If you have a little fever or a small cold, you can stop by the drug store and pick up a bottle of Tylenol and get to feeling better.  However; the sicker you are, the more of a specialist you need.

This reminds me of what is going on in the Real Estate market today.  In 2005 the market was so strong that you really did not need a very good Realtor to sell your house.  In fact, in some cases, you did not need a Realtor at all – you could just run an ad in the paper or stick a sign in the yard and the next day there would be three people in your driveway with their checkbooks open wanting to purchase your home.  This was due to the fact that the market was not “sick” at that point in time. 

In a slow market, it is important to realize you need an agent who is a specialist – an agent who has worked in your area, has sold homes in your area, and has prospects looking for homes in your price range and your area. 

A woman recently called me to sell her house.  She said she felt bad because her sister is a Real Estate Agent, but she knew that she did not sell anything in her price range and did not specialize in her area.  She knew that the market was tough and wanted a “specialist” to sell her property.

Several of my clients who have primary homes in other states have begun asking for advice on how to get their home sold.  Several of them had their homes listed with a friend of theirs from the Country Club or tennis group and realized that they were not getting the professional, high level of service they received when they had worked with us.  I have encouraged them to try and find the best agent in their area because that is who is going to sell your house in a slow market.

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth

Broker/Sales Agent 

During my Real Estate career, I have always heard that the three most important things in selling Real Estate are location, location, and location.  I do feel that at this point, the Real Estate market has changed and this is not entirely true. 

The three most important things are probably price, condition, and location. 

Most calls we receive are buyers looking for the best value available.  In a market where prices have dropped over the last several years, people tend to be most concerned with price.

We have also seen that people do not want to spend money to remodel homes; even though they might be in a great location, but in bad condition.  This causes condition to be the second most important factor when purchasing a home.

Location is still one of the top three, but it has moved to third on the list of important things for buyers. 

This will change over time; but if there is one thing we can be sure of in Real Estate, it is that change is inevitable. 

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth

Broker/Sales Agent

This is a difficult question because nobody ever thinks that their house is ugly.  The real question is, in a slow market, how do you sell a house that is over 10 years old?  The main issue is that you have to compete with brand new homes and 2-3 year old homes. 

When Realtors go through a house, they can often tell the age of the home by how the house is built and its’ features. 

The first and most important thing in pricing a home that is over 10 years old is to adjust the price for the age and depreciation of the house.  An owner might say that the house next door is the same size, with the same view and that one sold at $800,000, therefore my house is worth $800,000.  In this same situation, the house that sold at $800,000 is a brand new house and the particular house we are trying to price is 10 years old.  It is not that the house is ugly, newer homes tend to sell better and more quickly.

The second most important thing is updating the house and making it look as new as possible.  This can include paint, carpet and wallpaper. 

It also could include updating bathrooms and kitchens.  These two areas are the most important in selling a house in today’s market. 

The house also needs to be de-cluttered.  The longer we live in our homes, the more things we accumulate which can make our home appear smaller.  As a rule of thumb, we tell the seller to remove 20% of the “stuff”. 

If these three things do not work, you might need to reevaluate your home and adjust the price accordingly.  It is also important to try and look at other homes similar in age.  Most Realtors can look at comps sorting by year built and try to see what homes were built within several years of yours. 

In a slow market, it is important to realize that people have choices.  The more choices they have, the harder it is to sell an older home; this is why price is so important.

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth

Broker/Sales Agent

Many times I go on listings appointments and while going over the active listings and comparable listings with the property owner I will mention that there is a house very similar to theirs down there street listed that is in foreclosure.  The owner will often say, “That does not affect my value, that is a bank and they are desperate”.

Unfortunately, it does affect your value; the number of foreclosures in the market affects the value of every property listed for sale.  Buyers do not care who the seller is, they just want the best value.  Many times, if the bank foreclosure is the best value, they will buy it.  That sets a comp and it hurts the value of your property because the next buyer comes along and will ask how your property can be worth $800,000 when the same house down the street just sold at $700,000 and the market is worse today than it was 2 weeks ago.

We in Real Estate hate to see this happening because it makes our job much harder.  It is important to realize that what is listed for sale and what has sold recently affects the value of your property whether you like it or not.

I recently went to list a property and the house next door had just sold at $850,000.  When I told the owner that, he said that sale did not count because the seller was desperate.  I told him that even though the seller was desperate, the home had been on the market, started at $1.2 million, was reduced to $1.1 million, was then reduced to $995,000, was then reduced to $895,000 and finally sold at $850,000; there is not way that the property was worth $1.2 million because nobody even came close to making an offer.  He had a hard time understanding that his house, which was the same size, same view, same age, same condition was worth $850,000.  It did not really matter what the property was worth two years ago, it only matters what it is worth in the market today.

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth

Broker/Sales Agent

NEW YORK – When you sit at your kitchen table and write your monthly mortgage check, your signature may be the first stop on a journey that takes your money to the other side of the world.

Chances are, your bank has resold your mortgage and the Chinese government, a teachers’ pension fund in Holland, even one of your own mutual funds may own a slice of it. Thousands of investors could be getting slivers of your check.

How did that happen?

The pooling and reselling of mortgages, known as mortgage securitization, has played an outsized role in this financial crisis. Here are some questions and answers about mortgage securitization and its effects.

Q: What is mortgage securitization? And what are mortgage-backed securities?

A: Mortgages are “securitized” when they are pooled together, sliced into pieces and resold as bonds. A mortgage-backed security is a bond whose payments come from the monthly checks for the underlying mortgages.

The bonds are put together either by government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are charged with repurchasing mortgages in an effort to keep homes affordable, or by private financial institutions. Some of the largest players included the ill-fated Countrywide, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

Here’s a greatly simplified (and hypothetical) mortgage-backed security, as described by Richard J. Rosen, a senior economist and economic adviser at the Chicago Federal Reserve:

An issuer has collected 1,000 mortgages, each worth $100,000, each with a 30-year maturity and a fixed interest rate of 6.5 percent. This $100 million pool of mortgages can back 10,000 bonds, each worth $10,000 and paying interest that’s slightly less than what the homeowners pay – say 6 percent – after the intermediaries, including the packager, take a cut.

Most of the mortgage-backed securities sold over the last five years were far more complicated, with some involving mortgages that were grouped by how risky they were thought to be.

Q: How big is this market?

A: Somewhere around $6.8 trillion, out of $11.3 trillion mortgages outstanding, according to Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

The proportion of mortgages that are securitized is much greater than it was a few decades ago. In 1980, mortgage-backed securities accounted for 12 percent of total mortgage debt outstanding. This year, the proportion is closer to 61 percent, according to Cecala.

Q: How did it get so big?

A: Mortgage-backed securities had historically been a fairly safe investment offering a better return than even safer U.S. Treasury debt. With interest rates near historic lows from 2001 to 2004, investors around the world were trying to earn more on their investments. At the time, mortgage-backed securities, which had been heavily promoted abroad by the U.S. government, seemed like a fairly safe option.

As global investors demanded more mortgage-backed securities, banks began looking for more mortgages to buy, repackage and resell. This was one of the reasons lending standards loosened. By the time it became clear that many home loans had gone to people who wouldn’t be able to repay them, the market had grown large enough to shake investors all over the world – from community banks in California to multi-billion-dollar banks in Germany.

When that happened, investors refused to buy the securities, and the banks that had been selling them were stuck with them. The plunge in their value has contributed to more than $300 billion in write-downs – or reductions in the value of assets – by global banks and brokerages. Stock in the banks with the largest involvement plummeted; the weakest were bought by competitors at steep discounts and the survivors have been less likely to loan money.

Q: Who owns mortgage-backed securities?

A: As of the middle of 2008, foreign investors were the largest group, owning 20 percent of the outstanding volume of mortgage securities, Cecala said.

“That reflects a real conscious effort by the government to promote that,” he said. “Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would do road shows around the world.”

The next largest group was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with 16 percent. Commercial banks own another 16 percent.

Q: Who owns my mortgage?

A: That depends on what kind of mortgage you have. If you were a good borrower with a fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage for less than $417,000, the chances are excellent that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac either owns your mortgage or guarantees it. If you have an adjustable-rate mortgage, it’s likely held by a bank or another financial institution.

Information courtesy of The Savannah Morning News

I was watching one of the news programs last night and they were talking about how the stock market had a bad day.  Someone said, “When there is uncertainty in the market, markets do not respond well”.  That also pertains to the Real Estate market.  Normally, the best time to buy would be when other people are not buying – which is now.  The amount of confusion we have in our market is having a negative effect on Real Estate values. 

The last three weeks have been the worst weeks I have experienced concerning the stock market and confusion of the financial markets.

We track the number of showings as well as the number of internet hits we receive each day.  We have seen a drastic drop during the last three weeks in both internet search hits and also showings.  I think people are waiting to see what is going to happen to the economy and what comes from the election.

What does this mean? 

Obviously, if you are a seller, it is not a good time to sell.  If you are a buyer, if there are less people looking that means you can probably get a better buy.

If you have any questions concerning the Real Estate market, please feel free to give us a call.  I can be reached locally at 843-785-4460 or toll-free at 800-831-0359.

Sincerely yours,

James Wedgeworth

circle that you’ll stack directly on top of the first. (Also at the store, purchase two new bolts — about $1.50 each.) Back home, remove the old gaskets. Fit the new shaped gasket into the mouth of the sewer pipe first; put the second seal directly over it so the toilet fits into the space with no gaps. Lower the toilet over the seals. Screw in the new bolts, tighten them, reconnect the water supply and caulk the base of the toilet.

8. Stop faucet drips.

A dripping faucet calls attention to itself, and it’s not hard to fix. Shut off the water supply to the faucets by turning the valves under the sink to the right. Then, test the faucet to make sure you’ve shut the water off completely. While you’re looking under the sink, check for moisture on the wall around the valves and on the floor of the sink cabinet. Also check the supply lines leading to the dishwasher and disposal. If those areas are wet, get a plumber.

If you’ve got a newer, rotating, single-arm faucet (through which both hot and cold water run), note the brand and purchase a faucet rebuild kit (roughly $50) at the hardware store. Inside the faucet arm is a metal ball on a stem that lets the handle swivel while allowing water to flow in any direction. The kit contains the six to 12 parts most likely to fail, including that metal ball, O rings, springs and gaskets. The idea is to replace them all rather than trying to diagnose the exact source of the problem. Dismantle the faucet, laying the parts out in order on a paper towel. Snap a photo or draw a sketch to help you with reassembly. Replace the old parts, put the faucet back together and turn the water back on.

For older faucets with independent hot and cold water faucets, shut off the water under the sink as before then dismantle each of the sink’s faucets separately. Remove the washers (rings made of rubber, plastic or brass), put them in a plastic sandwich bag and bring them to the hardware store to find replacements. Reassemble the faucets and turn the water back on.

If this seems like more trouble than you’re willing to tackle, call a plumber. With no complications, a plumber can install the new parts in an hour, though most will bill you for an hour and a half minimum.

9. Renew dinged baseboards.

Beat-up baseboards detract greatly from the appearance of your home, and they’re easy to spiff up.  “All those little things tend to stand out,” says Carroll. First, clean them to remove scrapes and smudges left by clawing pets and toddlers on wheels. Brake says a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponge works great on painted surfaces. Fill in dents with spackle, sand the baseboards smooth and repaint them. If you’ve lost the name of the original paint color, chip off a coin-sized bit, slip it into an envelope and bring it to the paint store where you can have the color computer matched.

Use primer before painting. Don’t just retouch small areas; paint the entire piece of baseboard, from one end to the other. Choose a washable eggshell finish. White is a great choice for making baseboards and trim look crisp and clean.

10. Repair cabinet scratches.

You can quickly improve the look of unpainted woodwork and worn cabinets with an application of products that even out the surface color. Brake covers scratches on woodwork and cabinets with Old English Scratch Cover or a Tibet Almond Stick, a tight roll of cotton saturated in chemicals that the manufacturer, Zenith Chemical Works, says is a 100-year-old family formula. (You can find these at hardware and home-improvement stores.)

The almond stick goes on clear but covers scratches. “It’s amazing,” Brake says. Zenith owner Kim MacInnes says the almond stick works best with shallow surface scratches on dark finishes. It doesn’t work in every case, he says, and even a good result may fade with time and need to be reapplied periodically.

Old English makes separate formulations for light or dark wood. These are oily stains, so use them carefully. Try out any products first in a corner where results will not be noticed. Do not use the dark stain on light wood. Finally, polish wood cabinets to a glow with lemon oil.

Courtesy of MSN Real Estate

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – The Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival, one of the nation’s signature automobile events, will proudly showcase Brass Era Cars as the Honored Marque when this popular automotive event returns to Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island, S.C., from October 30-November 2, 2008.

Brass cars, which date before 1916, were originally constructed almost entirely from wood, steal, sheet metal and brass. During the Concours d’Elegance “Best of Show” competition on Sunday, November 2, the brass classes will exhibit at least one model from each year between 1899 and 1915, including rare early steam-powered and electric vehicles.

“Brass Era automobiles are the stuff that dreams were made of,” said Bill Alley, a leading Brass Era Car collector who serves on the Automobile Advisory Board for the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival. “They were sensuous, elegant machines, evocative of an era on the cusp of events that would forever change the world. Precision tooled, styled with sophistication and driven with pride, cars of their ilk were unique to their point in time.”

The featured brass classes and Honored Marque displays at the 2008 Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival will showcase a number of vehicles including the following: 

• 1899 Locomobile, an early steam-powered vehicle
• 1901 Columbia, an electric car which resembles an Amish buggy
• 1907 Franklin, featuring air-cooled engine
• 1911 EMF Stock Chassis Racer, which originally raced in the 1911 Tiedeman Cup in Savannah 

“Brass cars played a critical role in automotive history,” said Carolyn Vanagel, executive director of the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival. “We’re delighted to offer the opportunity to see some of the world’s best-known Brass Era Cars at close range and in an intimate setting.”

Brass Era cars originated as Americans and Europeans sought a new form of independent transportation, which could travel farther and faster than the conventional horse and carriage and could offer more freedom than train travel. Bicycle companies such as Rambler, Pierce Arrow and Thomas became some of the first automobile makers, applying their technical knowledge to innovative purpose. Influenced by carriage design, early automobiles featured spectacular paint, magnificent upholstery and ornate pin stripping. Their elegance reflected the distinction and superb taste of their owners. Fluent lines still speak today of the ingenuity, new ideas and bold experimentation utilized by their makers.

“They were the cars that truly set the bar for transportation,” said Gordon Matson, the owner of the 1911 EMF Stock Chassis Racer which will make a special appearance at the 2008 Concours event. “They’re charming looks serve as a reflection of the people who built them. They’re all about ingenuity, new ideas and experimentation.”

The centennial of the Great Savannah Races, a landmark 1908 racing event which served as the very first grand prix road race in the U.S., will also serve as a festival highlight in connection to the Honored Marque. In honor of this historic anniversary, antique cars, including some from the original race, will parade through the city streets of Savannah taking portions of the 1908 race route and will run exhibition laps at the Hilton Head/Savannah Historics on Hutchinson Island Friday, October 31.

Gate ticket prices are $15 for Thursday or Friday’s vintage track event, the Hilton Head/Savannah Historics, $25 for Saturday, $35 for Sunday, $50 for a two-day (Saturday & Sunday) pass and $55 for an all-access (Thursday – Sunday) pass. Children under 12 get in free, ages 12-18 are $5 per day (with student ID) and military (with an active duty I.D.) receive off general admission ticket prices at the gate. Advance discounted tickets are available at www.hhiconcours.com.

For more information about the 2008 Hilton Head Motoring Festival, please call (843) 785-SHOW (7469).

About The Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival

The Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival serves as the premier classic car event in the Southeast, attracting visitors from across the country. The Seventh Annual Hilton Head Motoring Festival, which will take place both at Roebling Road Roaceway in Bloomingdale, GA and at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island, S.C. from October 30-November 2, 2008, will feature an exciting schedule of races, a classic car auction, interactive exhibits, fashion and a revolving show field featuring over 150 muscle cars, hot rods and sports cars with a special feature of German cars on Saturday and vintage classics on Sunday in the centerpiece of the weekend-long festivities, the Concours d’Elegance. For a complete schedule of events, please visit www.hhiconcours.com online or call (843) 785-SHOW (7469).

Information courtesy of Abshire Public Relations

5K Run

Race through Bluffton on Saturday, Oct. 25 to benefit the water quality of the May River and the enhancement of the Bluffton Oyster Factory Park. To participate, download the PDF attachment “2008_5K_REG_FORM.pdf” elow and print it. The form has details about the race, including time, date and fees. Please fill it out and mail the form with your payment to:

Historic Bluffton 5K Run/Health Walk
c/o the Historic Bluffton Arts & Seafood Festival
P.O. Box 2648
Bluffton, SC 29910

Blessing of the Fleet

On The Water:

Please join us for the 3rd annual Bluffton Blessing of the Fleet & Boat Parade, the nautical component of the 2008 Historic Bluffton Arts & Seafood Festival. All members of the community are invited to enter their motorized vessels and take part in the parade “Bluffton style.” FREE registration and staging will take place starting at 12:00 noon at The Sandbar. The fleet will proceed toward the Church of the Cross at 2 P.M. to receive a group blessing at 2:30 by The Church of the Cross Pastor. Participants are encouraged to decorate their boats.

All participants will be required to observe event rules and sign a “Hold Harmless Agreement” (download below) prior to the start of the parade. For additional information, contact Cindy Brown, Bluffton Today Marketing Coordinator, 815-0833.

On The Land:

Please join us on the bluff at The Church of the Cross for an afternoon of Gospel Music, Great Food and the annual Blessing of the Fleet and Boat Parade. The food and festivities start at 2:00, blessing at 2:30, entertainment until 4:00. For additional information, contact Cindy Brown, Bluffton Today Marketing Coordinator, 815-0833

Information courtesy of Bluffton Today