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Jeanette Joy Fisher - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Jeanette Fisher, author of multiple books, including university textbooks and encyclopedia articles on color psychology, has researched the effects of the environment on emotions for over 15 years. Jeanette has appeared on internationally syndicated radio and television and teaches Design Psychology and real estate investing.
She offers free information on interior design, real estate investing, and mortgage credit help from her websites. Jeanette Fisher's books, available from her websites and from Amazon, help real ... [More]
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- Gas Mileage Myth #1 - Do Manual Transmissions Get the Best Gas Mileage?
[Automotive] Although it was once true that four- or five-speed manual transmissions were more efficient than the non-overdrive, three-speed automatics that were common before the mid-1980s, the mileage gap between the two has been shrinking for more than two decades. Modern overdrive automatic transmissions feature more than just three forward gears. In fact, many of them have five, six, or even seven gears.
- Italian Lime Plaster Decorative Wall Finishes Add Old World Charm
[Home-Improvement:Painting] The use of Italian decorative plaster has become an increasingly popular decorating technique in homes across America. It's a versatile medium that can be used in a number of ways to create dramatic wall and ceiling effects, and its use has been growing in recent years around the country.
- Three Writing Tips to Help You Get Published
[Writing-and-Speaking:Publishing] So you've finally decided you want to be a good writer? Good for you. It's not enough just to get your thoughts down on paper or in your computer. If you're going to be successful as a writer, regardless of whether you're hoping to write for the book trades, magazines, newspapers, or the Internet, you need to follow long-established rules when it comes to creating superior writing. Here are a few of those rules to get you started.
- How Do You Stage an Empty House?
[Real-Estate:Selling] There are some home staging companies out there that will try to convince you that you need to bring in truckloads of furniture to stage an empty house, but I don't think that's necessary, and it may even be counterproductive. After all, the whole idea is to encourage home buyers to envision their own furnishings in your home when they walk in. On the other hand, you don't want someone to walk in and get a feeling of coldness and sterility, either.
- You've Found Your Dream Home But Your Old House Hasn't Sold - Besides Home Staging, What Can You Do?
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] It's a situation more and more Americans are likely to find themselves in as more homes come on the market but are taking longer to sell. What can you do if you locate your dream home before you've sold your current one? You have several options.
- Take Your Shoes Off, Please - Why Health Customs Make Sense for American Homes
[Home-and-Family] It's a long-held custom among many cultures to remove your shoes when you enter a home. In Asian homes, for instance, it's considered a gesture of respect for your host and a way to honor a house's purity and cleanliness. On the other side of the world, it has been considered impermissible to enter someone else's home without removing your shoes since the 15th century. However, for some reason, that custom has never been universally accepted in America--but there are some good reasons for considering starting that custom in your own home. Here are just a few.
- A Beginner's Guide to Flipping Houses in 2008 - Five Problems and Solutions
[Real-Estate:Investing] What's different about flipping houses in today's market? Many beginning real estate investors will make a fortune in 2008. If you have courage and will take the time to learn your local real estate market, here are five problems and solutions for flipping houses in 2008.
- Are Home Remodeling Costs Down?
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] Lately we've been inundated by doom-and-gloom news in the media about the real estate market. But if you're planning to stay in your home and remodel or upgrade a rental for future resale, how does the real estate market influence your decision? A year or so ago, the market was on fire and building materials and labor were scarce and expensive since the demand for both was equally hot.
- The Trouble With Short Sales
[Real-Estate:Investing] As the real estate market tightens, investors will find more and more short sales available. Sounds great from an investor standpoint, right? Well, there are some things you need to know before you start the process.
- Flipping Houses - Is It Too Late To Make Money Flipping Houses? 3 Things You Need To Know
[Real-Estate:Investing] Concerns over rising interest rates and the real estate market change from a sellers' market to a buyers' market scare beginning real estate investors. But, what difference do interest rates and sales prices make to real estate investors?
- The Largest and Fastest Growing Large Cities in America
[Real-Estate:Investing] Although it may be hard to believe, there are only nine U.S. cities that have populations of more than a million people. On the other end of the scale, there are only three American states that have no cities with populations of more than 100,000.
- Real Estate News - The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty
[Real-Estate:Investing] As most people expected, the Federal Reserve did cut interest rates in September, but that doesn't necessarily mean that mortgage rates are going down, too, since the two rates aren't inextricably tied together. That was made apparent back in 2003, when the Fed adjusted rates thirteen times in a six-month period-eight times down and five times up-without a noticeable effect on mortgage rates.
- Wall Faux Finishes and Selecting Colors - Designer Secrets
[Home-Improvement:Painting] If you want the high-end design on a budget, try faux finishes on your walls. Besides giving your home an updated style, faux finishes add color and depth to rooms. Although every faux finishing project you tackle will be different, choosing the appropriate colors will always need to be one of your first design choices. Whichever room you're redecorating, your choice of colors will need to take in a wide variety of criteria.
- Why Do Women Still Live Longer Than Men?
[Health-and-Fitness:Womens-Issues] A recent Harvard study seems to indicate that, among other gender-related factors, menopause may be a major reason for the disparity in average live span between women and men.
- Faux Painting - A Simple But Effective Home Improvement Project
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Repainting walls has traditionally been the number one home improvement project among homeowners, and that's not likely to change. After all, a new splash of color can make a huge difference in the look and feel of a room - without breaking the bank in the process - and faux painting can add an even greater sense of drama to a room.
- Entrepreneurs - Why You Need to Adopt Right-Brained Strategies for Your Business
[Business:Entrepreneurialism] As an entrepreneur, you probably already use more of the creative right side of your brain. However, there have been people over the decades who have argued that a businessperson should rely more on their logical left side if they want to be successful.
- The Truth About Bamboo, The Environment, and Pandas
[News-and-Society:Environmental] It's time we faced the truth about the condition of our world. The truth is, our world is in crisis. Our forests are rapidly disappearing and the environment is continuing to deteriorate. However, there is some really good news on the horizon, and it concerns an amazing plant that's been used by human beings for millennia - bamboo.
- Bamboo Flooring - A Smart Alternative For Great-Looking Green Homes
[Home-Improvement:Flooring] It grows faster than any other wood product, yet it's as durable as the finest hardwoods when used as flooring. The way designers, builders, remodeling contractors, and architects are talking, you'd think it was the latest thing, but bamboo has been used in housing situations for millennia.
- Do You Really Need an Interior Designer?
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] The term interior designer carries with it a certain mystique that makes the average person think of an ethereal individual with an innate sense of color and texture that allows them to transform any space into something unique and wonderful.
- Faux Finish on Beadboard - Designer Secrets for Less
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Beadboard can give even a room in a brand new house a wonderfully antique look, and using faux techniques, you can also make your beadboard look as if it's been in your room forever. Here are the basic steps to get the designer look for less money.
- Faux Finish Walls With Ragging
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Adding a faux finish can add drama and interest to any wall in any room, and ragging is a technique you can easily use to transform the look of a room. Ragging lends a textured effect to a wall while still allowing your chosen background color to show through. Here are some simple steps for you to add faux glamour to your walls.
- Home Buyers Advice - Beware of Interest-Only Loans
[Real-Estate:Buying] One of the most talked about types of mortgage in recent years has been the interest-only loan. Since the principal amount never goes down, the payments are smaller, which can allow home buyers to qualify for as much as 40% more home than they could afford under a more traditional type of mortgage. In fact, as many as 60% of all loans made in California over the past several years were of the interest-only variety. So what's wrong with that?
- Top 5 Mistakes House Flippers Make
[Real-Estate:Investing] We've been flipping houses for many years, and we've learned some valuable (albeit sometimes painful) lessons along the way about what not to do if you want to succeed at buying and selling homes. Here are five of the biggest mistakes I've seen would-be flippers make - mistakes you must avoid in order to reach your own goals.
- Faux Clouds for Children's Bedrooms
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Kids love to lie on their backs on a sunny summer day and gaze up into the clouds. You can easily add a touch of fantasy to your children's room by adding clouds to their walls. It's a bit more difficult to paint faux clouds on a ceiling, but you can get a great look by doing part of a ceiling without a lot of extra work. Here's how to paint clouds.
- Flipping Houses - Should You Hire A Handyman To Help With A Fixer?
[Real-Estate:Investing] If you're new to the house flipping game, you've probably debated whether or not to hire a handyman to help with labor and expertise. You only have so much time, energy, and money, so that debate can be a long and intense one. Let's look at some of the pros and cons of hiring someone to help you flip your houses.
- Which Architectural Style Attracts the Most Buyers?
[Real-Estate:Investing] I'm often asked which style of home is most likely to attract the most buyers when people begin looking for homes to flip. That's always a tough question, because people's tastes vary in different parts of the country. What's hot in one are may be a dog on the market in another, and certain people who would prefer a particular style of home, no matter where they lived.
- Creating a Faux Venetian Plaster Look
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Plaster was common for covering walls in the 19th Century, but with the advent of drywall, plaster fell by the wayside, since it was costlier and took longer to apply. However, with many homeowners looking to recreate the look of plaster walls, the art of creating faux Venetian plaster finishes grows in popularity.
- Home Remodeling - Top 5 Energy Saving Projects for Remodeling Your Home
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Millions of American homeowners plan to remodel instead of move. If you plan to remodel your home, here are some of the most effective projects when it comes to recapturing more of your hard-earned dollars by lowering your home's energy usage.
- Fireplace Mantle Information - New Ideas to Update Ugly Fireplaces
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Remodeling fireplaces doesn't have to be a huge project that involves lots of mess, time, and money. Take a look at the many choices now available to solve fireplace mantle design problems. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
- Real Estate Market Update for Fall 2007 and Forecast 2008
[Real-Estate:Investing] If the real estate market is anything, it's cyclical. Anyone experienced in real estate investing knows that the market goes up and down, but the trend is always upward if you hold on long enough. Only a first-degree optimist could have believed that the frenzied pace of the past few years could continue. It was unsustainable, and everyone connected with the business knew that in their heart-of-hearts.
- Longevity - Which States Lead in Life Expectancy?
[News-and-Society] In a somewhat surprising conclusion after looking at all fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia, researchers discovered that American life expectancy is influenced less than might be expected by such things as personal income, inadequate health insurance, or violence and more by factors such as chronic disease or injury.
- Place Identity - A Strong Human Need
[News-and-Society] Environmental and social psychologists have been studying a concept known as place identity. The study deals with the interaction between the question of who we are and where we are, and how our local environment, including geographical location, ethnic traditions, family heritage, and educational background influence our lives.
- Do You REALLY Want to Fix and Flip Houses?
[Real-Estate:Investing] If you answered all of these difficult-but-essential questions with an honest yes, you can safely begin the process of becoming a home flipper. You'll have ups and downs, but there's also great satisfaction in making a profit from a project you had a personal hand in completing. It's certainly not for everyone, but flipping homes can be profitable, and one that's actually enjoyable-if you approach the process in the right spirit.
- Can You Make Money Flipping Houses in This Market?
[Real-Estate:Investing] Even though the real estate market has entered a "correction cycle," there's no need to sit on the sidelines, waiting for the market to rebound. There's still money in flipping houses, even during an economic downturn. Here are a few suggestions-
- Investors - New Practice in Short Sales
[Real-Estate:Investing] Short sales can be frustrating under the best of conditions, but keeping up with the latest bank methods can often spell the difference between success and failure. Although many of today's most popular investment gurus are touting the benefits of buying properties through short sales, many of them are forgetting to tell their students that...
- Landlords - Drops in Sales Increase Rental Demands
[Real-Estate:Investing] If you, like many investors, have rising property costs, take another look at the average rent in your area. You may be surprised to find that you can raise your rents sooner than you planned.
- Bamboo for Building and Inspiration
[News-and-Society:Environmental] Bamboo has been used as material for roofing, walls, floors, scaffolding, and supports in the Orient and other places around the world for millennia, due mainly to its strength and wide availability. However, bamboo went through a period of neglect by modern builders, but with improved technology, this amazing plant is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and new uses seem to be coming along every day.
- Real Estate Outlook Not as Dismal as Expected
[Real-Estate:Investing] Even thought it has slowed, the U.S. housing market hasn't gone into the swoon predicted by many economists. Most economists don't expect the overall decline in the market to be anywhere near the freefall of the early 80s or 90s.
- Green Building Market Potential - How Green Can You Go?
[Real-Estate:Building-a-Home] Even though the percentage of American homes that are truly green is still very small, a study hints at the enormous potential of the green building market. As with all segments of the American economy, demand triggers supply, and builders seem to be responding to the ever-increasing demand by homebuyers for more energy efficient housing.
- Four Common Short Sale Mistakes
[Real-Estate:Investing] Short sales aren't for everyone. They can be frustrating, even when they go smoothly, but they can turn into nightmares if you don't avoid certain mistakes. Here are some examples of mistakes many short sale investors make.
- Affordable Family Housing Locations - 3 Great American Suburbs
[Real-Estate:Moving-Relocating] Here are three popular suburbs that feature affordable family housing without having to live in the middle of nowhere.
- Bamboo - Amazing Building Qualities
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] If you're wondering what will be the hot commodity in the next few years, think bamboo!
Bamboo offers many advantages, not the least of which is its amazing rate of growth. In fact, no other plant in the world grows faster than bamboo. Once established, bamboo plants will send up a number of shoots that will reach their full height in just one year, which makes bamboo the champion grower of all the woody plants. In fact, the record growth in a single twenty-four period is an astounding 47.6 inches! That's nearly four FEET in one day.
- Save Money on Electricity with the Four Smart Cs
[News-and-Society:Environmental] As energy costs continue to rise, you may be among the millions of Americans who are looking for ways to save electricity around the house. Here are some electricity saving tips that can save you small amounts of money in themselves, but can add up to significant savings when taken altogether.
- Why Real Estate Investors Don't Make Money
[Real-Estate:Investing] Millions of people send thousands of hard-earned dollars every year to self-proclaimed gurus and mentors in pursuit of their real estate investment dreams, only to be end up exactly where they were before--minus the money they spent on so-called real estate education. Why?
- Computer Addiction Affects Young and Old
[Self-Improvement:Addictions] Computers and the Internet are wonderful things, and there is a huge amount of information available to more people than ever before. However, it seems that some people just can't seem to know when to say when.
- Computer Addiction: Social and Multimedia Surfers
[Self-Improvement:Addictions] More and more people find themselves facing a difficult situation with computer addiction. It's an addiction that's shared by young and old, and now strikes as many women as men, as many young people as retirees, and people from every education and intellectual level. Different groups are more likely to be struck by different types of addictions, but there's plenty of computer addiction to go around.
- Buying Real Estate to Make Money: Still Possible in Today's Market?
[Real-Estate:Investing] or years, investors have been buying real estate to make money and build wealth. Today however, the media would have you believe that the real estate bubble has burst and that you can no longer make money buying real estate. Newspapers and television reports love attention-grabbing headlines. But, are headlines based on facts or designed to get you to tune in?
Take a look at how the headlines could read.
- Congress May Crack Down on Homeowner Property Tax Write-Offs
[Finance:Taxes-Property] If you've been writing off your property taxes on your federal income tax form every year, you may need to be more careful with your figures if the recommendations of a report are accepted and adopted into legislation by Congress. A congressional committee recently suggested that many homeowners have been deducting more property tax than they should from their taxes, which, according to the report, has been costing the government hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
- Real Estate Investing: Statistics Challenge Murky Media Coverage
[Real-Estate:Investing] Is real estate investing a bad bet in today's economy or does the media just love doom 'n gloom stories? Take a look at what leading economists say about the real estate market.
- Green Building: From Geodesic Domes to Today's Demand for Energy Efficient Homes
[Real-Estate:Building-a-Home] Going green no longer means geodesic domes or strange-looking houses, owned by staunch environmentalists. Green has become more and more mainstream over the past several decades.
- Scary Real Estate Headlines: Fact or Fiction
[Real-Estate:Investing] If you read many of the real estate investment blogs and forums today, you'll find that a sizable number of people are really concerned about whether it's still possible to make significant amounts of money investing in real estate. It seems as if a fair number of folks have been frightened by headlines they read in the media about a burst in the real estate bubble, a downturn in prices, and the number of homes on the market. Is any of that doom-and-gloom talk true? Let's examine some of the headlines to find out.
- Listing Agents and Real Estate Investors: Pros and Cons of Using an Agent to Sell Your Property
[Real-Estate:Selling] This is an example of the biggest reason why real estate agents have traditionally gotten a bad rap. Some of them are downright dishonest. That's why some investors seem to think they should avoid using real estate agents to buy or sell properties. However, I disagree, and I'm not alone.
- Bankruptcy Credit Repair: 3 Bandages for Life after Bankruptcy
[Finance:Bankruptcy] Millions of Americans are forced to declare bankruptcy every year, but even if you're one of those people, you can begin immediately to rebuild your damaged credit by taking a few relatively easy steps. Here are some ideas to help you get on with your life after bankruptcy:
- Computer Obsession: Is It A Real Addiction?
[Self-Improvement:Addictions] Psychologists disagree as to whether computer obsession is even a real addiction. Although many therapists treat "computer addiction" as a disorder, other therapists claim that computer obsession is more like pathological gambling than a true addiction, because it involves a behavioral failure to resist an impulse and not a physical dependence upon some sort of substance.
- Halloween Decorating Tips - Spooky Fun and a Tree for Halloween?
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Halloween is a time when anyone can be a kid at heart. You can celebrate the spookiest holiday of them all to your heart's content without having to break the bank in the process. With a little thought, you can create great-looking Halloween decorations. You're limited only by your imagination.
- Low-Cost Halloween Decorating Ideas for Fun
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Halloween is a uniquely special time of year, regardless of whether you're a kid or just a kid at heart. It's a holiday time that offers lots of wonderful opportunities to decorate your home creatively, since the subject matter is different from any other holiday. If you're thinking about decorating your porch and yard for the spookiest night of the year, you can do it without having to spend a lot of money. Here are a few low-cost ideas for showing your Halloween spirit to the world:
- Vacation and Second Homes: Four Benefits of Vacation Homes
[Real-Estate:Investing] College educated baby boomers more likely to own second homes. Find out why vacation homes make a great investment.
- Fixing Houses for Profit: Five Ways to Avoid Costly Mistakes
[Real-Estate:Investing] There's no doubt that you can make significant amounts of money by buying, repairing, and reselling houses. However, it takes knowledge, time, and careful planning to make maximum profits in a minimum amount of time, and if you make a mistake along the way, it can make a serious dent in your bottom line. Here are five ways to protect your profit:
- Flipping Houses, Rehabbing, and Landlording: Who Makes the Most Money Investing in Real Estate?
[Real-Estate:Investing] There are many ways to make money in real estate. Two popular and proven ways are flipping houses and landlording. Often, both of these methods involve fixing or rehabbing the property for higher profits. But, who makes the most money?
- How Effective is an Open House for Home Sellers or Real Estate Investors?
[Real-Estate:Investing] Should you hold an open house to sell your home? Should real estate investors stage an open house?
- Home Fight with Allergens: Mites, Dander, Mold
[News-and-Society:Environmental] It can be a jungle out there if you're like millions of Americans who regularly suffer from allergies. However, you don't have to spend a great deal of time outdoors to have your allergies trigger difficult episodes. Even when you think you're safe in your home, dust mites, pet dander, and mold can make life every bit as hard if you're an allergy sufferer.
- Are FSBO Home Sales Gaining Popularity?
[Real-Estate:FSBO] It's not easy to sell a home yourself, but it can be done. There are many things to know when trying to sell a home without the benefit of a real estate agent, but many people across the country do, and the trend may actually be on the increase, according to statistics from a number of sources.
- Fixing and Flipping Houses: 8 Tips for Beginning House Flippers
[Real-Estate:Investing] Fixing and flipping houses is only one way to make money investing in real estate. Many real estate investors start with a fast flip as a way to make money quickly. After a few houses, they expand into other real estate investing strategies like landlording or larger properties like apartments.
If you want to get started in the real estate business, here are eight tips to consider about fixing and flipping houses.
- Flipping Houses: Bargains, Distressed Houses, and Fixer-Uppers - What's the Difference
[Real-Estate:Investing] Flipping houses for money success doesn't depend on an active real estate market or in thirty percent appreciation. Your ability to make money in real estate depends on your ability to buy a bargain property and to sell it or rent it for profit.
- Speakers: Become an Author without Being a Writer Yourself
[Writing-and-Speaking:Writing] If either you don't feel competent enough to write a book or are simply too busy with your speaking engagements to write, you can still create a book to sell at your events. In fact, you have a couple of very good options, depending upon your time and expertise.
- Self-Publishing - From Author's Last Option to Best Option? Five Advantages to Self-Publishing
[Writing-and-Speaking:Publishing] The concept of self-publishing has carried a somewhat negative connotation. However, over the past few years, it's become much more common for authors to self-publish their work and market their books themselves in a variety of creative ways.
In fact, many authors prefer to control their book production and sales. Today's authors self-publish because they make more money, faster, without working so hard.
- Zero Down Home Loans Help Tenants with Rising Rents
[Finance:Credit] Is it time to stop paying someone else's mortgage payment? Now that the housing market appears to be slowing down, rental prices are going up. Many renters find that saving up the 10-20% down payment to buy a home beyond their means, especially since the last five years have seen home prices soar. That's why Zero Down loans are becoming increasingly popular ways for buyers to get into their new homes.
- Home Sellers: Want to Sell Your Home in 2006? Time to Get Serious!
[Real-Estate:Selling] There are still several months left in 2006, but if you're hoping to sell your home by the end of the year, it's time for you to get serious. The reason? This year has proved to be far more difficult year for sellers than last year's record-setting market. Here are four home selling steps to help you.
- House Flipping Laws: Are Real Estate Investors Guilty?
[Real-Estate:Investing] HUD believes that house flippers inflated prices and changed laws to protect consumers. Who is responsible for inflating prices? What does this mean for real estate investors who flip houses?
- How to Increase Your Credit Score for a Home Loan
[Finance:Credit] Since mortgage lenders are businesspeople, first and foremost, they need to determine ahead of time if you're creditworthy before approving a home loan. Here are some suggestions for improving your credit score if there are one or two weak areas in your report.
- Secured Credit Cards Help to Establish Good Credit History
[Finance:Credit] If you travel, you generally need a credit card, even if you're going to pay cash. You need one to make your reservations to rent a car, for example, and you'll also need one when you get to your destination to sign in at your motel. Love them or hate them, credit cards are simply a fact of today's world. However, getting a credit card can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you've never had one before or if you've run into financial difficulty in the relatively recent past. But that doesn't mean you can't get a card, and one way to do that is to sign up for a secured credit card.
Here are a few things you should know if you're thinking about getting a secured card.
- Rebuilding Poor Credit: What Not to Do and What to Do
[Finance:Credit] Many Americans continue to find themselves in a credit muddle. For a variety of reasons, they can't obtain credit while they try to rebuild a ruined credit rating. Here are some things that lenders look at, and some suggestions for how you can make yourself appear more creditworthy to potential creditors.
- Online Credit and Mortgage Scams: Was Your Loan Sold to a New Bank?
[Finance:Loans] If you check your email every morning like millions of other Americans, you probably already know that scammers have become even more aggressive in trying to steal information about unwary consumers than ever before. Recently, one of the most prevalent schemes has been to send scam emails about home mortgage information. There are five main approaches scammers use to try to dupe you out of your personal information.
- Five Things You Should Know About Your Credit Cards
[Finance:Credit] A vast majority of Americans have at least one credit card, and they can be very handy. For instance, have you ever tried to rent a car (or even a movie) without a driver's license and a credit card as ID? However, if you probe a little deeper, you'll generally find that most folks have no idea how much trouble their credit cards could ultimately cause them. Here are a few things you should know about your credit cards.
- Canceling a Credit Card the Easy Way
[Finance:Credit] In today's credit-heavy society, many people are giving thought to canceling one or more credit cards they either don't use or have become dissatisfied with. However, it's not as simple as you might think to cancel a credit card, partly because those companies would like to keep you as a customer, and also because canceling cards may adversely affect your credit rating. Here are a few suggestions for canceling cards safely and easily.
- Home Sellers: Win the House Race
[Real-Estate] Selling a house is like a steeplechase race horse jumping over hurdles. Some race horses make the jumps look so easy; they run and jump in rhythm under the jockey's guidance. The home seller's job is to make home buyer's hurdles easy to jump. Home buyers make up their minds about a house on each step they take or every barrier they cross. As a home seller, you need to make sure your buyer crosses each barrier. Here are eight hurdles for you to win the house race.
- Fixing Houses: Create Space in Bathrooms Without Tearing Down Walls
[Home-Improvement:Bath-and-Shower] Some rehabbers don't mind tearing up a house to make it fit into a desirable area. For instance, many older homes in Los Angeles get torn down to the foundation with just a few walls left. However, most rehabbers like to update a home with new fixtures and features without tearing into the house. Plus, many houses just won't turn a profit with too much reconstruction. One way to update an older home is to make bathrooms feel larger.
- Home Sellers: Prepare Your Home for Sale in a Cool Market with Fire
[Real-Estate] Across the country homes are taking longer to sell. If you have a home for sale, you might consider making a few changes to attract buyers in the cooling real estate market. Not only is the market cooling, so will the weather. It may feel hot to you right now, but in a few weeks, the evenings will get chilly.
- Short Sales: How to Deal with Rejection
[Real-Estate] If a lender does reject your offer, all isn't lost. The first thing to do is to try to determine why your offer was rejected. There are many possible reasons, and if you want the sale to go through, you must job find out exactly what the lender wants in order to make the sale happen. Here are possible reasons.
- Beginner's Real Estate Investing Question: Where to Find Great Deals?
[Real-Estate:Investing] One of the first questions new real estate investors ask is where they can find great deals. It's only natural, since they've often been eagerly watching the various infomercials that crowd late-night television and they're eager to cash in on what seems to be the easy money available in real estate.
- First Time Home Buyer Tips
[Real-Estate] Buying your first home can be a frightening and daunting experience, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, it can actually be enjoyable, if you take the necessary steps to make sure you're ready to go through with the transaction. Here are some ideas on how to make your first home buying experience more enjoyable and less traumatic.
- Saving for a Down Payment on Your First Home
[Real-Estate] If you've been dreaming about buying your first home, you've undoubtedly experienced more than a little discouragement, especially when it comes to saving enough money for a down payment. If that describes you, I have some good news: you may be able to get into that home quicker than you realize.
- Teleclasses, Teleseminars, Webinars: New Ways to Stay in Touch and Learn
[Writing-and-Speaking:Teleseminars] Thanks to modern technology, people have more ways than ever to stay in touch with each other and to continue learning in the comfort of their own home.
- Relocating? America's Top Ten Most Livable Cities
[Real-Estate] For the year 2006, the overall winner was Fort Collins, Colorado, followed by Naperville, Illinois, and Sugar Land, Texas.
- Short Sales Information - Successful Negotiations with Owners and Banks
[Real-Estate] Short sales aren't for everyone, but there's often a significant amount of money to be made when buying a property from a lender before a home has been foreclosed. So even though they can be frustrating experiences, short sales may be worth checking into as one of your real estate investment avenues. Here are a few suggestions for successfully negotiating short sales with owners and lenders.
- How to Buy Foreclosure Properties at Auction
[Real-Estate] Although it's rare, you can occasionally find some great deals at foreclosure auctions. If nothing else, you'll find it educational just to attend a few, just to see how the system works.
- Remodeling a Powder Room Doesn't Have to Be Expensive
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] The typical powder room, that half bath in your home with just a sink, toilet, and mirror, only averages about four-by-five feet, yet even though it's generally the smallest room in the home, your powder room can create a powerful impression on guests. In fact, given its small size and the amount of use it gets, especially when you're entertaining, your powder room may actually be the most valuable square footage in your home.
- Downturn in Home Ownership Can Be a Windfall to Savvy Investors
[Real-Estate] With the housing market beginning to cool and interest rates on the rise, this may be an excellent time for investors to buy rental properties. The combination of those two market factors, along with an increase in the number of folks looking for new housing, could spell big profits for savvy real estate investors.
- Sell Your Home - Become an Informed Seller
[Real-Estate] Regardless of whether you decide to sell your home yourself or through an agent, you owe it to yourself to become an informed seller. Even if you're trusting the sale of your home to an agent, it's still important that you have some idea of how the process works.
- Firepits Gain Popularity
[Home-Improvement] One of the most popular home upgrades today is the addition of a backyard fireplace. There's something special about sitting around the glow of a fire that makes people feel good. That's one reason many people go camping, for the simple joy of sitting by a crackling campfire, but an increasing number of homeowners are taking advantage of recent improvements in technology to have that same experience without having to leave home.
- Real Estate Investors: Change Strategies as Market Cools
[Real-Estate] Depending upon where you live, it may be time for you to rethink your investment strategy if you're a real estate investor, because many areas of the country appear to be on the verge of a price downturn. The indicators are there, beginning with the fact that it's taking significantly longer to market homes when compared to last year. When coupled with rising interest rates, it's likely that the recent real estate boom may be coming to an end.
- The Humble Ranch Home May be Making a Comeback
[Real-Estate] Over the years, the ranch style home has become almost reviled for its lack of character. Critics have said it's just a single-story box, with no uncomplicated angles, a low roof, and a picture window facing the street. Since ranches were built in such abundance in the mid-twentieth century and were often thrown up as quickly as possible without regard for decoration or individuality, they came to represent the worst of American architecture in many people's minds.
However, the humble ranch does have its boosters...
- Home Prices May Decline over the Next Year
[Real-Estate] As America's economy begins to cool, a number of economists have begun to predict only modest gains in the prices of single-family homes during the next year. The consensus is that home prices will rise between 3 and 4%, which is a respectable increase, but well below the 10% nationwide average over the past five years.
- Remove the Fear From the Home Buying Process
[Real-Estate] Especially if you're new to the home buying experience, it can seem like an intimidating process, fraught with frustration and full of potential pitfalls. It can be a scary proposition to buy a home, but here are some ideas you can use to take the fear and risk out of the home buying process.
- Home Sellers: Is Your Home in One of these Buyer's Markets?
[Real-Estate] There has been a dramatic rise in the number of homes on the market in the past six months. With the supply of available houses rising, buyers have more homes to choose from, and according to the laws of supply and demand, that means prices in many areas of the country may begin to come down.
- Breakthrough Marketing Tips for Selling Houses
[Real-Estate:Marketing] If you're selling a home or investment house, you might need some extra help to generate a speedy, top-dollar sale. Here are three cutting edge home selling concepts to help you.
- Is it too Late to Make Money Fixing Houses?
[Real-Estate] With the popularity of reality TV shows following real estate investors fixing houses for profits, many people would love to do the same. However, media reports on the housing bubble, too many houses for sale, and dropping prices make many wonder: is it too late to make money fixing houses?
- Real Estate Investing Strategies for Flipping Houses
[Real-Estate] If you're like most real estate investment wannabes, you've taken seminars, read books, watched infomercials and DVDs, and have spent considerable amounts of money to learn about the ins and outs of the field. If you're still struggling with how to get started, here are some of successful investors favorite ways to make money in real estate.
- Can You Still Make Money Flipping Houses?
[Real-Estate] Successful real estate investors have been making money flipping houses in all markets. Just like any business, some investors lose money, even during the best market conditions. The difference, besides experience, is knowledge. Here are three key points.
- Hot Summer Landscaping Tips for Home Sellers
[Real-Estate] You might think it's too hot to work outside on your front yard during this summer's unwelcome heat extremes. However, if you're selling a home, you might want to pay special attention to your landscaping. Your front yard needs to arouse buyers' expectations and entice them into viewing the inside of your home. Here are some quick and easy landscaping tips to get you in out of the heat fast and to get buyers interested in your home.
- Fixing Investment Houses: Flooring Tips
[Real-Estate] Flooring information for real estate investors who specialize in rehabbing entry level fixers. In today's changing real estate market, it's more important than ever to make wise flooring choices.
- Home Sellers' Biggest Mistake in Summer Selling
[Real-Estate] If your home languishes on the market during the sweltering heat of summer, take a look at how your normal everyday living habits may be turning buyers away. Buyers can't help the way they respond to houses. Everyone has natural instincts that influence the way their body reacts to stimulation. The way you leave your home during the day can make or break your sale.
- Decorate to Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] In today's real estate competitive marketplace, it's always worthwhile to give your home every opportunity to rise above the competition. One of the best ways to do that is by decorating your home with potential buyers in mind in order to impress them enough to prompt a quick sale at the best price.
- TV Shows for Real Estate Junkies: 3 Entertaining Shows Help Buyers, Sellers, and Investors
[Real-Estate] If you're the kind of person who loves the intricacies of buying and selling real estate, here are three television shows that can help you fulfill your need for information and excitement. You'll find two of them are on Home and Garden Television (HGTV) and the other on The Learning Channel (TLC).
- Home Sellers: Don't Let an Agent "Buy your Listing"
[Real-Estate] Many people are intimidated by real estate agents when it comes time to sell their homes, especially people who haven't done it before. Agents are trained to be professional in their presentations, and if you're new to the game, it's easy to forget that you're the one doing the hiring, so you're the one in charge. If you're new to interviewing listing agents, there are things you'll want to find out before you make your important decision.
- Be Realistic about Preparing Your Home for Sale
[Real-Estate] When you're getting ready to sell your home, it's easy to get carried away in the excitement of trying to get it in its best condition before it hits the market. However, before you get caught up in the "fix-up and upgrade" excitement, it's wise to first be aware of the things you can change about your home and those over which you have no control. Here are a few ideas about things you can control and those things you can't.
- Selling Your Home Yourself in Six Steps: You Can Do It!
[Real-Estate:FSBO] Contrary to what 99 out of 100 agents will tell you, it IS possible to sell your home yourself. When you undertake that task, you'll become a FSBO (pronounced "fisbo," and short for "for sale by owner"), and though it can be a challenge, it's one that thousands of homesellers tackle every day. And you can do it, too! In a nutshell, here are the things to do to become a successful FSBO.
- Finding a Listing Agent for Your Home
[Real-Estate] It can be a daunting task if you've never done it before, but finding a good listing agent for your home shouldn't be a difficult task if you know what to do. Here are a few tips for hiring the right person to help sell your home.
- China Facing American-Style Pollution Problems
[News-and-Society:Environmental] One might have hoped that China would have learned some lessons about pollution by watching America's expansion problems over the decades, but China's explosive growth has brought its industrial pollution problem to a level that will require some drastic steps to fix.
- Home Selling Help: Should You Sell in As Is Condition?
[Real-Estate] Spending a little time and money can make a difference in your closing check instead of selling your home in as is condition.
- Real Estate Investing in Fixer Uppers
[Real-Estate] If you want to become a real estate investor, the most tried-and-true way to do that is by a simple formula: find distressed houses at bargain prices, fix them up, and then sell them. If you do that on a consistent basis, you can become a multimillionaire.
- Japan Makes Strides Toward Joining the Green Revolution
[News-and-Society] At the end of WWII, Japan began an unprecedented rush to become a world leader in commerce and technology, but that rush came at a high price to the Japanese environment. Now it appears that their thought patterns are undergoing a transformation that seeks to put an end to Japan's devastated natural resources.
- Balance Your Circadian Rhythm: Open the Curtains!
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] Science has known about the concept of circadian rhythm (CR) for a long time. Even if you don't know anything about CR, you're familiar with its effects.
- Sell Your Home by Making a Good First Impression - Even if Your Home is Already on the Market
[Real-Estate:FSBO] If you're a homeowner who has become frustrated because your home seems to have been sitting on the market too long, perhaps it simply isn't making a good first impression on potential buyers. If that's the case, don't despair. Even if your home has been on the market for some time, there are some simple things you can do to help your home make a better first impression, the second time around.
- Sell Your Home: Inexpensive Ways to Increase Your Home's Salability
[Real-Estate] You don't have to spend a great deal of money to attract more buyers to your home at sales time. Remember, your home is in the limelight once you place it on the market, and people will be looking at it more closely than they would if they were just making social calls. The time to begin is BEFORE your home is put on the market.
- How to Negotiate a Short Sale
[Real-Estate] For decades, real estate investors have been making millions helping people in financial trouble. One method that many investors don't fully understand is the short sale.
- Bathroom Remodeling Tips for Preparing Your Home for Sale
[Real-Estate] Home buyers get pickier everyday. Today's home sellers need to do more preparing their homes for sale to compete. If you want to take small remodeling steps to sell your home or investment house, consider the bathrooms.
- Home Sellers' Questions
[Real-Estate] Home sellers have been contacting me about selling their homes with the question: "Should I discount my home to sell it before the market goes down or wait until I fix it up first?"
If you're selling your home or investment property, you should consider a few facts.
- Afraid to Invest in Real Estate? Beginner's Guide to Single Family Homes
[Real-Estate:Homes] Are you afraid to take the plunge and invest in real estate? Perhaps you've seen others make a fortune in real estate but you're not sure how to take the steps to ensure that you make money instead of lose money. Here are a few tips on how you can make a wise investment decision:
- Flipping Houses: 3 Ways to Make Money Investing in Real Estate
[Real-Estate] The term flipping seems to be everywhere nowadays, including in the titles of a number of television shows that have attracted loyal followings. That means lots of people are interested in buying houses and reselling them at a profit. Fixing and reselling homes has been an investment strategy for centuries, and will continue to be a popular investment option as long as folks still live in houses. Here are three ways to make money real estate investing by flipping houses:
- Sell Your Home: What Do Home Buyers Want?
[Real-Estate] A poll of potential buyers released March 1, 2006 revealed that sellers ought to do more than just look after required maintenance before showing their home. Surprisingly, more men than women wanted home decoration.
- Flipping Houses: 5 Keys to Making Money in a Buyer's Market
[Real-Estate] Many real estate market analysts' reports scare away beginning real estate investors. Experienced investors know this negative report translates to good news in five ways:
- Home Staging for the 4th of July
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] The practice of grooming a house before listing the property for sale has evolved from the "make it neutral" methods of the 1970s to decorating for the profiled home buyers. New home staging strategies include holiday decorating.
- Housing Markets Extremely Overvalued? Report Indicates Some American Cities Overvalued by 64%
[Real-Estate] A recent study conducted by Global Insight and National City has come to the conclusion that a significant number of America's housing markets are, in the words of the study itself, "extremely overvalued."
- Common Credit Mistakes Hurt Home Buyers
[Finance:Credit] If you desire to buy your dream home or investment properties to build your future wealth, you must maintain good credit. Avoid these 12 common credit mistakes to build strong credit and save money in mortgage loan costs.
- Home Sellers Ask: Why Doesn't My Home Sell?
[Real-Estate] It's one of the most frustrating situations that a homeowner can face. You've decided to move, yet you can't make that move until your current home sells. Then, for one of a number of reasons, buyers just don't seem interested in buying your home. It happens all the time, and though it's frustrating, the reasons are generally fairly straightforward. Here are several of the most common reasons that homes sit on the market longer than they should.
- Housing Market Cools but Shouldn't Fizzle
[Real-Estate] According to a recent study, it appears that although the prices of homes won't increase at the giddy levels of the past few years, they shouldn't experience sharp declines. The main reason for that, is that most cities have . . .
- Real Estate Investing: How to Know When a Bad House Is Good
[Real-Estate] Bad can be good when it comes to real estate investing, as long as it's not too bad! When you're just starting out as a real estate investor, you'll want to look for...
- Real Estate Investing: How to Buy Fixers - Look for Triple Ds
[Real-Estate] It's been said many times before, but only because it's always been true: If you want to be a successful real estate investor, the best way to begin is by finding a "fixer-upper" house being offered for sale by a seller who really wants to get rid of the property.
- Get Ready, Stage, and Sell Your Home!
[Real-Estate] Every home seller wants to sell their home the painless way: without too much work, without legal hassles, and for top dollar. You can break your home sale into three easy steps to make the process as pleasurable as possible.
- Staged Homes - 11 Top Reasons to Stage Your Home for Sale
[Real-Estate] If you're selling your home or investment house, take advantage of home staging trends. Here are eleven key points about staged homes.
- Home Staging Your Vacant House - without Moving in Truckloads of Furniture
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] If you moved before selling your home, you might be left with a vacant house costing you double mortgage payments. Here are some home staging tips to help you.
- Can You Still Make Money Investing in Real Estate with Fixers?
[Real-Estate] Real estate investors have made money by buying unloved houses, fixing them up, and then selling them for years. It's not a new real estate investing method. But what if you live in an area where homes sit on the market and sell at less than full price? Can you still make money investing in real estate by fixing houses under such market conditions?
- Surprise! The U.S. Government Wants More Fuel Efficient Vehicles
[News-and-Society] After several years of skyrocketing gas prices, alarming new reports about the dangers of global warning, and a seemingly endless debate in congress concerning U.S. energy policy, it appears as if the federal government finally may be seriously considering a mandate that would require increased mileage standards for American vehicles. It's cause for some optimism, but observers aren't ready to rejoice quite yet
- Fuel Efficiency Political Wrangling over CAFE Standard Increase
[News-and-Society] The squabbling on Capitol Hill comes in the face of increased uncertainty about the world's oil supply, which in turn seems to be fueling a growing sense of urgency for the creation of a new generation of more fuel efficient vehicles.
- Is Telecommuting - Work from Home - Right for You?
[Business:Careers-Employment] With fuel costs rising and the use of computers, the Internet, and email continuing to increase, more and more people are beginning to consider the option of telecommuting, even if it's only one or two days a week. It may seem like an appealing option, but before you commit to trying your hand at telecommuting, here are a few questions to ask yourself.
- Telecommuting - Work from Home - Increases as Gas Prices Rise
[News-and-Society:Economics] Recent figures compiled by the International Telework Association and Council illustrate the growing telecommuting trend. Their figures show that some 26 million Americans work from home at least one day every month, and another 22 million do part of their jobs from home a minimum of once a week.
- American Home Builder Tips: Amenities for Baby Boomers
[Home-and-Family:Baby-Boomer] If you're a home builder, don't overlook the importance of the fastest-growing segment in the real estate market today: aging Baby Boomers. They may not like to admit it, but the Boomers are now entering what people used to call the Golden Years, and they're beginning to look for homes that offer amenities geared toward older people. If you can offer homes that fit their tastes and specific demands, Baby Boomers will seek you out--and they generally have the money to spend on the things they want.
- American Home Builder Tips; Senior Baby Boomer Market
[Home-and-Family:Baby-Boomer] Although they're loathe to admit it, Baby Boomers are rapidly becoming senior citizens. However, just has been the case throughout their lives, the fact that Boomers are entering their golden years has made the senior market the fastest segment of the real estate market today. If you're a builder, this can mean more sales for you, but you'll have to do some target marketing to attract Boomers to your homes.
- American Home Builder Tips: First-Time Home Buyer Market
[Real-Estate] The key to successful home building is to know your target market. Every market niche has specific lifestyle needs that must be met if you hope to succeed. Once you set your sights on a specific market segment, you must satisfy their needs and desires, because your clientele can make or break you. In this article, we'll focus on how to push the buttons of first-time home buyers.
- Lawn Care and Fertilizer Tip to Create a Great Lawn
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] One of the things homeowners take the most pride in is a great-looking lawn. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, but with persistence, you can keep your lawn looking beautiful. Here are a few lawn care tips and one fertilizer tip.
- Will Automotive X Prize Finally Give Consumers What America's Big 3 Won't?
[Automotive] Regardless of what automakers tell us, the internal combustion engine has changed very little in the past hundred years. In fact, Ford's Model T averaged 28 mpg, while Ford's current model of the Explorer barely makes 16 mpg. No matter how you look at it, that isn't what you would call progress.
- Hardwood Floor Refinishing Tips - How to Avoid Cloudy, White Stripes
[Home-Improvement] Sometimes people tell me that they spend days or weeks refinishing an older hardwood floor, only to find that there are now cloudy or white stripes between the boards. It can be very frustrating, but it can be avoided.
- What Does Organic Food Certification Really Mean?
[Food-and-Drink] The term "organic" is being tossed around quite a bit lately, and you'll soon be seeing a big jump in the number of organic choices when you visit your local Safeway or Wal-Mart store. That's because the demand for organic produce, milk, and meat has been steadily increasing, to the point where the giant retail chains have begun to take the trend seriously. In turn, there will be a growing concern over the certification process as factory-style farms begin to muscle their way into the organic food market as a result of increased demand.
- What's the Future of Organic Certification?
[Food-and-Drink] Some organic produce enthusiasts are cheering about its increasingly widespread availability. But does this easy access weaken certification standards and hurt small farmers?
- Does Your Home Make You Sick? Home Health Hazards
[Home-Improvement] Although Americans spend nearly 40 billion dollars a year on lawn upkeep, the fact is that they actually spend nearly 90 percent of their time indoors. It may be an interesting paradox, but all that time spent indoors increases their chances of being injured or made sick by the various health hazards that exist in many American homes.
- 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange - 5 Steps to Success
[Real-Estate] There are as many reasons to seek a 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange as there are investors, but the fact is that completing such a property exchange can save you a significant amount of capital gains tax when you decide to sell your existing investment property and to acquire another one. Although you should always check with your tax advisor and attorney before you proceed, here are the basic steps to successfully exchanging a property under the 1031 guidelines.
- Prepare Roses for Long-Lasting Display
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] There are few flowers that look as nice or smell as wonderful as fresh roses. They're perfect for cutting and bringing into the house to enjoy, and if you take a little extra care in cutting and preparing them, they'll last much longer in that special vase.
- Create a Luxurious Bathroom with the Designer's Touch
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] It seems as if bathrooms have undergone more radical changes than any other room in the modern home over the past few years. In fact, it's been less than a century since bathrooms were first brought inside of the home, and since that time, their evolution has been ongoing. Modern bathrooms bear little resemblance to their utilitarian counterparts of bygone days.
- Slow-Down in Real Estate Market Not Slowing Furniture Sales
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] The real estate market may be slowing down, but there doesn't seem to be a corresponding slow-down in the number of sales of furnishings that will go into people's homes. In fact, the opposite seems to be happening across the country.
- Home Sellers: Why Isn't Your Home SOLD?
[Real-Estate] If your property for sale isn't generating offers, there a few actions you can take to make up for the slow real estate market.
- Real Estate Investing in REOs Guide for Beginners
[Real-Estate] Although interests remain relatively low, the number of home foreclosures across the country is on the rise up, which means that investors in REOs are beginning to have more opportunities to make money.
- Refinance Your Home to Buy Investment Property - A Good Idea?
[Real-Estate] Would-be investors often ask whether or not it's a good strategy to refinance their home in order to purchase investment property. The answer is a definite: maybe, but it depends upon a variety of factors.
- Bullet-Proof Your Real Estate Investing
[Real-Estate] Everyone knows that making a mistake in a real estate investment can be costly - or even disastrous. However, there are ways to bullet-proof your investing. Here are a few tips on how you can do it:
- Home Sellers Upgrade their Houses to Encourage Sales
[Real-Estate] Homeowners are increasingly beginning to feel that they need to do something extra to attract buyers, and the HIRI figures would seem to indicate a slowing market and increasing competition for buyers.
- Normalization: Code Phrase for Real Estate Slow-Down?
[Real-Estate] Real estate people and economists may not like the term "slow-down." They prefer the term "normalization." However, whatever you choose to call it, the market seems to have slowed considerably from its frenzied pace of the last few years.
- Hardwood Floor Refinishing - Do It Yourself Tips
[Home-Improvement:DIY] Everything necessary for doing it yourself will be available at your local hardware store. Once you finish, you'll have a gorgeous floor to be proud of.
- Decorative Area Rugs: How to Care for Area Rugs
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] A well-crafted, beautiful area rug can not only make a dramatic statement in a room, but it can also be a sound investment, and if you give it the proper care, it can be passed from generation to generation.
- Home Buyers, Don't Wait to Start Planning Your Housewarming Party
[Real-Estate] A new home is exciting on a number of levels, of course, but one of the nicest bonuses is that buying a new home affords a perfect excuse to throw a party. Then, especially if you haven't entertained in a long time, it's possible that your housewarming party will rekindle your desire to have guests over on a regular basis for friendly gatherings.
- Will Solar Energy Initiative Affect the Real Estate Market?
[News-and-Society:Energy] It's yet to be determined what effect SAI will have on America's sagging real estate market, and that may actually be beside the point in the initial stages of the program. In time, home buyers will undoubtedly begin to insist upon having solar technology built into their real estate packages.
- Big Jump in Vacation Home and Investment Property Sales
[Real-Estate] People are buying more getaway properties than ever before. In 2005, in fact, four out of every ten home sales were bought either as vacation homes or investment properties.
- Google Base and Real Estate Listings - Ignored by Real Estate Agents?
[Real-Estate] Google has expanded again, this time moving into the world of real estate--or at least real estate listing services. It seems as though real estate agents haven't taken to Google Base in all areas.
- Home Warranty - How Does this Service Help Sell Your Home?
[Real-Estate] What's the difference between a buyer's and a seller's warranty? Now that the real estate market is cooling somewhat, you'll more likely to find your competitive home sellers offering a seller's warranty. But what exactly is a seller's warranty?
- Backyard Landscape Plan - Think About Your Family's Lifestyle First
[Home-Improvement:Landscaping-Outdoor-Decorating] If you've been considering changing you're home's landscaping, don't forget to consider your family's lifestyle as you create your initial plans. Everyone's routines and daily activities need to be considered before you make any significant changes.
- Home Stagers - Can they Help You Sell Your Home for More Money?
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Although it's not a new concept, staging your home is an important part of getting it sold--and for top dollar. Traditionally, homeowners themselves have been responsible for making their homes presentable for showing, but with homes costing more and competition getting stiffer as the real estate market softens, that trend is changing.
- Interior Designer Elsie de Wolf - A Rebel in an Ugly World
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Elsie de Wolfe started out as an actress, making her debut on the stage in 1890 as a member of the Empire Stock Company. In 1935, Paris experts named Lady Mendl the best-dressed woman in the world, which was high praise, coming from best-known the place in the world for high fashion at the time.
- Interior Designer Dorothy Draper - Inferior Desecrator?
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Although Dorothy Draper is no longer a household name, she had an enormous effect on American interior design ideas in her day, and though she had her detractors (like Frank Lloyd Wright and others), there's no denying that she was the one who made the profession of interior designer possible for all those who came after her.
- A Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing
[Real-Estate] When you first decide that you want to begin investing in real estate, it can be a nerve-wracking and somewhat frightening experience. After all, a serious mistake can be disastrous. That's the bad news. The good news is that you can minimize your chances of making disastrous mistakes by simply following a simple formula.
- TV Reality Shows on Flipping Houses and Real Estate Investing Terms Demystified
[Real-Estate] The TV show Flip this House spurred a lot of interest in making money in real estate by flipping houses. However, the show only tells part of the story. Often, the viewer never gets to know if the renovated house sells or not.
Also, many real estate investors think of "flipping houses" in a different light.
- Sell My Home - Home Staging Tips Beyond the Basics
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Many home sellers wonder why their home languishes on the market. They've deep cleaned, freshened paint, priced it right, and staged the dining room table with china. Are you begging your listing agent to: "Sell my home" and thinking about dropping the sales price?
- Linoleum Flooring: The Truth about Today's Linoleum
[Home-Improvement:Flooring] I know, your grandmother's house had linoleum, and it was dull, cold, lifeless, and hard to keep clean. But that's all a thing of the past. The new linoleum has a great deal to offer. Let's look at some of linoleum's advantages.
- Sundials: Do they Really Tell Time?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Sundials have been around since the days of the Sumerians, some five thousand years ago, and were the earliest known means of keeping time. As to whether you can actually tell time by using a sundial, that's a bit trickier.
- Don't be Afraid to Spin that Old Color Wheel!
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] If you're looking to step out of your interior design comfort zone, there's one way to do it painlessly and easily: try some of the hot new paint hues that are available at your local paint store.
- Curb Appeal: Home Sellers, You Only Get One Glance to Make an Impression
[Real-Estate] If you're selling a fixer for a rock-bottom price, investors love ugly houses. However, if you want to get top-dollar for your home, you must make home shoppers get out of their car and see what's inside.
- Real Estate Investing: #1 Question Asked by Beginners
[Real-Estate] In teleseminars and college classes for beginning real estate investors, this is the most frequently asked question.
- Real Estate Trends - Advertising
[Real-Estate] The annual report by the National Association of Realtors profiling homebuyers and sellers reveals some interesting information about how and where to spend money when it comes to marketing homes. The study's findings should be of interest to real estate agents and clients alike.
- Real Estate Trends - Vacation Homes as Investments
[Real-Estate] Across the country, many people are buying second homes in America today. Although a sizable number of vacation home buyers plan to retire in those homes someday, another segment hopes their second home will do double duty...
- How Do You Know if You're a Qualified Homebuyer?
[Real-Estate] There are several relatively easy and inexpensive or free ways to find out if you're qualified for a home loan, and how much of a loan you can qualify for.
- Save Gasoline Costs with a Gas Company "Rebate" Credit Card
[Finance:Credit] How much do you want to pay for convenience? Stop and think before you apply for another credit card. What impact will an additional credit card have on your credit score? Now, for the good news.
- America's Real Estate Market Trends
[Real-Estate] The good news for prospective homebuyers in some areas of the country is that a half million dollars can still buy quite a bit of home in much of the United States.
- America's Housing Boom Slowing Down?
[Real-Estate] America's housing boom may be showing signs of slowing down significantly. One indication is that U.S. consumers have been acquiring less debt in recent years and seem to be more nervous about acquiring more debt.
- Los Angeles County Home Prices Still on the Rise
[Real-Estate] California's real estate market may be slowing down, but the median home price in Los Angeles County set another new record in March, more than twice the median price for the area just four years ago.
- Earth Day - Good News for the Environment
[News-and-Society] As Earth Day 2006 approaches, there seems to be good news on the environmental scene, which should come as welcome change to anyone concerned about the state of our Earth. That's in stark contrast to the first Earth Day, back in 1970.
- Home Staging for a Quick Sale and More Profit
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Every home seller is looking for two things: a quick sale and a good price. That's a given. However, there are ways to help insure that you'll meet both of those goals.
- Home Stagers?
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Judging by the number of folks who claim to call themselves "Home Stagers" today, you'd think it was the world's largest growing industry.
- 10 Warning Signals that Your Credit Card Use Is Crashing
[Finance:Credit] Besides lowering your credit score significantly, the following credit card warning signals could mean that you are headed for financial distress.
- Home Sellers: 7 Great Ways to Lose Money
[Real-Estate] To get the most from your home sale-in profits, protection, and yes-enjoyment, avoid these mistakes that can lose you money.
- More Home Staging Ideas
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] When staging your home for sale, the key is to try to think like your potential buyers. You want to feature the positive things about your home, while minimizing the things that aren't so positive-without having to spend huge sums of money in the process.
- Home Staging Basics
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Selling a home is always a stressful time, but there are ways you can lessen the amount of time and increase your home's selling price. The process is called home staging, and you can do most of it yourself.
- Water Gardens
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Like all gardens, water gardens require a certain amount of care, but the results can give you years of pleasure.
- Solar Energy
[Home-Improvement] No matter what you may have heard, solar energy is the wave of the future, in large part because of its utter simplicity.
- Flipping Houses: Cheap Tips for Cleaning Fixer-Uppers
[Home-Improvement:Cleaning-Tips-and-Tools] Whether you're planning on renting or flipping a house, it first needs a thorough cleaning. Here are a few tips that can help you make short work of your next cleaning project.
- Kitchen Remodeling: First Step
[Home-Improvement:Kitchen-Improvements] Kitchens have evolved to match people's cooking habits, since most women now work outside of the home, share cooking duties with their husbands or significant others, prepare only a few meals from scratch. To reflect those changes, modern kitchens are designed with multiple work areas, including islands, to allow more than one person to work in the kitchen at one time.
- Credit Card Debt: Coping Tips
[Finance:Credit] Nearly everyone gets into financial trouble at one time or another, but if you face your own money problems head-on, you can regain control of your credit card debt.
- Home Staging with Feng Shui
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Bottom line: it doesn't really matter whether or not you believe that Feng Shui methods are important to home decorating. When you get ready to sell your home, you'll find that employing Feng Shui practices can add perceived value to your home in a buyer's mind.
- Garden Design: Plant a Woodland Gardens with Minimal Effort and Expense
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Many folks long for a peaceful garden space in their backyard, but don't have the time, money, or skill to create the beautiful types of gardens they see in magazines. However, if you have a shady backyard, you still be able to achieve a peaceful space by creating a woodland garden.
- Booming Green Building Market Continues to Grow
[Real-Estate:Green-Real-Estate] The "green building" trend should only gain momentum as new technology makes green buildings even more efficient and less expensive.
- Strange Adaptations for Common Household Products
[Home-and-Family] You don't have to spend big money on specialized products when oftentimes the same results can be gained by adapting common household products to new inventive uses.
- Plants - Your New Roommate
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Wherever you choose to use them, plants can provide extra drama, warmth, texture, and color to your home's decor. Plus, plants keep your indoor air fresh while connecting you to nature.
- Some Novel Uses for Common Household Products
[Home-and-Family] Many household products can function well in areas quite different from their initial intended uses. Here are a few examples:
- A Few Home Remodeling Rules
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] Overall, remodeling can be a rewarding experience, if you just follow a few simple rules and use common sense along the way. Here are some things to think about-even before you begin your remodeling project.
- Plants Reduce Stress and Increase Productivity in Offices
[Business:Workplace-Communication] Recent research reveals that distributing plants throughout the office workplace can both lower stress and enhance employee productivity. Testing was done in cubicles that had been designed to replicate the average office environment.
- Budget Bathroom Remodeling Ideas
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] Remodeling the bathroom is one of the most often tackled projects when it comes to updating a home, but it can get to be quite a spendy endeavor. If you're one of those folks who are looking to remodel the bathroom in your home but are put off by the price tag, consider these bathroom remodeling ideas.
- Budget Kitchen Remodeling Ideas
[Home-Improvement:Kitchen-Improvements] There are a number of ways you can stay within your kitchen remodeling budget, beginning with staying on top of every dollar that goes out.
- Home Selling Advice: How to Create a Great First Impression
[Real-Estate] Great first impressions create quick sales. With that in mind, let's walk through a typical house and talk about how to create a great first impression in a potential buyer's mind.
- Home Selling Advice: Think of Your Home as a Product
[Real-Estate] In order to sell your home faster and for a higher price, start thinking of it as a product you want to sell to a willing buyer. It will help your get the home ready for sale, and it may even help you detach your emotions, making it easier to move once a sale has been made.
- Home Selling Advice: Create a Great Exterior First Impression
[Real-Estate] Real estate agents know too well the value of a home's inviting exterior. They know that if buyers don't like the outside, they may not want to see the inside. Therefore, it's crucial that you make the exterior of your home as inviting as possible if you want a quicker sale.
- Home Selling Advice: How to Make Your Home More Saleable
[Real-Estate] You don't have to spend a huge amount of money to make your house appealing to potential buyers. However, as the old saying goes: you only get one opportunity to make a good first impression.
- Credit Reporting Agencies Sell Your Information
[Finance:Credit] If you have recently applied for some types of credit, the information you shared was probably sold within twenty-four hours of your application.
- Help Your Agent Show Your Home
[Real-Estate] Since you also have to live in your home during the listing period, it means that you'll have to get the home ready for showings by agents, sometimes on short notice. Avoid last minute cleaning frenzies when you get a call from an agent wanting to show your home. Here are a few secrets you use to make your home look its best when you know agents are bringing clients by for a tour.
- Home Sellers: How Much Should You Spend to Get Your Home Ready to Sell?
[Real-Estate] When you get ready to sell your home, it's important to make it sparkle, especially when compared to your neighbors' houses. Every real estate agent knows that well-polished houses not only sell faster, but they also sell for higher prices.
- Waterwise Xeriscaping for an Extraordinary Spring Garden
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] Now that spring is officially (on the calendar, at least), it's time to think about how to turn your garden from ordinary to extraordinary. You don't have to spend huge amounts of money to create extraordinary garden spaces. It just requires thought and imagination.
- A New Mortgage Elimination Scam
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] It's every homeowner's fantasy: to own their home free and clear. There are lots of legitimate ways to pay off your mortgage loan faster, but here's the latest scam for folks hoping to eliminate their entire 30-year mortgage--in less than a year. Everything seems fine--until the county clerk and original lender discover the scam and confront the homeowner, who is soon caught up in a huge legal and financial bind, as well as facing possible fraud and conspiracy charges and jail time.
- How to Convert to a Primary Residence after a 1031 Exchange
[Real-Estate] There are currently some 15 million Americans who own real estate investment property, and more and more of them are discovering the advantages of using 1031 tax-free exchanges for deferring capital gains taxes when they sell. But, how can you turn your investment into a home?
- Home Sellers: Offer a Home Warranty to Help Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] Providing this service adds to your home's overall appeal to home shoppers. A home warranty gives your home buyers the peace of mind they seek. But what exactly is a seller's warranty, and how can it help?
- Mortgage Financing: Be Aware of the Seven Signs of Predatory Lending
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] If you're shopping for a home loan, you can save thousands of dollars by being aware of predatory lending practices, in which you're charged too much for your loan or are forced to buy services you don't really need. To avoid being a victim of predatory loan practices, learn to recognize the seven warning signs.
- Mortgage Financing: Beware of Predatory Lenders
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] As the real estate market slows down and interest rates creep up, it's more important than ever to become a knowledgeable consumer. Learn the basics of mortgage lending, so you'll know when you're being charged too much for a loan or for things you don't need.
- Home Sellers - Warning About Agents Who "Buy" Your Listing
[Real-Estate] If you're selling your home, there's a certain kind of real estate agent you must be aware of: the agent willing to buy your listing. They're not technically being dishonest, but you should be aware of what's happening in such scenarios.
- Surprising Green Power Partners
[News-and-Society] The EPA's Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages businesses, organizations, and agencies to use Green power in their day-to-day practice. When Green Partners sign on with the program, they pledge to supply a significant portion of their electricity needs with energy that has been produced by environmentally friendly means.
- Alternative Fuel - Biodiesel Making In-Roads
[Automotive] Renewable fuel has proven to be a newfound way for farmers to sell their crops, which will allow more farmers to stay on the land, which is an important side benefit to the overall biodiesel production process.
- America's Greenest and Meanest Vehicles
[Automotive] With gasoline prices expected to continue to escalate, auto manufacturers will continue to feel the pressure from consumers to build more efficient vehicles, incorporating more and more hybrid features to offset the hit their customers are feeling at the gas pump.
- Alternative Fuel - American Cars Ready for E85?
[Automotive] Many people wonder about the ethanol/gas mixture known as E85, named for the 85% ethanol that mixture contains, and whether or not their vehicles will run on it.
- Alternative Fuel - What Is E85?
[Automotive] If you watched the Olympics, you probably noticed that General Motors launched a major advertising campaign, touting the fact that 1.5 million GM vehicles are able to run on E85, made from corn. If you're new to the alternative fuel concept, perhaps you were left wondering exactly what E85 is.
- Environmental Issue: Solar Power for One Million Roofs
[News-and-Society:Environmental] The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Million Solar Roofs Initiative is an ambitious project, but it's important to America in terms of generating and conserving energy. The Initiative proposes to install solar energy systems in one million U.S. buildings by the year 2010.
- Wind-Generated Electricity: UMM Leads the Way for American Universities
[News-and-Society] The United States as a whole is second only to Germany in total production of wind-generated electricity, with California, Texas, and Minnesota leading the way. The first public American university, the University of Minnesota-Morris, installed a large-scale wind turbine to help meet the school's electrical needs.
- Article and Blog Writers: Beware the Internet Meanie
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Blogging] Author Jeanette Fisher's blogs were destroyed by hacker.
- Home Seller's Tips: Prepare Your Home with these 7 Action Steps
[Real-Estate] If you're selling your home in a cooling real estate market, here are some steps that you can take to prepare your home for a quick sale without lowering your price. No matter what the real estate market does this year, you must protect your equity. Don't just put up the "for sale" sign and hope for the best. Prepare your home for a top-dollar sale.
- Real Estate Bubble Talk
[Real-Estate] So, what happened to the real estate bubble in 2005? Before you give any substance to warnings about a "real estate bubble," look closely at the source.
- Big Real Estate Investing Mistake Made in 2005
[Real-Estate] Over the past few years, real estate investors, hungry for break-even or positive cash flow rental properties, purchased income property out of state. California investors bought houses in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma. Florida investors purchased houses in Louisiana. Texas investors purchased in Las Vegas. Many of these investors made millions of dollars because of the appreciation in hot markets.
On the other hand, in 2005, some beginning investors lost their hard-earned investment capital or only made a meager profit because
- New Year's Resolution for Renters: Buy a Home in 2006
[Real-Estate] Are you still renting a home or apartment for yourself or your family? If so, you're losing money. Besides losing out on making money with real estate, renters don't get the same satisfaction of home enjoyment that benefit home buyers.
- New Year's Resolutions: Save Your Credit and Your Marriage
[Self-Improvement] Before you whip out your credit cards this year, consider this: more than 70 percent of divorces in America are brought about due to financial problems.
- Home Sellers: Don't Drop Your Price, Increase the Sizzle!
[Real-Estate:FSBO] We've all heard the old adage that restaurants don't sell steak, they sell the sizzle. That same adage can be true for selling houses. Here's what I mean.
- Home Sellers: Wanna Do a Lease Option Fast?
[Real-Estate:FSBO] Some sellers shy away from selling by lease option, but it can be a good way to get the best of both worlds, Using this process can greatly increase your chances of successfully selling your home, in an amazingly short time.
- Home Sellers: Prepare Your Home for Sale
[Real-Estate:FSBO] You want your home to sell, of course, for the highest possible price, and in the shortest amount of time. Here are a few good tips for making sure that happens, long BEFORE potential buyers visit your home.
- Home Sellers: Help Your Agent Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] If you're looking to sell your home, you want to do everything you can to make it appealing and desirable to potential buyers. However, some of the most important things you can do to help your agent sell your home might not be obvious at first.
- Do You REALLY Want to Sell - or Should You Add On?
[Real-Estate] It's often a dilemma to decide whether you really want to sell a home you love, in a neighborhood you love, just because you need more space or you've looking for more amenities. If you find yourself asking that question, here are a few things to ponder before you put your home on the market.
- Home Sellers: Magic Negotiating Phrase Can Make You Thousands
[Real-Estate:FSBO] The results may be very pleasant, and very profitable. In fact, just uttering this magic phrase can potentially put thousands of dollars into your pocket--without having to become a tough, no-nonsense real estate negotiator.
- Can You Flip Houses in Any Market?
[Real-Estate] What if you live in an area where homes rarely sit on the market for more than a week, sell at full price, and require conventional financing because there are so many qualified buyers standing in line to buy them? Can you still make money flipping houses under such market conditions?
- Home Sellers: Seven Quick and Easy Ways to Get More Money for Your Home
[Real-Estate] As a seller, your home must compete favorably with all the other houses in its neighborhood and price range. That means you should make your home as saleable as possible, but it doesn't mean you have to spend a great deal of money to obtain great results. Here are a few quick home selling tips to give your home an advantage, without breaking the bank in the process.
- Start Real Estate Investing: Using Junkers to Build Your Fortune
[Real-Estate] If you've been thinking about investing in real estate but just don't know how to start, consider starting at the bottom and working up, just like most any business venture.
- Using Lease Options to Buy Fixer-Uppers
[Real-Estate] Buying a fixer requires cash, which many beginning real estate investors simply don't have. One way to get started investing in real estate is to buy a fixer-upper with a lease option contract.
- Real Estate Investor Business Plan for Beginners
[Real-Estate] If you're brand new to real estate investing, here are a few things that you can do that will help put you on your way to financial success.
- An Investor Should Always Have an Exit Strategy
[Investing] Regardless of what type of commodity you invest in, you should always go into that investment with an exit strategy: that is, how and when you will sell your investment and take your profit. In this article, we'll be looking at exit strategies as they relate to real estate investments.
- Facing Foreclosure? Working Out an Alternative Payment Plan Can Save Your Home
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] In some surprising results, a 2004 Freddie Mac study showed that borrowers who contact their lenders and work out a customized payment plan can reduce their chance of losing their home to foreclosure by an amazing 80 percent!
- Behind on Your Home Mortgage Payment? Work with Your Lender!
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by talking frankly with your lender about working out a plan to save your house. You'll be surprised at how willing most lenders will be to help you stay in your home, even if you are behind on your mortgage.
- Flipping Properties: When to Turn Your Flip into Cash
[Real-Estate] How long should real estate investors hold on to a property before putting it back on the market? The answer is a qualified "it depends."
- New Year's Eve Decorating Ideas
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Make decorating your home for New Year's Eve party a pleasure instead of a stressful nightmare. Organization and planning helps you keep on top of your New Year's Eve party.
- Some Startling Statistics about American Consumers
[Finance:Credit] We all know that acquiring overwhelming debt is stressful from a financial standpoint. However, it might surprise you to know that more than 70 percent of divorces in America are brought about due to financial problems.
- Home Sellers Market Seems to be Ending
[Real-Estate] It appears that the recent sellers market is coming to a close in much of the country, including several areas that have been hot spots in recent years.
- To Be a Successful Real Estate Investor, You Must Know How to Negotiate
[Real-Estate] The bottom line for successful negotiation is: get what you want by giving sellers what they want. There are some basic rules you'll want to learn--and then follow religiously--when you enter into a negotiating situation.
- You Can Make Money Flipping Real Estate
[Real-Estate] Flipping real estate can make you money, sometimes quite a sum of money, whether you're a first-timer or an old hand at real estate investing. Regardless of your experience level there are a number of ways you can begin flipping properties, and putting money in the bank.
- Home Sellers Ask: Should I Sell My Home or Wait?
[Real-Estate] It's been a dilemma faced by homeowners who are looking to sell their homes from the dawn of time. Is there a perfect time to sell a home? Should you put your home on the market right now, or should you wait?
- Real Estate Investing: Don't Invest Without a Cash Reserve
[Real-Estate] You ultimately need to make money on your investment, of course, but there will be a variety of situations that will arise from time to time that will make you glad you also followed the other top rule of real estate investment, which is to maintain a cash reserve.
- Home Sellers: Three Spaces that Pay You to Redesign
[Real-Estate:FSBO] New home staging and redesign, either remodeling or just moving things around, help home sellers sell in record time - for more money than the competition!
- Real Estate Investing is a Business - Don't Forget That!
[Real-Estate] With all the infomercials on television and all the get rich emails you see in your email box, it's easy to get swept up in the excitement of real estate investment. There is money to be made in real estate, but you have to know what you're doing, have the cash reserves to weather the bad times, and you always need to remember that in order to be successful, you must treat real estate investment like the business it truly is.
- Don't Invest in Real Estate Until You Get Educated!
[Real-Estate] Invest in yourself by learning as much about the real estate world as possible. It's a multi-faceted field, and there are many ways to make money, but they all have one thing in common. You have to KNOW what you're doing BEFORE you commit to any real estate deal!
- A Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing Strategies
[Real-Estate] If you're thinking about investing in real estate to make money, you need to first determine your financial goals. Do you need to make money quickly, invest for your children’s college fund, or build wealth for your retirement? What's the difference between income and investment property?
- How Do You Get Started in Real Estate Investing?
[Real-Estate] If you want to make money investing in real estate, you have to begin with a plan. Here are some ways to get started investing in real estate.
- Real Estate and Stock Market Investing Require Different Strategies
[Investing] Many people, disenchanted with the lackluster performance of their stock portfolio, first become interested in real estate investing after someone they know makes a large sum of money in real estate in a relatively short time.
- Become a Real Estate Investor in Three Steps
[Real-Estate] There are a million "good" reasons not to get started, but every one of them is just an excuse - not a reason. So if you want to become an investor, you have to BE one, and not just a wannabe.
- What Does the Term "Market Value" Mean?
[Real-Estate] When a real estate agent talks to you about listing your home, you'll hear a great deal of talk about "market value," but just what's meant by that term?
- Eleven Great Tips for Showing Your Home
[Real-Estate:FSBO] Home seller's tips for showing a home with the help of a real estate agent.
- Students: Should You Sign up for that First Charge Card?
[Finance:Credit] A number of credit companies will be vying for college students business from tables set up in prominent places on campus, offering Frisbees, T-shirts, and other incentives to get you to sign up. But it's something you should think carefully about before you do.
- Paying Your Credit Cards Late Can Cost You - Big Time
[Finance:Credit] The latest income figures show that some 25 percent of all income derived by credit card companies is generated by late payment fees.
- How is Your FICO Score Determined?
[Finance:Credit] Perhaps you're familiar with the FICO scoring system used by credit companies to determine a potential client's creditworthiness. But do you know how that score is determined?
- FICO and You
[Finance:Credit] Although it may not be a term you're familiar with, the term FICO can be a determining factor as to whether or not you qualify for a credit or loan. But what is FICO, and how does it affect you when it comes to your creditworthiness?
- Using Secured Credit Cards to Establish or Rebuild Your Credit
[Finance:Credit] Whether you're just starting out in the world of credit or hoping to rebuild a damaged credit report, using secured credit cards can help. How do secured credit cards work?
- How to Establish Your Credit
[Finance:Credit] Having a major credit card is vital in many situations, such as renting a car, since they'll almost always ask to see a major credit card, even if you're paying cash for the rental. There are ways to obtain that major credit card, even if you have no credit history.
- Immediate Steps You Can Take to Begin Improving Poor Credit
[Finance:Credit] Credit can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a dangerous pitfall, with disastrous results, when it gets out of control, even it happened through no fault of your own. If you find yourself overextended, here are some ideas for improving your credit.
- Need Credit Repair Help? Try Doing it Yourself!
[Finance:Credit] No matter what many credit counseling scam artists may try to tell you, anything that a credit repair company offers to do for you can be done yourself, generally free.
- The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) and You
[Finance:Credit] If you have negative information in your credit file, as reflected by the Big Three reporting companies, proves to be accurate, there is little you can do about it. If you decide to seek professional help, the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) has clearly detailed your rights as a consumer.
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and You
[Finance:Credit] Your credit report gets viewed by other people besides credit grantors. Potential employers and insurance companies can deny you employment, auto and home owner's insurance based on your credit report. Understand your rights protected by The Fair Credit Reporting Act.
- Six Reasons Why You Should Buy Real Estate in December
[Real-Estate] (Article passes ezine spam check.) December and New Year's Day give you the perfect occasion to buy real estate. Not only can you pick up a bargain property from a motivated seller, you can save on your purchase expenses.
- How Credit Counseling Works
[Finance:Credit-Counseling] Just how the credit counseling business works is a mystery to most consumers. What's involved when you hire a credit counselor? How can their services be free?
- Credit Card Debt: How to Become Credit Smart
[Finance:Credit] The figures are startling. More than 70 percent of American divorces are caused by the stress brought on by financial difficulties, and three out of every four Americans are a mere three paychecks away from having to face potential default on their debts.
- How Debt Consolidation Works
[Finance:Debt-Consolidation] There are several potential dangers involved in debt consolidation. Take a look at how the debt consolidation process works.
- Free Credit Repair Advice: How to Spot a Credit Repair Scam
[Finance:Credit] We've all seen them: ads offering to repair bad credit. In today’s world, companies proposing to fix a person's credit seem to be everywhere--on television, in newspapers and magazines, and in your Internet mailbox. Read the truth about credit repair.
- 10 Quick Tips for Home Sellers
[Real-Estate:FSBO] With today's changing real estate market, home sellers need to take extra care preparing their home for a top-dollar sale. Home buyers have more houses to choose from and will select the home that stands out from the other houses they preview. These tips will help you attract a buyer:
- Home Seller's Tip: Persuade Your Buyer with a Simple Unique Tool
[Real-Estate:FSBO] With so many choices for home buyers today, sellers must make their home seem extra special. Here's a new idea to help you sell your home.
- Real Estate Mortgage Loan: How to Prepare Yourself to Save Money
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] Prepare yourself to save money on your real estate mortgage loans with this checklist: Documentation Required for Real Estate Mortgage Loans. Whether you want to buy your first home or many investment properties to build wealth, this checklist will help you save money on loan costs.
- Party Planning Checklist
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Here's a quick party planning checklist:
- Why Is Holiday Decorating Good For You?
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] What do psychologists have to say about holiday decorating?
- Real Estate Flipping Basics
[Real-Estate] What's the truth about making money flipping real estate? Before you jump into flipping real estate, do your homework. Copy other successful real estate investors who make money flipping the honest way.
- Flipping Real Estate
[Real-Estate] Many beginning real estate investors get started by flipping real estate to make quick cash. If you would like to make more money by investing in real estate, you need to know a few essentials including how to avoid legal problems in real estate flipping.
- Credit Card Debt
[Finance:Debt-Relief] If you can't sleep at night because of credit card debt worries, you're not alone. Many people get in over their heads charging things they think they can't live without. Here are a few things you shouldn't charge on your credit cards:
- Credit Scores: Don't Waste Your Money
[Finance:Credit] Did you know that your credit score that you purchase online is not the same credit score your loan officer gets?
- One Important Thing Doctors Forget to Tell You About VNS Surgery
[Health-and-Fitness:Medicine] Vagus Nerve Stimulation surgery, a last-ditch effort to control seizures, stirs up a controversy amongst those who have the device implanted. Many patients love the relief from uncontrollable seizures. However, many other patients hate the side-effects caused by the surgery and the devise. If you're considering this seizure control method, you need to know the rest of the story.
- Investing in Real Estate, Flipping Houses, and Income Taxes
[Real-Estate] Understand the tax consequences of flipping houses, rehabbing houses, and how to defer taxes with the 1031 Exchange before you get into real estate investing. Problems arise when real estate investors don't follow federal and state tax laws. Here are some common mistakes beginning real estate investors make by not understanding tax liabilities:
- Interior Design Psychology
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Does your home make you feel happy, energized, and at the same time bring you peace? Or, do you feel unhappy, depressed, or distressed in your home, and you don't know why? Maybe it's time to try decorating for your emotions.
- Thanksgiving Holiday Decorating Tips
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Create an exciting and welcoming home for your Thanksgiving festivities. Ten holiday decorating tips for the exterior and interior of your home from an interior designer.
- Christmas Decorations and Environmental Issues
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Do you have environmental concerns about Christmas tress and consumer waste? Bring joy to your home this season with natural Christmas decorations.
- Christmas Gift Ideas: Interior Decor Presents
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Have you ever received a home décor present that didn't fit in your home? Choosing a gift for someone to display in their home can be frustrating. On the other hand, if you're shopping for a friend or family member, you can give a present that will be appreciated.
- Perfect Christmas Gifts Better than Diamonds for Your Wife
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Every year families get into trouble by charging up their credit cards for Christmas gifts. Don't get caught up in commercialism during the holidays. You don't need to spend money foolishly for Christmas presents for your wife.
- Holiday Decorating Ideas and the Environment
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Have you thought about how your holiday decorating affects the environment? What can you do about your holiday decorating to improve your happiness and at the same time be kind to the environment?
- Holiday Decorating Tips: Christmas Candles
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Do you love the winter holiday season or does this time of year cause you stress? One way to lower your holiday stress, using fewer decorations, decreases your "just have to much to do" list. However, you still want to display Christmas candles because these decorations bring smiles to you and your loved ones.
- Home Staging Ideas: How to Sell Your Home During the Holidays
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Winter brings its own set of problems to home sellers. Home buyers don't feel as motivated to go home shopping in cold, wet weather. Plus, the early nightfall makes buyers want to wait until the weekend to view houses. When the weekend rolls around, home shoppers get sidetracked with holiday activities. How do you motivate buyers to get out of their warm car?
- Flipping Houses
[Real-Estate] Some real estate investing "teachers" advise beginning investors to find many houses and to flip the houses quickly for outrageous profits. Perhaps you've seen the claims of real estate gurus telling you how you can make $30,000 to $50,000 per month, without any physical work, and for little or no money out of your pocket. In fact, these promoters tell you that you can get money back when you close. Take a look at the real way to build wealth flipping houses.
- Environmental Issue: Wood Burning Fireplaces
[News-and-Society] Environmental Psychology considers two issues with wood burning fireplaces. What's important to you? Your home environment for emotional support or saving the environment?
- What's Missing on Most Home Buyer's Checklists?
[Real-Estate] In a search for "Home Buyer's Checklist," I found articles, spread sheets, and tips with differing advice. It seems that real estate websites want you to choose a home and blindly put your money in escrow. These home buying checklists should include more information for home buyers to make a solid home purchase.
- Prepare Your Home for Sale: Kitchen Makeover Ideas
[Home-Improvement] You don't need to completely makeover your kitchen to sell your home. Consider easy, low-cost changes that instantly upgrade a kitchen without major remodeling. These include the following ideas:
- Prepare Your Home for Sale: Home Staging Your Kitchen
[Home-Improvement] New interior Design Psychology ideas help you sell your kitchen. You may ask: "Sell my kitchen?"
Yes. Kitchens sell houses. Therefore, prepare your kitchen with home staging ideas for a top-dollar sale.
Seven Interior Design Psychology Home Staging Strategies for Kitchens:
- How to Make a Wise Home Purchase and Avoid the Top 14 Home Buyer's Mistakes
[Real-Estate] Many home buyers rush into a home purchase without getting enough information. A home purchase, probably the one of the biggest investments of your life, needs informed and cautious consideration. Don't let impulsiveness or ignorance ruin your enjoyable home search and purchase.
Here are 14 common home buyer's mistakes to avoid:
- Home Sellers: Is Your Listing Agent the Reason Your Home's Not Selling?
[Real-Estate] Many home sellers sign a listing agreement with an agent who makes big promises and then their home languishes on the market.
Do you know if your agent may be causing your home to go unsold? Some reasons why listing agents hold up home sales:
- Wabi Sabi, Shabby Chic, and Design Psychology: Home Interior Design Styles
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Create a home to celebrate life, one full of tranquility and beauty. Choose your home interior design style to best support your happiness.
- Dramatic Powder Room Makeovers
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Because guests view this little space privately, visitors take more time to notice the interior design details. For this reason, you want to showcase great design to make a good impression. Also, hospitality shines in a well-appointed guest bath where it takes just a couple of splurges on extravagant fixtures to make a huge impact that your guests will remember.
- Home Buyer's Hidden Costs
[Real-Estate] Make sure you have all your purchase and moving costs covered before you make an offer to purchase a home. You don't want to find out when it's too late that you need more money.
- Building Wealth: Don't Waste Your Money on Real Estate Investment Schemes
[Finance:Wealth-Building] Maybe you, like me and many others, have purchased books or expensive systems based on no-money-down and lease-option real estate investing schemes. Here's the rest of the story.
- Real Estate Bubble? How to Profit in ANY Real Estate Market
[Real-Estate] With all the talk of a pending real estate bubble or falling sales prices, real estate investors need to guard their money and find new ways to make money. No matter what the market does, you can make money investing in real estate when you know what to do and what to avoid.
- Perfume Your Garden and Home with Gardenias
[Home-and-Family:Gardening] One of my favorite plants is the large white-flowered Mystery Gardenia (gardenia jasminoides) that grows to about 5' tall and wide. The perfume-like scent adds an exotic feeling to gardens. Plus, the large white flowers show up well in moonlight when many people more likely get a chance to take pleasure in their garden.
- Flipping Houses for Gold: Three Tips to Help You Find the Perfect Fixer
[Real-Estate] Many real estate investors enjoy "flipping houses," or buying and selling houses quickly for profit. Not all flips are fixers; however rehabbers make millions turning ugly houses into dollhouses. On the other hand, some inexperienced investors lose money buying houses that just don't turn a profit. If you're looking to get started investing in real estate by fixing and flipping houses, you'll want to know what type of property to buy.
- How to Use Color Psychology to Prepare Your Home for a Top-Dollar Sale (Part 1)
[Real-Estate] You've decided to prepare your home for sale. Whether you sell by owner or hire a real estate agent, you want to get as much money as possible without spending your profits. The real estate market normally slows down and most homes take longer to sell during fall and winter. Now is the time to apply new real estate marketing ideas to make sure your home sells quickly (and for full price, of course!)--without spending a lot of money or doing unnecessary work.
- Selling Your Home? A Warning About Attachments
[Real-Estate] Before you list you home for sale, determine what you don't want to leave behind.
- Real Estate Investing: Beware of "Subject To" Promises
[Real-Estate] For beginning real estate investors, looking for an owner willing to sell their property "subject to" the existing loan adds a frustrating component to the search for a profitable property.
- Credit Scores = ROI Profits for Real Estate Investors
[Investing] Strong credit saves real estate investors money on mortgage finance costs. A good credit score, along with the other credit and mortgage qualifications, means that investors can pay lower fees for financing, such as points and interest charges. However, the real money making difference for real estate investors comes into play in the return on investment (ROI).
- Summer Decorating Tips To Cool You
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Redesigning your home for summer gives you the opportunity to have fun with your home. Make a few changes that make your home feel refreshed as well as refreshing.
- Daydreaming About Your Home Makeover Projects
[Home-Improvement] Most home makers enjoy shopping for that perfect accessory, daydreaming about colors for our rooms, and planning a new look for our home. Try this simple exercise to help with your home makeover projects.
- I Love Teleclasses!
[Writing-and-Speaking:Teleseminars] Besides making new friends and gaining valuable information, teleclasses save you time, money, and effort.
- A Californian's View of Philadelphia
[Travel-and-Leisure] You feel like you're in America in Philadelphia. We got to see South Street! I never connected this South Street to the 60s hit song, "Go on down to South Street, where all the hippies meet." Of course, because I was a real Southern California hippy, it never occurred to me that the song referred to a street in Philadelphia.
- Need a Real Estate Loan? Mortgage Credit Requirements Not the Same as Auto Financing
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] Qualifying for a real estate purchase requires different credit than auto financing or credit cards. In fact, you may be able to go out and buy a new car today, but you might be turned down for a home mortgage. On the other hand, you could go out and buy a house and be turned down for an auto loan. Find out why mortgage credit is not the same as auto credit.
- Selling Houses with Curb Appeal and Design Psychology
[Real-Estate] Curb appeal has grown up, and using innovative Design Psychology techniques for marketing homes puts curb allure to work, enticing buyers to come inside your home. One way to make your home outshine the others on the market, upgrading your exterior, doesn't have to cost you a lot of money.
- How to Find and Buy a Bargain House with Little or No-Money Down
[Real-Estate] This article from real estate credit expert Jeanette Fisher helps first-time home buyers with tips on how to get into a home with little or no money for a down payment. Article passes through most spam-checking systems for ezines.
- Home Sellers Warning for Young Families
[Real-Estate] If you're thinking about selling your home and moving up, do your homework before offering your home for sale. Read this article to see what can happen to families who don't do their math.
- Flipping or Fixing Houses for Profit
[Real-Estate] What's the difference between a flip and a fixer? Many real estate investors make $5,000 to $10,000 or more by flipping houses. Other investors, rehabbers, prefer to fix houses for higher profits. Before and after pictures of houses available from Jeanette Fisher for your use with the article. Request by email from her website.
- Color Psychology: The Joy and Pain of Yellow
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] The underlying color psychology of yellow helps home makers choose the right shade of yellow to create a joyful living space. Read about how to avoid the wrong yellow colors, which cause irritation, and why the psychology of yellow colors can make your space either happy or painful.
- Are you paying higher interest on your credit cards than you think?
[Finance:Credit] Many credit card holders sign up for a credit account with an 8.4% interest rate and then later realize that their interest rate has been bumped to 27.4%. Take these six precautions to make sure you don't get charged more. [Read full article]
- Good Credit Is a Necessity for Everyday Living
[Finance:Credit] Your credit report can mean that you must pay higher deposits and rates for everyday services, conveniences, and basic needs. Also, poor credit causes some people to be ineligible for some services. [Read full article]
- How to Make a Home for Sale Flyer Using Marketing Psychology
[Real-Estate:Marketing] Want to sell your home right away, for the highest profit to you? Discover how to improve on the Realtor’s number two sales tool--right after the sign--your sales flyer. Jeanette Fisher's benefit-driven sales flyer helps you with Internet marketing psychology methods.
- How to Get Started in the Real Estate Game Fixing and Flipping Houses
[Real-Estate] For beginning real estate investors. Three tips to help you find the perfect fixer from real estate expert Jeanette Fisher. Learn when "ugly" means bad that can be good, and when stinky means pass.
- How to Buy Fixers for Profit
[Real-Estate] Do you dream of becoming a multi-millionaire real estate investor? Here's how to get started: find a bargain "fixer-upper" owned by a worried seller. Real estate investing article by Jeanette Fisher shares how to find and purchase fixers for profits...
- Home Staging Strategies
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Are you selling your home? Who are you preparing your home to sell to? Home staging tips from design psychology expert Jeanette Fisher help you get top dollar for your home...
- How to Use Design Psychology to Stage Your Home for a Top-Dollar Sale
[Real-Estate] A new business venture to help home sellers, home staging, assists property owners in preparing their home for the best possible sale. Home stagers visit your home and either tell you how to redesign it or actually do the work for you. These services do great work, but...
- Investment Concerns for Selling Your Home
[Real-Estate] Besides the emotional upheaval of uprooting from your home, your property is most likely the biggest investment you have ever made, and its sale causes financial stress as well. You must protect your investment nest egg and secure your future. [Read full article]
- How to Help Your Teen Prepare for a Strong Financial Future (What Schools Should Teach About Credit)
[Home-and-Family] Why should you help your children set up banking and credit accounts? Credit expert Jeanette Fisher explains how to jump start your children's financial future.
- How to Write Articles to Sell Your Book
[Writing-and-Speaking:Writing-Articles] A beginner's guide to writing articles for Internet marketing
- Is Your Credit Score Costing You Money?
[Finance:Credit] Most of us want a good credit report to obtain automobile financing, credit cards, and to purchase a home. But, beyond these consumer loans, your credit report can cost you in everyday living expenses.
- Flipping Fixers: Using Transformation Psychology for Top Dollar
[Real-Estate] Satisfying and lucrative real estate investment depends upon your correct assessment of profit potential, of course, but your ultimate success depends on your ability to transform a fixer into a doll...
- Home Staging: How to Make Your Tract Home Stand Out in the Crowd
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] How do you make your home stand out from the crowd? How can you turn your property into a "hot" sale, even if the market’s lukewarm? Interior design Professor Jeanette Fisher discusses the "Three M’s" of Design Psychology strategies to stage your home for sale.
- Appraisal vs. Market Value: How to Avoid Pitfalls in the Sale of Your Home
[Real-Estate] Real estate investing expert Jeanette Fisher discusses a common home seller's problem. Find out how to avoid low appraisals and what to do if your selling appraisal comes in too low.
- Feng Shui, Design Psychology and Bed Placement
[Home-Improvement:Feng-Shui] Jeanette Fisher, interior Design Psychology professor, compares Feng Shui and Design Psychology in relation to bed placement.
- Staging Homes for Top-Dollar Sales
[Real-Estate] Design Psychology expert Jeanette Fisher discusses "redecorators," home stagers, and why buyers choose the house they buy.
- Selling Investment Houses - Psychology of Mirrors
[Real-Estate] Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher offers advice for selling houses. Using mirrors as props for staging houses helps you sell your investment properties for more money, and fast. Discover how mirrors bring subtle psychological value to your home for sale.
- Fixing Houses for Resale: Three Beginning Steps to Increase Profits and Have Fun
[Real-Estate] Real estate investing expert Jeanette Fisher offers three initial steps to take to help you make more money and have fun in the process of fixing houses for resale.
- Using Transformation Psychology to Sell Investment Properties
[Real-Estate] Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher explains the differences when using Design Psychology for fixing houses for resale.
- Design Psychology for Your Office
[Business] Using Design Psychology in your office increases both happiness and productivity. Explore new interior design ideas on how to make your office a more pleasant and productive place offered by Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher.
- Partnering for Health: A Parent's Perspective
[Health-and-Fitness] Author Jeanette Fisher explains how a family helps care for a loved one when they're faced with hospitalization. Partnering with the physicians and hospital staff ensures that your loved one will get the best care.
- New Credit Advice: Don't Pay off Those Credit Cards!
[Finance:Credit] Credit needed for real estate mortgage financing differs from credit needed for consumer loans. If you need help getting a home mortgage, these credit tips will help you.
- Credit Help for Real Estate Financing: Credit Scores
[Finance:Credit] Find out how your credit scores rate with real estate lenders. and what does not count in your score.
- 14 Common Credit Mistakes
[Finance:Credit] Establishing credit and wisely managing your credit becomes easier when you know how. You'll feel empowered by taking knowledgeable steps towards good credit, and you'll be on your way to purchasing real estate and greater financial freedom.
- Color Help: Many Factors Affect Color Preference
[Home-Improvement] Color affects human beings in many ways, on both the conscious and subconscious levels, every day of our lives, and a thorough understanding of the effects of color is very important when making design decisions for the home. Understanding color psychology helps home makers choose colors for home decorating.
- Use Aromatherapy to Promote Joy in Your Home
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] Aromatherapy has been around for at least 4,000 years, and is known to have been used by the ancient Egyptians for massage, healing, and embalming. But its uses for making our homes enjoyable places to live are just as applicable today as they were during Egyptian times.
- Decorate Yourself Happy: How to Decorate For Everyday Pleasure/Joy
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Because psychologists relate true happiness to joyous occurrences happening frequently, decorating your home to promote everyday pleasure make sense. If you're planning a home makeover, provide for the cumulative total of all the little pleasure moments.
- Design Psychology: How Our Sensory Responses to Aromas Create Happy Homes
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] The sense of smell, a potent tool in Interior Design Psychology, brings a feeling of harmony and serenity to any room in a home. Embrace the scents you love and those that conjure pleasant memories, and make the use of scent an integral part of your overall design plan.
- Pre-Construction: How to Make Money in Real Estate Without Doing the Scrunch Work
[Real-Estate] Not enough time to work on fixers? Tired of fixers? Try this...
- A New Choice for Home Financing: Correspondent Lenders
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] When you begin your search for a new home loan, one of the first things to consider is where you'll get the money. Your basic choices will be mortgage brokers and banks. There’s a third source of funding that combines the best of both--the correspondent lender.
- Glorious Holiday Decorating: Ten Tips
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] If you're looking for ways to decorate your home in a glorious holiday fashion this season--without breaking the bank and losing your sanity in the process--here are ten terrific ideas to get you started.
- Are Biweekly Mortgages Really Worthwhile?
[Real-Estate:Mortgage-Refinance] Professor Jeanette Fisher explains the ins and outs of biweekly payments. Find out how you can save thousands of dollars and take 5-7 years off your mortgage--without paying excess fees.
- How to Get Financing after Filing Bankruptcy
[Real-Estate] If you're thinking about buying a home but have declared bankruptcy in the past, don't give up hope. There are still ways for you to be able to find a loan, even if your credit history is less than sterling.
- Glorious Holiday Decorating (Without Breaking the Bank or Losing Your Sanity)
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Decorating for the holidays can be both expensive and emotionally draining. But you can decorate your home beautifully--on a budget--by following just a few simple suggestions. Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher offers ways to avoid holiday stress with easy, affordable, and fun decorating.
- Your Home is Your Symphony
[Home-Improvement] If you look at decorating your home as if you were creating a symphony, in all of its complexity and harmony, you'll be able to make design decisions that are always in concert with your overall concept. Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher discusses home interior design for homemakers.
- Dining Rooms: Designing for Your Emotional Well-Being
[Home-Improvement] Avoid "Wallpaper Madness Traditional" and other dining rooms decorated to look good. Design your dining room for great conversations.
- Creating Dynamic Window Coverings Without Breaking the Budget
[Home-Improvement:Windows] Dynamic window treatments are a vital part of the overall look and feel of a room, but they don't need to break the budget. If you're creative and allow your imagination to run free, your decorating choices are truly endless.
- Create a Joyful Home with Living Accessories: Houseplants
[Home-Improvement] Discover the benefits of houseplants: natural air filters and interior design enhancements. Interior design, care, and feeding tips.
- Window Dressing from the Outside Looking In
[Home-Improvement:Windows] Creating great-looking rooms that make people feel warm and happy is an important part of decorating, but no matter what style of home you live in, you can greatly improve its overall allure by also paying special attention to how your window treatments look from the street.
- Buying and Selling Distressed Houses for Maximum Profit (Update)
[Real-Estate] Real estate investing expert Jeanette Fisher discuses how to find fixers and transform them into buyer's dream homes using design psychology.
- What is a Predatory Lender?
[Real-Estate] Most mortgage brokers provide good service to their clients, yet there are a few who use unethical practices. Those brokers, called "predatory lenders" not only over-charge consumers, but they also get paid in other hidden ways.
- Selecting Color Schemes
[Home-Improvement] Whatever colors you ultimately choose, remember that harmonizing those colors throughout the entire home is a combination of science and art. The key to success is in small doses of repetition, and adding touches of Design Psychology to the emotional undercurrents of color will assure a joyful home.
- Designing Great-looking Window Coverings on a Budget
[Home-Improvement:Windows] Here are a few tips for creating great-looking window dressings, without breaking your budget in the process:
- Find Bucks in Yucks! 20-Year-Old Woman Turns Doghouses into Dollars!
[Real-Estate] How to Fix, Flip, and laugh all the way to the bank: read how a young, inexperienced woman transformd doghouses into dollars.
- Selling by Owner = Saving by Owner?
[Real-Estate] Although many FSBO home sellers have saved thousands of dollars in commissions, many others have lost money. However, if you’re thinking of trying to sell your home without the aid of a real estate agent, here are a few tips for getting the most from the experience:
- You Have 15 Seconds to Sell Your Home! 11 Steps You Can Take to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar
[Real-Estate] Selling your home? Here are some interior design psychology tips to help you sell your home for more than your next door neighbor's, and faster!
- Selling by Owner Tips
[Real-Estate] Selling a home isn't easy, even for a real estate professional, but you can sell your home yourself, if you’re willing do your homework and then earn your commission.
- How to Become a Successful Real Estate Investor
[Real-Estate] Many folks dream of becoming real estate investors, but not everyone has what it takes. If you're dreaming of becoming an investor, here are several important questions to consider, long before you buy your first investment property:
- Buying Houses: Types of Bargains to Find
[Real-Estate] To make a good profit in real estate, you must buy right. Check out all property types available to find the best transaction for your specific situation. Consider fixers, distressed sales, repossessions, multiple listings, for sale by owners, and vacant properties just wasting away.
- Financing Houses
[Real-Estate] Lenders control many programs -- some make use of over 200! Generally, lenders look for the following typical standards, with many exceptions:
- Decorate Like You See in Magazines & Books?
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] What’s missing in the staged rooms of most interior design books and magazines?
- Using Color Psychology to Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] When painting your home for resale, choosing the right colors can make a huge difference in your paycheck at closing. For instance, did you know that the exterior color of houses selling most quickly is a certain shade of yellow, but that choosing the wrong shade of yellow can kill a sale?
- Creating Your Joyful Home: Inspiration to Make a Home Planning Journal
[Home-Improvement:House-Plans] Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher presents inspiration to make a home planning journal.
- Creating Your Joyful Home: Dawning of Your Emotions
[Home-Improvement] Design Psychology Professor Jeanette Fisher discusses the reasons you need to think about your emotional well-being when planning interior design projects. Beautiful, short article for home and garden ezines.
- Five Things to Help Sell Your Home Fast, and For More Money
[Real-Estate] Selling your home requires some thought and a clear plan of action. Here are five things to consider when you're getting ready to sell your home:
- Ten Steps for Becoming a Successful Real Estate Investor
[Real-Estate] The secret to success in real estate investment is finding bargain properties that you can "flip" quickly for a profit. Here are a few ideas for becoming a successful investor:
- Finding a Great Listing Agent for Your Home: 8 Tips
[Real-Estate] If you've decided to list your home, you'll be paying a real estate agent a significant amount of money to the hard work of selling your home. Therefore, you have the right to expect prompt attention, good service, and protection. Here are eight tips for finding a good real estate agent:
- Selling Houses: Payback of Window Treatments
[Home-Improvement:Windows] Real estate market conditions influence decisions regarding window treatments. Hot markets require fewer embellishments in order to sell, whereas increased competition from many listings similar to yours may require extras like great-looking window coverings to attract buyers.
- Seven Essential Color Concepts for Designing Spaces
[Home-Improvement] Understanding a few essential color concepts will help you design your living and work spaces more purposefully. Embrace the colors that work best for your specific space. Here are seven Design Psychology color basics:
- Selling Houses: Design Psychology and Interior Colors
[Real-Estate] Interior colors are vitally important to selling your home quickly, and for more money. But you must always take your target market and selling season into account, using Design Psychology techniques, when choosing the colors for the inside of your home.
- Design Psychology: Fabrics
[Home-Improvement] From a riot of color in bold chintzes to the gentle rustle of taffeta, fabrics influence our mental attitude in many subtle and not so subtle ways.
- Interior Design Secrets for Selling Houses
[Real-Estate] New concepts in Interior Design Psychology are helping home sellers net more money in today's competitive real estate market.
- Five P's of Selling Houses
[Real-Estate] Five key tips for selling houses for top dollar—fast by Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor. Short article, perfect for real estate ezines.
- Selling Houses: The Basics of Design Psychology
[Real-Estate] Great article for real estate sites and ezines. Here are a few Design Psychology tips you can use to maximize your sales profits without having to spend a great deal of money:
- The Costs of Transforming Your Home into a Buyer's Dream House
[Real-Estate] Turning your house into the home of a buyer's dreams doesn’t have to cost a great deal of money.
- Fixing Houses: Mixing Your Own Paint for Savings and Harmony
[Real-Estate] To make the maximum profit on your investment properties, you'll need to save money wherever you can. One way to save significant amounts of money is to mix your own paint.
- What is Design Psychology and How Will it Help Me?
[Home-Improvement] "I wish I had learned all this before we bought our first house 25 years ago, and before we had our children. Not only would our homes be more harmonious, but so would our lives together. It's amazing to learn how colors, lighting, sounds, and patterns affect us so deeply."
- If Your House Is a Mess, You Don't Have To Sell For Less
[Real-Estate] Don't be tempted by "We Buy Houses" or "Sell Your Ugly House in 9 days for Cash" ads. Tips for fixing up houses for sale.
- 18 Easy Steps to Buy a Bargain House
[Real-Estate] Step-by-step plan to buy distressed property and bargain houses for beginning real estate investors.
- How to Choose Your Real Estate Lender
[Real-Estate] Ask potential lenders about the following requirements and costs according to a price range you think matches your needs. This also helps determine what you need to look for in a property.
- Create a Sizzling Home Sales Flyer
[Real-Estate] The one sales technique that most real estate agents fail to use effectively when they make flyers is listing BENEFITS. Like the sales letters you see on websites, a powerful selling flyer will concentrate on a home’s benefits to the buyer.
- A Beginner's Guide to Flipping Houses
[Real-Estate] It's the most tried-and-true way to make a fortune in real estate, so don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that it can't be done or that you need to have a great deal of start-up money.
- Questions Investors Should Ask When Buying and Selling Investment Property
[Real-Estate] If you're a real estate investor, here are several questions to consider when looking at investment properties. Providing sound answers to these questions will greatly increase your profits:
- Real Estate Investing: How to Choose a Lender
[Real-Estate] Instead of trying to fit into a lender’s program, interview your lenders by finding out how they can accommodate your needs. Here are a few questions to ask:
- Do You Have a "Master" Bedroom? You Shouldn't! Tips for Remodeling Your Bedroom
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] The bedroom is the most personal of all the rooms in our home. Do you want a Passion Boudoir, Reading Room, or Private Sanctuary?
- Physiological Response to Window Coverings
[Home-Improvement:Windows] Each house is different, but no matter what your home’s style or composition, you'll want to give careful consideration to your choice of window fashions if you're going to create a warm and happy feeling for yourself, your family, and your guests.
- Real Estate Investing: Infomercial and Mentoring Scams
[Real-Estate] Don't pay hundreds of dollars for out-dated methods that may have worked in the middle of last century! They're a waste of your time and money. Real estate investing is truly a great way to make a fortune, but you must stick to tried-and-true proven strategies, ones that work in today's real estate market.
- Why You Need a Lender to Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] Home sellers who are prepared to help buyers find financing will sell their homes faster, and for a larger selling price. Think about your potential buyers: some of them will have already arranged for financing, but many don't know how to buy a house. By offering financing options and being able to help with buyer closing costs, you can open up new possibilities for selling your home.
- Selling Your Home: The Power of a Great Sales Flyer
[Real-Estate] Even though its importance is often overlooked, a great sales flyer is one of the most effective tools for selling your house. Whether if your home is listed with an agent or not, make sure that you have a dazzling flyer.
- The Secret to Maximum Real Estate Profits: Lighting
[Real-Estate] Because lighting affects the way buyers will feel in your home more than any other design detail, you should consider the lighting in your home carefully before beginning to show it to prospective buyers. A little extra time and effort will net you more money at closing, and will sell your home faster.
- Selling Investment Houses: Props & Profits
[Real-Estate] New Marketing and Design Psychology ideas help you stage homes for sale to motivate buyers and generate top dollar.
- 11 Tips for Stripping Wallpaper: How to Get Rid of Ugly Wallpaper!
[Home-Improvement] Many homemakers get wrong advice for this horrendous task. These tips come from a real estate investor who fixes houses. Great short article for home decorating ezines.
- Selling Houses Fast: Basics of Design & Color Psychology
[Real-Estate] Make more money from your home sale by choosing design details that catch the attention of buyers in your price range.
- Selling Houses: Flooring & Feelings
[Real-Estate] Buyers think they love Italian tile and other hard floor surfaces, but they actually feel happier when they're walking on softer surfaces such as padded carpeting and padded laminate. Even so, you'll want to give some serious thought to the floors in your home if you want to sell quickly, and for the highest profit.
- Selling Houses: Psychological Effects of Landscaping
[Real-Estate] Well-conceived landscaping gives you the advantage when it comes to selling your house. If your home makes buyers feel good while they're on your property, you'll sell it quickly, and for top dollar!
- On Raising a Child with Disabilities: Sara & the Nail Salon
[Home-and-Family:Parenting]
- Lighting and Your Emotions (Part One)
[Home-Improvement:Lighting] Do you feel unhappy in your home and you don't know why? Maybe you need to let the light shine!
- What's So Special About My Front Door?
[Home-Improvement:Doors] Your front door welcomes all to your home. This declarative statement of your house -- the exclamation point of your home --needs to sing out your welcoming note.
- The Origins of Aromatherapy
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] Aromatherapy, which involves the use of essential oils to treat various ailments, has been used by healers for thousands of years.
- Three Great Concepts for Remodeling a Master Bedroom
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] (Good short article for homemakers.) Since it’s one of the places people spend the most time, one of the most satisfying home makeovers is the main bedroom. Here are three ideas for creating a dynamic new main bedroom space:
- Design Psychology: Beds and Emotional Well-Being
[Home-Improvement] Design Psychology offers new bedroom makeover ideas concerning your bed for supporting your emotional well-being. Giving thought to your emotional needs when designing your bed placement and enhancements helps you create a bedroom for joyous living.
- Fixing Houses: Using Psychology for Profits
[Real-Estate] Real estate investors who specialize in fixing houses for profit gain new insights from Interior Design Psychology ideas. Increase your profit potential in the new buyer’s market with these new transformation strategies.
- Selling Your Home Quickly, Even if You Have No Money For Repairs
[Real-Estate] You don't have to give your home away to real estate vultures. A little elbow grease, sweat, soap, and water can help your home put on its best face for potential buyers, even if you have no money for repairs.
- How to Get Credit Reporting Agencies to Help You
[Finance:Credit] The process of clearing credit can be laborious and frustrating. Understanding your rights empowers you and saves you time and effort. By employing the following tips, you can enlist the help of credit reporting agencies (CRAs) as you work to improve your credit rating.
- Talk to a Lender Before You Sell Your Home
[Real-Estate] If you’re looking to sell your home quickly, and for top dollar, the best thing you can do is to be able to offer your buyers some sound financing options. That’s why developing a relationship with a lender can be the key to a quick sale, and to more money at closing.
- Three Types of Lighting for Room Remodeling
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] When remodeling a room, choosing the correct lighting is one of the most important considerations. Proper lighting sets the atmosphere of the room, creates a particular mood, or provides accent to an architectural style. Lighting also accentuates the good aspects of a room or disguises a room’s shortcomings.
- Your Heritage and Personal Decorating Style
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Ethnic traditions, customs, and attitudes carry forward our family values. Paying tribute to family heritage and tradition also gives our children a strong sense of family ties. Our roots make us what we are, and showing respect for ancestral traditions gives the interior of your home a special individuality.
- Home Remodeling: Colors and Temperature Perception
[Home-Improvement:Remodeling] Colors contain underlying psychological meanings and evoke particular feelings when we see them. All of us have preconceived notions, learned from childhood memories and family customs concerning colors. Choosing correct colors is vitally important for creating a specific look and feeling in a room, and the ways that colors affect our perception of temperature should be one of the first considerations in a remodeling project.
- Decorate Your Home for Joy Using Design Psychology
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Design Psychology exceeds "traditional" interior design practice by considering the effects of design elements on our five senses, as well as our emotions. Rather than decorating to impress or to follow a certain style, you can choose specific lighting, color, patterns, and other design elements to support your happiness and well-being.
- Choosing Color Schemes: Colors and Physiological Response
[Home-Improvement] Color affects human beings on a variety of levels, including changes in our very body chemistry. Therefore, a considerable amount of thought should be given to the color scheme of a room, depending on its use and the effect you're trying to achieve.
- Color Help: Color Theory and Design Psychology
[Home-Improvement] Color theory is an entire science unto itself, and to get a full picture of how it all works, I'd suggest picking up a few art books. In this article, however, we're going to take a brief look at the essentials of color theory, in light of the concepts of Design Psychology. we'll first list a term, and then offer a short summary of how the term relates to Design Psychology.
- Credit Repair Companies and Credit Counseling
[Finance:Credit-Counseling] Let's be crystal clear, right up front. Paying someone to "fix" your credit is a waste of your time and money, since
- Credit Help for Real Estate Financing: Five Categories of Your Credit Score
[Finance:Credit] Find out how the different parts of your credit scores count and how to get financing for real estate . . .
- Selling by Owner Escrow or Closing Checklist
[Real-Estate] Home sellers should keep on top of their pending sale; especially when selling without the assistance of a real estate agent. Sometimes busy real estate agents forget to monitor all aspects of a pending sale. Here’s a checklist for home sellers:
- Don't Fall for Credit Repair Scams
[Finance:Credit] We've all seen the ads on television or in magazines, shouting, "Erase bad debt!" or "Remove negative entries from your credit report!" If you're a person suffering from a less-than-stellar credit rating, those headlines may seem like the answer to a prayer.
- Colors: Their Connotations and Perceived Meanings
[Home-Improvement] Throughout the ages, colors have been used to evoke certain emotions, and an examination of the history of color offers fascinating insights into the human condition, as well as showing how different cultures have developed different attitudes about color. Here are a few examples of what various colors have come to represent over the years:
- Research Concerning Color in Homes and Workplaces
[Home-Improvement] Over the years, many studies have been done in countries around the world to try to discover how human color preferences affect the choices we make in decorating our homes and workplaces, and one dominant fact has consistently emerged: our choice of colors seems to be based largely on the intended use of the space, whether it’s in our homes or at our places of business. Here are a few of the findings from various studies:
- Color Help: Choosing Color Combinations
[Home-Improvement] Choosing a color scheme can be a nerve-wracking business. For instance, I anguished over the colors to paint the exterior of my Victorian house, I ordered every book on old house painting that I could find, and I discovered that they all contradicted each other on the basic “rules.”
- Color Help: Color Imagery for Happy Homes
[Home-Improvement] Color researchers have estimated that up to 70% of our subconscious reactions to people and environments are based solely on our reactions to color. With that in mind, it’s important that you give special attention to the effects you want to create when choosing the color schemes for the interior spaces in your home.
- The Design Psycho Learns to Relax
[Home-and-Family] Creating a fabulous dining room for your family and guests deserves careful planning.
- Special Credit Information for Married Couples
[Finance:Credit] For real estate investors.
- Don't Hire Someone to Steal Your Joy: Decorate Your Home Yourself!
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] Most of us enjoy looking for that perfect accessory, daydreaming about colors for our rooms, and planning a new look for our home. You know yourself best. Don't give all the happy moments of planning and choosing decorating details to paid professionals. Reserve the enjoyment of designing your home for yourself.
- The Secret to Your Home's Interior Design
[Home-Improvement] Short artical perfect for home and garden ezines.
The secret to your home’s interior design is ...
- Transforming Doghouses into Dollhouses
[Real-Estate] To be successful, know what you're getting yourself into, choose your remodeling materials carefully, and always keep your potential buyers’ wants and needs in mind. If you do that, you'll find buyers lining up to bid on your properties.
- Investing in Residential Real Estate: Achieving Positive Cash Flow
[Real-Estate] When investing in real estate, it is highly desirable to achieve positive cash flow on a month-to-month basis. This is true even if you are counting on property value appreciation to supply the bulk of your desired return on investment. If you are losing money month-to-month, you may find all of your eventual profits eaten up by the monthly drain on your income. This will be particularly true if there is a downturn in property values for a few years.
- Seven Interior Design Psychology Ideas for Dining Pleasure
[Home-Improvement] A separate dining room adds glamour, elegance, and excitement to a shared meal.
- Sell Houses Fast for Top Dollar with Design Psychology
[Real-Estate] Design Psychology’s innovative interior design strategies go well beyond normal cleaning, painting, and repairs, and have been proven to increase home seller profit while shortening a home’s market time. Here are a few tips for maximizing your sales price, while minimizing the out-of-pocket cost of selling your home:
- Investing in Real Estate Profitably: Financing Options for Purchase of Rental Houses, Part 1.
[Real-Estate] This is not an article about tricks for 100% (no money down) financing. Even if you do take advantage of various no money down strategies from time to time, these strategies are not generally applicable when you begin investing systematically in multiple rental homes with the goal of making significant rental income. This article reviews some modern strategies for minimizing your loan payments when purchasing investment rental homes.
- Investing in Real Estate Profitably: Eliminating the Need for Mortgage Insurance
[Real-Estate] This article reviews a strategy for improving your cash flow when purchasing investment rental homes -- namely, using two loans to eliminate mortgage insurance.
- An Interview with Design Psychology Expert Jeanette Fisher
[Home-Improvement] Design Psychology empowers you to create a fabulous home that sustains your emotions, using techniques based on science. Design Psychology turns spaces into happy places.
- Easy Home Decorating - How to Decorate Spaces for People
[Home-Improvement:Interior-Design-and-Decorating] When it comes to decorating your home, forget about the empty, lifeless rooms you see in magazines and books. Instead, you should concentrate on designing all of the rooms in your home as backdrops for the people who will be living in those spaces. Here are a few easy home decorating techniques for designing dynamic spaces:
- Home Sellers: Redesign to Sell Your Home Fast
[Real-Estate] Home buyers think they choose a home based on financial smarts, but most buyers choose the home they fall in love with and just can't live without. Get the seller's edge with redesign tips from Jeanette Joy Fisher, interior design instructor.
- 10 Step Credit Repair Guide
[Finance:Credit] Step-by-step plan for clearing credit to finance real estate by a real estate investor who overcame credit issues.
- Home Staging: Cutting Edge Interior Design Tips for Selling
[Real-Estate:Home-Staging] Read about new techniques for marketing houses; find out how these fresh, new interior design home staging ideas will help sell your home faster, and for a higher price than the competition!
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