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Archive for March, 2008

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Home Buying 7-Step Plan, Step 7

March 31st, 2008 by Matthew C. Keegan | 1 Comment | Filed in Home Buying

This is the final article in our home buying series.

Moving Day

Hooray, you’ve finished the deal and are ready to move in! The house is yours and all you have to do is take your stuff from your current residence and move it to your new home.

Today’s home buyers have several options available to them when planning to move including:

Use Your Resources — Obviously the cheapest way to move. If you don’t have much stuff, then moving what you have with the vehicles you own will save you a lot of money. Your cost will only be gas and the time it takes to move everything.

Rent A Truck — UHaul, Ryder, and Penske are some of the companies who come to mind when do-it-yourself moving is an option for you. You’ll pay a daily rate, gas charges (ouch), and whatever tolls may be on the roads from your current home to your new home. If you don’t need a truck, consider a small trailer instead.

Opt For A Pod — You’ve seen them all over the place: pods or containers which are delivered to your location for you to fill up. These 5×7 units are then picked up and trucked to your new location where you are given a certain amount of time to unpack everything and the pod retrieved. If you have a moderate size home, then a pod is a good option to using a moving company.

Hire A Moving Company — For some people, do-it-yourself is just not an option. If you have a lot of stuff, many valuables, and you are traveling far, then the services of a qualified interstate mover is the best choice. Do your homework: you want a mover who has a solid reputation, is licensed to move for long haul, and who backs up everything with insurance and a guarantee. Expensive, but not always problem-free.

Save Money And Aggravation

For the second, third, and fourth options, doing your homework will save you money and much grief later on. Search the internet to find out what others are saying about a particular move or service and make sure that you understand the terms of the moving agreement before signing anything.

Above all, enjoy your new residence — you’ll be taking on some special projects in the near future to turn your house into a home.

Resources

Check Your Credit Report

Estimating The Home Value

Home Buying Tool Set

Home Financing Plan


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Weekly Tips: for the week of March 30

March 30th, 2008 by Krayton M Davis | No Comments | Filed in Weekly Tips

Travel Tip

New York in Spring Time

New York City is a great place to go in the month of April. The weather is just right, the crowds are limited, and there are Spring festivities abundant. Make your travel plans:

this is new york
times square cam

I love new york

Home Improvement Tip

Light up your home! Bath your home and yard in soft lighting. It brings out the beauty of Spring and your landscaping design:

view garden lighting | find a lighting contractor

Consumer Financing Tip

You’ve heard the news that the Feds lowered interest rates. And many banks followed by lowering their prime lending rate to 5.25%. It’s a good time to get a home equity to remodel your home, consolidate debts, or plan the summer vacation.

see our home equity section for ideas

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Credit Card Tip: Tropical Beach

College Planning Tip

Monthly Checklist for March 30

see our BLOG:
campus life for planning tips and other campus gossip


A Success Building BLOG (part VII.a)

March 29th, 2008 by Krayton M Davis | 1 Comment | Filed in Achieving Success

BLOG postings: (link to Achieving Success BLOG for all posts and PDF downloads)

Discipline to Success:

The Physical Attribute

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin

continuation from BLOG post: part VI.g

The body is a fascinating machine. Those of us who are gifted with healthy bodies can appreciate the complex mechanism of organs, tissues, and cells that function in precise intricacies. Over a trillion cells replicate each year. Tiny infant hands and feet grow almost unnoticed into strong tools that build and perform many wonders of the world.

I could provide tons of material describing the functions of the human body. But my purpose in this posting is to help you set a strategy to strengthen your physical body and appearance. This chapter focuses on overcoming physical weaknesses brought on by life-styles and environment. The suggestions in this chapter are supported by other literary works that discuss physical development and fitness. I invite you to use these books if you feel that they offer helpful advice on developing your personal physical fitness program.

The body is in its perfect form as a child. But as we grow older, we often do things to our bodies that slow us down and weaken our drive to accomplish physical feats. We become tired and sluggish from failing to exercise regularly. Our physical health and appearance falters by consuming an improper diet. These physical weaknesses can impede our physical capabilities and hinder our progress to a goal.

Some people might make the argument that they can accomplish their personal goals without an active physical program. Perhaps, but the same argument can be made that says you can accomplish your goals more easily and efficiently with an active physical development program. Physical development means that you will awake each morning without hesitation. It means that you will be active all day. It means that you will feel good about yourself and your physical abilities. It means that you will feel confident and self-assured. Physical development and strength gives you the physical power to accomplish your goals and objectives.

The physical attribute is the first character attribute in the inverse pyramid scale. We interpret from this scale that the total energy required to strengthen the physical attribute is less than the total energy required for the other attributes. The physical attribute also impacts your motivation at greater levels than the other four attributes. We become easily motivated by our physical actions because the changes we make are easily measured and noticed.

Developing and Strengthening the Physical Attribute

We can segment the physical attribute into four areas. You will select a development program from one of these areas. We will briefly discuss each area separately. Again, you might want to research library sources that offer extensive programs to improve each of the physical areas discussed in this chapter. There are a number of physical fitness books that can help you develop a fitness program in each of the following areas:

Next week, we will review each component and outline a plan to build physical discipline.
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Clean Out The Clutter & Hold A Yard Sale

March 28th, 2008 by Matthew C. Keegan | 2 Comments | Filed in Home Selling, Home Tips

Garage Sale

Quick, what are some of the favorite past times for Americans?

If you named baseball, cook outs, and Disney vacations then you’d have picked three that definitely fit. Allow me to add a fourth choice — yard sales — the ubiquitous warm weather diversion favored by millions every weekend.

The Season For Sales

Yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, et al, are held year ’round, but pick up noticeably when the weather turns warmer. Right now, many of your neighbors are sorting through their stuff to see which items they can get rid of in advance of their sales.

By no means am I someone who holds these types of sales, but I do attend them from time to time. After all, if someone has something that is in very good condition, such as yard tools, I’d rather buy it from him instead of paying full price at Home Depot.

Tips To Help Make Your Sale A Success

From a consumer’s perspective the following are some tips I’ve put together to help you move your stuff. You may not be able to make a living with a yard sale, but you could pull in some nice cash over the weekend.

Before you have a sale, make sure that you understand your community’s restrictions to these types of sales. Over the years some towns have put a limit on yard sales as they’ve become a traffic nightmare and an annoyance to neighbors. If you live in a planned community, your neighborhood association might even forbid yard sales.

Pick your dates wisely. This past Saturday, two of my neighbors had yard sales and they seemed to be busy. Despite being on the eve of Easter, they had a steady flow of traffic. On the other hand, having a sale on Easter Sunday wouldn’t have been considerate to their neighbors. Choose dates that don’t interfere with other attractions, but if you are on a road with a lot of traffic, event-goers could be your best customers.

Hold it early, end it early. Let’s face it: you’d prefer to sleep in on a Saturday, but if you can get out there early, even at 7 a.m., you’ll attract plenty of early-risers. The earlier you start, the earlier you can end your sale — who wants to work ’till 5 p.m. when you can end your sale at 1? Caution: your neighbors may not appreciate the early noise!

Be wise with advertising. Besides having excellent directional signs to your home and plenty of them, you’ll want to make use of your Craiglist, Backpage, or Kijiji listing. Each site is free and you’ll get plenty of traffic from all three. Local newspaper ads are virtually a thing of the past. Don’t forget to remove all signage once your sale concludes.

Coordinate with your neighbors. I’ve always appreciated when a neighbor mentioned ahead of time that they were holding a garage sale. This was helpful if I was planning to have family and friends over at the same time and parking was a premium. Besides, why not ask your neighbors if they want to hold their sale on the same day? The traffic numbers from multiple sales can be a bonus.

Price your stuff wisely. If you aren’t sure of the value of your items, research eBay and other sites to find out what they are selling for. You could have a diamond in the rough, an heirloom worth hundreds of dollars. Price everything accordingly and your items should move.

Of course, having plenty of change on hand, enough workers to help out, everything displayed easily, and a bargain bin available are some other good ideas which will ensure the success of your sale.

Yard sales are an American institution and if you are planning to move, they can be a great way to clean out the clutter.

Further Reading

How to Plan a Yard or Garage Sale

Resources

Planning Your Move

Selling Your Home


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