Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is the Sloan Sales Homes Open House with Michelle Sloan,
Remax time agent and proprietor of Sloan Saleshomes dot Com.
You have questions, she has the answers. This is your
opportunity to learn from one of the best and most
trusted agents in the business. This is the Sloan Sales
Homes Open House with Michelle Sloan on fifty five KRC
(00:26):
the talk station.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome back. While it is feeling a little bit like Christmas,
and I am in the Christmas spirit right now, I
have been shopping my little heart out, and you know,
I don't mind. I do most of my shopping online
these days. It is very rare that I actually go
into a store, which I know stores don't like to
(00:51):
hear that. When I do go into a store, it's
kind of a treat. But at the same time, I've
been shopping a lot online, looking at deals and steal
and seeing what I can find. So I thought it
might be fun to come up with a list of
things that are practical gift ideas under one hundred dollars
for you to give this holiday season. So if you're
(01:13):
looking for some ideas now, these items, I'm going to
tell you, are not sexy. They're probably not a whole
lot of fun. But at the same time, again, I
am a practical person at heart, and gift giving is
somewhat difficult for me. So I look and look, and
I overthink and I overthink, and so I've come up
(01:36):
with a little bit of a list that I hope
that you'll like. You let me know if you like
of any of these ideas, or maybe you can text me,
call me, leave me a message and let me know
what's on your list this year. That would make a
good practical gift idea for homeowners, because you know what,
this is a real estate show, so we want to
(01:58):
sort of keep it in that realm if possible. The
very first thing, and I find that this is a
great gift for me to give to new homeowners is
a new welcome matt, a doormat for the front door,
something that says welcome, something that's stylish. Maybe it's something
that has the Cincinnati Bengals on it, or maybe it
(02:20):
has you know, some puppy dogs on it that say
my puppy rules the house, or my baby is sleeping.
Don't knock Solicitors go away. Whatever the case may be,
a nice fresh new doormat is always a great idea.
And honestly, you can find so many of them. They're
in big box stores, they're at your Target, they're online,
(02:42):
they're everywhere that you can find, and they're less than
twenty bucks. So great gift idea. I think everybody would
appreciate that. They don't even know that they want it, right,
Those are the kinds of things that you don't even
know you want the items that are on my list
until you get them and you're like, oh, well, maybe
(03:03):
this isn't so bad. The next thing, how about some
new decorative house numbers, So if you have a loved
one and at night you cannot see the house number.
Maybe it's supposed to be on the mailbox, maybe it's
on the front of the house. Some decorative house numbers
you can get all different kinds of styles. They might
(03:25):
have to be installed, they may have to be you know,
you may have to adhere them to your house in
some way. But decorative house numbers could be a good
gift for someone, especially if it's a neighbor or maybe
your mom or grandma who you can't see the house
number from the street. That's a safety issue. It's also
(03:48):
a decorative issue. It can help you with your curb appeal,
as it were. And I always talk about curb appeal
on this program, and you know, we talk about all
different kinds of things to increase the curb appeal. I
guess the front doormat is a good one. Decorative house
numbers another good one. How about do you have or
(04:12):
is someone in your life in need of some sort
of a ring doorbell. Now this is I'm trying to
keep most of these items under one hundred dollars, but
a ring doorbell or something like that, I think is
a couple hundred bucks. So it may not be for
everyone to get everyone on your list, but at the
same time it is there's a safety aspect of it.
(04:35):
They're not too difficult to install, and they can be
something that you need to know or have a sense
of security of who's coming to your front door or
who's parking in your driveway. I actually talked to someone
the other day. They have a ring doorbell, or they
actually didn't have a ring doorbell, but their neighbor's ring
(04:58):
doorbell actually captured someone getting into their car and stealing
the garage door opener, that's kind of scary. So if
you have to park out on the street, maybe you
want to get a little bit of extra security. Not
a bad idea. It also can increase the value of
your home because when buyers look at a home with
(05:21):
some sort of a security system installed, they're going to
think highly of it. And then you have to realize
as a seller, if you have a security system, are
you going to leave it or are you going to
take it with you? If you take it with you
and you've installed one of these ring doorbells, and I'm
just using the brand name because that's the most known,
(05:42):
if you have a ring doorbell installed in place of
your doorbell, you want to make sure that a the
buyer knows if it's going to stay or if you're
going to take it with you. If you're going to
take it with you have to reinstall a regular doorbell
because you want to have a doorbell on the front
of your house at all times. So today on the
(06:05):
Sloan Sales Homes open house, I'm giving you some gift
giving ideas. Not sexy, they're definitely practical and you can
find them pretty much anywhere online, in stores, whatever, it's
an easy grab and go gift. Maybe your you don't
know what to get your mom or your dad. Maybe
(06:26):
you think about the things that people in your life
are always complaining about. You know, my husband, he's a
little bit of a complainer. I love him still thirty
five years and I just put up with it and
listened to him, and I you know, he gets annoyed
by things because he is a bit of a neat freaky,
(06:49):
likes to have an order of things. So if you
have an organizational person in your life, some sort of
organizational tools or gifts are a great gift giving an
item for them. So here's one. And I was looking
at these just earlier today. So one of the pet
(07:11):
peeves my husband has is when I walk into the door.
I go in through the garage and I usually have
an armful of things. I have my purse, I have
my keys, I have my phone, you know, maybe a
couple of packages whatever. I walk in the door and
I just drop them all on the counter, or I
drop them all on the table, and sometimes that's where
(07:31):
they stay. I don't tell him I bought him. Maybe
it's for me. I'm not sure who's gonna get this gift,
but somebody's gonna open it. Maybe it will just be
for the whole Sloan household. It is a key holder
and purse holder that you hang up on the wall,
and it's a good It's a place to drop things
(07:54):
so I can hang up my purse, I can hang
up the keys. I know where they are. I'm not
looking for them. Don't get buried underneath bags and things
other items that we're dropping on the counters. And it
will help organize and hopefully it will solve an issue
that we have in our house when you know, Scott
(08:16):
kind of goes everything is laying on the counter. I
can't cook. He's a cooking guy, so he wants his
counters to be clean of all extra debris. To me,
it's like, just move it. It's not that big a deal.
But you know, we're different people. I think, what is it?
Opposites attract I don't think we're opposite, but we're definitely.
(08:37):
Some things bother him more than they bother me. Do
you have that situation in your household as well?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Okay, all right, so let's get onto it. Let's do
a couple more items before we go to a break.
Do you have a smart thermostat in your home, any
kind of smart technology. So a smart thermostat would be
like a nest. There's all different kinds again, that's just
the one that comes to mind that is very popular.
(09:09):
You install that. You do have to have internet in
your home to have a nest work for you. So
a lot of smart technology are going to be a
great gift for people if they don't already have it,
So you kind of have to know the person whether
or not they're going to have something like that. There's
also something called smart light switches, which I love this idea.
(09:33):
A smart light switch can be turned. There's all different kinds.
So smart light switches you can turn on and off.
Just like the old timer that we would put on
maybe a lamp in the front window just to show
that maybe people will think that we're home when we're
really not. A smart light switch is going to do
(09:53):
the same thing. So if you have a smart light switch,
it can turn the lights on and off when you
walk in and into a out of a room. Or
if like I have a smart light switch in my
closet and so in that closet, when I walk into
the closet, the light turns on. When I walk out,
(10:13):
the light turns off, or actually it's on a timer,
so either way it turns off automatically. I don't have
to think about it. I just go in, do what
I need to do, and go out. So you know,
a smart light switch is a great idea if you
need help installing. I don't believe they're too difficult personally,
I've never done it. But if you have a handy
(10:35):
person in your life, or maybe even someone who's in
their early early twenties, they can probably figure it out
pretty easily. It's it's not going to be that difficult
to install. I think. I don't know what you think
about the lists so far, but we're gonna go ahead
and we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break, we're
(10:57):
gonna come back. We're going to talk some more about
smart features in your home, smart gift ideas, and you're
listening to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House. I am
Michelle Sloane. Don't forget me, please, I'm gonna be taking
a break from the radio starting at the end of
this month, so if you miss me, just know that
(11:19):
you can find me. Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube,
but and you can find me on all kinds of
social media. So I'm not going anywhere. I just won't
be on the radio after the end of the month. Okay,
let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with
more right here on fifty five KR see the talk station.
(11:43):
Welcome back to the Sloan Sales Homes open House. I
am Michelle's clone. I'm your local residential realtor and broker
at Fremax time. I'm in a great mood. I'm in
the holiday spirit. It has been cold this week. It's
been so cold. I hope you're staying warm today though,
enjoying your your afternoon. Okay, so we're talking about gift ideas,
(12:06):
not the sexy kind, practical gift ideas that you can
buy anyone who lives in a home for the most part. Okay,
so let's talk about you know, the smart technology is
kind of all of the rage and there's it's smart
for a reason. It really does help simplify your life
(12:26):
and it can save you money. A smart thermostat can
save you money. You can you can do things and remotely,
which is also a great feature. What about a smart
smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. Oftentimes on my little
(12:47):
practical gift giving list, I always talk about smoke detectors
and smart not smart necessarily, but carbon monoxide detectors. You
know that's this is something that people don't really lies
either would they have it or they don't? Are they work?
Is it working or not a lot of times now
(13:07):
you can buy smoke detectors that are built in with
the carbon monoxide detector at the same time. It's like
one unit, very practical. It's a great safety feature. So
if you have a loved one in your life who
you want to make sure they are safe and they
are alerted to carbon monoxide, which is an odorless gas
(13:29):
that could could be very serious, you want to make
sure that you have installed some carbon monoxide detectors. The
other item that's not sexy or fun, but do you
have a working fire extinguisher inside your home? You should
have one in your kitchen or at least near your
(13:50):
kitchen so in case something happens. So I was telling
Scott Sloan that you know you could you could give
a fire extinguisher as a g and he thought that
was hilarious because there was a secret message that whoever
you're bringing the fire extinguisher to maybe is not the
best cook. I don't know. I just thought it was
(14:13):
a safety issue. He finds humor in things that I
don't usually, or at least I'm not thinking along that line.
So a fire extinguisher, if you need one again, it
may not be the greatest gift in the world that
somebody's going to be like, oh wow, a fire extinguisher,
but at the same time, it could save a life,
(14:33):
and that could be worth more money in the world
than you just couldn't even imagine. Right, Okay, so let's
talk about some things that I do think people will like.
How about some new decorative throw pillows or blankets. Everybody
likes a nice, comfy blanket. I don't know what they're
doing with blankets these days, but the ones in the
(14:54):
store are so soft, they're so amazing. Now, that's not
going to to add value to your home, but it's
going to keep you nice and cozy, and it's going
to keep somebody nice and cozy. The other kind of
ideas would be, let's see the decorative pillows, what about
just some really nice towels. A lot of times at least.
(15:18):
I know in my house we use towels for years
and years and reuse them over and over and over again,
and they kind of lose their luster. How about getting
someone some nice, thick, large towels, and you know, if
you get them, there's you can make them pretty, you
can make them just plain. But at the same time,
(15:39):
people don't like to buy those kinds of things for themselves. Often,
even kitchen towels you can get. Oh I love getting
a package of kitchen towels because then they stick around.
Maybe you will be remembered for giving the gift of
kitchen towels. You may think, oh my gosh, my mother
in law would give us kitchen towels every single year.
(16:00):
We're like, I don't need any more kitchen towels. But
at the same time, you know, we appreciated them, and
that meant when the old towels were used to the
point of no return, then we had a set of
fresh kitchen towels, which again less than one hundred dollars.
A nice little gift, nothing crazy. Maybe you have a
(16:25):
neighbor or a sister, or an aunt or somebody that
you want to give a nice little gift to you
can think about that as well. All right, what else
we got here on our list? Oh? Organization? All right.
I don't know what your pantry looks like, or maybe
your refrigerator, but if you have an organizational nut in
(16:46):
your home, maybe you give them a little gift card
to say, I'm going to organize your refrigerator or I'm
going to organize your pantry. And with that, I'm going
to go ahead and do some decorative boxes, different kinds
of things to put all of the same items in
one box. You know, it is if you have the
(17:10):
wire shelves in your pantry, they're kind of a pain
in the butt because when you're buying certain things, they
will fall over organizational items. There's entire stores, right or
there's sections of stores that are dedicated for organization, and
that can be a really great gift to give someone.
(17:34):
And don't just give them the boxes and the materials
to organize. Maybe you ask if you can do it
with them. Maybe you're going to go through the fridge,
and this time of year maybe harder if you have
a lot of things in your fridge, But at the
same time, you can get rid of the condiments that
are really old, you know, there's a gag in my
(17:58):
house that when I go to my parents house, I
look and see how old some of the pantry staples
are in their home. How old is the medication in
their home. If they have medication that's from nineteen ninety nine.
We need to get rid of that. So going through
your cabinets, your closets and organizing things, donating the things
(18:24):
that still have life to them. Now, I'm not talking
about your pantry items, because you certainly don't want to
donate items that have expired. But if we look at
closets and closet organization, another really awesome gift idea. What
about Okay, I'm kind of going off script here a
little bit, but I love this idea. How about matching hangars.
(18:48):
If someone is going to organize their closet, and I
will tell you when you're selling your home, if you
have an organized closet, it will look like a million bucks.
If you have all all of the same hangars, and
you have all of your clothes lined up neatly, where
the pants are all here. Maybe you have all of
(19:08):
the short sleeve shirts here, the long sleeve shirts here. Whatever.
If you have a suit or more dressy items. Organizing
your closet can a make you feel really good about
what's in there. You can find the items that are
in your closet, which right now, if your closet looks
like mine, it's a bit of a mess. It's funny because,
(19:31):
as I said, I'm not the organizational wizard Scott is.
So we have separate they're not separate closets, but within
the same closet. You know, he has his space, I
have MySpace. His space is nice, neatly organized. He's got
little boxes for his shoes, everything's all perfect. Mine is
a little bit more haphazard. I'm fine with it. It
(19:52):
doesn't bother me. But at the same time, once a
year I do try to take everything out. I donate
what I don't use. I find items that I've purchased,
that I forgot that I purchased, and I'm like, oh yay,
it's like Christmas all over again. So the gift of
organization can be absolutely fulfilling for you and the gift
(20:19):
the person who you are gifting to. I don't know
if you like any of these ideas. I'm sure I
have a million more, and let's go through them really quickly.
How are we doing on time, Danny, two minutes. Okay,
here we go. A quality shower head. Never thought about
(20:39):
buying someone a shower head. I've seen some shower heads
that light up all different colors when you're in the shower.
I don't know if you're if that's something that you
think would be cool. Some decorative wall art. How about
a giant not giant necessarily, but a big mirror. A
decorative mirror in a home hanging on a wall can
(21:00):
actually make your home look bigger. It's really a neat feature.
If you can add decorative mirrors to a wall, it
usually can go with anyone's decor. So think about buying
a decorative mirror for someone again. You can find these
(21:20):
just about anywhere different different big box stores, online. Whatever.
You can give someone the gift of a plant. It
can either be an indoor plant, or it can be
a plant like a little evergreen that you can plant
outside in the spring. That's going to be another gift
(21:40):
that sort of keeps on giving. I love the idea
of giving a plant, like a small tree, a little
evergreen that you have inside. Maybe you're going to decorate
it with a couple of little light bulbs. On it
or something, make it cute for the holidays, and then
in the spring they can the person who you've gifted
(22:03):
it to can plant that in the yard and watch
it grow. It's amazing just after a few years. Where
now just be careful, you know, maybe you should suggest say, oh,
Michelle said, don't plant an evergreen too close to the house.
It may be cute and little right now, but if
it has the potential to get ginormous, you want to
(22:26):
make sure that it's away from your foundation. So all
of those kinds of things are really smart gift ideas.
I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season. If
there are some low cost home like gifts that you
can think of that you want to add to my list,
I'm going to have I'm going to have a video
(22:47):
of this compilation of ideas on my website and at
the Sloan Sales Homes open house on YouTube. So if
you want to add to it, please comment. I'd love
to hear from you. My name is Michelle Sloan. We're
going to take a quick break for news and we'll
be right back. You're listening to fifty five KR see
the talk station.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
When it comes to real estate. You can have a
thousand questions. Luckily, there's one agent you can turn to
for honest answers, Remax time agent Michelle Sloan from Sloan
Saleshomes dot com. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
(23:32):
Sloan on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Welcome back. Okay, so let's do a little bit of
a check on mortgage rates for the week. Our thirty
year fixed mortgage rate is around six point six five
percent in Ohio and in Kentucky at six point four
to one percent. Did you realize that? And you know what,
after all of the years I've been in real estate
(24:01):
for twenty years. I don't know how I didn't know
this because I thought mortgage rates were pretty much the
same throughout the country, and they are for the most part.
But did you know that a mortgage rate will change
from state to state. I didn't know that. You know,
I'm always doing research, and I guess I don't do
(24:24):
mortgages all of the I mean, I don't do mortgages
myself because I'm a real estate agent and broker. I
figured I should should have known that, but at the
same time I didn't. So in Ohio the average rate
was about six point sixty five percent last week for
a thirty year fixed and in Kentucky six point four
to one, So it was a little cheaper to buy
(24:45):
a home in Kentucky last week. And then if you're
looking at fifteen year mortgages, those rates are usually lower.
It's five point nine in Ohio and five point seventy
five in Kentucky fo or a fifteen year fixed strate.
You know. Kentucky also offers down payment assistance program for
(25:05):
first time home buyers. The program provides loans of up
to ten thousand dollars with a three point seventy five
interest rate and a ten year repayment term of that
ten thousand dollars. So if you need help, and if
you're looking for a home in Kentucky, I personally am
not licensed in the state of Kentucky, but I have
(25:27):
agents in my office at remax time that I can
refer you to, and that absolutely one hundred percent will
help you through the process of buying or selling a home.
This time of year, a lot of people don't even
think about real estate that much, but you might hear
some people going through situations. The holidays are a difficult
(25:53):
time of year for a lot of people, and I
recognize that, and you know, you may a friend of
mine found out that not found out, I guess, but
his spouse decided that they should not live together anymore.
(26:14):
And with that kind of news, there is a lot
of emotions involved. And with the emotions that you have
during a separation, especially or maybe a death in the family,
it is really difficult to just wrap your brain around, Okay,
how are we going to do this? How are we
(26:36):
going to live? Can one person stay in the home
and while someone else moves out? Can we afford to
keep the property? And that's really a big decision, and
it's one that I, you know, certainly recommend that you
(26:57):
don't take on really quick. Especially let's talk about the
death of a loved one. Now you may have friends
and family. Let's say your spouse passes away, and I've
dealt with a lot of clients who have had this
situation happen, And you have family members who are pushing
(27:18):
you to make a move right away. Now they have
your best intention at heart, but you also have to
be ready. You have to know where you want to
move to. I know someone who made a move after
their spouse died. They went into a condo and they
(27:40):
hated it, absolutely hated it, and they ended up within
six months trying to sell the condo that they just
bought and buy a home, a single family home. Again.
So you want to know for sure where you are mentally, physically, emotionally, financially.
(28:01):
All of these things are so very important when it
comes to a major change in your life. So if
you are looking for someone to just give you advice,
not advice that will push you in one direction or another.
You know, like I said, family members maybe feel that
(28:23):
it might be best that you don't live alone, and
maybe that is the best decision, but again it may
take some time. I had one person who love her
to death. We talked for and worked together for an
entire year before she actually put her home on the market.
(28:48):
She met with me and a couple of other agents.
To be honest, she was not sure who she wanted
to use. She wanted to be one hundred percent confident
in who her agent was, which was smart. She picked me.
Love that anyway, we became I feel like we are friends,
(29:10):
and in a way that is you know, I felt
very protective of her and her situation, and so over
the course of the year, she would go through all
of her husband's things and sell them off. She would
go through all of her things that she had collected
over thirty years of being in this home and donated
(29:33):
them or sold them or boxed them up for future.
That she was trying to decide what am I taking
with me, where am I going to go, and what
does that look like for me? And that takes time,
and thankfully she had the time. She was physically able
to stay in the home by herself, so that wasn't
(29:54):
an issue, and she decided to go into a retirement
field where there would be other people around that are
her age, but yet she had her own space. So
that was the best situation for her. It also gave
me a chance to work with her to get her
(30:15):
house to a point where it was more sellable at
a higher price than it would have been when we
first started talking, because when we first started talking, to
be very honest, she had so much clutter, She had
so much emotional baggage. And I don't mean that in
(30:35):
a bad way. She was just emotionally wrecked after the
loss of her loved one, as I would be. I
can't even imagine. I may talk and have a lot
of fun, but after thirty five years, if I lost
my spouse, I would be devastated, There's no question about it.
(30:56):
And you know it would take time, and I know
that I would have people that I could rely on.
A lot of people don't have someone to rely on,
maybe they don't have family around. I recently worked with
another client who literally had no one and she fell
(31:20):
down while she was getting her decluttering and it was
taking a not even an emotional toll, but a physical toll.
So she had to go to the doctor, and she
didn't have anybody to watch her dog. And I'm not
going to say that I'm a dog sitter, but I
did sit with her with her pet for an hour
(31:40):
or so while she went to the doctor because she
didn't have anybody. And that's the kind of relationship that again,
I don't do it on the regular I'm not going
to say that I do. But if you're in a
spot and you need help, I hope that I would
be your agent and I would be the person that
(32:03):
you could call and say, Michelle, I need your help,
and I would be willing to help. And so those
are the things that you look for or should be
looking for when you're in a situation where you know
it's time to sell your home and maybe your children
(32:25):
or your adult anybody that's around you that are family members,
maybe they don't live close anymore and you're working to
get closer to them, and you just don't know where
to start the process. I hope that you'll remember my name,
Michelle Sloane Sloan sellshomes dot com. You can text me,
you can call me, and please leave a message. I
(32:50):
get a lot of spam on my because I give
my phone number out on the radio. It's on the internet,
so I get a lot of spam calls. But certainly
if you call and leave me a message, I will
get back to you. And I'm going to give you
the number right now, five to one three six hundred
(33:10):
five to seven seven. So that's five one three, six
hundred five two seven seven. Last week I was handing
out some home Magnet home Maintenance Checklist Magnets. I still
have a few left, So if you're interested in me
mailing you some a home maintenance checklist magnet. It's a mouthful.
(33:36):
I would love for you to put my face and
my phone number on your fridge, and when it comes time,
you will have my name and number to call so
you don't forget. So the way that you can get
the maintenance checklist, all you have to do text me
at five one three six hundred five to seven seven.
(33:59):
Text me home maintenance checklist, give me your name and
your home address, and I will send it out to you.
It'll be my little gift to you. Again, not sexy,
it's a practical gift that you can hang on your
fridge and remember me when it comes time to buy
or sell. Or if you're talking to anybody this holiday
(34:21):
season and they're talking about buying or selling a home
in Ohio or Kentucky or anywhere in the country, if
it's not in our backyard, if it's not in the
Cincinnati area, and I can't help you, I will help
find you an agent who is qualified to help you.
All Right, when we come back, we're going to do
(34:42):
a little giving back. I'm going to talk about a
couple of different charities that I'm working with that I
feel need your help. This holiday season, and again, giving
back is an important part of what I do on
a daily base, and I appreciate you listening today to
(35:06):
this loan sales homes open house right here on fifty
five KR see the talk station. Welcome back to this
loan sales homes open house. I am Michelle Sloan. I'm
your local residential realtor and a broker. Here at remax
time Remax time. We're located right off of I seventy one,
(35:26):
just south of King's Island. You probably will never come
to my office unless it's for a closing, and that
would be a great thing. I would love to have
you come to my office, but for the most part,
if I'm working with buyers or sellers, I'm going to
come to you. If you are a buyer, I would
love to sit down with you, though, I would love
to sit with you at my office give you an
(35:48):
idea of what the process is about. If you are
a seller, I will come to your house. I cannot
give you a fair market value of your home unless
I come to your home, and I love doing I
will come do what's known as a listing presentation. I
will come to your house and we'll spend about an hour,
(36:08):
hour and a half going through your home, taking a look,
giving you practical ideas. I am your practical real estate agent.
And with that, you know it doesn't cost you anything.
That's the one thing that I don't know that everybody
understands is that when you meet with me the first time,
(36:32):
there is no fee. You don't have to pay for
me to come and give you advice and information. Just
like here on the radio. You know, this is something
that I do and I do love helping people. So
that gets me to the next topic, and that is
did you know that there's like a challenge going on
(36:54):
in Cincinnati right now. It's called the Cincinnati Gives Challenge Lenge.
It's a friendly fundraising competition where local charities compete to
raise the most money and cash prizes. I saw this
on the news the other day and I looked it
up and I really thought that it was very, very
(37:15):
very cool and unique situation. There are seventy nine organizations
and you can take a look at it at Cincinnati
Gibbs dot org. You can find the link on my
Facebook page and if you want to go to Michelle
Sloane sells homes on Facebook and you can find the link.
(37:38):
The challenge is neat. Like I said, there are seventy
nine organizations as of this As of right now, they've
raised over two hundred thousand dollars for local charities. The
competition only lasts until oh when is it through? December twelfth? Thursday,
(38:01):
December twelfth, But certainly if you have a some extra
money and you have the will to donate to these
different organizations. Right now, First Tea of Greater Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky is winning the challenge. The other Some of
(38:23):
the other charities on the list are the Cincinnati Nature Center,
Do It for Jack. Do It for Jack and is
an organization and nonprofit to help people that educate the
community about the threat of fentanyl poisoning. I think Jack
lost his life to that terrible, unbelievable, nasty drug. What
(38:50):
else we have Loveland Life Food Pantry. There's a couple
of memorial funds that are on the list. Let's see here,
the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum, Family Solutions, Moms Hope, Circle
Tale that's for pets and animals. There are a number
(39:12):
of on this list, and I'm going through the list.
Like I said, there's seventy nine different charities. They're all nonprofits,
Autism Connections, a freestore food bank. Some of them you've
heard of, some of them you probably haven't heard from
or heard of. Cancer Free Kids. That's one that I
also support on a regular basis. Let's see here the
(39:37):
Als United of Ohio, American SI Museum. What else we
got Beechwood Home Cancer Support Community. There's a ton of
different organizations on this list that have zero dollars donated.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati zero dollars donated as
(39:58):
of this moment, Matthew, twenty five ministries zero dollars right now.
So the reason why I bring this up is I'd
love for you the Saint Rita School for the Death
zero dollars right now. The reason why I bring it
up is I want you to just take a moment
(40:19):
out of your day. Take a look at this list.
Cincinnati gives dot org. Actually I was wrong so far, Yes,
seventy nine different organizations have been donated too. But on
this list there are one hundred and thirty three different
(40:44):
charities looking for help this holiday season. Unbelievable. And then
with that you can see what the mission is of
each charity and decide you don't have to give big dollars,
but it's a absolutely fantastic way. And honestly, if there's
(41:10):
someone that says, don't give me a gift, and you
feel as if you want to give somebody a gift,
why not give a donation in their name. Maybe you'll
give twenty dollars to one of these great organizations to
help them with their mission. And that twenty dollars will
(41:34):
go a heck of a long way towards helping these
organizations a heck of a lot more than just buying
something dumb that they're going to throw away that they're
not going to use. Cincinnati I Institute, Ronald McDonald House
doesn't have any children's hospital medical center. I wonder, because
(41:57):
this list has grown since I looked at it yes yesterday,
I wonder you might be able to add other nonprofits.
And this just to me, it shows the absolute heart
of our city of Cincinnati and the surrounding area. Cincinnati
(42:18):
gives dot org. Take a look at it, see if
you're of a mind to give to this to one
of these great organizations. There's one other organization that I
don't think is on that list, But I want to
give a shout out to Family Promise of Warren County, Ohio.
(42:38):
You know what, They're a great organization. I had the
opportunity to tour their facility. Family Promise of Warren County
actually helps families with children who are homeless and they
put them up with the help of different It is
(42:59):
a faith based charity and they are looking for donations.
They there's a whole list also on my Facebook page,
Michelle Sloan, just my general Facebook page, there's a there's
a they have a Christmas wish list and each holiday
(43:20):
season I love to put baskets together for donations. Personally,
I would rather buy the items that I feel and
that they ask for that different charity organizations need. I
like to buy and put a basket together rather than
donating cash, just because then I feel like I'm actually
(43:41):
doing something and it's more tangible than cash. But if
you have cash, that's great too. But you know, on
the wish list again, it's not it's nothing sexy. You know,
they're looking for body wash and toothpaste. They're looking for
baby items, diapers, wipes, infant in children's tail and all
(44:02):
and advil, chlorox wipes, floor cleaners, buckets and brooms and dustpans.
You know, you don't even imagine how blessed we are
when until you go see and talk to some of
these organizations and the things that they're doing for people
who have who are very much less fortunate than we are.
(44:28):
And it chokes me up a little bit because I
am blessed. And if I can give back and give something,
if it means that I'm giving a child a toothbrush
and some toothpaste because they've never had one before, my
heart gets bigger and bigger, you know, just like the Grinch,
(44:49):
that heart's gonna pop right out of your chest. And
you're doing really really good things for other people, and
it's a heck of a lot better than than by
something for someone who if they don't want anything, fine,
say okay, I'm going to make a donation on your behalf.
Here's a gift basket that I'm going to be donating.
(45:10):
This is my gift to you, but I'm not going
to give it to you. I'm going to give it
to somebody in need. So think about that this holiday season.
I really, I feel really really strongly about it, and
I hope that you will consider helping out someone who
(45:30):
is less fortunate than yourself. All right, I'm out of
time if a couple of things. I mentioned that at
the end of the month, I'm no longer going to
be on regularly on this station. So but I am
still doing real estate. You can see, you can see videos.
(45:51):
I'm going to continue to do great information for you.
Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube, all of my
social channels Michelle Sloan own Sloan Sales Homes. I'm on
LinkedIn and oh, Facebook and all of the things X everything.
You could probably find me. Just do a little search
and you'll find me. So and if you want one
(46:13):
of my home maintenance checklists, remember here's my number five
one three, six hundred five two seven seven. I need
your name and your home address and I will mail
it off to you and you'll get it in just
a couple of days. I hope you have a great week,
Stay warm. You're listening to the Sloan Sales Homes Open
House right here on fifty five KR. See the talk
(46:36):
station
This is the Sloan Sales Homes Open House with Michelle Sloan,
Remax time agent and proprietor of Sloan Saleshomes dot Com.
You have questions, she has the answers. This is your
opportunity to learn from one of the best and most
trusted agents in the business. This is the Sloan Sales
Homes Open House with Michelle Sloan on fifty five KRC
(00:26):
the talk station.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome back. While it is feeling a little bit like Christmas,
and I am in the Christmas spirit right now, I
have been shopping my little heart out, and you know,
I don't mind. I do most of my shopping online
these days. It is very rare that I actually go
into a store, which I know stores don't like to
(00:51):
hear that. When I do go into a store, it's
kind of a treat. But at the same time, I've
been shopping a lot online, looking at deals and steal
and seeing what I can find. So I thought it
might be fun to come up with a list of
things that are practical gift ideas under one hundred dollars
for you to give this holiday season. So if you're
(01:13):
looking for some ideas now, these items, I'm going to
tell you, are not sexy. They're probably not a whole
lot of fun. But at the same time, again, I
am a practical person at heart, and gift giving is
somewhat difficult for me. So I look and look, and
I overthink and I overthink, and so I've come up
(01:36):
with a little bit of a list that I hope
that you'll like. You let me know if you like
of any of these ideas, or maybe you can text me,
call me, leave me a message and let me know
what's on your list this year. That would make a
good practical gift idea for homeowners, because you know what,
this is a real estate show, so we want to
(01:58):
sort of keep it in that realm if possible. The
very first thing, and I find that this is a
great gift for me to give to new homeowners is
a new welcome matt, a doormat for the front door,
something that says welcome, something that's stylish. Maybe it's something
that has the Cincinnati Bengals on it, or maybe it
(02:20):
has you know, some puppy dogs on it that say
my puppy rules the house, or my baby is sleeping.
Don't knock Solicitors go away. Whatever the case may be,
a nice fresh new doormat is always a great idea.
And honestly, you can find so many of them. They're
in big box stores, they're at your Target, they're online,
(02:42):
they're everywhere that you can find, and they're less than
twenty bucks. So great gift idea. I think everybody would
appreciate that. They don't even know that they want it, right,
Those are the kinds of things that you don't even
know you want the items that are on my list
until you get them and you're like, oh, well, maybe
(03:03):
this isn't so bad. The next thing, how about some
new decorative house numbers, So if you have a loved
one and at night you cannot see the house number.
Maybe it's supposed to be on the mailbox, maybe it's
on the front of the house. Some decorative house numbers
you can get all different kinds of styles. They might
(03:25):
have to be installed, they may have to be you know,
you may have to adhere them to your house in
some way. But decorative house numbers could be a good
gift for someone, especially if it's a neighbor or maybe
your mom or grandma who you can't see the house
number from the street. That's a safety issue. It's also
(03:48):
a decorative issue. It can help you with your curb appeal,
as it were. And I always talk about curb appeal
on this program, and you know, we talk about all
different kinds of things to increase the curb appeal. I
guess the front doormat is a good one. Decorative house
numbers another good one. How about do you have or
(04:12):
is someone in your life in need of some sort
of a ring doorbell. Now this is I'm trying to
keep most of these items under one hundred dollars, but
a ring doorbell or something like that, I think is
a couple hundred bucks. So it may not be for
everyone to get everyone on your list, but at the
same time it is there's a safety aspect of it.
(04:35):
They're not too difficult to install, and they can be
something that you need to know or have a sense
of security of who's coming to your front door or
who's parking in your driveway. I actually talked to someone
the other day. They have a ring doorbell, or they
actually didn't have a ring doorbell, but their neighbor's ring
(04:58):
doorbell actually captured someone getting into their car and stealing
the garage door opener, that's kind of scary. So if
you have to park out on the street, maybe you
want to get a little bit of extra security. Not
a bad idea. It also can increase the value of
your home because when buyers look at a home with
(05:21):
some sort of a security system installed, they're going to
think highly of it. And then you have to realize
as a seller, if you have a security system, are
you going to leave it or are you going to
take it with you? If you take it with you
and you've installed one of these ring doorbells, and I'm
just using the brand name because that's the most known,
(05:42):
if you have a ring doorbell installed in place of
your doorbell, you want to make sure that a the
buyer knows if it's going to stay or if you're
going to take it with you. If you're going to
take it with you have to reinstall a regular doorbell
because you want to have a doorbell on the front
of your house at all times. So today on the
(06:05):
Sloan Sales Homes open house, I'm giving you some gift
giving ideas. Not sexy, they're definitely practical and you can
find them pretty much anywhere online, in stores, whatever, it's
an easy grab and go gift. Maybe your you don't
know what to get your mom or your dad. Maybe
(06:26):
you think about the things that people in your life
are always complaining about. You know, my husband, he's a
little bit of a complainer. I love him still thirty
five years and I just put up with it and
listened to him, and I you know, he gets annoyed
by things because he is a bit of a neat freaky,
(06:49):
likes to have an order of things. So if you
have an organizational person in your life, some sort of
organizational tools or gifts are a great gift giving an
item for them. So here's one. And I was looking
at these just earlier today. So one of the pet
(07:11):
peeves my husband has is when I walk into the door.
I go in through the garage and I usually have
an armful of things. I have my purse, I have
my keys, I have my phone, you know, maybe a
couple of packages whatever. I walk in the door and
I just drop them all on the counter, or I
drop them all on the table, and sometimes that's where
(07:31):
they stay. I don't tell him I bought him. Maybe
it's for me. I'm not sure who's gonna get this gift,
but somebody's gonna open it. Maybe it will just be
for the whole Sloan household. It is a key holder
and purse holder that you hang up on the wall,
and it's a good It's a place to drop things
(07:54):
so I can hang up my purse, I can hang
up the keys. I know where they are. I'm not
looking for them. Don't get buried underneath bags and things
other items that we're dropping on the counters. And it
will help organize and hopefully it will solve an issue
that we have in our house when you know, Scott
(08:16):
kind of goes everything is laying on the counter. I
can't cook. He's a cooking guy, so he wants his
counters to be clean of all extra debris. To me,
it's like, just move it. It's not that big a deal.
But you know, we're different people. I think, what is it?
Opposites attract I don't think we're opposite, but we're definitely.
(08:37):
Some things bother him more than they bother me. Do
you have that situation in your household as well?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Okay, all right, so let's get onto it. Let's do
a couple more items before we go to a break.
Do you have a smart thermostat in your home, any
kind of smart technology. So a smart thermostat would be
like a nest. There's all different kinds again, that's just
the one that comes to mind that is very popular.
(09:09):
You install that. You do have to have internet in
your home to have a nest work for you. So
a lot of smart technology are going to be a
great gift for people if they don't already have it,
So you kind of have to know the person whether
or not they're going to have something like that. There's
also something called smart light switches, which I love this idea.
(09:33):
A smart light switch can be turned. There's all different kinds.
So smart light switches you can turn on and off.
Just like the old timer that we would put on
maybe a lamp in the front window just to show
that maybe people will think that we're home when we're
really not. A smart light switch is going to do
(09:53):
the same thing. So if you have a smart light switch,
it can turn the lights on and off when you
walk in and into a out of a room. Or
if like I have a smart light switch in my
closet and so in that closet, when I walk into
the closet, the light turns on. When I walk out,
(10:13):
the light turns off, or actually it's on a timer,
so either way it turns off automatically. I don't have
to think about it. I just go in, do what
I need to do, and go out. So you know,
a smart light switch is a great idea if you
need help installing. I don't believe they're too difficult personally,
I've never done it. But if you have a handy
(10:35):
person in your life, or maybe even someone who's in
their early early twenties, they can probably figure it out
pretty easily. It's it's not going to be that difficult
to install. I think. I don't know what you think
about the lists so far, but we're gonna go ahead
and we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break, we're
(10:57):
gonna come back. We're going to talk some more about
smart features in your home, smart gift ideas, and you're
listening to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House. I am
Michelle Sloane. Don't forget me, please, I'm gonna be taking
a break from the radio starting at the end of
this month, so if you miss me, just know that
(11:19):
you can find me. Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube,
but and you can find me on all kinds of
social media. So I'm not going anywhere. I just won't
be on the radio after the end of the month. Okay,
let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with
more right here on fifty five KR see the talk station.
(11:43):
Welcome back to the Sloan Sales Homes open House. I
am Michelle's clone. I'm your local residential realtor and broker
at Fremax time. I'm in a great mood. I'm in
the holiday spirit. It has been cold this week. It's
been so cold. I hope you're staying warm today though,
enjoying your your afternoon. Okay, so we're talking about gift ideas,
(12:06):
not the sexy kind, practical gift ideas that you can
buy anyone who lives in a home for the most part. Okay,
so let's talk about you know, the smart technology is
kind of all of the rage and there's it's smart
for a reason. It really does help simplify your life
(12:26):
and it can save you money. A smart thermostat can
save you money. You can you can do things and remotely,
which is also a great feature. What about a smart
smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. Oftentimes on my little
(12:47):
practical gift giving list, I always talk about smoke detectors
and smart not smart necessarily, but carbon monoxide detectors. You
know that's this is something that people don't really lies
either would they have it or they don't? Are they work?
Is it working or not a lot of times now
(13:07):
you can buy smoke detectors that are built in with
the carbon monoxide detector at the same time. It's like
one unit, very practical. It's a great safety feature. So
if you have a loved one in your life who
you want to make sure they are safe and they
are alerted to carbon monoxide, which is an odorless gas
(13:29):
that could could be very serious, you want to make
sure that you have installed some carbon monoxide detectors. The
other item that's not sexy or fun, but do you
have a working fire extinguisher inside your home? You should
have one in your kitchen or at least near your
(13:50):
kitchen so in case something happens. So I was telling
Scott Sloan that you know you could you could give
a fire extinguisher as a g and he thought that
was hilarious because there was a secret message that whoever
you're bringing the fire extinguisher to maybe is not the
best cook. I don't know. I just thought it was
(14:13):
a safety issue. He finds humor in things that I
don't usually, or at least I'm not thinking along that line.
So a fire extinguisher, if you need one again, it
may not be the greatest gift in the world that
somebody's going to be like, oh wow, a fire extinguisher,
but at the same time, it could save a life,
(14:33):
and that could be worth more money in the world
than you just couldn't even imagine. Right, Okay, so let's
talk about some things that I do think people will like.
How about some new decorative throw pillows or blankets. Everybody
likes a nice, comfy blanket. I don't know what they're
doing with blankets these days, but the ones in the
(14:54):
store are so soft, they're so amazing. Now, that's not
going to to add value to your home, but it's
going to keep you nice and cozy, and it's going
to keep somebody nice and cozy. The other kind of
ideas would be, let's see the decorative pillows, what about
just some really nice towels. A lot of times at least.
(15:18):
I know in my house we use towels for years
and years and reuse them over and over and over again,
and they kind of lose their luster. How about getting
someone some nice, thick, large towels, and you know, if
you get them, there's you can make them pretty, you
can make them just plain. But at the same time,
(15:39):
people don't like to buy those kinds of things for themselves. Often,
even kitchen towels you can get. Oh I love getting
a package of kitchen towels because then they stick around.
Maybe you will be remembered for giving the gift of
kitchen towels. You may think, oh my gosh, my mother
in law would give us kitchen towels every single year.
(16:00):
We're like, I don't need any more kitchen towels. But
at the same time, you know, we appreciated them, and
that meant when the old towels were used to the
point of no return, then we had a set of
fresh kitchen towels, which again less than one hundred dollars.
A nice little gift, nothing crazy. Maybe you have a
(16:25):
neighbor or a sister, or an aunt or somebody that
you want to give a nice little gift to you
can think about that as well. All right, what else
we got here on our list? Oh? Organization? All right.
I don't know what your pantry looks like, or maybe
your refrigerator, but if you have an organizational nut in
(16:46):
your home, maybe you give them a little gift card
to say, I'm going to organize your refrigerator or I'm
going to organize your pantry. And with that, I'm going
to go ahead and do some decorative boxes, different kinds
of things to put all of the same items in
one box. You know, it is if you have the
(17:10):
wire shelves in your pantry, they're kind of a pain
in the butt because when you're buying certain things, they
will fall over organizational items. There's entire stores, right or
there's sections of stores that are dedicated for organization, and
that can be a really great gift to give someone.
(17:34):
And don't just give them the boxes and the materials
to organize. Maybe you ask if you can do it
with them. Maybe you're going to go through the fridge,
and this time of year maybe harder if you have
a lot of things in your fridge, But at the
same time, you can get rid of the condiments that
are really old, you know, there's a gag in my
(17:58):
house that when I go to my parents house, I
look and see how old some of the pantry staples
are in their home. How old is the medication in
their home. If they have medication that's from nineteen ninety nine.
We need to get rid of that. So going through
your cabinets, your closets and organizing things, donating the things
(18:24):
that still have life to them. Now, I'm not talking
about your pantry items, because you certainly don't want to
donate items that have expired. But if we look at
closets and closet organization, another really awesome gift idea. What
about Okay, I'm kind of going off script here a
little bit, but I love this idea. How about matching hangars.
(18:48):
If someone is going to organize their closet, and I
will tell you when you're selling your home, if you
have an organized closet, it will look like a million bucks.
If you have all all of the same hangars, and
you have all of your clothes lined up neatly, where
the pants are all here. Maybe you have all of
(19:08):
the short sleeve shirts here, the long sleeve shirts here. Whatever.
If you have a suit or more dressy items. Organizing
your closet can a make you feel really good about
what's in there. You can find the items that are
in your closet, which right now, if your closet looks
like mine, it's a bit of a mess. It's funny because,
(19:31):
as I said, I'm not the organizational wizard Scott is.
So we have separate they're not separate closets, but within
the same closet. You know, he has his space, I
have MySpace. His space is nice, neatly organized. He's got
little boxes for his shoes, everything's all perfect. Mine is
a little bit more haphazard. I'm fine with it. It
(19:52):
doesn't bother me. But at the same time, once a
year I do try to take everything out. I donate
what I don't use. I find items that I've purchased,
that I forgot that I purchased, and I'm like, oh yay,
it's like Christmas all over again. So the gift of
organization can be absolutely fulfilling for you and the gift
(20:19):
the person who you are gifting to. I don't know
if you like any of these ideas. I'm sure I
have a million more, and let's go through them really quickly.
How are we doing on time, Danny, two minutes. Okay,
here we go. A quality shower head. Never thought about
(20:39):
buying someone a shower head. I've seen some shower heads
that light up all different colors when you're in the shower.
I don't know if you're if that's something that you
think would be cool. Some decorative wall art. How about
a giant not giant necessarily, but a big mirror. A
decorative mirror in a home hanging on a wall can
(21:00):
actually make your home look bigger. It's really a neat feature.
If you can add decorative mirrors to a wall, it
usually can go with anyone's decor. So think about buying
a decorative mirror for someone again. You can find these
(21:20):
just about anywhere different different big box stores, online. Whatever.
You can give someone the gift of a plant. It
can either be an indoor plant, or it can be
a plant like a little evergreen that you can plant
outside in the spring. That's going to be another gift
(21:40):
that sort of keeps on giving. I love the idea
of giving a plant, like a small tree, a little
evergreen that you have inside. Maybe you're going to decorate
it with a couple of little light bulbs. On it
or something, make it cute for the holidays, and then
in the spring they can the person who you've gifted
(22:03):
it to can plant that in the yard and watch
it grow. It's amazing just after a few years. Where
now just be careful, you know, maybe you should suggest say, oh,
Michelle said, don't plant an evergreen too close to the house.
It may be cute and little right now, but if
it has the potential to get ginormous, you want to
(22:26):
make sure that it's away from your foundation. So all
of those kinds of things are really smart gift ideas.
I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season. If
there are some low cost home like gifts that you
can think of that you want to add to my list,
I'm going to have I'm going to have a video
(22:47):
of this compilation of ideas on my website and at
the Sloan Sales Homes open house on YouTube. So if
you want to add to it, please comment. I'd love
to hear from you. My name is Michelle Sloan. We're
going to take a quick break for news and we'll
be right back. You're listening to fifty five KR see
the talk station.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
When it comes to real estate. You can have a
thousand questions. Luckily, there's one agent you can turn to
for honest answers, Remax time agent Michelle Sloan from Sloan
Saleshomes dot com. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
(23:32):
Sloan on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Welcome back. Okay, so let's do a little bit of
a check on mortgage rates for the week. Our thirty
year fixed mortgage rate is around six point six five
percent in Ohio and in Kentucky at six point four
to one percent. Did you realize that? And you know what,
after all of the years I've been in real estate
(24:01):
for twenty years. I don't know how I didn't know
this because I thought mortgage rates were pretty much the
same throughout the country, and they are for the most part.
But did you know that a mortgage rate will change
from state to state. I didn't know that. You know,
I'm always doing research, and I guess I don't do
(24:24):
mortgages all of the I mean, I don't do mortgages
myself because I'm a real estate agent and broker. I
figured I should should have known that, but at the
same time I didn't. So in Ohio the average rate
was about six point sixty five percent last week for
a thirty year fixed and in Kentucky six point four
to one, So it was a little cheaper to buy
(24:45):
a home in Kentucky last week. And then if you're
looking at fifteen year mortgages, those rates are usually lower.
It's five point nine in Ohio and five point seventy
five in Kentucky fo or a fifteen year fixed strate.
You know. Kentucky also offers down payment assistance program for
(25:05):
first time home buyers. The program provides loans of up
to ten thousand dollars with a three point seventy five
interest rate and a ten year repayment term of that
ten thousand dollars. So if you need help, and if
you're looking for a home in Kentucky, I personally am
not licensed in the state of Kentucky, but I have
(25:27):
agents in my office at remax time that I can
refer you to, and that absolutely one hundred percent will
help you through the process of buying or selling a home.
This time of year, a lot of people don't even
think about real estate that much, but you might hear
some people going through situations. The holidays are a difficult
(25:53):
time of year for a lot of people, and I
recognize that, and you know, you may a friend of
mine found out that not found out, I guess, but
his spouse decided that they should not live together anymore.
(26:14):
And with that kind of news, there is a lot
of emotions involved. And with the emotions that you have
during a separation, especially or maybe a death in the family,
it is really difficult to just wrap your brain around, Okay,
how are we going to do this? How are we
(26:36):
going to live? Can one person stay in the home
and while someone else moves out? Can we afford to
keep the property? And that's really a big decision, and
it's one that I, you know, certainly recommend that you
(26:57):
don't take on really quick. Especially let's talk about the
death of a loved one. Now you may have friends
and family. Let's say your spouse passes away, and I've
dealt with a lot of clients who have had this
situation happen, And you have family members who are pushing
(27:18):
you to make a move right away. Now they have
your best intention at heart, but you also have to
be ready. You have to know where you want to
move to. I know someone who made a move after
their spouse died. They went into a condo and they
(27:40):
hated it, absolutely hated it, and they ended up within
six months trying to sell the condo that they just
bought and buy a home, a single family home. Again.
So you want to know for sure where you are mentally, physically, emotionally, financially.
(28:01):
All of these things are so very important when it
comes to a major change in your life. So if
you are looking for someone to just give you advice,
not advice that will push you in one direction or another.
You know, like I said, family members maybe feel that
(28:23):
it might be best that you don't live alone, and
maybe that is the best decision, but again it may
take some time. I had one person who love her
to death. We talked for and worked together for an
entire year before she actually put her home on the market.
(28:48):
She met with me and a couple of other agents.
To be honest, she was not sure who she wanted
to use. She wanted to be one hundred percent confident
in who her agent was, which was smart. She picked me.
Love that anyway, we became I feel like we are friends,
(29:10):
and in a way that is you know, I felt
very protective of her and her situation, and so over
the course of the year, she would go through all
of her husband's things and sell them off. She would
go through all of her things that she had collected
over thirty years of being in this home and donated
(29:33):
them or sold them or boxed them up for future.
That she was trying to decide what am I taking
with me, where am I going to go, and what
does that look like for me? And that takes time,
and thankfully she had the time. She was physically able
to stay in the home by herself, so that wasn't
(29:54):
an issue, and she decided to go into a retirement
field where there would be other people around that are
her age, but yet she had her own space. So
that was the best situation for her. It also gave
me a chance to work with her to get her
(30:15):
house to a point where it was more sellable at
a higher price than it would have been when we
first started talking, because when we first started talking, to
be very honest, she had so much clutter, She had
so much emotional baggage. And I don't mean that in
(30:35):
a bad way. She was just emotionally wrecked after the
loss of her loved one, as I would be. I
can't even imagine. I may talk and have a lot
of fun, but after thirty five years, if I lost
my spouse, I would be devastated, There's no question about it.
(30:56):
And you know it would take time, and I know
that I would have people that I could rely on.
A lot of people don't have someone to rely on,
maybe they don't have family around. I recently worked with
another client who literally had no one and she fell
(31:20):
down while she was getting her decluttering and it was
taking a not even an emotional toll, but a physical toll.
So she had to go to the doctor, and she
didn't have anybody to watch her dog. And I'm not
going to say that I'm a dog sitter, but I
did sit with her with her pet for an hour
(31:40):
or so while she went to the doctor because she
didn't have anybody. And that's the kind of relationship that again,
I don't do it on the regular I'm not going
to say that I do. But if you're in a
spot and you need help, I hope that I would
be your agent and I would be the person that
(32:03):
you could call and say, Michelle, I need your help,
and I would be willing to help. And so those
are the things that you look for or should be
looking for when you're in a situation where you know
it's time to sell your home and maybe your children
(32:25):
or your adult anybody that's around you that are family members,
maybe they don't live close anymore and you're working to
get closer to them, and you just don't know where
to start the process. I hope that you'll remember my name,
Michelle Sloane Sloan sellshomes dot com. You can text me,
you can call me, and please leave a message. I
(32:50):
get a lot of spam on my because I give
my phone number out on the radio. It's on the internet,
so I get a lot of spam calls. But certainly
if you call and leave me a message, I will
get back to you. And I'm going to give you
the number right now, five to one three six hundred
(33:10):
five to seven seven. So that's five one three, six
hundred five two seven seven. Last week I was handing
out some home Magnet home Maintenance Checklist Magnets. I still
have a few left, So if you're interested in me
mailing you some a home maintenance checklist magnet. It's a mouthful.
(33:36):
I would love for you to put my face and
my phone number on your fridge, and when it comes time,
you will have my name and number to call so
you don't forget. So the way that you can get
the maintenance checklist, all you have to do text me
at five one three six hundred five to seven seven.
(33:59):
Text me home maintenance checklist, give me your name and
your home address, and I will send it out to you.
It'll be my little gift to you. Again, not sexy,
it's a practical gift that you can hang on your
fridge and remember me when it comes time to buy
or sell. Or if you're talking to anybody this holiday
(34:21):
season and they're talking about buying or selling a home
in Ohio or Kentucky or anywhere in the country, if
it's not in our backyard, if it's not in the
Cincinnati area, and I can't help you, I will help
find you an agent who is qualified to help you.
All Right, when we come back, we're going to do
(34:42):
a little giving back. I'm going to talk about a
couple of different charities that I'm working with that I
feel need your help. This holiday season, and again, giving
back is an important part of what I do on
a daily base, and I appreciate you listening today to
(35:06):
this loan sales homes open house right here on fifty
five KR see the talk station. Welcome back to this
loan sales homes open house. I am Michelle Sloan. I'm
your local residential realtor and a broker. Here at remax
time Remax time. We're located right off of I seventy one,
(35:26):
just south of King's Island. You probably will never come
to my office unless it's for a closing, and that
would be a great thing. I would love to have
you come to my office, but for the most part,
if I'm working with buyers or sellers, I'm going to
come to you. If you are a buyer, I would
love to sit down with you, though, I would love
to sit with you at my office give you an
(35:48):
idea of what the process is about. If you are
a seller, I will come to your house. I cannot
give you a fair market value of your home unless
I come to your home, and I love doing I
will come do what's known as a listing presentation. I
will come to your house and we'll spend about an hour,
(36:08):
hour and a half going through your home, taking a look,
giving you practical ideas. I am your practical real estate agent.
And with that, you know it doesn't cost you anything.
That's the one thing that I don't know that everybody
understands is that when you meet with me the first time,
(36:32):
there is no fee. You don't have to pay for
me to come and give you advice and information. Just
like here on the radio. You know, this is something
that I do and I do love helping people. So
that gets me to the next topic, and that is
did you know that there's like a challenge going on
(36:54):
in Cincinnati right now. It's called the Cincinnati Gives Challenge Lenge.
It's a friendly fundraising competition where local charities compete to
raise the most money and cash prizes. I saw this
on the news the other day and I looked it
up and I really thought that it was very, very
(37:15):
very cool and unique situation. There are seventy nine organizations
and you can take a look at it at Cincinnati
Gibbs dot org. You can find the link on my
Facebook page and if you want to go to Michelle
Sloane sells homes on Facebook and you can find the link.
(37:38):
The challenge is neat. Like I said, there are seventy
nine organizations as of this As of right now, they've
raised over two hundred thousand dollars for local charities. The
competition only lasts until oh when is it through? December twelfth? Thursday,
(38:01):
December twelfth, But certainly if you have a some extra
money and you have the will to donate to these
different organizations. Right now, First Tea of Greater Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky is winning the challenge. The other Some of
(38:23):
the other charities on the list are the Cincinnati Nature Center,
Do It for Jack. Do It for Jack and is
an organization and nonprofit to help people that educate the
community about the threat of fentanyl poisoning. I think Jack
lost his life to that terrible, unbelievable, nasty drug. What
(38:50):
else we have Loveland Life Food Pantry. There's a couple
of memorial funds that are on the list. Let's see here,
the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum, Family Solutions, Moms Hope, Circle
Tale that's for pets and animals. There are a number
(39:12):
of on this list, and I'm going through the list.
Like I said, there's seventy nine different charities. They're all nonprofits,
Autism Connections, a freestore food bank. Some of them you've
heard of, some of them you probably haven't heard from
or heard of. Cancer Free Kids. That's one that I
also support on a regular basis. Let's see here the
(39:37):
Als United of Ohio, American SI Museum. What else we
got Beechwood Home Cancer Support Community. There's a ton of
different organizations on this list that have zero dollars donated.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati zero dollars donated as
(39:58):
of this moment, Matthew, twenty five ministries zero dollars right now.
So the reason why I bring this up is I'd
love for you the Saint Rita School for the Death
zero dollars right now. The reason why I bring it
up is I want you to just take a moment
(40:19):
out of your day. Take a look at this list.
Cincinnati gives dot org. Actually I was wrong so far, Yes,
seventy nine different organizations have been donated too. But on
this list there are one hundred and thirty three different
(40:44):
charities looking for help this holiday season. Unbelievable. And then
with that you can see what the mission is of
each charity and decide you don't have to give big dollars,
but it's a absolutely fantastic way. And honestly, if there's
(41:10):
someone that says, don't give me a gift, and you
feel as if you want to give somebody a gift,
why not give a donation in their name. Maybe you'll
give twenty dollars to one of these great organizations to
help them with their mission. And that twenty dollars will
(41:34):
go a heck of a long way towards helping these
organizations a heck of a lot more than just buying
something dumb that they're going to throw away that they're
not going to use. Cincinnati I Institute, Ronald McDonald House
doesn't have any children's hospital medical center. I wonder, because
(41:57):
this list has grown since I looked at it yes yesterday,
I wonder you might be able to add other nonprofits.
And this just to me, it shows the absolute heart
of our city of Cincinnati and the surrounding area. Cincinnati
(42:18):
gives dot org. Take a look at it, see if
you're of a mind to give to this to one
of these great organizations. There's one other organization that I
don't think is on that list, But I want to
give a shout out to Family Promise of Warren County, Ohio.
(42:38):
You know what, They're a great organization. I had the
opportunity to tour their facility. Family Promise of Warren County
actually helps families with children who are homeless and they
put them up with the help of different It is
(42:59):
a faith based charity and they are looking for donations.
They there's a whole list also on my Facebook page,
Michelle Sloan, just my general Facebook page, there's a there's
a they have a Christmas wish list and each holiday
(43:20):
season I love to put baskets together for donations. Personally,
I would rather buy the items that I feel and
that they ask for that different charity organizations need. I
like to buy and put a basket together rather than
donating cash, just because then I feel like I'm actually
(43:41):
doing something and it's more tangible than cash. But if
you have cash, that's great too. But you know, on
the wish list again, it's not it's nothing sexy. You know,
they're looking for body wash and toothpaste. They're looking for
baby items, diapers, wipes, infant in children's tail and all
(44:02):
and advil, chlorox wipes, floor cleaners, buckets and brooms and dustpans.
You know, you don't even imagine how blessed we are
when until you go see and talk to some of
these organizations and the things that they're doing for people
who have who are very much less fortunate than we are.
(44:28):
And it chokes me up a little bit because I
am blessed. And if I can give back and give something,
if it means that I'm giving a child a toothbrush
and some toothpaste because they've never had one before, my
heart gets bigger and bigger, you know, just like the Grinch,
(44:49):
that heart's gonna pop right out of your chest. And
you're doing really really good things for other people, and
it's a heck of a lot better than than by
something for someone who if they don't want anything, fine,
say okay, I'm going to make a donation on your behalf.
Here's a gift basket that I'm going to be donating.
(45:10):
This is my gift to you, but I'm not going
to give it to you. I'm going to give it
to somebody in need. So think about that this holiday season.
I really, I feel really really strongly about it, and
I hope that you will consider helping out someone who
(45:30):
is less fortunate than yourself. All right, I'm out of
time if a couple of things. I mentioned that at
the end of the month, I'm no longer going to
be on regularly on this station. So but I am
still doing real estate. You can see, you can see videos.
(45:51):
I'm going to continue to do great information for you.
Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube, all of my
social channels Michelle Sloan own Sloan Sales Homes. I'm on
LinkedIn and oh, Facebook and all of the things X everything.
You could probably find me. Just do a little search
and you'll find me. So and if you want one
(46:13):
of my home maintenance checklists, remember here's my number five
one three, six hundred five two seven seven. I need
your name and your home address and I will mail
it off to you and you'll get it in just
a couple of days. I hope you have a great week,
Stay warm. You're listening to the Sloan Sales Homes Open
House right here on fifty five KR. See the talk
(46:36):
station
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