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I receive newsletters from Jeff Teplitz, a Mortgage Consultant for National City Mortgage in Burlington VT. I found this one to be of particular interest, so I thought I would pass it on. If you are looking for more information, Jeff’s contact information is below.

FHA Changes:

The following changes look like they will take effect with the passing of the FHA bill in Congress.
1. Minimum Investment will increase from 3% to 3.5% with the current maximum loan amount calculations being simplified. This money does not have to come from the borrowers own saved funds. It can still be a gift.

2. The down payment assistance program which currently allows the seller to donate money to a non profit which in turn gifts the money to the purchaser in essence allowing for no money to come from the borrower will be eliminated as of October 1. Loans will have to be approved by September 30th. There’s still time to utilize this program so get motivated sellers within the $317k sales range to take advantage of it. (more…)

On Saturday, July 12, I will be walking 20k in the 27th Annual Prouty Bike Ride & Challenge Walk to raise money for cancer research at Dartmouth’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Unfortunately, we all know someone – a family member, friend, colleague, parent, child – who has been affected by this disease. Truly, cancer does not discriminate.

To participate in The Prouty, I’ve committed to raising $2500 towards cancer research. It is my personal goal to raise even more and I hope you can help! You can sponsor me right now by clicking on the website listed below. All donations are tax deductible and should be turned in by July 9.

Money raised by The Prouty stays locally to support cancer research and patient services at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. It’s one of the best cancer facilities in the country and has been named one of only 41 Comprehensive Cancer Centers by the National Cancer Institute. Research conducted here helps cancer patients all over the world. If you’d like more information on the research done here, go to www.cancer.dartmouth.edu.

If you prefer to send a check, you can make it payable to Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center and mail it to Friends of NCCC, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756. Make sure that you indicate that it’s for my walk by placing my name in the memo area of the check.

Thank you in advance for joining the fight!

Together, I know we can make a difference in the fight against cancer. Thank you for your support!

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center

Peggy Smith

I thought you might like to read this article and the comments. Although I am happy that Obama got the nomination, I think this is a very telling article as to where women really are today. It is appalling to me that the news media treated Hilary Clinton as they did. It is also disappointing that so many men and women still have the attitude they do toward women and their place in society. Other nation, including the Arab world, has more respect for women as leaders than the United States.

Please click here to read the article “Woman in Charge, Women Who Charge” by Judith Warner.

Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my friend that died from ALS. I have never known anyone with this disease. My friend was also my lawyer and we saw each other everyday for 20 years as we worked in the same building. He was diagnosed with this disease back in November. It was hard for me not to want to say, “oh I am sure there will be some drug that they can give you to make you better.” I think he kept hoping for the miracle, but none came. Over a five month period I watched as he lost a little bit of himself each week until he could not eat, speak or move a finger. It was more than I could bare to see my friend trapped in his body, still with eyes that recognized you but no ability to tell you.

I thought during these moments when I would visit him, there was not much I could say to him to comfort him. Even reporting the news, or talking about some real estate problem seemed ridiculous when I am sure these worldly problems seemed trivial to him. But what I mostly thought about was Vermont’s struggle to bring about the ” Death with Dignity Law.” If ever there was a time where this law would have been a blessing for my friend, this was it.

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Check out the newest book from Amazon: The Kindle.

If you don’t have one of these you are missing the best thing ever. This was the only thing I had on my Christmas list and they are so in demand that I did not get it until the middle of February. I am an avid reader and when I go on vacation my suitcase is heavy because I take so many books. I never have enough books and many times I am in countries where it is difficult to get English books;when you do find them, they are what I call “airplane novels.”

When I clicked on Amazon.com to order books for Christmas presents last December ,the above ad was on the home page. Shortly after that, I read a review of the Kindle by someone that bought one. It compared it to the Sony E book and the Kindle came out top over all E books.

Here are a few features that I find amazing:

1. You have a large selection of font sizes for every ones preference.

2.The books are sent to you over a cell line, not an internet line. This has advantages and disadvantages. As long as you are within cell service you can receive books, newspapers and magazines. However, the cell service that Amazon uses does not work at my house, even if my cellphone does. It does work in the village of Stowe so all I need to do is drive downtown, turn on my Kindle and whatever I ordered is there.

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I have to say it has been awhile since I have written in my blog. The Fall flew by and real estate in Stowe continued to sell which shows that Vermont is somewhat insulated from the rest of the country. I thought you might find this article interesting. It gives a great perspective. I hope ou all have a wonderful holiday and the best news of all is that THERE IS SNOW IN STOWE!

I recently came across this article by Bernice Ross, it gives an outlook on Real Estate in 2008. I thought I would share it with you. Please read on…

Outlook for Real Estate in 2008 

In all the years I’ve been writing this column, I have never received such an outpouring of response as I did from the two November articles on how media coverage of negative housing news is hurting our industry.

In spite of gloom and doom of recent news reports on the state of the nation’s housing, there is plenty of good news, the most recent of which comes from the National Association of Realtors.

Laurence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, had plenty of positive news for Realtors at last month’s conference. Yun attributed much of today’s subprime mortgage problem to greed. Wall Street wanted the 10-12 percent return that subprime mortgages yielded as opposed to the smaller returns from more traditional mortgage products. His take on the Wall Street types: “They gambled. They lost.”

Yun’s outlook for 2008 sees a shift from greedy speculators to serious homeowners. 2008 will be a year of opportunity where there will be serious, healthy business. Furthermore, Yun predicted that the market returns to normal by 2009. (more…)

As a REALTOR in Vermont, I hear more and more about Green building. I recently came across an article on RISMedia addressing the issue: “Real Estate Industry Leaders, USGBC Discuss Next-Generation ‘Green Buildings’”

The sum up the issue well in this statement: “Green building has moved from a frill, to a necessity,…”

Interested in reading more? Click here to read the full article.