Tips

•Have a party for the specific purpose of saying goodbye to your friends. Hold it a month or two before your actual move. Make this a strictly informal time with an atmosphere that’s warm and friendly. This will probably be an emotional time, but it also helps you realize these people will remain your friends, even though you will be separated by distance.
■Have lunch with old friends and coworkers during the few weeks before your move.
■Plan a backyard barbecue for the neighbors a month before you leave.
■Host a family potluck get-together.
■Take cookies and say good-bye to a meeting of your church group, civic organizations and youth sports teams.

•Your children need their own party to say goodbye to their friends. Let them plan the party, but make sure it is designed to be a light and festive occasion so it will be something they will look forward to with excitement. It will help them to emotionally prepare for the move.
■Young children may want to take cupcakes, cookies or fruit and vegetable snacks to school, day care, or a play group.
■Preteens or teens may want to plan their own evening going-away party.
■Teens may enjoy treating friends to a day at a local amusement park.

•Say goodbye to your community by visiting all the family’s favorite places one last time. Plan a family picnic or trip to a favorite recreational area, park or lake. Go see all of your favorite museums, landmarks and local attractions. Have a few nights out at your favorite restaurants, nights spots or clubs for the express purpose of saying goodbye. And, remember, there will be plenty of places in your new community that you’ll like equally well!

This free festival offers live music performances from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. honoring Carl Sandburg and his preservation of traditional folk music as found in his collection The American Songbag.

Richard Sackett will begin playing traditional tunes on the guitar at 10 a.m. with Dana and Susan Robinson following with their original folk music on guitar, banjo, and mandolin at 11 a.m.. At noon, Buddy Davis and Pat Corn will play songs from Sandburg’s “American Songbook” on their acoustic guitars and at 1 p.m., Jon Shain will grace the stage with traditional acoustic and blues tunes. Starting at 2 p.m., Kat Williams will perform jazz and blues singing in the style of Ella Fitzgerald. Steve and Jean Smith will also perform hammered dulcimer music at the historic barn area from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Carl Sandburg began playing the guitar in the early 1900’s to enhance his lectures and performed during the era of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and he was the mentor for Burl Ives. He played the guitar, banjo and harmonica and collected a series of folk songs, which he published in his book “The American Songbag. ”

This annual event is supported by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara, Eastern National and the National Park Service. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, is located three miles south of Hendersonville off U.S. 225 on Little River Road. The park is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily, except Christmas Day.

For further information, please visit www.nps.gov/carl.

Each year, the National Trust and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street® programs that have built strong revitalization organizations and demonstrate their ability in using the Main Street Four-Point Approach® methodology for strengthening their local economy and protecting their historic buildings.

“We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for meeting our established performance standards,” said Doug Loescher, director of the National Trust Main Street Center in a news release. “Accredited Main Street programs are meeting the challenges of the recession head on and are successfully using a focused, comprehensive revitalization strategy to keep their communities vibrant and sustainable.”

The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by North Carolina Main Street Center which works in partnership with the National Trust Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet 10 performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program’s application of the Main Street Four-Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as developing a mission, fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking economic progress, and preserving historic buildings. For more information on the national program accreditation program, visit http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/about-main-street/the-programs/national-programs.html.

“Accreditation is a reflection of our commitment to an efficient and sustainable program. We are proud to be members of our State and National Main Street Programs and excited to be recognized for our organizational capacity,” added Hendersonville Main Street Director Lew Holloway.

“We have a strong sense that there are a ton of folks out there who want to take advantage of all our downtown has to offer after the more traditional hours typically offered and Weekends Alive agrees,” said Main Street Director Lew Holloway, Main Street Director in a news release. “Downtown Hendersonville has seen, with each passing year, a growing evening vibrancy that is hard to miss. Whether it’s the fine dining, regular events or simply a stroll you are looking to take advantage of, Historic Downtown Hendersonville has been the place to find an authentic downtown experience. Downtown retailers are taking notice and want to invite you to join them. Last month’s City of Hendersonville Main Street Advisory Committee meeting included a discussion of “Aligning business hours with opportunity,” and an effort by several merchants known as “Weekends Alive” to do just that.”

Participating businesses will display a sticker in their window front or front door of their establishment now through Labor Day.

Opportunities to Add Value – Thanks to differences in the efficiency of the financial markets versus the real estate market, the purchase of a home offers you opportunities to add value that are not available to you when you purchase stocks or bonds. While you’re competing against thousands of savvy investors in the financial markets, you may be competing against a relative handful of potential buyers for a given property.

Combine the use of the Internet-based research tools and the services of an ERA real estate professional, and you have the power to be the buyer who finds the motivated seller with the attractively priced property, increasing the likelihood of equity appreciation from the day you move in.

If you’re an enterprising, creative buyer, put online information resources and the experience of an ERA real estate professional to work for you to find the ‘diamond in the rough’ that’s waiting for your special touches to improve the property, increase your enjoyment while you live there, and add to resale value.

Equity Loans for the Short Term – With credit card interest often exceeding 20%, a home equity loan can offer a lower cost, flexible tax deductible alternative. Note that, as with the assumption of any debt, home equity loans call for financial discipline on your part.

Liquid(ity) Refreshment for the Long Term – Financial markets are highly liquid; your investments in stocks or bonds can be sold in seconds. Selling a home takes a bit longer; that’s not a good or bad thing, just something you need to be aware of when you find yourself thinking of your home in the same investment terms as a stock or bond.

The difference in market liquidity also helps explain why trends in real estate values tend not to exhibit the (sometimes extreme) spikes of the financial markets; and why you shouldn’t stay awake at night trying to ‘time the market’ when it comes to real estate.

Take a (Tax) Break – Home ownership can offer significant tax advantages over renting:

•If your mortgage balance is less than the price of your home, mortgage interest is 100% tax deductible.

•Real estate property taxes paid on your primary residence (and in most cases, on your vacation home) are 100% deductible for income tax purposes.

•If you are a first-time homebuyer with an IRA, you may also be able to apply a portion of your IRA to the purchase of your home with out penalty.

•If you have lived in your home for two of the past five years, you can exclude from capital gains on the profit from the sale of your home up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple, without restriction as to your age.

•You can exclude the above capital gains thresholds from taxes every 24 months, which means you could sell your home every two years and pocket the profit (subject to the limitations above) tax-free every time – serial renovators, take note.*
*Consult with your tax or financial advisor for details.

Here are a few tips to help make the transition a bit less stressful.

Tips for Everyone:

Establish Good Rapport with a Real Estate Professional – Buying or selling your home can be a stressful time; establishing a comfort level with a real estate professional you trust will go a long way toward making the transition to the next chapter in your life a smoother and even pleasant one.

Make sure you choose a Realtor® who takes the time to listen to your needs and answer your questions. Don’t agree to be represented by a Realtor® unless you’re comfortable that they’ll work hard for you and be there when you need them.

Don’t Hesitate to Talk Technology – While you’re speaking with a prospective agent, be sure to ask where the use of technology figures in to the marketing and sale of your home. Even though a solid majority of homebuyers use the services of a licensed real estate professional, about 80 percent begin their search on the Internet.

Today’s real estate market is truly global. Choose a Realtor® and a real estate brand backed by a strong Web presence and a global reach; you simply can’t predict whether your buyer will come from around the corner or a far corner of the globe.

Tips for Buyers:

Put Your Finances in Order – It’s always good advice, but making sure your finances are in order before you begin looking for a home is crucial. Here are three ways to help make it happen:

•Know how much you have available for a down payment; and the source(s) of the funds; it’s very handy information to have on hand when you’re applying for financing.

•Avoid major purchases until you’re in your new home; they could affect the amount you’ll be able to borrow.

•Postpone that new credit card; and cancel cards you use very rarely or not at all. The availability of a line of credit will reduce what a lender is willing to offer you.
Get pre-approval for your mortgage loan; It’s easy to get pre-approval from your lender, and it costs you nothing but a little of your time. Don’t underestimate the importance of this tip. Sure, you think it’s a “buyers market” – at least until a seller is considering multiple offers on your dream home.

Choose an Attorney – If you’re moving out of your area and don’t have an attorney to represent you, it makes sense to secure the services of an attorney before you’ve found your next home; your Realtor can refer you to experienced attorneys in the area.

List Your “Must Haves” and “Have Nots” – List the features you must have in your next home and the “must have” amenities in the surrounding area, as well as the things you’d like to avoid (a multi-story home, or a home of a particular architectural style, for example).

Put the Internet to Work for You – About 80 percent of home searches begin on the Internet. The Web sites of leading real estate brands (ERA.com, for example!) are a great place to begin your search. Look for:

•The ability to search for homes in a particular area
•Photos and descriptions of available properties
•Virtual tours
•Local information
•Useful information for buyers and sellers
•Contact information for a real estate professional who serves your area of interest
Go Out There and Kick the Tires – Once you’ve settled on your next neighborhood, contact a real estate professional and look at properties that meet all or most of your “must haves”.

In addition, take as much time as you can to explore the neighborhood on your own. Dine at an area restaurant, pick up a copy of the local paper and talk to the locals. Before you’ve even had your offer accepted on your next home, the next chapter of your life will already be well under way.

Oates, an Asheville native who ha called Henderson County her home for more than two decades, portrayed Daisy Werthan in last year’s Hendersonville Little Theatre production of “Driving Miss Daisy” for which she won HLT’s Barney award for Best Performance by an actress in 2011.

Her one-woman show “The Wild One” will begin at the booksroe at 7 p.m. Space is limited and 15 percent of the $12 ticket price will support the Muddy Sneakers program which seeks to counter “nature deficit disorder” in our young people.

An additional 15% of the proceeds from any book sales that evening will also go to Muddy Sneakers.

To order tickets, please call 697-1870 or email Ftnhead1@att.net. For more information, visit www.fountainheadbookstore.com.