Are you getting ready to buy or rent your first rental property? If so, here are a few things you need to know about property rentals.
Tips for Property Rentals
When buying a rental property the house should be a minimum of 1200 square feet or better. It should be three-bedrooms with two bathrooms and a garage. Two-bedrooms are harder to rent. Depending on your climate, you may also want to make sure the property has central heat and air.
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Location of the property is important. Locating next to an industrial area or school is a disadvantage because of trash and vandalism. Being a block or two away is more desirable. Don't locate near a railroad track or airport because of the noise. It's distracting. One subdivision in our area put up a sound wall next to the railroad track, but the houses were two-story and the bedrooms were upstairs, so the sound wall didn't do any good. So stay away from that.
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When renting a property, screening is very important. You're renting to strangers, and they need to be screened properly. Some people might have problems with their credit. Look into their rental history -- how they treated the property with other owners. Go back a couple of owners when checking that. You have to decide whether to allow pets or not. If you don't allow pets, it eliminates about 50 percent of your prospects.
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Every property is different, and every tenant is different. There are no two tenants or properties that are the same. You have to make adjustments with different personalities, different cultures, and understand that your property might not bring the same amount of rental as another one in the same neighborhood. I might add one more thing: not to upgrade a rental in the same neighborhood. In other words, don't over-improve a property compared with your neighbors. What happens is that it helps to bring the value of the neighbors' properties up, but it can lower the value of your property. Never put in extensive improvements that you'll never recover when you sell it.
Renting Your Home When Relocating
Here is a common question, "What about people who have to relocate and haven't been able to sell their home? Should they rent their home out?
We call those "reluctant landlords." We talk to them and explain the business to them. There's a risk, and we're up-front with them so they can make a decision. But, in this market, I would rent it out until the market improves for selling. Most people have lost most of their equity. So I would recommend renting right now. There are good renters out there. You just have to be careful with your screening. If you are leaving town and renting your home, then I would recommend using a property management company.

Licensed with CA Dept of Real Estate 44 years as a broker. Commercial investments. Currently property manager with 27 years experience residential and commerical Hold two designations MPM Master property manager and RMP Residential Management professional awarded by National Association of Residential Property Managers Read chapter one of our new Book House Investors' Manual at www.arbourpm

Are you getting ready to buy or rent your first rental property? If so, here are a few things you need to know about property rentals.
Tips for Property Rentals
When buying a rental property the house should be a minimum of 1200 square feet or better. It should be three-bedrooms with two bathrooms and a garage. Two-bedrooms are harder to rent. Depending on your climate, you may also want to make sure the property has central heat and air.
ugg boots
Location of the property is important. Locating next to an industrial area or school is a disadvantage because of trash and vandalism. Being a block or two away is more desirable. Don't locate near a railroad track or airport because of the noise. It's distracting. One subdivision in our area put up a sound wall next to the railroad track, but the houses were two-story and the bedrooms were upstairs, so the sound wall didn't do any good. So stay away from that.
ugg boots
When renting a property, screening is very important. You're renting to strangers, and they need to be screened properly. Some people might have problems with their credit. Look into their rental history -- how they treated the property with other owners. Go back a couple of owners when checking that. You have to decide whether to allow pets or not. If you don't allow pets, it eliminates about 50 percent of your prospects.
nike outlet
Every property is different, and every tenant is different. There are no two tenants or properties that are the same. You have to make adjustments with different personalities, different cultures, and understand that your property might not bring the same amount of rental as another one in the same neighborhood. I might add one more thing: not to upgrade a rental in the same neighborhood. In other words, don't over-improve a property compared with your neighbors. What happens is that it helps to bring the value of the neighbors' properties up, but it can lower the value of your property. Never put in extensive improvements that you'll never recover when you sell it.
Renting Your Home When Relocating
Here is a common question, "What about people who have to relocate and haven't been able to sell their home? Should they rent their home out?
We call those "reluctant landlords." We talk to them and explain the business to them. There's a risk, and we're up-front with them so they can make a decision. But, in this market, I would rent it out until the market improves for selling. Most people have lost most of their equity. So I would recommend renting right now. There are good renters out there. You just have to be careful with your screening. If you are leaving town and renting your home, then I would recommend using a property management company.

Licensed with CA Dept of Real Estate 44 years as a broker. Commercial investments. Currently property manager with 27 years experience residential and commerical Hold two designations MPM Master property manager and RMP Residential Management professional awarded by National Association of Residential Property Managers Read chapter one of our new Book House Investors' Manual at www.arbourpm

If you follow college football, you've probably run across Ohio State a time or two. Their football program is very old and very prestigious.
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But I'm still cringing at the thought of watching them get beaten by Oregon at the Rose Bowl. (Yes I'm fairly certain they'll lose although I do hope I'm wrong.) As a Big Ten fan, I'm really tired of watching Ohio State get hammered in these big, national games.
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(Of course, if MY team, the Wisconsin Badgers, would ever actually beat them in conference, maybe all of this would be different but I digress.)
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For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on. Why did Ohio State win so darn many games only to consistently embarrass the Big Ten in big out-of-conference games? Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. Isn't he?

Well, this year I finally got my answer. Yes Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. But he plays not to lose. He doesn't play to win.

And that, my friends, is why he loses the big games. Because those teams come to win. And Tressel is coming not to lose. (And that's why he's probably gong to lose to Oregon at the Rose Bowl because Oregon has been playing to win all season.)

So what exactly does it mean to play not to lose? Well it means playing very conservatively. You punt the ball rather than going for it on 4th and short. You go for the field goal rather than the touchdown. You build very strong defenses. You commit very few penalties. You have a very well coached team.
It also means you don't take chances. You don't have quarterbacks that heave the ball down the field in broken plays that can result in an interception or an 80-yard touchdown. You also don't win a lot of shootouts. And if your game plan isn't working, you don't have a lot of options because winging it isn't something you do.
And you're also pretty uninteresting to watch. (Sorry Buckeye fans but it's true.)
Now, can you win games playing not to lose? Absolutely. Tressel has a very respectable record. (Much better than my Badgers.) He's won the Big Ten Title nearly every year.
The problem happens when he gets to the big games. Now I'm not a coach nor did I ever play football but I do watch a lot of it and here's what I think happens. If you're not able to prevent Ohio from executing their game plan, you're toast. If Ohio can execute their game plan, they're going to do it very well and probably beat you.
But, if you throw a wrench in that game plan, if you throw them off, well then Ohio has a problem. They're not good at improvising nor do they take chances. And if you don't take a chance, especially when the chips are down, you're probably not going to win those games.
So what about you? Are you playing not to lose or are you playing to win? Sure you can do well playing not to lose, but you're never going to play as big of a game as you could be. Play to win, sure you might fall on your face from time to time but you'll probably end up playing bigger than you ever thought possible.

If you follow college football, you've probably run across Ohio State a time or two. Their football program is very old and very prestigious.
uggs store
But I'm still cringing at the thought of watching them get beaten by Oregon at the Rose Bowl. (Yes I'm fairly certain they'll lose although I do hope I'm wrong.) As a Big Ten fan, I'm really tired of watching Ohio State get hammered in these big, national games.
ugg boots
(Of course, if MY team, the Wisconsin Badgers, would ever actually beat them in conference, maybe all of this would be different but I digress.)
wholesale watches
For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on. Why did Ohio State win so darn many games only to consistently embarrass the Big Ten in big out-of-conference games? Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. Isn't he?

Well, this year I finally got my answer. Yes Jim Tressel is an excellent coach. But he plays not to lose. He doesn't play to win.

And that, my friends, is why he loses the big games. Because those teams come to win. And Tressel is coming not to lose. (And that's why he's probably gong to lose to Oregon at the Rose Bowl because Oregon has been playing to win all season.)

So what exactly does it mean to play not to lose? Well it means playing very conservatively. You punt the ball rather than going for it on 4th and short. You go for the field goal rather than the touchdown. You build very strong defenses. You commit very few penalties. You have a very well coached team.
It also means you don't take chances. You don't have quarterbacks that heave the ball down the field in broken plays that can result in an interception or an 80-yard touchdown. You also don't win a lot of shootouts. And if your game plan isn't working, you don't have a lot of options because winging it isn't something you do.
And you're also pretty uninteresting to watch. (Sorry Buckeye fans but it's true.)
Now, can you win games playing not to lose? Absolutely. Tressel has a very respectable record. (Much better than my Badgers.) He's won the Big Ten Title nearly every year.
The problem happens when he gets to the big games. Now I'm not a coach nor did I ever play football but I do watch a lot of it and here's what I think happens. If you're not able to prevent Ohio from executing their game plan, you're toast. If Ohio can execute their game plan, they're going to do it very well and probably beat you.
But, if you throw a wrench in that game plan, if you throw them off, well then Ohio has a problem. They're not good at improvising nor do they take chances. And if you don't take a chance, especially when the chips are down, you're probably not going to win those games.
So what about you? Are you playing not to lose or are you playing to win? Sure you can do well playing not to lose, but you're never going to play as big of a game as you could be. Play to win, sure you might fall on your face from time to time but you'll probably end up playing bigger than you ever thought possible.

Blogging is a fast-growing field that offers plenty of freelance opportunities. However, beware of what type of blogging you're doing and how much the client is paying you. Many new freelance bloggers find themselves putting in full-time hours for part-time pay.
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Even if you're just starting out, don't accept less than $7-$10 per post. Just because you haven't blogged before doesn't mean you lack valuable, sought-after skills.
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If you do have experience, or if you're blogging for a financially-stable company, feel free to charge more. Top bloggers can earn $30-$50 per post and sometimes a share in the company's profits.
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What exactly do bloggers do?

On the surface, it's just article writing. The purposes behind blogging are much more elaborate. Companies use blogs with excellent headlines/keywords to drive traffic to their websites. More web traffic means:

1. More customers to buy their products or services.

2. More people to click on their advertising.

It may seem basic, but these two goals mean you need to create posts that aim and appeal to your clients' target markets. The best bloggers are writers who can write newsworthy content that generates a loyal readership and seamlessly (and sneakily!) promotes the company in question.

Who offers freelance blogging jobs?

A few years ago it was difficult to find people to pay you to blog. These days you can find dozens of new ads for bloggers posted each day. Realtors, auto mechanics, health food stores, doctors, door-to-door salesmen… sometimes it can seem like everyone wants a blog of their own.

Freelance blogging jobs are plentiful, no matter the time of year. Check out WritingBids, Online-Writing-Jobs, Elance, Guru, and IFreelance (or just search for "freelance blogging jobs") to find thousands of blogging jobs available to you.

The bad news is that you'll have to sift through the blogging jobs to find quality jobs. Don't accept jobs that pay $1 per post. Don't accept jobs that expect you to write 10 blogs every day, either -- somehow these people want to pay you next to nothing because of the volume of work (why would you get paid less to do more?). They also comment in their ad that they only want "serious, professional writers." Bidding on blogging jobs like these only sends the message that you are neither serious nor professional because if you were, there's no way you'd consider a job like that.

Do I need experience to be a blogger?

If you want clients to pay you as a legitimate blogger, then yes, you need experience. Luckily, it's not hard to get. You can rack up a few of the lower-paying jobs quickly or consider starting your own blog.

If you do start your own blog, make it full of posts that would impress a prospective client (i.e. no posts for your friends about how killer that last party was). If you post boring content with grammar mistakes, no one will want to hire you. Do your best to create content that drives traffic to your site; this way, you can show clients how good you are at writing what people want to read.