To help homeowners stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure, Fannie Mae developed a series of podcasts to provide real estate professionals and the general public with valuable insights about Fannie Mae’s property disposal process. The interviews, conducted with experts discussing some of most important aspects of Fannie Mae’s programs, are designed to help keep the public informed about the options and resources available.

The new Deed-for-Lease and First Look™/Neighborhood Stabilization Program podcasts can be accessed and downloaded for free on iTunes®. While you are there, take a few minutes to listen to the other episodes available in the series.

Current podcasts available include:

• First Look and Neighborhood Stabilization Program
• Deed for Lease Program
• HomePath 101
• HomePath Financing
• Fannie Mae 101

She cooked, she cleaned, she grew and canned vegetables, she made jam and preserves, she taught her parakeet to talk and she ironed sheets and handkerchiefs while watching her “stories” during the day while my grandfather was at work.  She also rocked a pair of cat eye glasses

While I don’t ever think that my house will be as clean as hers was, I did take a page from her book and manage to plant a garden this year.  I have hopes of minimizing the amount of pesticides in our food.  I have dreams of bright red, juicy creole tomatoes sliced on white bread with mayo (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!).  I believe that I can grow enough vegetables from $1.29 seed packets to freeze and use when they are out of season.  Most of all, when I’m out there digging in the dirt, I feel a kinship with my most treasured family member and I’m hopeful that my granddaughter will one day have the same fond memories of me.

A bonus to growing my own veggies is that I’m not reliant on a big farm or an 18 wheeler to get them to me.  Just this past week, I ran across some information on the environmental impact of buying goods that aren’t produced locally.  With all of the local farmer’s markets and a new emphasis by grocery stores on local products, we really don’t have much of an excuse for not shopping for locally grown food.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: eLocal.com

Kind of makes you want to grab a hoe and some seeds, doesn’t it? I know that I’d rather eat a tomato that I picked this morning or a local farmer picked yesterday than one that was gassed and waxed and packaged a week ago before being shipped across the country.

Need some help getting started?  LSU Ag Center information on gardening in Louisiana

Are you already a local gardener?  We’d love to see pictures of what you are growing.  Feel free to share them!

While our lives may be a bit different than they were back then, there are still neighborhoods in and around New Orleans that offer front porches just made for sitting, visiting, people watching…..remember, a few years from now these will be the good old days for our children or grandchildren.

If you can’t see the video above, click here.

The West Bank is a part of us.  It’s our little piece of small town while still living in a modern, metropolitan area with all of the arts, culture, music and entertainment that you would expect.

Just the other day, my daughter called and told me “the lady at the car wash said I just missed you”.  I love that.  I loved that not only did the lady at the car wash know me, she also knew my daughter well enough not just for the obligatory “how’s your mom ‘n nem” but enough to let her know that she’d seen me.  It’s the same thing when any of our kids are at work.  Without fail, at least once a week one of them passes along a hello from someone that recognized them and knew they belonged to me.

That’s a feeling that you don’t get everywhere.  But we have it here.  I think I’ll stay for a while longer.

I’m excited about the fact that it has wheels and holds a lot more than the old blue bins and can’t wait to fill it with all of the garbage that my family creates that can be recycled.  Combined with the compost bin I started last year, we should be able to drastically cut down on the amount of trash we produce each week.

Haven’t signed up for your bin yet?  Do it here. The cost of recycling and trash pick up is already included in your monthly water bill, so let’s all take advantage of this service.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day

Image courtesy of Editor B on Flickr

In January, Algiers residents started being charged more for garbage pickup. Substantially more. Like double what we were paying before. Part of the pitch for this increase was that we would see the return of curbside recycling, which has been absent since Katrina unless you paid for a private service. Sure, there are monthly drop off points, but who has the space to save a month’s worth of newspapers, soft drink cans and cardboard before loading it all in the car and schlepping it to the drop offs that only operate for a few hours?

I’m personally thrilled to see the return of recycling and I’ve already signed up to receive my new cart here: http://www.nola.gov/RESIDENTS/Department-Of-Sanitation/CartRegistration/.

In the meantime, though, the City Council continues to argue about bar codes, tracking ability, the appropriate size of the containers and whether or not people should be allowed to use the blue bins some still have from before the storm.

There are 2 big complaints I’m reading about:

The new containers are expensive and the city has ordered thousands more of them than people have registered for

I’m no rocket scientist, but why would we need the ability to track a recycling container via embedded chips or bar codes that drive up the cost?  It’s a glorified garbage can – does it really need LoJack on it?

As an aside, until I read a news story this week, I didn’t realize that I needed to register to receive a new recycling container.  When the city rolled out the old bins, they were delivered to each home with garbage pickup – without the need to complete a form and provide the city with my email address or phone number.  I’d happily use my old container if the person that swiped it would kindly return it to my front curb where it was last seen.  Since it didn’t have a bar code, I’m not able to call on the boys in blue to rescue it from it’s current location and return it to me and I’ll have to make do with a new bin that holds more recyclables.

The new rolling bins are too big and won’t work in older areas like Algiers Point where storage space can be an issue

This is a valid concern for residents who live in neighborhoods that often don’t have driveways or garages.  They are already dealing with finding a spot for the huge garbage cans and may not have any space to spare for another rolling container.  This makes forced registration a little more palatable but why not ask just the people who need a smaller bin to register?

Given the computer issues the city has had in the past, I’m not sure I can count on them getting this right if there are thousands upon thousands of registrations.  Let’s let them deal with the smallest number possible, minimizing the risk of a follow up story about people who ended up with two different size bins.

What are your thoughts on this? Will you register and get a new recycling container or are you opting out of the entire process?

Once we’ve convinced them of the necessity of doing the inspections (even on new construction), one of the most common questions we get from both home buyers and home sellers is who will be at the home inspection?

Now, there are different customs in different parts of the country, but in New Orleans our custom is that the buyer, their buyer agent or REALTOR® and the various inspectors all attend the inspection.  I’ve heard that in some areas the home inspectors have access via lockbox to the properties and perform their inspections without anyone around.  I’ve also heard that in some states home inspectors don’t have to be licensed.  Thankfully, it doesn’t work that way here.

The seller and their listing agent should be no where to be found during your inspections – this is your time to have a professional assure you that you are getting what you think you are getting and to give you a fair and unbiased view of the condition of the property.  Take advantage of every minute of it.

More New Orleans home buying advice

Whatever their motivation, the sale of foreclosures is certainly having an impact on the West Bank real estate market.

Take a look at the number of bank owned (aka REO or Real Estate Owned) properties on the market compared to the percentage of sales.  In every community across the West Bank, the percentage of REO sales is way out of whack when compared to the percentage of listings they represent.

What does this mean for home sellers?

It means that the investors and bargain hunters are out in force, taking the term buyers market to heart.  If you are selling in this environment, then you need to be at the top end of condition and the bottom end of pricing.  Need a little help deciding if now is the right time for you to move up, down or onward?  Contact the West Bank Living Team today.

Before you head off to bed on Saturday night, don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour.  Or, you could wait until the morning and spend all of Sunday confused about exactly what time it is if you aren’t looking at the cable box.

Anyway, I’m excited to see longer, warmer days and the return of blooms, buds and blossoms to our landscapes as the garden centers are overflowing with new plants and flowers and the green thumbs are coming out of hibernation.

Longer days also mean more evening showings for our listings, so home sellers need to be prepared to have dinner interrupted once in awhile as buyers take advantage of the additional daylight hours to see more houses.

Need a little advice on getting those buyers through your door?  Contact the West Bank Living Team for a free marketing consultation on your West Bank home.

Need to be able to snap a pic of a wall and match the paint color?  There’s an app for that.

Wondering how many materials you need for that home improvement project?  There’s an app for that.

Need a quick ruler, level or plumb bob when hanging a photo?  Yes, there’s even an app for that.

Courtesy of the National Assocation of Realtors®, here is a list of home improvement apps that might be of interest to you:

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  (New!)

  Home Improvement Apps for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry: Your Digital Toolbox

  Downloadable iPhone and Android apps offer ways to maintain, improve, and save money on your home. Read