Greater Cleveland Real Estate Blog

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Exciting Announcements For 2010

I love to list the reasons why people should move to Cleveland. Yesterday, January 9, 2010 one more exciting reason was announced at the Cleveland International Piano Competition party hosted by Dr. Jim Gibbs. Karen Knowlton, Executive director of the Cleveland Piano Competition told about the 2010 concert series. 

Cleveland is the city of a rich cultural legacy, living tradition of visual and performing arts, and International flavor. No wonder that Cleveland International Piano Competition is worldwide renowned and very popular among young pianists all over the world.

Clevelanders and guests of our city will enjoy three wonderful performances during 2010. Russian community of Greater Cleveland is proudly supporting the key event of 2010 - The Winners Return! concert, which will take place in Severance Hall June 12, 2010.

The First Prize winner of 2007 Alexander Ghindin from Russia and the First Prize winner of 2009 Competition Martina Filjak from Croatia will be performing together.

I am fortunate to meet with Alexander Ghindin in person back in 2008 when he performed at Severance Hall on August 16, 2008 in support of Russian-American Medical Association's international medical mission to save children with life-threatening heart defects. What a wonderful personality, sense of humour, passion and drive for excellence! Alexander is a good friend of Russian community of Greater Cleveland.

Please mark your calendar: Saturday, June 12, 2010

7:00 pm

Severance Hall

The Winners Return!

FIY: Five-Star rated Cleveland Piano Competition takes place every other year. The next Competition will be held July 26 through August 7, 2011.

New Year used to be the main celebration of the year back to Russia. Actually, It was the only celebration , which united everyone in joy, and hope, and happiness. It's always been a magic night. It still is.

We have a big Russian community here in Cleveland OH. We keep the traditions of New Year celebration here in Cleveland, too. I am really happy to extend the best wishes for New Year to all my friends, clients, colleagues, partners, no matter what cultural background they have and what community they belong. 

Some people like to attend big parties, some people perform in funny home made and home staged plays, some enjoy warm and joyful family gatherings. No matter how and where you celebrate a New Year, let 2010 be a prosperous, successful, happy year, full of fun, friendship, love and good deals!

According to Russian Orthodox tradition we celebrate Christmas on January 7th, that's why most of the Russian families still keep our Christmas trees decorated and lightened. As Christmas was kind of a prohibited holiday back in the USSR, people used to call the Christmas tree a New Year tree.

Happy New Year to all of you, my friends! С Новым Годом!

Is it wise to list your home or condo in Cleveland during the Holiday season?

Many Cleveland Real Estate agents are traditionally on their vacation at this time of year. Some experts, on the contrary, believe that Holiday season is the best time to show your homes in Cleveland to serious home buyers.

Let's see what are advantages and disadvantages of selling a house in Cleveland OH during the Holidays.

Disadvantages:

• We have real winters in Cleveland! It may be cold, snowy, hard to see the driveway or roof, hard to walk around the yard
• It's hard to show the properties as daylight time is shorter
• It may be disturbing and inconvenient for homeowners to show the properties due to family gatherings, cooking, gift packing, etc.
  

Advantages:

• There are no "Just lookers" on the market at this time of year - serious buyers only
• Competition is not as strong as on Spring or Summer market, fewer properties listed for sale
• If the property is decorated, it looks more attractive for potential buyers - warmer, prettier, more like Home should be
  
• Limited home buyers tax credit incentive makes buyers more active and anxious about purchasing a home timely.

SOMETHING ELSE? YOUR OPINION PLEASE!

The Plain Dealer will feature one of our listings - a condo in Willoughby, Big Turtle II on December 26, 2009. We'll see how efficient this advertising will be. In order to make the Plain Dealer's Ad more powerful, we will support it by broadcasting it on Twitter and Facebook. I hope, home buyers and their agents will not miss this wonderful opportunity to buy a very good condominium in Willoughby in truly move-in condition.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

It's time to check out your credit score if you consider to buy a home in Cleveland OH or anywhere in the United States in few months, so you can still benefit from Home buyers tax credit.

Monitoring and reviewing your credit reports is a good idea for everyone. According to Equifax, 

• more than 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years
• only this year about 500,000 people will be robbed by identity thievs
• there is likely to be a "mass victimization" of the consumers within the next two years
• it may take six months to two years to recover from identity theft.

Even if you get pre-approved by the mortgage lender and If you are going to buy a house within next few months, it might be wise to monitor your credit in order to avoid unwilling surprises.

Consumers are entitled to receive one free credit report every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Free credit report can be requested through the website https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp.

The addresses for the credit reporting agencies are listed below:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374

Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834

 Happy Thanksgiving from Cleveland OH.

Thanksgiving Day is my favorite American holiday. Spirit of gratitude makes people better, more kind, more thoughtful, more connected.

 

In this season of gratitude and love I want to thank all my friends, my loving family, wonderful clients, reliable partners, our neighbors, our  contractors and wish all of you you a happy Thanksgiving Day!

Can it be too many advantages of buying Real Estate now?

Why in the world people who need to buy the house in Solon, Mayfield Heights or anywhere in Greater Cleveland are still thinking and waiting for something?

  Isn't it better just do it?

Simple list of opportunities for both first time home buyers and for moving up buyers is impressive.

• Still a very good inventory of solid homes and condos
• Still very attractive prices
• More chances to do your due diligence - inspect the property, get it fixed by sellers if necessary
  
• As a result, much better condition of the property 
• More qualified Real estate professionals working for you. It's not a secret that many part timers or agents who could not earn enough to support their family or lifestyle, simply left Real estate for other occupations
• Up to $8,000 tax credit to first time home buyers
• Up to $6,500 tax credit to existing home owners who move to the next home
• Incredibly low interest rates!

Just compare the numbers!

Let's say, you decide to buy the $200,000 home in Cleveland OH.

You make enough money and you saved enough to put 20 % down.

You earned a high credit score, so you get perfectly qualified for conventional loan.

Using a simple mortgage calculator you can easily compare your mortgage payments and savings if you borrow at 4.75 % (available today) vs. very respectable 6.25 %, which many homeowners recently dreamt about.

Why wait?

Any of home buyers' advantages listed above may vanish soon.

If you really need to buy or move up, just do it!

Call us today 216-548-4663 and schedule your free home needs evaluation session with Local-n-Global Real Estate consultants.

There are many reasons to move to Cleveland OH.

• Friendly Clevelanders. We are patriots and fans of our city.

• Rich culture. Cleveland Orchectra. Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Playhouse. Cleveland libraries and much, much more
• Multi-cultural Diversity. Cleveland is the city with the rich history of  European immigration. African-American, Asian-American, Middle Eastern, Hispanic communities contribute a lot to the flavor and beauty of the City
• Cleveland Cavaliers!
• Affordable and quality Cleveland Real Estate
• Excellent healthcare system. Cleveland is a home of Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Metro Health Hospitals 
• Excellent schools and institutes of higher education
• Excellent place to raise children
• Cleveland Metroparks
  
• Four distinct seasons to enjoy

Let me present you few more beautiful reasons to relocate to Cleveland OH. Watch, enjoy and make your plans to move to our beautiful Cleveland!

Love Downtown Cleveland? Here is another reason to be in Downtown this Friday and any other Friday this summer.

House of Blues and Pickwick and Frolic have provided greater Cleveland with a free mortgage/rent sweepstakes. A winner will be picked at the end of June, another the end of July, and a final and third winner will be picked at the end of August. House Of Blues and Pickwick will pay the three lucky winner's rent or mortgage up to $1,000.

What a wonderful and funny way to prevent foreclosures and fight the mortgage crisis!