Sell Your Own Home – Day 14

You have to be kidding! My cell phone, which is the number we have put on all of our real estate marketing, was off yesterday all afternoon. I checked it this morning just to be sure and we have 2 showing requests on there from Friday. So, we scrambled to clean up and call the right people back. Both showings got scheduled and held so, Yea! Also, another call this morning for one more showing, so that is 3 for Saturday. That is perfectly respectable. The really good news is that the showings we’ve had so far represent a pretty good cross section of the local Realtors who “specialize” in our area which means that the people in the know are brining their clients here. So, we aren’t way overpriced or anything it would seem.

Sell Your Own Home – Day 13

So, it’s Friday and no calls for showings yet this weekend.  This is bad news as far as I can see.  Apparently after an initial burst of interest, it has dried up.  It is still early April and we planned to have our house on the market for a while, but I’d still like to have at least one showing lined up just to let me know the interest is still there.  Last weekend, I got several calls on Saturday to do Saturday showings but I figured that was because we were new to MLS that weekend.  We’ll see what happens from here.

Credit Counseling Scams

Not too long ago, I wrote about monitoring your credit report on the non-blog Finance Gourmet site.  In it I included a warning about the various services offering to “fix” your credit and lower you monthly payment.  Now a much bigger site has an “insider” confession from just such an outfit.  A little independent confirmation always is good.

Top 10 Fine Print Gotchas

Being a smart consumer, or smart investor, or smart anything really is all about knowledge. Understanding the world you are playing in just makes good sense. I can spot most finance scams by reading the title. The reason? I’ve spent plenty of time reading the fine print and have grown accustomed to what fine print goes with that BLARINGINGLY GOOD TITLE! So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 Fine Print Gotchas: That’s Not It One of the most common fine print gotchas is when the really great picture you see isn’t actually what they are talking about. For cars you’ll see a fully equipped XJT9X version in the picture when the ad is talking about the base no-options model. For others, the fine print will point out that the picture is only “representative” of the product, meaning it is pretty much like that, but not just like that. Rebates The one I really hate these days is rebates. Electronic store ads are filled with them. A great deal on a monitor for $199? Sure, but you will pay $279 today. Then, you can get a rebate from the store (but it’s an “easy” rebate) for $40 and then you …

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Selling Our Own Home – Day 15

realestateiconWell, 3 showings on Saturday is good, but none for Sunday. Oh well. It’s tough to know what is normal without the connections of a [tag]real estate agent[/tag] who goes into her [tag]realtor[/tag] office every day and hears things like “I didn’t schedule any showings this weekend,” from a lot of brokers and then knows that it was just a slow weekend. Or, maybe the opposite (yikes!). Monday should be a total washout. Not only is it Monday, but it is supposed to snow as well. I’d complain and talk about how unusual it is, but it really isn’t. We always end up getting one “late” snowstorm every year. The good news is that the leaves aren’t really coming in yet on any of the trees so we shouldn’t have to worry about breakage.

Let’s talk home presentation. Everyone talks about [tag]curb appeal[/tag]. It matters, a lot, but inside matters even more.

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Ah…the Fine Print

houseofmoneyEver read a newspaper article where someone is suing a company for misleading them? The company always says something like “we disclosed all the information to the client” as their defense. Want to see it in action? Countrywide Home Loans recently sent a client some unsolicited mail (i.e. junk mail) in which they offered a No closing cot Refi! At the top in big letters on a stand-out blue background it says:

“Pay hundreds – or even thousands at closing

or PAY ZERO with Countrywide.

You Decide.”

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Top 10 Last Minute Tax Tips

taxes Ok, boys and girls, its April 8th. Just one week to go before April 15th, the dreaded Ides of April when the [tag]IRS[/tag] wants your completed taxes in the mail. So, here are the [tag]Top 10 Last Minute Tax Tips[/tag] to save you money on your taxes and make them easier and faster to do.

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