Sally Hardman's (sally3) Blog

A REALTOR® friend of mine has developed a new genre in real estate---sale of mobile homes.  She started when a friend of hers had a "trailer" in the one and only trailer park (for that matter the only place mobile homes are allowed on St. Simons Island) complete with a plastic pink flamingo in th...

Waiting to hear more from Presidential candidates on the Mortgage Mess . . . In light of the new House bill Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act that will waive taxes on mortgage debts forgiven to homeowners, I suspect the candidates soon be presenting their positions on attempting to fix the fo...

In light of the world's recent loss of Pavarotti, check out this new rising opera talent!I recently had some British guests that put me on to an event that occurred during the Summer in England.  It is a show called Britain's Got Talent, somewhat on the order of the show Americans know as America...

COPPER IS A VALUABLE METAL, TOO!In our local newspaper we were made aware of a commodity that thieves are currently trying to steal---it’s copper. With the value of copper weighing in at $3/lb. local robbers have gone so far as to strip the copper tubing and wiring from outside air handlers and ...

TAX CHANGES ON CAPITAL GAINS FOR 2ND HOMES & EXCHANGES Changes are in the offing for how sellers are taxed on capital gains on their property.  The bill the House has just passed is called the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 or H.R. 3648. The bill's purpose is to give homeowners losi...

Starting 10/1/07, passport laws changed once again.  The Dept. of Homeland Security had allowed thru September 30th a return to the US if you could prove that you had applied for your passport.  The temporary Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (better known as WHTI) allowed people traveling to ...

In this day of discount brokerage, is there anyone else out there who thinks they are worth the commission charged doing their job?  In our area, cutting commission seems to have become extremely commonplace, and that practice makes it more difficult for others to hold firm to their charge for se...

Setting a realistic market price for a property is most important if we plan to move it in a reasonable amount of time.  Sometimes coming up with a CMA from our local MLS system info is a challenge when there has not been a lot of activity in a given area and we have to go research further into p...

Do you ever go to an open house or a showing at a property and wonder why the property is being shown in the present condition?  If a property is in need of some renovation or cosmetic fluff, it would definitely behoove the owner to get it done PRIOR to putting the home on the market.  In my expe...

In our local area, each Saturday the newspaper advertises the foreclosures for one month prior to a property being foreclosed on by the lending institution or individual holding the mortgage.  This Saturday’s paper had 22 columns of foreclosures noted in our relatively small area!  In pondering ...