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Tricia Guild's top tips for inside your home

2011-05-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

The top designer Tricia Guild tells Christopher Middleton how an inspired interior can sell your home

It’s official. Never in British property history has it been harder to sell your house at the price that you’re asking.

According to the latest report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, property values are set to fall by 4.5 per cent this year, and 10.5 per cent in real terms by the end of 2015. This could be the longest period of falling house prices ever seen in this country.

Clearly then, over the coming months, it’s going to need a lot more than the waft of freshly brewed coffee and baking bread to persuade purchasers to part with their money. So what’s the average vendor to do, in order to persuade buyers to view their property not through cold, hard, logical lenses, but through rose-tinted glasses?

Tricia takes on large-scale redesign projects, working her makeover magic on everything from City penthouses to lakeside pavilions. And the secret of getting buyers’ hearts to beat a little faster, she says, is not to go for demureness and inoffensive colours, but to pull out the stops when it comes to expressing your personality.

SOurce http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing

2011-05-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Many people would like a way to make money online, we read about home businesses opportunities and wonder if they sound too good to be true. There is one sure fire way to make money online – with affiliate marketing, where you sell other people’s products either through social media, SEO, or Pay Per Click. You then take commission on each resulting lead or sale.

Affiliate marketing is popular because the start up costs are extremely low, the barrier to entry is low, and the potential for profits is massive.

You can literally become a salesman or saleswoman overnight, in any industry the world and that includes multibillion-dollar industries such as hosting, anti aging, weight loss and fitness, loans, credit cards, dating and all sorts of other high-paying industries. There is definitely a lot of money to be made in these industries if you are capable of selling and getting leads, so put your business acumen to the test and give affiliate marketing a try for the potential to make money.

Source http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/

Action Line: 'Work at home' ads are a scam

2011-05-16T01:26:00.000-07:00

This is the oldest and most heinous of scams: taking advantage of people down on their luck by tricking money from them.

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that marketers targeting financially strapped Americans by selling supposed work-at-home and other money-making opportunities will be giving up their ill-gotten gains under a settlement agreement with the Commission. The agency's complaint against the defendants stemmed from "Operation Bottom Dollar," a broader crackdown in 2010 on work-at-home scams resulting in law enforcement actions against seven operations targeting job seekers.
The FTC filed its "complaint for permanent injunction and other equitable relief" Feb. 2, 2010, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and a "proposed consent judgment" was signed by the judge April 11. "A consent judgment is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant that the law has been violated. Consent judgments have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge," states an FTC press release.

The settlement order is against Independent Marketing Exchange, Inc., and its principal, Wayne Verderber II. It imposes a $919,000 judgment and this "will be suspended when the defendants turn over three rental properties, a Mercedes Benz, precious metals and other assets. If it is determined that the financial information the defendants gave the FTC was untruthful, the full amount of the judgment will become due. The order bans defendants marketing work-at-home and mystery shopping offers or assisting others in doing so. They are also barred from making deceptive claims about goods and services and are required to provide proof for earnings claims they make," states the release.

The complaint tulsaworld.com/FTCbagsscammers alleged defendants falsely represented that consumers were likely to make substantial income from work-at-home opportunities, and made other misrepresentations. Defendants also did business as National Data Management; N.D.M.; Global Mailing Services; G.M.S.; Independent Mailing Services; Independent Mailing Services, Inc.; I.M.S.; Independent Shoppers Network; Independent Shoppers; Success At Home; Success-At-Home Mailing; IMEX; IMEX, Inc.; and Continental Publishing Company; according to the complaint.
Operation Bottom Dollar defendants held out false promises that consumers would get help finding federal government jobs, work as movie extras or mystery shoppers; or that they could make money from home by stuffing envelopes or assembling ornaments.

Fraudulent promoters often use classified ads and the Internet to tout work-at-home offers: medical billing, envelope stuffing and assembly and craft work. Too often, these ads make promises about earnings, merchandise or marketability that sound great, but aren't truthful. They result in consumers who can least afford it being ripped off.
Source http://www.tulsaworld.com/

How Much is a Mother Worth?

2011-05-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

The average pay for a stay-at-home mother's job in Livingston is $135,632!
Most stay-at-home moms are awesome. The ones I admire show more resourcefulness, are more organized, and have more patience than any executive I’ve ever known.
In their former lives they were lawyers, accountants, teachers, computer programmers, nurses, personnel managers, corporate trainers, and in my case, a marketing manager. We readily gave up our careers in the belief that staying at home with our kids is an investment in their lives as well as precious time for us. Our children are only going to be little once: we don’t want to miss that. We’ve given up the benefits of a salary and the status that goes with it, because people in our society who do not make money have virtually NO status, to remain at home raising our children. And we’d gladly do it again.
(Note: I think working moms often have it even harder because not only do you function in a workplace all day, but you come home and deal with the issues of a house and your family. Plus many of you deal with the guilt of not being at home).
Still, every once in a while, it would be nice to see a dollar figure given for what I do during the day.
Here's a site that does that. Say hello to the website Salary.com Through the Mom Salary Wizard, you can calculate what your ”worth” based on: number of kids and their age ranges, where you live, and how many hours you spend doing various jobs.
Now, I actually disagree with that list because the number of things I do as a stay-at-home mom far exceeds what the website’s designers think a typical stay-at-homer does. The website allows you to personalize that list depending on how many hours per week you spend at each job title (i.e. “Facilities Manager,” “Psychologist,” “Janitor,” etc.). You can also prompt the site to generate a “check” which you can send to family and friends, presumably to let them know what your dollar net worth really is.
Salary.com’s national salary range for a stay-at-home mom goes from $64,990 to $167,296 with the national median being $116,431. Their local range for a Livingston mom is from $114,660 to $163,714 with the median at $135,632. I clocked in at $193,883. Sweet!
Now, I know that figure means nothing to the world at large. But there was something refreshing about seeing a check in that amount, even it was made out to the generic “Mom.” It means that someone in the website’s design team had to take a moment or two to really think about what a stay-at-home mother does before assigning that task a number. It means that every trip I make to Shop-Rite, the Little League Field, CVS, and the Mall, conceivably has value.
And for those of us who choose to raise our children while not being members of the “paid” workforce, it means we’re more than “just” stay-at-home moms.
Source http://livingston.patch.com/

Tweet! Too many opinions, not enough quality

2011-05-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

Do you think Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the boys would have had second thoughts about the First Amendment if they had been able to look 222 years into the future and see Twitter?
Would the whole free speech thing have seemed like a good idea?
Rashard Mendenhall of the Steelers got a good lesson in free speech and the power of the Internet last week. He made some moronic, ill-informed comments about the death of Osama Bin Laden.
But, it's time to let the guy up.
He wasn't accused of sexually assaulting anyone.
He wasn't accused of beating his wife or girlfriend, and he didn't even get pulled over and charged with a DUI.
He punched some keys on his computer or smart phone and proved - or at least should have - that there's no reason to listen to him talk about anything other than football.
There's no reason to run him out of town.
Yet.
One of the more disturbing aspects of the story was/is the number of people on talk radio who think the First Amendment protects Mendenhall from the Rooney family's wrath. I heard more than one talk-show host say that Art Rooney II couldn't cut Mendenhall because it was a free-speech issue. The First Amendment prevents the government from abridging your right of free speech. It doesn't protect you from getting fired for posting stupidity on Twitter.
If I owned an NFL team, I would make sure that all my players understood the concept of free speech, and I would make it clear that I wouldn't tolerate any of their speech that costs me money.
Here's what I would say to Mendenhall: "We pay you a boatload of money to be a running back. That money doesn't fall from the sky. We get it by selling tickets and by selling sponsorships. The sponsors pay us big bucks because they want to be associated with the Steelers brand. If you make stupid statements on your Twitter page, they don't just show your ignorance, they reflect on us. They cost us money. We're not in the football business just to have fun. We're in it to make money. No more stupid political commentary or we'll cut you so fast your head will spin."
• You have to wonder about the future of the country if there are people who can't get through a day without knowing what Rashard Mendenhall is thinking.
• Don Banks of SI.com compiled a nice list of NFL tweets. Here's Antrel Rolle of the New York Giants, reacting to the home fans booing: "We risk ourselves out there on the field each and every day. Also, when soldiers come home from Iraq, you don't boo them. I look at it the same way."
Then there's the Buffalo Bills' Steve Johnson, who dropped what would have been the game-winning touchdown against the Steelers. Afterward, he tweeted God: "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS???!!! HOW???!!! I'LL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!! THX THO...."
The founders never would have given us free speech if they had known that someone, some day, would abuse question marks and exclamation points like that.
• It used to be that, unless it was a letter to the editor, a press credential was usually required for a person to have the ability to express his opinions to the masses. The press pass doesn't make you smarter, but it gives you access to sources that can help you develop an informed opinion.
The freedom and power of the Internet is a wonderful thing, but it has resulted in opinion inflation. There are millions more opinions being disseminated, but quantity doesn't equal quality. Considering the source has never been more important.
• Jamie Dixon's name was being mentioned as the next coach at the University of Maryland before the lights were turned out at coach Gary Williams' retirement party. What - other than money, of course - could possibly make Maryland a better job than Pitt for a head basketball coach?
• Now that the Washington Capitals have been swept by Tampa Bay, in a series in which they went 1-for-19 on the power play and 0-for-18 on the one-man advantage, should we consider the possibility that what happened to the Penguins had a lot more to do with the Lightning than it had to do with the Penguins?
• Baseball attendance continues to be an issue. Last week, the Detroit Tigers had their two smallest announced crowds for games against the New York Yankees in more than 10 years at Comerica Park.
• Here's something for you and the Penguins to ponder between now and the next time Sidney Crosby plays a game: Justin Morneau is a 25-30 home-run hitting first baseman for the Minnesota Twins. His season ended last year on July 7 because of a concussion. He had 18 home runs when he had to shut it down. He's back on the field again and hitting .201 with one home run.
Source http://www.observer-reporter.com/

Making More Money By Becoming More Responsible

2011-05-08T22:55:00.001-07:00

The fundamental shift from a single-minded focus on making money to a broader focus on the values that will sustain an organization over time is an essential component of the ongoing reinvention of management and the transition to customer capitalism. The empowerment of self-organizing teams focused on meeting the needs of customers and buyers plays a key role. Paradoxically, a tight focus on understanding and meeting the needs of customers and buyers ends up making more money for the company.
I talked recently with Carol Sanford about how companies are making this happen and her exciting new book, The Responsible Business: Reimagining Sustainability and Success (Jossey-Bass, 2011).
Steve: You have worked with teams that have no supervision, which you call “buyer node teams”. What are they?
Carol: Buyer node teams are champions for a set of customers or consumers. In a responsible business, every person is a member of a buyer node team in addition to their regular functional role— including the CEO. Every team is cross-functional and multi-level. No team is task focused, functionally aligned, or goal focused. Every team is buyer-focused and responsible for the buyer’s success in the buyer’s endeavors.
Buyer node teams meet roughly twice a month to develop strategies, plan for execution of them, and reflect on progress and learning. Execution is deployed across the organization quickly because there are team members everywhere who understand what’s needed when a new pursuit is launched.
For example, DuPont of Canada Peroxide has teams that follow particular markets. In one case, the team that follows the forestry business helped invent a new bleaching process that is much friendly to watersheds and also produces paper with better printing characteristics. They also collaborated in the development of a new variety of tree that makes soil healthier as it grows trees and, because they grows quickly, shortens time to market.
Steve: What’s different about the way buyer node teams think and work?
Carol: Championing buyers—advocating back into your own business for them—builds what I call external considering. For example, a business’s champion teams use only those measures that assess the effects and effectiveness for the customer buyer at the point when they use the business’s product or service. They do not measure internally or report on internal production “successes,” such as the number of cases shipped or “happy customer” surveys based on meeting customer expectations. This is too low a level of aspiration for The Responsible Business..
Instead, champion teams become the research and development teams for improving the lives and work of customers and consumers in all of their functions.. Colgate, Europe set up cross-functional teams that were responsible for the success of mom-and-pop stores that carried Colgate brands. Success for these teams was measured in terms of their ability to deliver profits and innovativeness on a very small scale. Colgate established another team to champion big-box stores like Carrefour. They create results for each that they would not even think to ask for and went beyond the usually way of enchanting them.
In all of their decisions they were considering the effects of their work on what was external to their businesses rather than on what was internal. As part of their work they also accounted for their effects on co-creators (their own workers and the workers and businesses of their suppliers), Earth, communities and the larger society, and all of their investors (including shareholders and Colgate’s effect on taxpayer monies).
Steve: How does work get determined in this kind of team system?
Carol: Teams define their own work and ways of working based on the idea that they are each to improve the process every time they work. In general, teams do not adopt fixed standards and procedures except for matters like safety. In those cases, they create them only for set time periods or limit them with sunset clauses.
Every individual also develops what I call a promise beyond ableness (PBA) to contribute something unique to their championed buyer that is also in pursuit and support of the company’s business strategy. They gain alignment on their promised efforts with all other affected players, both inside and outside the company. These promises require individuals to go beyond their current capabilities, develop plans to grow themselves as a people and professionals, and engage a team to work with them on assessing their progress.
This is all self-directed. It includes no performance appraisal processes uniformly directed by management or human resources. People make much higher demands on themselves when they create and deliver on a PBA than they do when their work is delegated or assigned. PBAs grow a company’s capability rapidly because they grow all of its people rapidly and continuously in service of strategy and stakeholder success. With a PBA plan, no one is ever “outside” the process of taking on something that contributes uniquely. The PBA approach calls for enabling in conjunction with empowering all stakeholders.
Steve: Do champion teams and PBAs rely on rewards and incentives to increase motivation?
Carol: All PBAs are self-generated. Motivation is 100 percent intrinsic. There are no rewards, recognition, or incentives from management or any other outsider. Pay is increased based on a plan, when a promise beyond ableness has been fully accomplished and when assessment shows that it has enriched stakeholders’ lives and Life as a whole. Assessments also include improvements in earnings, margins, and cash flow for the business.
Teams create self-initiated celebrations when they reach benchmarks or targets achievements, or when individual team members do with a PBA. They bring their celebrations to the entire system and share their success stories in the process. No one is ever separated out as “employee of the month” or “salesperson for the quarter” or by any other recognition that ignores the team nature of all accomplishments. No incentives are provided except the intrinsic ones people experience in contributing to the successes of stakeholders.
In this way appreciation becomes increasingly immediate and authentic. People don’t nominate a few among them for recognition later; instead they find ways to acknowledge their appreciation for one another as it arises. More often than in traditional work systems, recognition is unrelated to function and directed “upward” in the organization.
Steve: What’s key to making this system work?
Carol: Individuals, teams, and organizations must build capability continuously. This is not the same as continuous training, although usually PBAs does including some training, it is based on extensive education in science, technology, human behavior, and sometimes leave for higher education. Businesses conduct business-wide monthly or bi-monthly sessions to build both critical thinking skills and the ability of individuals to manage themselves. Everyone learns to be responsible for their professional capability and to make themselves accountable for higher and/or more complex pursuits. They also learn to manage personal interactions and growth for the sake of improving the effectiveness of teamwork and stakeholder effectiveness.
Steve: How does this way of working relate to The Responsible Business?
Carol: In two ways. First, humans have a strong basic nature to exercise personal agency. To be fully realized, they have to learn to see themselves as part of a system and recognize how they are affected by and causing effects on the system and others within it, as they exercise agency. The processes I have developed here channel and grow the capacity for human agency. They also give people a living-systems context, which allows them to become increasingly aware and responsible for the effects they initiate. As they develop their own unique capabilities, they become more innovative and contributory. Being part of a buyer node team tends to compels a person to grow. This connection to a system context, and desire to contribute to it, is the essential foundation of a responsibility as a concept.
The second way is related to democracy and capitalism. Capitalism works well in conjunction with our drive for personal agency, the desire to exercise will and change things as we do so. Without an understanding of how systems work and a systems-based practice of external considering, the drive for agency can become greed and capitalism loses its highest potential, which is to grow the wealth and well-being of all Life.
In addition, democracy flourishes when citizens are able to think critically and choose good leaders and ways of governing. External considering makes us aware that, in the end, we are all one planet, one living being, and one Life. We cannot keep making the kind of tradeoff that happen when we do not exercise critical thinking in running our democracy. We won’t sustain Life and self-governance if we do. We must develop Purposeful Capitalism and a Thoughtful Democracy.
Work systems based on buyer node teams build that kind of capacity and understanding. Many of the stories in The Responsible Business demonstrate ways that people take the ableness they develop at work home to their families and communities. Colgate employees helped build the New South Africa’s ability to govern, many of them leading Mandela’s new township councils. Kingsford Charcoal built strong local economies and pervasive literacy with the same processes that created innovative offerings and took their business global.
Responsibility means including all stakeholders from the beginning, not assuming that you will be ready and capable of giving back after profits have been gathered and distributed.
Source http://blogs.forbes.com/

WHYTE AIMS TO WIN OVER FANS

2011-05-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

He has been dubbed the 'Whyte Knight' after emerging as the man with the millions who was set to ride to the rescue of debt-ridden Rangers and transform the fortunes of the Glasgow giants.

But, as the Sir David Murray era drew to a close on Friday after an association of more than 22 years with the club, and Rangers finally secured a new owner following a protracted six-month period of wrangling and due diligence, the question remains: who exactly is Craig Whyte?

Still, little is known of the Scots tycoon who is now the new owner of Rangers.

His was a name that was met with raised eyebrows and a shrug of the shoulders when his interest in purchasing Murray's shares first emerged in November.

Whyte has been described as both a millionaire and a billionaire, suggesting no-one actually knows exactly how substantial his fortune is.

What is clear, despite the vast wealth he has accumulated, is that the 40-year-old had successfully managed to fly below the radar for many years before going public with his plans to buy one of the most famous football clubs in Europe.

What is known about Whyte is that his interest in making money and the financial markets - and apparent talent in that area - was developed at an early age.

The most famous fact about his formative years was how he began dabbling in the stock market at the age of just 15 while still a student at Glasgow's Kelvinside Academy, using cash from a part-time job at his father's plant-hire firm.

Two years later, and with a £20,000 fortune of his own, Whyte started up his own plant-hire business, Whyte Hire, which went on to make a £150,000 profit in its first year.

He expanded his business interests to include security and contract cleaning and, by 1997, at the age of 26, Whyte was Scotland's youngest self-made millionaire.

These days, he makes his money as a venture capitalist and splits his time between London and his home in the Scottish highlands - the historic Castle Grant, near Granton-on-Spey, which he bought for £720,000 and renovated to make his family home.

The question which naturally follows on from 'who?' is 'why?'.

Born in Motherwell in 1971, Whyte is reportedly a lifelong Rangers fan. Right now, that appears to be the single, biggest reason for purchasing the club.

Rangers' financial woes have been well documented and the involvement of main creditors Lloyds Banking Group ever more significant in recent years.

Debts stood at around £20million before the takeover was completed and vastly depleted resources on the park means there will be pressure to make cash available for new boss Ally McCoist to strengthen his squad ahead of his first season at the helm.

Whyte first confirmed to the stock exchange he was considering making an offer for Rangers and was in talks with Murray International Holdings regarding a proposed takeover on November 18.

The journey since then has been a long and often frustrating one.

First convincing Murray and Lloyds of his credentials, before eventually receiving the green light from the independent committee of the Rangers board, headed by chairman Alastair Johnston.

Now he must convince the Rangers fans he is the right man for the job and really is the club's 'Whyte Knight' after all.

Source http://www.sportinglife.com/

Make Money Online Using the Best Internet Income System For 2011

2011-05-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Robert Allen focuses his vast experience on sharing the simple, powerful systems that can guide you, step by step, to Internet riches. He provides strategies which entrepreneurs can utilize to achieve a lifestyle that most only dream about.

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 07, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- If you are looking for a better way to make money, fire your boss or spend more time with your family, you are definitely not alone. With unemployment numbers extremely high, everybody is looking to make a few extra bucks these days. Many people are turning to work at home programs. But, which ones are real and which ones are scams? You might even decide that one of them is a good fit for you, and you can begin making money from home today.

Consumers purchase Billions and Billions of dollars worth of products and service online each year. Every time people use the internet to perform a Google search or log into Facebook to connect with friends and family, someone is making money through online commerce. This program will teach you how to get a piece of this money and free yourself from the 9-5. The internet economy has grown by leaps and bounds even in this recession, so why not take advantage of his fact? There are plenty of scams on the internet claiming you can make millions of dollars a year, but this is exactly what they are, only scams.

Finally you can sign up for a proven Internet Income System that works, and was created by the #1 New York Times best-selling author Robert Allen. This system will teach you to do just that, exploit the internet's vast reach for your own profits and start making some real money online.

Click on the link below to sign up for this amazing offer

Internet Income System - Exclusive Starter Kit

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Source http://www.stockmarketsreview.com/

Real: Home-purchase contract needs clear writing

2011-05-06T11:14:00.001-07:00

When buying a home, mean what you say and say what you mean when filling out the contract.

That's the advice of lawyer Jeff Marks, a partner with Ryan and Marks Attorneys LLP in Jacksonville, Fla. A real estate dispute in the Sunshine State illustrates his point.

Christine and Nigel Gibney contracted to buy a house from Helen and Randy Pillifant for $620,000. The purchase contract provided that the sale was "contingent upon this property appraising for no less than $620,000," according to court documents.

Two appraisals were done. One arranged by the Gibneys (the buyers) came in at $560,000. The Pillifants secured an appraisal that valued their house at $635,000. The buyers refused to close and terminated the contract.

The sellers sued for breach of contract, arguing that any appraisal of $620,000 or more obligated the Gibneys to buy the house. The Gibneys argued that any appraisal for less than $620,000 allowed them to terminate the contract.

Who's right? Florida's Second District Court of Appeal favored the would-be buyers, ruling in April 2010: "In our view, 'appraising for no less than $620,000' means that no appraisal may be less than $620,000," the court ruled. "The appraisal contingency allowed the Gibneys to terminate the contract if any appraisal valued the property at less than $620,000."

Too often, homebuyers and sellers think a contract allows for one thing, when the language says something else.

"Contingencies should be written in full sentences," Marks says. "In this case, it should have read, 'This agreement is contingent, at buyers' option, on the property appraising for at least $620,000 as determined by the appraiser for the buyers' lender,'" he says. "There's no confusion in that language."

Here are four ways to avoid making common contract mistakes.

-- Give yourself time to get a loan. Many contracts are contingent upon the buyer getting financing by a certain date. In today's tough lending climate, buyers are wise to allow themselves plenty of time to get mortgage approval for a loan. If the date passes and no financing has been secured, the sellers may terminate the contract and keep the earnest money deposit.

"You should also be realistic about your closing date," says Patti Lawton, a broker with Welcome Home Realty in Brunswick, Maine. "Don't try to close too quickly. There are a lot of things that need to be done properly and you must give lenders, title companies and others time."

-- Be specific about which items stay with the house. You've heard the story of the buyer who walked into a new home only to discover that the refrigerator and chandeliers were missing. Check the contract. As a seller, be sure you specifically state on the contract what will stay with the home. As a buyer, pay attention. Don't assume that the Sub-Zero refrigerator is yours once you close.

-- Know the effective date. The contract doesn't always go into effect on the day you sign it. In every contract, certain things "must be done within X number of days from the effective date: inspections, loan applications and approval, title searches," Marks says. "If you don't know the date that the contract went into effect, you may not have a valid contract."

-- Get everyone to sign. "Sometimes the home is owned by both spouses, other owners or an entity such as corporation," Marks says. "Make sure all of the parties sign the contract. If a party to the transaction fails to sign, they're not bound to perform the contract."

You've heard it before: Buying a house is one of the biggest financial decisions you're going to make. Says Lawton: "Make sure everything that's important to you is in writing."

U.S. mortgage rates declined in the last week, according to Bankrate's latest national survey, while a major lawsuit by the federal government accusing giant Deutsche Bank of defrauding the Federal Housing Administration showed the mortgage crisis' legal dust is far from settled.

The Bankrate survey found the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.88 percent, off by 7 basis points from the previous week's 4.95 percent. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point.

Meanwhile, the bellwether 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell by 9 basis points, settling at 4.05 percent. With jumbo mortgages, or generally those for more than $417,000, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.36 percent, down 4 basis points.

Adjustable-rate mortgages took a sharper drop. The 5/1 ARM was 3.56 percent, a slump of 13 basis points. With a 5/1 ARM the rate is fixed for five years, then adjusted annually thereafter.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. Reach Tracey C. Velt at editors(at)bankrate.com.)

Source http://www.scrippsnews.com/

Robert Cagnetta: Before beginning a house project, have a plan

2011-05-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

Sprouting flowers. Budding trees. Honey-do list. The rites of spring. Many friends and family say a home improvement project is not complete without several trips to the store. First piece is wrong, second breaks and third is forced in. A simple one-hour project takes days, weeks or so long that it creates friction.

Things always take longer at home no matter who you are. If I charged for my time at home, I would be broke. Well, here is how to reduce the trips, save money and make the best of your time.

Plan

I have said it over and over, plan, plan, plan. Take pictures, research parts and options, talk to professionals… all before you start.

Describe the project, create a summary of what you want to do.

Photograph the parts, close and far. Print them out or put them on your smartphone. Show them to the vendor, professional or other confidant.

Make a list of parts. If you need a new toilet flapper, write down the name brand, style, age, etc. Maybe even remove it before you get the replacement.

Think about the time it will take. If it goes wrong, does the project/part need to function? When does the supply store close?

Talk to a professional, not just a sales clerk. You can hire a professional for advice, or go to a specialty store first.

If you’re not sure, buy a couple of different things. You can always return them.

Expertise

Home center staff help you find the right aisle, most of the time, rather than having the skills or experience to find the right part. Specialty stores have skilled, trained staff, as well as the resources to fix the problem. They also know qualified professionals. They allow returns, too. The challenge is balancing convenience and cost vs. quality and service.

Convenience

Most home improvement projects are done on weekends. Specialty stores, like plumbing or electrical supply stores, and lumberyards are open six days a week, usually closed on Sundays. Home centers and local hardware stores are open seven days a week.

Yet convenience can come at a cost. The part you seek may not be an exact match, so it takes someone with experience to know if the replacement part will work. And many home centers do not stock the highest quality, since they are advertising lowest cost. Home centers are cheaper for two reasons: volume and quality.

Cost and Value

Cost and value are the biggest obstacles to completing good work that lasts as long as it should. Let the buyer beware, home center products are not the same as specialty stores, lumberyards and hardware stores, even though they look the same. Faucets may look the same outside, but the insides are not. Cheaper models have plastic inside instead of brass. Same goes for large appliances. That could be the difference between 5 and 20 years.

Selection

Do-it-yourselfers love home centers. The wide range of products, lots of colorful promotional banners, and helpful staff lead people to believe they have all the knowledge and products you need. I personally do not get the warm and fuzzies. It is overwhelming, confusing and the stuff with the biggest profit is front and center. Sort of like the candy next to the register. You don’t need it, but you can’t help but want it.

While the perception is home centers have everything, specialty stores have way more.

When you have something unique or just can’t make the part you got at the home center work, go to the specialty store. You can wait the two days.

Shop Local

Local can be national, regional, statewide or your town. Many American-manufactured parts compete by quality, not by price. Things like fasteners are not all the same. I have seen Chinese galvanized nails shed their protective zinc when hit by a hammer. Or aluminum-gutter parts that are thinner sheet metal than “industry standard.” Manufacturing location can dictate quality.

Money spent in locally owned stores keeps most, if not all, local. They use local banks, local suppliers, or spend most of the money that goes through their business locally. Money spent at a home center keeps far less local.

So know what you have, ask for what you need and buy what you expect. Without that, the fifth trip to the store for the third part is no longer so convenient or so cheap.

Robert Cagnetta is the owner of Providence based Heritage Restoration Inc. and president of the Preservation Trades Network. You may e-mail questions to pjfeat@projo.com, and be sure to put “House Remedies” in the subject field. You can also mail items to Features Department, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902. House Remedies is featured twice a month in Saturday Décor.

Source http://www.projo.com/

5 common home hazards

2011-05-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Now that you own your own home, you can't depend on your landlord to take care of these common home hazards anymore.

Owning your own home gives a great sense of freedom. No more worrying about keeping a landlord happy! As a homeowner, though, you now have to worry about some of the home-safety hazards that your landlord previously took care of for you.

Perhaps you were always aware of some of these hazards but didn't worry about them because you were "just a renter." Maybe they've been flying under your radar (and your landlord's) and endangering you and your family for years.

Whatever the case, take the time to address these common home dangers and prevent injuries and accidents from happening to your loved ones. As most of these issues can be fixed with a minimal investment of time and money, there's no reason to delay.

Here are five of the most dangerous hazards in your home and suggestions on how to fix them:

1) Hot water heaters:

At times, you may have wished that your landlord would turn up the water temperature. Now that you control the thermostat, don't give in to the temptation to crank the hot water heater temp all the way. Not only is it a waste of energy but it can also be a serious burn danger. It is especially a danger to young children who are just learning to wash their hands or who can reach over and change the knob on when their bath is running. As a rule of thumb, if you can't turn the hot water up all the way, the hot water heater is definitely on too high.

2) Carbon monoxide poisoning:

Many states require a landlord to install carbon monoxide detectors along with smoke detectors. Now that you own your own home, take up the slack and make sure that you have carbon monoxide alarms installed throughout your home. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that is harmful to both people and pets -- and there is no way to detect it without an alarm. If you do detect a buildup in your home, you'll need to hire a professional to fix the problem -- money that is obviously well spent!

3) Clogged dryer exhaust ducts:

If you've only been doing your laundry in a laundromat or a shared laundry room at your apartment building, you probably haven't even thought about cleaning your dryer exhaust ducts. You should, though, as lint can build up in these ducts and easily catch fire. You can easily remove the buildup with a do-it-yourself dryer duct cleaning kit that can be found online or at many home and hardware stores.

4) Dirty chimneys:

Just as with clogged dryer exhaust ducts, chimneys that get a buildup of tarry creosote and ashes can easily become flammable hazards. All it takes is one errant floating ember to spark a fire and possibly burn down your home. You should clean your chimney at least once a year and though there are do-it-yourself methods discussed online, you should consult with a professional chimneysweep to ensure that your cleaning efforts are enough.

5) Window Coverings:

Now that you've got your own place, one of the first things that you probably invested in was nice blinds and curtains for your windows. If you've got children in your home, you should be extra attentive to the straps and cables that come with most window coverings -- especially those that end in a loop. On average, one child a month dies from strangling on a window cable. Install a safety tassel or tie down the end of each cord, or just cut them short. And never, put a child's crib or bed within reaching distance of a window covering cable.

Once you've fixed these household dangers -- and this list is just a starting point -- your work is not over. Make a point of going room-to-room a few times a year to examine the state of your home and eliminating any new dangers.

Though it would be nice to depend on a landlord to take care of these hazards for you, it's far nicer to have a home of your own!

Mortgage Rates at MortgageLoan.com

View the original story here: http://www.mortgageloan.com/5-common-home-hazards-8619

Buying Investment Property

2011-05-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Question: Recently my wife and I were approached to invest in property, the funding was the split line revolving line of credit. We would have to borrow 85% of our our home evaluation.We had never heard of this type of lending. This would cut our existing home loan to seven years, currently it is twenty years. We would like to know obviously what risks are attached, how safe is this, what are the tax benefits, is it too good to be true?

Answer: I am always concerned when anybody is "approached" to buy any investment because it is a strong indication that the person approaching is doing it for their benefit and not for yours. Yes, it is possible to make money in real estate and there are tax breaks but at the end of the day you have to be convinced that the capital gain is going to be more than your net expenditure. I feel the best profits in real estate are made by buying a run down house in a good location but you will find these are never offered to you by the property floggers. If property is your thing talk to a lender about your borrowing capacity and then talk to respectable local agents about any bargains they may have in the area where you would like to buy.

Source http://www.smh.com.au/money/

Louisvillians renting homes to strangers for Derby

2011-05-06T06:08:00.001-07:00

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - As tens of thousands of people flock to Louisville for Derby weekend, finding a vacant hotel room may be like finding a needle in a haystack, so some entrepreneurs are coming up with creative ways to make money.

Jeff Cross is mowing his yard to welcome friends to town.

"Two in one bedroom, two in another, I have a sectional so two on that--that's six," said Cross. "There's a fold out futon in another bedroom."

But these friends, he's never even met.

"I went with the Craig's list route," said Cross.

They are paying $800 a night to stay there.

"$2400 total," said Cross. "It was a three night minimum."

He got the idea from his friends Ashley and Dominic Gratto, who live in St. Matthews. Who did it last year and are doing it again.

"They're coming from New York and there are I think eight," said Ashley.

She spent the weekend before cleaning up to host strangers they're trusting with their home.

"People who are willing to pay that kind of money and sign a contract," said Dominic of his guests. "We also require that they pay up front so we have a security deposit, plus we have all the money before they check-in, so you think those kind of people really aren't going to come destroy your home."

Of course Derby goers can always go the traditional route and stay in a hotel.

"As far as a good, comfortable clean place to sleep at night, we're right there," said Nina Mosley of Hotel Louisville. "$199 a night no minimum required."

Hotel Louisville is like most raising rates for Derby, but this one has a different story.

"The dual purpose of this building as being home for our homeless women and families and then also a hotel available for the public," said Mosley who is also with Wayside Christian Mission.

As far as Mosley knows, there is nowhere else like this in the country. Guests and residents are on separate floors. Many staff members are homeless, but at the hotel to earn money and get job experience. Mosley says most guests don't mind.

"Most people are perfectly fine," said Mosley. "We've been open now for about a year and a half I think we've had three folks who didn't want to stay."

One hotel guest says he plans to stay for six months.

"I've been here two months," said a long-term guest. "I love this place. I could have gone anywhere, but there's God in this building and there's a lot of good people here."

For Derby they're expecting folks from all over including repeat customers from Ireland. They've even hosted a celebrity.

"We had one rap artist that stayed with us on the 12th floor and the producer was so happy with it he brought several other folks throughout the year to stay in that same suite," said Mosley.

In the end everyone needs a place to stay on Derby weekend and it just take a few creative ideas to figure out how cash in, which could be staying at Hotel Louisville...

"That's weird, but at the same time if it's a good value people are going to say, so what if it's a homeless shelter," said Dominic Grotto. "It's a heck of a lot cheaper than staying at the Marriott."

Or it could be opening up your home for the right price.

"Is it enough?" asked Cross laughing. "Yeah."

Source http://www.wave3.com

Home safe and sound

2011-05-06T05:28:00.000-07:00

It’s one thing to work toward solving homelessness by helping people get off the streets and into safe, decent accommodation.

But what about people who aren’t on the streets, who are working but at a financial tipping point, desperately in need of temporary help to make the rent?

The new Homelessness Prevention Fund is designed for just that kind of short term emergency, and has already helped two dozen people with one-time grants up to $500. One of them is single mom Joy Charleson, who has three kids, two of whom are still at home.

“This money was a lifesaver for me,” said Charleson, who suddenly found herself without a place to live, and three weeks away from an appointment for social assistance.

The problem began when she and her partner broke up.

“He was fine with the kids staying with him till I found a place, but he wanted me out. I was facing homelessness — not a great feeling. I had a place in mind, but couldn’t afford the rent on my own, so I needed a roommate and that took time. I was living off borrowed money ...

“Having this program help me out was amazing. It felt so good,” said Charle-son, 34, who works in daycare and homemaking. “It warms my heart to know there are places out there helping people who are trying to get onto their own two feet.”

The one-time emergency grant does not have to be repaid and applicants are thoroughly vetted, said Debbie Thompson, executive director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. A member of the 11-agency partnership overseeing the new fund, she hopes it will help stabilize housing and send a strong signal that ordinary citizens can make a difference to policies and actions that protect people.

She explained the fund came together through leadership of the Victoria Foundation, with two anonymous pledges of $50,000 each, plus $20,000 from Paula Carey’s yoga group. Carey teaches yoga and donates proceeds to community causes. She recently set up a fund for single parents at Camosun College.

Other donations are flowing into the fund and Carey believes “the amazing response” is because people feel they are part of something important. “This really makes sense because sometimes all a person needs to stop being evicted is $50 or $100. They may have a sudden car repair to deal with, a tooth that needs filling. ...”

Thompson agrees, saying people can face the loss of their apartment, and possessions, simply because they got sick. “They may have to miss a week of work without pay.”

Almost 65 per cent of those living here are renters.

“We have some of the highest rents in the country, and the lowest wages. Many working people are up against the wall and while many of us have a line of credit — a little emergency fund or the support of friends and family — they don’t have that financial cushion.”

Thompson, who researched rent banks in other cities and local groups that provide stop-gap funding, said this new rent bank is different.

“It’s a partnership of service agencies, which means it can link people to other community supports, like child care. But the key, really positive element is it’s independently funded. Historically, organizations would help by taking money out of existing budgets, whereas this fund is built by citizens’ donations. This is an additional resource in the tool-kit of front-line workers.” The grant is also not subtracted from the low- income supplement.

Other partners include Our Place and Victoria Cool Aid societies, Victoria Native Friendship Centre, Mustard Seed, Salvation Army, Burnside Gorge Community Association, Pacifica Housing Advisory Association, St. Vincent de Paul, Together Against Poverty and the Ministry of Social Development.

The fund is being managed by the Victoria Foundation. Anyone who wants to donate can learn more by calling 250-381-5532.

Sourcehttp://www.timescolonist.com/

Social Networking Guru Finally Exposes His Brand New System for Making Money Online- Excited Marketers Jump on Board

2011-05-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Due to the increasing demand for advice about making money at home, social networking expert, Corey Bruhn, recently announced the release of his brand new product to address this need.

Corey reveals valuable insights on social media profits in the new product release. Social Media Money Storm teaches users how to leverage the power of Facebook and Twitter. These two social media giants can be extraordinary tools to make money online.

The state of today’s economy is driving a record number of people to the Internet, hunting for effective ways to make money at home. There are avenues, like network marketing, for earning extra income online that are easy to implement. But most people don’t have the experience or know-how to make an actual profit from Facebook and Twitter.

New marketers with big dreams often times end up reaping little rewards. This is not necessarily due to lack of drive or talent, but commonly just the lack of knowledge or focus.

According to Internet marketer Brian Moats, online success is found by zeroing in on a system that works and paying no attention to the ones that don’t: “I could start a social networking campaign today that could generate a respectable income in a matter of weeks. But the only reason I can do that is because I have already made all the mistakes, and from experience I know all the right steps to take to make it happen. That’s why I strongly suggest Social Media Money Storm. Corey takes out all the guess work and outlines his proven system for making money quickly and easily. Simply said, this system works.”

In his video series, available for instant download, Corey reveals all the heavily guarded secrets and proven techniques for earning cash through Facebook and Twitter including: how to quickly accumulate friends without getting banned, the importance of newsfeeds in a Facebook campaign, the difference between fan pages and groups and how to grow each of them, acquiring a vanity URL, placing opt-in forms on a fan page, how to use ad campaigns the right way, how to add badges to a website, and putting up a contact form with a captcha image.

Marketers who have purchased this course have been extremely impressed. Justin Erwin, who lost his job in February, remarks: “Within a day of receiving this course I was up and running. Within two weeks I had over 700 fans, and within a month I was making money. Today I’m happy to say that Facebook and Twitter are my bread and butter. I couldn’t be happier to finally be making a living from home.”

Don’t hesitate! Learn how to make money with social networking and discover what the hype is all about by clicking on Social Media Storm today: http://www.socialmediamoneystorm.com

Contact Information:
MDR Media LLC
Michael Dressler
Tel: 9498574590
Email us

This is a press release. Press release distribution and press release services by EmailWire.Com: http://www.emailwire.com/press_release_distribution_lists.php.
Source http://www.emailwire.com/

Team kill Bin Laden

2011-05-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ghazi from air bases in Pakistan, the MH-60 helicopter on its way to the outskirts of Abbottabad military, the center about 50 km from Islamabad. Flight is the member of special team of U.S. Navy SEAL, was it across the border from Afghanistan.

Members of the ST6

Accompanying them was the professional communications, electronic intelligence and other intelligence experts.

After 40 minutes of fighting, 22 people or killed or captured. One of those killed is Osama bin Laden, was shot in the head and chest. Determination of the terrorist is brought back to the helicopter base Ghazi. A helicopter was having problems and U.S. forces have been destroyed soon after.

If not for this critical, then this could be a normal military operation of the comedy team is specially trained and legendary, SEAL Team Six (SEAL Team 6 - ST6), although not exist only on paper. The official name of, is heading the special war deployment of Navy (USA). This group was formally established in 1987, with the abbreviation is NAVSPECWARDEVGRU although its forerunner stemming from the failed rescue of American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979. However, the locals at their home base at Dam Neck in Virginia called them by name DevGru.

Their mission this time very special and we need to practice first. So they have recreated a wide 0.4 hectare park houses like the Bin Laden at Camp Alpha, a separate branch of the Bagram Air Base and began practicing early in April.

Whether public or heard about the activities of the customs of this particular file as well as a unit similar to the infantry as Delta Force, the majority of JSOC's mission was never revealed. The name of the team until just heard good things happened there (as a humanitarian aid worker was killed UK) or have something big (a captain were rescued at sea).

But even then, the U.S. military does not want to reveal their presence. JSOC a few dozen members were killed in Pakistan in recent years. Their names are the Ministry of Defense announced as usual, but under cover, as they were killed by accident while training in eastern Afghanistan. This is a password.

How did the helicopter task force is to be avoided Pakistan's air defense system? Did they use the electronic transmitter special? Did they paint helicopters to Pakistan Air Force insignia and deceive the people responsible?

If it is true, and maybe this will never be published, two other units of the Department JSOC technical applications (Technical Application Programs Office) and the evaluation team of aviation technology (Aviation Technology Evaluation Group), has done well this task. These are the real unknown soldiers, never to be honored and they do not need to be honored.

Since the 9 / 11, JSOC units and task forces have become their most effective weapons of the U.S. government in the fight against terrorism.

JSOC is the operating cost of about $ 1 billion more each year. JSOC has faced some criticism but generally operate freely and without restrictions after the terrorist 9 / 11.

The boundary between intelligence gathering activities of comedy team JSOC and CIA activities almost without. Raids kill Bin Laden is the most obvious evidence shows that close cooperation between the CIA and JSOC.

HOME TRUTHS: Mystery of bungalow that will never sell

2011-05-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

Ross Clark answers reader' queries...

My neighbours have put their bungalow on the market twice a year for the past ten years.

People try to buy it, but when they get to the point of exchanging contracts – after paying considerable fees – the owners pull out saying they haven’t been able to find anything for them to buy.

Unless this couple run a conveyancing company, it is hard to see how they are profiting from this, therefore I assume that they are chronically indecisive and are wasting their own time and money.

Why aren't my neighbours completing on the sale of their bungalow?

I can’t see how agents can be blamed for taking this property on to their books. Potential buyers of any property should always ask vendors: How long has it been on the market; has it been on before and a sale fallen through, and if so why?

NEIGHBOUR’S WATER IS BLOCKING DRAIN

My next door neighbour has piped the waste from his washing machine into our jointly owned rainwater gully which is now permanently filled with foul smelling grey water as the rainwater soakaway is blocked with soap.

Your neighbour is one of 300,000 homeowners guilty of an offence by discharging ‘grey water’ – waste water from baths, sinks and domestic appliances – into the surface drainage system untreated.

You should direct him to the information on the Sewer National Action Programme at www.water.org.uk. If he fails to do anything, contact your local water company.

HE HAS NO RIGHT TO ‘SMASH DOWN’ ROOF

Our house has been adjoined to next door with a fixed flat roof for 30 years, making an enclosed passageway. A new neighbour has threatened to ‘smash it down’. Has he the right to do so?

Had you recently built this passageway without permission from the neighbour to whose home the roof is attached, he would have every right to demand that you remove it and make good any damage you had caused to his wall.

If the roof was built years ago with permission, or the houses were built like that, there is nothing your neighbour can do.

For him to ‘smash down’ your extension would constitute criminal damage, and you should contact the police if he repeats the threats.

Contact Ross with your own query at ross.clark@mailonsunday.co.uk

Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Is Home Ownership Overrated?

2011-05-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

For generations of Americans, It's a Wonderful Life pretty much sums up the benefits of home ownership. George Bailey takes over his father's savings and loan in Bedford Falls, builds Bailey Park, an idyllic affordable-housing development, and issues mortgages. In the alternative universe where George never lived, there's no savings and loan or Bailey Park; the townspeople have fallen into debauchery as tenants of the usurious Henry Potter; and quaint Bedford Falls, now renamed Pottersville, is home to sleazy nightclubs and pawnshops.

Director Frank Capra's vision has dominated public policy ever since. Republicans and Democrats have competed to extol home ownership as a sound investment and source of moral virtue, stability and community.

Growing up in the small-town Midwest of the 1950s and '60s, I never questioned those precepts. In my family, mortgage payments were a sacred obligation. The idea of "throwing away money on rent," not to mention being beholden to the whims of a landlord, seemed anathema. The few neighborhoods where people rented were indeed shabby. After I moved to New York City, it took a decade of savings, but as soon as I had a down payment, I bought an apartment.

In the wake of the real estate bubble and collapse, all of these assumptions have been called into question—and in some cases, are under attack. Decades of policies designed to foster home ownership are being reexamined, from taxpayer support for the giant mortgage agencies to the tax deduction for mortgage interest. In light of this sea change, I decided to reapproach the sacred cow of home ownership with an open mind. Does it make sense financially? Does it promote social benefits?

In some cities, the past decade has been brutal for homeowners. In Atlanta average home prices this year are the same as they were in 2000—11 years ago—according to the Case-Shiller home-price index. Nationally, the rate of appreciation in housing seems likely to return to its long-term historical average, which is only slightly higher than the rate of inflation. Purely as an investment, residential real estate is never going to outperform the stock market or many other asset classes.

Nonetheless, home ownership has historically yielded other financial benefits. "Over 75 years the mortgage system is how the middle and lower-middle class accumulated capital," John Quigley, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, told me. "It was a system of forced savings rather than an investment per se. It was never intended to triple your money in three years."

For the most part, the system worked as intended, enabling Americans to accumulate wealth, put their children though college and retire comfortably. Returns were enhanced by the leverage provided by the mortgage—as long as housing prices rose. But as with any asset, leverage can also magnify losses. No one can borrow 80 percent of the price of a stock, yet that amount of leverage—and even more—became routine with real estate. In the wake of the housing collapse, that notion is being reexamined. "People have not ascribed enough of a risk premium to the leverage," says Christopher Mayer, professor of real estate at Columbia Business School.

Today, the answer to the question of whether a home is a good investment may well be "not always," according to Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA. Policies that increased home ownership created what Gabriel calls "transitory owners," who ended up suffering defaults, evictions, foreclosures and other financial disruptions. "Policy that creates only temporary home ownership is bad policy," Gabriel adds.

If the financial benefits of home ownership seem elusive in some circumstances, the social benefits are even more so. When it comes to promoting stability and other social benefits, nearly every economist I interviewed agreed that it's difficult if not impossible to separate home ownership from other variables that correlate with desirable environments, like affluence and levels of education.

The home ownership rate in France is 57 percent; in Germany, 46 percent; and in Switzerland, just 37 percent. By comparison, it's 67 percent in the U.S. Housing is only one variable, of course, but no one would argue that communities in France or Germany are less stable, less cohesive or more unkempt than those in the U.S. Zurich and other cities in pristine Switzerland are a far cry from Pottersville.

Once you question the notion that everyone should own a home, the policy implications are significant. As Mayer says, "Too much of current policy seems aimed at promoting consumption of housing—ever larger and more lavish homes—rather than ownership itself." All the economists I interviewed criticized the mortgage deduction as needlessly benefiting affluent taxpayers (most low-income taxpayers don't itemize, so they get no benefit). Most agreed it should be phased out, perhaps over 15 to 20 years to minimize the effect on housing prices.

But they also agreed that there's a place for some government support for home ownership, primarily as a way to promote savings. Warren Buffett, who has lived for more than 50 years in a home that cost him $31,500, made a resonant comment on this issue in his latest letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway: "Our country's social goal should not be to put families into the house of their dreams, but rather, to put them into a house they can afford."

Source http://online.wsj.com/

101 Super Creative Ways to Save Money

2011-05-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

Do you want to save more money? Who doesn’t?! Doing so can be fun, creative and inspiring. Don’t believe us? Here are 101 super creative ways to save money:

Create upcycled fashions. Take your old clothing and repurpose it into creative new designs instead of spending money on new clothes!
Update your furniture by hand. Paint repair markers, new upholstery and handmade pillows can make an old item new again at a low cost.
Use your library. It’s a free resource for books, DVDs, CDs and even classes and other useful information.
Buy only what you need for projects. Doing a DIY project? Measure it out to get exactly what supplies you need and nothing extra.
Rent or even swap tools. If you need an item for only a short period of time, such as a tool for a specific household chore, don’t buy it. Look for a place to rent it or even see if there’s a tool swap in your area.
Engage in other swaps. There are clothing swaps, toy swaps and book swaps available locally and online and they all save you money.
Never throw away used pantyhose. Check out Planet Green for 25 ways it can be re-used.
Make your own herb garden. It’s cheap to start and maintain and saves you a lot of money on fresh herbs.
Make your own baby food. It is healthier and far more frugal than buying the ready made kind at the store.
Make your own pet food. And here are 50 other ways to save money as a pet owner.
Learn to cut hair. It isn’t very hard to learn. After the initial investment in a good set of haircutting supplies you will be able to provide yourself and the rest of your family with free haircuts. You can even make some money helping out your friends with inexpensive haircuts!
Remodel your bathroom to make it a mini-spa. You will save money on facials, mani/pedis, saunas and other relaxing beauty treats because you’ll be able to do it all at home.
Host group birthday parties. Put together a calendar of birthdays that are near the birthdays of each member of your family. Hosting group parties allows everyone to pitch in on the cost.
Save money with QR codes. We can tell you how.
Start using frugal affirmations. For example, at the start of each day say the following five times: “saving money makes my life simpler and happier.”
Watch movies and TV online. If you are paying for an Internet connection then there is no need to pay for television, too. Watch what is available online for free.
Replace vacations with staycations. Take time together with your family to explore your own town at a bargain instead of shelling out a fortune for holidays away from home.
Avoid sending post. It’s so twentieth century! Stop paying to put things in the mail when you can use electronic communication instead.
Have one no-spend day per week, one no-spend month per year. This is a day (and then a month) where you don’t spend any money at all, not even a coffee on your lunch break. For the month you will probably have to make an exception for rent and other ongoing expenses but don’t buy anything extra.
Commit to The Compact. Avoid buying anything new for an entire year except perhaps for the consumables that you require (like food).
Try the Uniform Project. Wear the same thing every day for a year. Get creative in making it different with the right cheap accessories!
Sell all but one of your scarves. Did you know that you can wear the same scarf in at least twenty five different ways. This video shows you how.
Develop a fashion style of your own. This will help you avoid buying trendy items.
Give up your clothes dryer. Dry on the line instead.
Become a coupon broker. Earn an income while finding your own money-saving deals!
Switch to re-usable nappies. Money Saving Expert shows that you can save £500 on your child’s total nappies cost if you make the switch.
Switch to re-usable feminine hygiene products. You can even make them yourself out of leftover fabric remnants.
Re-use coffee filters. They can be rinsed and re-used four or five times before they need to be thrown out, saving you a lot of money over the year.
Re-use dryer sheets. Or find alternative uses for them.
Invest in a slow cooker. Countless cheap recipes can be made using this single kitchen appliance.
Use beans in recipes that call for meat. It provides the texture you want at a much lower cost.
Buy foods that are in season. They are cheaper especially if they are local.
Get a makeover at the beauty counter of a big store. It doesn’t cost anything as long as you don’t get lured into buying the products they are trying to sell you!
Make your own sunscreen.
Use tea bags to treat sunburns. Just in case your sunscreen didn’t work!
Use nice smelling foods to make your house smell nice. Vanilla on a cotton ball, cinnamon sprinkled on a candle and fresh herbs growing in the kitchen are some of the ways that you can do this.
Use your own urine as a skin care product. It’s a lot cheaper than what you can buy in the store to get clear skin!
Never pay for apps. If you use an iPod or smartphone then commit to only getting apps that are available for free.
Use our 101 free alternatives to paid software.
Visit openings at art galleries. This is a great free date where you can enjoy wine and snacks at no charge while spending time around creative people.
Check out free local museums. This is another creative experience that educates you without costing anything.
Plant vegetables in your home instead of buying fresh flowers. They are just as pretty, much cheaper and can be turned into meals.
Only shop on money-off weekends at big stores. The Irish Daily Mirror reminds us that big chains like B&Q often host these huge money-saving days.
Give up your phone. Yes, your mobile as well as your landline. You can make all of your calls through Skype and other free/cheap online chat services.
Move into a tiny home. People are living in homes that are 30 square metres or smaller. Your energy and water costs would be a lot lower if you did this. Are you creative enough to make it work?
Invest in white roofing. It saves on energy costs.
Switch to LED lights in your home. They cost a little bit more at first but save a lot of money over time.
Use your home’s greywater.
Update the insulation in your home. You’ll spend a lot less on heating and cooling the home. DIY to save money.
Fix all leaks in the house. The wasted water is wasting your money.
Use natural sunlight in the home. Then you don’t have to pay for lighting.
Only use free items for craft projects. It will challenge you to be even more creative with your artistic endeavors!
Read blogs instead of magazines. Magazine subscriptions are too expensive and blogs are free.
Give up the newspaper. Get your news online. Got old newspapers around the house? Here are some ways to use them.
Embrace re-gifting. Who ever said it was a tacky practice? It’s actually a great money-saving idea!
Bake cookies. Wrap them up in tissue paper and give them as inexpensive gifts.
Bring back board games. What a fun cheap way to entertain people of any age.
Go on free walking tours. Another great cheap activity for all ages.
Host potluck parties. Challenge everyone to bring the least expensive dish they can make.
Build your own casket. It is a little bit morbid but they cost a lot of money and it’s not a cost many people can think through clearly when they are dealing with a death in the family.
Repurpose your pet’s fur. You can save it up and turn it into fiber to use for yarn-based crafts.
Use olive oil around the house. It is a moisturizer, a furniture polisher and more.
Buy paper doilies. They are cheap and can be used to decorate everything from dinner to weddings.
Become an IKEA hacker.
Make your own household cleaners. Baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar can replace most commercial cleaners.
Research new money-saving theories. For example, learn about The Shopper Continuum.
Get free samples of shampoo and conditioner. Use them as cleaners all around the house.
Give up your car. Be a cyclist or pedestrian instead. Use car share as needed. Rent out your parking space for more money.
Become a hiker. It’s a cheap activity that gets you fit and keeps you busy at the same time.
Take a nap. Getting enough sleep keeps you healthy so you don’t incur health care and medication costs.
Decorate your home with burlap. These cheap fabric is great for window treatments, tablecloths and more.
Make plarn. Turn plastic bags into yarn and use it to crochet household items.
Make tarn. The same thing can be done with old T-shirts.
Buy a hula hoop and a jump rope. You can use these fun items to get exercise so you don’t have to pay for a gym membership anymore.
Shop in your own house. For example, when it’s time to get school supplies, look through the house to see if you have notepads and writing utensils that can be used.
Make your own reusable Swiffer sheets. Old socks or reclaimed yarn can be used for this task.
Explore open houses. Need some free entertainment? Visit local open houses to get inspired by the architecture.
Work from home. You will avoid commuting costs.
Use social lending. Avoid high interest loans. If you need a loan look into the option of peer to peer lending.
Hang out on campus. Your local college probably has free performances and lectures for the public to enjoy. Your local high school probably has free sports events.
Go to poetry readings. They are free, creative and fun.
Make your own beer. Learn more from Wise Bread.
Or drink only water. Especially at restaurants, but also at home.
Learn to love local bands. Their shows are a lot cheaper than traditional summer concerts.
Learn how to stretch your own canvas. This saves you money if you’re an artist.
Use free address labels. They come in the mail and you probably don’t use them up. Here are some other uses for them.
Turn old crayon bits into candles. Here’s how.
Take free classes. They’re available from various sources both online and offline and are a great way to learn something new.
Get free advice. Local organizations offer professional advice at no charge for many of the questions you may have in life.
Repurpose old calendars and cards into artwork. Don’t pay more for art!
Use social media to market yourself. It’s the cheapest option for anything you want to spread the word about.
Shop online. You can save a lot of money by shopping online instead of at stores. Set budgets and use discount codes to lower costs further.
Use Cheapism. This site helps you figure out which budget items are worth buying.
Shop used. If you need an item you should always see if you can get it used.
Send the kids to the babysitter’s house. Stay home together alone instead of going out on a pricey date.
Start a business. Bringing in new income is a great way to offset your other costs. Plus starting a business looks good on a resume and makes you more employable in traditional jobs, too!
Use crowdfunding to get money for creative projects.
Collect coins. CNN explains that they can be worth a lot of money so you should always look at the ones that you come across.
Spend time instead of money. Spend time doing free things with family. Volunteer time instead of doing an activity that costs money. Barter your time to get the services you need.
Get competitive about saving money. Challenge a spouse or friend to save more than you.
Think positive about your finances. Positive thinking will help improve your money attitude and will assist in your enjoyment of saving more money.
Source http://www.promotionalcodes.org.uk/

Do your research before launching home business

2011-05-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

Whether it's to be your own boss or to spend more time with your family, starting and running a business from home can satisfy both those needs.

However, there are things to consider before you embark on this venture, things that will determine the success or failure or your home-based business, said Andrew Patricio, founder of BizLaunch.com in Toronto.

There are two ways you can go about deciding what business you may want to launch: Take note of your skills and see if you can build a business around one of them, or do some research and see where there is an opportunity for business.

"I don't like when people just come up with random ideas," Patricio said. "Typically, a small business owner will say, 'But people need this,' but it doesn't matter what they need, it's about what people want to pay for."

So if you have a product or service in mind, if the research reveals there is no market or demand for it and it won't make a profit, you have to scrap the idea and think of something else.

Patricio said people want to start a business based on what they're passionate about, but the danger is that it isn't always a viable business.

"Can you make money from it? That's the question," he said. "Whether you love something or not, it's nice, but sometimes passion clouds your idea."

Patricio said the ideal businesses to run from home are service-oriented, like a consulting, a training or interior designing, and today's technology easily enables people to do this.

"You don't need an office, you can have your employees on Skype so you can speak to them and message them, and you can all be working from home," he said.

After you've done your market research and found potential paying customers, drawing up a business plan is the next step, Patricio said. This displays your idea clearly on paper, the numbers are there, there is a marketing plan and it shows commitment.

"Even though we don't believe those numbers most of the time, the fact that you've written it down, you've checked the viability of the idea, it's a good starting point," he said.

Patricio then suggested taking your plan to three or four business owners, who aren't family and who will be honest with you about your idea and ask the hard questions.

Now that you have a viable idea, you have to make sure you have the right mindset in preparation for running a home-based business. Patricio said two very important qualities to have are being good at selling yourself and perseverance.

"You'll realize very quickly once you leave a big company, no one returns calls or emails, no one even remembers who you are as soon as you start your own business, so you have to understand these challenges," Patricio said.

In terms of marketing, Patricio said people expect you to have your own website, but realistically, you could be on Facebook or Twitter and not have a website at all.

"I prefer social media to a website. The only problem is if you don't have a website it's like not having a business card and people may think, 'Well she can't be that serious she doesn't even have a business card,'" he said.

There is some paperwork you have to do when starting your own business, like registering your corporation and getting insurance. Patricio said these are easy steps, but don't even think about them until you have customers.

"A lot of small business owners in Canada, we don't even register our businesses, what we do is start off as sole proprietors, which is 100 per cent legal, then as soon as we see the business getting a bit of traction our accountant will usually say incorporate," he said.

After you are established and working at home, Patricio said you need to remember you are still working and you have to behave as such. You still have to act as a professional and develop a routine.

"You have to have good self-discipline to stay on task and be organized," he said. "This includes daily to-do lists, systems and processes, ways of doing things, or it will be chaos otherwise."

Patricio said you must set regular hours and have a uniform that's not pyjamas. Also you need a dedicated office space so the kids are not coming in and out or the dog isn't barking while you are on an important call.

Patricio suggested setting boundaries and guidelines and keep work and home life as separate as possible. Have a conversation with your friends and family so they understand what's expected of them when you are working.

Most importantly, be realistic. Patricio said while many home businesses are successful, many also fail, with the main reason being not enough profit.

"Opening the business is the easy part - staying in business is the difficult part,' he said.

"The first three years in business you are not going to make a profit, there's the reality."

A good rule to follow, Patricio said, is if you're not making money within three to five years, you should consider changing or refocusing the business, or go back to work.

Source http://www.insidetoronto.com/

Cumbrian woman banned from breeding cats at her home

2011-05-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

An award-winning cat breeder is taking legal advice after being told she cannot breed or sell show cats at her home.

Paula Barrowclough, who runs Posh Kitties in Seascale, says she is “devastated” that Copeland planners have refused permission to change her home to a private cat breeding premises.

The decision means that she can longer breed or sell Ragdoll or Maine Coon cats and it could mean that the 17 pet show cats that she owns may need to be re-homed.

The mum-of-four is now deeply concerned about the knock-on effect this will have on her life.

She is worried that she will not be able to afford to keep her home and will struggle to look after her children, three of whom have serious medical problems.

Mrs Barrowclough said: “I used to be on benefits but when I started breeding the cats I was able to stay at home, make money to take the cats to the shows and look after my children.

“The cats are important but my family comes first. I need to provide for my family.”

She says although Posh Kitties is a registered business, she classes it more as a hobby.

She said: “I have always been an animal lover. It started with a few of them, and then we got a few more. We started showing them and we now have about 300 rosettes and 10 trophies. It’s hard work, but it’s fun.”

“It stops me from claiming benefits and it pays the bills. It fits in with my life.”

She added: “The Government are trying to get people to come off benefits and not go back on them. It’s going to cost them more money if this goes ahead, compared to if they let me carry on with what I’m doing.”

She says one of main concerns is what will happen next.

“There is no way they can take my cats away. Whatever happens, the cats are staying.”

Mrs Barrowclough has contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau to seek legal advice.

“As far as I’m concerned there are no licence rules on breeding cats. I can continue to breed cats from where I live,” she said.

According to Copeland Council guidelines, an agreement will have to be made to authorise enforcement action to secure the removal of the business.

If needed, the council may also need to re-home the cats that currently live at Mrs Barrowclough’s house.

Copeland’s planning panel discussed the retrospective application at a meeting last week.

Councillors heard that Posh Kitties sells show cats that are surplus to requirement, in order to fund the hobby.

The cats are kept in two sheds at the home and the cats use a special enclosed area in the garden.

Members of the panel heard that in terms of the cat breeding proposal, the number of cats vary and it is very difficult to control.

A number of objections were raised by neighbours and a nearby nursery about the planning application.

These included concerns that the cat breeding hobby is being run as a small business with potential for expansion if permission is granted, concern about whether waste will be disposed of properly and the noise of the cats and the affect on the local wildlife.

Seascale Parish Council were “very concerned and uncomfortable” about the retrospective application.

Environmental Health said the noise is unlikely to be a problem and there are no current problems with odour or waste.

Mrs Barrowclough said the wildlife in the area was not affected as a result of her keeping the cats.

Councillors ruled that the development would have “a significant adverse affect on neighbouring residential amenity in terms of noise, smell and general disturbance arising from the comings and goings of visitors.”

Coun Alan Jacob said: “The site visit was very useful. It’s not the ideal place for a business. Other than the community aspects, I do not think there is a serious problem. If I was given the opportunity of setting up a business, I would have found a remote farm not in a place like that.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk

MAKING MONEY How to get good ROI

2011-05-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Investors are investors. They want a return on their investment. That means, typically, a property that is producing enough rental income to pay the mortgage and expenses plus an interest rate that is higher than what they might get at the bank.
And if they can’t find a fully-leased property at a price they can justify, they look for bargains
“Investors are looking for deeply-discounted buysbank-owned properties and short sales,” said Alex Aydelotte, partner in Florida Commercial Enterprises, LLC in Stuart, a firm that specializes in investment properties.
Who are the investors? Aydelotte said they often have cash buyers who can take a distressed property, usually financially-distressed, and turn it around. Contractors are also looking for more business and it costs less to build for a new tenant than it did just a few years ago.
Sometimes, the investors are just looking for a place to do business.
“We’re seeing an increase in owner-occupants,” Aydelotte said. “Say, an attorney who wants to buy a building rather than renting.” And the new owner-occupant can take advantage of low property prices.
“It’s more difficult to get financing. But there is money for occupants who want to buy the building,” he said. “It’s a safer investment for the banks.”
Even if they don’t get bank financing, there are some properties with owner financing, he said.
Multi-family is attracting attention: “The hottest market right now is multi-family,” said Carl Sciara, CCIM, broker/associate with Dale Sorensen Real Estate and a certified commercial and investment property expert.
“It (multifamily) seems to be the most stable income stream and vacancies are low, maybe around 10 percent,” Sciara said. Investors are looking at triplexes and duplexes but apartments buildings are generating the most buyer interest.
Vacancies are low because rents are low; landlords aren’t looking for a top returns, or capitalization “cap” rates. But rents are starting to rise, he said. And that could make it cheaper to buy a home than to rent, raising vacancy rates, Sciara said. That will make other commercial investment properties look more attractive.
“There are always buyers for investment properties but the criteria to evaluate a property changes with the economy,” Aydelotte said. “We’re seeing some stabilization in the market and we hope to see more balance, as many buyers as sellers.”
“Investors don’t need a triple-net lease to invest,” he said. But there is always higher demand for fully-leased and financially-productive properties. “Good net operating income,” Aydelotte said. “That’s what’s driving investments.”
Source http://www.tcpalm.com/

Buying Beats Renting in 80 percent of U.S. Cities

2011-05-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Homeownership is getting more affordable, but will house hunters make the move this season?Thanks to falling home prices and rising rents, would-be home buyers have the upper hand this house-hunting season. In nearly 4 out of 5 major U.S. cities, it's now cheaper to buy a home than to rent. That's up from 72 percent of cities last quarter, based on the Rent vs. Buy Index released by online real estate resource Trulia.
"With home prices nearing a double-dip and more foreclosures expected to flood the housing market over the next two years, the decision between renting and buying a home across most of the country has clearly moved in favor of buying," said Ken Shuman, head of communications at Trulia, in a press release. "As we head into the summer buying season, those looking to buy a home should be encouraged by improvements in the market and feel optimistic about their chances of finding an affordable home, much more so than in previous years."
[In Pictures: 10 Major Cities Where Buying Beats Renting.]
Areas with the most affordable housing market conditions tend to be cities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami. Meanwhile, those with more affordable rental markets included New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Omaha, San Jose, and Detroit had some of the largest quarter-over-quarter jumps in favor of homeownership.
Despite the overwhelming data supporting home buying this season, experts emphasize that above all, the real estate market is local. "This metric is a good baseline for the rent versus buy decision, but it doesn't capture everything," says Jonathan Miller, president of New York City-based Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers. "Locally, it may be cheaper to buy then rent, but that doesn't speak to your investment. In other words, how many years before I can 'get above water,' or see a return?"
[See Why We're Shunning the McMansion.]
The time factor is one of many stumbling blocks preventing house hunters from making the jump from window shoppers to homeowners, Miller says. During the housing boom, homeowners were virtually guaranteed to make money or at least break even on their home sales, regardless of the period they owned the home. In today's market, experts see home prices appreciating much slower, therefore home owners will have to make a longer commitment to their housing investments than in previous years. "The future upside is much farther down the road," he says. "You're looking at five, maybe 10 years out of this sort of rocky bottom."
Until consumers regain confidence in the housing market and economy, Miller and others expect the rental market will continue to benefit from apprehensive house hunters. "There's been some erosion in attitudes toward homeownership," says Eric Belsky, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. "There's two parts to the home buying decision: the will and the way."
[See What Moves Mortgage Rates?]
Belsky says the spike in home prices and increased housing market activity following the first-time home buyer tax credit in 2010 demonstrates pent-up demand, but that the market isn't currently providing enough incentive for house hunters to make a move. "The 'way' right now is really being blocked by the underwriting standards being applied to loans," he says. Even if some of the slack in the market tightens, the rebound won't be as strong as it would otherwise have been, Belsky says, primarily because many would-be home buyers won't be able to qualify for a loan with favorable terms.
Source http://money.usnews.com/

Your Home: How to sell in tough times

2011-05-03T11:03:00.001-07:00

(MONEY Magazine) -- If you're in the market to sell your home, you probably feel you can't catch a break. Nearly five years into the housing bust, when many experts thought the real estate market would at least have stabilized, sales and prices are still dropping in most of the country.
In February existing-home sales tumbled 9.6% from the previous month, and the median price of a single-family home dropped to $157,000 from $163,900 the previous year, according to the National Association of Realtors. (Latest home prices)
You can't count on things turning around soon, either. At the current sales pace, it would take 8.6 months to clear out the 3.5 million existing homes listed today.
With the boost from the recent homebuyer tax credit gone, anyone who decides or is forced to put a house up for sale enters a market where houses often linger a full six months -- even a year -- without any bites.
Put part of the blame on stiff competition: Foreclosures and short sales, which accounted for 39% of sales in February, sell for about 15% less than conventional homes.
"It's dreadful out there for sellers," says Patrick Newport, a U.S. economist at forecasting firm IHS Global Insight.
Fortunately, there is one glimmer of good news. Bargain hunters, too, know that home prices are down some 32% from their peak. In a recent CNNMoney survey, three-quarters said that it was a good time to buy a home. But translating that interest into an actual sale can require some extreme measures.
It's not enough to show buyers your house is a deal: You have to convince them it's a total steal. That means slashing your price, bringing in a pro to pretty it up, and creating a killer website for your home. Here's how to do it right.
Slash Your Price, Bigtime
Sellers are still loath to accept the extent of the toll the bust took on their homes' value, says Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator for the housing website Trulia.com.
Many also give in to the temptation to list the property above fair market value to see what happens. Big mistake. About a quarter of sellers in the past year initially listed too high and were forced to knock the price lower, according to Trulia.com. Even in cities that have held up well, such as Charlotte, 25% of sellers resort to at least one price cut, and often two.
6 cities slashing prices
Think you can always drop the price if your home doesn't sell? Bigger mistake.
"The first 30 days on the market are the most important," says Norwalk, Conn., realtor Elizabeth Kamar. That's when your place attracts the most attention and gets the most showings. The result: You often end up with less than you would have if you priced it right to begin with, says Kamar. So get aggressive right out of the gate.
Undercut your competition. In normal times listings of similar properties in your area would give you a good sense of what your home might sell for. Today there's a big gap between what sellers want and what buyers are willing to pay.
Instead, figure out what you can realistically expect to get by asking your realtor to show you what houses similar to yours have sold for in the past three to six months. If more than a couple of the comparable properties were foreclosures or short sales, look closely at the photos and descriptions of those former listings. Distressed homes should be included in your comps if they are in move-in condition, says Las Vegas realtor Paul Bell.
Once you have a handle on your likely sale price, list your home a bit beneath that, says Rockaway, N.J., agent Ellen Klein. You don't have to undercut by much to attract attention, because that price will probably still be about 10% or 15% below what other homes are listed for. Even if you're competing with lots of foreclosures and short sales, your price should generate enough interest to attract more than one bidder, pushing up the final price to where it should be.
When Dorchester, Mass., realtor Julie Simmons wanted to sell her own home in January, she listed it at $460,000, about $5,000 to $10,000 below what she thought she'd sell for.
"I knew I had to attract attention," she says. Even in a harsh winter, she received four offers in less than two weeks -- and sold for $465,000.
Take out the ax. No bites within 30 days? Make a big move.
"When a property sits, people start thinking it must be listed too high," says Klein. To stimulate interest, make a giant cut -- as much as 10% of the asking price, and even more in an area where prices are still falling. That should be enough to warrant a second look from buyers who passed the first time, and to bring in a new pool of potentials who are hunting in the lower price range.
Last year Montclair, N.J., empty nesters Peter and Lauren Meyer decided to downsize from their seven-bedroom home to an apartment in the same town. They put their home on the market for $1.1 million, more than their realtor suggested. Six months and four price cuts later they pulled it off the market at $889,000.
"At that point we wrestled with lowering the price further, but we were ready to move on," says Peter. The couple relisted their home for $799,000 and it sold for $808,000.
Play hardball. It's okay to reject low-ball offers if a buyer won't budge. But if a buyer is willing to negotiate, push aside feelings of anger or insult and start counteroffering, says Mabel Guzman, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors.
Ideally you'll be able to negotiate within $10,000 to $20,000 of an acceptable offer. Then, "using incentives as carrots and sticks can make it easier to reach an agreement," says Guzman. For example, if your buyer refuses to dicker, you might offer to leave behind the appliances. Or maybe you'd rather take the reduced price but have the buyer agree that you take 60 days, not 30, to move out.
Hire a Stager
There are people who want to sell, and there are people who have to sell. Kathy and Rex Roberts are among the latter. Based in West Hartford, Conn., the couple, who have two children, have been living in different cities since early December, when Rex, an IT auditor, started a new job in Silver Spring, Md., after a layoff.
Before and after: Manhattan loft makeover
Listed that same month, their solidly built three-bedroom 1956 colonial has had no offers, despite two price cuts (it's currently at $389,500). Between rent on Rex's new place and their carrying costs on the house, they're paying a budget-straining $4,000 a month. "We need to sell," says Rex, "but we're not willing to drop the price again."
So in March they tried something new: professional home staging. Staging, increasingly popular with homeowners trying to sell mid-range houses, can extend from simply rearranging existing furniture to repainting, replacing fixtures, and bringing in new furnishings. The goal: to highlight the house's best features while making it as easy as possible for buyers to imagine themselves living there. Veteran real estate brokers interviewed by MONEY say that proper staging can speed the sale and often increase the price too. The key is to get it done right.
Start with an open mind. Staging demands a psychological shift that many homeowners find challenging: thinking of your house not as your home but as a set. That means scrubbing away evidence that you actually live there. Your goal: the homey yet impersonal look of a Pottery Barn catalogue.
Find the right stager. The ASP (accredited staging professional) designation is a plus -- it indicates the stager has gone through some basic training -- but it isn't essential. Get names from realtors or at realestatestagingassociation.com, then review the stager's online portfolio of before-and-after photos. Next, call homeowner references and ask how fast their homes sold after staging and whether they think the work helped.
Establish a budget and ask the stager to work within it. Stagers typically charge $150 to $400 to walk through your home and give recommendations for each room. You can then execute the plan yourself or hire the stager to do it for an hourly fee, usually $100 or so, plus the cost of any new paint or furnishings.
If you make big changes, costs can add up -- but "I can often make a huge difference using what homeowners already have," says Mary D. Brooks, a stager and realtor from Breckenridge, Colo.
See whether your realtor will pay. If you're on the hook for a full 6% commission, you have significant negotiating power. "I'm happy to pay for staging because I know it works," says realtor Paul Aspelin of Victoria, Minn.
As for the Robertses, after getting advice from stager Kara Woods, owner of Stage to Move in Danbury, Conn., they painted their lavender dining room a soft gray and removed excess furniture, among other things; a professional stylist redid the living room (see above). "It's incredible how much bigger and more modern it looks," says Kathy.
Find the Right Hook
These days it's going to take far more than a FOR SALE sign in the front yard and a spot on the multiple-listing service to get potential buyers in the door. That means getting the word out in a creative fashion -- and finding a realtor who is willing to do the same.
"The more eyeballs that get on the listing, the better," says Katie Curnutte of the real estate information website Zillow.com. To do that, you need a multipronged marketing plan of attack.
Create a great site. About 90% of buyers begin their search on the Internet, according to the National Association of Realtors. Make sure your home's online presence has a dozen or two photos: Having 20 instead of five photos will almost double the number of hits you'll get, according to Zillow.com. See the sidebar at right for more ways to keep potential buyers clicking on your site.
Vulture investors flipping their way to real estate profits
Throw money at them. Incentives can perk buyers' interest just as much as price cuts, says Matt Brown, director of business development at ForSaleByOwner.com. In fact, many buyers will agree to a higher price if their upfront costs are lowered, since they often run short on cash.
If you can afford it, offer to cover the buyer's closing costs or pay the first year's property taxes or condo or homeowner association dues. However, those freebies may be practically standard, particularly in areas rife with distressed properties.
In that case, says realtor Guzman, you might be able to bring buyers to the door by tossing in an unusual bonus, such as a $1,000 gift card (throw in one for the buyer's agent as well); a belonging they mentioned loving, such as the pool table or plasma TV; or a $5,000 credit to use in the home as they wish. (You can even pay upfront points so that they can get a lower mortgage rate, if you can swing it.)
Be aware, though, that you must disclose any such gifts or payments when the offer is agreed on, and some lenders will not approve them. If so, you might have to find another incentive that the bank doesn't object to.
Showcase super condition. Yes, some buyers are hunting for foreclosures in rough shape that they can nab for a song. Yet just as many shoppers don't want -- or don't know how -- to put in that sweat equity. So hire an inspector to identify every problem with the home, even seemingly minor issues such as dripping faucets, and fix them.
"If an outlet doesn't work, why get the buyer wondering what else is broken?" asks Beth Foley, an associate broker in Holland, Mich. Tell your realtor to give anyone who tours your home a copy of the inspection report and your list of fixes.
Spread the word online. Having your home listed on a major website like Realtor.com isn't enough. Ask your realtor if you'll get an "enhanced" listing on the site, where your home gets top promotional billing. Many realtors will create a website just for your home. You also want to get your listing on alternative sites like Craigslist or even Facebook.
In 2009, when Karen Mauro put her small, historic two-bedroom Orange County, Calif., home on the market she thought it would be a tough sale. Realtor Lisa Blanc listed the property at $467,500 and spread the word not only through the MLS listing but also with an update on her Facebook page. A Facebook friend of Blanc's passed the info to someone she knew was looking for that kind of house. Within a week, Mauro had an offer for $460,000.
Stay away -- far away. In better times you may not feel obliged to drop everything to accommodate prospective buyers' schedules. Today, if buyers can't get in on their time, they'll skip it, says Summer Greene, who manages realtors in the Fort Lauderdale area. So be prepared to show a perfectly clean home at a moment's notice. And disappear (along with your dog, if possible) for all showings and open houses so that prospects can imagine themselves in your house -- an impossible task when your family is vegging on the couch.
When Betty McCoy began showing her Prairie Village, Kans., three-bedroom Cape Cod - style house, for example, she kept a list of must-do chores -- including emptying wastebaskets, filling the dishwasher, and making the bed and walked out every morning with the place spotless. On the weekend she holed up at a local mall.
"Every time I thought I could go home, a new person wanted to see the house," recalls McCoy. But a few extra hours at the mall paid off in spades. In just a few days McCoy had an offer for her home -- for the full listing price.
Source http://money.cnn.com/

The set-top box is dead; long live the home gateway

2011-05-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

The set-top box has become the most hated device since HBO adopted Videocipher, and it appears to be on its way out.
Predictions of its death are rising by the earnings call. But what might be dying is not so much the device as the way the device was originally envisioned. The set-top box as protector of content and changer of channels is probably dead--or sucking in its last breaths.
The home gateway, its next iteration, is alive, well and worming its way into residences. At least that seemed to be the underbelly of the messages coming out from a variety of sources last week.
Time Warner Cable's (NYSE: TWC) Glenn Britt took pride in explaining how his MSO's true purpose in life is to deliver high-speed broadband services and again proclaimed that advanced consumer electronics were going to kill the set-top box. Maybe not tomorrow, he was cautious enough to say, but the end is near.
Ken Morse, CTO of Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) Service Provider Technology group, speaking at a Light Reading-sponsored conference, made Scientific-Atlanta veterans shudder when he announced that "Set-tops are clearly moving to the point where they are either a piece of software that lives in another device or they're virtualized totally in the cloud."
And Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI), a company built on cable boxes--the bread and butter of the former General Instrument--now made it clear that it's mostly involved with building and selling cellphones.Cable boxes admittedly make money but, as Chairman-CEO Sanjay Jha made clear during an earnings conference call, Motorola's focus is bigger than a box on top of the television set and its R&D efforts are going towards "investing in the transformation to an all-IP network and cloud-based multi-screen consumer experiences."
So that's it. The cable box is dead. The FCC doesn't need to worry about opening it up because those who use it and build it don't want it. It's an artifact from the past: a way to change channels, to protect content that's now freely available from the Internet and multiple other sources, and to extract a monthly fee from consumers who hate the device with a passion usually reserved for the New York Yankees.
The problem with writing that obituary is that as long as pay TV provides make the effort to protect their content--and because it is pay TV they will always make an effort to protect content--something will have to do the job. It may not be a set-top box as configured today, but frankly, those monstrous consumer electronics devices that cable operators have been providing to their subscribers are hardly set-top-sized boxes anyway. When was the last time you saw a cable box sitting on top of flat screen TV?
If sitting on top of a TV is the criterion, cable "set-tops" have been dead longer than unmetered Internet access. That's not the point. To protect the service and to facilitate new services, there must be a device between the TV and the viewer. It could be a gaming box--certainly Microsoft is looking at TV yet again. It could be a computer or some other such device fueled by Google or Apple. It could be a tablet or a telephone. It might not be a set-top box--but then again it might be the latest iteration of a set-top box--a "home gateway" that controls not only the television but the computer, the tablet and other devices around the home.
The guess here is that the set-top is going to go the way of the converter box. It will still be there in some form; it will just have another name and, eventually, its own standard or loathing.--Jim
Source http://www.fiercecable.com/