Building A Home: 6 Things Your Builder Will Not Tell You

Buying a newly constructed home should be an enjoyable experience. Sadly, for most consumers, it’s a nightmare that will stay with them the rest of their life. A common statement made by many new homebuyers is that they will never have another home built for them.

Here’s 6 things your builder will probably never tell you.

“We market that our company only uses the finest craftsmen to build our homes when in reality, we use the cheapest trades we can find, which means that many are not skilled and are day laborers.”

Custom and spec homebuilders bid out the work on your home to the lowest bidder. Kinda like the U.S. Government. There is few Custom builders left who do their own work and have their own crews.

“I have a binding contract that will prevent you from suing me should you have major defects in your home after you move in. And better yet, there is little you can do to get me to fix it!”

Read the fine print on your contract. Better yet, have a real estate attorney read it for you and explain to you what legal recourse you have should there be problems after you close. I bet you’ll come out of the attorney’s office amazed at how little rights you have if you sign the builders contract.

“If you’re really smart, you’ll hire your own third party, code certified, home inspector because the public inspectors and even my own inspectors aren’t here with your best interest at heart!”

Builders today search out third party inspectors to perform “Quality Assurance” inspections. Problem is, this is just more marketing hype than anything. In most states, these third party inspectors do not have to be licensed to perform “Construction Inspections”. My inspectors and I find a long list of items that these inspectors either miss or ignore on every new home we inspect. Not once have we found a home that the builders inspector found a majority of the defects.

City and county inspectors are generally about the same as the builders inspector or worse. Many of these inspectors are so piled up with work that they can only spend 15 to 20 minutes in a home. Besides, it is not the City or County’s inspectors job to look for workmanship issues, they are only there looking for health and safety issues and protecting the City and County’s interest. Just like the builders inspectors are there protecting the builders interest, not yours!

If you don’t know a good code certified home inspector ask around or check out the American Society of Home Inspectors at ashi.org

“My sales people and I can tell you anything we want because we’re not regulated by the State”

In many states, you’ll find that the sales people for builders are not licensed with the real estate commission like Real Estate Agents are. This lets them tell you whatever they need to so you’ll buy a home from them. I’ve heard just about sales people promising homebuyers just about anything you can imagine they’d buy from their builder. Buyer beware and get them to put it in writing before you sign the contract!

“Your home is built over a landfill or swamp… maybe both.”

As prime land is filling up with new homes, real estate developers and builders are turning to sub prime land. Here in my market, we have subdivisions sitting on landfills, swamps and former rice patties. None are prime areas for building a home on.

“If you back out of the contract for any reason, we’ll keep your earnest money an upgrade money”

Many people are surprised to find this is true. In Texas most builders will, check with the Attorney General in your state to see if this is legal. Again, the builder or sales people may tell you different, but most contracts have a clause that says you’ll forfeit your earnest money or upgrade money if you back out of the home. Get it in writing what happens if you back out and the steps you must take to get your money back. Don’t think it won’t happen to you because I see it happen all the time.

As each state, county and city is different, you should check with a knowledgeable inspector in your area plus your real estate attorney before purchasing a newly constructed home. Also, GET EVERYTHING FROM THE BUILDER IN WRITING! If he promises you he’ll throw in a few extra outlets in the garage, get him to put it in the contract.

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Outdoor Fitness – Tips To Get Fit Out Of Doors

Experts advise to break up the long-term fitness goals into shorter, smaller and more realistic ones in order to ensure success and to be able to stick to an exercise regime, many professional health instructors suggest making work-outs fun to do! Once you eliminate boredom from an exercise routine, such as only working out on a stationery bike or hitting the home-gym where you are faced with the treadmill and the same old environment by taking your workout out, you stand a better chance of sticking to the routine – thanks to the novelty factor as well as the freshness of the ideas as such.

Moreover, with increased health awareness and learning about the ill-effects of obesity, there is no dearth of the number of open-air fitness options that are increasingly being made available to singles or groups of people wanting to explore being outdoors – and benefit health-wise from it, too!

So, it’s a common sight today to find people engaged in sporty pursuits for a health purpose as well as one that combines a certain amount of communing with nature or socializing such as walking the dog or swimming in a community pool ensures they benefit from.

The advantages to taking your daily work-out outdoors are many: from needing little by way of expensive gym equipment (read nothing more than your own two feet or a pair of dumbbells, if you wish) to avoiding the sweaty crowds at the local gym, from no having to drive back and forth to a health spa to availing the benefits of fresh and pure oxygen, from ensuring your daily dose of vitamin D that is only available from sunlight to being free to exercise anytime of the day, anywhere – the benefits of outdoorsy workout are huge!

There are also many different types of activities one can pursue outdoors, some of which we list here for your benefit and healthful knowledge:

Apart from exercising your lungs and filling them with pure oxygen that an outdoor work-out in the early morning guarantees you, you also get to benefit from the added room and spaciousness of an outdoor environment where you can perform lunges to build leg, buttock and thigh muscles. You can team these with other forms of exercise that are restricted by limited space indoors, such as jogging and stretching.

Thus, when outdoors, you can accommodate various forms of energetic exercise to sweat more, weigh less and look great by combining different motions such as performing standing lunges, brisk walking and rear lunges besides elevated walking.

The benefits of performing push-ups for a toned upper body are many and these can best be realized when performed in a natural environment that does away with the need for investing in a bench-press machine or an expensive gym membership fee. Basic movements for a push up includes standard, wide and close gripping of surfaces that will help to stimulate shoulder, chest and triceps muscles and this can be achieved with simple elevation of the hands; more intense work-outs can be performed by elevating your feet.

If you feel up to it, try clapping between push-ups or even squatting on one leg then standing and trying a wider stance; do remember to repeat till you feel the legs experiencing the effects of your efforts.

Other great outdoor exercises include sit-ups, chin-ups (try a tree or playground), uphill running or even walking like a duck – and you will be on your way to good health, cost-effectively!

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Affiliate Marketing Tips For 2011 – Two Avenues of Traffic You Should Not Miss

Do you remember the dot com boom? If you have been around for a few years you will remember the huge surge of Internet millionaires that started to spring up out of nowhere.

A major part of this incredible period was the introduction of Google AdSense and the facility for Internet marketers and affiliates to gain massive traction with seemingly inexhaustible cheap advertising through the AdWords program.

If you are too young to actually have been there you will certainly have read about how easy it was to get cheap traffic to any website and make money. Aah, golden days!

However, that is all in the past and a seemingly never-ending string of new rules and guidelines have made AdWords a very risky business for the newbie internet entrepreneur.

But, there is a light in the tunnel, in fact two lights and strangely enough they both have a Google glow.

I have two affiliate marketing tips that I beg you to investigate if you are serious about you internet business. They are not free ways to make cash online but in my opinion they do have value. One of them is especially crucial to any future business.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 1: Google AdWords, yes it is the same routine as before but with a slight twist. We all know about writing the short little sales pitches based on our highly researched keywords and how some of those keywords are hugely expensive.

The tip is, Images. Image advertising is still relatively unused and the opportunity for some cheap traffic is still available. With a little creativity it is simple to knock up some graphics, format them to the required sizes and load them up into AdWords.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 2: This second tip is the crucial one and if you do at least investigate it you are making a huge blunder.

Mobile marketing is where the next wave of internet millionaires will be coming from, believe it. You can ignore this and I bet that in two years time you will be asking yourself, Why?

The costs involved are similar to image marketing on AdWords and the technology is a little more involved but the audience figures are huge and it is possible to buy traffic from around 3 cents a click.

Both Google and Apple have invested literally millions of dollars into this area in the past year or so, Apple have gone so far as to rebrand themselves a “mobile company”. Do you think they would be doing this on a whim?

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How to Promote YouTube Videos to Gain Traffic

YouTube videos are meant to deliver a message or promote a video clip that one has created. Companies, entrepreneurs and individuals use these videos to market, promote, advertise and even make money from these videos. The reason why YouTube is a great platform to market products and ideas is because, visual adverts play a major role in awareness, as they tend to stick to the mind faster than audio or written formats.

Although you might have created a great video, chances of people stumbling upon it are few, because there are millions of videos being uploaded in YouTube each day, thus making the platform saturated. To milk and obtain more visibility on the web, you will need to learn tips on how to promote YouTube videos effectively. There are several ways to do this as discussed below.

1. Use video search engines:
Video search engines play a big role in advertising video content. Having the video in YouTube alone is not enough to create awareness. Make sure you add the video content to these videos search engines, such as MetaCafe, Netflix or even truveo.com. You however need to select a relevant niche for your video for optimization and relevance needs. Doing this increases visibility probabilities online.

2. Optimize the video Title as well as its descriptions
This is an important step when learning how to promote YouTube Videos. Although YouTube has its own search engine to rank videos based on traffic and visibility, you can alter these by adding in video descriptions and what it is about. Video Meta descriptions are very important as they give a brief overview on what the video clip is all about. This works in the same way as Search Engine optimization, where you need to focus on the main keywords that people will use when searching for your content or related media.

3. Video Branding
Some people may try to use your video clip to advertise their content and media, and you may not benefit from their acts. To protect yourself against these, video branding will work for you best. You can do this with the help of a branding software such as adobe illustrator, where you can add in your addresses and links to your website. If anyone uses your content, he will participate in promoting yours too.

4. Use social media plugins to promote the video clip
Many people today use the social media to meet up new people and make friends. They also use this media to discuss trending videos, music and other life events. Facebook and MySpace offer a great platform to advertise the YouTube video. You can upload the video for Facebook users to view and comment on. In addition to this, you need to place a captivating description of the same. Through the Facebook users, you can generate enormous traffic thus lead to sales.

5. Market your video links through email marketing
If you are advertising a product or service through the video, and have a mailing list of target audience, you should then include links of the same in your mails, and direct them to view the clips. Although it may not be taught in many “how to promote YouTube videos” online programs, never leave out this strategy as you never know whom it will bring onboard.

6. Follow other popular videos in YouTube
Just like other social sites, you need to give for you to receive. The best way to earn traffic into your video is by responding to other people’s video clips on YouTube with a big follow-up. When you respond to a video clip, a link to your videos is created on these comments, thus leaving a trail for other people to follow.

Marketing through videos is a great way to win audience over, as well as enlighten them on what you have to offer. However great the clip is, you need to optimize it for video search engines and viewers. There are many free lessons on how to promote YouTube videos you can use to learn more.

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Philippines – 10 Best Shopping Destinations in the Philippines

Apart from the beauty and elegance of the Philippines, this country is also a perfect place for shopping. There are lots of shopping destinations one can find in almost every corner of the Philippines. The country is packed with many shopping centers and bazaars where one can find almost everything. Tourists that visit the Philippines never leave the country empty handed with loads of shopping bags and luggage full of shopped items. Year after year, many more additional shopping centers are being established around the country making everyone have the best choices to do their shopping.

Here are ten among the many shopping destinations in the Philippines:

1. Ilalim ng Tulay Market – meaning “under the bridge” market. It is located along the Carlos Palanca Street in Quiapo Manila. This is where one can find the best handicrafts made by the Filipinos. One can enjoy digging within the bargain stalls to look for items of their choice. What is more fascinating about shopping in this market is that the prices are always negotiable and everyone is welcome to bargain the price.

2. Makati Commercial Center – located at Makati City Philippines. Here one can find various items and even designer clothes and stuffs. This is a one stop shopping destination where one can surely find all the things they need. The establishment is also spacious for shoppers to have enough room to avoid inconvenience.

3. SM group of companies - has lots of branches spreading all over the country selling the best items. The SM shopping malls have been really famous in the Philippines and are a regular shopping destination for the Filipino people. The SM group of companies is trusted for selling the best products and items that are made locally and others that are from abroad.

4. Street Shops – found everywhere in the Philippines along the street sides. There are different shops that sell several varieties of items. There are also retail shops and wholesale shops that are famous in the Philippines. Here, one can buy items in bulks and get lots of discounts. The more you buy, the more discounts you’ll get and one can save more.

5. Divisoria – this is the place for people looking for the cheapest items. Most of the Filipinos purchase their needs here. Some even come from the different provinces and shop in Divisoria. Here, people can buy lots of stuffs at once without spending too much.

6. Landmark – located in Makati City. Also one of the well known shopping centers in the Philippines selling the best quality items with its reasonable prices.

7. Greenhill’s Shopping Center – a very famous shopping center in the Philippines where most of the shoppers prefer to go to buy quality items such as clothing, home wares, appliances and many others.

8. Harrison Plaza - located at Harrison Street Malate Manila. This is a one stop shopping center with packed with many stores and booths that sell different variety of items. This place is one of the best shopping places for Filipinos.

9. SM Mall of Asia – one of the branches of the SM group of companies. Considered as the largest shopping destination in Asia. One can enjoy various activities here, not only shopping. The mall has an ice skating ground where children and skaters can glide through the ice after their shopping spree.

10. Araneta Shopping Complex – one of the well known shopping destinations in the Philippines and the place to look for the best finds.

Here are just ten of the shopping destinations in the Philippines. There are so many other places to shop here, and one can find them anywhere in the country.

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Classified Job Portals: Boosting Employment

There are numerous job seekers around the globe. The power of internet has enabled these numerous job aspirants as well as corporations seeking best candidates for job openings, to come together. Furthermore, online-classified job portals have helped them interact with each other making the process of employment search for people and finding a suitable candidate for organizations, an easy task. It helps them shortlist their options pursuing the best ones among them.Moreover, classified job portals also facilitate people in gathering the required knowledge and background of each company and candidate. They are like employment & work banks, which get job openings registered from leading organizations and present them to those looking for a work and vice verse. All the jobs are categorically organized in groups related to each field and industry. LA classifieds have helped numerous job seekers get suitable work and given a boost to their career growth.You can avail all these advantages and that too by simply registering with these job portals free of charge. They simply register aspiring job seekers and various organizations but also regularly update job seekers through e-mail about the recent openings that match their profile. In addition to this, they offer various other services like preparation of resume and expert consultation.Classified job portals provide every user their own personalized profile page wherein they can track and compare the jobs that they have applied for with the other candidates who have applied for the same position. You can add, as much information as you personally think is professionally necessary and appropriate and that can give you an edge over the other candidates.Today, more than 85% organizations utilize online job portals to post their job openings as well as use them for searching for the most deserving candidates for vacancies. Gone are the days when one had to visit numerous placement agencies and pay hefty amounts for registering with them. Now you can simply have a look at the available jobs on your and choose according to your preferences.
So, go ahead, explore your career opportunities with the best-classified job portals, and give your career the raise you have been waiting for.

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There is an excessive amount of traffic coming from your Region.

#EANF#

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Macro Photography

Exploring the world of miniature objects with a macro lens is a special and exciting area of photography, and once you start, you will quickly become addicted. The world of macro photography holds many delights and is an area that cannot be appreciated with the human eye.Macro photography is the name given to close-up photography, and is best explained as images that are taken at reproduction ratios of life-size and above. Ratios of between 1:7 and 1:1 fall into the macro photography category.Understanding Ratios: This is a term used to express the magnification of a macro lens or other macro equipment that relates the real life-size object to the reproduction size on a slide or negative. If you shoot an object that is 3cm in length and it measures 1.5cm on a 35mm slide or negative – the ratio is 1:2. When both are equal length the ratio is 1:1Choosing the right lens is the most important factor with macro photography. While a telephoto lens may be acceptable with some types of close-up photography, the macro lens is invaluable to get really close and really accurate focusing.There is an endless range of subjects that fall under the range of macro photography. The most common subject for macro photography is the natural world – all types of flowers, plants, and insects. For the more creative photographer, macro photography is used in abstract imagery.With many forms of macro photography, especially with insects, a lens with a long focal lens – minimum 200 mm is required for some nature subjects. You need to keep a working distance from the subject to get a successful image – you don’t want to frighten your subject away.When shooting close-ups you are limited with depth-of-field – to get an attractive image you must focus on the most important part of the subject. This will be achieved easier if you place your camera on a tripod or monopod.By using your tripod you will reduce the risk of camera shake. Subject movement is also an important factor to consider. Macro photography magnifies the subject, leaving more room for blur. A strobe unit can be used to freeze movement – even on the brightest of days you should consider using your strobe unit. Try bouncing light from your strobe unit off a reflector. This will give your image a softer illumination.Many amateur photographers stay away from macro photography because they feel that their technical ability is too inept – your personal ability should not turn you away from this exciting part of photography – macro photography is like all types of photography – practice makes perfect.

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Home Insurance Companies & Home Insurance Quotes

Home insurance rates can vary greatly from one insurance company to another. A quick research will find that there are almost 1800 providers in which you could choose from, but now you can find low cost home insurance online more easily then making a hundred different phone calls. Insurance companies are based upon a sharing program in which the money or premiums are placed in a pool then distributed and used when that insurance company has losses and claims by its customers. Back in the 1970s and before, several insurance companies would send salesmen into areas and neighborhoods to knock on doors then signing up large numbers of new customers located in these areas.However, one year brought a string of tornadoes that devastated entire subdivisions and small towns where these insurance providers had signed up so many new customers. Because of such devastation in a concentrated area several of the smaller companies had to go out of business before fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities to their customers who had paid their premiums. Larger companies were simply overwhelmed by the amount of claims that had to be filled out and completed. Not only was it a loss to the customers when those companies went out of business, but it was also a long period of time before many of the others were able and capable of processing their claims and rebuilding their homes.In evaluating of this unfortunate incident Congress enacted new laws that limited the amount of customers that an insurance company could sign up in any given area. This helps to keep all our rates low and protect the insurance company as well as the customers. Getting a quote by getting a home comparison in this age of technology should be an easy chore for the person searching for home insurance companies.A Quote can be accomplished simply by providing a few basic details and allowing your computer to search hundreds of different insurance companies that fit your needs. If you’re one of those who owns a home which is your most prized asset then there is no doubt that you need from a quality company that will provide you with a decent home owners insurance policy. A good home policy not only covers the house itself, but also other buildings on the property and the contents of the home for replacement.Many insurance companies will also check your credit rating when getting insurance so you yourself need to know what your credit rating status is. You also should have a very good ideal of how much it would cost to replace all the contents in your home including furniture, appliances, clothing, and a place to stay while your home is being repaired. Don’t forget most insurance companies only offer flood insurance as an additional. So make sure you ask the company just what all they cover in their insurance quotes. Remember, getting an online home insurance quote can save you hundreds of dollars from one insurance company to another insurance company.Well known names are not always the cheapest and best.

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There is an excessive amount of traffic coming from your Region.

#EANF#

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