WVHomesBlog.com

Offered For $225,000

This grand four-square brick colonial, located in the desirable west-end historical district of Martinsburg, is graced with a large front porch leading into the formal foyer entry. Beautiful hardwood floors grace this vintage home throughout offering a formal living room with a wood burning fireplace and a formal dining room.

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Are you looking for an easy way to resize photos? Try this on for size but before you get excited, it only works with Windows XP, sorry Vista users. Simply scroll down the page to download  and install Image Resizer. This small 521kb gadget is a must have in my toolbox and easy to use without opening an editor program.

     1.   Right click on any photo or graphic file to bring up the Resize Pictures option.

     2.  Choose one of the defaulted options or use the advanced tab for customized resizing. When the resized photo is saved, the file name remains the same and is differentiated as (small) etc. in parenthesis.

Enjoy!

©2008 Debbie Small, Long & Foster. All Rights Reserved "Resizing Photos With 2 Clicks"

We've all heard the old adage "What goes up, must come down", however the opposite is true in housing.

Home prices tend to rise with commodity prices over the long term. Currently, the Producer Price Index for construction is up 39 percent over the past five years, and prices for commodities like oil, copper, steel and cement are sky-high. Sooner or later the increasing costs of these raw materials will push home prices higher.

As the supreme commodity, every home is full of materials like steel, wood, and copper wiring. Presently, an oversupply of homes may be keeping prices low, but home prices are rooted in hard costs and will eventually adjust to reflect the price of production.

If you are sitting on the fence wondering if this really is the right time to buy, consider that many homes today are being sold for less than their replacement cost due to oversupply and deeply discounted foreclosures. As interest rates begin to creep upward, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is forecast to rise gradually to 6.8 percent by the end of this year and hold at that level for most of 2009.

©2008 Debbie Small, Long & Foster. All Rights Reserved "Is This The Right Time To Buy?"

With our convenient location to the Baltimore Maryland and Washington DC beltway areas, West Virginia's eastern panhandle has long been a popular destination for tourism and home ownership. Most are drawn by our beauty and slower pace of life as well as the economics of lower priced real estate and taxes.

Some folks decide to put their roots down while others are looking to escape the beltway bustle at the week's end and I have had the privilege to assist both mindsets.

Since marketing vacation homes has become one of my niches over the years, I would particularly like to address those second home owners about some of the pitfalls to avoid.

"5 Easy Tips" to Protect Your Investment:

1. First and foremost, always turn off your main water valve when you leave. Make it a habit to do this year round because Murphy never takes a vacation and anything can go wrong while you're away. I can't tell you how many disasters I've encountered over the years while marketing vacation homes due to water damage.

2. While staying on the topic of water since it is one of most damaging elements that you can control, hire a professional to winterize your home. Turning the main water supply off and draining through the open faucets may not cut it when the temperature drops below 20 degrees. If you are not planning to use your home over the winter, I highly recommend this investment for your peace of mind. Trust me when I say that a frosty coating of ice in your oven is undesirable.

3. Oh those trees, those beautiful trees! We are so fortunate to have an abundance of beautiful hardwoods and pines covering our mountains, but they could be your nemesis too. Look around the perimeter of your home for trees leaning toward the house and also look for nearby standing dead trees that could fall and cause damage. Trees are beautiful and a wonderful habitat for local wildlife, but sometimes they need to come down. If you are fortunate enough to have standing dead hardwood trees, save them for firewood.

4. Most likely your vacation home will have that "cozy fireplace" and of course you'll need wood to fuel that fire. Don't stack the wood against the house or on the deck just because it's convenient. In your absence, the termites move in. Leave your permanent wood stack at least 20 feet away from the house. As an added tip, burn hardwood such as oak and limit the use of pine for burning as creosote could build up in the flue and may cause a chimney fire. If you use your fireplace or wood stove regularly, you should have the chimney cleaned once a year.

5. Bugs will be bugs and they all have a job to do, but they shouldn't be confined within your four walls. The obvious pests are termites and ants, but during this time of the year there may be infestations of lady bugs, stink bugs and common flies looking for a place to winter away. Here again, hire a trusted professional to control those little pests. I recommend quarterly treatment to protect your investment and making sure that the company you hire is fulfilling their contractual agreement.

The above tips are a compilation of my many years of experience in dealing with second home properties. Although I may have injected a little bit of humor here, it's basically common sense when you think about it.

Photo courtesey zieak

The 2008 Presidential Election could certainly go down in history as the most interesting race faced since the election of President Kennedy. The interest in this election is high and there was much said tonight about "Joe the Plumber" during the debate. Is this the "Real Joe"? Doe's it really matter?

Isn't it wonderful that we live in such a democratic country where we are able to individually have an opinion and cast our vote?

Just make sure you VOTE! It's you're RIGHT.

THINK ABOUT IT? DO IT!