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Time Limit Bidding – The next generation of homes for sale online

The residential real estate industry has taken quite a hit over the past few years from the recession since 2007. Much of the recession has come at the hands of corporate or even "Wall Street" not providing more transparency to "Main Street" in the real estate transaction. As homes were bought and sold, many home buyers did not quite understand the underlying home values, mortgage industry or complexity of the real estate transaction. For years to come the average home buyer will be very cautious entering into new real estate transactions and the increased demand for transparency and credibility with homes for sale will emerge.

What has changed in the market? Real Estate Owned properties (or Bank Owned Properties / Listings) in the recession have allowed more bidding to take place. The Real Estate Owned (or REO) properties provide a larger discount to home buyers as they were previous foreclosures. Given that the bank needs to sell the home at a discount, it offers a better opportunity to home buyers and / or investors. REO properties for sale have become very popular and will help transcend the paradigm of online home buying from an "offer" world to a "bidding" world. In a few years, all residential home buying will be open to this process and "Main Street" will be more comfortable with the new paradigm.

Online, the business models of buying and selling homes have not changed much over the years of the Internet. With web 2.0, the home buyer clearly has been provided more data but the businesses models still have remained very ad-based – delivering leads to real estate agents. Websites like Zillow and Trulia still just generate leads for real estate agents and produce other ad products or services. A new paradigm will soon emerge online where online bidding and time limit bidding becomes more of the norm. Time Limit bidding puts more trust back into the home buying transaction as it creates visibility to all parties as to bids on a residential home listing or 'for sale' property. Unlike our current system where a home buyer merely submits an offer to a real estate agent, it is up to the agent to work with the Seller. The Seller can view offers 'behind closed doors' and decide on its 'highest and best'. However, with Time Limit Bidding online, the home buyer can view all the bids of all interested parties in a home – whether it's an owner occupier bid or an investor bid. In addition, many REO web sites are beginning to provide more credible data to home buyers to place bids – whether it is the original loan amount, property details, scoring, etc.

With the recession, REO properties offer such a discount to market prices that the new bidding paradigm can emerge. Bank owned properties need to be sold quickly and have more attractive prices than the traditional residential real estate market. The Today, there are On emerging web sites like GoHoming where time limit are bidding on REO properities is Permitted. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the coming months.

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Source by Evan Kramer

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During the Great Depression, women made up 25% of the work force, but their jobs were more unstable, temporary or seasonal then men, and the unemployment rate was much greater. There was also a decided bias and cultural view that "women did not work" and in fact many who were employed full time often called themselves "homemakers." Neither men in the workforce, the unions, nor any branch of government were ready to accept the reality of working women, and this bias caused females intense hardship during the Great Depression.

The 1930's was particularly hard on single, divorced or widowed women, but it was harder still on women who were not White. Women of color had to overcome both sexual and racial stereotyping. Black women in the North suffered an astounding 42.9% unemployment, while 23.2%. of White women were without work according to the 1937 census. In the South, both Black and White women were equally unemployed at 26%. In contrast, the unemployment rate for Black and White men in the North (38.9% / 18.1%) and South (18% / 16% respectively) were also lower than female counterparts.

The financial situation in Harlem was bleak even before the Great Depression. But afterward, the emerging Black working class in the North was decimated by wholesale layoffs of Black industrial workers. To be Black and a woman alone, made keeping a job or finding another one nearly impossible. The racial work hierarchy replaced Black women in waitressing or domestic work, with White women, now desperate for work, and willing to take steep wage cuts.

Survival Entrepreneurs
At the start of the Depression, while one study found that homeless women were most likely factory and service workers, domestics, garment workers, waitresses and beauticians; another suggested that the beauty industry was a major source of income for Black women. These women, later known as "survivalist entrepreneurs," became self-employed in response to a desperate need to find an independent means of livelihood. "

Replaced by White women in more traditional domestic work as cooks, maids, nurses, and laundresses, even skilled and educated Black women were so hopeless, '' that they actually offered their services at the so-called 'slave markets'-street corners where Negro women congregated to await White housewives who came daily to take their pick and bid wages down '' (Boyd, 2000 citing Drake and Cayton, 1945/1962: 246). Moreover, the home domestic service was very difficult, if not impossible, to coordinate with family responsibilities, as the domestic servant was usually on call '' around the clock '' and was subject to the '' arbitrary power of individual employers. ''

Inn Keepers and Hairdressers
Two occupations were sought out by Black women, in order to address both the need for income (or barter items) and their domestic responsibilities in northern cities during the Great Depression: (1) boarding house and lodging house keeping; and (2) hairdressing and beauty culture.

During the "Great Migration" of 1915-1930, thousands of Blacks from the South, mostly young, single men, streamed into Northern cities, looking for places to stay temporarily while they searched for housing and jobs. Housing these migrants created opportunities for Black working-class women, -now unemployed-to pay their rent.

According to one estimate, '' at least one-third '' of Black families in the urban North had lodgers or boarders during the Great Migration (Thomas, 1992: 93, citing Henri, 1976). The need was so great, multiple boarders were housed, leading one survey of northern Black families to report that '' seventy-five percent of the Negro homes have so many lodgers that they are really hotels. ''

Women were usually at the center of these webs of family and community networks within the Black community:

"They '' undertook the greatest part of the burden '' of helping the newcomers find interim housing. Women played '' connective and leadership roles '' in northern Black communities, not only because it was considered traditional" woman's work, "but also because taking in boarders and lodgers helped Black women combine housework with an informal, income-producing activity (Grossman, 1989: 133). in addition, boarding and lodging house keeping was often combined with other types of self-employment. Some of the Black women who kept boarders and lodgers also earned money by making artificial flowers and lamp shades at home. " (Boyd, 2000)

In addition from 1890 to 1940, '' barbers and hairdressers '' were the largest segments of the Black business population, together comprising about one third of this population in 1940 (Boyd, 2000 citing Oak, 1949: 48).

"Blacks tended to gravitate into these occupations because" White barbers, hairdressers, and beauticians were unwilling or unable to style the hair of Blacks or to provide the hair preparations and cosmetics used by them. Thus, Black barbers, hairdressers, and beauticians had a '' protected consumer market '' based on Whites' desires for social distance from Blacks and on the special demands of Black consumers. Accordingly, these Black entrepreneurs were sheltered from outside competitors and could monopolize the trades of beauty culture and hairdressing within their own communities.

Black women who were seeking jobs believed that one's appearance was a crucial factor in finding employment. Black self-help organizations in northern cities, such as the Urban League and the National Council of Negro Women, stressed the importance of good grooming to the newly arrived Black women from the South, advising them to have neat hair and clean nails when searching for work. Above all, the women were told avoid wearing '' head rags '' and '' dust caps '' in public (Boyd, 2000 citing Drake and Cayton, 1945/1962: 247, 301; Grossman, 1989: 150-151).

These warnings were particularly relevant to those who were looking for secretarial or white-collar jobs, for Black women needed straight hair and light skin to have any chance of obtaining such positions. Despite the hard times, beauty parlors and barber shops were the most numerous and viable Black-owned enterprises in Black communities (eg, Boyd, 2000 citing Drake and Cayton, 1945/1962: 450-451).

Black women entrepreneurs in the urban North also opened stores and restaurants, with modest savings '' as a means of securing a living '' (Boyd, 2000 citing Frazier, 1949: 405). Called '' depression businesses, '' these marginal enterprises were often classified as proprietorships, even though they tended to operate out of '' houses, basements, and old buildings '' (Boyd, 2000 citing Drake and Cayton, 1945/1962: 454 ).

"Food stores and eating and drinking places were the most common of these businesses, because, if they failed, their owners could still live off their stocks."

"Protestant Whites Only"
These businesses were a necessity for Black women, as the preference for hiring Whites climbed steeply during the Depression. In the Philadelphia Public Employment Office in 1932 & 1933, 68% of job orders for women specified "Whites Only." In New York City, Black women were forced to go to separate unemployment offices in Harlem to seek work. Black churches and church-related institutions, a traditional source of help to the Black community, were overwhelmed by the demand, during the 1930's. Municipal shelters, required to "accept everyone," still reported that Catholics and African American women were "particularly hard to place."

No one knows the numbers of Black women left homeless in the early thirty's, but it was no doubt substantial, and invisible to the mostly white investigators. Instead, the media chose to focus on, and publicize the plight of White, homeless, middle-class "white collar" workers, as, by 1931 and 1932, unemployment spread to this middle-class. White-collar and college-educated women, usually accustomed "to regular employment and stable domicile," became the "New Poor." We do not know the homeless rates for these women, beyond an educated guess, but of all the homeless in urban centers, 10% were suggested to be women. We do know, however, that the demand for "female beds" in shelters climbed from a bit over 3,000 in 1920 to 56,808 by 1932 in one city and in another, from 1929 -1930, demand rose 270%.

"Having an Address is a Luxury Now …"
Even these beds, however, were the last stop on the path towards homelessness and were designed for "habitually destitute" women, and avoided at all cost by those who were homeless for the first time. Some number ended up in shelters, but even more were not registered with any agency. Resources were few. Emergency home relief was restricted to families with dependent children until 1934. "Having an address is a luxury just now" an unemployed college woman told a social worker in 1932.

These newly destitute urban women were the shocked and dazed who drifted from one unemployment office to the next, resting in Grand Central or Pennsylvania station, and who rode the subway all night (the "five cent room"), or slept in the park, and who ate in penny kitchens. Slow to seek assistance, and fearful and ashamed to ask for charity, these women were often on the verge of starvation before they sought help. They were, according to one report, often the "saddest and most difficult to help." These women "starved slowly in furnished rooms. They sold their furniture, their clothes, and then their bodies."

The Emancipated Woman and Gender Myths
If cultural myths were that women "did not work," then those that did were invisible. Their political voice was mute. Gender role demanded that women remain "someone's poor relation," who returned back to the rural homestead during times of trouble, to help out around the home, and were given shelter. These idyllic nurturing, pre-industrial mythical family homes were large enough to accommodate everyone. The new reality was much bleaker. Urban apartments, no bigger than two or three rooms, required "maiden aunts" or "single cousins" to "shift for themselves." What remained of the family was often a strained, overburdened, over-crowded household that often contained severe domestic troubles of its own.

In addition, few, other than African Americans, were with the rural roots to return to. And this assumed that a woman once emancipated and tasting past success would remain "malleable." The female role was an out-of-date myth, but was nonetheless a potent one. The "new woman" of the roaring twenties was now left without a social face during the Great Depression. Without a home – the quintessential element of womanhood – she was, paradoxically, ignored and invisible.

"… Neighborliness has been Stretched Beyond Human Endurance."
In reality, more than half of these employed women had never married, while others were divorced, deserted, separated or claimed to be widowed. We do not know how many were lesbian women. Some had dependent parents and siblings who relied on them for support. Fewer had children who were living with extended family. Women's wages were historically low for most female professions, and allowed little capacity for substantial "emergency" savings, but most of these women were financially independent. In Milwaukee, for example, 60% of those seeking help had been self-supporting in 1929. In New York, this figure was 85%. Their available work was often the most volatile and at risk. Some had been unemployed for months, while others for a year or more. With savings and insurance gone, they had tapped out their informal social networks. One social worker, in late 1931, testified to a Senate committee that "neighborliness has been stretched not only beyond its capacity but beyond human endurance."

Older women were often discriminated against because of their age, and their long history of living outside of traditional family systems. When work was available, it often specified, as did one job in Philadelphia, a demand for "white stenographers and clerks, under (age) 25."

The Invisible Woman
The Great Depression's effect on women, then, as it is now, was invisible to the eye. The tangible evidence of breadlines, Hoovervilles, and men selling apples on street corners, did not contain images of urban women. Unemployment, hunger and homelessness was considered a "man's problem" and the distress and despair was measured in that way. In photographic images, and news reports, destitute urban women were overlooked or not apparent. It was considered unseemly to be a homeless woman, and they were often hidden from public view, ushered in through back door entrances, and fed in private.

Partly, the problem lay in expectations. While homelessness in men had swelled periodically during periods of economic crisis, since the depression of the 1890's onward, large numbers of homeless women "on their own" were a new phenomenon. Public officials were unprepared: Without children, they were, early on, excluded from emergency shelters. One building with a capacity of 155 beds and six cribs, lodged over 56,000 "beds" during the third year of the depression. Still, these figures do not take account the number of women turned away, because they were not White or Protestant.

As the Great Depression wore on, wanting only a way to make money, these women were excluded from "New Deal" work programs set up to help the unemployed. Men were seen as "breadwinners," holding greater claim to economic resources. While outreach and charitable agencies finally did emerge, they were often inadequate to meet the demand.

Whereas black women had particular hard times participating in the mainstream economy during the Great Depression, they did have some opportunity to find alternative employment within their own communities, because of unique migration patterns that had occurred during that period. White women, in contrast, had a keyhole opportunity, if they were young and of considerable skills, although their skin color alone offered them greater access to whatever traditional employment was still available.

The rejection of traditional female roles, and the desire for emancipation, however, put these women at profound risk once the economy collapsed. In any case, single women, with both black and white skin, fared worse and were invisible sufferers.

As we enter the Second Great Depression, who will be the new "invisible homeless" and will women, as a group, fare better this time?

References:

Abelson, E. (2003, Spring2003). Women Who Have No Men to Work for Them: Gender and Homelessness in the Great Depression, 1930-1934. Feminist Studies, 29 (1), 104. Retrieved January 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Boyd, R. (2000, December). Race, Labor Market Disadvantage, and Survivalist Entrepreneurship: Black Women in the Urban North During the Great Depression. Sociological Forum, 15 (4), 647-670. Retrieved January 2, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

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Source by Kathy A. McMahon

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Black Cadillac is a 2003 thriller film distributed by MTI Home Video, First Look International, and Artist View Entertainment. It stars Randy Quaid as Charlie Harmon, Shane Johnson as Scott, Josh Hammond as CJ, and Jason Dohring as Robbie. The writers are John Murlowski and Mark Aldis. The director is John Murlowski.

Three boys, Scott, CJ, and Robbie, stop at a Wisconsin roadhouse on their way back to Minnesota. They get into a fight and leave the bar. Not long after, a black car, a Cadillac, begins to follow and stalk them. Some time later, they pick up Deputy Sheriff Charlie Harmon, whose car had died on him. He believes the black Caddy wants a drag race and challenges the driver of the boys' car, Scott. Afterward Scott, believing Charlie to be the reason the car is after them, kicks him out of the car. The deputy is apparently gunned down. But the car continues to pursue the boys and seemingly becomes more hostile. The boys begin to fear for their lives.

Black Cadillac is loosely based on a true story. But the word "loosely" should be emphasized here. Director John Murlowski experienced an event similar to this. Typically when it is stated that a movie is based on a true story, that story is usually of some historical significance and not just an ordeal one of the directors witnessed. For example, slasher icon Freddy Krueger was based on a bully from Wes Craven's school. In that sense, could not one say that A Nightmare On Elm Street was vaguely based on something real? All fictional works, whether it be films or books, are based somewhat on truth. Using that logic, could not just about every story be considered "based on a true story"?

The previous paragraph notwithstanding, Black Cadillac is still a great film. A black Cadillac stalks three young men through the back roads of rural Wisconsin. Having the story take place in the heart of a midwestern winter just added to the suspense. As many natives of the midwest do, I dread having car trouble in the middle of nowhere on a winter's night. It's cold, the roads are icy and snowy, and it's hard to see in the darkness. It is generally a very unpleasant experience. These boys had some extra heat (no pun intended) put on them by the black Caddy that was stalking them. Because of the constant advances of the hostile car, they were forced to put a lot of pressure on their car's engine, increasing the chances of having trouble later on and, obviously, they can not outrun the Cadillac on foot.

To wrap, Black Cadillac is a constant thrill ride from beginning to end. It will keep viewers on the edges of their seats!

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Source by Kevin Dillehay

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As an Architect, in designing new homes for clients, they first come to me with standard tastes you would see on any house in any neighborhood. What I try to do is to expand their architectural vocabulary and be bold in what they're trying to do, without spending a lot more money. Part of that is to make their house look bigger from the street and live bigger inside. You can get a lot of "wow" factor if you try some simple things in your home design.

1. Make your house longer, not square. Most people want to make their houses more square in design, in the preconceived notion of saving costs. While this may be overall true, it also makes your house very small looking (and boring). For a 2500 square foot house instead of designing it 50 foot by 50 foot, make your house longer like 75 foot long by 33 wide. You'd be surprised how much more elegant and more expensive it looks for not that much more money. It also gives you a bonus of giving windows into almost every room in your home, giving light and visual space to them.

2. Use the Split level home concept. The split level home was more prevalent in the 1960's than it is today, but it has a lot of advantages if you modernize it. The Split Level pulls the basement out of the ground. In most of the northern part of the country (I'm from Indiana), you need at least a 30 "or deeper footing to get below the local frost line. Well, let that be the staring point of your basement (or as I like to call it, the Lower Level). That means the Lower Level is 2 feet below grade, which means you can have full size windows. The Lower Level foundation wall is 30 "tall, the rest of the wall height can be wood instead of concrete (whether 8 'or 9' tall) which saves costs. If you use 8 'tall lower level (to reduce costs) there is a design I like to use to eliminate bulkheads for HVAC; … incorporate the ducts in a floor truss system. I love to use 16 '' high floor trusses, 24 "on center, and keeping the trusses in the same orientation throughout the house. It gives plenty of space for the HVAC ducts in the floor truss system, and no bulkheads, meaning less cost since you have flat ceilings and no extra framing for those bulkheads. If you need space for the HVAC to "step over" each other, do that in the mechanical room.

3. With the split level home, The 2nd Floor (or the "Main Level" as I like to call it) it anywhere from 7 to 9 feet above grade, not only giving it a commanding view of the property all around, it also looks like a 2 story building, for a 1 story price. You can leave windows open at night because the window sills are 10 feet above grade. You have a lot of visual privacy because people on the street do not have a direct view into the house. When you sit down they can not see you, even if you have lots of windows. On the Main Level I love to use vaulted roof trusses on the Main Level to give more visual height in the rooms.

4. Use wide overhangs. Wide overhangs were more prevalent during the Prairie Style period This may seem strange, but wide overhangs (like 4 'wide) make you house look bigger both inside and outside. As I stated above, I love vaulted roof trusses. I start with an 8 'tall wall (rather than 9'). With a 4 foot overhang and vaulted roof trusses, the wall height on the inside is now 10 '(8' wall, 2 'in the roof truss), with the ceiling peak at 15'. This is because the roof started "going up" further away from the exterior wall. I'm getting 10 to 15 foot ceilings for an 8 foot tall wall price. The wide overhangs also help in summer, by shielding the windows in shade, keeping direct sunlight outside.

5. Incorporate decks and screen porches into the design. Do not make decks and screen porches an afterthought, but incorporate them into the design, that is, put brick or siding on them, put a roof over them, and make the openings look like windows, but do not put in the glass . And consider putting them on the front of the house, not the rear. I designed a house for my parents which was 1300 square feet on the Main Level, but added the screen porch on the front of the house. The house was 72 feet long in the front (24 'screen porch, 16' Great Room, 8 'Entry, 24' Garage) and it looks huge. (If you want to see it, go to my Web Site (Web address down below), Home Page, near the middle of the page, "Click Here for More House Photos", and it's the 1st photo. The screen porch is to the left) The Screen Porch interior is finished in moisture resistant drywall, so interior feels like any other room in the house, (it also has vaulted ceilings) but it's not heated or cooled. It is the most lived in space of the home. Having the screen porch or deck on the front of the home gives you more community with your neighbors, while it can give you more privacy. On my home, the deck has a solid wall from grade to 42 "above the deck floor. This gives visual privacy when sitting down, but when I stand up, I can converse with then neighbors (42" is also leaning height for your elbows ). As a bonus, with the split level home, the space below the deck (since it has siding and the floor 7 'above grade) and the roof above the deck, I have an 18 wide 28 foot long shed below the deck for lawn mowers , bikes, tools, which I do not have to keep in the garage.

6. Downplay the garage. There's nothing visually pleasing about a garage. The most important rooms of the home (Great Room, Dining Room, maybe the Screen Porch) should have the most visual presence on your home. Having a monster 24 foot by 36 foot garage sticking out the front of you house is not good looking. Set it back from the front of the home, and if you can, put toward the rear of the house. Use a side entry on the garage doors if you can. And put lots of normal windows like the rest of the house. Try to make it look like any other room from the street. By down playing the garage and making look like another room on your home, it'll make your house seem bigger when it really is not. If you're one of the homeowners who eventually turn their garage into living space, having the garage look like a normal room from the outside makes it easy for this conversions. Just remove the garage doors and install window sizes like the rest of your home.

7. Use lots of repetitive windows. By using the same window size over and over in a long pattern, it'll make the house seem longer. And these do not need to be operable windows. Fixed windows are less expensive the operable windows.

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Source by Brian Keith Young

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Peter Lovenheim lives in an affluent Rochester, New York suburb. In February 2000, a murder-suicide involving a physician couple occurred in a house on his street. Two children ran from the house after 10 pm shouting that their father had killed their mother. No one in the neighborhood knew the family well, which had lived there for seven years. Lovenheim was bewildered how a street of 36 homes lacked a sense of community. He desired to know the people whose houses he passed each day, beyond their professions or number of children. He wanted to know the depth of their experience and their essence. Lovenheim knew from childhood sleepovers and summer house exchanges that waking in their beds, fixing meals in their kitchen and walking their neighborhoods provided insight conversation alone could not do. His mission would require a sleepover. Some residents declined; and yet, many said yes. In The Neighborhood: The Search For Community on An American Street One Sleepover At A Time, is Lovenheim's near-decade experience to embrace his neighborhood.

Eighty-one-year-old Lou was the first resident to honor Lovenheim's request to sleep overnight. Lou, a retired surgeon, lost Edie, his wife of 52 years, five years ago and misses her dearly. They raised six children who now live throughout the US Lou welcomes Lovenheim's company, as his schnauzer, Heidi is his only companion. Lovenheim accompanies Lou to the local Y where he exercises. There, his regular workout buddies laud Lou's arrival. He appreciates their acclaim, reminding him of his popularity during his surgeon days. Yet, when he returns home to an empty house, as Lou says, "My life is zero."

Forty-something Patti, lives just doors down from Lou and they're unconnected. Patti, a radiologist, diagnosed her own aggressive form of breast cancer. She abandoned medicine to undergo chemotherapy. Lovenheim befriends Patti, a divorced mother of two pre-teen daughters. She too accepts his sleepover request. Lovenheim witnesses her health decline over time and helps whenever he can.

Grace, nearly 90, had walked Lovenheim's neighborhood almost everyday for forty years without acknowledgment. She lived in a nearby town but chose to exercise among the Rochester suburb's beautiful surroundings. Residents named her "The Walker" from afar. Lovenheim approached Grace during one of her strolls and explained his book project. She invited him to her apartment where he learned her fascinating background. She once lived in New York City and was an accomplished pianist and harpist. Once while walking, she fell. She crawled across the street back to her car and drove herself to the emergency room. Lovenheim questions if a place where an elderly woman falls and is unattended to can fairly be called a "neighborhood."

Married couple, Deb 32, and Doug, 42 represent the younger faces of Lovenheim's street. Lovenheim spends the night and senses a more self-sufficient couple. Both are on the fast track in corporate America, childless, and trying to conceive. They're active members of the local country club. Deb tells Lovenheim she once needed vanilla for cookies and made Dave drive in a snowstorm to buy some. Ideally, he thought, she should have been able to borrow some from him as her neighbor.

Lovenheim rides with Brian, the newspaper deliveryman at 4:00 am to experience his street from a different perspective. He also walks along Postman Ralph's delivery truck (Postal regulations prevent vehicle passengers) as he does his daily route. Ralph chronicles helping residents, including recognizing the signs of stroke in a customer and calling for help. Lovenheim believes Ralph knows more about his neighbors than they do: "I began to realize that in some ways he was a better neighbor to us than we were to each other."

Lovenheim validates his neighboring efforts by introducing Patti to Lou. Lou welcomes the opportunity to drive Patti to her doctor's appointments; making him feel needed. Lovenheim borrows sidewalk salt from Deb; and she agrees to take Patti's daughter to the skating rink as her health deteriorates. When Lovenheim's romantic interest ends, he turns to Lou for comfort. They share breakfast almost daily for two weeks as Lovenheim readjusts. "That it would end up being me who would find shelter at a neighbor's house is something that never occurred to me when I started my journey, yet there it was," says Lovenheim.

Lovenheim deserves credit for taking on such an assertive project. He displayed immense patience as he befriended his neighbors for some time before requesting to sleepover. He faced rejections too by those weary of his intentions.

In an age of social media where we're quick to boast 50,000+ Twitter "followers," reading Lovenheim's narrative poses the question: Do we in fact know our next door neighbor?

Thought-provoking For questions about neighborhoods, view with In The Neighborhood Reading , Berkshire's Guide: Http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/in_the_neighborhood.html .

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Source by Timothy Zaun

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Bernard Hopkins just took a portion of the light heavyweight belt from Antonio Tarver in a one-sided beating in Atlantic City. Hopkins proves again that he is one of the better fighters in boxing history.
On the same night, Miguel Cotto defeated Paul Malignaggi to keep his share of the belt in the junior welterweight division in a rugged bout at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Question. How many people know these bouts took place? How many people watched this live? Overall, not many.

Boxing is a sport that usually costs quite a bit of dough to see live. Tickets often range from $ 30 or $ 40 to upward of $ 2,500. Thus, most people are pushed out and see it on television.

To make matters worse, most "non-pay" television networks like ABC or CBS have basically stopped showing boxing. Cable channels like ESPN, HBO or Showtime have stepped in and have become the big boxing providers of the day. HBO in particular is legendary in the boxing community. The network has shown and still shows the biggest fights year after year. This has helped the sport as HBO is the biggest pay network. However, nothing is like "free" television.

Unfortunately, another creature has stepped into this. It is known as "Pay-Per-View."

Of course, "Pay-Per-View" was a concept that would promote the best of everything. That was how it started out. People would lay down their hard-earned dollars for "premium" events. As usual, time is always on the side of the vultures and the quality of these events is today anywhere from mediocre to disastrous. The Hopkins-Tarver fight was $ 50. The Cotto-Malinaggi fight $ 40 was. Too much.

Worse, various promoters have labeled people as "suckers" for buying events that did not work out too well. Guys like promoters Bob Arum and Don King just shrug when people complain they've gotten taken.

PPV events are very clever in that they build-up the main event and put less and less into the undercard which for any true boxing fan is a big deal. Therefore, less money is paid to the undercard fighters and more goes into the promoter's pockets. Fans? Yes, you get screwed again. The undercard will often have washed-up fighters or a sideshow like "Butterbean" who is (was) "King of the Four-Rounders." Female fights will sometimes be thrown into the PPV madness due to the fact female fighters, with rare exception, make less money than their male counterparts. In some cases, a title fight will be between guys from a very low weight-class since they are paid less. Such fighters could "head-butt" you in the street and you would have no idea who they are.

Obviously money is being made. But at what cost? Less and less people are being exposed to boxing because of PPV. Basically, the hard-core fan is shelling out more and more. And only the few are making dollars off of this concept. Tons of fighters are not even known because many of the big fights are going to PPV. Again, no exposure from CBS, ABC or FOX. Anyway, how many boxers get to fight on PPV? Not many.

HBO is now heavily involved in the PPV concept. Basically, they show the main event from the PPV telecast on their channel the following week, but no undercard. So, it seems a lot of people just wait the following week to see the event.

Boxing was once among the elite of all sports. Now it is without question a "niche" sport. Bad promotions, limited access to major networks, high-costs and now, Pay-Per-View, is limiting its exposure to the masses of people. Too bad because on a good night it can compete against any other sport in the world in terms of build-up, excitement, drama and ferocity. Hopefully, PPV will slowly get back to their original intentions-great main events with a solid undercard at a reasonable cost. $ 50? See ya.

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Source by Robert Carberry

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When you think of shopping, do you associate high street shopping or internet shopping as your preferred medium? There are of course, advantages and disadvantages to both but which one is better overall? This may be dependent on your personal preference or which is the most convenient for purchasing goods at a given time. This can also be determined by availability. Some goods may only be obtainable either online or from a physical shop.

Twenty four hour convenience

In today's hectic twenty-four hour society when everything is driven by convenience and time the internet can be an invaluable source when used properly. When many people seem to have a distinct lack of time, the internet is often used for the purchase of goods. It can also provide a valuable first port of call if a consumer is seeking information but looking to actually buy a product in-store or at a physical place instead of online. A good example of this is buying a car. Often information is searched for regarding potential purchases online but then the actual point of sale comes from a dealership. This is also true of buying property. Information can often be gleaned from an estate agency or property website beforehand but the actual purchase is made on the high street. The internet can also be good if you are time restricted. If you know exactly what you are looking for, need something quickly but do not have the time to go to the high street during your normal working week, you can order something online and it can arrive the next day.

The internet can save time

It can definitely be beneficial to do some of your shopping online. For example, you can save at least an hour per week if you select your grocery shopping online and have it delivered to your property. The only downside to this is the fee incurred for the delivery every week. Purchasing items such as books and CDs online can also save time. In many cases items such as these can also be cheaper to purchase online than on the high street. The internet can also be a fantastic resource for the research and the purchase of non-everyday products such as sex toys, birthday or Christmas presents and jewellery. Online banking can also be a far more convenient way of transferring money from one account to another then going into a high street bank or building society.

The advantage of the high street

If you have the time to have a good browse, the high street can be a better option. If you buy clothing from the high street, trying the items on in a changing room prior to purchasing ensures that the garments are the correct fit. If you are purchasing clothing online, unless you have the exact same item in your possession, you can not guarantee that it will fit. If you buy the item online from a reputable online retailer and it does not fit you can of course send it back and in most cases exchange or refund it. If however you want to surprise a loved one with some sexy lingerie, as long as you know what size they take, then either option should work just as well. Whatever you want or need to purchase as a consumer, the high street offers the advantage of allowing you to view the actual product whether it be a book, a CD, shoes or clothing etc. The high street is also highly convenient if you want to quickly buy a sandwich and / or a drink from a cafe or a newsagent and take it away with you. It also acts as a browsing ground. For example, you may wish to purchase a new electrical item such as a television and have seen it at a cheaper price online but want to see it in the flesh beforehand. As mentioned earlier, the same can also be said for the internet.

Overall there are advantages and disadvantages to buying goods online or from the high street. If you are time restricted for whatever reason, the internet can be more convenient. However, if you have time to browse and want to see the goods before you buy them, the high street can have the upper hand. Essentially it is dependent on personal preference as to what works the best for the individual.

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Source by Amy Shepherd

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As we analyze Willa Cather's short story, "Paul's Case," we must recall that it is more than twice as long as Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and more than three times as long as Joyce's "Clay." Thus, as we would expect, the length of the story provides many opportunities for richness of detail and some looseness involving the use of the strong old view value statement and the new view reversal at the end of the story. When you write your essay on the story, take that into account.

The good news – despite all that rich detail, the clarity of the core new view in Paul's Case still finds a way to make this long, rich-in-detail story understandable.

Step # 1: At the beginning of a short story, a strong value statement, an old view, is given by or about the main character.

As the story begins, Paul is in a meeting with his school principal and several of his teachers, being interviewed to see whether he should be allowed off his suspension and back into school- When questioned by the Principal as to why he was there Paul stated , politely enough, that he wanted to come back to school. This was a lie, but Paul was quite accustomed to lying; found it, indeed, indispensable for overcoming friction.

Paul did not really want to come back to school because he did not like or respect anyone there. The principal and teachers, who were not fond of the idea, either, formed a ring of tormentors about Paul as they interviewed him, peppering him with hostile questions.

Their negative evaluation and attitude toward Paul is expressed by the narrator in a strong value statement:

His teachers … [stated] their respective charges … with such a rancor and aggrievedness … this was not a usual case ….

A strong, memorable, and vivid symbol is also mentioned- His teachers felt this afternoon that his whole attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippantly red carnation flower.

After Paul left the meeting, having been accepted back into school by the principal, a teacher made ​​a second strong value statement about Paul: I do not really believe that smile of his comes altogether from insolence; there's something sort of haunted about it . There is something wrong about the fellow.

To this point, we have several strong value statements about Paul, as seen through the eyes of his teachers and the principal. We have been told that,

• Paul was quite accustomed to lying & needed it to overcome friction.
• Paul's was not a usual case.
• Paul has a sort of hysterically defiant, contemptuous manner.
• Paul's whole attitude was symbolized by his shrug and his flippant, red carnation flower.
• There is something wrong about Paul.

And so now we have acquired two solid parts of the old view strong value statement:

… Not a usual case … something wrong about the fellow.

The final part of the old view strong value statement does not occur until the middle section of the story. (Talk about looseness in utilizing the old view-new view relationship!)

When Paul was kicked out of school, his father put him to work as a clerk at a company called Denny and Carson's. His father also closed Paul's access to Carnegie Hall and the theater troupe. The members of the theater troupe were vastly amused when they found out about Paul's many creative stories involving them, and their evaluation fulfills the final portion of the old view strong value statement: They agreed with the faculty and with his father that Paul's was a bad case.

We can now see all the parts of the strong value statement:

• This was not a usual case.
• There is something wrong about Paul.
• Paul's was a bad case.

And since that ties in nicely with the title of the story, on the matter of the old view I rest my – errr, Paul's – case.

Step # 2: In the middle of a short story, the old view is supported or undercut with descriptions, conflicts, and resolutions that set up the new view at the end.

DESCRIPTION: One description plays a major role in supporting the old view. Paul lived on Cordelia street, and, after late-night concerts, Paul never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing. He approached it with the nerveless sense of defeat, the hopeless feeling of sinking back forever into ugliness and commonness that he had always had when he came home. He experienced all the physical depression which follows a debauch; the loathing of respectable beds, of common food, of a house penetrated by kitchen odors.

The description and the name of the street are not coincidental. Cordelia is the name of the rejected daughter in Shakespeare's play, "King Lear." It is plain that Paul feels rejected by his father, as Cordelia was by hers. And Paul, in turn, rejects the poverty of his home, the plainness of his life, and the dullness of his life at school, preferring the exotic, unreal life of art, music, and theater to the harsh realities of his real life.

CONFLICT: From various incidents, we find conflict supporting the old view as Paul grapples with his father's wrath and rejection by constantly lying to him about why he is late coming home, where he has been, or where he is going. For instance, one Sunday he can not stand his ugly home, so he tells his father he's going to a friend's house to study.

RESOLUTION: But he goes instead to hang out with his friend, Charley Edwards, the leading juvenile of the permanent stock company which played at one of the downtown theaters. So Paul resolved his conflicts by lying, going outside reality and associating with people who live the unreal, exotic life of art, music, and theater: Matters went steadily worse with Paul at school. In the itch to let his instructors know how heartily he despised them and their homilies, and how thoroughly he was appreciated elsewhere, he mentioned once or twice that he had no time to fool with theorems; adding-with a twitch of the eyebrows and a touch of that nervous bravado which so perplexed them-that he was helping the people down at the stock company; they were old friends of his.

CONFLICT: Paul was kicked out of school , and his father put him to work as a clerk at a company called Denny and Carson's. His father also closed Paul's access to Carnegie Hall and the theater troupe. Paul hated and internally resisted the situation.

RESOLUTION: With his real life of fantasy closed to him, Paul resolves his conflict by lying (as usual, outside of reality) about a deposit he was supposed to make for his employer, stealing about three thousand dollars. And he went to New York to live the life of the gloriously rich. In those days, three thousand dollars went a long ways.

Step # 3. At the end of a short story, a new view reversal of the old view is usually revealed.

At the end of the story, Paul has gone to New York where he is surrounded by many people, sort of a ring of admirers who give him respect, the reverse of the ring of tormentors at the story's beginning, even though the respect at the end is based on his false, stolen wealth. And Paul plays his new role by showing his own respect toward everyone in New York at the end, quite the reverse from how he had been flippantly treating others at the beginning of the story.

The title, "Paul's Case, " and the use of not a usual case and a bad case in the beginning and the middle all refer to something never specifically verbalized within the story. But the meaning is shown very clearly – Paul has problems with growing up, with school, with home, with identity, with finding himself, and with belonging.

Actually, it is not unusual for a young man to have such problems growing up. In Paul's case, however, it was not a usual case – it was more than that, it was a bad case. But the ending reveals that Paul's case was a lot worse than merely bad – it was deadly, it was fatal, since it ended with Paul's suicide. So we see that the ending of the story emphasizes a drastic expansion of the old view to a new view that is adding, not only reversing, showing that Paul's case was far more serious and far more dangerous or bad than anyone had realized or imagined.

On the other hand, at the beginning of the story Paul was daydreaming his fantasies about the theater, whereas at the end of the story he was actually living the privileged life of the respected wealthy – even if only for a short time – not merely fantasizing it. That reversal is what counted most – at least, from Paul's point of view.

Whether you choose in your essay to emphasize the new view reversal of Paul's situation or the reversal for his teachers, his father, and others at the very end, our analysis of the new view core does provide the lens through which we can clearly see through all the details to the new view reversal and expansion at the end.

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Source by William Drew Jr

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There are plenty of successful investors out there, but many work so hard that it's hardly worth the money-because they're never freed up to enjoy the fruits of their labor! It's far more worth it to find an investment strategy that would allow you to make considerably more money and create more time to be able to reinvest, spend that money, travel, enjoy time with family, or have fun with that "Bucket List".

Owning a parking lot or parking garage is a great investment because they can offer you two things: free time and exponential amounts of income. Finding these gems is the hard part because most existing "cash cow" lots are sold before they are even listed. And most are purchased by other parking lot owners-they know what they have, and they want more. If you can find these potential parking lots and garages before anyone else, you can find these extremely rewarding profits too.

Think ahead

Most parking lot locations were never designed to be just that. Parking lots are built out of necessity, plain and simple. Someone would never build a parking lot and then proceed to build something that draws people who need to park; never is! It sounds simple, but you need to be ahead of the building curve and search for land before it holds great value. You can do this by recalling where you would need to park a car. Think for a second: Where do people really need to park? Let's brainstorm: shopping malls, schools, sporting events, entertainment districts, government centers … the list goes on.

Now let's look at these ideas: malls will provide parking for customers because they want shoppers (so scratch that); schools do the same, but there always seems to be no parking at some schools (possibility here). Every time I see a concert, I end up paying to park; keeper. Last time I got a traffic ticket, it took me 30 minutes to find a parking place at the courthouse to fight that traffic ticket. Ding, ding, ding-got a good one here. Where have you needed to park? Where have you paid to park? I used the same thought process and search techniques you just practiced to purchase a one acre plot of seemingly worthless land across from a new 380 million dollar courthouse that was yet to be built. The property owner had the land for 30+ years and did nothing with it, including not reading any local newspaper that clearly highlighted the new courthouse: funding was approved, a date for the ground breaking ceremony had been set, and the severe lack of parking was already projected in the overly-crowded area!

Harness the power of Google

Seems so simple, right? After all, who has not Googled something? Google, the most popular search engine in the world, is a robust mechanism for quickly finding what you need on the web. Unfortunately, a standard Google search of "parking lot for sale" will currently return around 14.6 million results that are all but worthless to you. Words like "sale" and "parking lot" come up in a million different searches and you will never find a parking lot by trying to wade through 100 pages of mediocre results. So, put Google to work for you by mastering Google's phrase search and terms you want to exclude. Searching for [ "parking lot for sale" – "parking lot sale"] will only search the exact phrase, "parking lot for sale", and will exclude the pesky "parking lot sale", which we have no desire to attend. Instead of the 14.6 million search results, you now have a more digestible 262 results. Search techniques like this will allow you to quickly and effectively drill down to exactly what you are looking for (even locations) without ever signing up for a commercial listing service, or contacting a time-wasting broker. Finding commercial listings may be the easiest research to conduct, but it will give you the weakest results because some of these properties are listed by a broker – which is what you want to avoid at all costs.

Automate your search

Once you have brainstormed ideas where you and others pay to park, you can once again put Google to work for you by using Google Alerts. Enter your key words with the correct phrasing and exclusions, and set up when you would like to receive the information. You can even place location keywords to search only those geographic areas where you are most interested. Entering "new courthouse proposed in X County" will alert you to any new information with those keywords. Alerts will also email you your desired results as often as you like. I have found outstanding deals waiting for me in my inbox on many occasions, all automated from Google alerts.

"Visit" the area

Once you have found your million dollar idea by searching areas where you would pay to park (eg, land across the street from a university that is doubling their campus buildings and parking is already scarce), you can visit the area from the comforts of your own home using Google Maps (Are you seeing a theme here?). This will show you all you need to know about the area. For example, using Google maps, I was able to visit a potential lot 1,500 miles away. I wanted to look at it because it fit my parameters (ie, I knew it desperately needed parking from news articles and upcoming construction that I researched with the tips above). I knew a piece of land was vacant from a quick Google Maps search and clicking on the view satellite tab, but I did not know what it really looked like-as it would if I were there. Using Google Maps Street View, I was able to see that indeed the lot was empty, and the surrounding lots were packed full of cars, in-you guessed it-paid parking lots!

Find the land owner

You found your dream spot, and you are ready to buy it and retire early. Hold up, because finding and contacting the land owner can be exhausting. If you have access to anyone in the title insurance or escrow industry, they will be more than happy to run an address and find the owner on record for you (obviously hoping for the account when you pursue a purchase). If not, you can simply search the county assessor's website for the county where the property is located. Most are automated and you can search by address, map search, or parcel numbers.

Contact the land owner

It may seem old fashioned, but once you find the contact information of the property owner, contact the owner with a hand-addressed letter dropped in the mail. Do not attempt to call, email or meet the owner; simply write a letter. If you are only looking at a few potential parking lots, you can hand write them; if you are looking at many, a printed letter will work as long as you sign it. A simple one line statement that you are interested in buying the property from them, you are not a real estate agent, and you will not waste their time seems to get the best response. Marketing research studies all agree a hand-addressed letter will be opened (and read) 10 to 1 over a computer-printed label.

At this point, you will hopefully have an anxious owner contact you and offer to sell his seemingly useless land. Land that you know from your research is going to be in high demand in the coming months or year. Crafting the deal is the topic of a different article, but now you know where to find and how to research potential parking lots and garages before anyone else. Armed with this valuable information, you will be able to reap the profits that a well-placed lot can bring. Good Luck!

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Source by Lance N Miller

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If you are like almost every Real Estate Agent I know, you are looking for all the additional income you can get. If that's the case, take it from me, it can happen with BPOs.

What's a BPO and why are they important to know about? BPO stands for Broker Price Opinion and that is exactly what they are; an opinion about the actual market value of a property. A financial institution may require a BPO for one of several reasons ranging from verifying info for homeowner's insurance to foreclosure.

The process of completing a BPO is very similar to a competitive market analysis of a home you are listing or buying. Most BPO Companies will require you to submit at least two and sometimes three similar comps. Therefore, you must have access to a local MLS in order to get that information. You will provide square footage, age, condition, neighborhood information, etc.

There are two types of BPOs; one is a drive by the other a full interior evaluation and comp.

The drive by is much quicker, requiring clear pictures of usually the front, side and street view of the home. The interior evaluation also requires these photos and more. You will take pictures of each room of the house, including the garage. You will take pictures of any damaged areas or areas needing repair. Walk around the home and get photos of the back yard, foundation, etc. You can always eliminate pictures when you get back home, but it will be very expensive to go back and take a picture you wished you had taken.

Your camera equipment must be capable of taking clear pictures in low light; often the power will be off at the property location. Your best bet is to use an auxiliary flash attachment. If you camera does not have a hot shoe flash attachment, perhaps a slave flash will work as well. Also shoot at least 5 mega pixel or more, you will likely need to crop your image to show repair or damaged areas and you can retain detail better with a high-resolution picture.

An important tip to remember when taking photos is to make sure no people are in the picture, especially a picture of someone that can be recognized. Another tip, NEVER take pictures of children. Not only will the BPO Company likely refuse them, you may cause concern within the neighborhood.
When you receive a BPO and * before * you accept it, check the property location on a map. If you can not find the address on a map, in my opinion, forget about it. You will spend much more time locating the property and you only are paid for producing BPOs and not for locating property.

Always be aware for your personal safety. Often you will be in parts of town that may not be a safe as others. If in doubt, call the Police to check vacant property before you go inside if you feel at all uneasy.

Also recommended is a data phone with email and internet access, I use a BlackBerry and highly recommend that you consider one. Many BPO Companies will broadcast a request to several agents in your area; the first one to respond gets it. If you only have email access at your office, you will often be too late in responding.

If you have at least two years Real Estate experience, willing to drive a little, and do some research you will likely find BPOs a good source of additional income. Your BPO income will not match a home sale, but if you build up a client list, it just may very well keep the bills paid until a sale comes in.

Important: Dealing in BPOs usually requires a Real Estate License in your state along with at least two years experience.

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Source by John Robertson