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Home Selling Advice - Get the House Ready to Show - House Selling Tips You are here: About > Home & Garden > Home Buying / Selling > How To Sell a House > Getting it Ready to Sell > Home Selling Advice - Get the House Ready to Show - House Selling Tips Home & Garden Home Buying / Selling Essentials 10 Things Home Buyers Shouldn't Do Best Tips for First Time Home Buyers "Must-Do" Tasks Before You Sell How to Buy a Home, Step by Step For Sale by Owner Advice Articles & Resources How To Buy a Home How To Sell a House Celebrity & Historic Credit Reports & Scores Design & Remodel Home Maintenance Inspections & Appraisals Investing & Foreclosures Modular & Manufactured Mold, Radon, Lead, etc. Mortgage Advice Moving & Relocation Real Estate Careers Real Estate For Sale Vacation Homes Buyer's Guide Before You Buy Top Picks Home Buying Books Foreclosure Books Mortgage Books Product Reviews Forums Help FREE Newsletter Sign Up Now for the Home Buying / Selling newsletter! See Online Courses Search Home Buying / Selling Stay up to date! Email to a friend Print this page Home Selling Tips How To Sell a House Showings, Should You Stay Or Go? Passing Your Home Inspection More Home Selling Advice The Importance of Curb Appeal Should You Offer a Home Warranty? Giving the Buyer Possession Before Closing Home Selling eCourse Home Selling Materials Delivered Once Weekly Related Blogs Mortgage Fraud Blog The Real Estate Blog The Money Pit Most Popular Modular and Manufactured Homes Finding Your Best Place to ... Home Buying Don'ts First Time Home Buyer Tips Before You Sell Your Home What's Hot Coping with Unethical People How To Buy Land Real Estate Appraisal Before You Buy a Log Home Package Home Buying / Selling - GuideReviews Related Topics Home Repair Architecture Credit / Debt Management Housekeeping Landscaping Home Selling Advice: Get the House Ready to Show From Janet Wickell , Your Guide to Home Buying / Selling . FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! Make Sure it's Your House they Come Back to for a Second Look Here's a critical bit of home selling advice: don't even think of putting your house on the market until you've taken a close look at its condition. You usually only have one shot at impressing potential home buyers, so take some time now to prepare the house for showings and you might be rewarded with a faster sale and a higher offer. Home Prep Basics Everything from floors to windows must be spotless, including the oven and other major appliances. Skylights should be crystal-clear, too. Do not forget to make bathrooms shine! Kill the offensive odors. They're the first thing buyers notice, and often a permanent turnoff. Eliminate Clutter: Put away small kitchen appliances and other items that are sitting on countertops and tables. Remove photographs and other small items from table-tops. Organize closets and cabinets. Outside Tasks Clean the drain gutters. Buyers nearly always comment if gutters are full of leaves and it makes them question other maintenance issues. Store or organize items that make the yard look messy. Make your front entry inviting. Decorate it, paint the door, or buy a new door. It's the first look at your house, so make it a good one. If the Home Is Vacant Vacant homes often home buyers with a blast of stale or mildew-laden air, and once buyers smell mildew, they are out the door. During cold months, the interior of a house without heat always feels colder than it is outside. Leaving the heat or air conditioning running while a home is on the market reduces odors and makes the house more inviting. Keep the lawn and landscaping tidy, even if you have to hire someone to do it. That's a start, but you're not finished yet. Take your prep work to the next level if you want to be ready for buyers. 1 2 Next Important disclaimer information about this About site. Topic Index | Email to a Friend Our Story | Be a Guide | Advertising Info | Work at About | Site Map | Icons | Help User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy ©2005 About, Inc., A part of the New York Times Company . All rights reserved. Around About Oprah's Life Vacation Ideas Shop Safely Online VIDEO: Craft Rooms VIDEO: Christmas Traditions What's Hot Coping with Unethical People How To Buy Land Real Estate Appraisal Before You Buy a Log Home Package Home Buying / Selling - GuideReviews
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Home Loan Information - Mortgage and Loan Place contact us home Useful Home Loan Information Many people spend a great deal of time looking for their home, but neglect to spend much time researching their home loan. The home loan will be a larger purchase than your home, so it is advisable to educate yourself and get as much help a possible when determining what type of loan to get and what lender to use. The sites below will help you find the best rates on a home loan and provide answers to any questions you might have. Get a variety of home loan information from Interest .com . They provide a plethora of Home Loan information as well as other information regarding new home purchases. The site will help you ensure that you get the best deal on your home and your home loan. Plus, there is a Home Buyer's Guide that is available for download and will provide you with valuable home buying tips. Home Loans Home Loan for Australians . Get a variety of information on a home loan if you are located in Australia. You can find Home Loans by state and other state financial information at Propel Home Loans. Check out the Freddie Mac site for a variety of information about home loans. Freddie Mac was chartered by Congress to help ensure there is money for lenders to loan for families to purchase homes. VA Closing Costs The typical closing costs associated with a VA loan include the following: Reasonable amounts for any or all of the Itemized Fees and Charges designated by the VA. A 1% flat fee charged by the lender Reasonable discount points The VA funding fee Itemized Fees and Charges may include the following: VA appraisal and compliance inspections of the property (The veteran cannot pay for an appraisal requested by the lender or seller.) Recording Fees Credit Report Prepaid Items Hazard Insurance Flood Zone Determination Survey Title Examination and Title Insurance Special Mailing Fees for Refinancing Loans Other Fees authorized by the VA The 1% lenders flat fee is designed to reimburse the lender for all fees and costs not covered in the Itemized Fees and Charges. Examples of items that would fall within the realm of this fee are as follows: Lenders appraisals and inspections, except in construction loan cases Loan closing or settlement fees Document preparation fees Preparation of loan papers or conveyance fees Attorneys service that does not include title work Photographs of the property Interest rate lock in fees Postage or other mailing charges, telephone calls, etc. Escrow fees or charges One of the closing costs of a VA loan that is not associated with a normal loan is the funding fee. The funding fee is used in order to fund the VA home equity program, and it is required to be paid by the veteran on every VA loan, with some exceptions. Exemption include veterans receiving compensation for service related disabilities, veterans entitled to receive compensation for service related disabilities if they were not receiving retirement pay, and surviving spouses of veterans who died in service or from service related disabilities. Other Loan Links: Lenders for Loans For Sale By Owner Home Buyers Search Engine Red Chimney Real Estate Agents Mortgages VA Loans Home Loans Debt Consolidation Refinancing Apply Now!
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Texas Land
Bush and the Texas Land Grab Bush and the Texas Land Grab July 16, 2002 By Nicholas D. Kristof Editorial Op-Ed To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@nytimes.com Democrats and media hounds are baying under the wrong tree. The point in President Bush's business career where he took outrageous shortcuts was not at Harken Energy, but rather when he was grabbing land for a new baseball stadium in Arlington for his Texas Rangers baseball team. Mr. Bush broke no laws. Neither do the overwhelming majority of corporate executives. The cloud over the business world comes not so much from lawbreaking as from avaricious bruising of the public interest. The challenge is not catching criminals but injecting public scrutiny into a culture of cronyism in which executives, accountants, regulators and "independent" board members all ooze empathy for each other. When Asia had its economic crisis in 1997-98, Americans properly trashed its "crony capitalism." But we suffer from the same affliction ourselves, and President Bush will not address the issue seriously because cronyism has been his way of life -- the Bushes call it loyalty. I have a stack of court documents from Arlington that portray the "sordid and shocking tale" of the Rangers stadium, as one lawsuit puts it. Essentially, Mr. Bush and the owners' group he led bullied and misled the city into raising taxes to build a $200 million stadium that in effect would be handed over to the Rangers. As part of the deal, the city would even confiscate land from private owners so that the Rangers owners could engage in real estate speculation. "It was a $200 million transfer to Bush and Rangers owners," complains Jim Runzheimer, an anti-tax campaigner in Arlington. William Eastland, a leading Republican in Arlington, is also outraged, and puts it this way: "You're using public money for a private purpose." Mr. Eastland was a Bush delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000 but still believes that the Bush group behaved shadily and against the public interest. Local voters overwhelmingly approved the deal, so maybe we shouldn't get so exercised by star-struck local officials giving $200 million to rich baseball owners. But the most unseemly part of the deal was that Mr. Bush and the Rangers' owners conspired with city officials to seize private property that would be handed over to the Bush group. "A group of wealthy and influential people threatened and traded their way into an unprecedented takeover of government power and private property in an awesome display of greed and avarice," charges a lawsuit by the landowners, in what strikes me as a fair recitation of events. Another suit charges that the deal "can only be described as astounding, unprecedented and blatantly illegal." A copy of the secret agreement among Mr. Bush and the other Rangers owners shows that they intended to make money not just by running a baseball club but also by land speculation. For example, one owner found a nice chunk of land and sent a memo suggesting that it "sounds like another condemnation candidate if you want to work the site into your master plan," according to the court documents. Another of the owners' internal memos casts a proprietary gaze on a property and declares: "We plan to condemn this land." For a group of financiers to go around town admiring properties and deciding which to seize through the government power of condemnation so that they can acquire free land and speculate on it is appalling. Even Kazakhstan would blush at such practices. Horace Kelton, for example, owned land that the Rangers wanted. The owners got Arlington to seize it, with the city paying less than $1.50 per square foot even though it had previously paid $10 a square foot for other land nearby. "It was an extremely low price, and that's why we had a court case that lasted seven years," Mr. Kelton recalled. Eventually, his family got $11 a square foot. In fairness, Mr. Bush was simply being a hard-nosed businessman. He did a great job leading the owners' group, and it's hard to take seriously the caricature of him as unintelligent when he led the Rangers so lucratively. Indeed, his $14 million profit on the Rangers financed his entry into politics. But it's also a sordid tale of cronyism, of misuse of power, of cozy backroom money-grubbing -- a more pressing threat to American business than outright criminality. LINK to source
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Which? bookshop | Buying Property Abroad Skip main navigation | | Sitemap | Help | Contact us Home News About us Campaigns Press Magazines Bookshop Which? Online search box Book categories Food & drink Home & garden Legal advice Personal finance Property Magazines Subscriptions Gift subscriptions Placing an order Ordering online Ordering offline Delivery Safe shopping Bookshop Bookshop Bookshop Buying Property Abroad Jeremy Davies 10.99 (free postage & packaging) For recreation,retirement or investment, buying property abroad has never been morepopular, and over a million Britons now have homes in another country.Unfortunately, buying abroad is fraught with difficulties. Differentcultures, languages, currencies and laws make expert advice essential. BuyingProperty Abroad takes an in-depth look at France, Spain, Portugal,Italy and Florida, as well as considering emerging markets in theMediterranean, the Balkan States and Eastern Europe. The book: outlines the sort of property you are likely to encounter looks at local taxes and how much you'll have to pay examines local law and how this relates to matters such as inheritance, insurance, liability and land searches considers the true cost of holiday homes - including maintenance charges, utility bills and management fees looksat the financial and legal implications of long-term residency, withparticular reference to retirement, taxation and health care. BuyingProperty Abroad can help you realise the dream of owning somewhere inthe sun, while making sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare. Paperback 256pp | Accessibility | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | © Which 2005 Gift subscriptions Buy any Which? magazine subscription as a gift: - Which? magazine | - Computing Which? | - Gardening Which? | - Holiday Which? | Which? magazines Buy Which? magazine subscriptions and binders: Subscriptions | Gift subscriptions | Binders | | Try Which? Online free for 30 days and save £££s. Which? campaigns Our food is killing us. Read how our food campaign is changing things.