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|  | Should I Take My Home Off the Market During the Holidays?
 When you look at your calendar you may find the months already overloaded with seasonal obligations -- shopping, entertaining, children's pageants, charity work, decorating the house, and so much more. If you are also trying to sell your home, you are under extra pressure to keep your home in "showtime" condition. And that could be the last thing you need before the holiday spirit is broken.
It is understandable why you would be tempted to take your home off the market during the holidays. And the list of justifications is long. If you are too busy, buyers may be also, and you may
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find your efforts unrewarded with not enough showings. And what if you do get an offer? You may be faced with the possibility of packing and moving during the busiest time of the year. Besides, you can give your house a rest, and it will
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Disclosure: Safest Way
To Sell A Home
 If you're putting your home on the market, better be sure you're ready to tell all -- good and bad.
"The majority of lawsuits or claims that occur are as a result of buyers finding out about something that is wrong with their property after the close of escrow and coming to the belief that the seller knew but didn't tell them," says real estate attorney, Peter Solecki of Winton & Larson, LLP.
Disclosure is vital. In one extreme case, it may have spared a seller from going to jail and even saved lives. The New York Times reported on a trial back in the late eighties that found the seller of a home guilty for not disclosing to the buyers that the home's heater had malfunctioned. The buyers and one of their children were asphyxiated by fumes from a gas-fired heater used to de-ice the driveway of their home. Only their four-year-old child survived. The seller was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. This case is believed to be the first of its
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Real Estate Outlook: Sales Picking Up Tempo
 Here's a key question about the current market: Do you look at home prices to figure out where we are in the real estate recovery cycle, or do you focus on sales? In an economy where an estimated 35 to 40 percent of all home transactions are foreclosures or short sales - distress situations in other words -- prices won't really guide you much beyond the conclusion that: We're still "correcting” the excesses of the boom years, still peeling back those wild and unsustainable hyperinflationary price run ups.
So it's no surprise that median prices are down, year to year, in a majority of large markets across the country.
Sales statistics, on the other hand, tell you how fast buyers are responding to those lower prices -- and greatly improved affordability.
Right now, in market after market, sales are picking up tempo -- especially in places where prices once spiraled out of control.
Third quarter sales of existing homes in the U.S. were up by 2.6 percent over second quarter 2008 levels, according to the National Association of Realtors' latest study.
That's not spectacular -- but let's face it: It's forward movement … and we're in
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Green Counter Tops Tell An Eco-Friendly Story
 Upgrading kitchens is one of the best ways to increase value in your home. Deciding to remodel the kitchen using green recycled materials can add extra appeal. It also gives homeowners a good feeling knowing that once-wasted materials that are generated from glass manufacturers are now being put to good use.
"A lot of people are deciding to go green and this is definitely a green-certified product because it is 85 percent recycled glass," says Cody Nosko, President of CCM Enterprises.
She’s talking about Vetrazzo—a slab of material made from recycled glass and concrete and used mostly in residential homes for kitchen and bathroom countertops although it can go anywhere natural stone is commonly used. The
Daily News and Advice
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