Charlotte Homes for Sale
Nina Hollander
(704)779-0813

Enjoy your Halloween Trick or Treating! Here are some great safety tips from Carolinas Realty Partners:

Great news this week from Charlotte mortgage lenders, Cunningham & Company, that the North Carolina Finance Agency announced its  NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund is going live  in 17 pilot counties and will be available in all North Carolina counties by December 1st.

This program applies to anyone in North Carolina with a mortgage on a primary residence and will offer assistance in helping home owners facing foreclosure pay their mortgage. For more information about the NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund. Or, call their Information Center at 888-623-8631.

North Carolina offers a number of foreclosure assistance plans. Typically, the minimum requirements to qualify for one of the plans are:

•you are the property owner of the home and you live in your home
•your primary residence is in North Carolina
•you have lost your job or experienced a reduction in income through no fault of your own, or are facing a temporary financial hardship such as a divorce, serious illness, or death of a co-signor
•you have good mortgage payment history prior to your recent unemployment or income loss
•you are a legal U.S. resident

Find out if you are eligible.

Don’t hesitate to contact Carolinas Realty Partners or the ValeoCroy Team with Cunningham & Company Mortgage Bankers  in the Charlotte metro area or the if you need assistance or have questions about foreclosures.

Privacy, comfort, custom amenities all await you in this move-in ready home situated on .97 acres in Charlotte’s exclusive Weddington area. This full-brick beauty with classic Southern architecture offers a wrap-around, rocking chair porch, large deck, double patios, professional landscaping. Located in a top school district and close to shopping, golf, fine and casual dining, and more! Inside, the home features a Euro-style granite kitchen open to the breakfast area and great room, hardwood floors, generous millwork, a first floor bedroom/bath, huge master suite with sitting area and spa-like ensuite bathroom, large rec room.

For more information or to set up a viewing appointment, contact Carolinas Realty Partners. Or, if you’d like to search all 30,000+ home listings in the Charlotte/Fort Mill metro areas: www.homeinfocharlotte.com.

3535 Weddington Oaks Drive, Matthews, North Carolina Price: $429,500.00 Beds: 5 Full Baths: 3 Sq Ft: 3343 Description: Welcome to 3535 Weddington Oaks, located in the beautiful and exclusive Weddington Oaks community, minutes from Matthews, Weddington, Waxhaw, and Ballantyne. Situated on a beautifully landscaped, woo …. View this property >>

Discovery Place KIDS-Huntersville opens to the public today, October 23, 2010. The 23,000 square foot Museum — the only children’s museum in the greater Charlotte region — will offer interactive, learning-based play opportunities for children younger than 8. The Museum officially opens to the public on  at 9:00 a.m., preceded by a ribbon cutting ceremony at 8:45 a.m. This weekend, the museum will be open from 9am till 5pm and is offering a special, half-price admission fee of $4.00 during the opening weekend. Discovery Place KIDS is located at 105 Gilead Road in Huntersville.

Discovery Place, Inc. is a private 501©(3) not-for-profit education organization dedicated to inspiring exploration of the natural and social world through extraordinary exhibits and educational programs that inform, challenge and engage audiences of all ages.

Some of the current featured shows at Discovery Place include:

• Sub Zero: Join our resident physicist at the “The Stage” to chill out and explore a world below freezing. With materials so cold they can only be touched with cryogenic gloves.
• A World Apart: Learn about the tropical rainforest ecosystem and the species that call it home during “A World Apart”.
• What’s Glowing On?  Discover the science behind luminescent and incandescent light. By the time the show is over, you’ll be an expert on all that shines.
• Under the Sea: Splash into the sea and explore marvelous marine life in IMAX Under the Sea.
• The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: Join nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater as he mixes surfing and science off the shores of Tahiti.

Discovery Place is located in Charlotte’s Uptown at: 301 N Tryon Street.

Want more information on things to do in Charlotte, North Carolina? Contact Carolinas Realty Partners!

It’s only 10 days until Halloween! Have you done your Halloween shopping yet? Halloween spending is expected to go up this year. The National Retail Foundation’s annual suvey on Halloween spending for costumes, candy, decorations projects that the average American will spend $66.28 per person this year as compared with $56.31 last year.

Halloween On-Line Magazine has identified 101 tips and ideas for celebrating Halloween as well as Halloween safety tips for parents, kids, pets, homeowners. Check them out!

If Halloween crafts are your thing or you need a refresher course on pumpkin carving, Halloween On-line Magazine is a great resource for these as well. Check out the great options for Halloween recipes, as well. Download great, free Halloween screen savers for your computer.

Read up on the history of Halloween. Bet you’ll find out all sorts of facts you didn’t know! HalloweenMagazine.com is a fabulous resource on all things Halloween!

Charlotte, North Carolina boasts what is considered one of America’s best and scariest haunted houses–Woods of Terror on Church Street. Need more information about how/where Charlotte celebrates Halloween? Contact Carolinas Realty Partners.

If you are interested in buying a foreclosure home today, you need to be aware that the process is much more complicated due to the bank foreclosure freeze than it was even one month ago. Here are three issues to be aware of in the coming weeks and months while the banks who’ve frozen foreclosure sales sort out their paperwork:

• If you are in the process of making an offer on a foreclosure home or plan to make an offer shortly, don’t expect to get a response from the bank immediately and don’t expect to be able to close on the home in the typical 30-45 day time frame. So if you have a deadline by which time to need to purchase a home, buying a foreclosure home might not be the best option for you.
• Ensure up-front that you can rescind your offer at any time at no penalty to you if the bank takes too long to respond to your offer and you wish to move on to another property. Your agent can help determine what, if any penalties may be in the bank’s contract addendum that might affect your ability to pull out of the contract.
• If you are already in a contract to purchase a foreclosure home, do not move out of your current home until you know for sure when you will be able to close on your foreclosure purchase! Again, you may need to wait it out for weeks, if not several months and you don’t want to end up homeless. If your mortgage loan commitment has an expiration date or you have locked in your interest rate with an expiration date, now is a good time to start talking to your lender to ensure your mortgage will be available when you are ready to close.

It’s worth reading a great article from SmartMoney.com on navigating the foreclosure freeze. And keep in mind if you need any help with navigating the foreclosure home market in the Charlotte/Waxhaw/Matthews/Fort Mill metro areas, Carolinas Realty Partners are here to help!

A quick update to my blog yesterday about the impact of the foreclosure freeze on your ability to purchase a foreclosure home in the near term–as of today, attorneys general from all 50 states have put on a “bi-partisan multistate group” to investigate if faulty procedures were used to sign foreclosures which lead to evictions.  Rigth now there is lots of uncertainty about how this will impact foreclosure sales, but it’s reasonable to assume that in the short run there will be more questions than answers as the major lenders start reviewing their paperwork. Clearly, this all spells big trouble for lenders, the economy, and homeowners and buyers. The impact on home values and prices remains to be determined. I’m enclosing a link to a video where, Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Consumer Housing Specialist for real estate site, Trulia.com, explains the impact this has on homeowners who’ve been through the foreclosure process or may be facing foreclosure.

Need more information about what’s happening in the Charlotte, NC and Fort Mill, SC housing markets and foreclosures, contact Carolinas Realty Partners.

By now, you can’t help but have heard about the foreclosure sale freezes by major financial institutions like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, GMAC, PNC, etc. If more banks follow the lead of these four institutions, we could effectively have a national foreclosure moratorium (we know that foreclosure proceedings have been stopped in at least 23 states right now and could spread quickly to 40 states)!

Allegations of possible mortgage fraud including forged documents, faked social security numbers, phantom titles, robo-signers, disappearing paper trails are what gave rise to this freeze in foreclosure sales. It’s anyone’s guess how long it will take to resolve, as mortgage lenders will need to review paperwork for hundreds of thousands of mortgages.Legal challenges from class action suits and states attorney lawsuits will delay the process even further. Here’s a concise 5 minute video of why there are big risks in buying foreclosed homes right now.

What are some of the short and medium term implications:

• In the immediate term, if you are in a contract to purchase a foreclosed home and have a loan with a locked-in interest rate, you might not be able to close on the home.
• In the short term, homeowners facing foreclosure will have some breathing room and might even be able to save up some money to catch up on delinquent mortgage payments.
• In the longer term, the housing recovery might well be stalled and the crisis could continue for several more years.
• Even though the banks insist that most of the foreclosures were on homes legitimately behind on payments, with many of the foreclosure processes being deemed fraudulent, it means the original foreclosures would be nullified and banks would have to start all over again.

For more information about what is happening in the Charlotte, North Carolina and Fort Mill, South Carolina metro areas, contract Carolinas Realty Partners.

These days, most of the listed homes for sale in Charlotte, Waxhaw, or Fort Mill are all about building a family future. Savvy buyers know that the market is theirs, and they can bargain for things like better school districts, home improvements, and other amenities that make owning real estate in North Carolina great. However, when the Charlotte real estate market boasts more homes than there are buyers, there’s another advantage: homes for investment opportunities are cheaper and have greater potential than ever before.

First-Time Homebuyers in Charlotte, Waxhaw, Fort Mill: If you’re in the market for the first time, buying a home as an investment is a wonderful opportunity. Not only are there federal funding options available for first-time buyers, but the low average cost of homes right now means that you can get more North Carolina home for your dollar. This is especially true if you’re looking for a home to live in for a few years. By buying a house now, you can have a place to call home and the potential to sell it for profit five, ten, or even twenty years from now.

Charlotte Home Flipping: “Flipping” a home, or buying a house and fixing it up to increase the resale value, has been made popular by television shows and success stories that boast of tens of thousands of dollars virtually overnight. However, the process of fixing up a house is a much larger task than it at first appears. If you plan to flip a house as a way to earn a living, make sure you know exactly what the construction projects will entail and how you will finance your way through the process for the entire time it might take to resell your investment home.

When Buying NC Real Estate, Timing is Everything: As a financial decision, buying real estate is often best taken advantage of as a long-term investment. After all, it can be difficult even for professionals to predict the Charlotte real estate market. That’s why one of the best ways to turn a profit on a North Carolina home is to plan on living in the home or renting it out for upwards of 10 years at a time. It’s one of the best ways to guarantee an increase in your investment, and to enjoy yourself – and your family – while doing it.

The most important thing to remember before delving into NC real estate as a way to make money is that there is no quick and easy road to riches. The recent housing bubble burst is perfect evidence of this, and many people learned the hard way that buying a home as an investment, like any financial decision, takes time, planning, and a little homework.

Just reduced $17,500 and a great buy for a five bedroom home with almost 2900 square feet located in one of Charlotte’s top school districts! This home is move-in ready, offering fresh paint throughout, new carpet throughout, new appliances, and much more!  The open, flowing floor plan with a master suite on the main floor, formal rooms, and great room allow for casual family living and entertaining. Situated on a quiet double cul-de-sac street, the home also offers in-ground irrigation and is minutes from Ballantyne Corporate Park, Ballantyne shopping, golf. It also provides an easy commute to South Park, Matthews, Pineville, Fort Mill, and Charlotte’s Douglas Airport. For more information or to set up a viewing appointment, contact Carolinas Realty Partners. Or, if you’d like to search all 20,000+ home listings in the Charlotte/Fort Mill metro areas: www.homeinfocharlotte.com.

8930 Bryson Bend Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina Price: $257,500.00 Beds: 5.00 Baths: 2 Sq Ft: 2860 Description: This preferred location in south Charlotte, is not only situated in the heart of prestigious Ballantyne, but also features fantastic school assignments! Tucked away in Ellington Park—a small, f …. View this property >>