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The architectural style of the 18th and 19th centuries is closely associated with sash windows. They make practical and aesthetically pleasing alternatives to casements, with their large glass panels and graceful proportions.

Their origin has almost certainly been traced back to Yorkshire in England. They were developed there to keep out wet weather while permitting air to circulate by leaving a narrow opening, and were also protected from rot and distortion by being closed in a box.

Sash windows were a huge improvement over their predecessors, both aesthetically and practically, and were incorporated into older homes as well as being favored for new buildings. The window tax of the 18th and 19th centuries caused many of these fashionable windows to be taken out again, however. The Georgian sash window took on the modern double sash form. Glass remained expensive and was marked with large bull’s eye patterns in the center of each pane due to the way it was made. As techniques improved, larger panes became available and were used to create the characteristic Georgian windows, with narrow glazing bars and six panes in each sash..

The Victorians continued to favor sash windows, but added their own style with elaborate carved and molded ornamentation. Gradated windows, diminishing in size with the height of the building, and large bay windows are characteristic of this period. Sashes with four panes of glass are another mark of the Victorian window. The wealthy often chose to have older styles of window added to their property to distinguish themselves from the increasingly common use of plate glass sash windows with the slimmer glazing bars that were once prized.

Sash windows have become far less common during the last century, despite being the favorite style at the beginning of the 20th century, due to the increase in cheap, mass-produced styles of window. Demand has recently grown again due to increased awareness of architectural history. Modern versions of the sash window preserve the traditional character of older properties, while combining all the latest developments in manufacturing processes with the grace and practicality that this style epitomizes.

As late as February, insurance company spokesmen were still alleging that they didn’t anticipate to have to lift insurance costs based on their estimates, but by late June that tune had modified. With Suncorp Insurance solely dealing with over 10,000 claims home can expect rates to hike. But luckily to laying off the risk their full cost may be limited to $10 million. Of course this will increase as Queenslanders start looking for Putney Carpenters work and double glazed windows

With the 3 strongest home insurers in the country either announcing or mulling a rise in insurance premiums, it is probably that your buildings insurance costs will grow, by nearly nine percent. If your house is in a region that is renowned as flood prone, you can expect the steepest premium rises, but it’s expected that the home insurance costs increase will bear on every last policy holders in some way.

If you own a house in a flood prone area, you should be able to slim your premiums by taking extra measures to protect your house from flood damage. Those ideas may include particular plumbing valves to keep out drain water from backing into your property and special types of building that can subdue the impairment done by overflows to your home. So there has never been a easier time to follow-up your home insurance brokers and discover if you can save money.

You can save money on home insurance if you recognise how to. Discount Rates from your insurance company are accessible for a selection of reasons, ranging from the type of property material applied to form your house to how close you are from to bushland.

Raise your insurance excess. If you can
afford a higher excess, it’s a great way save money on your premium. If you do end up claiming for the total monetary value of your home the different between $500 and $1100 will not appear that serious.

Improve the security system and safety devices. Items such as deadbolt locks, alarms and fire alarms often contribute discount rates of 5% each, reckoning on the company. Your insurance company may as well offer a large discount of 15% or 18% if you install a intelligent home-security system. If you’re considering about buying such a system, check with your insurer to see which systems they and which will realize you a discount.

Australian finance group Macquarie’s decision to shift into one of the largest buildings in the Drapers Garden scheme in the City of London has brought in considerable fears of actual shortage of office space in the Square Mile area.

The group is all set to occupy around 220,000 sq ft of office space under a competitive deal for encouraging letters in the area, which enables them to stay without paying rents for four years, after which they will have to pay £43 sq ft for rest of the period of their 20- year lease agreement.

It is noteworthy that Macquarie has been witnessing huge growth throughout Europe and continues to be the dominant bank in Australia. It is also expected to keep making profits for a long time, as it has never needed any kind of government assistance in the past, even during the period of economic meltdown.

However, the new shortage of Grade A office spaces has arisen on account of the Macquarie deal, in addition to recent lettings to the Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi and Nomura. BlackRock and Bloomberg are the next in line for office space, and are already looking for desk space London offices in the new Walbrock scheme in Canary Wharf.

The two-tier market space is expected to address a huge part of the office space crisis, as there is a huge demand for second hand office space on account of otherwise increasing rentals.

Lancaster law firm The Hale Law Firm, P.C. serves a wide range of businesses and individuals from our offices in Waxahachie, Texas, Cedar Hill Law Firm The Hale Law Firm enjoy working with clients throughout Ellis and Dallas County, including: Ovilla, Waxahachie, Midlothian, Red Oak, Ennis, DeSoto, Glenn Heights, Ferris, Lancaster, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, Dallas.
TexInspec Fort Worth home inspectors offers Fort Worth home inspectors servicing not only Fort Worth and Dallas but also to well over 100 surrounding communities. We understand the stress and pressure that is involved in selling, moving, and buying.
That is why when your Fort Worth home inspection is complete, you you will be furnished with a free 90 day warranty for carpenter ants and termites, an immediate computer generated report on site which includes a summary page of necessary repairs as well as a color photo journal of your new property, PLUS a Copy is Emailed to Your Agent Immediately from the Inspection.
Reverse Craigstlist software just imagine it. It can give you the ability to quite literally draw possibly up to hundreds of thousands of qualified leads in a matter of minutes by mining data from advertisements on craigslist. Simple reverse craigslist software can provide a chance to literally move you business to the highest level. You may choose what niche you are targeting as well as specific geographical areas, literally push a button, wait, and watch the leads come in. You then have the ability to make direct contact to these leads or manage them, export, save, and more.

When borrowing money for a mortgage, homebuyers are primarily concerned with simply qualifying. Still, paying attention to the length of the loan is a borrowing tip that can save you a ton of money.

Home Loans

In the mortgage industry, the length of your loan used to be the only major issue you had to deal with. How times have changed! In the current market, the variety of loans that exist are simply stunning. Of course, the massive increase in loan options has inevitably led to massive confusion.

Borrowing Tip

Regardless of the type of loan you go with, you should always try to keep your loan term as short as possible. The shorter the loan period, the less you will pay in interest. Here an example using 15 and 30 year loans.

Assume our first homebuyer gets a $100,000 loan at 8 percent interest. He length of the loan is 30 years with a monthly payment of $733.76. For this mortgage, our homebuyer is going to pay $164,155.25 in interest over the life of the loan.

Now, take the same scenario, but reduce the term of the loan to 15 years. Our homebuyer is going to see the monthly payment bumped to $955.65 per month. Over the length of the loan, our homebuyer is going to pay $90,000 less in interest payments over the life of the loan. On top of this, the house will be paid off in half the time.

When borrowing money for a home purchase, you have to carefully budget your finances. If you can afford increased monthly payments, however, a shorter loan length is going to save you a lot of money over time.

Dan Lewis is a mortgage broker with www.gwhomeloans.com - San Diego mortgage brokers providing home loans and refinances. Visit gwhomeloans.com/services.html to learn more about options for San Diego mortgages.

The temptation of getting into the runaway housing market is understandable. Simple savings accounts are returning less than 2% per year. CDs and bonds are not much better. “Safe” funds are yielding 5% pre-tax. And real estate is surging, offering both equity appreciation and tax protection. However, if you are in debt, it’s important to make sure you restructure it and consolidate it before taking the leap into the housing market.

So many see the risk of taking on a house that is beyond their means as worth taking in order to create value and build a financially secure future. The problem is that the lenders, once predominantly banks prone to conservative lending standards, now include pension funds, insurance companies and other investment entities eager to place loans to keep their money working.

It is not the lenders who will be hurt. They will move swiftly to foreclosure, recover the house, and resell it. It is the borrower who gets burned. Bankruptcy laws are changing in October and it will no longer be convenient to file bankruptcy to avoid creditors. Individuals, once protected from forced liquidations, will find that to be the norm rather than the exception. So it is more important than ever to learn how to renegotiate or restructure debt before one is forced into bankruptcy court.

Renegotiating debt is best done before you are too delinquent. With a solid payment history with your lenders you are more likely to find them willing to work with you when you approach them. Debt can be restructured a number of ways but there are some cardinal rules to observe so that you preserve your ability to control the restructuring of your debt.

1. Do not wait until the debt has been turned over to a collection agency. By then it is too late to deal with the original issuers of the debt who might have an interest in helping you. They have discounted and sold off your debt when it is turned over to collections. That means they have written off what they would have conceded to you to a third party. The third party’s only motivation is to make money off your bad situation.

2. Before you seek debt relief, develop a personal budget that is viable and a plan which you can handle. Now you are ready to lift the telephone and call for help.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Advising the lender of a looming problem allows them to help you avoid it becoming a major issue.

4. Be persistent. “No” is easy for creditors to say. You will hear it a lot. Call back and try to get to someone else. Talk to the same person repeatedly until they begin to get to know you and start wanting to help you.

6. Be pleasant. You need to develop a rapport with the other person so they want to help you. Getting mad often makes things worse.

Debt restructuring is a basic form of negotiation. You have a need. The lender also has a need. You have a solution to offer. They have to be convinced to listen to you. You have to convince them of your sincerity and why they should gamble with your plan. Don’t ask for a hand out. Ask for approval of a specific plan.

A plan that works for you should give them something as well. The two primary commodities are time and money. If you have money, but not enough, explain your situation and offer to pay off the debt at a discount. If they sell off your debt they will be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar. Obviously you should be able to settle between 50% and 100%. If you offer to pay the full amount, but over time, you will be saving a lot in money and keep you credit rating from being impacted. But be sure to negotiate the interest. It does you no good to extend your payment period if you are also going to be paying a higher interest rate. Interest rates are negotiable.

The most important aspect of personal debt restructuring is to ask before you get in too deep and before they start chasing you to pay. A good customer’s case always sounds better than a plea from a habitual problem customer.

Once you have successfully restructured your debt and reduced it to something you can manage, your foray into the housing market will be much less stressful and, in the end, much more successful.

Alabama is undeniably a stereotypical southern state, but the state and real estate market hold undeniable surprises.

Alabama

Alabama is distinctly southern and darn proud of it. If you have a taste for college football, country music and NASCAR, Alabama is a paradise defined. To the surprise of many, Alabama also has a more modern flavor with Huntsville being the home of a major chunk of the U.S. Space Program. For golfers, the collection of golf courses winding through the state, known as the Robert Trent Jones golf trail, make Alabama one of the top golfing destinations in the continental United States. Personally, I prefer the annual iron bowl college football war between the Auburn and Alabama universities, but to each their own…

Huntsville

Home to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville is undoubtedly the pyrotechnic capital of the south. With a distinct southern charm, the city is laid out well with parks, botanical gardens, lake areas and a close proximately to numerous outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking and hunting. While many cities make a haberdash of mixing in the new with the old, Huntsville gets it just right.

Mobile

Pronounced “Moe beel”, Mobile is a busy port city with a little known history. If you’ve ever thought of going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, you’re better off going to Mobile. Yep, the city was the first to celebrate Mardi Gras in the United States and maintains the tradition to this day. In fact, Mobile looks striking like New Orleans, having been established by the French. It is a beautiful southern city, with spring being the best time as a bevy of flowing plants awaken from their winter slumber. The colors and fragrances are simply amazing.

Alabama Real Estate

Alabama real estate prices are very reasonable when compared to the rest of the country. Throughout the state, an average home will run you $200,000 or less. The appreciation rate is a little low, but still a respectable 7.5 percent for 2005.

Whether you are a home owner trying to sell your home or an landlord trying to lease it, you should consider the lease/purchase approach. It can result in higher cash flows, larger profits and fewer headaches.

Have you ever dealt with bad renters? Late payments? Stains on the carpet? Calls late at night about a stopped toilet? Sometimes being a Landlord is not a fun game, especially when you have a nice home and bad tenants.

Have you taken advantage of the recent low interest rates and refinanced your home to the maximum? What about a home equity loan or other form of second mortgage? Do you know how much you can walk away with from the closing table after paying all mortgages and associated costs, like realtor fees? Many people walk away with very little or nothing. Some even have to pay. If this scenario applies to you, it may make sense to delay the sale of your home. It may be possible to generate positive cash flow and lock in a higher selling price with a FSBO (for sale by owner) lease/purchase agreement.

Here’s another scenario: You want to sell your own home, but it’s not moving as fast as you would like (or as fast as the “fast-talking” realtor who convinced you to list it). You’ve thought about renting it to cover your mortgage payment, but nobody wants a short-term rental with no idea when they have to move out. And what if the tenant WON’T move out when you have it sold? A FSBO lease/purchase agreement could be a solution.

So you decide to leave it vacant. You make two, three even four mortgage payments. Your insurance company cancels your homewoner’s policy because it has been vacant for more than 30 days (it’s true, they can do it so read your policy!). You don’t want to severely discount the price, yet you need to do something NOW! Here’s a FSBO solution - lease with option to buy or lease/purchase (also referred to a rent to own).

What does the FSBO lease/purchase of a home mean?

LEASE + PURCHASE OFFER = LEASE/PURCHASE AGREEMENT

At some time in your life, you have rented a house or apartment, so you are familiar with a lease agreement. If you have ever bought or sold a house, you are familiar with a purchase offer. The lease/purchase agreement is a hybrid of the two - a lease agreement combined with a purchase offer (sometimes called “rent to own” or an “option,” or that is, the right to buy at an agreed upon price).

Here’s an example of how lease/purchase works. Let’s say you have a house worth $100,000. The “going rent” in your market for that house may be about $800 per month. A lease/purchase agreement would read essentially as follows:

Lease Term: Two Years Monthly Rent: $800

Purchase Price: $100,000 Rent Credit: $400/month

Usually, part of the monthly rent will be credited towards the price of the house. In the above example, 50% or $400 per month is being credited. So if the tenant decides to buy after one year (lawyers call this “exercising their option to buy”), they would pay $100,000 - $4,800 = $95,200. If the tenant/buyer does not purchase the property, the owner would keep all of the monthly rent. The best part is, the $400/month is considered “option consideration” by the IRS and does not have to be reported as income until the house is sold or the lease/purchase agreement expires!

As you can see, there are many benefits a lease/purchase can provide you, including:

Immediate relief from mortgage payments

Fast Solution to the “Nice House in a Slow Market” scenario

Guaranteed no vacancy

No need to severely discount the purchase price

Tax deduction (since the property can be treated as “rental” for tax purposes)

WHY DON’T I JUST LIST IT WITH A REALESTATE AGENT?

It can’t hurt to list with a realestate agent or broker. However, most realestate brokers simply “list” your property. This means they stick it in the multiple listing computer and wait for a bite. The first problem with this method is that there are thousands of other homes in the computer that read just like yours. If you want to move your house FAST, you have to offer something different. The lease/purchase is that special something that makes your house attractive.

The second problem is that most Realtors don’t know what a lease/purchase is, how it works, and how to market such a deal. Most Realtors will not get involved with a lease/purchase, because they simply want a higher fee (after all, they have to make enough money to pay for those large display ads with their picture on it!).

For more information, check out JSC Rent To Own Homes/

MLS is the Multiple Listing Service.

The MLS is a database - an extremely convenient way to know what properties are for sale at any given moment. This makes it very useful to real estate agents and brokers.

Basically, the MLS is like a huge property warehouse. When a property is available for sale, it enters the warehouse. When it is sold, it leaves the warehouse.

The MLS only contains information since real estate cannot actually be stored in a warehouse. This information comes from the various brokers that exist in the scope of an MLS.

Why the MLS works for home buyers

First of all MLS is very convenient. Buyers can browse through the available properties listed on an MLS.

Using the MLS also does not cost anything. It is a free service that is sponsored by the Realtors advertising their available properties.

Options Galore

On the MLS, a buyer is not limited to choosing among a few available properties. Usually, the MLS makes available many available properties that are for sale.

In the olden days, when information was limited, a buyer would only be able to visit a few homes per day. He or she would also need to communicate with the agent for details and such.

With MLS, the buyer can start browsing from the comfort of his or her home. Details regarding the property are also listed there.

Aside from the written details, MLS usually provides pictures of the property. Other advanced MLS implementations even have other surveying tools that help buyers come to decisions regarding their desired property.

Fitting the Bill

MLS also helps the buyer by narrowing down choices to those that fit the buyer’s desires. The buyer supplies information on his or her desired property to the MLS site. This information includes desired area, size of property, age, location, and others. The buyer is then given a set of houses that fit that description.

Communication

MLS also makes it easier for the buyer to contact the realtor. Details the realtor are listed along with the property to allow straightforward communication between buyer and realtor.

Conclusion

It may be hard to believe but the real estate industry has benefited a lot from MLS. MLS is the next step in real estate evolution. It is relatively safe and is very convenient. As the MLS grows in popularity, more and more realtors avail of its listings. For the buyer, this can only mean good things more choices, better decisions.

From the book No Smooshing!

For years, I’ve carried on a not-so-friendly debate with some of my artist friends from the West Coast about their ideas of what constitutes a good subject. We seem to be able to agree on certain things, like apples and orangesand even certain landscapes. But when it comes to their paintings of dilapidated old farm buildings, we part company.

Some folks see rundown farmhouses and caved-in barns as romantic. Artists paint pictures of buildings with weathered boards, leaning at impossible anglesand people take those paintings home and hang them on their walls.

But for me, I see those same abandoned farmsteads as unspeakably sad. After all, each one of those boarded up farmhouses represents the death of someone’s hopes and dreams for the future of their children and themselves.

I get the same sad feeling whenever I pass through a small town that was once a thriving place, full of life and activity, but now sits empty and lifeless, slowly crumbling back into the black earth from which it sprang. Last week, I was lost on some back road (not an unusual situation for me) when I came across just such a ghost town.

There was no name that I could see, but there were three buildings, huddled next to each other against the prairie wind, and I could still make out some faded letters above their doors. The first one had been a general store, the second a garage, but it was the third building that captured my imagination. On its side was printed the word “Hotel.”

Hotel? The word seemed so incongruous. After all, what could have been the attraction in this little town that would have warranted a hotel? There didn’t seem to be anything of interest in the area, and if any place in the world could have been said to be in the middle of nowhere, this little town was it!

And how did people get to this village in order to stay in this mysterious hotel? I saw no railroad tracks, and there’s only one road running through town.

The garage implied the town was still alive when cars came into general use, but cars have been around a long time, and that still didn’t explain the need for a hotel in a town with only two other buildings.

Perhaps that’s why my artist friends find old buildings and farmsteads so intriguing. There’s definitely a sense of mystery about themstories that will never be known. On that much, we can agree. But no one can convince me those lonely scenes are picturesque.

I can hardly look at old towns like that without being overcome with a sadness that’s difficult to explain. What are the stories of those forlorn storefronts? Why did people come to that little town and stay in their little hotel? What about the rusty skeleton of a combine on the edge of town, its bones bleaching in the sun?

I don’t know, and I never willand ghosts don’t talk. Just don’t try to tell me that such a scene is something I’d want to hang on my wall and look at every day.

© 2004. Gary E. Anderson. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Gary Anderson is a freelance writer, editor, ghostwriter, and manuscript analyst, living on a small Iowa farm. He’s published more than 500 articles and four books. He’s also ghosted a dozen books, edited more than 30 full-length manuscripts, produced seven newsletters, and has done more than 800 manuscript reviews for various publishers around the nation. If you need writing or editing help, visit Gary’s website at www.abciowa.com. abciowa@alpinecom.net