While I haven’t always been a big believer in the whole game of ‘mental mastery’, I’m slowly coming around to recognize it’s power and importance.  I saw this clip this morning and thought its message was wonderful.

I hope it can urge and inspire you to dream big to go for it!

]]> http://sharonsellscarolina.com/348/success-requires-clarity-purpose/feed/ 0 http://sharonsellscarolina.com/277/thinking-about-buying-a-new-house-in-rock-hill-sc/ http://sharonsellscarolina.com/277/thinking-about-buying-a-new-house-in-rock-hill-sc/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:44:17 +0000 SSCadmin http://sharonsellscarolina.com/?p=277 Actually, regardless of where you’re thinking about buying a new house (even though I’d LOVE to help you find your dream home here in the Rock Hill SC or Fort Mill SC area!), it’s important to know that lending criteria have changed dramatically. I know, I know, no shocker there.

Here’s an interesting commentary from Jack M. Guttentag of Yahoo! Real Estate:

“You’ll probably have to go to homeownership school.

You’ll have to prove you can really afford a mortgage.

You may have to reconsider your location.

And you’ll have to run a gauntlet of scrutiny.

Today’s mortgages are a far cry from boom time home loans, but they do exist and some lenders have money to burn.

“People used to qualify with stated income. Now there is more documentation. And they aren’t just documenting your income, but looking for assets in addition to your income and low debt-to-income ratios and low loan-to-value ratios,” said Asmaa Egal, mortgage broker, Loan Republic Financial in San Francisco.

The new brand of home loan has been customized with tighter controls and fewer defects to replace old mortgage models that crashed and burned when the economy hit the skids.

“You have to qualify. You have to prove your income. They have make-sense underwriting,” said, Quincy Virgilio, 2009 president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors and broker-owner Realty World CA Property Network in San Jose, CA.”

So now instead of simply being able to ‘say’ you qualify for a home mortgage you’re going to have to actually prove it.  I know, a novel idea.

Let me also clear up one common misconception.  Many people think that with the way the financial markets are going up and down right now that there it’s impossible to get a home loan.  NOT TRUE!

There is money available to purchase your new house here in Rock Hill SC  or Fort Mill SC, however, just as the statement above says, you now have to actually prove your income.  Yes, it’s a considerably larger pain in the back-side, but until things in the financial markets become more stable I’m afraid it’s what we’re going to have to live with!

]]> http://sharonsellscarolina.com/274/the-credit-crisis-visualized/feed/ 0 http://sharonsellscarolina.com/193/carolina-panthers-to-host-the-arizona-cardinals-at-bank-of-america-stadium/ http://sharonsellscarolina.com/193/carolina-panthers-to-host-the-arizona-cardinals-at-bank-of-america-stadium/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:51:40 +0000 SSCadmin http://sharonsellscarolina.com/?p=193 The magical season for the hometown Carolina Panthers will continue this Saturday at 8:15pm at Bank of America Stadium as the Arizona Cardinals roll into town on the heels of their defeat of the rival Atlanta Falcons on Saturday.  The Panthers secured a first round bye and home field advantage by virtue of their season ending victory over the New Orleans Saints in their last game of the regular season and now it’s onto the ‘second season’ as many people call it.

It’s pretty exciting to have the NFL Playoffs coming to town and the Panther’s have a pretty good track record in the post-season.  The team has previously hosted 2 playoff games at home here in Charlotte, NC and have come out on top in both of those contests.  Those were pretty sweet victories as well because they were over the much-hated (at least in my household) Dallas Cowboys.

Even though it won’t be the Cowboys coming to town, the Cardinals will still present a pretty tough match-up, but I think our Panthers are up to the task of showing these birds just how smash-mouth football is suppossed to be played.

My prediction for the game:  Panthers 28 – Cardinals 14

A definite kudos to our fantastic little town and it just echos what us residents of Rock Hill have known all along!

You can see the online post right HERE.

Now, I’m not really saying I’m for or against this bill, but my point is this.  If they already voted on it and our ELECTED OFFICIALS voted it down based on what ‘us’, the constituents told them, then why in the world would they insult our intelligence by throwing in a bunch of other provisions to try and squeeze this thing through?  I just don’t get it.

Yes, I do believe that something needs to be done.  But why does it always start at the top and work it’s way down to the bottom?  This is the problem with policitians.  They’ve forgotten that they were elected to represent the people in their respective states.  To look out for us to ensure government doesn’t overstep it’s bounds.  Hmmmmmm, seems to me like there’s a little bit of that overstepping going on right now.

I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what the results of tonight’s votes are to determine if our beloved politicians have once again taken on the role of telling us what’s best for us.

To be completely honest, I’m not sure what to make about Washington climbing into bed with business, especially at this magnitude.  Especially if it’s my tax dollars we’re talking about here.

Of course, according to the Secretary of the Treasury and the head of the Federal Reserve are both saying this bail out is necessary to keep things afloat, I wonder how smart it is to be making such huge promises to the folks that got us in this mess to begin with.

So, what’s your take on the issue?  How do you feel about the government taking $700B it doesn’t have and giving it to Wall Street in order to fix this financial mess?

Go ahead and leave your thoughts below in the comment section.  I’d love to hear what you have to say about it!

This article ranked the top 25 most over-rated ‘things’.  There were things like crocs, Donald Trump, owning a car (uuuhhh, they’ve obviously never been to middle America!), and even owning a home. I think that right there should tell you how credible this list is, but the one that really jumped out at me was when they listed ‘Charlotte NC’ and then asked if it was the ‘worst city in America’.  Excuse me!?!

Some of the reasons they listed were a rising crime rate, a weakening economy thanks to some big hits some of the local companies have been taking, namely Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lowes, and “driving to the beach or the mountains isn’t as easy as it once was, with rising gas prices, traffic and sprawl.”  Uuuuhhh, did they suddenly demolish the interstates that lead to either the beach or the mountains?

Now I may be a bit biased, but I think the Charlotte area’s a fantastic place to live and I believe it will continue to be for many years to come.  Are there some issues like rising crime and urban sprawl that need to be dealt with?  Absolutely, but what city in America doesn’t have those issues?

Granted, the recent hits taken by Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lowes are certainly downers, but they’re not going anywhere any time soon.  They’re all behemoths in their respective industries and there’s no way they’d decline to a point where it totally destroys the Charlotte economy like we’ve seen when local factories decimate small towns.  Charlotte’s just too big and diverse for that to happen.

I guess overall I was a bit surprised by the ‘honor’, but when you consider they also listed amongst their things that are over-rated Angelina Jolie and the Nintendo Wii, and they suggest buying a mid-90′s Geo Metro instead of a Toyota Prius, you can draw your own conclusions.

So what’s your take?  What do you think about Charlotte being ranked as one of the top 25 most over-rated ‘things’?

Go ahead and leave your comments below.

You can read the whole article on Charlotte HERE.

The pundits and know-it-all talking heads are pretty mixed up when it comes to where the Panthers will finish this season as the predictions are all over the board.  I for one think they’ve underestimating them.  I’ll go out on a limb and say they win 10 games, win the division, and make it to the NFC Championship game.  Again.

Of course I could be totally wrong and they could fall flat on their faces, which of course would mean John Fox would probably get the boot.  I like him so I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen.

Anyway, the long, dreadful wait is finally over as the Panthers kick off on Sunday against the favored San Diego Chargers at 4:15pm ET.

Go Panthers!

Hanna, the first of the 3 storms was initially projected to head out way by Friday, but according to the NWS, it has weaked quite a bit and is now hanging out near the Bahamas.  While there is still a chance it could regain strength and begin moving our way, the weather geeks really don’t know how much strength it’s going to gain.

And given all the rain we received last week from Fay, it’s a pretty safe bet we’d all enjoy a bit of a break to allow the ground to dry out just a bit so it can absorb even more.   Yes, we need the moisture, but I think we’d all prefer a bit at a time instead of getting dumped on within justa few hours!

The other 2 possible tropical storms are still in their early stages out in the Atlantic, but Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine both have very good chances of gathering strength and heading towards the Carolinas.  Given that we’re in the peak of hurrican season, I’m afraid we’re not out of the woods yet and probably won’t be given the current pace of storms.

Again, while we could definitely use the moisture, I don’t think anybody wants the huge amounts we took last week that caused flooding up in Cabarrus County, just north of Charlotte NC.  But I guess we really can’t control it either, so all we’re left with is getting ourselves prepared, and saying our prayers that we don’t have repeate of Hurrican Katrina any time soon!