m a founding member of the NYP(Norwood Young Professionals) - we are a strong band of young people looking to socialize, connect and help our community.  We have networked with many other organizations throughout the city and helped them with their needs.  We recently met with the Norwood Business & Professional Womens Club to discuss how we can help each other.  There were women from the Tree Board, Service League, Fireworks Committee, High school Band, etc.. All wanting to share with us how they need help and how people can get involved.  So far it all seems to be a grass roots effort here.  I have heard rumblings that the city is going to be updating their website and make it more community friendly and focused.  I sure hope so!  I think we need a bit of a face lift.

One great example of a neighborhood that I think does this well is Northside.  They seem to really do a fantastic job with keeping their community involved and up-to-date.  They’ve got a great website and the people who I’ve helped move there, seem to be really excited that they’ve got this type of forum for the community.

So the purpose of my writing today was really to help you the reader think about how you can get involved in your community.  If you already are, I’d love you to post a comment as to what your community does and how you’re involved.  Help me sell your community to others looking to move there!  All of us get so busy with life, but its really feels good to reach out to our neighbors and feel apart of a community.  I look forward to reading your responses.  If  I get enough for one area, I’ll start a page dedicated to that neighborhood.  Its a win/win for everyone!

If you haven’t bought a house yet in this market, its really time to start. There has never been a better time to buy than right now!! The perfect storm has been created in the financial sector. Rates are at all time lows. Homes prices have fallen to record depreciation levels, and the government has backed banks enough for credit to be available for any buyer with decent credit and 3% down. Now is the time to make your way off the fence and onto the field! There are an unimaginable amount of steals on homes on the market, and you should be taking advantage!

Please give me a call to get pre approved and speak with Jami about setting up an appointment to walk through your next home! There will never be a better time!!
Drew Stacey
MORTGAGE CONSULTANT
NATIONAL CITY MORTGAGE,
a division of National City Bank
CELL (513) 404-8622
OFF (513) 527-5954
FAX (513) 527-3791
Email: drew.stacey@ncmc.com
APPLY ONLINE: www.drewstacey.com

Some of you out there may be getting a little surprise in your mail box this next week. While many of you were shocked by the auditors valuation of your properties, you may be equally as shocked with you new tax information.
Check out the article and plug in your info to see how you will be affected.

Most of the time when a buyer moves into a home they find a few items that the seller has left behind.  Sometimes its something important, but most of the time its some left over “junk” in the garage or basement.  I recently came across one item that a seller left behind that was very unusual. 

I can’t blame the seller, we all are forgetful.  Especially when it comes to moving.  There is so much to think about and do for the big day that sometimes its easy to over look certain things.  You’re busy cleaning, packing, coordinating contractors etc…  I recently attended a final walk-through with some clients of mine.  We were going through the house, which had just been cleaned and things were looking great.  We stepped into the garage to check out the electrical panel work that was to be completed before the closing.  While in the garage my clients started opening drawers and things and found a little wooden box.

Hmmm, curious I thought.  My client client handed it over to me.  It was much heavier than I expected.  We opened it up and to our surprise we saw a lock of hair and some dog tags which read “Oliver” all sitting on top of a velvet bag.  Oh my goodness, we found the sellers deceased dog in the garage! I quickly shut it and just said.  I’ll call the agent.  Needless to say, my clients were a little weirded out by this.

I called the agent and it turns out the seller had tucked “Oliver” away from the cleaning ladies so they wouldn’t inadvertently do something with him and he forgot to get him afterwards! So “Oliver” attended closing with us and we all got a good laugh.

Here is a little trick I used this past month for a seller.  Its called a reverse contract.  Never heard of it?  Its not used much, but in the right circumstances, it can do wonders.

Here’s the story.  I had a great little house in Norwood listed for a few months.  I held an open house and had a very interested buyer walk through. He had an agent and a I contacted her the next day to see what the level of his interest was.  She said they were coming back for a second look.  Eureka!  I had a live one and I was excited.

They went back for a second look, he still liked it.  She took him to get approved.  Why he wasn’t approved before hand was beyond me, but I didn’t ask questions.  I was excited that someone was interested in my house.  A week went by and I hadn’t heard anything.  This wasn’t a good sign, he hadn’t made a move.  But his agent assured me that he was still very interested.

“He has a few questions,” she would tell me.  I would answer them and cross my fingers and pray for a contract the next day.  No contract… weeks went by and still no contract.  I was getting frustrated and my seller was getting frustrated.  Every week I would call the agent and every week she would give me some excuse on why this was the house for him, but he was hesitant on some issue or another.

So after 2 months of this, I decided to take the matter into my own hands.  My seller offered to give a verbal offer over to the buyer to see if he would bite.  I said, lets do one better and lets write it down and give him a contract.  What?!  Have the sellers give a buyer a contract? Its almost un heard of.  But these tough real estate times demand creative actions.  So we wrote a purchase contract as the sellers and gave it to the buyers.  We left it open for a week.  We figured it had taken him 2 months to think about this house and we should give him some time to think about this offer.

6 days went by and the agent was calling me almost daily giving me excuses as to why he hadn’t yet responded.  I simply told her “Get me a response.  I don’t care what it is.” I wanted to keep the contract alive.  Sure enough, he came back with a counter!  EXCELLENT!  We had gotten him thinking. 

The rest of the contract went as normal.  He countered, we countered and we all came to an agreement.  My seller sold his house and closed on it last week.

Everyone is happy.

Get an agent who thinks outside the box.  This market demands such an agent.

Many current media outlets use terms such as “frozen” and “impossible” when refering to the accessibility of obtaining a mortgage loan or refinance.  Many rumors also exist that if you do not have at least 20% for a downpayment, no bank will lend to you either.  This is simply not the case! 

Plain and simply put: If you have 3% for a downpayment, have over a 580 credit score, and have an active income; then you will be qualified to purchase a home.  Also remember from my last post, the 3% down payment does not have to come from your pocket.  It can come from a family member!

This sounds very simple, and it is.  If you meet these simple three criteria then you will have access to a mortgage.  Please feel free to contact me or Jami for any further inquiries regarding getting you pre approved for a mortgage.

Thank you!