This fourth of July weekend is a great one to get out and enjoy Ohio’s waterways.

Be careful with the fly fishing though as many of the areas streams and rivers are running higher than usual due to all the rain.

Get out and enjoy Ohio’s water ways!

Video is property of the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful and safe Fourth of July!

Enjoy all the events that Delaware, Ohio has to offer over the next two days. From the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra concert and fireworks today to the parade and community day evens of Saturday.

Gretchen and I recently had a “date night” at Easton Town Centre on Columbus’s east side.

No matter what store we go into, my first stop is the clearance rack. At Eddie Bauer, these velcro — or as they say “sports” — wallets were sitting atop the rack.

How long has it been since velcro wallets were the fad?

It got me thinking about how many ways there are to sell things. Does it matter how your agent markets your house? Yes and no.

Are you getting qualified buyers visiting your house?
Are you getting feedback from those showings?

When you sit down to the listing appointment you need to make sure that the agent and your vision of the marketing efforts are on the same “wave length”. There are many ways to “skin a house” and get it sold. Just make sure you are going to be happy.

by David Reed, CD Reed Mortgage

Owner financing has been a popular practice in previous real estate downturns. Current market conditions and upheavals in the mortgage industry have given rise to a new-found interest in this idea. If you own your property outright, have a need to sell in a soft market and are interested in converting your sold home into an investment that yields returns, owner financing may be a option worth exploring.

Successful owner financing means that you, the owner of the property, get to widen the potential pool of home buyers by offering to finance the transaction. And since private lending, where you act as the mortgage lender, tends to offer higher than standard interest rates to offset risks, you can also enjoy a nice return on the home loan.

Due diligence is the key to successful owner financing. This is not intended as a means to provide financing for those who have damaged credit, little or no income or some other “loan of last resort” characteristic. So who is this ideal candidate and how do you, the owner, evaluate such a proposition?

Your ideal candidate is someone who has excellent credit but for some reason, lenders aren’t using all or part of the buyer’s income. For instance, someone that has been an attorney for a legal firm for several years and just last year started their own practice or an experienced mechanic who ventures out on his own to open up his own shop. Lenders like to see two years’ worth of self employment when evaluating a loan application.

You’ll need to check the buyer’s credit and you can do so by getting written permission to pull a credit report. Or, you can log on together to www.annualcreditreport.com and print off a current report at no charge. Have the prospect provide you with three months most recent bank statements, personal and business, to show cash flow. To verify employment, dial “411” and ask for the phone number for that person’s business and call the office.

You can only hold a note on a property that is free and clear. Any transaction where title changes hands will trigger the “due on sale” clause inserted in mortgage loans.

Finally, and most importantly, get a substantial down payment. Anything that is 20 percent down indicates that the buyer is serious. Most owner financing arrangements are done on two to three year balloon notes. The idea is that your non-qualifying buyer will have time to establish a track record with their earnings and refinance with a traditional lender.

If the market is slowing down the sale of your home, discuss the possibility of adding owner financing to your listing with your agent.

David Reed, owner of CD Reed Mortgage, has appeared on  CNBC, CNN,  ‘Fox and Friends’, the ’Today’ show in New York and is a best-selling real estate author,  having written Mortgages 101, Who Says You Can’t Buy a Home!, Mortgage Confidential, Your Guide to VA Loans, Real Estate Investor’s Guide to Financing, and An Insider’s Guide to Refinancing Your Mortgage. His advice has appeared in the New York Times, Business Week, Kiplinger’s, Parade Magazine, Washington Post, and Real Simple, as well as in numerous newspapers and magazines across the country.

Artwork by Rodolfo Clix and used via license of Stock.xchng.

Schedule of events:

• 7:30am-9:30am - Pancake Breakfast St. Mary Church, William St.
• 9:30am-12:30pm - Farmers Market
• 9am & 10am - Historic Downtown Walking Tour meet in front of The Mean Bean-(30 min tour)
• 9am & 10am - Historic walking tour OWU campus & downtown (meet @ Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial, William St., in front of BP gas station)
• 10am-1:30pm – Children’s Activities, under the tent at the corner of William St. & Sandusky St.
• 11am-12:30pm – Bicentennial Stage Events in the National City Bank parking lot: Beard growing/photo contest results, Buckeye Valley Alumni band, cake cutting/refreshments, and many more events.
• 1pm – “5th of July” Bicentennial Parade starting at the fairgrounds and traveling through the historic downtown.

The following events will be available in downtown area throughout the morning and early afternoon.

• Historic Photo Displays
• Historic Artifact Displays
• Amateur Radio Club
• OWU Historic Artifact Display

For the latest details visit our website: www.Delawareco200.com

Akron is one of four cities — including Seymour, Wisc.; New Haven, Conn.; and Athens, Texas — to claim the invention of the hamburger.

According to A Hamburger Today, Akron’s claim goes to the Menches Brothers, and the story goes something like this:

The brothers’ descendents, who now operate a small chain in Ohio called, not surprisingly, Menches Bros. claim that their great-grandfather and his brother (Charles and Frank, respectively) invented the dish at an 1885 fair in Hamburg, New York. The brothers originally sold sausages but ran out and were forced to use ground beef, which at the time was considered declassé. John Menches, in a Businessweek story, says, “Faced with nothing to sell at all, they fried [the ground beef] up, but it was too bland. My grandfather decided to put coffee, brown sugar, and some other household ingredients in it and cooked up the sandwich. My great-uncle Frank served the first sandwich, a gentleman tasted it and said, ‘What do you call it?’ Uncle Frank didn’t really know what to call it, so he looked up and saw the banner for the Hamburg fair and said, ‘This is the hamburger.’”

Regardless of which city actually has bragging rights, this is a great chance to get out and enjoy some of Ohio’s best hamburger joints.  Tickets are $5 for the day and is a great way to enjoy a fine summer day in one of the state’s revitalized downtowns.

If you decide to stay the night, Holiday Inn is the Festival’s official hotel.

But merging the sale of your house and marriage?

Not sure I would go that far - even if I was single - in this crazy world. But one real estate agent in Florida is doing just that to sell her personal home according to a recent NBC5 story out of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Deven Traboscia, at right,  has been divorced for eight years and has two daughters.

“If I have to place an ad to find my prince charming, I will. I’m doing it for the real reasons, the right reasons, honest, sincerity and respect. And I hope whoever reads it will read me that way,” she said in the 11Alive article.

In the Craig’s List ad, Traboscia writes:

“If you want to live the never ending dream and experience the real love, life and the romance you have always felt was a fairy tale then this is the vibrant outstanding woman of your dreams! To sweep this European Loving Lady off her feet send in your application right now.”

The price for this woman’s love - and her house - well none is given on the Craig’s List ad, but rumors have it going at the tiny price tag of $500,000.

It is a great marketing ploy for Traboscia, but honestly I don’t think it paints her in the light that she really would like to be painted. Of course, I struggle with the term “struggling agent” when she lives in a home that boasts:

Gated 24 hour manned community,Lush landscaping throughout the community & a newly updated clubhouse that offers swimming pools, hot tub, 4 tennis courts, 2 racket ball courts, sand volleyball court,children’s playground and a fitness center with brand new equipment,& more! It’s like living in a five star resort.

I understand that this real estate market is tough - almost as tough as the dating market - but this is going a little overboard.

Top photo is used courtesy of 11Alive.com; bottom photo from her Craig’s List ad

For now, I’ll pass over the obvious birthday-suit joke here and get to the serious point: if you are having sex with multiple partners it is important to protect yourself.

That means being safe when the mod “is right”, but also to get tested at regular intervals for HIV and if you reside in Delaware County, you can be tested for free. So no excuses.

The Delaware County Aids Task Force offers free testing at the Delaware General Health District on Thursday from 7:30 - 9 a.m., the third Tuesday from 2 - 4 p.m., and the last Tuesday of each month from 2 - 6 p.m. Testing is done without needles and results are  available the same day. Clients do need to be 13 years old to take part.

Delaware General Health District is located at 3 West Winter Street in Delaware. For more information call them at 368-1700.

So before you enjoy the day by getting down to your birthday suit, get tested.

Photograph by “alcohol_ic” and used via permission of Stock.xchng.

I’m sorry for leaving Sadie’s Take on Delaware sitting for a while. It has been a very busy couple of weeks.

But we are back in the game. Thanks for the patience.

According to the article, sellers are finding a way around the current depreciation of their homes by buying a new home and allowing their old one to go into foreclosure.

Is this legal? I don’t care. Is it right? Hell no.

You made the decision to purchase the property for “x” and simply because current value is “x-10%” you don’t have the right to walk away from your loan commitments and buy a new home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about short-sales where changes in interest rates, familial situations, etc. have created a financial hardship.

This is about being GREEDY and nothing more. And when an agent doesn’t see anything wrong with the siituation, as we see in the story, they should have their license revoked and be tried for mortgage fraud.

By the way if you are thinking of doing this in central Ohio, don’t call me. I’m not interested.

Photograh by Vivre and used via license of Stock.xchng.