The excellence of Northville’s school system is common knowledge, but once in awhile I like to highlight the little things that all play a part in making our schools great. Our students are talented and involved in their community, and we have seen them support our community and our country in many different ways. This week, our Northville students will again show their generosity by teaming up with NHS Baseball to collect items for US armed forces overseas. From May 14-18, donations can be dropped off at participating NPS schools.

Last year, Northville High School’s baseball program collected 50 boxes of wish list items for Armed Forces Day, which were sent to US troops serving in Afghanistan. The troops were so grateful that many of them wrote emails of thanks to the students, happy to receive items both familiar (American snack foods, newspapers, letters) and necessary (sunblock, cell phones). The actual day will be this coming Saturday, May 19th, and will be celebrated at Northville High School with food, baseball, an obstacle course, and booths showcasing our armed forces.

Our troops benefit greatly from donations efforts like these, and according to the Hometown Life article, items like children’s drawings, letters, and news from home are “frequently on display in the soldiers’ living quarters”. Many types of items are accepted (see the article for the list of suggested donations) and donating is quick and easy. Boosting our troops’ morale could be as simple as dropping off a few toiletries at the high school.

The Northville Farmer’s Market is back. Yesterday, the community welcomed back its summer staple, with over 100 vendors offering fresh flowers, produce, and specially made-in-Michigan items. The market is held in the Northville Downs parking lot every Thursday from now until October 25th. The re-opening of the market is one in a growing number of indicators that summer is on its way, bringing with it all of the flavors and local color that Northville loves. For a complete list of this year’s vendors, visit the Northville Chamber’s website.

Farmer’s markets fill a very important role in our communities, providing us with fresh, local produce and bringing the community together. The benefits of shopping at a farmer’s market are many: fresh, local produce is brought to you with little or no packaging, and by purchasing it you’re supporting a local business. And many of the food items you can buy at a farmer’s market lack the additives and preservatives that store-bought prepared foods have. Also, the setup of a local market allows direct communication between consumer and producer: shoppers can learn how to care for the food, when it was picked, and how best to prepare, store, or preserve it.

Northville has always enjoyed its farmer’s market, known for its active presence and community events. Whether the market is hosting chefs and offering free cooking demonstrations to the public, or offering practical services like gardening tool sharpening, there’s always something going on to accompany the weekly offerings of fresh produce. Our state’s farmer’s markets are particularly vibrant, and are being used as a way to reach out to community members in need: programs like the Michigan Farmer’s Markets Food Assistance Partnership make fresh, healthy local foods more accessible to those who struggle financially.

Northville residents: what does the return of the farmer’s market mean to you?

Chances are you’ve already attended one of Northville’s recent Hazardous Waste Days, but if you haven’t been able to get to one yet, tomorrow’s your chance. Whether you’re moving or just doing your Spring cleaning, ridding your home of dangerous waste is an important step. If you’re a Northville resident, bring your hazardous household waste to Ford Field in Livonia from 8:30am to 3:00pm.

What kinds of waste are dangerous to you and your family? Generally, if you wouldn’t ingest it or put it in your eyes, it’s probably dangerous enough to be considered a hazardous waste, but you can read the full details of what’s accepted at the Northville Township site. Note that commercial waste is not accepted–hazardous waste must be from residences only. Household hazardous waste is a serious safety risk, so this is a great opportunity to make your home both a safer and a cleaner place.

According to howstuffworks.com, the spring cleaning tradition has its roots in ancient Iranian, Jewish, and Chinese culture. For them, the New Year was (and still is) celebrated in the springtime, and cleaning house is one way to prepare for the new year. Today, many of us spring clean because the season indicates that transitions are happening: school lets out, and summer begins; a new business quarter starts; the winter holiday season is over, and we still have things lying around that we need to clean out. Whether spring cleaning involves major home renovations or just a neighborhood garage sale to get rid of some extra stuff, completing the task leaves us energized and accomplished, not to mention cleaner.

Enjoy the spring weather this weekend, and good luck with your spring cleaning!

Last week, I wrote about some common scams in real estate. Though it may seem all-too-easy to fall into the trap of someone who comes across as a legitimate Realtor or homeowner, there are ways that you can protect yourself. Realtors and home buyers alike should take note: avoiding becoming the victim of real estate fraud means avoiding serious monetary losses, or potential damage to one’s professional reputation.

This first tip is for buyers: if the supposed owner of the property or real estate agent is not willing to show it to you before you give them money, or won’t accommodate your requests for information, then beware. As detailed in my previous post, some scammers will claim that they are out of town or in another country, and will ask for money to be wired to them before they even send you the keys or further documentation. Don’t send your money to a stranger!

Second: Because scammers often lift details and photos from legitimate real estate listings, the Realtor’s signs could still be on the property. A sneaky tactic cons use is to tell victims that the Realtor was recently fired, so all contact should go through the scammer. If you do go to a property and find yourself dealing with someone who is not the Realtor, then give that Realtor a call. He or she can tell you everything you need to know about that property–and if it really is a FSBO, the Realtor can confirm that for you.

Third, and perhaps the most common-sense of them all: if it seems like it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. If someone is willing to rent to you without doing a credit check or even having you fill out an application, then they are at best a subpar landlord, and at worst a criminal trying to expedite the process of taking your money.

Realtors: make time in your busy schedules to check sites like Craigslist periodically, so if any of your listings have been poached you can take appropriate action. Don’t let frauds impact your ability to help your clients sell their homes! If you find evidence that your listing’s details have been repurposed, alert the police, the property owners, and notify the webmaster of the site where the posting is located (on Craigslist, you can flag posts for removal). There isn’t much you can do to prevent criminals from stealing your listing information, but you can be proactive and help prevent others from becoming victims.

With a little vigilance and research, you can keep your money (and property) safe from real estate cons.

With news that it is still cheaper to buy than to rent, many would-be homeowners may be ready to jump on the opportunity. The decision to buy a home is not a light one, but once it’s been made it’s understandable that you want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Don’t let a scammer take advantage of your eagerness–or your desire for a good deal. I’ve put together a list of the most common real estate scams for your reference, and some advice on how to avoid being taken in.

1. A scammer finds a listing for an unoccupied home for sale online and copies the photos and details, re-uploading them to another site like Craigslist, sometimes advertising it as a rental. The scammer breaks into the home, meets a prospective buyer there, and gets them to hand over some money with the understanding that the fake real estate agent will send them the documents needed to proceed. The scammer disappears with their money and they are left with no new home and missing a good portion of their home shopping budget. In states like Florida where there are many seasonal homes, or anywhere there are foreclosed houses sitting empty, con artists have their pick of properties.

2. A supposed home owner posts an ad online (again, maybe on Craigslit) saying that he or she owns a home but will be out of the country for an extended period of time, so they need to rent the home for the time being. The hopeful homebuyers then experience something very similar to the above scenario, where they end up giving money to strangers and never hearing from them again.

3. Mortgage fraud is also a major concern, and can be much more costly for its victims than the first two situations. Everyone benefits when the process goes as quickly as possible, so scammers exploit their victims’ need for urgency in order to lure them into signing fraudulent documents or doctored agreements, withholding information like outstanding liens.

Stay tuned for my next article, where I follow up on this one and offer suggestions on how to avoid being a victim of real estate scammers.

A recent article from USA Today projects that this year’s spring selling season, perhaps off to an early start due to our record-breaking warm weather, could be the most bountiful we’ve had in years. The improvement of real estate markets varies from state to state, but it’s encouraging to see that the Midwest is making its slow, but steady, recovery. CSNBC reported on an increase in existing home sales in the Midwest in the fourth quarter of 2011, which was actually higher than national figures at the time and a 14% increase over 2010. While we won’t be able to consider the real estate market ‘out of the woods’ any time soon, good news is always welcome, and paired with news that Michigan’s economy is experiencing a 6-year high, we’re happy to have it.

The spring selling season is generally considered to include April, May and June, but it looks like we’ve already gotten a head start. Indeed, Forbes is already hoping for a slam-dunk selling season, citing factors like a national inventory that is lower than last year’s by 19% and the potential for increased job creation. Time will tell, but even slow recovery reaffirms what we’ve always known–that Michigan is a wonderful place to live, work, and own a home.

In a post from earlier this year, we talked about a few new businesses popping up in Northville recently. After reading this article at hometownlife.com, it seemed appropriate to take a look at the future of these businesses and others like them in our town.

In the article, a handful of local business owners look ahead to the rest of 2012 and discuss some of their successes and difficulties up until now. One particularly salient point, made by Bill Riffle of Riffle’s Restaurant, is how important the increased foot traffic from events like First Fridays is for their business. Northville has a very active Downtown and enjoys arts and cultural events that gather us all in one place, as well as attract visitors and tourists. And programming focused specifically on supporting the local economy, like the Buy Michigan Now festival (also mentioned in the article), is extremely helpful in that it both gathers traffic and encourages attendees to support area businesses.

Northville is enjoying the arrival of new businesses and fresh ideas, which help us to maintain what makes our city great: creativity, ambition, and local pride. (Among other things, of course). We support and value our local businesses, and to see them talking about their optimism for the year to come is heartening. Furthermore, if Northville is a town where businesses are happy to be, then it stands to reason that home buyers will also see Northville as a place to be excited about. As they should–as a real estate agent it’s never difficult to present Northville as a great place to live, but it helps sometimes to have opinions from other sources, too.

This month’s surprisingly warm weather reminds us that we are rapidly moving into the “spring buying season”, and we start to think a lot about home buyers. The spring and early summer, in Michigan, are when we all kind of wake up after a long, cold winter (although not so much this year) and move on to new projects, places, and stages in our lives. In a recent article for Forbes, Trulia’s Jed Kolko puts it this way: “As the market comes out of winter hibernation, buyers wake up first.”

We all like the idea of buyers coming out of hibernation. Indeed, Americans still consider home ownership an important life goal and a solid investment: in a 2011 survey carried out by the Pew Research Center, 81% of respondents said that they still consider buying a home the best long-term investment one can make. This certainty is remarkable considering how many people have lost their homes or seen them decrease in value over the past several years.

It’s safe to say that as a nation emerging from economic recession, home buyers are a bit of a fixation for us right now. It seems like there are articles and news features everywhere offering advice for first time buyers. The recovery of the housing market has been uneven, with certain regions of the U.S. seeing more improvement than others. But the good news is that Michigan is one of the areas where business is moving: new data shows us that in February, Michigan home sales experienced an increase of 14% over the year before.

How will the spring buying season play out in Michigan? Well, we’ve already seen growth in sales in the Metro Detroit area, though recovery is happening slowly. Patience is a virtue, and slow improvement is better than none.

With gas prices rising and many predicting they will exceed $5 per gallon by the summer, it’s worth examining how the price of gas affects buying and selling decisions in real estate, as well as lifestyle changes in one’s current home.

When buying a new home, the time it takes to get to key places–work, schools, the hospital, grocery stores–is a major factor influencing a buyer’s decision. If the necessities are too far away, they are also too expensive to get to, and the higher gas prices climb, the less attractive the property could become. Research from last year showed us that gas prices and companies’ needs to cut costs have also ushered in a new trend: buyers looking for homes with home offices, or a space that could be easily converted into one.

Sellers are perhaps less immediately affected by the climbing prices of gas, but the impact is felt all the same. To answer the demand for home offices, it may be in the seller’s best interest to convert a room or odd space into one before showing the home. Highlighting features like nearby access to public transportation or hospitals, grocery stores, and other necessities can also appeal to buyers who need to pinch pennies.

The price of gas affects everyone who owns a car, so those of us not buying or selling are also finding ways to adapt. Carpooling, bus- and bike-riding (where the weather permits) and cutting down on driving in general are all becoming attractive options. Telecommuting can help both companies and their employees cut costs.

So what does it all mean? Well, we’ve seen people taking these kinds of cost-cutting measures for a while now, as many have been laid off, seen their hours or pay decreased, or been buried in debt. And though some believe that gas prices will stay high, we can’t know that for sure–they may level off or even fall again. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen gas top out above four dollars a gallon. And, in the end, gas prices are just one factor of many in a decision as big as purchasing a house. But anything that can influence real-world behavior is worth noting, and watching trends can give us valuable insight into the real estate business.

If you still needed proof that Northville is the place to call home, then the recent arrival of several new businesses to our town should give you all you need. Though those of us who live in Northville have seen the development firsthand, a new article on Metromode details the recent arrivals of Spinergy Fitness, Limelight Emporium, the Wealth Advantage Group, Brick’s of Northville, Heart of Inspiration, and Bailey and Shamoun. Garage grill & fuel bar is another new addition set to open this summer.

It’s great to see such a variety of industries flourishing in Northville, especially in a time when small businesses are particularly challenged. The cultural and economic vitality of a community are important factors when shopping for a home or considering a move, so it’s good to know that Northville remains an attractive place to call home. Indeed, 2012 has brought a lot of good news for Northville so far: property values rising and Northville schools performing well are just two indicators of our city’s vibrancy.

Northville Patch has just introduced a new feature where locals can vote for the best Northville businesses in several categories. This is a great opportunity to celebrate not just the new businesses in town, but also those who have been mainstays in our community for a long time. Celebrating and supporting our local economies is crucial in a time when it may seem that Michigan has a long road to recovery.

Will you vote for the best Northville business?