Real estate negotiating - 4 steps to success

“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” (American 35th US President (1961-63), 1917-1963) Even the most famous recognize the need for the art of negotiation. To be able to make a good real estate deal, you must develop the art of good negotiation or find someone who can do the negotiating for you.

The real secret of being a successful negotiator is to help both parties obtain their goals. To do this you must present your case in a businesslike way and close the transaction. This can be accomplished in 4 steps.

1. The first step in any negotiation is to know your goal. If you have someone else negotiating on your behalf, make sure they understand what your ultimate goal is. If your goal is to get the property at the lowest price, make sure you understand exactly what is involved to achieve that success.

Don't be afraid to reevaluate your goals. If during the negotiation process new details come to light that may allow you to obtain your goal by a different means, allow yourself the ability to explore the new details, don't get stuck in your negotiations by being to rigid.

Once you are comfortable with your goals, and understand how far you are willing to go to obtain the property, you are ready to move to the next step. However, even when you are comfortable with your goals, you must be flexible. Remember there are two parties involved and the other party may present an option that could get you to your goal faster. In real estate there are several ways to achieve the same desire.

2. There are two types of negotiations: Blind and Open.

In a blind negotiation you don't know anything about the other party. You do all the negotiation via an agent or third party and don't meet the sellers. Keep in mind you may be dealing only with the other parties agent and they have their clients interest at heart.

In this type of negotiation your homework is very important. Know the property, know the market, and know values so you are able to negotiate the deal that is best for you, or be able to walk away. Blind negotiations can be handled, but they are a bit more time consuming.

Open negotiations are a bit easier, but require you do be good at your homework. In an open negotiation you may be working with the for sale by owner. In this way you have access to a bit more information.

If during your negotiations you begin having problems on a particular point, such as price, do your homework. Find out why the other party is buying or selling. Knowing the other parties motivation can give you the upper hand. For instance, if you know the seller or buyer needs to move quickly, you will then have a bit more leverage to work with.

What homework will help you in your negotiations?

a. Why does the other person want to buy or sell?

b. Who is the other person trying to impress?

c. Know the timing aspect of the transaction.

d. Verify the facts.

3. In the art of negotiating, it is critical to get started on the right foot. Do not try to antagonize the other parties to the transaction. Be very neutral about the entire deal.

a. Don't praise or criticize the property.

b. Don't try too hard to buy or sell the property.

c. Don't criticize the other parties to the transaction, including any agents involved.

d. Explain motivation without disclosing too much information.

e. Meet all deadlines or better yet be ahead of the deadlines.

f. Do not lie, rather say nothing.

4. Communication is the key to negotiation. However, too much talking can kill your negotiations. Make your offers in a written contract and let the other party do the same. Remember "lose lips sink ships."

When you begin talking to the other party you will give away too much of your motivation. You may think you can better obtain information from the other party about their motivation, but keep in mind it works both ways.

Now that you've learned the 4 basic steps to negotiating you are ready to go out and get the property you desire. You must also keep in mind that not all negotiations turn into real estate deals. Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal that is not to your liking. Otherwise you may well find yourself making very bad deals and wasting your negotiation skills. Good luck and good negotiating.

Home based business and network marketing tips you can take to the bank

If you’re looking to get involved in a home based business or network marketing opportunity, there are some things that you should definitely take notice of if you want to become successful. Often times, people who are new to the work at home industry fail because they don’t have a plan for succeeding. In this brief article, I’m going to give you some “best practices” that have greatly contributed to my personal success. Hopefully by the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll have some ideas that you can immediately apply to your own business and ultimately make more money as a result.

One of the biggest pitfalls that I see many new home based business owners make is not having a dedicated work space at home to work from. Let’s face it, working from the house is great and it’s pretty freakin’ cool to sit on the couch in front of the TV and make money. But, are you really realizing your productivity potential here? Set aside a dedicated room or area in your house where you can work without distractions. This will ensure that the time you invest in your business yields the greatest return.

Another mistake that many individuals make when starting a home business or network marketing venture is that they don’t have daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. I know, I know. “Goal setting” is so cliche and seems to be the mantra of every wannabe “guru” these days, but it does play an important part in your success. Goals keep you on track, and more importantly let you know when you’re not.

Hopefully this short article has given you a few valuable insights into what it takes to become successful in a home based business or network marketing opportunity. Working from home is the best thing in the world, but it doesn’t come without pitfalls. Follow these tips and watch your productivity skyrocket as a result.

How legalized online gambling is better for society

The question we should be asking is, by banning online gambling are we going to make things better or worse?

The answer to that question is simple, banning legalized and regulated online gambling in any form, just makes another way for organized crime to get a hold of peoples money, and then no one but the criminals win.

If you want to keep a child from seeing an R rated movie you do not ban the movie from the theaters do you? No that would be silly you just make sure that people are doing there best to check and verify that no one under 18 gets into see the movie. By banning the movie chances are greater that someone will get a bootleg copy and show it to every kid in the town.

So if you want to keep a child from gambling online then all the online casinos should be regulated and monitored, not banned.

The same goes for terrorists. If you believe terrorist groups are exploiting an unregulated and unmonitored industry such as the online gambling industry, then by regulating it you can see where the money is going and make sure it is not going to fund international terrorist attacks. All that is accomplished by banning it is that the criminals get a stronger grip on the industry.

The ban on online gambling is much like the war on drugs. If marijuana was legalized in the USA crimes related to it would almost go away completely, because it would be sold in stores and it would be controlled, another advantage would be that people would no longer be going to jail for marijuana related charges, this means thousands of less people getting arrested and going to jail every year, which would save us tax money that could be better spent.

By making online gambling in the USA a legalized form of adult entertainment it would also bring in an estimated 1.2 billion dollars in taxes to the American government. This money could be used for schools, police and universal healthcare for all Americans.

This is how you improve society, not by telling people what to do. It is human nature to want what we can not have so the more laws you put in place to stop people from doing something the better the chances are that people are going to do it.

People are just as likely to become addicted to gambling at a regulated casino as an unregulated one, but the difference is that in a regulated casino they will not extend you the amount of credit that will get you into trouble in an illegal casino.

And in a regulated casino they will have information on how to get help if you have a gambling problem. In an illegal casino they will not have this type of information, they want you to continue to gamble till you have nothing left, and then they will let you fall and find someone to take your place.

In the long run society can only prosper if we educate people on the dangers of gambling both online and in a casino, and not from banning an industry that employs thousands of people in countries all over the world. No one gains anything from just telling people they can not do something that they are going to do anyway.

It is about time the government learned this and stopped making the same mistakes year after year.

Random drug and alcohol testing

Random drug and alcohol screening is used by many UK companies to deter the use or abuse of illegal drugs and / or alcohol by employees within the workplace. There have been a large number of case studies to demonstrate how effective random screening is in reducing accidents, absenteeism, ill health, litigation, etc, and as a result it is frequently considered to be best practice, especially in safety critical environments.

Even when a business doesn't introduce full random drug testing, they often choose to conduct testing when there is a problem - such as incident or accident based screening or "for cause" testing when there are sufficient grounds to suspect that an employee is not fit to perform their duties due to drink or illegal drugs.

How often random drug and alcohol testing should be carried out can be determined by the business based upon a number of factors. Such factors include the nature of the business, demographics of their staff or factors relating to the culture of the business – for example, a culture of lunchtime drinking.

Some companies carry out as little as 5 percent random testing (i. e. only 5% of staff are drug tested just once per year after being randomly selected), whereas other businesses may insist that every employee is screened at least once annually or more. It really depends upon the cost, certain health and safety considerations and their own drive to enforce a drug and alcohol free workplace.

Substance abuse screening in the workplace is relatively straight forward to implement and can be put into place without much expense when done correctly. Random testing of company employees can be carried out on-site for less than Ј10 per employee.

All a company needs to do is formulate a drug and alcohol policy - which is basically the business's views on drugs and alcohol, what is deemed acceptable, what isn't, and what are the consequences of breaking the rules - along with procedural information. Many companies have consultation with staff and union representatives to be sure that the company policy was developed with input from all concerned parties.

If companies find this process to be too time consuming or complex for your managers, we can develop your policy for you as consultants, or review your current draft policy to ensure that it is completely legally defensible and user friendly. Our years of experience really can make a significant difference to your company policy and allows you to implement it as fast as possible.

When you have a finished drug and alcohol policy, it is time to issue a copy of this to your employees along with an implementation date. As long as the start date for the policy is further away than their contractual notice period, when the start date arrives, the policy has become part of all employees' terms and conditions of employment. At this point, if it is your policy that employees undergo random drug / alcohol screening or testing in accident / incident or "for cause" situations, then failure to comply constitutes a failure to undertake a reasonable request - which may have disciplinary consequences up to and including dismissal.

Ultimately, it should be every employer’s goal to remove the substance from the individual, rather than the individual from the workplace, so assistance for those who come forward to seek it is vital.

To reinforce a drug and alcohol testing policy it is a good idea to train managers in drug and alcohol awareness so that they can spot the signs and symptoms of drug misuse and understand how to deal with the situation should it arise. The majority of our business customers choose a half day of training for their managers.

Affodable mortgage size

What Size Mortgage Can I Afford?

When shopping for a house, it can be easy to fall in love with the home of your dreams. Be careful, however, that you are aware of how much house you can afford so your dream home isn’t crushed at the lender’s office.

Lenders often talk about qualifying ratios or debt ratios. These numbers can seem a bit mysterious, but a few simple formulas will give you an idea of what size loan you may be able to afford. Although this is helpful to determine a house budget, never rely on these numbers alone when planning a purchase. Consider visiting a lender to get pre-approved for a loan so you know the exact amount you have to work with.

Grab a piece of paper and follow these steps to determine how much you can afford:

1) Determine your monthly gross income (before taxes).

2) Multiply this amount by 0.28. This is your maximum monthly housing expense. (Lenders allow 28% of monthly gross income for housing expenses. This is also known as the front end ratio.)

3) Now multiply your monthly gross income by 0.36. This is the allowance for your long-term monthly expenses. (Many lenders allow 36% of monthly income to go toward long term debt that can’t be paid off in 10 months.)

4) Add up your monthly long-term obligations including child support, auto loans, credit cards, and other payments that can’t be paid off in 10 months.

5) Subtract the total of those obligations from your long-term monthly expenses in step 3. This is your monthly housing expense. (This number is used for the back end ratio, or debt to income ratio, to make sure your total debt does not exceed 36% of your monthly income.)

6) Compare the maximum monthly housing expense from step 2 and your monthly housing expense from step 5 and take the smaller of the two. This is the amount you can afford each month for payment of principal, interest, taxes, and insurance – also called PITI.

The length of the mortgage and interest rates will affect the total dollar amount of the loan, so talking with a lender will give a big picture view of what you can afford. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage will take the guesswork out of deciding a price range for a potential house and reduce stress in the home-buying process.

Roadside assistance what every driver should know

It's dark. The highway is deserted. You're driving alone. Still miles from home, you stare at the illuminated patch of pavement ahead when suddenly… an unrecognizable POP from under your hood and your vehicle quickly loses power. You pull to the shoulder, grab your cell phone, and start to rummage through your wallet looking for the 800 number to your auto club.

We've all thought about it. And many of us have experienced exactly that scenario. When it happens, we're proud of ourselves for having the foresight to renew whatever roadside assistance club we belong to.

And whether it's personal safety and the safety of our family members, free towing, or even a quick tire change, roadside assistance is one of those options that isn't really just an option. It's a necessity.

When it comes to selecting the right roadside assistance or auto club for you, consider these facts:

Many vehicle manufacturers now provide comprehensive roadside assistance programs. Whether you lease or own your car, truck, or SUV, check with your dealership to see if one came with your vehicle.

For example, the Isuzu Ascender provides roadside assistance for the first seven years or 75,000 miles.

You may have roadside assistance as a benefit of carrying one of your credit cards. The American Express Gold Card offers towing, emergency fuel delivery, locked key retrieval, and tire replacement any time a Gold Card member is present, anywhere in the U. S. and Canada.

Emergency assistance plans like On-Star provide wealth of roadside assistance services including help if you get lost or break down, emergency services if your airbag deploys, and will even find you a ride if you've been drinking and aren't in a condition to safely drive yourself.

Auto clubs like American Automobile Association provide quick responses to roadside emergencies as well as travel planning assistance, vehicle financing services, and discounts at approved mechanic garages and hotels.

Be mindful of the benefits of all of your roadside assistance programs so that you're not paying to duplicate services (like towing), and make sure that at least one of your programs is full-service, meaning it covers almost any unforeseeable circumstance you might face. Keep the numbers of all of your roadside assistance programs (for example, the 800 number for a credit card roadside assistance benefit may not be printed on the actual card) on one sheet of paper, readily available in your glove compartment. Taking a few minutes to review your programs and plan ahead, could save you a great deal of worry and expense when an emergency arises.

Escaping from drug addiction through professionally-assisted withdrawal

Check out the statistics; almost 12 percent of young Americans aged 18 years old are now addicted to illicit drugs and approximately 27 million Americans use illicit drugs regularly. Results of the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse and Addiction revealed that while millions of Americans habitually smoke pot, drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and swallow prescription drugs, many drug users do not recognize that they have a drug addiction problem. The figure of those “in denial” about their drug addiction is estimated at more than 4.6 million.

Individuals who struggle with drug addiction do not set out to destroy themselves, or everyone and everything in their path. Rather, these disastrous consequences are the effects of the vicious cycle of drug addiction. For many, drugs seem to be a means of averting emotional and physical pain by providing the user with a temporary escape from life's sometimes uncomfortable realities such as depression and stress.

Physiological sensations are abused to create a new reality or a “high” when one does not wish to correct one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual reality. An addicted person does not believe that it is possible to have a satisfying, happy life without the use of narcotics.

Addiction or substance abuse is a complex psycho-chemical problem. A person with an addiction experiences cravings that persist even in the face of extremely negative consequences. During a craving, a person with an addiction misses the habit-forming drug terribly, and often he or she experiences symptoms of withdrawal.

Withdrawal refers to the physical problems and emotions you experience if you are dependent on a substance (such as alcohol, prescription medications, or illegal drugs) and then suddenly stop or drastically reduce your intake of the substance. Symptoms of withdrawal are caused by decreased amounts of alcohol or drugs in the blood or tissues of a person who has grown accustomed to prolonged heavy use and who then suddenly stops. Withdrawal syndrome is a set of symptoms that occur when you decrease or stop drinking or using drugs after using alcohol or drugs for a long time.

Symptoms of withdrawal from either illegal drugs or medications such as antidepressant prescriptions depend on the drug or combination of drugs. The common symptoms of withdrawal include:

· Abdominal pain

· Nausea and vomiting

· Drenching sweats

· Nervousness and shaking

· Seizures

· Death

Withdrawal symptoms can last a few days to a few weeks and may include nausea or vomiting, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety. Withdrawal symptoms only occur if a person has regular, heavy use of a drug. Drug withdrawal symptoms can be extremely uncomfortable without professional help. Treatment for withdrawal from alcohol or drugs may require a medical professional to be present. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation is often the best way to overcome withdrawal symptoms and recovery from drug addiction. There are a number of different signs to signify withdrawal symptoms depending on the drug of abuse. More noticeable signs are associated to certain drugs. However, there are some withdrawal symptoms that are associated with all drug use.

If you are dependent on alcohol or drugs and are experiencing symptoms of withdrawal, you may need a visit to your health professional to help you manage your symptoms.