Ballantyne, NC – Andrew Kiger, PGA Class A Professional, has joined the teaching staff of Dana Rader Golf School.

Andrew Kiger is a class “A” member of the PGA of America and was the Director of Instruction at Riverwood and Hedingham Golf Clubs near Raleigh, NC where he directed golf schools, [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Andrew Kiger, PGA Class A Professional, has joined the teaching staff of Dana Rader Golf School.

Andrew Kiger is a class “A” member of the PGA of America and was the Director of Instruction at Riverwood and Hedingham Golf Clubs near Raleigh, NC where he directed golf schools, camps, clinics, and private instruction. Andrew has over 5 years of professional teaching experience, is certified as a Golf Machine Instructor, and was mentored by PGA Professional David Orr (Director of Instruction at Campbell University). Andrew likes to make the game fun by teaching students how to hit the ball solid every time.

“Drew is a talented instructor with an enthusiasm for teaching the game of golf,” said Dana Rader, Owner and Founder of Dana Rader Golf School. “He brings a solid teaching background to our team of instructors.”

“I take tremendous pride in being a part of Dana Rader Golf School,” said Andrew Kiger, Staff Instructor. “I have never met a team of instructors more enthusiastic about helping people improve their golf game.”

About Dana Rader Golf School
Dana Rader Golf School is North Carolina’s most complete state-of-the-art teaching and practice facility. Selected to Golf Magazine’s prestigious list of Top 25 Golf Schools in America and #1 in North Carolina, Dana Rader Golf School specializes in quality golf schools and lessons for players of all ages and skill levels. Dana Rader Golf School’s full staff of award-winning PGA and LPGA certified professionals offers extensive programs and highly personalized instruction for men, women, juniors and corporate events.

The School’s Founder, Dana Rader, is a nationally recognized leader in the golf industry named by Golf Digest as one of America’s 50 Greatest Teachers, is consistently ranked as a Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor and currently serves as LPGA Teaching and Club Professional National President. She has been honored as LPGA National Teacher of the Year and has achieved LPGA Master Professional status. For more information about Dana Rader Golf School, call 704.542.7635 or visit www.danarader.com.

Ballantyne, NC – Ballantyne Hotel was the site of a flurry of activity. An over flow crowd was in attendance for the January 27th property revaluation meeting. Ballantyne Breakfast Club was the host for the discussion and drew the largest attendance thus far for this series of public sessions taking place county [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Ballantyne Hotel was the site of a flurry of activity. An over flow crowd was in attendance for the January 27th property revaluation meeting. Ballantyne Breakfast Club was the host for the discussion and drew the largest attendance thus far for this series of public sessions taking place county wide. District 7 City Council Member Warren Cooksey helped organize the meeting for Ballantyne residents. Mecklenburg County Vice-Chair Jim Pendergraft apologized on behalf of District 6 Board Member Bill James who was under the weather and unable to attend. Mr. Pendergraft went on to explain that the county website for the property revaluation is up and running at http://reval.charmeck.org and all of the meeting information is available there. The county expects to mail the private property revaluations by February 7th and hopes the county will remain revenue neutral, however this does not mean taxes will not increase. The county will decide the new tax rate sometime in June.

Mecklenburg County Tax Assessor Garrett Alexander was present to talk about the appeals process. The state statute gives each property owner 30 days from the date the property revaluation is received in the mail.There are approximately 319,000 privately owned properties in this county. The county hopes to mail the commercial revaluations on March 1st, 2011.The county is still analyzing the 2010 fourth quarter tax data and expects to be done analyzing all of the data shortly.

The lead appraiser For The ReValuation Team is Chuck Hicks. Mr. Hicks did a power point presentation explaining the process (available on the website).The last time the property revaluation was done in this county was 2003. The 2003 process was partly based on 2002 property values. Two major factors influence the current process. One is market value. This is defined as the most probable price in an open market in a typical sale in the absence of undo stimulus. The second factor is equity. This is defined as the reflection of the current value applied fairly. Every county in North Carolina is bound by the state appraisal standards when doing revaluations.

In the past, foreclosures were not included in the revaluations. This years revaluation will include foreclosures. Appraisers can use a cost approval approach or a sales approach. The state has mandated that all counties do a property revaluation a maximum of every eight years.

Between the years of 2002 – 2006, the federal government lowered the interest rates several times. This temporarily increased property sales and prices. Some time after this there was a ‘market correction’. The ‘top’ of the housing bubble was in 2007. In 2009, the county was scheduled to do a revaluation but the commissioners decided they wanted to postpone this revaluation.

The ratio used by the county is the assessed value divided by the actual sale price which equals the assessment/sales ratio. If your property has increased in value since the 2003 revaluation, your ratio is below 100% (meaning your taxes will likely increase). If the price of your home has fallen, then your ratio is above 100%. If the value of your house is approximately the same as it was in 2003, then your ratio will be at or near 100%. The county board of commissioners will decide the new tax rate in June.

All property owners should receive a new property revaluation form. This is a perforated piece of paper and all appeals should be filled out on the lower portion of this same form. After filing an appeal, the owner should receive a post card from the county. Owners have 30 days from the date they receive the new property revaluation form to appeal the value. An example of a reason to appeal: if you have several unsold properties in your neighborhood and you feel the county has not taken this into account. Another example of a reason to appeal would be if there are a large number of rental units in the neighborhood that you feel the county did not take into account. A third example of appeal would be if the county has the square footage wrong or if it has changed since 2002. This would be time to fill out the lower portion of the form and mail it to the county with the number of unsold properties in your neighborhood. Please included a reason of why the county’s value is not the actual value.

The ‘Board of Equalization’ will be handling the appeals (click here for appeals info). This board is required by law to handle these appeals starting the first Monday in April and be finished by the first Monday in May. Each owner will need evidence to show why the value should be changed. Right now this board has nine members. This board member size was decided in 1981. The current board of county commissioners would like to control the size of the ‘Board of Equalization’. The county commissioners would like to increase the size to 15 members in a revaluation year. This is due to the number of appeals that are expected. There is a bill in Raleigh right now to allow the Mecklenburg County Commission to establish an ordinance to control the membership size of the ‘board of equalization’ locally. The other idea is to have two concurrent or successive panels in order to speed up the appeals process. All of the appeals forms will be scanned and put into a ‘queue.’ Property owners have 15 days after receiving a decision from the ‘Board of Equalization’ to file a second appeal. The reason for this board is a system of ‘checks and balances’.

The county now has seven appraisers on the revaluation team and seventeen appraisers who handle new construction.The county appraisers are using the median and not the mean. Here the reason the mean was not chosen. For example, if a neighborhood has an average sales price of $400,000 but one house sells for $1 million. This $1 million dollar sale would skew the mean for that particular neighborhood. The median takes this kind of anomaly into consideration. Using the median, all the rest of the neighborhood would not have unusually high property values due to one house that sold for $1 million. This will help the county arrive at the fair market value for properties.

A question was asked about why the county is choosing ‘30 days’ for appeals rather than giving property owners until May 15th. Mr. Alexander stated that there are statutes and case law to support the idea of a ‘30 day window of time’ to appeal. Another question was asked about lack of data. What happens if there are no sales of properties in a neighborhood for 2009 or 2010? Mr. Hicks explained that trend sales from 2007 and line of best fit are used to best estimate the fair market value. The appraisers use the best data available to arrive at the fair market value.

The county suggests that property owners go to the revaluation web site before the revaluation form arrives. Type in the address of your property and check to see what value is listed.The county is using a median analysis system of doing the revaluation. The date on the revaluation is January 1, 2011. The county expects to mail the private property revaluations by February 7th.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

Follow Susan on Twitter @susanjspaulding

The Charlotte Observer recently made a request to the City of Charlotte for a copy of it’s email database. As Ballantyne Scoop reported on Twitter back in December the email list is considered to be part of “public information” and therefore can be turned over to whomever requests it. Including companies interested in [...]]]>

The Charlotte Observer recently made a request to the City of Charlotte for a copy of it’s email database. As Ballantyne Scoop reported on Twitter back in December the email list is considered to be part of “public information” and therefore can be turned over to whomever requests it. Including companies interested in using the databases for advertising or possible spam. These databases are considered to be extremely valuable by companies and marketers for several reasons.

This city’s database could be considered by many as a “safe” list, meaning that these who have signed up for information on the sites are more likely to give accurate email addresses resulting in fewer bounce backs.But one of the more important reasons these list would be considered valuable is because they are provided for free. It is not unusual for companies to spend considerable amounts of money to have access to a good email data base.

The City sent out an email to all of its news subscribers on Monday clarifying the issue, it follows below.

Since notifying you of the Charlotte Observer’s request for the City’s email database, we have received your feedback and recommendations. One of the common recommendations is the location of our privacy policy, which indicates that as part of this subscription database your email may be a public record. Therefore, we will be making changes to our site to ensure the policy is more prominent to future subscribers. We will also indicate that emails of those who solely subscribe to news from public enterprise departments, such as CATS, Solid Waste, Utilities and Storm Water are protected under NC public records law; however emails submitted for subscriptions to all other areas are public record.

And secondly to protect subscribers, the City is seeking legislation in the NC General Assembly to prevent the release of email databases and would allow only public inspection of this information. Currently, the law is applicable only in Wake and Yadkin counties.

We appreciate and value your participation in our subscription service and apologize for any inconvenience.

Here is your signature codes to place at the bottom of articles.

caroline@ballantynescoop.com

2010 Ballantyne Scoop The Scoop Network

How will personal property values change in 2011? The breakfast meeting on December 31, 2010 started with the talk of the city council meetings. The council talked about canceling their January 3rd, 2011 meeting due to the small agenda. The 2011 Housing Revaluation is the only topic on the agenda. Garrett Alexander is [...]]]>

How will personal property values change in 2011? The breakfast meeting on December 31, 2010 started with the talk of the city council meetings. The council talked about canceling their January 3rd, 2011 meeting due to the small agenda. The 2011 Housing Revaluation is the only topic on the agenda. Garrett Alexander is the county tax assessor for Mecklenburg County. He will be speaking to the council on the property revaluation process. The county will be ‘reevaluating’ all personal property in 2011. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (C.M.P.D.) is not ready to talk in a closed session about the proposed changes to the hiring process. This should happen soon.

The city is usually revenue neutral when re-evaluating property. For example: if the current rate is $0.45 then revenue neutral would be approximately $0.40. District 6 Representative of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners Bill James recently stated that he wants the county to be revenue negative. If we follow this example, revenue negative would be approximately $0.35. Mecklenburg County and the city do not have tax delinquency problems. Right now 99% of the people pay their taxes on time. To make budget, the city must have 95% of taxes paid on time. The city is expecting 2011 tax collection difficulties for commercial and personal property taxes. The county and the city are also expecting appeals on the housing property revaluation process. The expectation is around 20,000 appeals. Personal property has gone up in numbers faster than commercial property in this county.

Several attending the breakfast meeting talked about how long they have owned their homes and how they feel about the county revaluation. Most in attendance have owned their homes between six and ten years. In those years, the county has raised the property taxes several times and the city has raised property taxes only one time in fifteen years. The last time this process was done was in 2003. In 2009 the city instituted a 9% property tax increase. At their retreat last year, the county decided that The Parks and Recreation Department and the libraries were not a priority. The county decides their priorities at their yearly retreat.

All personal housing property owners will receive notifications of their new revaluations by mail in January 2011. This will included the new amount of taxes owed on said personal properties. In September of 2011 the tax bills will go out. At this time no one is sure if foreclosures will be a part of the tax revaluation process. In 2003 the city had a tax fee of $0.42 and the county had a fee of $0.73. In 2010 the city has a tax fee of $0.45 and the county a fee of $0.83. The county has implemented a significant tax increase in the past seven years. In 2003 the county paid $12 per ton for solid waste treatment. In that same year, the city paid $45 per ton. In 2010 the county pays $50 per ton and the city pays $45 per ton. The State of North Carolina requires that local governments reevaluate personal property a minimum of every eight years. The county expects to make this new revaluation revenue neutral and is awaiting the appeals of constituents. The city must make their decisions about the revaluation process by the June 13th budget deadline.

The city’s restructuring government committee recently had a meeting. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities Department (C.M.U.D.) is anticipating an increase in fixed costs and lower variable costs. C.M.U.D encourages citizens to conserve water by their tier structure rates. Those who use more water pay more per c.c.f. Those who use less pay less per c.c.f. A c.c.f. is a unit of hundreds of cubic feet of water. Some at the breakfast meeting have not received timely responses from the C.M.U.D staff when repairing water problems. The city sewer rates did recently go up in cost.

The current tax value of personal property is not based on the ‘sold’ price of a property. What happens if one family member sells a piece of land to another for $100? Obviously, the ‘sale’ price on a piece of property can easily be manipulated. In the past, Mecklenburg County has tried to reevaluate personal property every four years. Recently this evaluation has not happened.

Right now, sewer costs are fixed and water treatment costs are variable. At this time, 94% of the city ‘customers’ are using below 15 c.c.f water per month. This water usage equals a sewer charge of 24 c.c.f. The new proposal is to lower the tier 1 rate. This would change the amount of sewer usage assumption for people using below 15 c.c.f of water. The residential tier 4 water comprises 8% of the city residents. But this same 8% is paying 24% of the revenue. The city does not like the word ‘punitive’. The city does like the word ‘encouraging’ to describe their water rate tier structure. Is the charge for tier 4 water usage too high?

Droughts and floods greatly change the water and sewer rates. If there is a flood, people use less water and the rates go up. If there is a drought there is less water available and therefore the rates go up. Currently, individual water consumption is down but the overall water consumption is going up because the city is still growing. In 2011, the city will still use the four tier system. 50% of the overall water usage is in tier 1. Tier 4 comprises most of the water complaints. Districts 6 and 7 comprise most of the tier 4 water usage. If constituents currently in tier 4 start conserving water then there is less revenue generated. Currently the city can not cope with less revenue because of budget constraints.

The annual rate increase of five to seven percent that has happened for several years pays for the city’s capitol program. Property taxes pay for police, fire and debt services. District 7 City Council Representative Warren Cooksey does not want to vote for a property tax increase. But he has stated that he will not vote for a decrease in property taxes. Councilman Warren Cooksey believes that the scope of government should be limited but not the size. Government protects people, transports people, disposes of garbage and sewer and brings clean water. If anyone wants to know their current personal property evaluation they can go to:
http://polaris.mecklenburgcountync.gov/website/redesign/login.asp

Several ask about the funding for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (C.M.S.) The state does provide most of the funding. The local funding comes from the county. The federal government is now providing a bigger percentage of the C.M.S. Budget money. This means there are fewer flexible dollars since federal dollars are very restrictive. Currently 50% of the county property tax dollars go to the C.M.S budget. Tom E. Bowers is surprised at the high car insurance rates in this county compared to Washington D.C. Some are not surprised by the obnoxiously high car insurance rates in this county. Councilman Warren Cooksey noted that typically during election years the insurance rates go down.

In other local news, a man in a black truck did ‘attack’ two C.M.P.D. Officers on December 30th. The driver of the black truck purposely backed into one officer and then purposely hit another officer in a head on crash. It took firefighters over 25 minutes to free the second officer. Homicide and Internal Affairs were both quickly on the scene. Tom Bowers would also like to see judges give longer sentences to those driving drunk.

The general council for the city is DeWitt ‘Mac’ McCarley. His full-time pay is $194,000. Mr. McCarley is also the supervisor over the city’s other 22 attorneys. The attorney that works part-time for the county and represents council members only is Marvin Bethune. Harry L. Jones is the county manager. Mr. Jones takes all of the board items and puts them into action. He is charge of all of the many facets of the county government.

Monday, January 3rd, 2011 will be a historic day. Mecklenburg County will see the swearing in of a new district attorney. Andrew Murray will be sworn in at 8:30 am. He will be leaving his private practice to be the new district attorney. This is the first time our city has had a new district attorney in 35 years. Many look forward to positive changes in the office of the district attorney.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

Ballantyne, NC – Who is getting the large salaries in Charlotte? This Monday night is ‘dinner meeting night’ for the city council. A few of the topics are: Gang Of One, Hall Of Fame and a closed session on economic development. The breakfast meeting on December 10th opened with items being discussed by [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Who is getting the large salaries in Charlotte? This Monday night is ‘dinner meeting night’ for the city council. A few of the topics are: Gang Of One, Hall Of Fame and a closed session on economic development. The breakfast meeting on December 10th opened with items being discussed by the city council. This month the city will contemplate closing an alley near Mint Street. A hot topic is the new federal legislative agenda. How will the new Republican run House of Representatives handle earmarks? The firm of ‘Holland and Knight’ handle lobbying for the city. Charlotte would like money for extending the light rail ‘blue line’ and the Briar Creek Relief Sewer Line. Another topic is the extension of the federal service transportation program. The federal government has a proposed bill called the ‘Safe Water Drinking Act’. American cities would like to keep local control of drinking water.

Another proposed bill in the U.S. Congress is bargaining tools for public safety employees. This measure has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Senator Kay Hagan has not been clear on how she will vote on this measure. Senator Harry Reid has said that he will vote ‘yes’. Mayor Foxx commented recently that he is not sure this ‘bargaining tool’ bill will pass at all. The unions are not happy that Charlotte is not a union town. Mayor Foxx would like to see the Democratic National Committee Convention be held here in Charlotte. Is this a move by the Mayor to help increase our chances of having this convention? If Charlotte shows that it is not opposed to unions, will the convention be in Charlotte?

Councilman Michael Barnes made a motion to the restructuring government committee. He is asking why we pay large salaries to several groups. These four groups are: The Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority(C.R.V.A.), Center City Partners, The Charlotte Regional Partnership and The Arts and Science Council. Mr. Bryant is in charge of The Charlotte Regional Partnership. Center City Partners would like to begin helping with The Plaza/Midwood Areas and The South End. The job of Center City Partners is to ensure a ‘higher level of service’ for the center city of Charlotte. This includes having the streets cleaned everyday. Property taxes in the center city are also higher. And the revenue from the uptown is great. There is another group similar to Center City Partners, the University City Partners. Mary Harper is in charge of University City Partners. The property taxes in four districts of Charlotte pay for all four of these organizations. Other types of taxes and taxes from other districts in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County do not help pay for these groups. This is an ‘on or off’ switch and the city council can not ‘tinker’ with the details of these groups. Is this a fishing expedition? Councilman Barnes is ‘casting out a big net’. What is Councilman Barnes hoping to find?

Mayor Foxx stated that he is interested in changing the way the city council governs. He recently ‘opened a can of worms’. In the past, the city manager and the mayor only could put new items on the agenda. Other city council members could put new items on the agenda only with a unanimous vote. The new way that Mayor Foxx is now doing the governing involves just the opposite. Any city council member can put anything on the agenda at anytime. This may result in the city discussing some interesting subjects. Councilman Warren Cooksey suggested that this idea be deferred until the next city council meeting.

Another new item on the city agenda is a grant for delinquency prevention. This is a juvenile justice grant. This grant is for approximately $300,000. This money would fund a facilities manager and a few other positions to run this program. Councilman Warren Cooksey will be voting ‘no’ on this in the next council meeting.

Reventure will be building a ‘brown field’ north of the whitewater center soon. This solid waste will be converted to electricity. Some of the electric from this plant will go to the new northern waste water treatment plant. The ten year plan for solid waste in Mecklenburg County will need to be amended so that this new ‘brown field’ plant can be built by Reventure. This will help make Charlotte more ‘green’.

The Charlotte-Douglas Airport is receiving $135,000 in federal stimulus money. This money will help with the new ‘in-line’ baggage system. The department of urban development in the past five years has received 236 complaints. These are complaints about community housing. There is a new 84-page report that will be given to the city council this coming Monday regarding the department of urban development. The city will review this new report.

Does the new recycling company get overtime for late pickup? No, the city pays the company a set amount of money for the city’s recycling. If there are late pickups, the recycling company does not get anymore money from the city.

The Charlotte light rail blue line was originally scheduled to receive $40 million in federal dollars. Later this was changed to $30 million. The latest sad news is that the light rail blue line will be receiving $3.5 million from the federal government. Councilman Cooksey has voted six times against the street car. The city has already paid for one study that costs $5.5 million dollars for this short street car line. The shelf life of this study is five to seven years. Will the street car be finished in this time?

In the past the city paid for 40% of the cost to have C.M.P.D. Officers at C.M.S. Schools. This cost includes training and equipment needed. Another 40% of the costs were paid by C.M.S. Now the city has decided that over the next four years it will not help pay the 40%. This will be a gradual move to 0%. The school resource officers (S.R.O.’s) at the schools are critical at this time when schools are encountering more violence. Do S.R.O’s have any authority? Is the city choosing fluff over substance?

The federal stimulus money also paid for new C.M.P.D. Officers in Charlotte. The stimulus paid for 50 new officers and the city paid for 75 in the beginning. The city has a public safety pay plan. This was at one point 8% and later 3%. This year the city is not even giving a market adjustment to public safety employees. The new pay plan is for half the workforce. This might change the 2012 budget. The city has solid financial policies.

Recently Chief Jon Hannan of the Charlotte Fire Department talked about how the moral of his officers is down. Here is a partial list of fire department salaries: Fire Fighter: $ 47,813 and Fire Captain: $73,148. The city is spending $295 million on the fire department. This includes the new 5% pay increases. If fire fighters of all ranks are ‘good performers’ they will be paid accordingly. The city gives these performers salary that is within 5% of the pay of fire fighters in comparable U.S. Cities. The city fire department has it’s own pension plan separate from the main city pension plan. The fire fighters in Charlotte do not have collective bargaining. A fire fighter trains for one year before getting a paycheck. The police train for 22 weeks. The C.M.P.D. Officers make the following: Officer: $ 54,000 and Sergeant: $ 75,000. The pay for officer is equal to 97.8% of the national average. The pay for sergeant is equal to 106.2% of the national average. The total cost for the city of fire, police and debt services is $365 million dollars. The city employees get a pension and a 401k. The pension is figured on 80% of the three highest salary years. The city pays 2% of the pay into each employees 401k. The city is in the top three with regards to public pension plans of cities in the nation. Soon the city will need to have a ‘breakpoint’ in their plan for pension plans. The city can not sustain this level of pension plan for all former and current city employees. One suggestion was to change the level or eligibility for all employees hired after a certain date. Another was to restrict which employees are eligible for the 401k plan. The State of Illinois recently was in a similar situation and was forced to borrow $1 billion dollars.

The efficient review task force met recently. They suggest the city make the corporate technology line item more like other line items from the city. Right now the city has MANY software programs to manage all the ‘parts’ of the city government. The task force suggests one database for the city to simplify training and costs. The city could have this new database done in conjunction with the opening of the new 911 call center.

Mayor Foxx gave his State of the City speech this past Tuesday. His main topics were children, consolidation and collaboration. Next week Councilman Cooksey will cover more on this speech by the mayor.

In the news is The N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame. Out on news stands now is the Special N.A.S.C.A.R. Edition of Sports Illustrated. The Hall of Fame is featured on 25 pages of this edition. Thursday, December 16th the Hall of Fame will have W.K.K.T. Toys for Tots Event: details to be announced. Saturday, December 18th the Hall of Fame will have ‘HALLidays in the Hall’ with W.L.N.K.: A radio promo with Sherry and Santa. Also there will be a W.L.N.K. Movie Matinee: $5 for a holiday movie in the theater and story time with Sherry. Former C.M.P.D. Officer Marcus Jackson was recently sentenced to two years jail time including time served. Reverend and Mrs. Jinwright are facing eight years and six years of jail time respectively. Some noted the discrepancy between the jail times of Mr. Jackson versus The Jinwrights.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

Ballantyne, NC – Where will affordable housing be built? The November 19th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming city ‘dinner’ meeting agenda. Larry Huelsman, Tim Newman and others from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority(C.R.V.A.) will be presenting to the city council this coming Monday night. The city is expecting a [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – Where will affordable housing be built? The November 19th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming city ‘dinner’ meeting agenda. Larry Huelsman, Tim Newman and others from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority(C.R.V.A.) will be presenting to the city council this coming Monday night. The city is expecting a 45 minute presentation on results from The Hall of Fame and N.A.S.C.A.R. support of the hall, among other items. Most city council members are happy to have the C.R.V.A. present but are still saying “Do NOT ask for money”. The Plaza-Midwood Area has it’s own ‘street scape’ plan on Central Avenue. The old plans in Charlotte require 400 feet between businesses and any residential areas. The new plans call for 225 feet between businesses and residential buildings. The Housing Locational Plan does not govern but gives guidelines.

Charlotte is excited to welcome a new kind of bank to our city. Grameen Bank is originally from Bangladesh and gives micro-loans to the underprivileged. The maximum loan given is $1500 per person. Grameen is a non-profit business. There are seven other Grameen Banks in the U.S.A. New York City is one and Omaha, Nebraska is another location. Warren Buffet is involved with the Grameen Bank in Omaha. In the 2009-2010, the Omaha branch gave out $1.16 million in micro-loans. An example of the types of small businesses started by Grameen Bank micro-loans are: Selling clothing, catering, selling ice cream and day-care services. Grameen is asking the city for an initial grant of $230,000. The city might give this money as a grant, after Grameen raises the initial loan pool of $2.3 million. This money might come from the Business Corridor Fund belonging to the city. The Charlotte Business Privilege Tax is specifically how this bank is helping each business. Each new business in Charlotte pays a business privilege tax. The $1500 will pay this tax and still give each new business a little after the tax.

Grameen Bank also has a great ‘group’ problem solving seminar that is all part of the ‘package’ of getting a micro-loan from them. For example, a ‘group’ of five people would all train and be in a group management team. One at a time, ‘group’ members would get their micro-loan from Grameen. This ‘group’ also gets financial literacy training for at least one year. John Lassiter is one of the primary people to initiate interest in bringing Grameen to Charlotte.

The city council travel fund is an agenda topic as well. There are no individual city council member limits on this fund. The city manager has authority to give a maximum of $100,000. The fiscal year of 2010 has a travel limit of $25,000. The ‘old’ travel limit was $40,000. In the space of one year, Councilman Warren Turner used $10,000 in travel money. The mayor’s travel is figured differently. He has higher compensation for travel. When Pat McCrory was mayor, he became gifted at ‘hitching’ a ride on corporate jets to save tax payer money. The council is slated to vote on the ‘Gang of One’ project this coming Monday. This is a $852,000 federal stimulus project. Councilman Warren Cooksey will be voting ‘no’ on this project. A big part of the $852,000 is spent on hiring people and paying salaries. For example, this money pays for: a team of counselors, tattoo removal, cell phones. This money will ‘go away’ soon along with other federal stimulus ‘ear marks’.

Several are concerned about the new towing ordinance. This is being dealt with by the Community Safety Committee. This committee will be meeting at least one more time before a serious vote will happen on the new towing ordinance. The city has a new contract with Autobell Car Wash Company. The police department normally washes a minimum of 1,000 vehicles per week and the fire department 120 vehicles per week. This contract allows the city vehicles to stay clean but at a better price. A new contract from the city will be award to Bullseye General Contracting Company. It is a Certified ‘Small Business Enterprise’(S.B.E.) as is two subcontracting companies that will be working with Bullseye on this bid to repair the current storm water system in Charlotte. The city is excited to work with these three S.B.E.’s on this project.

The Quality of Life Chart of Charlotte works with the Locational Housing Policy. New, subsidized, mixed income housing is being dispersed based on the Quality of Life Chart. All neighborhoods in Charlotte fall into one of four categories: 1. Stable; 2. Transitioning; 3. Challenged; 4. Non-residential. Unfortunately, this entire process is slightly flawed. This idea guarantees that at least 32% of the areas in Charlotte are challenged. The Quality of Life Chart and the study associated with this chart used fourteen data points to decide how to categorize each area. The city is encouraging the building of new, multifamily, low-income, subsidized housing in ‘stable’ areas. These ‘stable’ areas must have less than 5% of the population living in subsidized housing currently in order to qualify for the construction of new subsidized housing.

The city would like to disperse this type of housing.. Recently, Councilman Warren Cooksey suggested more subsidized housing in Lincoln Heights based on the number of people out of work already in this subdivision. One of the regulations says there must be at least one half a mile between subsidized housing developments. However, in a ‘stable’ area that does not already have over 5% subsidized housing in place, the new subsidized buildings can be closer than one half mile. Neighborhood Statistical Area(N.S.A.) #187 had 2,700 people back in 2007. Now there are 11,000 people in that same area. Councilman David Howard predicts that the long term effects of the Locational Housing Policy is more apartments for ‘seniors’ in the Charlotte area. C.M.S. District 6 Board Member Tim Morgan asked if transitional neighborhoods with less than 5% subsidized housing could house people closer to their jobs. Most likely, the far north and far south of Mecklenburg County will end up with most of this new subsidized construction. The city also has a ‘permissible’ map that shows where subsidized housing is ‘permissible’. What about a mandate to keep the subsidized housing within a half a mile of a C.A.T.S. Bus Stop or near light rail? The Charlotte City Council will vote on this policy this December.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer

http://ballantynescoop.com

Ballantyne, NC – The November 12th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming dinner zoning meeting for the city council. This zoning meeting is a short meeting. Childress/ Klein constructed a building in the South Park Mall Area in 1953. This building is now being remodeled by the city. Piedmont Town Center [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – The November 12th breakfast meeting opened with talk of the upcoming dinner zoning meeting for the city council. This zoning meeting is a short meeting. Childress/ Klein constructed a building in the South Park Mall Area in 1953. This building is now being remodeled by the city. Piedmont Town Center is opposing this remodel. Councilman Andy Dulin is one of the prime city council members helping with this project. There is a zoning change on Holt Street and another on Monroe Road that the city is considering. Another project is the ‘Allen Tate Office’ Building at the corner of state road 51 and Johnston Road. It is projected to soon be a Walgreens but rezoning is needed in order to make it a drug store.

After a few years of design changes, the Greater Galilee Baptist Church now has new plans for a sanctuary and office that seem to meet city standards. In the past there have also been concerns by the neighborhoods near the church as well. The city will also consider a new bicycle parking amendment. The big zoning change is the ‘Urban Street Design Guide’. This guide was started in 2007. This is a set of new subdivision ordinances. Block links are limited. The discussion right now is around how the approval process for this design guide will be structured. How does a developer get approval? There are three choices: Door 1: Strict adherence to the ‘urban street design guide’; Door 2: Staff leads the way on how to adhere to this new street design guide; Door 3: Put in place a new development review board with experts in architecture and public health. Then the developers can appeal to the board if they feel their blueprints are done in the ‘spirit’ of the ordinance.

Which door will the city choose? Susan Burgess used to be on the Transportation Committee for the city. After Council Member Burgess’s death, Nancy Carter is now on the Transportation Committee. Council Member Carter would like to have a neighborhood representative on the Transportation Committee. The rest of the committee did not agree and this will not happen. The upgrade at ‘Quail Corners’ is being deferred until December. In the recent election, the street bonds did pass. One of the projects is an upgrade to the intersection of Ballantyne Commons Parkway and Elm Lane. The city does not have a schedule for this upgrade but will have one. Many are excited to see this project start soon.

Center City Partners is working on a new project at the ‘Reid’s Fine Foods’ location on 7th Street in the uptown. The ‘Food Desert Activists’ were on hand recently when the city discussed this new project. This project is the ‘Center City Green Market’. The ‘Food Desert Activists’ are sure that this project is in the wrong place. They would like to see this project moved to the west side. This is where the majority of the food deserts are located in Charlotte. Mike Smith works with Center City Partners and recently called Councilman Andy Dulin. Councilman Dulin was there when Mr. Smith presented his idea to the city council. The projected cost of the ‘Center City Green Market’ is $1 million. The recent vendor meeting on this project there were only three farmers interested. Many are also skeptical of this idea due to the cost of the project.

The N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame report is scheduled to be given to the city on November 22nd. Larry Huelsman, a member of the C.R.V.A. board, helped with the news from the C.R.V.A. Councilman Michael Barnes recently sent a letter the the city manager concerning the facilities managed by the Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority (C.R.V.A.). Councilman Barnes would like a report on the attendance, cash contributions, performance and management structure of each part of the C.R.V.A. Councilman Barnes is most concerned about inappropriate personal conduct of
members of the C.R.V.A. Tim Newman works for the C.R.V.A. There is another member
of the staff working in Washington D.C. As a result of this inappropriate behavior, the female staff member in Washington D.C., will be soon not work for the C.R.V.A. Tim Newman was also cited in this according to his inappropriate conduct.

The City of Charlotte did invest capitol in the C.R.V.A. Councilman Barnes is mistaken to think the city invested $1 million. The city invested around $200,000 in the C.R.V.A. New to marketing with the C.R.V.A. is Lori Wilkes. The city can not manage the C.R.V.A. The State of North Carolina passed a law to create the C.R.V.A. The city’s only jurisdiction in this is to appoint the board for the C.R.V.A. The State of North Carolina wanted a board with no ‘political meddling’ to handle venues like the Bojangles Coliseum. This is why the C.R.V.A. was originally created by the state.

How will students be affected by school closings? Ken Gjertsen, former C.M.S. Board Member and Tim Morgan, current District 6 C.M.S. Representative, were both present to sort through the big changes for the schools. The changes include: closing ten schools in 2011 and one in 2012; consolidating students and programs at five schools; relocating two programs; expanding eight schools to pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and one to K-12; expanding one school to grades six through 12; adjusting boundaries for 13 schools; providing targeted assistance to nearly 30 schools and creating two new home schools and two new magnet programs.

The C.M.S. Board voted to move Villa Heights to the Irwin Avenue I.B. Elementary Building. Lincoln Heights Elementary will close and these students will be reassigned to Bruns and Ashley Park Elementary Schools; The Board also voted to move the math and science magnet program at Harding High to Phillip O. Berry, creating a new home area for Harding. Smith Academy is moving to Waddell High. Waddell High School Students will be merging into other schools. Community House Boundaries are different now.

Will there be new charter schools in Charlotte soon? Some would like to see more charter schools in Charlotte. Many are not happy with C.M.S. Board Member Trent Merchant. Some are opposing K-8 schools. Kaye McGarry’s children went to a K-12 schools. A member of the county board of commissioners, Vilma Leake spoke at the regular C.M.S. Board meeting this past Tuesday night, November 9th. County board member Leake’s point was that some in Charlotte have already had their libraries closed and their parks closed therefore they should not have anything else closed. County Board Member Leake must not remember that it is the board she sits on that made these closing decisions just a few months ago.

While Ken Gjertsen was on the school board the motto was ‘bus for space not race’. As a result, there were board members who did not want to build schools in the suburbs of Charlotte. Instead, the board bused these students into the center of Charlotte. At that time, the school board spent $500 million on schools in the center of Charlotte. Those schools were not needed but schools were needed in the suburbs. Later, the school board spent much money to build ‘huge’ schools in the suburbs of the far north and far south of the county. The original idea was to later build more of these ‘huge’ schools in the rest of Charlotte. This last part may never happen with the major budget crisis that all are currently dealing with in this country. There were 117 public speakers at the November 9th school board meeting. Two of these 117 were ‘positive’ speakers and were willing to admit that the school board did not lightly make these changes.

The current budget crisis is much like the 1930’s budget crisis. There is a lack of money due in part to less tax money. The school board is facing a $100 million dollar budget crisis. The $3.5 million saved is not much when compared to the $100 million that must soon be saved. Raleigh will not be funding as much of the school budget. The state will be cutting as much as 15% from the school budget. The county will be cutting money from the school budget as well. In the future, there might not be any transportation provided for magnet school students. Also more schools might have to be closed to save $100 million dollars. Soon several of the montessori schools may have to merge to save money.

Charlotte’s Mayor Anthony Foxx would like to see the city and county governments consolidate soon. The mayor would also like to give taxing authority to the school board soon. Councilman Warren Cooksey does not like this idea. He does not believe any one government authority should only have a single purpose for taxation. There needs to be checks and balances. Right now there are checks and balances in the school board budget. The federal government gives a larger percentage of the budget now than it did in the past. The school board now receives money from the county, state and federal governments.

2011 will be an important election year for C.M.S. because all of the at-large members of the school board are ‘up for election’. One at-large member, ‘Coach’ Joe White, has already announced that he will not run again for school board. He has voted for staff recommendations for the past several years. Current At-Large Board Members Kaye McGarry and Trent Merchant are both up for election in 2011. Rocky River High School is a new school in the ‘middle of nowhere’. It serves students from the Hickory Grove Area and the areas all the way to Rocky River. The other new high school is Hough High School and it is very much needed in that area as well. Due to an interesting boundary configuration, the building of Rocky River is in District 6 but none of the students live in District 6.

Every 10 years the school boundaries are redrawn. How should these boundaries change? Right now, District 6 School Board Member Tim Morgan represents as many people as the combined districts of District 3 representative Dr. Joyce Waddell and District 2 representative Richard McElrath. Current District 6 Representative Tim Morgan is in favor of new two year not four year terms for all school board members. The school board is currently using the county boundaries but can draw their own boundaries in the future. The school board has until 2013 to finish drawing new boundaries.

C.M.S. is a ‘non-partisan’ board, however, here is the breakdown from the voting last Tuesday. Those who voted for the staff recommendations are: three republicans, one democrat and one unaffiliated board members. For the election in 2011, as many as thirty might run for the three at-large seats. The schools that are closed can be sold. District 6 representative Morgan is not interested in selling these properties now, while land is selling for so little. He would prefer the board sell the properties later for more money. The far north and far south will have more growth in population later. Perhaps affordable and mixed income housing can use some of the closed school properties. By law, the schools must be offered for use to the county first. There needs to be checks done on the possibility of ‘reverter clauses’ attached to one or more of these school properties. Some of these schools were built by the original ‘Charlotte School System’ and might revert back to someone other than the county. Currently Myers Park High has around 2,700 students, some of these students are in old trailers. Councilman Dulin’s son is one of these students. The school board can fix these trailers if there is a safety issue. Myers Park also is still using an old gymnasium. C.M.S. is NOT issuing bonds at this time.

Now that the decision has been made to close schools, what is the next step? Teachers who are currently at the schools that will be closed can apply for the teaching positions needed to fully staff the new Pre-K-8 and K-12 schools. Operations and transportation will increased at these Pre-K-8 and K-12 schools as well. The teachers at Davidson I.B. who are certified will mostly likely transfer to the I.B. program Alexander Middle School starting in the Fall of 2011. The majority of students currently at Smith Language Academy will be at Waddell High starting in the Fall of 2011.

Four schools are slated to be torn down: Part of Smith, Davidson I.B., Wilson and Pawtuckett. The town of Davidson might opt to use the Davidson I.B. Building. Possibly four of the ten schools to be closed will be ‘moth-balled’ until they are needed again. C.M.S. will work with the community to insure that vagrants do not break into the schools. C.M.S. will provide limited maintenance and security at these school properties.

In Ballantyne, Community House Boundaries will be changing. The new boundary for Community House is 485. Those north of 485 will start to go to South Charlotte and South Meck in the Fall of 2011. Those south of 485 will feed into Ardrey Kell High School. The $3.5 million saved by the school closings is not much compared to the $100 million that must be soon cut from the budget. In the scope of the $100 million dollar budget shortfall for the next school year, this really has only been a beginning step.

N.A.S.C.A.R. Hall of Fame Events Upcoming: Sunday, November 21st: Panthers Home Game: $2.00 off Saturday/Sunday with game ticket; $5.00 parking on Sunday. Friday, November 26th: Black Friday: Radio remote with W.R.F.X.; Free simulator rides when racing the D.J., prizes.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
www.BallantyneScoop.com

Charlotte, NC – Effective January 1, 2011, the contract used to buy and sell houses in North Carolina will be changing. While a lot of contract changes are legalisms, this particular change is going to change the process buyers and sellers experience, so I thought it might be helpful to explain it.

Ballantyne, NC – What surprises occurred in this weeks election? The election was the subject of the November 5th breakfast meeting. Councilman Warren Cooksey was happy to help with Representative Bill Brawley’s campaign on election day. One polling judge was upset with the layout of the ‘Meck G.O.P’ voter guide. Michael Dickerson is [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – What surprises occurred in this weeks election? The election was the subject of the November 5th breakfast meeting. Councilman Warren Cooksey was happy to help with Representative Bill Brawley’s campaign on election day. One polling judge was upset with the layout of the ‘Meck G.O.P’ voter guide. Michael Dickerson is the head of the Mecklenburg Board of Elections. Things were finally resolved in the discussion over the voter guide. One of the surprises is how well Chairperson Jennifer Roberts did on Tuesday. There is much to be said for name recognition. Jennifer Roberts was also the only woman on the ballot for the ‘at-large’ seats.

There were some irregularities at Precinct 11. Approximately 129 people voted in person at Precinct 11 by about 6:30 pm. Somehow Precinct 11 had a total of 1,600 people voting. Early voting could have played a role in this irregularity. Old Providence and Precinct 11 were late in reporting their numbers to the Mecklenburg Board of Elections. The pattern for Charlotte elections shows the Republicans leading early but in the end the Democrats showed well and won.

Newly elected North Carolina Representative Bill Brawley was present at this breakfast meeting. Representative Brawley is tired of the corruption in Raleigh that has gone on for too many years. He is not happy with the phrase of many in the state house saying: ‘The end justifies the means’. Representative Brawley’s main focus is jobs and the economy. Other priorities are: temporary taxes expiring, revamping the tax code, remaining revenue neutral, a budget reduction, fair district boundaries and photo I.D.’s for voting. The ‘alleged’ reason some do not want photo I.D.’s for voting is voter intimidation. The real reason is that it is more difficult to ‘steal’ an election. Other surprises include the loss by Feingold and the loss by Angle. The Republicans now have 64 more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 243 seats. McConnell would like to now replace The President. The Tea Party did much to help the Republicans win this election.

Representative Brawley is now reading a good book by Jonah Goldberg called ‘Liberal Fascism’. One way to ‘get rid’ of the new healthcare bill is to not fund this bill. Rush Limbaugh has been criticized for stating that he wanted President Obama to fail. This is just the way that parliamentary politics work. The opposition party to the president always wants the presidents policies to fail. Representative Brawley and Larry Huelsman both worked in 2004 on a Park Bond Committee. The committee recommended a $55 million dollar park bond. After this same bond had gone to the manager’s office the bond then was costing $69 million. At that point, Ramirez and Puckett decided not to vote for this bond. This bond was designed to fund a park in the uptown of Charlotte. There was a stipulation in the bill that these funds not be used to build a professional baseball stadium. Right after this, Jennifer Roberts was elected chairperson of the board of commissioners of the county. One of her first ideas was to use this same bond money for the building of a professional baseball stadium. The idea was to move the education center and the tax payers would pay $38 million dollars to support a business not paying any taxes. There is a culture of corruption in Charlotte and other places in North Carolina.

Governor Perdue is under investigation for misuse of campaign dollars. The former speaker of the North Carolina House was just convicted for stealing $500,000. In the U.K., they have a European Parliamentary vote of a vote of confidence and the loss of confidence. When John Major became the Prime Minister of the U.K he was picked by the majority party and was not voted into office. What changes will be seen by the newly elected Tea Party and Republicans now in office?

Gary Spellman was able to attend the latest public meeting to discuss the Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities Department (C.M.U.D.). Twenty-two were in attendance with eleven presenting. There were a few lawyers present among the twenty-two. Each member of the public was allowed to speak for three minutes. There are five new proposals. C.M.U.D. is still having a few unique problems with billing. A few in the northern and southern parts of Mecklenburg County have had ‘spiked’ readings. Not all of the causes have been located at this time. Several housing communities sent their H.O.A. Representatives. The calls to 311 are also part of this unique problem. C.M.U.D. usually handles 700 water bill complaints per month. Lately they have had about 1300 per month. This constitutes less than 1% of the people served by City Water. Unfortunately, under Doug Bean, C.M.U.D. customer service had ‘slipped’. Mr. Smith is now in customer service and was present at this meeting. An average of 31 of 32 times that there is a ‘spike’ in the water usage there is a leak on the customer’s side of the property. At this time, the C.M.U.D. meeting held earlier in the south part of the county has been the best attended of these public meetings. C.M.U.D. will have a new Continuous Improvement Officer. Larry Huelsman had a broken water meter and it took 6 months for C.M.U.D. to fix the meter and another few months to fix the bill. Most of the water meters in Charlotte are now computer read not ‘hand’ read. All of the ‘hand ‘reading of the meters is now done in regions. The ‘old’ way of ‘hand’ reading the meters was organized by location. Unfortunately, it can still take about six weeks to fix a small leak. Councilman Warren Cooksey reminded all that the city is in the middle of restructuring the way the city government works.

Larry Huelsman brought information on the Charlotte Region Visitor’s Authority (C.R.V.A.). Here is a partial schedule of the events at the N.A.S.C.A.R. Museum/Hall of Fame: Monday November 8th – Sunday, November 14th is Military Appreciation Week: Half off for retired or active military PLUS a free 60 minute international calling card from ‘Cell Phones For Soldiers’. Also Thursday, November 11th is Educator’s Day: Educators get in FREE when they pre-register and listen to a field trip sales presentation. The C.R.V.A. would like to encourage all to visit the N.A.S.C.A.R. Museum/Hall of Fame soon.

Susan J. Spaulding
Public Policy Writer
Ballantyne Scoop

Ballantyne, NC – The past week has presented us with a constant stream of headlines about foreclosure moratoriums. I thought it might be helpful to discuss this topic and what it might mean to you in this week’s article. There are many unknowns right now, and I don’t have all the answers, but [...]]]>

Ballantyne, NC – The past week has presented us with a constant stream of headlines about foreclosure moratoriums. I thought it might be helpful to discuss this topic and what it might mean to you in this week’s article. There are many unknowns right now, and I don’t have all the answers, but I am sharing with you the information I do know.

The excesses of the peak real estate market in 2005 – 2007 created sloppy record-keeping. Banks were issuing mortgages at record rates, and then quickly bundling them into pools and selling them to investors. These investors would then hire a mortgage payment servicing company (which could happen to be the bank that initiated the mortgage or another) to actually collect the payments, account for the amount owed to each investor, and take necessary activities to handle delinquent accounts. Because of the volumes of mortgages moving around, ownership of the actual promissory note was transferred electronically rather than through paper documentation. This has created a situation where the bank that is trying to foreclose on a property cannot actually produce proof that they own the promissory note. At foreclosure proceedings, the lender is required to provide a sworn affidavit that says they own the note and they have the right to foreclose on the property.

This is where the “robo-signers” we’ve heard so much about come into the story. As loan officers at these mortgage servicing companies worked through thousands of delinquent loans, they just started signing the documents without actually checking the documentation. At the foreclosure proceedings, some homeowners have been able to stall the process by demanding to see the promissory note. This occurs in states that have judicial foreclosures, which means that the bank actually needs to go to court to obtain possession of the property. South Carolina is one of these states.

North Carolina is not a judicial foreclosure state. This means that the homeowner does not actually own the house until the mortgage is paid off. At the time the mortgage was taken out, a deed of trust was filed with the recorder of deeds saying that the mortgage lender owned the house until the time that the loan was paid in full. This makes it easier for the bank to foreclose on a delinquent loan because no court appearance is necessary. The process in North Carolina is similar to an eviction, where the loan officer has a notice served to the homeowner that the home is being foreclosed upon and after a certain time frame where the homeowner has not been able to pay the back payments, the trustee takes possession of the property. Robo-signers are involved here as well, as they signed thousands of foreclosure notices a day without reviewing documentation.

There have been actual situations where banks have foreclosed on a home that they did not really own, sometimes because the debt was previously satisfied through a bank-approved short sale or a refinance. Mistakes have been made, but this represents only a small percentage of all of the foreclosures filed in the past 3 years. Bank of America has frozen all activities on their foreclosures while they review the documentation and ensure that the documentation is correct. JP Morgan Chase, Ally Bank, and some other banks have followed suit. Attorneys General in many states are banning together to review foreclosures, and some are calling for a nationwide foreclosure moratorium.

The banks that have voluntarily halted proceedings have also cancelled closings on foreclosed properties that are under contract, so people who were buying a foreclosed home are now delayed in taking possession of the new home. Since foreclosures were representing about 30% of all existing home sales nationwide, we can expect that the existing home sales numbers will go down over the next couple of months.

Some of the foreclosed properties that were listed for sale have been temporarily taken off the market while the bank reviews the documentation. This temporarily reduces the inventory and makes it a little easier for private owners to sell their properties. But this is temporary, so if your home is on the market, it is important to take advantage of the next 60 days. Make your home the most compelling offer in your neighborhood by improving the curb appeal, making sure it is clean and uncluttered, and maybe even reducing your price to make it stand out from the crowd.

In my opinion, this halt to foreclosures is delaying the inevitable. Only a small percentage of the foreclosures have actually been mistakes, and this review will result in many of these foreclosed homes coming back on the market in about 2 or 3 months. Homeowners that are delinquent on their mortgage payments will get to stay in their homes a little longer, and that extra time might help them obtain a loan modification, attempt a short sale, or make up the back payments. But barring success in one of these areas, these delinquent homeowners will still lose their homes at the end of the review in the majority of the cases.

Josie Mazzaferro is a licensed Realtor® with Allen Tate’s Ballantyne office. She lives in the Touchstone neighborhood and loves walking on the Four Mile Creek Greenway with her little black poodle, Pepe le Piu, and her beagle/basset hound mix, Sabaka. Josie loves to help clients better understand the entire real estate process. Please feel free to send your real estate questions to Josie.Mazzaferro@allentate.com and Josie will either respond to you directly or respond in an upcoming column.

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All opinions expressed in the article belong solely to Josie Mazzaferro and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Allen Tate Company, the Charlotte Regional Realtors® Association, the Carolina Multiple Listing Service, the North Carolina Association of Realtors®, or the National Association of Realtors®.