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Missouri Tax-Free Shopping Weekend

Karen Goodman — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:22:18 +0000

In order to help ease the Back to School spending burden on Missouri families, the state offers an annual tax-free shopping weekend the 1st weekend in August.

But you don’t have to be a parent or a student to take advantage of the tax savings. If you have been thinking of overhauling your wardrobe or buying a new computer, you should take advantage of the money you would save by not paying taxes if you shop in 2 weeks.

This year, the tax-free shopping weekend is 8/6/10 – 8/8/10.

However, you may still be charged sales tax for counties, cities and districts.

Local municipal jurisdictions have the option to opt-out of the sales tax holiday. Regardless of where you shop in Missouri, you will not be charged the state portion of sales tax for eligible purchases (4.225%).

Be sure to check the links above before you go shopping if you want to avoid all sales tax on your eligible purchases. All of the St. Louis area counties are participating in the tax-free holiday, but you might be surprised at the cities and districts opting out.

Here are just a few that will still be charging local sales tax:

Ballwin
Brentwood (Best Buy & MicroComputer are located here!)
Des Peres (West County Mall is located here!)
Kirkwood
Manchester
Maplewood
Richmond Heights (Galleria Mall is located here!)
St. Ann (Northwest Plaza is located here!)
University City

In addition, stores in which less than 2% of their merchandise are eligible items do not have to participate in the sales tax holiday.

Keep in mind, that you will still pay lower sales taxes regardless of where you shop in Missouri between 8/6/10 – 8/8/10 rather than on another day. However, if you want to avoid all sales tax, you need to take a look at the lists and carefully choose where you go shopping.

What Purchases are Eligible for the Tax-Free Weekend?

The sales tax exemption is limited to:

Clothing – any article having a taxable value of $100 or less
School supplies – not to exceed $50 per purchase
Computer software – taxable value of $350 or less
Personal computers – not to exceed $3,500
Computer peripheral devices – not to exceed $3,500

Section 144.049, RSMo, defines items exempt during the sales tax holiday as:

“Clothing” – any article of wearing apparel, including footwear, intended to be worn on or about the human body. The term shall include but not be limited to cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles.

“School supplies” – any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include computer software having a taxable value of three hundred fifty dollars or less.

“Personal computers” – a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitalizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard, or video card.

Questions?

If you need more information, visit the MO state website to see FAQ and a list of the tax rates being charged by jurisdiction.

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Best Volunteer Opportunity in St. Louis: NCJW Back to School! Store

Karen Goodman — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:49:25 +0000

Make a Difference in a Child’s Life

Please join me in volunteering on Sunday, July 25 and help needy elementary school children get excited about going back to school.

The National Council of Jewish Women – St. Louis Section is sponsoring our 10th annual Back To School! Store.

Many low income kids miss the first day of school because they don’t have the clothing, tennis shoes or school supplies that they need. Our goal is to make sure that every child is ready for the first day of school, and can walk through the school doors excited about learning.

When NCJW held their first Back to School! Store 10 years ago, 200 kids got a chance to to shop in our store at Central Reform Congregation in the Central West End.

This year, 1000 children will receive everything that they need to be ready for school.

The building is transformed into a store with racks of new clothing arranged by size, dressing rooms and even professional shoe fitters. Working with a volunteer personal shopper, each child gets to select a new outfit, coat, shoes, socks, underwear, hat, gloves, school supplies, backpack, personal hygiene items and a book.

As you can imagine, we need hundreds of volunteers to assist us with the 1000 children shopping in our store on this one day event. Volunteers are needed to work directly with the children as personal shoppers, check in registered children and volunteers as they arrive, fit shoes and coats to make sure we give out the right size, dressing room attendants, and restockers to help keep the racks full.

Male volunteers are especially needed to help the boys in the store.

To work directly with the kids, volunteers need to be 18 years old. However, 16 & 17 yr old teenagers can help us entertain preschool siblings and keep the racks filled. Younger teens can help with setup and breakdown of the store before and after the big day too. In fact, this would be a great project for high school students to earn some community service hours that so many schools now require, while having fun and making a big impact on the community too.

The store is located in the Central West End, and you can sign up for either morning, early or late afternoon shifts. We also need volunteers to assist the week before and after the event during the day to help with setup and breakdown.

And we’ll happily feed you lunch if you work two shifts in a row on any day!

I’ve done a lot of volunteer work over the years, and this is definitely the most rewarding 3 hours that I’ve ever spent. You’ll leave knowing that you made an impact on the lives of children and their families.

Register as a volunteer online…

Sponsor a Child for Back to School! Store:

This year, raising the funds to pay for this amazing event has been really challenging. The majority of our funding comes from grants from private foundations, and this year the foundations just were not giving. Even though we have a major shortfall in fundraising, the show must go on. So, we are still serving every one of the 1000 kids that we invited!

For $150, you can sponsor a child and help keep this program strong for the future. Every dollar counts. If $150 doesn’t fit into your budget, please donate what you can.

Here’s a breakdown of what your money can help us buy for the kids:

$150 – sponsor a child!

$50 – clothing for 1 child – jeans, shirt, socks, underpants, winter coat & tennis shoes

$20 – winter coat

$10 – tennis shoes

$5 – shirt

$1 – every little bit adds up…we’ll combine your dollar with other donations to give the kids everything they need!

You can make a secure online donation of any amount or you can contact the NCJW office to make a donation by phone or mail.

I’ve made a donation to sponsor a child.

Please join me by making a contribution too.

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Home for Sale ~ 917 Trianon Lane (Ballwin area)

Karen Goodman — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:05:23 +0000

The Basics:

Listing Price: $149,900 Price Reduced!!!

Address: 917 Trianon Lane, MO 63011 (see map)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 1 1/2

Property Type: Single family home

Floor plan style: Raised Ranch

Age: 46 years old

Subdivision: Pierremont Subdivision

School District: Parkway (more school info)

Schools: Pierremont Elementary, Parkway West Middle, Parkway West High School

Garage: 1 car oversized

Extras: Huge backyard, wood floors, oversized garage

Featured Pictures:

See more pictures…

The Full Scoop:

If you are looking for a move-in ready house with a great yard in top ranked Parkway West schools, you must check out this house.

Easy commute to Hwy 40 or 44, just blocks from Queeny Park.

The HUGE level backyard with mature trees is almost completely fenced.

The floor plan is perfect for entertaining since you step right into the large family room from the front door. Off the family room is an updated bathroom, storage/laundry room and access to the oversized garage with plenty of space for a workshop.

Head up the stairs to find wood floors throughout the living room, breakfast room, hall and 3 bedrooms. The kitchen is located by the sliding door to the yard – perfect for BBQs on the backyard patio or letting dogs in & out!

Move-in ready with all newer vinyl tilt-in windows, 6 panel doors, ceiling fans, wood staircase, vinyl siding and 2 car driveway.

13 month home protection warranty too! Be sure to check out the video tour!

Like what you see? Email the property brochure flyer to a friend.

Schedule a Showing:

[contact-form]

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Flood Insurance Program Halts Coverage

Karen Goodman — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:46:08 +0000

Guest post by Ryan Borland

Recently the National Flood Insurance Program halted coverage for flood insurance across the entire country.

Flood insurance is a federally backed program. As a result, the NFIP’s policy change means that every carrier that would typically provide flood coverage is affected. Policies affected include new policies, renewals or changes to any current policies in force.

The Senate met on April 12 regarding this matter and did not have good news for anyone with a property in a flood plain as they were not able to pass the bill to extend the NFIP. However, they did pass cloture by a vote of 60-30 to proceed with a short term bill. This is an important first step in getting the program reauthorized.

What Does this Mean?

Until further notice, there is no coverage for flood insurance anywhere in the United States.

Aside from not having coverage in the event of a flood, another major problem is that lenders have not changed their requirements for homes that are located in a flood plain. If you are purchasing or currently living in a home that requires flood insurance…you are at natures mercy until the FFIP is reauthorized.

Ryan Borland is an insurance broker with Guardian Insurance Group. Contact Ryan to discuss your Auto, Home, Life or Commercial insurance needs.

Note from Karen Goodman: Since the current lack of flood insurance policies will impact the sale or purchase of homes in flood zones, my broker, Klaus Bank, did some additional research. Apparently, some lenders will still allow a loan to be funded for a purchase of a home in a flood zone.

I have checked around a bit and found out that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA have some interim guidelines in place until the Congress resolves this issue. Some of those guidelines are: Application for flood insurance must been submitted, proof that funds are available to pay premium….plus a few others.

It is my understanding that some lenders have decided not to loan until Congress resolves the issue, but others are still completing loans as long as certain guidelines are met.

What should you do….

Work with the lender to find a solution to close on time. If lender will not move ahead….you may want to check need to check around

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Forgivable Housing Loan Program for Washington University Employees

Keller Williams Red Day ~ Helping People with Autism

Karen Goodman — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:00:33 +0000

What is Red Day?

The 2nd annual Keller Williams Red Day will be held on Saturday May 13, 2010.

Red Day is a chance for Keller Williams agents to give back to the local communities that they serve.

We Need Your Help:

This year, the Keller Williams Realty St. Louis office will be making repairs and upgrades to homes for autistic people operated by Touchpoint Autism Services (formerly Judevine).

To raise money so we can purchase new flooring and other supplies, we are holding a community garage sale. The sale will be held at our Kirkwood office on Saturday April 10 from 9 am – 2 pm (rain or shine!).

Join us in helping autistic individuals by donating your gently used items or shopping at the sale.

Donate:

We need gently used items to sell in our garage sale. Please check your closets and basement and consider donating:

furniture
household items
kitchen items
patio furniture
or anything else in GOOD condition that you think we could sell!

Donations should be dropped off on Thursday April 8 (3-6 pm) or Friday April 9 (9 am-2 pm) at:

Keller Williams Realty
10936 Manchester Road
Kirkwood, MO 63122
Map

Shop:

Looking for a good bargain?

With over 200 agents in our office plus people like you donating, this should be a massive sale. Stop by on Saturday April 10 from 9 am – 2 pm to find some great deals and help support the community too!

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Condo for Sale ~ 227 W. Monroe #202 (Kirkwood)

Karen Goodman — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:35:30 +0000

The Basics:

Listing Price: $198,000 Price Reduced!!!

Address: 227 W. Monroe Avenue #202, Kirkwood, MO 63122 (see map)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2.5

Property Type: Condo

Floor plan style: Townhouse

Age: 7 yrs old

School District: Kirkwood (more school info)

Schools: Tillman Elementary, Nipher Middle, Kirkwood High School

Garage: 1 car assigned space in underground garage

Extras: Luxury upgrades throughout, wood flooring in living room & dining room, 2nd floor laundry, balcony backing to trees

Featured Pictures:

More pictures…

The Full Scoop:

GORGEOUS TOWNHOUSE – FEELS LIKE BRAND NEW!

Enjoy luxury carefree living only 2 blocks from the restaurants and shops in Downtown Kirkwood.

All of the upgrades you would expect in new construction. The kitchen has tons of counter space with Corian kitchen counters, STAINLESS smoothtop stove, dishwasher and microwave and tile floors. The dining room and living room have wood floors, plus you’ll find crown molding, bay window, ceiling fans, canned lighting, 1st floor half bath and an open floor plan. The majority of the condo was even freshly painted (6/2010).

Upstairs you’ll find 2 spacious bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2nd floor laundry.

Additional features include: sprinkler & security systems, private BALCONY off the back of the building backing to a line of trees.

Tons of storage space with a kitchen pantry, master bedroom walk-in closet, large 2nd bedroom closet and 2 large closets off the upstairs hallway. Stylish paint and decor.

Assigned garage parking in the secure underground garage with plenty of additional off-street parking.

Now vacant and ready to occupy quickly!

Virtual Tour:

Like what you see? Email the property brochure flyer to a friend.

Schedule a Showing:

[contact-form]

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Top 10 Facebook Tips to Improve your Business

Karen Goodman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:42:31 +0000

Choosing which classes to attend at an educational conference can be overwhelming.

I definitely had to make some tough choices at the Keller Williams Family Reunion last week. Ultimately, I decided to focus my attention on just a few areas rather than picking up small nuggets across numerous topics.

My focus for this 4 day educational event was:

Building and marketing to my database more effectively
Using social media effectively
How to build my profit share tree

I took a couple of classes which focused on Facebook, and picked up some great tips for using Facebook to for business marketing or networking.

Top 10 Facebook Tips to Improve your Business:

People will talk to you on Facebook who won’t talk to you on the phone. Reach out to people you want to be in business with, or people you would want to hire you, and connect with them.
Rather than congratulating someone on Facebook in a private message or posting something publicly about them on your profile, post it their wall. All of their contacts will see your comments, and may just decide to check out who you are.
80-20 Rule: The class I took suggested 80% of your posts on your Facebook profile should be about business with 20% personal posts. I think you could also take the opposite approach – post personal comments 80% of the time and throw in a little business 20% of the time. Either way, make sure everyone gets a chance to know what business you are in, and also gets a peak and who you are in real life.
Don’t simply repeat your Twitter posts on Facebook. People who follow you in both places may be your biggest advocates, and they will get bored quickly if you don’t provide unique content on each site.
Use Facebook Lists and limit who sees what. I knew that you could create lists to make it easier to organize my friends for reading their updates, but didn’t realize that I could post status updates to just one list. To post to just one list when writing a status update, click on the lock icon next to the ‘Share’ button. Then choose Customize, then Specific People. At this point, you can type in a group or list, and you can also exclude a specific person (which would be perfect if you were planning a surprise for someone in the group).
Drip links from a great newsletter to Facebook. If you get a great newsletter with information that you could share about your industry, drip the links from the newsletter one per day. You won’t overwhelm your connections and you’ll look like the most well read person around.
Modify your Facebook settings. Go into your privacy settings and change the search option to ‘everyone’ (the default is just your network). Then scroll to the bottom of the profile, click on Edit Options and change your limit to 5000 friends (the default is that Facebook chooses which 250 of your friends it posts updates on your wall).
Join Facebook networks. If you join networks (school, city, organizations), then your posts will display on anyone’s news feed who is also in the network.
Find friends easily by searching on their email address. The easiest way to gather up a bunch of email addresses is to start a new email, and add all the addresses to the To: field. But instead of sending the email, simply copy the emails to your clipboard (Control C) and then paste them in the Search box at the very bottom of the Facebook page. Then choose ‘Find People’.
Hide annoying apps and annoying people. If you move your cursor to the upper right corner of a status update, an invisible ‘Hide’ button will appear. You can choose to hide the application (such as Mafia Wars or Farmville), or you can hide the person. Hiding apps allows you to clean up your news feed, eliminating the silly games you don’t like without having to unfriend the people who play the games. Hiding people allows you to keep a business contact as a friend, but you won’t have to look at their posts. Keep in mind that if you are one of the people who plays a lot of apps (that most of us find annoying), many people may just unfriend or hide you if they don’t realize they can hide just the apps. If you want to play the games, create a list of just the other people who play the games, and only send those updates to your games group (see #5).

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Home for Sale ~ 9 Harbor Point Ct (Lake St. Louis)

Karen Goodman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:20:56 +0000

The Basics:

Listing Price: $500,000

Address: 9 Harbor Point Ct, Lake St. Louis, MO 63367 (see map)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 3

Property Type: Single family home

Floor plan style: Ranch

Age: 21 yrs old

Subdivision: Harbor Point Estates Subdivision

School District: Wentzville (more school info)

Schools: Heritage Elementary, Wentzville Middle, Holt High School

Garage: 2 car attached

Extras: Waterfront lot with space for 2 boats, maintenance-free seawall and boardwalk, updated kitchen and bathrooms, fully finished lower level, all Energy Star appliances and systems, hi efficiency furnace

Featured Pictures:

More pictures…

The Full Scoop:

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to own a totally updated ranch with finished lower level on a WATERFRONT lot with LAKE ACCESS.

With over 2300 sq feet upstairs PLUS a huge finished lower level, there is space for everything.

Main floor includes: great room, living room, dining room, large custom kitchen, breakfast room, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and laundry room.

Chef’s kitchen with large island, wood floors, convection smoothtop oven, rough-in for gas stove, walk-in pantry and stainless refrigerator included.

Entertain in the huge finished walk-out lower level with fireplace, built-in bookcases, bar, bathroom, bonus room with it’s own private entrance that could be easily used as a 4th bedroom.

Outside living includes composite deck, covered patio, hot tub & another sitting area near the lake. You also get dock space for 2 boats on the big Lake St. Louis lake, maintenance-free seawall and a subdivision boardwalk maintained by the Lake St. Louis association.

Additional upgrades include: hardyboard siding, hi efficiency furnace, electric fencing, sprinkler system, all newer ENERGY STAR appliances/systems, stamped driveway & more.

Virtual Tour:

Walking Tour:

Like what you see? Email the property brochure flyer to a friend.

Schedule a Showing:

[contact-form]

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Home for Sale ~ 529 Ford Drive (Ferguson)

Karen Goodman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:58:10 +0000

The Basics:

UPDATE: The owner of this home decided not to sell the house at this time but may still be interested in selling. If you are interested in getting more information on this property, contact Karen to discuss its current status.

Listing Price: $45,000

Address: 529 Ford Drive, Ferguson, MO 63135 (see map)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 1.5

Property Type: Single family home

Floor plan style: Ranch

Age: 64 yrs old

Subdivision: Ferguson Fields Subdivision

School District: Ferguson-Florissant (more school info)

Schools: Johnson Wasbash Elementary, Ferguson Middle, McCluer High School

Garage: 1 car attached

Extras: Brick exterior, large yard, breezeway/extra sleeping room, great investor opportunity or handyman special

Featured Pictures:

The Full Scoop:

PRICE DROP! Needs some updating and repairs, but great potential for a handy homeowner or investor.

Great location, huge yard!

This two bed, 1.5 bath ranch home is just waiting for a little TLC to be the perfect home for you!

The large living room boasts a fireplace, and you’ll love the curved plaster walls. Don’t miss the extra 210 sq. feet of living space with the breezeway. It could serve as extra storage, a family room, or a 3rd sleeping area!

The bedrooms and laundry room are very large as well. Walk out to the flat, spacious backyard which is fenced on 3 sides. This brick home also has an attached 1 car garage.

Being Sold AS-IS. This privately owned home is a great deal and can close quickly since it’s not a foreclosure or a short sale.

Virtual Tour:

Schedule a Showing:

[contact-form]

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Avoid Rental Scams Trying to Steal Your Money

Karen Goodman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:46:34 +0000

If you are looking for a rental property, be sure to ask a lot of questions before you give anyone your money.

One of the agents in my office, Brad Elsner, has run across scams targeting renters. The scammers have pulled the information about Brad’s listings off the internet, put together ads on craigslist and asked renters to mail them checks in return for keys.

Watch the Channel 5 TV news interview with Brad about the scam.

Brad offers good advice.

The best way to avoid becoming a victim of a scam is to ask a lot of questions. And if the request for money is coming from Nigeria, think twice before writing a check.

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