New York Renovator

Now that hot and steamy July and August are gone, people are once again breaking out the boxes of stuff for yard sales, and putting their homes up for sale. I used to do flea markets with my step-dad when I was a kid. We traveled all around the county, selling goods (he was a trader in the 70s, before the rise of WalMart and Jamesway). After he got a little too old to travel, we held the “yard sale” on our front lawn. It was quite the experience for me! I am a a terrific haggler now, and I handle all the bargaining in the family. hehe. Do you know what the best thing you can do to get people to visit and buy your stuff at your yard sale? Make quality, professional-looking yard signs, and have everything organized on nice, neat tables. Believe me, it works!

However, the cost of printing up paper yard signs at your local print shop can quickly overshadow any profit you’d make. So I suggest you check out VistaPrint for your printing needs. I have used VistaPrint and can account for their speedy service, excellent quality, and great prices! And I have a goodie for you– a promo code you can use to get 25% off your customized yard sign! Use the code: YardSigns25. These sign are also great if you are selling your own home, have a business, support a candidate or a cause, or just feel like telling your neighbors to have a nice day! Signs start at $11.99, which is very affordable. I love VistaPrint! I know you will love them, too!

Wow, I am still getting used to the world of “domain investing” and “domain development.” I’ve had my own blog for a little over a year now and have come to realize, through much reading around, that internet real estate, with its very own “geographic domains” and keyword domains is it’s own little world. I was once asked to pay $5,000 for a domain that had expired and was similar to my own! Holy cow! Because domains and all that stuff are not tangible (like “real estate” and real property is, with real stuff like dirt, trees, and houses), it’s still a little confusing to me, honestly. But I do know enough that $5,000 is a lot of money for some real estate on the Internet! I am discovering just how important getting (and keeping) the right domains and keywords for those domains are. It’s a little baffling, but I am trying to understand it, and be on the lookout for the best prices. Just as there are realtors and mortgage lenders, there are domain development companies. Like InvestinURLs.com. They offer low-priced domains so investors can make a profit on the resale of the domain, just like real estate speculating, which, by the way, is very much alive and well in New York State! You can check out their website for more information, although I found the site rather sparse. What is extremely interesting is their listing of domain names by geographic location or topic (example: for Florida there’s “keylargobeachhomes.com”). Like I said, the site is sparse of information; be sure to check everything out thoroughly– the running water, the foundation, the roof– just like you would a real home.

I’ve found a few very good and reliable websites for researching and finding real estate online. These websites can give you property value and market value, among other things. The Yahoo! site also breaks down demographics for the local area. I think these are valuable resources.

Yahoo! Real Estate

Realtor.com

Zillow.com

Trulia.com

There are also the mainstream realty companies you can search, such as Coldwell Banker and RE/Max. Personally, I have found these to be difficult to use and they don’t always display everything in a local area.

For bargain properties, there’s Home Sales.gov (homes for sale by the U.S. government), Bargain Network.com, and Realty Trac.com.

Here’s an interesting post I saw at Generation X Finance (what a great name for a blog!). It’s about the home mortgage crisis, and one family’s plight. They’re so down and out, they’ve taken to living in a camper!

As I was browsing some of the news on CNN, I came across a video that had the title: Foreclosure Family Camps Out, so I had to see what that was all about. I was curious to see where the blame was going to be placed, and what the details of the story were. We hear a lot about the subprime mess, real estate prices plummeting, and irresponsible buyers, each of which play a key role in the big picture. But for this family who is now living out of a camper, who would you put at fault?

A couple with dual incomes purchased a $295K home in Nevada. They put no money down on the purchase (meaning the entire amount of the home was bought with a loan). I found it very interesting that the equity of their property skyrocketed almost immediately. Then, everything went boom. Financial crisis hit.

In this case, this couple went straight to the equity in their home. Of course, when the real estate market is allowing your home to double in value in a short amount of time, why not? People see this as free money because they purchased real estate as an investment. Unfortunately, you’re only taking on more debt just to pay off other debts. This is almost always a losing battle.

It doesn’t disclose how much equity they took out, but it said that the home equity loan or line of credit increased their monthly payments by 57%. Given the sharp increase, I’m guessing they didn’t just take out a couple thousand to get them by until they found another job. They probably took out tens of thousands of dollars, but I won’t speculate.

Of course, they lost their home.

It’s just another sign of unstable times in this country, and the world. I really, really think we need to 1) get back to the gold standard, 2) get out of debt as quickly as possible, and 3) get cracking on more efficient, less gadgety lifestyles.

You doubt? Watch this:

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Videos HT Sam’s Freedom IM.