Tony Brewer

My sister-in-law has been giving me some attitude lately concerning my address sign which is older than dirt at this point. She saw a show on TV which was referring to our emergency personnel having difficulty finding the right place to respond to when called for assistance. I’m sure that at night it would be even more of a challenge.

So she is urging me to get off of my butt and go online and start looking at the variety of address plaques and numbers. She sent me the link to justaddressplaques.com the other day and I’ve spent a bit of time looking around the place and seeing what is out there that might tickle my fancy. I never realized how many varieties there are these days, but I shouldn’t be surprised I imagine. Variety is the spice of life. LOL

It makes sense to get a decent address plaque. My biggest concern is that the pizza delivery person find my place in a timely fashion because I like my pizza still nice and hot!

As many of you can imagine, it has been “low tide” for Wilmington NC real estate, as well as around the entire country.  So many people are struggling to pay their bills and are so uncertain about their futures that many of them are not even thinking about buying a house right now!  And sadly, many homeowners are finding themselves under water with their houses; owing more money on their mortgage than what the house is worth.

For those consumer that actually have some money, though, this is a good time to invest in Wilmington NC real estate.  Bargains can be found!  It truly is a buyer’s market, and it has never been a better time to buy!  What saddens me, though, is how many of my own personal friends and family are struggling so hard and are not able to take advantage of the great bargains out there.

It is a sad day when you can’t get a simple part time job if you have a problem with your credit score. I don’t know when this fad started, but I can tell you that it is just another way of messing with population who has had financial issues and how many people do you know that aren’t having a cash flow problem? It just doesn’t sit well with me to hear that people are being turned down for positions that have any type of bad credit report issues. There are some positions that I can see were this would be acceptable but certainly not as many as I have been hearing about.

Our government screwed up big time and now our economy is in turmoil and we, the general public, is paying the price and big time.  There is still an abundance of For Sale signs dotted the neighborhoods, the unemployment rate is still incredibly high, with no signs of improvement in sight. Lives has been destroyed and people are in big trouble. There just has got to be a better way to run things. It most likely with be another crappy Christmas holiday once again come December, what a shame.

Have you ever gotten a first impression of a house by looking at the Mailbox out in front? When I’ve been looking at houses for sale, that is one of the things that I look at right away. In a rural setting, if the Mailboxes look like they have been well-kept, then I get the feeling that the homeowner is someone who took care of the property.

If, however, the Mail boxes are tilting, rusted, and the door is hanging by one hinge, I get the distinct impression that the homeowner took a lot of short cuts and had little or no pride in the maintenance of the house. I think that people who are serious about selling their house should make sure that the mailbox looks like it is in good shape. First impressions count a lot in real estate!  What do you think?  Does a nice looking mailbox make a good impression on you?

Being in the real estate business, I’d like to encourage homeowners who are trying to sell their homes to take a close look at using some window boxes on their houses.  I think that having some nicely done, well-maintained garden window boxes add a real visual touch of homey charm that will make just about any house more appealing to the prospective buyer.  Having some pretty trailing ivies and colorful cascading petunias flowing out of a couple of window flower boxes on the street side of the house will make the house look more inviting. 

But if you are going to do that, you really need to make sure that you keep them looking nice.  Make sure to water the plants often enough so that they don’t droop, and keep dead-heading the petunias so that they will keep flowering for a longer period.  And make sure that the boxes themselves are in good repair – seeing boxes with peeling paint will definately be unappealing!  It might be wise to invest a few dollars into some new ones, just to spruce up the place!  After all, street appeal is important – it is what gets the prospective buyers into the house in the first place!