Archive for 2010
real estate negotiation – “Real Estate Negotiation Tips”
The real estate is a booming industry, and it is very easy to win the real estate game, provided you know the rules. As an investor, you should be able to master the art of negotiation, which is the most crucial aspect of real estate investments. Listed below are some of the most important and practical negotiation tips that can help you when buying a real estate investment property.
Negotiation Tips for Buyers
Is the seller genuinely interested- Find out if the seller is genuinely interested in selling the property. It will be a total waste of time if you are dealing with someone who is just not keen on selling. Many investors hang on for a while, waiting for the seller to change his mind, only because they liked the property. However, if the seller is not particularly eager to sell it to you at the first shot, then there is very little chance that the deal may materialize later. To know if the seller is genuinely interested, try calling him for an appointment. If he is reluctant to see you, then the answer is obvious.
Inspect the property carefully: Before making your offer, you must inspect the property carefully. Do not allow the seller to influence your decision in any way. Many sellers insist on making an offer immediately after the inspection. Ideally, you can inspect the property, and then fix up an appointment with the seller for the following day.
Dont stick to a single offer: When negotiating a real estate deal, be prepared with more than one offer. You can prepare three offers; however make sure that every offer promises a profitable deal.
If you feel that a particular deal is not going to materialize, and the seller is not pleased with your offer, and then firmly inform the seller that you cannot negotiate any further. This gives a clear indication to the seller that this is his last chance, if he is genuinely interested in closing the deal.
And, here are some negotiating tips for sellers:
Do you really wish to sell your property: Before deciding to sell your property do some market research to find out if the time is right. Often, sellers sell their properties at a low price to meet some sudden expenses. However, see if you can work out other options to manage your expenses, and save your house as a last resort.
Decide on a reasonable price: You may expect an exceedingly high price for your house. But the truth is that current market trends, and demand for properties in a particular area, greatly influence property prices. The best way of determining your property value is to conduct a research of similar properties in your area. Real estate agents in your area can also help you to determine a reasonable price for your real estate property. Deciding on an appropriate price for your property will help you to find genuine customers. Unreasonably high prices of properties can chase away prospective investors.
Obtain legal help: It is important to draw an agreement with the help of a skilled lawyer. Read all the clauses in the agreement carefully before signing it.
If you are not happy with the offer, or if you feel that the terms and conditions offered by the buyer are unreasonable, simply call off the deal. Most sellers prefer to work in association with a good real estate agent to benefit from a hassle-free deal.
The Chopping Edge Of Kamisori Black Diamond Salon Tools
Think of salon instruments and the one identify that involves your mind is Kamisori and today the identify Kamisori have develop into synonymous salon tools. With their leading edge technology they literally have a innovative that is sharp yet clean and comfortable. The leaders in every kind of salon instruments, Kamisori have over time mastered the art of producing salon tools. The kamisori black diamond set, has change into the moment choice of all of the hair setting professionals for their salon tools. The kamisori black diamond is made up of top quality Japanese metal and elegantly carved and crafted to go well with the ergonomic designs for comfort and ease. Being extraordinarily gentle weight, kamisori black diamond set is on the market in various designs and in addition if you are left handed then you have got the kamisori black diamond set made especially for you. Furthermore, the kamisori black diamond within reason priced and if you order on-line it is delivered to you free of price making it very affordable. One of many options which unique for the kamisori black diamond merchandise is that the manufacturers offer you a life guarantee on their merchandise, free sharpening of scissors and shears for lifetime and a 12 months’s warranty for an unintended harm due to fall. Added to all that is the cash back policy in case you are not glad with the product. Apart from the kamisori black diamond selection you can also avail the pink handle scissors and shears. There are sets of the kamisori black diamond class that’s available in varying sizes of 5”, 5.5” and 6” and in addition in various tooth counts of 20/30/35. The rings are adjustable in order that you’ll be able to adjust it to fit your fingers. The kamisori black diamond scissors and shears are made of high quality Japanese metal which may be very strong and durable.
How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
- 11Credit is not the tool you think it is. Remember that credit card companies are in the business of making money. Adopting a “Cash is King” policy will go a long way in stopping your dependency on credit.
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2
Stop using your cards. Literally freeze them in a block of ice if you need to. (Hanging a sealed bag of water, with the cards inside, is a fun and mess-free way of doing this.) Or, you can take your cards and cut them in to pieces with scissors, this way you are sure that you won’t use them again.
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3
Look at your balance. Multiply it by .5. This is your next payment. So if you have a 1000 dollar balance, your first payment is 500.
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Repeat step one. Each month look at your balance and pay off 50% of it. By the 6th or 7 month you will owe less than $20, and then you pay that off and you are done.
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If you do this and then calculate the true interest that you end up paying, you will be pleasantly surprised. If our example credit card account had a 15% advertised rate, your would have only paid 2.5% in interest.
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6
Track your spending, and find extra money to pay of your debt.Get an extra job,doing extra chores…
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7
Stop spending money on the little things.For example: Don’t buy your books/DVD’s or CD’s just lend them from your local library. Don’t buy sandwiches outdoor, just make them at your home.
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8
Stop spending and save more.Save every month a little bit of money, it may seem not that much, but its a beginning.
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9
Look if you can put all of your debts together. This way you don’t have to pay all that extra rent to the bank,it will release your debts a little bit.
Choosing the Right orthopedic Pillow for your Bed
Pillows have an important job to do in supporting our head and down to our neck and spine, even people without back troubles can wake up with a stiff neck or soreness if we have pillows that are either too thin, hard or any in any other way uncomfortable. Pillows tend to come in different varieties like how duvets can come in different thicknesses, the main differences between pillows tends to be based on your sleeping position.
People who sleep on their side will typically have regular thickness pillows, some may be contoured to support the head and promote a straighter spine. Another variety is for people who sleep either on their back or face down; these pillows tend to be thinner to not have the neck bent too far forward or backwards.
Many allergy sufferers will have problems with regular mattresses and pillows as they can harbour dust mites so pillows can come in a variety of materials, some materials are considered much more luxurious and have a price tag to suit such as memory foam and feather and down pillows. Memory foam pillows in particular have become popular as they react to body heat and pressure to mould around your head.
Some other pillow types include leg pillows, many people find it comfortable to sleep with a pillow placed either between their knees or lower legs. Chiropractors recommend this as it helps promote a straighter spine which can help alleviate back pain in the morning. There are knee pillows available that go thinner in the middle to help keep them in place during the night.
sneak peek: famille summerbelle
ever since seeing julie’s incredible paper cut of paris, i’ve been drawn to the work of famille summerbelle which has been popping up around the web. their designs and accessories are fun and playful, with the fundamental idea that they belong in a “room for everyone.” the sneak peek of their beautiful home comes to us straight from paris so be sure to CLICK HERE for the full post with additional images. [thanks, julie!] -anne
[above: Our living room. We love book, so this this a small selection of our favorites. The painting in the background and the drawings on top of the bookshelf are all done by me when I was at art college.]
Our Kitchen is just on the left. Once again I love the mantelpiece to display my collection of glass candle holders. The table cloth is from an antique market in Paris. The glasses from Habitat and the chairs were from a Church. We bought them on Ebay.
Dedicated hosting service
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on investment. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to colocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider and in some cases they will provide support for your operating system or applications.
Some providers will calculate the Total Transfer, the measurement of actual data leaving and arriving, measured in bytes. Measurement between providers varies, though it is either the total traffic in, the total traffic out, whichever is the greater or the sum of the two.
One of the reasons for choosing to outsource dedicated servers is the availability of high powered networks from multiple providers. As dedicated server providers utilize massive amounts of bandwidth, they are able to secure lower volume based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of bandwidth. To achieve the same type of network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth, a large investment in core routers, long term contracts, and expensive monthly bills would need to be in place. The expenses needed to develop a network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth does not make sense economically for hosting providers.
Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. Variations of Linux and Unix (open source operating systems) are often included at no charge to the customer. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red Hat Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux offered to hosting providers on a monthly fee basis. The monthly fee provides OS updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called yum. Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.
Support for any of these operating systems typically depends on the level of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to acquire the latest security fixes, patches, and system-wide vulnerability resolutions. Updates to core operating systems include kernel upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden of server management from the dedicated server owner.
Walgreens Diaper Sale
Here’s a great deal on diapers. Walgreens.com is currently having a sale on their own brand name diaperes for $5.99 per pack, which is $4 off their regular price. This includes Newborn through Size 6. If you order online, you can get free shipping for any order over $25. Not sure how long this deal will last, so you might want to check it out ASAP!
2009 Proof Platinum Eagle
Despite the fact that the 2009 Platinum Eagle bullion coins have been canceled, the US Mint announced their intention to release a collectible Proof 2009 Platinum Eagle later this year. Each year since 1997, the US Mint has produced a collectible proof version of the platinum bullion coin for collectors. Since 1998, the coins have featured a unique reverse design, which changes each year.
The 2009 Proof Platinum Eagle offerings will be curtailed from previous years. From 1997 to 2008, the US Mint had offered a full range of coins including 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, and 1/10 oz coins, plus a 4 Coin Set. From 2006 to 2008, they had supplemented the offerings with collectible uncirculated coins produced in the same range of individual coins with a 4 Coin Set. At the end of 2008, the US Mint announced all but the one ounce proof coin discontinued.
The design for this year’s proof Platinum Eagle will be an interpretation of the theme “To Form a More Perfect Union.” Early in 2008, several design concepts were produced by the United States Mint and sent to the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory for comment and review. The CFA eventualy endorsed a design featuring a smal tree with thirteen leaves. The CCAC favored a design featuring four faces representing the diversity of America. The final design choice has not yet been announced by the US Mint.
The 2009 Proof Platinum Eagle has a tentative release date of December 3, 2009. Pricing and ordering information have not yet been announced. Based on a pricing grid used for the 2008 Platinum Eagles, the price of the one ounce proof coin is projected to be $1,692 based on an average price of platinum between $1,350.00 to $1,449.99. If the average price of platinum falls into a different $100 increment, the price would be adjusted accordingly.
Last year, the US Mint sold 5,030 of the 2008 Proof Platinum Eagles. Projected demand for the 2009 coin is expected to be higher, due to the curious circumstances surroudning the coins release. How many coins the US Mint sells may actually just boil down to how many they can produce.
Tamanaha: Wake Up, Law Professors, to the Failure of the Law School Model
It’s grim reading. The observations are raw, bitter, and filled with despair. It is easier to avert our eyes and carry on with our pursuits. But please, take a few moments and force yourself to look at Third Tier Reality, Esq. Never, Exposing the Law School Scam, Jobless Juris Doctor, Temporary Attorney: The Sweatshop Edition, and linked sites. Read the posts and the comments. These sites are proliferating, with thousands of hits.
Look past the occasional vulgarity and disgusting pictures. Don’t dismiss the posters as whiners. To a person they accept responsibility for their poor decisions. But they make a strong case that something is deeply wrong with law schools.
Their complaint is that non-elite law schools are selling a fraudulent bill of goods. Law schools advertise deceptively high rates of employment and misleading income figures. Many graduates can’t get jobs. Many graduates end up as temp attorneys working for $15 to $20 dollars an hour on two week gigs, with no benefits. The luckier graduates land jobs in government or small firms for maybe $45,000, with limited prospects for improvement. A handful of lottery winners score big firm jobs.
And for the opportunity to enter a saturated legal market with long odds against them, the tens of thousands newly minted lawyers who graduate each year from non-elite schools will have paid around $150,000 in tuition and living expenses, and given up three years of income. Many leave law school with well over $100,000 in non-dischargeable debt, obligated to pay $1,000 a month for thirty years. …
[L]aw schools must shrink the number of graduates, and must hold the line on tuition increases. (The fact that many students get scholarships is no answer because it simply means that some students, those paying full fare—often the students with the worst prospects—are subsidizing others.) This will be painful: smaller raises (perhaps even salary reductions), smaller administrations, smaller faculties, more teaching, less money for research, travel, and conferences.
The longer law schools delay in undertaking these measures, the more casualties there will be. At some point, law professors can no longer disclaim responsibility for the harmful consequences of this enterprise.
Training with Distractions
I made a mistake last week. This isn’t really news. As a matter of fact I probably made a mistake every day last week, so I should probably say “I made a mistake last Sunday” or maybe even “I made several mistakes last Sunday night around 11:00PM and I’m thinking of the third or fourth one right now.”
Anyway, I was asked to answer an e-mail interview (man I hate that picture) and one of the questions struck me funny. Funny enough that I outsmarted myself. Again, not news — I’m an engineer and experienced in outsmarting myself. (Ask me about the SSL redirector and CPU utilization sometime over beers.)
The question was : What are your views on negative reinforcement? What do you think about dog owners using spray collars and even shock collars?
I immediately jumped to how I have been told several times that shock collars are used more often to administer negative reinforcement than positive punishment. Negative reinforcement as defined by the four quadrants, that is. (The other trainer interviewed on the site was not using that definition.) The problem is (at least in terms of answering the question) is I don’t use shock collars and don’t plan on it.
I found the question quite puzzling. What are my views on one of the quadrants? When I gave it some thought I found that I don’t really use it a lot, but it’s not something I dwell on. I don’t get up in the morning and say “Gee, I sure hope I don’t need to use any R- today.” nor do I find myself saying “Technique X would fix this problem, but it’s R- and I don’t use that.”
When it came time for an example I didn’t want to put it in terms of two tools I don’t use. So, after a few minutes, I thought of standing on the leash in order to get a jumpy dog to stay down during class. It’s far from my favorite thing to do, but it was all I could think of late on a Sunday night. Unfortunately my wording could have been better:
There are times where it is in operation – stepping on a leash when a dog is jumping up too much or won’t hold a down during a class for example, but it’s most associated with much more aversive techniques than I normally use.
Within a couple hours of the interview hitting the twitterverse I received some positive punishment of my own. It was pointed out to me that if a dog is jumping and you step on the leash, it is actually positive punishment.
The picture in my head was a tight leash that loosens when the dog lies down. The picture in the other person’s head, due to my referring to a “jumpy dog,” was a dog jumping up and hitting the end of the leash.
Note to self: get your blogging done before you watch a three hour German epic without subtitles. It will save you embarrassment and consternation later. (On the other hand, mistakes make for great blog fodder — so maybe I’ll try a foreign movie in a language I don’t understand at all…full editorial calendar FTW!)
But, and this has more to do with the original question than my mistake and someone’s reaction to it, what is it with the quadrants?
The four quadrants were defined as a way to analyze how consequences influence behavior. They are not a moral code, nor are they a training manual.
