This spring as part of National Open House weekends, we are holding a very special contest – our “Key to Your Dream”. It’s our way of saying thank you to all of the folks who visit our Fonville Morisey-listed Open Houses during the weekends of April 29th, May 20th and June 17th. Visitors need to register online after viewing one of our homes (and should receive a postcard from the participating agent to learn how!).

We could not host this special contest if it weren’t for our sponsors and today, we focus on our Raleigh sponsor – Triangle Green Cleaning, an Indy award-winning company for the past couple of years. Our Digital Media Marketing Director had a chance to visit with them recently.

Take a look at the video below to learn about their philosophy and the many ways they help the community to be “green” through their services.

Our NEXT Open House “Key to Your Dream” contest opportunity is THIS Sunday, May 20th. Be sure and take a look at the official contest rules and blog post for more information. We hope to see you there!

Mama Gail of The Healing Force band. Copyright 2012 Brian Pate. All Rights Reserved.

If you are looking for a fun, relaxing and family-friendly way to spend a Sunday afternoon, then look no further than Wake Forest’s Six Sundays in Spring outdoor concert series held at the E. Carroll Joyner Park Amphitheater. So pack a picnic, put the dog on a leash, and bring a blanket to enjoy what the folks at Wake Forest ARTS have in store!

This year, the concerts will be held every Sunday through June 3^rd, and will start at 3 p.m. and last until 7 p.m., which will allow for an opening act as well as a headlining act. This past Sunday featured vintage rock group Phatbread as the opening act and African influenced group The Healing Force as the headliner.

Don’t feel like packing a picnic or cooler? You are in luck; food and drink vendors will be on hand as well as local vendors offering their wares. In case of inclement weather, updated concert information will be available on Community Channel 10 or by calling the Wake Forest Weather Line at 919-435-9569. To stay up to date on all the great things Wake Forest has going on, download the Town of Wake Forest App for your smart phone.

Please remember, park only in designated areas; no alcohol, firearms or unleashed dogs are allowed in the Park. For more information on E. Carroll Joyner Park, please visit the Town of Wake Forest web site.

Phatbread. Copyright 2012 Meredith Gilley. All Rights Reserved.

Concert Line Up from Wakeforestarts.org:

May 20:

Folk Country singer Angela Easterling will perform after indie rock musician Arielle Bryant.

May 27:

John Lakota Locklear, 14 year old Native American (Lumbee) of Pembroke, North Carolina was 7 years old, when he started playing harmonica and 9 years old when he picked up his first guitar.  He was intrigued by the sound of the slide guitar and wanted to learn to play.  About a year and a half later, he bought himself a glass slide, placed it on his pinky finger and has been sliding ever since.  Lakota John will perform blues infused with his Native American heritage. Here’s a short video of Lakota John doing his thing -

June 3:

The Gravy Boys – The Gravy Boys perform acoustic Americana music, drawing deep from the well of our country’s diverse musical heritage. Since they came together to form the band in 2004, they have released two albums and are working on a third. The Gravy Boys take old-time themes and bring them into the present day with an authentic passion that resonates with all who listen. This concert is sponsored by PineCone (Piedmont Council of Traditional Music) and the Town of Wake Forest.

Thanks to Meredith Gilley of FM Youngsville for contributing this piece and to both she and Brian Pate for the images too!

Image courtesy of Meredith Gilley. Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.

The following post is contributed by FM Youngsville’s Meredith Gilley as part of our “Branch Bits” series. Thank you, Meredith!

Every May, thousands of folks descend upon the downtown area of Wake Forest to celebrate the town’s annual Meet in the Street Festival that is hosted and organized by the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce. Now in it’s 32^nd year, Meet in the Street is held on the first Saturday in May (this year’s was May 5^th) on South White Street and boasts an abundance of food, music, and local entertainment, as well as local and regional vendors selling handmade arts and crafts. There’s plenty for the kids to do too with games, inflatables, and arts and crafts in the Kids Zone, face painters, henna tattoos, not to mention all the goodies given out by the local police and fire departments.

A favorite four-letter word at Meet in the Street is “FOOD” and there is always a lot of it. Sarge’s Chef on Wheels carried an eclectic mix of down home cooking with Asian and Caribbean flair, and there were many folks walking around enjoying massive turkey legs and gyros from Glen Foods and Party in a Pita. And for those with a sweet tooth, Lumpy’s Ice Cream – one of Wake Forest’s newest ice cream shops was on hand with their homemade farm fresh ice cream and root beer floats. Bet you’re getting a bit hungry now!

The Chamber switched things up a bit this year by extending their hours and running from 10am until 6 pm as well as changed its usual location on South White Street (which is currently undergoing a face lift) to a new location two blocks away on Taylor Street. Despite the change in locale and cloud cover with a slight drizzle throughout the morning, it didn’t keep thousands of people from enjoying a fun-filled day out meeting in the street.

Image Courtesy of Meredith Gilley. Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Image Courtesy of Meredith Gilley. Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Thanks to Hugh Page for providing another FM Lending blog post. Always valuable information to share with our readers!

Is it true that you can save money by closing your home purchase at the end of the month?

First, let’s explore a little background.

When you pay rent to your landlord you usually pay it at the beginning of the month.  When you have a mortgage payment, however, including interest you owe, the payment takes care of the past month’s obligation.   You can close on a home loan any day during a month.  Let’s say you close on September 15; your initial mortgage payment would be due November 1.  That payment includes interest for October.  What about the second half of September?  Did you pull a fast one?  No.  This “interim interest” is paid at closing.  Obviously, the closer your closing is to the end of the month, the smaller this amount will be.

This is what makes closing near the end of the month so appealing to many home buyers.  It reduces the amount of cash you need for closing the loan.  Most homeowners these days are figuring out and stressing where every penny is coming from for closing.   Closing near the end of the month can help with this cash flow, but remember it’s really just an illusion.  You aren’t really “saving” money you’re just improving the “timing” of your cash flow.  You’re probably still paying accrued interest or accrued rent somewhere and that doesn’t stop until you close.

Image courtesy of projectnursery.com

Many other home buyers aren’t so sensitive to that one-time interim interest payment, and instead love the fact that their first mortgage payment isn’t due for well over a month.  If you are one of these people, then closing just after the month begins may be right for you.  For instance, if you close on September 2^nd and pay the interim interest for the rest of September you won’t have a mortgage payment until November 1^st, almost 2 months away.

Interim interest can play a major role when it comes to refinancing a home as well.  Many times a homeowner will calculate the amount needed on a refinance based upon their current mortgage balance plus costs involved.  The one calculation we see borrowers miss time and again is the accrual of interest on the old mortgage.  Many times a borrower will call their current mortgage holder at the beginning of a month to find out the amount of their current principal balance.  If they wind up closing on their refinance at the end of the month, they may be shocked to learn the amount needed to pay off the old mortgage is much greater than the original quote.  What’s more, many individuals who are refinancing won’t make the mortgage payment that is due just prior to closing on a refinance.  So if the closing on a refinance were scheduled prior to September 15 (payment is not late until after that date), many borrowers do not make the payment due September 1 hoping to save more cash.  Since that payment would pay interest due for August, they now wind up owing interest for the full month of August and half of September at closing.

Avoid unpleasant surprises at closing regarding your cash to close.  It’s usually a good idea to anticipate that costs at the time of closing will be higher than expected by the equivalent of one monthly payment.  This will usually avoid a bad surprise.  In addition, when buying a home in the Triangle make sure you work with a mortgage professional who can walk you through this process and help you set your expectations properly.  For instance, the mortgage professionals at FM Lending Services!

On Wednesday evening, April 18th several members of our FM Rental Services team participated in this annual event.  Their theme this year was “Your passport to 100% occupancy”. Our Diane Blais shares a bit about their participation in the Show -

“We dressed up as flight attendants, held a contest to give away a Kindle.  Contestants had to guess 5 of the 10 travel items in our suitcase to be eligible to win.  As “flight attendants” we also gave away bags of peanuts with a sticker that said “You’ll go nuts over our referrals!” and included contact information for apartment communities wishing to join our referral program. It was a big success!

Dreama Lyons of The Trestles Apartments won the Kindle.

Sunnee Glenn, Diane Blais, Kim Skiba III 4.18.12

The Triangle Apartment Association trade show is an annual event that brings together local area apartment communities with the vendors that provide products and services. Vendors exhibit to connect with personnel from local apartment communities who attend this annual show. At this year’s event there were 121 vendors with approximately 800 people in attendance.

For FM Rental Services this is their opportunity to connect with their apartment community partners and let them know that we are a qualified source of qualified referrals for clients from every line of business coming through Fonville Morisey including our corporate, affinity, agent and website clients.

FM Rental Services booth participants: Forrest Nidiffer, Sunnee Glenn, FM Rental Services Manager, Diane Blais and Corporate Business Development Manager, Kim Skiba.

Special thanks to Diane Blais for contributing this piece.

In an on-going effort to be a source for community happenings around the Triangle as part of our “Branch Bits” series, this month we feature stories from our Fonville Morisey Youngsville office. This is the first of several for May 2012. Enjoy!

Tonight in Wake Forest is a fantastic event for home-schooled teens. When we heard about it, we had to give our audience the 411 because it really is a unique event too. So we asked one of the event organizers, Mrs. Beth Herbert to share with us some insight into the prom – how it all began and what makes it unique.

Image courtesy of Beth Herbert

#1 – Tell us a little bit about the Prom.

The Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom is a celebration for homeschooled students, alumni, and guests ages 14-21. It is planned by a committee of homeschooled students and moms, and is a program of Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association, based here in Wake Forest.   This year we have 170 students coming from all across central North Carolina. There is a large homeschool community in this area, and the Prom is a big night for homeschooled teens, just as it is for students in other types of schools. The Homeschool Prom brings students together from many different communities across the region, and is a wonderful, exciting evening of dinner and dancing that is a celebration of homeschool teens and friendship.

#2 – We hear there’s a unique element to this event. Can you tell us what that is?

One thing that we are proud of is the Benefit that we have each year.  Each year we select a cause that is dear to one or more of our students, which we promote and raise money or collect items for.  In 2010, our benefit was the Kolfe Orphanage for Boys in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Students donated $300 to the orphanage and  we all sang “Happy Birthday” via Skype connection to one of the boys living in the Orphanage.  In 2011,  we collected water bottles and heard about Meet Me at the Bridge, a ministry to the homeless in downtown Durham.  This year we are collecting “extravagant items” like toilet paper, shampoo, sunscreen, laundry soap, toothpaste, etc. for the Faith Food Pantry at Faith Baptist Church in Youngsville. We realize that being able to splurge on an extravagant evening like the Prom is a big blessing that we really want our young people to appreciate, and raising awareness about those in need and having the Prom goers reach out through their contributions is part of that.

#3 – Tell us about the history of the Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom.

The Prom came about when my daughter was 15 and I happened to come upon a website for a homeschool prom in another state. I asked her what she would think about us planning a local homeschool prom, and she immediately got excited about the idea and recruited several homeschool friends and their moms to join us in the venture. We spent a year planning our first  Prom, “Starry Night”, which drew 125 students from across the Triangle.  The following year was “Masquerade”, with 175 students. This year our theme is “Moonlight in Paris”, with 170 students registered.

Image courtesy of Beth Herbert

#4 – Tell us about the location for this year’s prom.

The 3rd annual Carolina Capital Homeschool Prom will be held on Friday evening, May 4, 2012 at The Sutherland Estate & Gardens in Wake Forest. This beautiful estate is an outdoor venue, which makes our Prom a little different from others as well.

“Planning a Prom is a lot like planning a wedding, except you get to sell tickets.”  – Amanda Herbert

#5 – A lot of planning and preparation go into planning every Prom, but we’re sure yours is a bit different. Would you like to give some shout outs to those on the Committee, Sponsors, Donors, etc.?

YES! A special shout out to our hard-working committee members: Beth Herbert, Eve Nemitz, Lisa DeMarco, Danette Rego, Becky Gupton, Cindy Huffman, Matisa Knowles, Cathleen Bragg, Jamie Cromwell and Jeanne Wendell, and student members  Grace DeMarco, Jacob Rego, Hailey Huffman, Kelly Knowles, Sarah Bragg, Anna Laura Cromwell, Ari Wendell, and Sarah Lambert.

Of course, we must thank our Sponsors too -

The Wake Weekly
Sue Patrick’s Workbox System
Wake Forest Awards and Engraving
Rego Automotive
Chiropractic Partners – Dr. Brian Ransone
Armstrong Wealth Management
Sweeter Than Tea

We mentioned The Sutherland, but I would be remiss in not mentioning our awesome DJ, Brian Pate, as well as our caterer,  Rocky Top Hospitality/ 1705 Prime.  Photography is by I Believe Designs / Stacy Darwin and our website and graphic designer is Sarah Herbert.

# 6 – Final question – tell us about the Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association.

Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association is a support group of over 250 homeschooling families from Wake Forest and surrounding area, including North Raleigh, Zebulon, Rolesville, Youngsville, Franklinton, Oxford.  The Prom is a program of Lighthouse, but is is open to all homeschool students, and we have students coming from Fayetteville, Willow Springs, Apex, Henderson, Lexington, Durham, Burlington, Butner, and many other communities as well.  There are several other homeschool proms across the state as well, including one in Wendell and one in Cary.

Image courtesy of Beth Herbert

Thank you, Mrs. Herbert! It was fun learning about this unique event serving our community cultivating relationships for homeschool children in the Triangle.We hope everyone has a BLAST at tonight’s event!

Fuquay-Varina’s own The Garden Hut owned and operated by Horticulturist Nelsa Cox is one of our sponsors for our “Key to Your Dream” contest for National Open House Weekends this spring. Our Lisa Sullivan spent a Saturday morning recently with Nelsa and her team to learn all about the excellent services they provide. Take a look at this short video to learn more about products, types of classes, special events, and what they love about Facebook -

Thank you, The Garden Hut for sponsoring our first ever “Key to Your Dream” contest. We appreciate you!

Visit them on Twitter and on Facebook too.

Don’t forget about their Hosta Party this Saturday, May 5th complete with special guests, hostas and hot dogs!

In Fonville Morisey Realty’s FIRST ever “Key to Your Dream” contest, we are proud to announce our April winner –

Mr. Dan Meade

He and his family will enjoy a prize pack valued at just under $500 that includes gift certificates for lawn/gardening from The Garden Hut in Fuquay-Varina, a thorough 2-hour home cleaning by the good folks at Triangle Green Cleaning in Raleigh, and spa services from Alossi Renewal Spa in Garner. Many thanks to each of our sponsors for their prizes!

The Meade family is in the process of relocating to the Triangle and have enlisted the services of the fabulous Debbie Vanhorn, an Agent with Fonville Morisey Lochmere. What a way to welcome the Meade family to the Triangle with this AWESOME prize pack!

You, too, have a chance to enter our “Key to Your Dream” contest at the next National Open House Weekend on May 20^th. See below for details –

CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. Dan Meade and his family. You’ve just won the “Key to Your Dream”!

What makes the successful purchase or sale of a home in The Triangle is when the various entities associated with a transaction work together. There is no other way to exemplify that in our market than by the that of our Fonville Morisey Realty and FM Lending teams who truly work cohesively together. Their collective knowledge and expertise when combined together make for a powerhouse of real estate goodness. As a matter of fact, we received the following letter yesterday from a very satisfied client (of both Fonville Morisey and FM Lending) who both sold her first home AND bought a new home all within a two-month period. THAT’S team work!

I wanted to share with you my terrific experience with other Long and Foster affiliates, Fonville Morisey and FM Lending, both of Cary, NC. Having had the pleasure to personally be a title affiliate with L&F for over 13 years, I have worked with many REALTORS® and lenders. I know firsthand the value of working with a REALTOR® and when I am working with individuals who share Long and Foster’s commitment to providing competent services and customer care.  Those standards were exemplified by the REALTOR® and loan officer I worked with when I recently sold and purchased a second home in Cary, NC.

The REALTOR®, Tracy Santrock, of the Highhouse Rd, Cary, NC, Fonville Morisey

Tracy Santrock of FM Preston

office, is a credit to the Long and Foster name.  Because I am out of state, she made time on short notice to meet with  me when I was in NC to discuss listing one home and purchasing another. That same day, she took me to see potential new homes that she understood I would move to when I retire in the future. She looked at the home I was listing and provided valuable guidance as to how to enhance its marketability, guidance that I followed.  As a result of her expertise, when the house was listed three weeks later, it was under contract within two days!  Other houses in the same community had been on the market 2-8 months. That’s proof of what can happen when someone with Tracy’s professionalism, knowledge and competence are working for their client.  But, that was not all.  Once under contract, we then met in NC a couple of weeks later, and she spent all day with me to negotiate and ratify a contract with a builder for my new second home.   She was a strong advocate for me and the result was terrific!  Tracy was an integral part of the construction inspections, ensuring that punch list items I requested to be fixed were repaired and the new home met the standards she understood I was seeking because she took time to listen to me and know me.  Having Tracy as my  REALTOR® resulted in the sale and closing of my first home within one month of contract and the purchase and closing of my new home the next month. Who said this is a difficult market?  When you have people working for you such as Tracy and her team, even difficult circumstances can yield great results!

Pam Louder of FM Lending

But, that is not the end of the story.  I also used FM Lending as my lender, another L&F affiliate.  Pam Louder was my loan officer and she made magic happen.  She not only was able to meet and beat the builder’s mortgage lender, but she worked with me long distance to get the deal done. I received a fantastic interest rate, great service and a closing that we were able to conduct remotely. The loan papers were ready almost a week ahead of time and sent to me to execute. I then returned them to the closing attorney and settlement took place on time, no muss, no fuss.  Pam was and is a phenomenal loan officer.

My experience with Tracy and Pam were not limited to me.  My NC friends were impressed with what they saw in Tracy and Pam and decided to use them both for their purchase.  Within a month’s time, my friends went from contract to closing and on time.

To close, I just want to thank you for having such competent professionals, as Tracy Santrock and Pam Louder  in the Long and Foster family. They went more than the extra mile, provided great service and made my friends’ and my real estate experience positive and smooth. I just thought you should know about them as well.

Have a great day!

Judy Nixon, Esquire and Managing Attorney for Sage Title Group, LLC, one of Long & Foster’s Prestige Partners

Now THAT’s a testimony to amazing service, knowledge and expertise in the market, and equally important, of working together.

KUDOS to you, Tracy and Pam and all the parties involved in these two successful transactions!

Judy, we hope you love your new home!

Reprinted by permission.