Join Linda Craft & Team, REALTORS and other sponsors for the 21st annual Bark Around the Park – Event for the Whole Family!

You and your dog will enjoy:
*    Dog Bone Hunts
*    Doggie Olympics    
*    Dog Show
*    Agility and Obedience Demonstrations
*    Numerous booths showcasing the latest in pet care and products

Saturday, April 17, 2010
12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Millbrook Exchange Park
1905 Spring Forest Road
Raleigh, 27615

Overflow parking is available next door at Millbrook High School.

Be sure to stop by the Linda Craft & Team, REALTORS booth – our favorite part of the day is catching up with friends like you!

I remember when my daughter Kelly attended Wake County schools and the fun we had shopping for new clothes and school supplies each year. Today preparing for back to school has become more complicated.  There are so many things to keep up with and many of you have children in elementary, middle and high. 3 schedules, 3 schools. WOW, I only had one to keep up with!

Because of all the frequent school changes that take place every year I have updated my website to provide one stop shopping for parents looking for information to balance a hectic schedule.   We have the latest in school information and childcare. If you know of anyone else that could benefit from this resource please pass it on.

Wake County Schools, Bus Routes, Daycare, Track Out information and more, found on LindaCraft.com

• Ability to search by zipcode for local daycares and child care providers.  See their star ratings, comments and general information. 
• Information on Project Enlightenment and Special Needs Services educational options
• The ability to search for Wake County base school information by street name and house number 
• The 2009-2010 early release schedule
• 2009-2010 Wake County Bus Route Information
• Resources for Homeschooling in North Carolina
• Private and Charter School Information
• Wake County Magnet school information, including the ability to search by city and grade
• Orange County, Johnston County, Durham County, Chatham County and Chapel Hill, Carborro School Systems and much more. 

Our team’s goal is to make your life easier as a parent.   We also offer other family resources including information on Raleigh, Cary, Clayton and Wake Forest  parent groups, moving checklists for kids and much more. 

Ahhhh school days… I miss the bus stop where all the mother’s gather with a cup of coffee in their hand. Enjoy the moments, they grow up so soon.

Linda

When Raleigh real estate was booming, couples who divorced would fight over who got to keep the house. Each one expecting the winner could get rich from the rapidly appreciating Raleigh home prices. With the downturn in the real estate market couples are now fighting about how to dispose of their homes without both sides losing more than the marriage.

Raleigh Real Estate Marital Asset not Always an Asset

In an appreciating market it is easy to sell a home  and split the proceeds allowing you to move on with your new life. It was also easy to refinance your Triangle property or take out a home equity line of credit and buy the other party out. Today’s lending guidelines have tightened, appraisals are no longer inflatable and the residential property has become a new major battle ground. Raleigh real estate is a hot potato neither spouse wants to hold on to.

Falling Raleigh Home Values Spell Trouble

Home prices across the country have fallen the past 24 months. Raleigh has not been hit as hard as some parts of the country but, the Triangle market is down and for many couples divorcing find themselves upside-down and facing another stress they had no way to predict.

We walk down the aisle, buy our first home together and believe our marital bliss will last forever. 60% of all marriages fail, 70% of all second marriages fail, if you add those percentages to the falling home prices it spells TROUBLE! Many couples facing divorce are finding themselves “upside-down” on their home mortgage. Meaning they owe more for the Raleigh home than it can sell for in today’s real estate market. If they bought their Raleigh home in the past two years and need to sell it now,  they are in trouble. If they refinanced in the past 3 or 4 years and took their equity out, they are in trouble. If they took out a home equity line to pay off credit cards, go on vacation or buy a new car, they are in trouble. Many Raleigh homeowners facing divorce are in financial trouble. Divorce has enough stress and heartache of it’s own, now it has the negative effect of  home equity to factor too.

Divorcing Raleigh Homeowners Have Options

In the past, the spouse keeping the home would refinance the home mortgage under his or her name. But if their home is worth less than your mortgage balance, you can’t refinance without coming up with a lot of cash. Many couples are abandoning their homes to foreclosure and damaging their credit for years to come. Others are living together as “platonic roommates” confusing distraught children and keeping everyone from healing and moving on. Some couples continue to share the mortgage payment and are waiting for the market to return. Depending upon how upside-down the mortgage is this could take years of payments. While all of these are options there are others that may be better and should be explored as well.

More Raleigh Home Options

Another  home option is contacting your bank to see if they would allow you to negotiate a loan modification so you can keep the house with a more affordable payment. The other is renting your investment and waiting for it to be sold at a later date when the market is more favorable towards profit. When people are stuck in a house, so much gets put on hold and peace of mind is a lot more important than a piece of land. If all else fails and the marriage and Raleigh home can not be saved the best solution is a short sale. To learn more about dissolving a marital asset through short sale.

If you have any further questions or need help in navigating a sale after separation and divorce, please call me at 919.235.0007. 

Linda

Hi Friends,

Every year I attend a Real Estate Conference called Star Powers. Howard Brinton is the founder of this organization and he is an amazing man because he not only trains Real Estate Agents to grow as professionals he empowers them to make the world a better place too. At the conference this year in Orlando, he shared a great idea we can use with children to plant positive seeds in them so they have a better future. If there is a child in your life that is special you might want to try this.

Here’s an easy tip to give a child a bright future…

There is a little 5 year old boy that Howard sees regularly. He told the little boy that if every time he sees him the boy will come up to him and say  “I am the best” five times that he will give him $5,00 for his college fund. When the little boy sees Howard he says: “Hey Howard, I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best. They have a box marked college fund and Howard pulls $5.00 out of his pocket and puts it in the box. I have a feeling this little boy will grow up to be the best. What do you think of this idea?

Linda Craft

Today would have been my dad’s 70th birthday. It is easy for me to count the years because he died the same year I got my real estate license, 1985. I called my father at our Indiana home, to wish him a happy 56th birthday. Mom was fixing dinner and my brother, his wife and 10 year old son was at the house preparing to enjoy my mothers amazing cooking. I could hear the happiness in Dad’s voice that his grandson was there, and everyone else too. It was a good last day for him. The next morning he was alone in his office and peacefully died of a heart attack.

I know each of you have your own stories like this one. When this happens to us we come face to face with the reality that life is short and unpredictable and we should not take it for granted. I know because of this lesson I have learned to always tell my husband I love him with every good bye and to take a moment to give my adoring dogs a quick rub behind the ear before I walk out the door.

Yesterday one of my employees walked into my door to tell me her dad was being flown into a Delaware hospital. She said; “They think he has a brain tumor and is hemorrhaging in his brain”. I told her to pack up and go immediately. She said she wanted to wait until he got there to find out what was going on. Her sister was with him and her brother lives close by too. She would leave in the morning. I walked into my office the next day and there she was! I said, “What are you doing here?” hoping Dad was fine and it wasn’t a brain tumor. She said; “I have one of our sellers coming into sign their closing docs and I wanted to get this completed before I left.” I appreciate her dedication and know she is very committed to our Team and every customer we have, but this one blew me away. I took a deep breath and calmly said; “Debra, we can take care of this, you need to go”. She insisted and said her husband was picking her up at 11:00 and they would hit the road. I know everyone has different ways of dealing with shock. I could only assume that she needed the distraction and the comfort her friends at work would provide her. We all spoke to her throughout the day as she and her husband was traveling through the traffic jams of Richmond and DC. Last night at 7:00 I called her and she was 15 minutes from the hospital and dad was still alive. Thank God! If you believe in prayer would you lift a few up for Debra and her dad? Thanks.

My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in October. This is a big deal since we have both failed at marriage before. We have now broken all records by four years and still really love each other and like being together. That in itself is amazing and it is time to celebrate big! We both agree we need to go somewhere special but, I have a really hard time taking off of work. A weekend feels like a week and a week feels like a month for me. I can take off an afternoon and feel like I have had an entire weekend to refresh. I get bored really easy and love being busy. He’s thinking we should get away for two or three weeks and I am starting to have a panic attack at the thought. I know I need to get over it and just do it and I will, but where to go and what to do. Do you have any ideas?

Jay also reminds me regularly that we have never gone on a vacation. I disagree. We travel two to four times per year to wonderful cities like New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, and San Francisco because we get to go together to real estate conferences several times per year. We always take an extra day or two to play while we are there. He says that does not count? What do you think? Is he right? I think it is a vacation with a legal tax write off and I love it. It fits right in to my practical nature and multi tasking personality. I want to be busy and he wants to have no plans and is happy doing nothing this is why the thought of two or three weeks is throwing me into a panic.

When we have this discussion about vacations and who is right and who is wrong I made the mistake of reminding him that our honeymoon was a vacation. We went on a 7 day cruise and spent several days in Florida at Disney World. He was quick to remind me that the cruise also had 8 hours of Continuing Education that we both attended so I could write off our honeymoon. Then he adds that we also visited my mother while we were in Florida too. I was speechless because I knew he was totally right on that one. I really believed our honeymoon was a vacation.

One place I know we have to go is Italy. Jay loves Italian food and wine and he has taught himself Italian from tapes. (I am not kidding; he used tapes in his car) He speaks Italian very well. With the dollar being so bad it doesn’t seem like a wise time to go overseas. Then Jay comes home this week from his Continuing Education class and hands me a flyer on a Mediterranean cruise to Italy and Spain. It departs in October and has 8 hours of Continuing Education being taught on the ship again. Wow this seems very tempting to me. 10 years later we could take another cruise where we get our CE, I get a tax write off, Jay goes to Italy and a cruise allows me to be busy and Jay do nothing if he chooses. What do you think? Do we book it? Is this a win win for both husband and wife? Or do we go to Hawaii or Bermuda, some lost island I have never heard of. What do you think? Help me plan a great 10 year anniversary for October. I think I can handle 10 days to 2 weeks without needing drugs and a straight jacket. It is mindset and I am getting there. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.