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Commentary on Gas Prices in the Near Future
2008-05-29 15:33:00
With the recent soar in gas prices, I feel compelled to contact my readers and urge them to take action against the oil companies. Goldman Sachs has put out a recent estimation that the price for a barrel of crude oil could reach as high as $200. Currently the price is somewhere around $120 per ...
More About: Commentary , Future , Gas Prices , Prices

Motorcycle Gas Mileage: A Simple Payback Calculator
2008-05-28 15:34:00
I have put feelers out there, but as of yet, I don’t have any solid leads on obtaining a motorcycle. But as you know from my Motorcycle Gas Mileage article, not only can you save a lot of money getting a motorcycle, but you learned how highly I esteem the Honda brand of vehicles (that was thrown in here for free ). Motorcycle Gas Mileage Payback Calculator http://personalfinanceresources.com Input Area Price Per Gallon of Gas $4.00 Your Current Car/Truck Gas Mileage 25 Your Prospective Motorcycle’s Gas Mileage 60 Your Average Miles Driven Per Month 1,000 Automatic Calculation Area Price of the Motorcycle for 6 Month Payback $560.00 Price of the Motorcycle for 1 Year Payback $1,120.00 Price of the Motorcycle for 1.5 Year Payback $1,680.00 Price of the Motorcycle for 2 Year Payback $2,240.00 Price of the Motorcycle for 2.5 Year Payback $2,800.00 Price of the Motorcycle for 3 Year Payback $3,360.00 Price of the ...
More About: Simple

Get Your Property Management Deals in Writing, Up Front!
2008-05-27 15:47:00
Continuing on the theme that I was writing about in my last article, I wanted to give you a specific example that happened to me just last week in property management. A friend on mine that I manage property for referred me to one his friends to help him get his property leased. This man ...
More About: Writing , Management , Property , Front

Dealing with Flaky People in Property Management
2008-05-24 00:44:00
In today’s world, you never really know anybody. Think about yourself, and your family members, do you have a cousin or uncle that you just wouldn’t trust to even feed your dog while you are on vacation? Well if that’s true, do you think that strangers you are trying to do business with deserve any ...
More About: People , Management , Property

Comparing the Costs of Buying Versus Renting a Place to Live
2008-05-22 22:16:00
This is a great little tool that I found out there in internet land. If gives you quite a lot of information and flexibility to adapt to any market you may be in, factoring appreciation and repairs, to give you a solid estimate of what will be better for you. I usually lean toward the ...
More About: Buying , Live , Versus , Place , Renting

Simple Tips for Home Owner Insurance Claims
2008-05-20 18:20:00
Recently, there was a major storm that came through our area, and delivered baseball size hail to our property. Yes, I said baseball size hail. It was a serious storm cell that produced a tornado about 15-20 miles south of us. Now, our house is somewhat protected by two massive live oak trees, but even ...
More About: Insurance , Tips , Home , Simple , Claims

Bank Fees - Kicking You While You Are Down
2008-05-20 04:59:00
America is a funny place to be. As long as you have high balances at the bank, no problem. As soon as you hit a snare though - watch out. Most banks are large chains with policies and rules, and they are totally unwilling to work with their customers. This normally results in excessive fees, ...
More About: Fees , Bank , Kicking

Some Basics of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
2008-05-16 21:22:00
If you are strapped for cash, but have a little that you would like to invest in real estate, than the use of an REIT, or real estate investment trust, can help you gain an entrance to several different pieces of property at the same time. This article will give you some basics about this ...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment , Investment , Real

List of Cheap Entertainment
2008-05-15 16:14:00
I want this one to be short and sweet, so I want to give you some ideas for very low cost or free ideas for your weekend entertainment. So here goes: Going for a walk at the local park. My wife and I love this idea because it is absolutely free, and the scenery is beautiful. Going ...
More About: Entertainment , List , Cheap

Running a Successful Garage Sale
2008-05-14 15:53:00
Now that you have a few ideas for finding items to sell, it is time to learn a little bit about how to run a successful garage sale. There are three things that are going to make you successful when running your garage sale - having items that people want, selling them at a low ...
More About: Garage , Running , Sale

Profiting with a Garage Sale Business
2008-05-13 15:10:00
Everybody would like to make a living at the house. But most don’t think that small time enterprises like a garage sale business will get them anywhere. Well if you have a strong location that gets through traffic, then you are already poised to succeed in garage sales. Even if you don’t have the best of locations, you can still build a solid base of clients that will come back to you time and time again if you continue to bring new and interesting items to the market. I know of one lady in our Church that does nothing but her garage sale every weekend, and that’s how they make their living. Benefits of a Garage Sale Business Independence. Pure and simple. This is what every entrepreneur is looking for. I am an internet and real estate entrepreneur and that is exactly what I want: the opportunity to decide what I will be doing from day to day. And with the right strategy, you can turn your home into a cash getting machine. Also, being able to be at home most of the...

Grow Your Own Food Part 3
2008-05-12 18:39:00
This is just going to be a quick update, but I have finally been able to borrow the appropriate tools, and have the time to cut down the branches that were preventing the sunlight from hitting the garden directly. Remember those live oaks from my previous update? Well, now that I have the offending branches ...
More About: Food , Part , Part 3 , Grow

17,000 Dollars for an Addition and Repairs to a Rental Property?
2008-05-10 01:47:00
Here’s the situation. We have a duplex that is 100% occupied. Now, it has an interesting design, and when I say interesting, I mean that it was designed poorly. It is a one story duplex that has pitched roofs over the outside half of the units, with a flat roof through the middle. What has ...
More About: Rental , Property , Dollars

These Gas Prices are Insane!
2008-05-07 15:53:00
Gas prices are insane these days, and my anger increases with price increases. Is there any relief for the hard working American person? Well my prediction is…no…not any time soon at least. You have to understand some of the underlying factors that contribute to gasoline prices to be able to understand why the price is ...
More About: Insane , Gas Prices , Prices

Grow Your Own Food, Save Money Part 2
2008-05-06 16:13:00
Just last week, I talked about how we are going to start growing our own food, and I want you to know that I do my best to act upon what I say. Well, just last Thursday, we started putting the plan into action. I was thinking of what I could use to set the outline of the garden, when my wife told me that there were a few railroad ties that the previous owner of the house used to set against the fence between our property and the neighbor’s property. I assume at some point in the past the neighbors had dogs, or something that was getting under the fence. But anyways, I drug those railroad ties, along with some 4 x 4 treated lumber that I found near the same area, and created the outside edge of the garden. I did not have enough railroad ties and 4 x 4 pieces of wood to finish the garden in the size that I wanted, so I had to get creative. So what I figured out was to take from the large limb that we had cut up and put back behind the house to be picked up by the trash man, cut ...
More About: Food , Money , Save Money , Part , Save

Adjusting Your Real Estate Investing Strategy for the Decline
2008-05-05 22:05:00
This is a good resource to look at when you are looking to get into real estate investing, or you are struggle with investing in this downward market. Check it out, it helps you to understand that there can still be a lot of money made, even though the price of homes are dropping rapidly. read more | digg story Internal Tags: real estate investingreal estate investingBookmark, Share or Email this article.
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Investing , Strategy , Investing

Selling a Mobile Home: Progress Update 1
2008-05-02 21:45:00
Preparing and selling a mobile home like one the I own has proven to be a daunting task. Getting my subcontractor in to fix the holes that the tenant’s dogs put in the walls of the trailer did open the door of opportunity for me to fix some of previous holes in the walls when ...
More About: Mobile , Selling , Home , Update , Progress

Grow Your Own Food, Save Money
2008-05-01 19:25:00
With food costs soaring to unbelievable levels, we have decided to take action against the insanity. We have decided to grow some of our own food, to get the grocery costs down. Now, we are still getting groceries for free, but it doesn’t take care of our entire need. But if you are skeptical about ...
More About: Food , Money , Save Money , Save , Grow

Old School Mileage Tips That Really Can Help
2008-05-01 06:14:00
The tips provided in this article are old, well known (at least back in their day) but are coming back into favor. These are practical tips that can be used on your existing car, truck, motorcycle, etc. to help you improve your gas mileage without buying a hybrid or some other new kind of gas ...
More About: Tips , School , Old School , Mileage

Typical Lease Purchase Agreement
2008-04-29 19:42:00
The typical lease purchase agreement involves a tenant that gets into the property like a normal lease, i.e. they have a security deposit and first month’s rent (if not last month’s rent as well) due and payable up front. They usually pay a slightly higher than market rate of rent, with a portion of the ...
More About: Lease , Agreement , Purchase

Property Management Fees
2008-04-28 19:53:00
When I first examined property management fees, I thought that they seemed to be a little high for the work involved. But, over the course of time that I have been in property management, I have seen many different types of tenants and found that overall, the money charged to the owner is well worth ...
More About: Management , Property , Fees

Selling a Mobile Home
2008-04-25 21:04:00
After having to evict my previous tenants, and looking at our business and personal finances as well as the market for homes in our area, I have decided to try renting or selling my mobile home. I think it is best to go ahead and provide both options to the market as a way of ...
More About: Mobile , Selling , Home

Gas Price Locator
2008-04-25 02:38:00
Let’s face it, if the economy and gas regulations don’t change, then we are looking at $4 or more per gallon of gasoline in the near future. At these inflated prices, we need to be more cautious of where we buy our gas. We need to get the best prices on gasoline wherever we are. ...
More About: Price

Simple Tips to Saving Money on Your Groceries
2008-04-23 20:07:00
Although basic in its approach, this article does serve to hit on some solid pointers to help you in saving money on your groceries. Like most things (other than gasoline) you can easily decrease the amount of spending in any particular month. This article helps you understand some of the more elementary tips for achieving ...
More About: Money , Tips , Simple , Groceries , Saving

Home Based Book Business
2008-04-22 20:27:00
For the last couple of years, my wife had been running a business on Amazon. This was a very simple business concept, anyone can do, and just takes a little bit of time (depending on how much money you want to make). The process is very simple, and goes like this: Shop garage sales, estate sales, ...
More About: Business , Home , Book

How to Ask for a Raise: Retraining Your Mind
2008-04-21 19:50:00
When I last posted about how to ask for a raise, I put some tough concepts out there. Some concepts that probably are offensive to a lot of people who work hard and just want to make a little more money. So I felt compelled to explain a little further some of the concepts on ...
More About: Mind

How to Ask for a Raise
2008-04-18 21:39:00
Yes, you have been working for a while at your current job. Yes, you have been working hard. Yes, you have made some definite positive changes for the company. Now it is time for you to make some more money. But the question is, why won’t the boss give it to me? The answer is ...

Another Step to Reduce Cooling Costs
2008-04-17 22:54:00
I was in one of my rental units that I am managing, and had sort of an epiphany. This unit had gas heat prior to our acquisition of it, and we converted it to electricity, for a couple of different reasons. For one, electricity tends to be safer than gas in a house, and the ...
More About: Reduce , Step , Cooling , Costs

Rental Woes: Cleaning Up the Mess
2008-04-16 01:51:00
Well today hasn’t really been a good day in my real estate quest. I own a double wide on the outskirts of town, and had some renters that I just evicted. They had been consistently behind on their rent, and finally only paid for half of last month’s rent, and nothing for this month. So ...
More About: Rental , Cleaning , Mess

Notice to Vacate: My First Time
2008-04-14 20:29:00
There comes a day in every real estate investor / property manager’s life when they have to issue a notice to vacate. Last Monday was my first time. I truly believe that this is the worst part of managing properties; other than perhaps a contractor that does shotty work and still wants to get paid. ...
More About: Time , Notice , First Time