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Ten Benefits of Owning a Condo Hotel

April 30th, 2009

You may have heard about the latest trend in vacation homes – condo hotels. Suddenly, consumers have the ability to own a second home in a wonderful destination without any of the hassles of ownership. To see why the condo hotel concept has so much appeal, consider these benefits:

1. You can own a piece of a world-class property. Most condo hotels are of three- to five-star quality.

2. You’ll have a vacation home in a fantastic destination. Most condo hotels are located in premium locales – on the beach, near golf courses, next to ski slopes and in bustling downtowns. Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Chicago and the Bahamas are some of the most popular condo hotel locations.

3. Use your vacation home when you want. Flexibility in use means you always have a place to “get away from it all.” When you’re not using your vacation home, place it in the rental program.

4. A professional management company will take care of all maintenance and operational issues. Most condo hotels are managed by premier hospitality firms, often the biggest names in the business, Ritz-Carlton, Trump International, Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt, to name a few.

5. You receive approximately half of the rent revenue your condo hotel unit generates when you’re not using it. The management company takes care of renting your condo for you. The revenue helps offset your costs of ownership. Plus, most management companies have sophisticated reservation systems and invest in professional marketing, enabling them to keep your unit rented far more than you likely could on your own.

6. The management company deals with the guests. Part of the hassle-free nature of condo hotel ownership is that the management company handles everything regarding guests, from attracting them to checking them in and out of the hotel and solving any problems that arise during their stay.

7. You’ll have access to luxury hotel services. Unlike a single-family home, in a condo hotel vacation home, you can take advantage of all the perks of the hotel such as a brand-name spa like Canyon Ranch or Elizabeth Arden Red Door, concierge, room service, fitness facilities, pool, fine dining restaurant and more.

8. Share your condo hotel unit with family and friends. The unit is yours, so you decide how it’s used. Want to lend it to your Aunt Betty and Uncle Lou? No problem.

9. Purchase your condo hotel unit with traditional financing or even as part of a 1031 exchange. A variety of loans are available to invest in condo hotels. Condo hotels also qualify for tax-deferring strategies like 1031 exchanges.

10. Realize appreciation when you resell your condo hotel. Like traditional real estate, over time your condo hotel unit has potential to appreciate. Because of its quality location, professional hotel management and on-site luxury amenities, the value of your vacation home should increase. You keep the profits when you sell.

Joel Greene is the President of Condo Hotel Center which specializes in the sale of condo hotels. Visit his information-packed web site, www.CondoHotelCenter.com for more on condo hotels and to see condo hotel listings, photos and prices. You can also sign up for his free Property Alert newsletter to be notified when new condo hotel properties come on the market.

Betting House Taking a Chance: All about the Pastimes of Chance Betting Devotees Contest

April 30th, 2009

Hypercasinos launches new site

If you do not comprehend betting hall card-playing, please continue to read —

For clarity’s sake: a betting house is an edifice that presents friendly gambling. Guests can gamble at the coin-operated machines or trying out alternate pastimes of luck. Betting house games generally have fully transparent chances included which guarantee the gambling company has a lead versus the betting fans.

Far too many betting establishment games can result in you becoming overly habituated very speedily. An example is the notorious 1-armed-bandit, a coin operated gadget with 3 or more gears which orbit when a bar on the side is pushed. The machine routinely will compensate punters referring to a given series of motifs presented on the screen of the instrument. Regrettably, betting establishment pastimes present a hallucination of remaining in control, effectively deluding the gaming devotee — the victim is conceded choices, but actually these won’t truly eliminate the client’s long term disadvantage. That is brought about by the the betting saloon never repaying the full sum as expected. This scheme is recurrently seen at work in well known casino games like Texas hold’em, dice, roulette or blackjack.

Seven-card stud poker is truly a highly trendy casino game. The bettors, closely guarding their screened hands, make bets in a principal pot that is finally given to the winning gamester carrying the highest combination of cards. (Obviously, the shameless bluff may well prevail as well.)

Resembling straight poker, blackjack is likewise an immensely fashionable casino pastime. A substantial chunk of its renown is grounded in its peculiar mix of chance and technique & choice making, as well as a practice dubbed “counting”. It is a peculiar gambling tactics in which gambling aficionados may actually shift the chances of the card game to establish the upper hand by both betting and strategic opetations according to the cards deployed.

“Craps” is yet another incredibly popular gambling hall wagering game using the roll of dice. Gamers are placing bets on the end result of 1 cycle, or on a succession of rolls on 2 dice. Contrary to blackjack, there is no credible sustainable winning system players can apply to boost the odds.

Roulette is an eminently popular casino game of luck — a croupier twists a roulette wheel incorporating a set of exactly thirty-seven (European roulette) or exactly thirty-eight (Vegas roulette) separately tagged receptacles in which the tossed pellet will settle, deciding the winning number as well as its connected odds. When a participant bets on a number and is successful, which is to say they’ve got a lucky hand, the guaranteed remuneration is thirty five to 1, the bet is repaid. Thus in totality it’s multiplied by a factor of 36.

So be alert as many of such betting saloon betting games can be positively habit forming. Indeed an incredible number of lives may have been demolished thru reckless gambling & albeit it admittedly seems entertaining, do please aim to regulate yourself.

How to Prepare Yourself for Owning a Dual Purpose Second Home

April 27th, 2009

If you are thinking about buying a second home, you are not alone. A 1995 survey by the American Resort Development Association found that 60 percent of households surveyed feel they have a likely chance of purchasing a recreational property in the next ten years, a figure that rose 30% from the survey in 1990. The average age for the majority of vacation home buyers ranges from 40-50 years old. Qualifying as the baby boomer generation, this group of second home buyers consists of 80.5 million people out of the U.S. population of more than 260 million. Demand for vacation homes is rising as a result of consumers’ increasing desire to capitalize on low interest rates, low unemployment rates and a strong real estate market offering many viable second home options.

When purchasing a second home, many baby boomers seek properties that offer access to recreational areas as well as amenities ideal for retirement living. Finding a fully functional dual purpose second home requires meeting a number of physical and emotional characteristics. A trained real estate professional can help you identify your short and long term needs as well as a home that provides the qualities you require.

When choosing the ideal vacation/retirement community, look for services and features which reduce the stress of owning a second home. Furthermore, finding a home with one floor living or limited stairs will be preferable as you age and as your home evolves from a recreational home to a permanent residence. For example, free standing homes require a lot of upkeep, so properties that include gardening services or rubbish removal such as condominiums or gated communities with town houses are an option worth investigating.

Once you and your broker have identified a second home, the following are tips to protect your second home investment:

  • Develop a trustworthy contact who lives near your new home, either a neighbor or a paid caretaker, to keep an eye on the property and collect mail that accumulates. Make sure this person has all of the necessary information to contact you.

  • To make the home appear to be fully occupied, ask your caretaker to park occasionally in your driveway. Timers are good for keeping lights on, but their schedule should be varied regularly.

  • Set up an answering machine. Change the message occasionally and check the messages often.

  • Make sure all doors and windows are locked and secure. Consider installing an alarm to protect your home when you are not there and to serve you when you live there in the future. A quality security system can be purchased through a reputable company.

  • Remove all keys hidden around the property.

  • Enjoy the time spent in your new second home, for vacation, recreation and ultimately for fulfilling retirement living.

I would be pleased to give you additional information about identifying both an area and home ideal for your fulfilling your second home needs.

About The Author

W. Troy Swezey is the author of “How to Prepare Yourself for Owning a Dual Purpose Second Home.” As a Realtor at Century 21 Paul & Associates, he has helped many individuals with their real estate needs. Visit his web site to download his free e-book, “REAL ESTATE SECRETS EXPOSED.” http://www.TroyIsMyRealtor.com or TroyC21@usa.net

Like Magic, Make All of Your Post Christmas Blues Go Away by Taking in an Exciting London Westend Comedy

April 26th, 2009

It’s the precise moment to get hold of some markdown London show tickets. The West End of London is the centre part of entertainment! The Theatre land of the City is up there as one of the preferred visitor places of London. As a result, it is no surprise that hundreds of tourists line-up for a substantial amount of time at the ticket office without even a slight frown on their faces to book West End musical tickets. For people who dislike waiting, the World Wide Web or the phone are always there to book show tickets.

It is possible to procure London theatre tickets at a cheap rate. You can look at terrific London shows which include “Lion King,” “Mamma Mia,” & other familiar shows without forking out too much. In addition to these theatre shows, the other musical shows currently running comprise of “Chicago,” “Wicked,” “Sound of Music,” “Les Miserables,” and “Phantom of the Opera.” The Leicester Square Box Office sells cheap London theatre tickets, visit the website today.

With this in mind, if you’re on a winter break to London, then you’re going to have one of the most excellent time of your life! Do not forget to s West End in your list of visiting places. The City is the hub of musical shows. It includes in excess of thirty outstanding theatre shows running at any specific time. Moreover this is not every single one. You can also obtain admission to ticketing services that are experts in supplying you with the greatest seats of the theatre. They are able to make your theatrical experience a truly cherished one.

As well phoning the ticketing services, you can procure London theatre tickets from the Leicester Square Box Office (more normally known as LSBO) which is situated in Leicester Square, and from the ticket agents. The box offices are normally open from 10 o’clock in the morning. They close about 30 mins after the start of the evening show. If you pick the ticket stall at Leicester Square, you can get discounts on tickets for the existing day’s performance. The stand is open from ten in the morning to 7 in the evening during weekdays & weekend. However, on Sundays, it’s open from midday to 3pm in the day. This is the sole sanctioned stand in London. It is controlled by the Society of London Theatre. Although you possibly will not buy theatre tickets for every performance, you can undoubtedly get tickets for the big hits. Alternatively you can even take a look at the Leicester Square Box Office website for new information.

Scholarships for Minorities Available to Struggling Detroit Families

April 26th, 2009

The current financial depression in Detroit knows no age, race or religion boundaries. People from all walks of life are finding work hard to come by. During these trying times, struggling minority families with a child looking to further their education should become familiar with scholarships for minorities. A minority scholarship can make it possible for a teenager to get the education they need to achieve their dreams and a stable financial future.

Minority scholarships are available to help young people prepare for various future positions, some of which are focused to particular professions while others are more open to particular minority residents.

Some of the scholarships are only available to quite specific minority-status people. An example is one which pays only for the junior year in a British university and is open only to students who presently attend an African-American institution.

Other scholarships for minorities are much more open, and some are available for any non-white student seeking a graduate degree. This would obviously include African-Americans as well as Hispanics, Native Americans or even Asian-Americans.

Detroit residents, or minority families in other cities, are encouraged to visit the scholarship departments of their local colleges to get more current information on minority scholarships. Students need to be fully cognizant of the stipulations which may be attached to any financial aid that they may accept. Sometimes students owe some amount of employment in a particular field once they accept scholarship assistance.

Minority students who need financial help can usually find some degree of aid if their qualifications are acceptable. Usually, this involves a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Often, they must be residents of a particular part of the country to qualify.

Some of the scholarships are for the entire educational degree program, while others cover only a portion of the expenses of getting a degree. At least minority students whose families have acute budget problems can rejoice that there are programs available to enable them to get a good education.

Google Hat-trick for Spanish Property Website

April 25th, 2009

For the third successive year, specialist website PropertyInSpain.Net enjoyed the Christmas number one ranking with leading search engine Google.

In the 36 months at number one for key search phrases, pre-qualified visitor traffic from Google search results to the triple award winning website has doubled from 20% to 40%. In addition, Google lists 100s of important pages of advice, information and property showcases from PropertyInSpain.Net that attract 1,000s of serious property buyers and investors.

A traffic spike of 114,000 hits resulted in 4,000 people in one day viewing the EUR 1M Mallorca home of the Christopher Columbus family, sold by PropertyInSpain.Net to a UK TV mogul at the price demanded by it’s German owner. The value could double if FBI and Granada University DNA experts establish a 100% birthplace link with the explorer.

PropertyInSpain.Net’s Terry Walker said: “We never dreamed we’d get the elusive number one slot for three successive years as Google lists 8.2M rival webpages promoting property in Spain. Once again it’s a good Christmas for us and for Spain, as the country remains where it belongs – as the world’s leading living, property buying and holiday destination and being promoted by the top ranked Google website.”

The highly automated website was designed and developed by a creative team led by Rob Pagan of Smallworldit.com following earlier successes with the Delia Smith and Virgin Books websites. The site’s PowerSearch feature is designed to help buyers discover, shortlist and order local checks on availability and price changes on 11,000 properties across 10 main residential Costas, Ibiza and Mallorca.

Spanish Property News

This article is written by Kevin Barnett. a specialist commentator on the Spanish real estate market, whose news and information is read on a wide range of property web portals. You can read his most recent articles at www.propertyinspain.net/news

Hawaii Mortgage and Home Loan Trends

April 24th, 2009

One of the latest trends in the mortgage industry in the Hawaiian islands involves pre-approving borrower loans. Prospective buyers will know what they can afford before shopping for a home. When you pre-approve, home sellers and real estate agents will know you are a serious buyer. Being approved for a loan makes the home-shopping process much more efficient and productive. A Pre-Approval program gives you more leverage when you are negotiating a contract and results in expediting the loan process when you have found your desired property.

Can you stop the payment of my real estate taxes if I am going to pay my loan in full? When you have an escrow account with us for payment of taxes, your mortgage broker will be required to pay your taxes until your loan is paid in full. As a result, quite frequently requests to stop tax payments may not be accepted; but taxes shall be disbursed as usual until funds are actually received to pay your loan in full.

A little bit more on Financial Education and some available products in the Hawaii mortgage industry. In some programs, senior homeowners must complete an approved financial education session — sometimes called counseling — before they can fill out an application for a reverse mortgage loan. Reverse mortgages are mainly offered by commercial banks, thrifts, mortgage banking organizations, consumer finance firms, and financial services corporations.

Title Charges – a title is the document that shows who owns a property. It is necessary for an attorney to examine a title to make sure there are no problems that would prevent you from having clear (legal) Hawaii property title. It is also necessary to get title insurance in case someone else should try to claim title to your envisaged property. Fees for title examination and title insurance will be included in the closing costs of the mortgage deal.

A home equity line of credit is a form of revolving credit in which your home property serves as collateral. Think of it as a credit card that is secured by the equity in your Hawaiian home. Many homeowners use these credit lines for major items such as debt consolidation, travel expenses and home improvements.

Svend Nelson - EzineArticles Expert Author

Svend Nelson is a university lecturer and internet entrepreneur specializing in
online marketing. While he is active in various online industries; among his online presences in the real estate and home loan industry are Hawaii rentals real estate listings and Hawaii mortgages. Svend
has also just started a blog sharing his experience about how to make money online. Svend lived and worked in various countries across Latin America, Europe and Asia before settling on the beach in Thailand.

School Funding for Left-Handed Students

April 24th, 2009

Finding help to fund a college education can be troublesome and will certainly need time. These scholarships are different from a regular student loan because these are a grant for a college education, and, don’t need to be paid back. While searching means of funding a further instruction, be aware that funds are accessible in unlikely places, such as funding especially for left handed students. Lefty Scholarships: — It may appear unusual to extend a scholarship dependent on being left-handed, but it’s worth considering this: Benjamin Franklin was left handed, so is the president of the United States, Barack Obama. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Bob Dylan and Charlie Chaplin were also left handed. An estimated eleven percent of the global population are left-handed. Frequently considered much more talented in the arts and to have a higher Intelligence Quotient, lefthanders have frequently suffered from discrimination. Stigmatization is now a thing of the past and left handers are no longer thought of as different, in fact they may even be associated with the famous people noted above.

If you are left handed and researching grants for left-handed scholars, plenty of grants for left handed people are accessible which you may be able to obtain. The Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship for 1000 USD is presently available at Juniata College stuated in Huntington, Pennsylvania. For scholars of Juniata College and set up in 1979, this particular college grant helps a lot of left handed pupils through university.

Visit and inspect our vast page for technical school scholarships a brilliant choice tips…

Some bursaries may have requirements and limitations. Sometimes certain grades can be involved or particular monetary requirements have to be met. Do go for for the maximum amount of scholarships possible to give you a better chance at finishing with a minimum amount of debt. You should also consider community organisations, clubs and even groups affiliated with your hobbies. Scholarships for lefthanded scholars aren’t a unique case; financial aid is available in other instances such as to the individuals from military homes or if you have a disability.

Rooting out scholarships may take some work, nevertheless the reward will be worth it. Any debt generated by a college education may be reduced by such grants utilized alongside normal lending. Be sure to research every opportunity. Left-handed funding is not the only option – list all the options you can envisage and utilize your resourcefulness. Try for each scholarship you might possibly qualify for, you may keep your academic debt to a an absolute minimum, and you will look forward to a more positive economic outlook when you graduate.

The Mind of the Real Estate Investor

April 19th, 2009

Myself and many others are living proof that by changing your mental and physical habits, you can build your wealth. This mini-course focuses on changing or fine-tuning your mental habits and attitudes toward real estate investment so that you can profit at will. It’s about getting your mindset right.

By mindset, I mean your way of looking at, and approaching your real estate investment business. This includes the way you perceive your business. It also includes what you allow to impress and intimidate you, also what challenges and excites you.

Note: This article is the introductory session in a soon to be released mini-course entitled “The Mind of the Real Estate Investor” and the full course will soon be available to Rehab Real Estate Central (http://www.rehab-real-estate.com) newsletter subscribers. This course will be a free service of Rehab Real Estate Central.

Why bother with “mindset?”

Simple. Because the cost of NOT adjusting your mindset is outrageously expensive (in opportunity loss)! If your mind isn’t conditioned to think like a wealth-building investor, you are like a sailor paddling around in a boat with holes in it. If you bail water quickly enough, you’ll keep it afloat, but you will eventually tire…and sink!

ALL money-making endeavors begin with a thought. They are all ideas born in the mind of an investor. Some have more and better ideas than others. Why is that? Are some minds better conditioned than others? I say “yes!”

In our society there is often resistance to conditioning one’s mind, but nobody thinks a thing about going for a jog, or hitting the gym to condition their body. Does that make sense? If you walk the entrepreneurial path, mental conditioning is central to your business.

The six concepts that I will unfold in this course are powerful weapons of the mind. If you condition your mind to these concepts will make you a lot of money, and you will KEEP making a lot of money.

Simply put, if you don’t develop, and then fine tune your mindset you will either:

- Never quite get around to investing in real estate (if you have not yet begun) and forfeit the wealth you want to attain for you and your family.

- Never quite get where you want to go in your investing (if you are already investing), and forfeit the wealth you intended to attain for you and your family.

You see, a lot of people have enough knowledge to invest in real estate. Far fewer DO it. Why is that? Because far fewer have bothered to develop the mindset that conquers fear and other hurdles to investing in real estate. Frankly, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge you possess about investing in real estate, you WON’T do it if you haven’t conditioned yourself to think like and investor.

Usually I write and teach practical matters of rehab real estate investing, but for this course, I’m breaking from that in favor of talking about what you can do to adjust your thinking…change the way your mind works. Since the investing won’t be successful without a properly conditioned mind, it can be considered the most important aspect of learning to be a real estate investor!

Mindset is the foundation of real estate investment. In other words, if it’s not solid, you cannot invest successfully. I don’t know how to put it any plain-er.

I’ve known scores of folks who have WANTED to invest in real estate. These are usually acquaintances who find out somehow that I invest in rehab real estate. Invariable I here, “I’ve thought about doing that.” Sometimes I hear “I looked into that.” Sometimes they proceed to ask questions, but I find that most of the time the next word after the previous phrase is “…but” and then I hear an excuse.

These excuses range from “I couldn’t find any property” to “the numbers scared me” to “I couldn’t get a mortgage.”

What I’m thinking to myself is “these excuses have solutions, but they don’t yet have the mindset to overcome these relatively minor hurdles.” In fact, unless someone ASKS me for specific advice on overcoming these hurdles, I don’t offer advice. That’s not because I don’t want them to succeed! It’s because their mindset is not yet right.

Let me tell you where I’m coming from on this topic.

My mindset was screwed up for 10 years! I was a real estate guru junkie! For a decaded I consumed every book about real estate investing on the market, attended seminars, and bought courses. I had “book knowledge” running out of my ears with ZERO property.

Finally, one day I realized that I was about to “retire” from the Navy, I REALLY didn’t want to get a job, and my family still liked to eat! I changed my mindset, and put thoughts into action. The rest is history. What changed? Not my knowledge! My way of thinking changed.

Facing the end of my Navy career was the catalyst that got me started. If you haven’t started, there IS a catalyst in your life, you only need to find it and capitalize on it. Are you satisfied in your job? Want more time with family? Want more disposable income? Want to build your retirement savings? This list could get long!

This course is aimed at helping you capitalize on your action catalyst by developing your real estate investor mindset.

For those that are already investing, this course will serve to fine-tune your mindset to make you more profitable. The VERY SAME mindset ideas that make people launch successful real estate investment careers are the ones that keep investors successful over their real estate investing careers, be it 2 years or 20.

Let’s get started!

———————-
Bruce W. Ford is the editor of Rehab-Real-Estate.com. Get this free course at Rehab Real Estate Central. It is due for limited release in late November 2005.

The Probability of Succeeding on the Euro Lotto and Does Anybody Stand a Real Chance

April 18th, 2009

The prospects of scooping up the Euro Lottery jack-pot is a distant one in seventy-six million but the chances of winning a cash prize is a fairly decent one in twenty four. If the jackpot is not won in a given lottery draw, it is carried over to the next week that will result in an ever increasing jackpot value. New rules added on the 9/02/07 specify the number of consecutive roll-overs to eleven, with the jackpot rolling down to lower value levels succeeding the eleventh draw if the prize is not collected.

The Euro Millions lottery or the Euro Lottery, as it is ordinarily acknowledged, gathers the ticket receipts of the nine partaking European countries showing a mammoth Euro Lotto jackpot. With the sum of countries joining the Euro on the increase, that will without a doubt lead to new countries partaking in the European lottery. A growth in the number of people partaking in the Euromillions Lottery will lead to a continuing growth of the already whopping EuroMillions jackpots.

The recent rules also initiated Euro Lotto Super Draw which happen twice each year and offer jack-pots in the region of 100 million pounds. The difference with Super-Draws is that the jackpot must be collected during the week of the draw; as a result, if there is no lotto ticket matching, all the numbers drawn and top prize will be distributed to the lottery ticket bearer(s) on the succeeding winning prize tier.

Each and every participant has to select 5 main numbers from 1 to 50 and 2 Lucky Star numbers from one to nine. During the lottery draw, five main and two lucky-star numbers are then chosen at random from two lotto draw machines containing numbered balls.

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