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In  Central Ohio news  this week:

Columbus Distpatch - Mortgage Fraud -  Wednesday

Columbus Dispatch - Mortgage Fraud -  Thursday 

“The questionable transactions were highlighted by The Dispatch in a September 2005 series called “Brokered Dreams.”

 I blogged about it  on the Original Columbus Best Blog (now Discover Columbus back in October 2005, when Contrarian Chronicles referred to it as the Bubble Bursting in Central Ohio… the news of trouble in Central Ohio came from the ”Brokered Dreams” series of articles in the Columbus Dispatch about flipping, mortgage fraud and more.   

It’s old news.  Mostly.  It’s all in the local newspaper.

My manager told me something on Thursday but he told me I couldn’t or shouldn’t  blog about it.  In fact he left me a very funny voice mail but I can’t tell you what he said in that message or what he said when we actually got to talk. 

It is a local real estate matter. 

He said something about “dirt” in his voice mail.  There is a new restaurant going in right near our office on High Street in Worthington.  He left me the message as he was leaving the office.  I thought it might be about the construction site (another agent and I talked about the site yesterday… why is it going so slow…??) I often ask my manager “the dirt” about what is happening when I see the blue signs pop up on High Street or in Old Worthington.  He always knows.  Wednesday his message was not about the dirt at the buiding site.

A Real Living song stars in a video about gossip “What Do You Think About That” (full length video) on CMT.  I wrote about the video here.  Columbus a little bit Country?

“little bit of gossip coming from loose lips”

I am not country, I am more classic Beatles… 

“Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell?”

I hate to think that other people think I am a gossip.  I posted an entry about some local real estate gossip a little over a year ago.  I was not 100%  comfortable doing so.  I thought about running it by my manager (same fella who called me about dirt on Wednesday)  before posting it but I never had before so I figured why start now… no one was reading my blog, it was like yelling into a void so why not just post it… my muse.  Cartoonish behavior.

I posted Why are They Sitting in a Tree?  

In my usual convoluted manner the post is about style and about a local cyber squatting case.  It got read… not greatly but it got read.  It got no comments for a few days.  It was no secret.  It was in the Columbus Dispatch, yet it felt gossipy in comparison to what I usually write about.

On August  2006 Sellsius Blog posted The Top Ten  Women Real Estate Bloggers  of 2006    and what entry  did they mention? 

“Maureen McCabe [Columbus Best Blog] Why are They Sitting in a Tree?”

Is it gossip if it is published in the Columbus Dispatch?   

 ”Do you want to know a secret?  

Do you promise not to tell?” 

I am the kind of person that friends tell deep dark secrets to.

Or I was before I started blogging. 

Happens every year this time.  Kids go back to school. 

Olentangy schools  started yesterday? 

I have links to many Central Ohio school districts on my website.  They’ve been there for years (it’s an eight year old website, first graders back when my website was born are now in eighth grade if my math is correct.)

You know if your kids started school though don’t you?  Or I hope you do.  Dublin Schools (waning pdf I hate .pdf docs)  and Westerville Schools  are a tad confusing.  Worthington has a sane date, August 28.  Columbus Schools  are even better a day later, August 29, for those schools on the traditional calendar. 

I don’t think school should start until after Labor Day.  I loved school growing up… 7th grade was a pain but most years I loved school but I hated the end of summer, the back to school ads, the whole thing.  I hated Labor Day weekend.

Central Ohio Public Schools 

Central Ohio Private Schools

High School Rating - I wish Columbus monthly would update this, it is 6 years old.  Almost as old as my website.  Maybe they have.  I loved it. 

Oh no that means this Friday for some schools is “foot ball friday night, foot ball friday night…”

FEMA Holds Open House on Flood Map Changes for Franklin County and Columbus Date: 1-22-2007
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JAN. 22, 2007WHAT:
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will share information on local flood map changes that may affect up to 13,000 residents in Franklin County and the city of Columbus.
County and city officials encourage all residents to attend the FEMA Open House to talk with local, state and federal officials about flood risk, flood insurance, floodplain development regulations, and the process for floodplain mapping within Franklin County.WHEN:
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 4-7 p.m.

WHERE:
Memorial Hall 280 E. Broad Street 

I was hounded by an agent for a few days about info on a Columbus  home I had listed back in 2002.  It was not in a flood zone that required flood insurance back in 2002.  When I returned her call on Monday she said the flood zone maps in Central Ohio changed in January 2007.   That the home is in a flood zone now.   It’s listed with someone else in 2007, why is she calling me?   

Did you make the meeting in January?  Have you heard from your insurance agent or mortgage company if you are one of the 13,000 homes? 

There is a place on the property disclosure (required in most home sales in Ohio)  to disclose if your home is in a flood plain and you (and future owners) are required to insure it against floods.   

In talking to the real estate agent after returning her call twice I discovered flood zone maps were changed in January 2007.   Maybe I knew that back in January.

Why is she calling me in 2007?  I hoped in listening to her message on Saturday that there was the same sort of confusion going on in August 2007 that there was back in 2002 but it seems there’s just a different kind of confusion.  In 2002 the lender,  surveyor and title company told the buyer the house required flood insurance but it did not. 

I got a call within a few hours of the one reading me the riot act about the house being in a flood zone that said “oooops it’s not.  Never mind.”

It was a great house back in 2002.  Looks like a great home now.  Looking at my MLS listing in 2002:

“Open 5-5-2002 2-5, neutral, soft contemporary on deep lot with stream, trees. Gleaming hardwood floor in foyer, island kitchen. Stone WBFP. Huge master bedroom & luxurious master bath w/soaking tub. Plant ledges & vaulted ceilings thru out. Jack & Jill bath. Built by MI. Click photo for more.”

I bet it still has a deep lot with a stream at the back though.

Or maybe do try this at home, if you are trying to sell and the competition is stiff (and it is in lots of Central Ohio neighborhoods isn’t it? ) try home staging in  your home. 

Craig Schiller (just like the park in German Village) a home stager in Chicago has a gorgeous slide show about Buyer’s Seeing Red. 

Craig is talking to other stagers about the use of the color red in home staging.  It caught my eye.

Can you do home staging yourself? Or do you need professional help?  I majored in interior design until the second semester of my junior year in college.  My degree in home economics  then became a major which was called ”Related Art History of Design.”  So I have a background and lotsa study in design but I am not qualified to really stage a home.  I can help a seller with the rudimentary stuff but there’s a reason to get a professional involved in many Central Ohio homes today in my opinion.  It’s not like there aren’t buyers out there.  Buyers are  just able to ‘cherry pick’ the homes they buy today.  

I have thought about getting the staging designation for real estate agents too.  Maybe someday.  For now if you are in a neighborhood with 6 months or more supply of houses to sell, why not give your home a competitive edge by having it professionally staged?

Can you stage a home yourself?  Some people live in houses that look like they were staged.  Most of us don’t.  

Accent colors, accesories, home staging is not decorating.  Often home staging can be done with your own things. 

We have professional stagers in Columbus.

What’s the market like in your Central Ohio neighborhood?  What is your home worth?

Previously on ColumbusBestBlog:

Wood You Tell a Homeowner to Paint Cabinets?

Central Ohio - Warning! Do not try this at home!