Grand Rapids area schools – how does yours compare?

August 23, 2010

Here we are – back to school time! My son goes to a year-round school so he actually started a couple of weeks ago, but everyone else is gearing up to start in a couple of weeks. A question that I often get asked is: what’s the best school? My response is: the one that [...]

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Options for avoiding foreclosure (there is hope!)

July 28, 2010

I have heard so many stories. Some real heart breakers. Almost no one was just irresponsible with their money and put their housing on the line, most people just had some bad luck that in the past would mean selling their home and renting until they got back on their feet or buying something smaller. [...]

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Half way through 2010 – how are we doing?

July 1, 2010

For 2010 so far the average sales price in the greater Grand Rapids area was $112,887, which was up 14% from the average at this time last year of $99,067. This is great, right? Does this mean the value of my home went up 14%? If you want to skip all the detail numbers, I’ve [...]

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Going on vacation without kids? Leave a power of attorney (Guest blog)

June 18, 2010

A concern that people often have when they are planning a vacation or a business trip is will someone be able to handle issues that may arise at home while they are gone, especially if someone else is caring for their children while they are away. This concern can be alleviated with a simple document [...]

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iPad for business

June 13, 2010

I admit it. I’m one of those people that tends to buy all things Apple. I got an iPhone on the first day it came out. Between my husband and I we own 5 Macs. When the iPad came out I wasn’t sure what to think of it. It looked pretty cool, but was it [...]

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Should we start with a higher price just to try it?

June 9, 2010

When listing a home for sale, there are various components that go along with successfully selling the home, but the one that trumps them all is pricing. But, how do you know what the right price is? When I am doing research on a home to determine what the right list price is I look [...]

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Now that the homebuyer credit is over…..

May 4, 2010

For the time period of January 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010 the government has been offering an $8,000 refundable tax credit to those who purchase a home for the first time (or at least recently) and then December 1, 2009 that credit was expanded to include a $6,500 credit to repeat homebuyers. So, for [...]

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You say tomato, I say tomato

March 8, 2010

Sometimes the hardest thing about my job is that it’s only maybe 25% knowing about houses, and the remaining 75% knowing about people. Often I’m working with two people who know each other well and have many common goals but still each have their own likes and dislikes. What do you do if he’s more [...]

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“I want to buy one of those foreclosures”

February 26, 2010

When I meet with a buyer for the first time, ideally I like to have them come into my office so that we can talk about what the process and what they want in the home. It is not unusual for me to hear “I want to buy one of those foreclosures” because we all [...]

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Don’t buy this house!

February 17, 2010

Some of my blog posts are meant to inform, this is just something that I saw that was so bad it almost became funny. We pulled up to the house and saw this: Sometimes it’s hard to show what’s going on in a photo so let me describe it. Look to the upper left hand [...]

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