Buy Buy Cords! http://ow.ly/bwItE NO mor

Buy Buy Cords! http://ow.ly/bwItE NO more cords! Go Wireless!

MARS: A Whole New Housing Market… In 2

MARS: A Whole New Housing Market… In 2023!!! SertikSells will be ready with Mary Jane Sertik and her team. A bit of humor in the crazy world of Real Estate.. keep on smiling!

NASA’s road map for getting to Mars may be in flux, and SpaceX pioneer Elon Musk has only a vague intention to point his rockets at the Red Planet. But that doesn’t mean nobody is making definitive plans to set up shop on the fourth rock from the Sun.

Stepping into the vacuum this Friday: a brand new private space venture from the Netherlands called Mars One, which aims to send four astronauts on a one-way journey to Mars in just 11 years time.

Founded by Dutch entrepreneur and researcher Bas Lansdorp, who previously headed up an alternative energy company, this new venture doesn’t have a lot of the polish of other private space companies, many of which were started by billionaires such as Musk, Paul Allen or Jeff Bezos.

Watch the video above and you’ll get a distinct sense of the earnest amateur. For all its letters of intent from component suppliers and support from Nobel prize-winners, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of money behind this venture — yet.

But Mars One does have something going for it: a definite and achievable to-do list.

Step one: send a communications satellite to Mars in 2016. Step two: follow up with a Red Planet rover in 2018, which will trawl the dusty landscape, scoping out some of the best spots to found a colony. Step three, in 2020: send infrastructure for the colonists to live in, including solar panels and machines that will convert the Martian elements into water and oxygen.

Only then, on the surprisingly specific date of September 14, 2022, will Mars One launch its first four astronauts. Their journey to the new colony will take ten months, though they will have been preparing for a decade. Most of that prep time, we hope, will be spent figuring out how not to kill someone when you have to live in extremely close quarters for the better part of a year with no shower access.

Lansdorp plans to send another couple of adventurous astronauts to join the colony every two years, but the idea is that no one gets a return journey. This is a permanent base, a Plymouth Rock in an entirely new world that will begin the long, slow and painstaking process of terraforming it.

And how will this all be funded? Lansdorp has two words for you: “media spectacle.” We’re not sure what that means, exactly — selling broadcast rights to the landing? Sponsorships from large corporations eager to advertise on the mission? Will Coke be the first soda on Mars?

Whatever it is, we can’t wait to find out. If Mars One is selling subscriptions to this spectacle, sign us up.

America’s Best Housing Markets ~ Forbes

America’s Best Housing Markets ~ Forbes Magazine
Wonderful article from Forbes Magazine, once again stating the, well-known fact by Pittsburghers, that Pittsburgh is the place to be!:

Families in the market for a house are shopping at the right time: Nationally, homes are near the most affordable they’ve been in 18 years. In the fourth quarter of 2009 housing was 62.4% more affordable than the same time a year earlier, according to the Housing Opportunity Index, published quarterly by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.

The best place to buy right now: Pittsburgh. For a housing market to be attractive it should have appreciating prices that show homeowners are making wise investments; an affordability rating that gives middle-class families with good credit entry into the market; and a relatively low number of foreclosures, which keeps prices stable and indicates there isn’t an excess of inventory.

Pittsburgh has all three. In the metro area, 85% of homes are affordable to those making the median family income of $62,500. At the same time, foreclosures are low: Only one home is in foreclosure for every 120 housing units–the second-best record of all the cities we ranked; and home prices are expected to increase 2.67% by the end of the year.

Yes, the city has suffered greatly since the decline of its manufacturing-dependent economy. But that slump helped its real estate market dodge the rapid run-up in prices that doomed so many markets after the housing boom.

“Manufacturing cities like Pittsburgh have suffered so much for the last two, three, four years that there’s still a population base in that region, and now those areas are sort of attractive,” says James P. Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “Home prices are so low, some service-level jobs can be created, so it’s not surprising perhaps that there’s been a revitalization of some of those communities.”

Behind the Numbers
To find the country’s best housing markets, we used the Housing Opportunity Index, a metric created by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo ( WFC – news – people ) that determines affordability by measuring median home prices against median incomes. Using the 40 largest housing Metropolitan Statistical Areas that the HOI ranks, we then factored in Moody’s ( MCO – news – people )Economy.com’s one-year forecast for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a measure of sales prices in major markets, to find out where home prices were expected to rise. Finally we included the 2009 Foreclosure report from RealtyTrac, ranking cities by their percentage of foreclosures. We averaged the rankings for all these measures to arrive at an overall score.

The reason for taking all these factors into account is that alone each doesn’t say much about a housing market’s health. An area could be affordable because prices were dragged down by a glut of foreclosures. Similarly, a low foreclosure rate doesn’t guarantee that home-buying is a good investment, as values could be flat or falling. Even looking at home-price forecasts in a vacuum won’t tell you everything about a market, since some areas have dramatic price increases ahead due to severe drops back when the bubble burst.

Like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, might not jump to mind as one of the country’s best cities for housing, but job-rich suburbs surround the city and 87% of middle-income families can afford a home. That combination creates significant pull for homebuyers.

Also looking strong is Louisville, Ky., a city whose low foreclosure rate–only 1.15% of homes are in foreclosure, half the national average–illuminates it as one of the cities least affected by this aspect of the dramatic housing market collapse of the past three years. Louisville had less of a market boom than coastal cities and vacation destinations, so it didn’t have as far to fall.

Jobs Stability Equals Housing Stability
Strong industries…

13 Things Most Real Estate Agents Don’t Tell You~But I DO!

13 Things Your Real Estate Agent Won’t Tell You

From hosting an open house to getting an estimate of your property’s value, these real estate tips from the experts ought to help in today’s tough market.

by Michelle Crouch from Reader’s Digest Magazine  | April 2012

 

Great Article in Reader’s Digest!

 

This Month in Real Estate: http://ow.ly/

This Month in Real Estate: http://ow.ly/9lgLs

MJCares! Help Me Support My Favorite Charity~Watchful Shepherd!

Another way Mary Jane Sertik & Sertik Sells for Keller Williams is giving back.

Each year Mary Jane sponsors a “Holiday Open House Tour” where people open their decorated homes, and all agents have an opportunity to feature listings on this wonderful Open House Tour.  All proceeds from the day of the tour benefit Watchful Shepherd, the local chapter of a national child abuse awareness group.  In that vain, Mary Jane thought it would be fun to offer another way to help support this wonderful and worthy cause.

By clicking the picture above, it will re-direct you to the link to her “store”, where you can find all kinds of fun clothing, office items and accessories to show everyone you are helping to support Watchful Shepherd with Mary Jane!

Great items are available. All profits benefit the Watchful Shpeherd of Washington County, PA.

For more information on Watchful Shepherd and for past year’s tours and inforemation on next year’s Holiday Open House Tour,  go to: WatchfulShepherd.com 

 

Real Estate News and 2012 Election…

Great Article from Zillow.com

Pennsylvania Roots Were Source of Controversy for Santorum’s 2006 Senate Race

Date:February 14, 2012|Author:Laura Vecsey|Category:Election 2012

Response: (59)1 commentsEmail this

As this presidential election season ramps up, here comes another candidate with another housing issue. During the last presidential election in 2008, Arizona Senator John McCain lost track of how many homes he owned. His Democratic foe, Barack Obama, had questions to answer about his Chicago home and his ties to now-indicted political fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

Now, the new GOP front-runner, Rick Santorum, has his own real estate pickle.

The last time Rick Santorum was in the middle of a high-stakes campaign with national implications, he was the incumbent U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and the No. 3-ranking Republican. But in 2006, when Santorum’s seat was successfully targeted by Democrats, the outspoken conservative found himself trying to answer this question:

Where, exactly, does Santorum call home?

Santorum became mired in a residence controversy after stating that he spent only “maybe a month a year” at his Pennsylvania home on Stephens Lane, which is part of the Penn Hills real estate market just outside of Pittsburgh.

When he was the Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum and his family lived in this Leesburg, VA home.  SOURCE: David Pitkin

In reality, Santorum and his family were living in Leesburg, VA, prompting serious questions about why the school district in Penn Hills was paying for his children’s online school tuition for instruction between 2001 and 2004.

Critics complained that Pennsylvania taxpayers were paying 80 percent of the tuition for five of Santorum’s seven children — who lived in Virginia — to attend an online “cyber school.”  The flap forced Santorum to pull his kids from the cyber-school program, but the issue helped doom him against Democrat challenger Bob Casey, who beat Santorum by 18 points. In 2006, the Pennsylvania state Department of Education agreed to pay $55,000 to settle the dispute.

As Santorum surges in polling, the April 24 primary in Pennsylvania will be the first time in six years that the former senator will get tested in what he calls his home state — even though his filing papers with the Pennsylvania Department of State lists his home municipality as Fairfax County, VA. And that very issue of whether or not Santorum is a Pennsylvania resident haunted him not only during his re-election loss in ’06, but again during his bid to become the GOP nominee.

Santorum’s Penn Hills home. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On the campaign trail in Iowa last August, where election officials finally awarded Santorum a caucus win over Mitt Romney, Santorum emphasized his Pennsylvania roots by telling a library gathering that he and his wife, Karen, have some fruit trees back home, where they harvested about 600 early peaches and peeled them to make into jam.

He toted about 40 jars of peach preserves to Iowa, where he dubbed them: “Pennsylvania Presidential Peach Preserves.”

The problem for Santorum in representing himself as a Pennsylvanian despite living in Virginia is that Santorum used that same issue against his opponent in his first bid for the 18th District U.S. Congressional seat. In 1990, Santorum attacked incumbent Democrat Doug Walgren for living in McLean, VA, yet Santorum did the same thing when he later served in the Senate.

Santorum bought this Great Falls, VA home for $2 million in 2007.

Meanwhile, since his 2006 re-election defeat, Santorum has since moved into another home in Virginia. In 2007, he spent $2 million to buy a 5,000-square foot home in Great Falls, VA (above).

While Santorum’s financial rise was powered by consulting contracts with fuel producer Consol Energy Inc., faith advocacy group Clapham Group and American Continental Group, a Washington consultancy, as well as media engagements with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Fox News, he has made no secret of his political ambition.

The question is what will Republican voters in Pennsylvania have to say about his “homecoming” on April 24, where another candidate with Pennsylvania ties — Newt Gingrich, who was born in Harrisburg — has fallen way back in polling since his victory in the South Carolina primary.

Great article by G.M. Filisko: MJSertik

Great article by G.M. Filisko:
MJSertik knows that there are many opportunities to invest in “fixer-Upper” properties. But sometimes people don’t know what they are getting into.
Here is a great article to help you determine just how much fixing the property may need, and if it is in your realm!

How to Assess the Real Cost of a Fixer-Upper House
By: G. M. Filisko
Published: August 24, 2010
When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix.
1. Decide what you can do yourself
TV remodeling shows make home improvement work look like a snap. In the real world, attempting a difficult remodeling job that you don’t know how to do will take longer than you think and can lead to less-than-professional results that won’t increase the value of your fixer-upper house.
• Do you really have the skills to do it? Some tasks, like stripping wallpaper and painting, are relatively easy. Others, like electrical work, can be dangerous when done by amateurs.
• Do you really have the time and desire to do it? Can you take time off work to renovate your fixer-upper house? If not, will you be stressed out by living in a work zone for months while you complete projects on the weekends?
2. Price the cost of repairs and remodeling before you make an offer
• Get your contractor into the house to do a walk-through, so he can give you a written cost estimate on the tasks he’s going to do.
• If you’re doing the work yourself, price the supplies.
• Either way, tack on 10% to 20% to cover unforeseen problems that often arise with a fixer-upper house.
3. Check permit costs
• Ask local officials if the work you’re going to do requires a permit and how much that permit costs. Doing work without a permit may save money, but it’ll cause problems when you resell your home.
• Decide if you want to get the permits yourself or have the contractor arrange for them. Getting permits can be time-consuming and frustrating. Inspectors may force you to do additional work, or change the way you want to do a project, before they give you the permit.
• Factor the time and aggravation of permits into your plans.
4. Doublecheck pricing on structural work
If your fixer-upper home needs major structural work, hire a structural engineer for $500 to $700 to inspect the home before you put in an offer so you can be confident you’ve uncovered and conservatively budgeted for the full extent of the problems.

Get written estimates for repairs before you commit to buying a home with structural issues.

Don’t purchase a home that needs major structural work unless:
• You’re getting it at a steep discount
• You’re sure you’ve uncovered the extent of the problem
• You know the problem can be fixed
• You have a binding written estimate for the repairs
5. Check the cost of financing
Be sure you have enough money for a downpayment, closing costs, and repairs without draining your savings.

If you’re planning to fund the repairs with a home equity or home improvement loan:
• Get yourself pre-approved for both loans before you make an offer.
• Make the deal contingent on getting both the purchase money loan and the renovation money loan, so you’re not forced to close the sale when you have no loan to fix the house.
• Consider the Federal Housing Administration’s Section 203(k) program, which is designed to help home owners who are purchasing or refinancing a home that needs rehabilitation. The program wraps the purchase/refinance and rehabilitation costs into a single mortgage. To qualify for the loan, the total value of the property must fall within the FHA mortgage limit for your area, as with other FHA loans. A streamlined 203(k) program provides an additional amount for rehabilitation, up to $35,000, on top of an existing mortgage. It’s a simpler process than obtaining the standard 203(k).
6. Calculate your fair purchase offer
Take the fair market value of the property (what it would be worth if it were in good condition and…

Check out my new fundraising shop… MJC

Check out my new fundraising shop… MJCares. We are trying to raise funds for Watchful Shepherd.
http://ow.ly/8gWhB Can you help???

Social Media-A NEW Wave of Marketing Capabilities

Social Media Marketing is fast becoming the new way to market products and services. 

Access to the world~wide~web through Social Media Marketing, is becoming a great way to market the fluid real estate market. 

By engaging potential clients, buyers & sellers, it offers a more personal way to interest people in the world of Real Estate and get your property SEEN & SOLD!

In this fast moving technology world, you should settle for no less than a tech-savvy agent who can offer you all there is in the world of Social Media!

Join me for my insights here on my blog, twitter, and my fanpage to see just how quickly homes, property and investing has taken flight!

“LIKE” me on my Fanpage: Mary Jane Sertik

Follow me on my Twitter: @MJSertik