This is a shot of White Rock Lake. I live, play, and work in this neighborhood. It is a wonderful place to call home. Home prices run from $150,000 to $4,000,000. The average home price is $238,041. If you would like a great neighborhood to live in where your friends are your neighbors and your neighbors are your friends visit my web site at http://www.whiterocklakeproperties.com/ and then call me. No one will work harder to find you a home you will love. Over 78% of my business comes from repeat/referral customers.

A Home Buyer's Guide: 10 steps to a successful closing

As your Realtor, it is my job to assist you with your home purchase. If you hire me you will have the benefit of 28 years of experience helping over 1,000 people with the sale or purchase of their home. Many steps are involved in making your home purchasing experience successful and as stress free as possible. Here are recommendations and a brief chronology of the events as they "normally" occur.

1. It is to your benefit to make your loan application before house hunting. If you are approved on your mortgage this makes you essentially a cash buyer when you make your offer. This puts you at an advantage, especially when you may be competing with other buyers for the same house. It also eliminates any last minute problems that may occur because of erroneous information on your credit report. There are several mortgage lenders I recommend who have consistently provided excellent service and low interest rates to me over the years. I get no monetary compensation from them for my recommendation and will be happy to put you in touch with them.

For the other 9 steps to purchasing your home send me an email at michael.schmitt@sbcglobal.net and I will be glad to forward that to you.

Another tax credit

I just read that there is legislation in both the Senate and the House that would expand the tax credit already in effect for first time home buyers from 8k to 15k for any buyer, not just 1st time home buyers that is currently in effect and runs out on December 2nd . It would also remove the income limits from 75k for an individual and 150k for a couple. As a real estate broker I am tickled pink as I think it will definitely help the housing market, but as a tax payer it scares me to give Americans their money back and get us further into debt. Another recommendation is to make the credit available only if you are purchasing a foreclosure or short sale property. That might be a good idea as it would help get these properties off the government's inventory and start bringing in money on them in the form of payments to lenders and further stimulate the economy.