Get Your Hot Beef Sundae!

With eleven-days of fabulous fun, the Nebraska State Fair is one of the biggest events in Nebraska. In fact, the fun is so huge, immense, and vast; you can’t fit it all in one day. So plan to visit often and stay all day.

Animal Displays & Exhibits
Want to see the animals? Find out which steer took the blue ribbon? Watch draft horses compete? Every kind of animal that you see on a Nebraska farm and ranch that moos, neighs, clucks or whinnies is here at the Nebraska State Fair. Come see the livestock exhibits and even take in a competition show.

Carnival & Rides
Step right up! Take a twirl on the Mighty Bluegrass rides, win a giant stuffed animal, and have lots of fun on the midway.

Concerts & Shows
See popular performers, family favorites, blasts from the past, hometown favorites and exciting up-and-comers entertain on the various entertainment stages.

Contests
Watch, participate, or compete in contests! The Nebraska State Fair offers all kinds of contests, tournaments, championships, and games that are open to the general public.

Displays & Exhibits
Discover our great indoors. The State Fair’s indoor exhibits showcase home arts, fine arts, photography, garden and more! Plus, don’t forget to check out the many exhibits outside too!

Entertainment & Attractions
Enjoy an exciting range of grounds entertainment, mobile tours, strolling acts, and attractions that are designed to delight minds young and old.

Festivals & Special Events
Come one or bring the family for one of the numerous daily festivals or special events offered at the Nebraska State Fair. Special music, performances, and activities are planned on each special day.

Grandstand Events
Experience the thrills and chills of the grandstand and coliseum entertainment.

Interactive Education
Discover and be challenged at the interactive education activities that will teach through hands-on experiences.

Kidz Zone
Visit the Kidz Zone and enjoy family fun for kids of all ages. Great games, creative crafts, amazing prizes, marvelous entertainment, and fun for the entire family! There is something for everyone in the Kidz Zone.

Parades & Marching Bands
Enjoy the daily parades and the best high school marching bands perform daily! Hoot, cheer, clap, and celebrate Nebraska’s talent.

Presentations, Demonstrations & Sampling
Be prepared to be amazed, educated, and challenged with the numerous learning demonstrations and presentations. Learn a new recipe. Find out why your tree is turning a weird color. Discover new ways to arrange plants. Who needs home or personal improvement television shows when you experience it first-hand?

Don't miss Bill's Favorite: The Hot Beef Sundae!!!

For a full schedule of events visit: http://www.statefair.org/fair/

Thinking of selling? Is the security of your property worth fifty bucks to your agent?

Is protecting the security of my clients worth the extra expense of an electronic lockbox? In my book, of course it is but there are still many agents in town that almost exclusively utilize the push button or combo lockboxes.

Think about this scenario: when an agent calls to make an appointment and the house has a combination lockbox, where do you think the agent will write down the code? They write it on the agent printout of the house of course. How hard do you think it would be for an unscrupulous ‘buyer’ to peer over the shoulder of the agent to see what the code is? Not too difficult. I once saw an MLS property printout tossed into a gas station garbage can WITH the code scribbled right on top.

One of the push-button styles has 10 buttons on it, 1-9 and 0. An odd fact about that particular lockbox is that it doesn’t matter which order you punch in your numbers, it’s a simple depressed button mechanism that releases the lock. If your code is 4231; the box could be opened with 1234, 1243, etc. It reminds me of a funny story. Several years ago, I had an appointment to see a house and was not notified that it had a coded box on it. Here we are on the porch, it was cold out, after office hours, and the agent didn’t answer her phone. I left a message for ‘Minnie’ that I needed the code to get into her listing.

She didn’t call back right away so I decided to try to figure out the code myself. (Now I try guessing these codes as a warped ‘hobby’) I tried the address of the house, that didn’t work. I looked at her companies sign and the last four digits of the phone number were 9512. I tried that and the box opened. I remember thinking to myself that was a pretty big security risk but we went on in (the house was vacant).

She did return my call as we were standing in the living room and I told her thanks anyway, we were already in the house, I got the code on my second guess. There was a long silence on the other end of the line until finally she timidly asked “How did you know I was born in 1952?” I laughed and told her it was a somewhat superhero-like ability I tapped into once in awhile when agents didn’t answer their phones. She then said something like: “You scare me” and hung up! I still laugh to this day about what she must have thought.

Same scenario a couple years later, on another porch except this house had a dial type lockbox on it needing three letters to open it. He didn’t answer his phone either but this time I got it on my first guess. I won’t say how because it truly is so ridiculously simple (and moronically stupid of that agent) it shouldn’t be put on a public blog. That agent also called me when I was in the house already and felt pretty stupid when I told him how I figured it out. Oh, also, if you use these particular lockboxes, please learn how to change the code from the default. I’ll bet half of these that are in use have the same three letter code. Really, that’s like keeping the photos that come with the wallet…

To be fair, there are a number of good agents who utilize these types of lockboxes strictly for their bank repo properties so the direct safety and security of a homeowner and their belongings are not at risk. They use these so that repairmen can have access as well as their client’s representatives can periodically gain access to the house. But I still believe that even vacant houses have valuable stuff inside that some ‘less than savory’ characters may want to take. We had a case a couple years ago of a woman who moved herself and kids into the basement of a spec home and stayed for a couple weeks! Yikes!

Conversely, the electronic eKey lockboxes that are available are about as secure as can be. The listing agent gets notified when it’s opened via the internet, sometimes mere minutes after the box is opened, and access is denied from 10PM to 6AM. (Sorry to my sellers but no, I can’t come and let you in your house if you’ve locked yourself out after a night out on the town anymore…)

To read another humorous story of a coded lock box ordeal, check out the “Phoenix Real Estate Guy”. Funny stuff!

I would certainly be in favor of mandatory electronic lockboxes but I don’t believe that will ever happen. At the very least, we agents would like something on our ‘agent print outs’ at least indicating that there is a code needed for entry. Please don’t input the showing instructions as simply: ‘vacant, show anytime’ with no mention of a coded box!

Oh, and one other thing: For you agents that are writing the code on your MLS printout, at least transpose a few digits that you alone will know… oh, and don’t throw it away at the gas station!
Bottom line: If you are thinking about listing your property for sale, whether occupied or vacant, don’t you owe it to yourself to use an agent who thinks enough of the security of your property to spend the extra fifty bucks on a proper lockbox?

Bill Swanson is an agent with over 20 years experience with CBSHome Real Estate, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. For a no-obligation market analysis of your home, even a quick and easy online evaluation, along with other aspects of Bill’s marketing plan, call or email Bill today!

A Home is not an Island

The surrounding neighborhood is just as important because it can have a big impact on your lifestyle -- safety, available amenities, and convenience all play their part, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

NAR also says you can keep your home value buoyed if you find the right neighborhood.

And you can find the right neighborhood by getting information direct from the best sources -- rather than from second hand and often incomplete data bases professing to offer you one stop shopping for all your neighborhood checking needs.

• Make a list of the activities -- movies, health clubs, churches -- you engage in regularly and stores you visit frequently. See how far you would have to travel from each neighborhood you’re considering to engage in your most common activities.

• Check out the school district. The education department in your town can provide information on test scores, class size, percentage of students who attend college, and special enrichment programs. Even if you don’t have children, a house in a good school district will be easier to sell in the future.

• Check crime. Ask the police department for neighborhood crime statistics -- not only the level of crime, but also the type -- burglaries, armed robberies -- any trends of increasing or decreasing crime and the location of crime.

• Look for economic stability. Your local city or county economic development office can tell you if income and property values in a neighborhood are stable, rising or falling, the percentage of homes to apartments. Apartments don’t necessarily diminish value, but they can indicate transient populations. Check for vacant or blighted businesses or homes.

• Consider resale value. A local real estate agent or trade association can give you information about price trends, inventories, selling times and other information that can indicate how well your home's value will hold up.

• Hit the streets. Narrow your focus to several neighborhoods and do a "walk-through" of each. Pick a warm day when people are out and available for chatting. Look for tidy, well maintained homes, quiet streets and other indicators of neighborhood stability.

For more information about neighborhoods and homes in your area email bill.swanson@cbshome.com.

Worlds Skinniest House!

It's 9 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long and is billed as the narrowest house in New York City. But there's nothing small about its asking price: $2.7 million.

Located at 75 1/2 Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, the red brick building was built in 1873, sandwiched in a narrow space that used to be an alley between homes at 75 and 77 Bedford.
The narrow house is considered a curiosity and is one of the neighborhood's most photographed homes. A small plaque on the house notes that poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived there; so did anthropologist Margaret Mead.

The residential interiors are a tight squeeze even by New York standards, measuring just 8 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long on each of its three floors.
Due to the narrowness of the house, I think you have to be very clever in how you decorate.

The current owners bought the house for $1.6 million in 2000.
The broker's Web site describes it as a vertical suite, with a kitchen, dining room and parlor on the first floor, a double living room on the second floor and a top-floor master bedroom suite. A trapdoor in the kitchen floor leads to a finished basement.

Large windows in the front and back of the house and a garret skylight, plus a small backyard garden, give it an airiness, a sense of light and charm.

The agent predicted the property will fetch its listed price due to its uniqueness, history and location in one of the city's most famous preserved neighborhoods.

New Appraisal Rules are Causing Problems

Like politics, all real estate is local. You hardly ever see a report about state or national real estate trends without the cautionary caveat that "local markets are all different." So how, then, does it make any sense for real estate appraisals to be conducted by out-of-the-area appraisers who lack specific local-market knowledge?

Well, it doesn't, of course; but the practice has become commonplace thanks to the recent adoption of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC). Its aim was to put an end to corrupt practices in the business of appraising residential properties. Perhaps, to some degree, it has achieved its aim; but what we know for sure is that it has caused a lot of problems so far.

The major emphasis of the HVCC has to do with the selection of appraisers. Believing that much of the abuse of appraisal practices resulted from quid-pro-quo selection practices, and good-old-boy networks, the Code seeks to insure that the selection of an appraiser will be an arms-length transaction. Hence, for example, under the HVCC neither a mortgage broker nor a real estate agent may be the person who selects the appraiser. A lender may select the appraiser, but the person who does the selecting can have nothing to do with the "loan production" staff.

The institutional response to this, following the path of least resistance, has been to employ a third-party Appraisal Management Company (AMC) to select the appraiser. An AMC is a middleman. It receives an appraisal request from a lender and then it assigns an appraiser from its list of approved appraisers who have agreed to take assignments.

The use of AMCs has a great appeal in theory. But, on the basis of outcries from around the country, in practice it is not working out very well.

The primary complaint about AMC appraiser selection processes is that too often appraisers are given assignments that take them out of their geographical area of familiarity and expertise.
Moreover, unlike earlier days, it is turning out to be much more difficult for an agent (the one who is likely to know the neighborhood and relevant comparables) to provide helpful information to the appraiser. Actually, the HVCC does not prohibit real estate agents and appraisers from talking to each other; but everyone is so uptight about the new regulations they have been interpreted to mean that no one can have a substantive discussion with the appraiser. The over-zealous attempts to avoid even the appearance of trying to exert undue influence have resulted in a diminished quality of the reports.

National Association of Realtors® (NAR) President, Charles McMillan, recently met with both the New York State Attorney General and with the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency – the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – to convey industry concerns. Representatives Travis Childers (D-MS) and Gary Miller (R-CA) have co-sponsored HR 3044 that would impose an 18-month moratorium on the use of the HVCC. It would seem a good time to pause and reassess.

For more information on housing in your area email bill.swanson@cbshome.com.

Remember To Say "OPA!"

Come out to the Omaha's Original Greek Festival put on by Omaha’s very own, St John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church.

Includes Live, Authentic Greek Music, authentic Greek folk dancing in full Greek dress, delicious Greek cuisine, kids games, a Greek boutique, tantalizing pastries and much, much more!

The festivall will be held Friday, August 21st, 5-11, Saturaday, August 22nd, 11 - 11, Sunday, August 23rd, 12 - 7 at Lewis & Clark Landing.

Download: Free Ticket

Lobbyists Working to Extend the $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit

The House and Senate may have left Capitol Hill for their August break, but housing lobbyists are busy at work gearing up a major campaign to extend the $8,000 home buyer tax credit.

The credit for first-time purchasers is scheduled to expire November 30.
The National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors want to persuade Congress to nail down an extension of the credit, and maybe even broaden its coverage, as soon as possible.

The home builders are mounting an aggressive campaign during the congressional recess. The association is sending out local teams of members to meet with congressmen and senators in their home districts, urging not only a one year extension of the credit, but an expansion of the concept to cover all home buyers next year, not just first-timers.

Though the endorsement may, or may not, have been connected with the home builders' campaign, one of the most politically powerful Democrats has already signaled that he favors a one year extension.

In the House, two bills have been introduced to extend and expand the credit for either six months or 12 months. The National Association of Realtors is strongly supporting the extension efforts, and is sending its own delegations to lobby key members of the House Ways and Means committee and the Senate Finance committee.

So with all this going on, is it a sure thing that the tax credit will be available in some form for home buyers next year? Should consumers who can't quite make the November 30 deadline breathe easier?

Absolutely not. There is no sure thing on Capitol Hill whenever legislation looks like it's got a clear path to passage. That's when opponents hijack the bill or filibuster it in the Senate.

Nonetheless, extension of the credit looks like it has growing bipartisan support. Mary Trupo, legislative spokesperson for the National Association of Realtors, told Realty Times last week that “we feel Congress is receptive” to the message that the housing tax credit helps create jobs, and stimulates the economy.

If you would like more information about the tax credit and receive the most up to date information email bill.swanson@cbshome.com.