REALTORS HAVE ALWAYS PRACTICED A CERTAIN POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, BECAUSE OF THE IMAGE THAT THEY WANT THEIR CLIENTS TO SEE.  SOME WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THEIR RELIGION.  SOME WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THEIR POLITICS.  SOME WILL NOT DRIVE A FOREIGN CAR.  IT IS TIME CLIENTS GET TO KNOW THE REAL REALTOR. I WANT MY BUYERS AND SELLERS TO KNOW WHO I AM: I AM A CHRISTIAN! i AM A CONSERVATIVE I MAY CHOOSE TO DRIVE A FOREIGN CAR, RATHER THAN A GM PRODUCT I AM AGAINST BIG GOVERNMENT I AM AGAINST ORGANIZED LABOR I AM AGAINST GOVERNMENT BAILOUTS I LOVE AMERICA AND ALL SHE USED TO STAND FOR. I WILL VOTE ON NOVEMBER 2, 2010 FOR THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT. I INVITE YOU TO JOIN ME.  10/25/2010

How can the SUPER BOWL coming to town in 2012 impact our neighborhoods?  Believe it or not, it is. Streets are prettier, flowers are being planted, all in preparation for the 2012 Super Bowl coming to Indianapolis.  Better yet.  Our near east side is being revitalized.  Homes are being rehabbed, as well as making them available to the homeless.  Everyone in the city is buzzing about how excited they are about our city being the host.  The ripple effect for our city is awesome.  Every city should host a super bowl every year.  Imagine how much could get done!! I guess it is all about not letting our visitors see our dirt.  We are putting our best foot forward. I will keep you posted on the future improvements from now to kickoff time.  10/25/2010

I Try so hard to express my opinion with my vote.  BUT this takes the cake, AND IS ONE MORE REASON FOR ME TO BLOW MY STACK.  (NEXT THING YOU KNOW THEY WILL EXTRACT MY ANGRY BUTTON)  In a USA TODAY article written by Larry Copeland  made my blood boil.  Under Federal Highway Administration rules, all communities have until 2015 to improve nighttime visibility of roadside signs, such as STOP, YIELD, and RAILROAD CROSSINGS.  All street signs must be changed from all capital letters to capital letters and small letters.  If these towns do not comply, they risk loss of federal funds. The federal government is not providing any funds for the change.  S U R P R I S E.  They have no money , plus it is our money that they took from us. THIS MANDATORY CHANGE COMES FROM OUR BIG BROTHER.  I fully u... 10/24/2010

 I think we all need to reflect on how each of us got into our own mess, whatever that may be.  UPSIDE DOWN MORTGAGE, HIGH CREDIT CARD DEBT, TO MUCH MONTH AT THE END OF THE MONEY.  My parents were newlyweds during the "Great Depression".  They learned their lesson.  We, on the other hand are just learning our lesson.  We all buy nice houses and pretty cars.  While we always thought our homes would appreciate forever, we still bought cars that depreciate as soon as we drive it off the lot.    How about those 3 or 4 credit cards that we just keep paying minimum payments(on time of course) and the bank offers us another $5,000 for being good.  What if we need a cash advance?  Then you pay the killer 22% interest until the complete balance is paid off.  None of anticipated that the money wo... 10/23/2010

Below is a quick 6-pack of buyer news, views, and information about Indianapolis foreclosures, short sales, and HUDs. 1.  Can the White House really put a moratorium on foreclosures? 2.  On average, home foreclosures sell for 26% less than other homes. 3.  What are the keys to a successful Indianapolis rental property business? 4.  Purchasing a HUD house can be a walk in the park, if you know what you are doing. 5.  Is investing in Indianapolis real estate right for me? 6.  Indianapolis home foreclosures can be the single best way to land an investment property at a significantly discounted price. Current market conditions make it an ideal time to land a bargain residential piece of property. While markets like Reno and Miami are struggling to rebound, Indianapolis has been named as one... 10/20/2010

If you are behind on your Indianapolis Real Estate, an Indianapolis IN Short Sale is something to consider.  A short sale is when a bank or mortgage lender agrees to take less than the mortgage balance owing due to an economic hardship on the part of the mortgagor. The home owner/debtor sells the mortgaged property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds of the sale to the lender. In this situation, the lender would have the right to approve or deny the proposed sale. Extenuating circumstances influence whether or not banks will allow an Indianapolis Short Sale. These circumstances are usually related to an individual borrower's financial situation. A short sale typically is executed to prevent a home from fully going through to foreclosure. Often... 10/18/2010

I guess I should begin with the actives, there are currently 43 homes on the market with "on Geist Reservoir" in their description.  Several of these are at Shorewalk and are condo's.  If you exclude those condo's, the price point of homes on Geist Reservoir for sale are between $525,000 and $5,500,000 (quite a range).  The actives have been on the market for an average of 150 days, so there should be some motivated sellers out there as we head into a colder season here in Indy. The newest listing is in Masthead on Spinnaker Court for $1,800,000 and was just listed on September 14th.  It has 6 bedrooms and 7 full baths and 2 half baths.  It is over 8,500 sq ft including the finished walk out basement.  There is an inground pool and stunning views of the lake. Of the 43 homes currently f... 10/14/2010

If you've been following the news at all, you know that in at least 23 states, including Indiana, foreclosure proceedings have been halted indefinitely. Naturally, this leaves a lot of people (me, for one!)  with a lot of questions. Beyond the obvious delays in closings, what does it all mean? The answer, it seems, is that no one quite knows. According to the National Association of REALTORS®: • There’s no way of knowing what percentage of foreclosures that were processed were inappropriately or wrongly taken. The assumption is that for the most of them, this may only be a technicality and that the property ultimately would have been repossessed. • For owners who believe that their home was wrongly foreclosed, they may wish to contact a real estate attorney to investigate the possibili... 10/14/2010

  Cream of the Crop, Bottom Feeder or Somewhere In Between? Why do some houses sell while others seem to forever linger in the sea of inventory?  Well, it seems there are several different levels to this sea of inventory in Indianapolis and buyers are either skimming off the cream or diving deep under and feeding on the bottom!   --  Everything in between is invisible! Levels of the Inventory Sea! Cream of the Crop...  Offer the most features, best price, best location, most updates, best finishes, best condition -- You get the idea!  They float along the top, waiting for buyers to quickly gobble them up! Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride...  Priced "About Right", consistently in buyers "Top 3", quite a few showings -- but never invited to "the big dance!" Close, but No Cigar...  S... 10/13/2010

Owen just loves football.  Look at that enthusiasm and excitement.  He can barely control himself as the Colts beat the Chiefs, 19-9!  This little black pug sort of blends into any dark background, so for a little better shot of that adorable, cute face, I will post a second shot here next to brother Grover.  Owen obviously not nearly as excited in the smaller photo. 10/10/2010

Broad Ripple Village Real Estate Market Report Following is the market report for the area known as Broad Ripple Village as of October 9th 2010. I did slap myself on the hand because I failed to post a market report for August.  I apologize.  If you are interested in August data, please feel free to contact me and I'll provide info regarding the number of sales, min/max price, and the condo vs. single family ratio.... September data, in many ways, looks much better than the July data.  The number of active and pending listings are up.  The sold listings showed a significant increase in sales price for both the minimum and maximum in the area over July.  In addition, there were also 50% more sales in September of this year than last year, in addition to a significant increase in sales p... 10/09/2010

We have this wonderful eclectic part of Indianapolis called Broad Ripple.  It has homes built in the 1920's to 1940's with wonderful character and style.  They typically have glass door knobs, arched doorways and built in china cabinets in the dining area.  They are usually somewhat small; maybe 1,000 sq ft.  Many are bungalows, but there are a few homes that are arts and crafts style, a few colonials and then... there are the Tudors. I have a client who bought a home several years ago based solely on the Tudor appearance of the home.  (Well maybe not solely, but huge plus for the home).  My client is a Humanitarian in the biggest sense of the word.  She adopts children who are unlikely to be adopted.  She currently has one that is terminal.  I could probably write a whole post on her h... 10/05/2010

For Indiana, the transition date was Sept. 13, 2010.  On that day new HUD Homes would become the responsibility of new asset management companies.  HMBI would no longer be managing HUD Homes.  They would phase out as the new companies would start their operations. This is not the first transition for sale of HUD Homes in Indiana.  InTown Management Group was the first private contractor assigned to manage and market HUD Homes in the late 1990's.  After a few months, HUD discontinued their contract and assigned those responsibilities to Golden Feather Realty.  Then a few years later, HMBI became the contractor for Indiana.  Now we are in another transition. In each of the prior transition periods there was a period of time where there was no new activity.  In this case, there are still a... 10/01/2010

I love to stop and get flowers for my wife.  It doesn't happen as much as it should, but when I do... I stop in at Gillespie Florists on the westside of Indianapolis.  Before I ever stepped foot in their store I knew that I would like their services.  I thought to myself, they must be pretty cool if they promote their twitter account on their main sign out front.  I wasn't disappointed on my first visit to the shop. I was able to meet a number of the awesome staff and even welcomed into the cooler to see all the fresh flowers they had available.  I love the fact that I can either pick up a pre-made bouquet or I can go into the cooler and hand-pick a custom bouquet with the help of their staff!   If you're looking for an Indianapolis Florist then Gillespie Florists are THE place to go! G... 09/29/2010

Searching for a new home in Geist can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to town.  I have had out of town clients in my car that fiddle with the map to try to get their bearings.  We have some very winding roads such as Fall Creek as well as different ways to see Geist Reservoir that can confuse people.  But usually when clients drive through different neighborhoods, they will say, I love this neighborhood at some point.  It is like Property Virgins where Sandra Rinomato takes her clients to their favorite neighborhood (which is always more than they can afford) to understand what they like about the properties. Wouldn't it be great to be able to search by neighborhood so that if you LOVE Admirals Landing or Feather Cove  you could just search in those neighborhoods.  As a Ge... 09/29/2010

If you are a lender doing a lot of Streamlined "k" loans then you might consider our latest version of the 203k 2010 software as it can manage up to five contractors for you and simplify your life while streamlining your processing. In 2005 when the streamlined k was introduced it was to cut into the 203k consultant's work and save those pennies that a consultant makes on a project but it apparently has backfired a little in too many going south or actually finding out too late in the process that it isn't even a streamlined loan but there are structural issues that surround it that make it a Full 203k loan instead.  This year we have had a few that we were called out on that were thought to be streamlined k loans that during the inspection process were found to have structural issues t... 09/29/2010

“It’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time, so stop worrying what other people think and do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do.” Deb Ivarsson I sometimes forget the part about worry about what other people think for a moment, but I normally go for it anyway in spite of that, as I like going for things, from the heart.     “In life, what happens to you isn't as important as what happens in you.”  Unknown   This completely has to do with the heart, and coincides with the thoughts above.       “Imagination is the most powerful force in the universe.”  Albert Einstein   09/27/2010

Considering Moving up to a New Home in Indianapolis?  It's Time to Take the Plunge! It's a fantastic time to consider moving up!  In fact we're surprised more people aren't taking advantage of this "perfect storm" for move-up buyers in the Indianapolis area.  Here are some things to keep in mind about the current market: - Homes  for sale that are in excellent condition, show really nice and are priced appropriate for the local Indianapolis market are selling - With interest rates at a record low - many people can buy significantly more house for the same monthly payment as they could, even just a year or two ago, when rates were say 6%. On a $300,000 mortgage the payment at 4% the monthly P&I is $1432, at 6% that same mortgage is $1799. That's $367 every month for as long as you own th... 09/23/2010

As of the most recent data available, there are only 315 HUD Homes available in the state of Indiana, as the transition to new asset management companies continues. About a month ago, there were over 650 HUD Homes available.  Over this past weekend there were 461 HUD Homes shown as being available in Indiana through HMBI.  By Monday night that number had decreased to 407 homes.  As of Wednesday evening the number is now down to 315 homes. Currently ALL of these homes are available for sale to either investors or owner-occupants.  It is uncertain at this point in time when new listings will be available. At that time, there will be increased owner-occupant priority periods or most of these homes, increasing from ten days to thirty days. For any questions about Indianapolis HUD Homes and ... 09/22/2010

Smithsonian Magazine has arranged for free admission to over 1,000 museums across the United States on Museum Day, September 25, 2010.  In order to gain free admission for two, you must register for tickets at the Smithsonian Magazine website. Here is a list of the participating museums in the Indianapolis area including Hamilton County: Conner Prairie 13400 Allisonville Rd., Fishers, IN 46038 317-776-6006 Indiana Historical Society 450 W. Ohio St, Indianapolis, IN 46202 317-232-1882 Indianapolis Museum of Art 4000 Michigan Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46208 317-923-1331 President Benjamin Harrison Home 1230 N. Delaware, Indianapolis IN 46202 317-631-1888 The Museum of Miniature Houses and Other Collections 111 E Main St., Carmel, IN 46032 317-576-9466 In order to get tickets for Museum day for... 09/21/2010