Holy Cow & many many thanks...

Boy was I surprised when I got a call yesterday morning to tell me to read the newspaper! I was voted Lexington's #2 Favorite Realtor in the Herald-Leader Reader's Choice Awards! I still can't believe it and I'm pretty sure they meant me even if they did put 2 "t"s in Mathews. Thank you so much to everybody who took the time to vote for me. I am unbelievably honored!

no good news...at least not in our paper...

Just heard a funny and true story about our local media and the housing market (and by funny, what I mean to say is ironic). Apparently our LBAR president was interviewed about the housing market in Lexington by the Herald-Leader. After hearing the statistics that our real estate market isn't really suffering, especially in comparison to news from the rest of the country, the reporter decided that the article wouldn't be worth writing and passed on the story. Hmmm...seems to me that maybe our community would like hearing some good news.

mileage calculator

This is too cool and a great tool for home buyers & sellers trying to figure out walking distances from a house to a particular spot like a school, library, etc. In fact, I could probably play with it all day which I'd better not since I need to set up some house showings for tomorrow! I found it trying to figure out how far one of my favorite runs is (just over 4 miles by the way in case you're curious...) but everything relates to real estate if you're a Realtor, right?

Thanks to Google earth maps, you can use this fantastic link http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to go from one starting point to another. I popped in my house as the starting point and dragged it around using points where the road curves and bends for my running route all the way back home. The best part was that I use a cut through from my neighborhood into another neighborhood that I've never been able to calculate by car because it's just a foot path. This let me put a point on the end of my street onto the street I cut through too. I did figure out that you have to be pretty meticulous in plotting the various bends in the road.

Local market news

News from our local Board statistics reinforce that real estate really is local. In spite of all the dreadful news we keep hearing, compared to last September, single family residential sales are up 1% while townhouses and condos are down 2%. Existing home sales are up 1.4% for the same time period. Existing home sale median sales price is unchanged when comparing September 08 to September 07. Inventory is down 7% while pending inventory is up 0.9%. The Housing Affordability Index jumped to 164 in September because of slightly falling mortgage rates. Overall, September 08 vs. September 07 shows more market improvement than a year over year, year-to-date comparison.

In my own micro world of real estate, my statistics from last year to this year compares favorably. Hopefully, my 2009 will continue to buck the negative news in the media and will compare equally well.

Room Layout

I found a super new place to play on the web today: www.Havertys.com . There's a great room planning tool there that lets you lay-out a space and than arrange furniture in it. You can use their products or a generic list of furnishings including bathroom fixtures, walls, doors, fireplaces, etc. I know there's always been software sources for furniture lay-out but I love that this one is free! I tried my own living room which has way too many windows and doors, plus a funky wall and a parlor grand piano that I've been decorating around for years. I managed to get everything in, including a shape for the piano.

I wish this tool had been around when we moved into our current home. It sure could have saved a lot of furniture moving and some questionable purchases I've made over the years. While I don't think it replaces the function of a good interior designer, for the DIYer or new homeowner it could sure make arranging a room and making furniture choices a lot easier!

Fall Home Decor

Feels like Fall!! Yeah, Keeneland opens this weekend and I was quite chilly at Will's football practice last night. Isn't it wonderful to sleep with the windows open?

I came across a great little piece about selling houses in Fall and staging for the autumn season. I thought they were really great tips and wanted to share the link. One of the comments that I really agree with from the article is that putting your house on the market in the Fall or Winter isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think we all know that Spring and Summer are the busiest real estate market times but buyers that come through in the fall and winter tend to be more serious and don't have as many choices to look at so frankly I think it evens out.

Here's the link from the RE/MAX website and think about decorating for the season whether you're staging your house to sell or just enjoy Autumn like I do. I'm making my favorite pumpkin, cranberry and chocolate muffins tomorrow to celebrate October myself! Let me know if you want the recipe (It's from Creating a Stir but I've embellished it :-))

http://www.remax.net/stories/mainst/20080925/8729.htm

Craigslist fame...

Every now and then I google my name to see what comes up and I was surprised to find myself the subject of this on-line article regarding Craigslist. I've been a big fan of Craigslist and I post both listings and rental properties there because it provides just one more source to get property in front of the market. Anyway, I had my rental house on Pin Oak "stolen" a couple of months back by somebody impersonating me. I had some hilarious calls from prospective renters who filled me in on the impersonation as well as a college friend who saw a warning posted about me -- that I was a fraudulent scammer. A few days later I got a call from a web reporter who ended up writing this on-line article at Webpro news about the story. Most of his facts are correct (except that I do still use Craigslist regularly). You can click on the link above if you want to read the article. And, by the way, I am the real Gwen Mathews and I am not in a hurry to get back to welding in Africa.

Have a great day!

...live from the Kentucky Association of Realtors

l'm out of town for a few days enjoying lots of educational opportunities at the Kentucky Association of Realtors (KAR) convention in Newport, Kentucky. While it's very pretty on the riverfront up here, it's no Lexington :-). The quick trip up here reminded me though of how nice it is to be so accessible to all the great opportunities just an hour up the road from Lexington. Last night, we had a great party at the Great American Ballpark complete with local Skyline Chili and those mini hot dogs that Will Mathews LOVES! I hadn't been to the new stadium before so it was great to finally see it and the Reds museum was pretty cool. I took a turn as an announcer and remembered how much fun I used to have with my brother Morgan listening to Reds games on our old pocket transistor radio...makes me feel a little old. Hmmm...has anybody who's been there noticed there's not much about Pete Rose there???

Although out of town, we have two price reductions to make note of: 440 Peachtree (great opportunity for an investor or first time buyer) is reduced to $97,900 and 745 Cedar Lake in Ewing is now listed at $144,900! Both of those are so competitively priced for the market and their amenities -- you can check them out under featured listings on my website at www.Moving2CentralKY.com. Both of them have virtual tours there as all my listings always do!

Have a great day!

Fannie & Freddie Takeover

Wondering what the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac means? Check out this link to lean more: http://www.realtor.org/gapublic.nsf/pages/gses_conservatorship?OpenDocument

Five offers...did someone say downmarket?

Wow, whoever says it's a down market doesn't have my listing at 1408 Pleasant Ridge. Just goes to show that the right house at the right price really can sell! We received five offers on this home in Timber Creek at the end of the week. Frankly, that beat my record of three offers on one house at a time. One of my favorite things about real estate, is that you never have the same day twice although I certainly wouldn't begrudge having that day twice! Plus, it ended with a wonderful Makenna event that in spite of the downpour was a fantastic time for everybody involved!

Thank you!

Many thanks to the wonderful clients who have completed surveys through the Quality Service Certified program. I'm so proud to have the highest Customer Satisfaction rating that an agent can achieve. I was recognized this summer as the "national Agent of the month" which was a huge honor and was named to the 2007 National Honor Roll last winter. Apparently, I have one of the highest survey return rates of the 30,000+ agents in the northern hemispere who are QSC certified. Pretty cool and a definite credit to the quality clients I've worked. Thanks for helping me be the best agent that I can be! I rate you all with a 5 out of 5!

Art of Making Miracles

if you are in town looking for something fun to do on Friday night, plan to attend the Makenna Foundation's annual Art of Making Miracles event. While I might be biased as RE/MAX Creative plays a huge role in sponsoring the event, the Art of Making Miracles is one of the best charity fundraisers we attend all year! Just the right mix of casual dress-up, great local food, music and super auction items (hope somebody bids a lot on the UK-Indiana b-ball tickets I donated!). The Makenna Foundation supports UK Children's Hospital and funds are helping to open the children's emergency room -- sorely needed I can tell you from having taken my own children to the UK hospital emergency room!

Click the title link to go to the Makenna website. Hope we'll see you there!