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Find a great housemate and you can end up with a new best friend.
Make a bad choice, and you can end up with a fiend.
I had the fiend experience back in the ‘80s when I agreed to split a two-bedroom house with a college student I’d just met. It took me a few months to realize the textbooks she carried around were a prop she used to do a naughty schoolgirl routine at the massage parlor where she worked. Her chronic sniffles weren’t from allergies; they were from too much cocaine snorting.
That was the end of my willingness to share my space until I met my husband. We have a lot of extra space in our current home, but I’d have to be really hard up for cash to rent out any of it.
There are apparently several million people who disagree with me. The Census Bureau says 6.2 million Americans live in shared households (not counting the 15.8 million adults who live with their parents).
Among the people who think I’m way wrong about house-sharing: Crystal Stemberger, a blogger who’s rented a spare bedroom in her Houston home to five different people over the last six years.
Her first roommate was a friend who simply needed a place to live for a while. “A while” turned out to be four months and when he moved out, Stemberger and her husband decided having housemates agreed with them.
“We were addicted to the pretty easy extra money that was covering two-thirds of our mortgage by itself,” she says. They put an ad on Craigslist to find a replacement renter.
(Fortunately, the Stembergers didn’t live in Boston, where at the time “Craigslist killer” Philip Markoff trolled for victims.)
Their second roommate was a single guy with a busy social life and a heavy workload that kept him out of the house. “When he was around, he was clean, friendly, and was always very helpful,” Stemberger says. “He stayed for more than a year and we still miss him.”
A housemate that doesn’t come home sounds good to me.
Annamarie Pluhar, who blogs from the website Sharing Housing, says money is the first thing people think about. “You save literally thousands of dollars in a year,” she says. But what ends up making a difference in your life is having help with household tasks, such as maintenance and pet sitting.
Pluhar adds “having someone there to find you when you fall and can’t get up” to her list of positives after a woman in her hometown of Brattleboro, Vt., slipped on an icy front sidewalk and died of hypothermia when no one noticed her.
Great housemates not only find you when you’re lying unconscious on your icy sidewalk, they create relationships that are different than the ones you have with friends, Pluhar says. “You pass each other in the kitchen and say, ‘Hi,’ or you spend 45 minutes talking about the latest things. It’s a daily connection with someone who can really lift your life.”
I get that if you’re single, but if you’re married, that’s what your spouse allegedly does. Maybe a housemate would work out if he’d do all the things my husband and I don’t want to do — like tackle Laundry Mountain or seal the driveway.
Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/blog/home-thoughts/why-never-rent-room-my-home-again/#ixzz2S8em7Y9B
The real estate market is ever-changing. Compared with not so long ago, that’s a good thing for many real estate markets. If you are ready to buy a home in today’s market in Oakland County Michigan or anywhere else for that matter, you need to take note of recent changes that may affect your home-buying power.
Buying a home in our local market today is not just about finding a home in the best condition in a great location for an affordable price. Smart home purchasers today require a deeper knowledge of the economy, the local market and new regulations. We can help you pinpoint all you need to know to make an educated move when buying a home.
Home prices, interest rates and fees are all top-of-mind when you’re figuring back-of-the-envelope costs. But, do you know what new guidelines are in place that can affect how much mortgage you can qualify for, what the local inventory of available homes is currently, or if you can find funds to remodel a home down the road? When you’re ready to buy a home — or if you’re thinking of selling and want to understand what buyers are thinking in today’s market — keep reading to get a true picture of how to make a smart move today.
HOME PRICES
We all could benefit from a crystal ball that tells us what home prices will be in six months, a year or several years from now. No one has that information, but we can tell you that according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), home prices are up, on average 10% or more in the majority of major home markets nationwide comparing prices from first quarter 2013 over the same period one year ago. No one is promising these types of gains in every market, but don’t be surprised if the home you could buy just six months from now has a price tag you can no longer afford.
INTEREST RATES
Although interest rates have been running at or near historic lows for many months, experts predict interest rates will rise — not drop — which again will affect how much home you can afford. Granted, rates won’t shoot up immediately, but even incremental changes will increase your costs…and reduce your buying power. Combine rising interest rates with increases in home prices, and your dream-home picture may have to be modified the longer you wait.
LOAN COSTS
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans will cost more this year. As of press time, the upfront fee (FHA funding fee) was 1.75% of the loan amount. In addition, the mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) will need to be paid for the life of the loan (instead of stopping MIP after paying down 22% of the loan) and will be based on the unpaid amount of the mortgage. The MIP rate has risen to 2.05% of the financed loan amount (up from the previous 1.05%). Compare traditional financing with FHA financing to find the best choice for your budget.
INVENTORY
According to the NAR, the number of homes for sale nationwide in the past half year has been at — or, even at times, below — the lowest supply of homes available back to the boom times of 2005. If you find a home you love, move quickly to make it yours as it is likely to sell fast given there are fewer gems to choose from. If you are in the higher-end luxury-home market, however, you’re likely to see a fairly good selection of homes and less competition from other buyers.
DISTRESSED SALES
If you’re looking for a steal that needs just a bit of sweat equity to fix it up, you might be disappointed. The number of foreclosures, short sales and other distressed properties has been decreasing, and when they do appear, they are often bought up quickly and quietly by all-cash investors. Also, many former bargains are coming back on the market after a rehab, but are certainly no longer considered distressed sales since they’re now in move-in condition — and priced accordingly. If you’re looking for bargain or investment property, we can help you locate suitable properties, but the inventory may be tight.
NEW CONSTRUCTION
With the improving economy, home builders are back in business offering brand-new homes. Due to pent-up demand and competition from other buyers, new-home prices are rising faster than prices of resale homes; over the past six months, new-home prices were up compared with the previous year, according to NAR. Don’t go it alone with the builder; get a real estate professional — like us — to represent your interests in the purchase.
LOANS YOU CAN AFFORD
At the height of the real estate bubble, risky loans had features such as interest-only payments, balloon payments and loan fees that were greater than 3% of the mortgage amount. Those options are now hard to find. Today, lenders offer “qualified loans” — which increases your ability to have a mortgage that fits your finances and will not surprise you. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) new “Ability to Pay Rule” resulting from the Truth In Lending Act goes into effect in 2014, but most lenders have already been moving away from no- and low-documentation loans.
DEBT RATIOS
Lenders who provide “qualified loans” under CFPB’s “Ability to Pay Rule” also are working to ensure that your total debt does not exceed 43% of your total income. Therefore, if you earn $75,000 per year, your total combined debt (mortgage, insurance, car loans, student loans, etc.) could not exceed a yearly total of $32,250. When divided by 12, this means your total monthly debt payments cannot exceed $2,687.50. This proposed safeguard shows that your debt level is manageable, and you can afford to repay all your obligations.
HOME-EQUITY RETURNS
When the value of your home is greater than your mortgage, the difference is “home equity.” Lenders today will allow you to tap into this equity — an option that during the downturn had become unavailable to millions of homeowners, often because their home equity had disappeared — once again allowing homeowners to remodel and refurbish their homes with a low-interest loan backed by the equity of their home.
PROFESSIONALISM
Despite the challenges noted above, today’s buyers are still looking at many real estate markets around the nation that are more affordable than they have been for quite a few years — even decades, in some cases. That makes now a great time to buy a home and perhaps a better time than you’re likely to see for many years to come. To take advantage of today’s market, and overcome any hurdles along the way, you’ll need someone like us on your side to work with you. Contact us when you — or someone you know — are ready to buy a home
Sometimes you see people who have made it big in TV and they have forgotten where they came from.
Here is a video of Steve Harvey who never forgot where he started.
Enjoy!
EATING FRUIT…
We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It’s not as easy as you think. It’s important to know how and when to eat.
What is the correct way of eating fruits?
IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS! * FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.
If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.
FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let’s say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.
In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil….
So please eat your fruits on an emptystomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining — every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc — actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!
Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will NOT happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.
There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.
When you need to drink fruit juice – drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don’t even drink juice that has been heated up. Don’t eat cooked fruits because you don’t get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.
But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!
KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.
APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.
STRAWBERRY:Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.
ORANGE :Sweetest medicine. Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.
WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene — the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.
GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content.. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.
Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer! Can u believe this?? For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this ‘sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
A serious note about heart attacks HEART ATTACK PROCEDURE’: (THIS IS NOT A JOKE!) Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. Sixty percent of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive.
Angie Miller – this year’s contestant is #inittowinit!
FINE
This is the word women use to end an argument when they feel they are right and you need to shut up. Never use “fine” to describe how a woman looks – this will cause you to have one of those arguments.
Often sellers will go next door, or get in their car and park around the corner when there is a showing- that way they know when they can go back home and get on with their normal lives.
So what happens when they see the buyer with their agent simply drive by at the showing time…..? and they don’t even bother to go inside?!
You know the sellers cleaned and made sure everything was just right for them. You have to know that it’s not the most convenient thing to have to leave your home when you are a seller- pack up the kids; the dog and the cat…maybe leave in the middle of the baseball game or their favorite television show, too…
On the other hand, I’ve been that buyer’s agent and when we are right in front of the house, and the buyer says, “I don’t want to even go in”, I can’t make them go in. It happens. I do feel badly for the sellers when I know they have left their home for this showing. But, the buyers have their reasons; perhaps it’s because they don’t like the land, or the setting.
Depending on the buyers and circumstance, I might say, “Well, we’re here anyway, it will just take a few minutes to go look, the more you see, the more you will know about what’s available in our market.”
AND/OR
“Things might look/seem entirely different when you’re inside looking out….than when you’re outside looking in.”
Sometimes, I think these things happen because, buyers don’t have the time to drive by the properties before making an appointment and other buyers dictate to the agent what homes they (think they) want to see, instead of relying on their agent’s expertise to show them only the homes that suit their specific criteria.
Doing a drive by before making the appointment, if possible, would help avoid this happening….
I know it is disappointing for the sellers to see.
I can feel them watching, staring holes in the back of my head, when I’m that agent in the car, too! If looks could kill, I’d probably be dead.
This is something that I would have done when I was in college…..when didn’t I see this sooner ?
Enjoy!
“Alfred, if I had 20 marbles in my right pants pocket, 20 marbles in my left pants pocket, 40 marbles in my right hip pocket and 40 marbles in may left hip pocket, what would I have?” “Heavy pants, sir!”
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