Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

Bay Shore/ Bay Shore Schools

4 Bedroom 2 Full Bath Cape. View this home HERE

Dix Hills 5 Bedroom French Colonial For sale

Visit this link to view this 5 bedroom colonial located in Half Hollow Hills school district on over an acre HERE

A very good and easily navigated site to learn the best steps to take to obtain any type of home loan

I love this site. Clients and friends interested in securing home loans have found it both informative and easy to use. I believe that your first step should be to take a look HERE

And then call me to find your next home

Housing Recovery?

According to the latest breakdown of sales prices and sales volumes, it is clear that the entry level sales are strong in comparison to last year, but the "moving up" sector sales are in trouble:

• Houses Priced $0-$100,000 - Sales rose by 20.9%

• Houses Priced $100,000-$250,000 - Sales roseby 4.9%

• Houses Priced $250,000-$ 500,000 - Sales fellby 9.6%

• Houses Priced $750,000-$1 million - Sales fellby 22.5%


In my opinion these figures tell us people aren't moving "up" as they leave their lower priced homes. They are either moving to renting or back to mom & dad. Until the lower end begins to feed the higher end, overall sales figures are a bit deceiving and we have a ways to go.
These are the national numbers but the general trend is true here on Long Island as well. Bottom line is that competition amongst sellers above the $4000,000 mark here is fierce and you'd better be priced well in that sector to get your house sold.

Top 10 Home-Selling Mistakes

HGTV’s FrontDoor.com identified what it believes to be the top 10 home-selling mistakes.

10. Waiting until spring to sell. People buy homes all year, so play up the home’s seasonal amenities and take advantage of serious buyers looking in the off-season.

9. Not understanding the real estate contract. Go over the fine print of the agreement with your real-estate agent or attorney before signing to make sure you understand your responsibilities as well as any demands the buyer has made.

8. Going it alone without researching first. Selling a home for-sale-by-owner take time, and requires you to do paperwork, marketing and showings. Make sure you’re up for the work involved in return for saving on the real-estate agent commission fee.

7. Ignoring lowball offers. If buyers submit a low offer, don’t reject it completely. Counteroffer to see if they are willing to negotiate.

6. Wasting time on an unqualified buyer. Make sure a potential buyer is prequalified for a loan before accepting an offer.

5. Skimping on marketing. Mix traditional advertising, including a sign in the yard and an ad in a homes magazine, with Web techniques, including online photos and video.

4. Sabotaging the showing. Leave the home when it is being shown to prospective buyers so they can more easily focus, and make sure the home is accessible w! ith convenient showing hours and a lockbox for agents.

3. Not prepping for the sale. Visit open houses in the neighborhood to get a sense of what the competition offers, then make fixes and updates, declutter and clean to outshine them.

2. Overimproving. Don’t make so many upgrades that you price your home out of the appropriate range for the area and fail to recoup your investment.

1. Overpricing. Your home should be priced in line with homes in the area that are of similar age, style and size.

Kitchen and Bath renovation is the #1 value adding investment for your home

Updated, beautiful, well designed kitchens and baths are always a great way to increase the value of your home. This designer is the best on the Island.

Please visit their site by clicking HERE