Safe Haven is having a fundraiser this weekend at the Wake Forest Walmart and are asking shoppers to pick up a little something extra for the 100+ cats and kittens in their care.   The event will be this Saturday, August 28, 2010 from 8 am to 5 pm – Come help us Fill A Truck for homeless cats and kittens!  Will you help them? 

Safe Haven’s Wish List

Dave Ramsey Is Coming to Raleigh, October 16, 2010

Are you a fan of Dave Ramsey?  His financial peace message is definitely something that everyone should hear.  It will change your life and give you such a different outlook on the way we all live.   We are excited to be partnering with WPTF to bring Dave ’s Total Money Makeover Live Event to Raleigh on October 16 and will be giving away tickets to the event on our Linda Craft Team facebook fan page and at a Live Ticket Drawing with WPTF here at our Raleigh Real Estate office on Six Forks Road,  October 1 at 5:00 pm.

Have a great week!

Greater Raleigh Area Time Warner New Channel Guide Effective June 2010

As far as I  know any shows that you normally record would transition without any problems, however, I would doublecheck to make sure.

Hope you have a great rest of your week!

Linda

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!

Hi Linda,

I have talked to my mother and she is so indecisive I am not sure how to push her forward at this point. She doesn’t feel that she knows where to go and doesn’t know how to go about making the decision. She feels that she needs to make a decision on where to go before going forward. I try to provide help but she is very hard to deal with. She needs to be gone from that house!

Bill  

Parents Need Help and Time to Process a Major Change

I wrote back:

Hi Bill,

In my experience with situations like this all elderly parents and especially moms have to know where they are going before they can take this leap of faith. Older people really have a hard time with change and this is her nest where she feels safe. Help her get rid of stuff. She is overwhelmed with how to physically move and everything she parts with she will need to grieve. It is part of letting go. If she is giving her extra things to family members to enjoy she will feel good about letting them go. She will feel she is helping and providing which meets the motherly need in her. If she has to take her life long positions to the Goodwill or dump she feel wasteful and have a hard time letting things go. Help her get rid of things in positive way.

I would also suggest that you take her to visit her choices. Hopefully she will see the fun she can have there instead of being alone. She needs to have a goal she is excited about to work towards because this is going to be a lot of emotional and physical work for her. The unknown is not going to get her motivated. She needs to see her new life.

Hope this helps.

Linda

So What Happened?

Hi Linda,

Again I think you are right on target. It is like the Lord intervened as the day after you sent your email a woman who lived behind my mother and who had been friendly with my mother for years emailed and asked what she could do to help. I sent your email to her and she said she will do what she can. She is younger by far than my Mother’s other friends who can’t do much to help her. I don’t have much ability to deal with it being an only child and three hours away with a disabled wife and two dogs to take care of so I really need someone in the area to help her. Hopefully this woman will be able to be a catalyst to get things moving.

Bill

Linda Craft’s Raleigh Real Estate office is a bustle of activity today as she and her team pass out a truckload of Apple and Pumpkin Thanksgiving Pies to their past clients.   Linda and the team wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a safe holiday weekend.

As parents we teach our children to never take candy or get into a car with a stranger. Yet everyday around the world strangers call into real estate offices and ask the eager 100% sales commission based real estate agent to meet them at a house so they can see it. What happened from childhood to adulthood that we forgot the lessons our parents taught us?

This month in the Greater Raleigh Area, a female real estate agent was held at knife point and raped in a vacant new home. Every year somewhere in the country reports are sent from the National Association of REALTORS and local real estate board office telling of another tragic story of rape, robbery or murder. Last year a female agent who was raped and stabbed multiple times survived because she was wearing a Blue Tooth and had enough strength left to reach her ear piece and press the button for 911. Many REALTORS rushed out to buy Blue Tooths for a new level of protection. I think they missed the main lesson and that is how many violent crimes occur against REALTORS. It is amazing to me how all of these reports of real estate agent found dead in basements and robbed at open houses we  still meet strangers at houses and the parents who warn their own children never talk to strangers expect us to do it and get mad when we say no.

As an Real Estate Industry Our Home Showing Practices Need to Change

Everyday in Raleigh the telephone rings  into real estate offices where people are out in front of a home for sale and they want to know if someone will show them the home. When we tell the prospective home buyer our company policy is to meet in our office first, qualify them financially, copy their driver’s license, make an appointment with the seller to view the home and then drive them to the property for the showing they feel it is a waste of their time and are insulted by our protective measures.  As you read this blog ask yourself…would I be insulted if a REALTOR said they wouldn’t show me a home unless I first went through that sort of security screening? Of course you would be insulted. You are  in a hurry, you are not a bad person, you are a serious home buyer being treated like a criminal. You will hang up the phone and call another real estate agent who gladly put their life at risk for a chance at a small commission. Pop Tart REALTORS is what I call them. They pop out of the chair and speed off to a vacant house to meet an unqualifed stranger. When you think about this common occurance, isn’t is kind of crazy thing to do?

As Experienced Real Estate Agents We Need to Help Safeguard Our Newer Associates

Last week I had one of my young new REALTORS all excited becasue she had gotten a call from a  Doctor who wanted to see a 2 million dollar estate home in Raleigh. He had found it on my web site www.lindacraft.com.  All she could see in her mind was the big commission she would earn if this Doctor bought it. As a 24 year veteran real estate agent here in Raleigh all I could see was danger. I asked her are you meeting him in the office? Yes, she replied.  Have you Googled him and checked LinkedIn as I asked? Yes, she couldn’t find him was her answer. Have you requested a letter from a lender or banker showing proof of funds for purchase? No, she meekly confessed and then quickly asked what if he gets mad. Where I responed, if he has money he will understand and be proud to show you his financial strength. If he doesn’t he will get mad and you will never hear from him again. Either way you have your answer. As she dialed his number to make the requests I emailed my fellow members in the Triangle Luxury Home Marketing Group to see if any of them had encountered a Doctor with this name. Within 10 minutes 2 emails popped into my account with warnings to stay away. He isn’t a doctor, lives in an $80,000 town house and has no money. We had our answer and our seller didn’t waste their time and interrupt their life.

Let’s Stand Together and Change Our Ways

Everyday in the world of Raleigh real estate someone is posing to be a buyer when they are not, sellers are also told to vacate their house during all home showings and real estate agents heed no safety warnings even after reading graphic details from stories of other victoms. Something has to be done to change this system. Real estate agents need to remember their Mother’s warnings and the world needs to understand how dangerous it is to demand REALTORS to meet strangers at a home for sale.   The National Association of REALTORS is the largest association in the world. It is time to commit together to change a system that has been broken from day one.

Linda

Triangle, Raleigh, Cary, Apex and RTP Job Listings and Links

If you are looking for full-time employment, please check out the Triangle and Greater Raleigh area employment information and links page on our website.    We have strived to list as many links as possible.   Do you have any recommendations of sites of other sites we should add?

Have a great day-

Linda

Here is a quick tip that will help ease your mind and take some of the work and panic out of the process.

Go to your nearest copy machine today. Open up your wallet and copy the front and back side of everything in it. Put the copies in a safe place such as a locked file cabinet or safety deposit box. If you lose your wallet it won’t be fun but, you will be able to protect yourself quickly and rebuild the contents without losing sleep over what you may have forgotten.

If your wallet or purse is stolen or lost for an added measure of protection you can also do the following:

1. File a police report in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc were lost or stolen. This prove to the credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first stip toward an investigation if there is one.

2. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizatons to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the social security fraud line. Placing this alert means all creditors will have to contact you before they can authorize new credit.

a. Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

b. Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

c. Tran Union: 1-800-680-7289

d. Social Security Administration fraud line: 1-800-269-0271

I hope this never happens to you but, sooner or later it probably will. I have had a car stolen with my purse in it and my car broken into on vacation and my purse was stolen out of it. I’ve learned the hard way to  never leave my purse in the car and I have a copy of my wallets content locked in a safe place just in case I drive off from a gas station pump and leave my wallet on top of the car like one of my employees did last week.

Linda

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