Karen Wingender

Here are some tips to help you raise credit score:

1. Pay everything on time! Even if it’s only the minimum payment.
2. Pull a copy of your credit reports from all three reporting bureaus. You can obtain free copies from http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com (I believe they allow you to pull a report annually for no charge).
3. Check for errors on your credit report. You can file a dispute to correct inaccuracies.
4. It’s better to have several credit cards open with low balances versus one card with a high balance. Frequently opening and closing accounts in a short time span can result in a lower score. - Fri Oct 24 2008, 09:21

Some of the companies have downsized over the years, what we refer to as the "Big 3" -- Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb. However, many smaller manufacturers have emerged and many of those job losses were absorbed. Rochester's economy and housing market have always remained fairly steady -- no big upswings and no big downturns. While we were envious a couple years ago of the appreciation experienced in other parts of the country, we're feeling pretty good today about our conservative and stable market.

If you search for properties, you will see there's quite a bit of inventory available at the price range you're looking for. I would suggest hiring a Realtor who knows the area and deals with a lot of investment properties. If you go to http://www.Nothnagle.com and do a search for Rochester (NE, NW, SE, SW - the city is broken up into four quadrants) in the $20k range, you'll see agents who have several listings and do a lot of business in this market. An email address and phone number is provided for the agents. If you want to be refered to an agent , you can call 1-866-295-MOVE or there's a "Live Chat" option from the website.

I've also included a link to one of our "Page 3" ads that appear in the local newspaper every Saturday. There are many more posted on our company website if you're interested in learning more about the market. - Mon Oct 20 2008, 07:14

With 13,000 visitors per day, Nothnagle.com gets the most traffic of any Rochester website. Our site offers more tools and services than our competitors' sites. In today's market, Nothnagle has achieved its highest market participation level ever because we have all of the tools to get homes sold faster -- 11 days faster than the MLS average and 2.3% closer to asking price (proven by data obtained through the local MLS, GENRIS, for period 1/01/07 - 12/31/07). We have over 600 active agents to choose from and their agent profiles can be viewed on our site as well. If you're not familiar with an agent, you can call 866-295-MOVE or there's a "live chat" feature on the site where you can get on-line assistance. - Thu Sep 25 2008, 06:24