Monthly Archives: September 2009

Author : John Goldman

New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs, Community of Women manages several grants and contracts providing technical assistance to designate country-based Sexual Violence Programs in 21 counties in the State as well as gives support to the Sexual Assault Prevention Education Programs and the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Program aims to provide assistance to the grantees for implementing services for the victims and reducing their risks Department provides funds to the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, SCREAM Theater at Rutgers University and 21 county Sexual Violence Programs which give counseling services to the individuals and groups and help rape survivors through their medical examination, and law and court proceedings

These county Sexual Violence Programs also provide prevention and educational activities in their schools and communities The Office on Women’s Policy & Research, Support, Employment, Education & Training unit (OWPRSET) motivates and supports the decision making policies based on research, creates and produces oral and written testimonies at legislative hearings and formulates new legislations and other policies in conjunction with organizations and other government agencies

Department’s concern also addresses other issues like domestic violence, dating, sexual harassment and assault, and stalking etc They provide all the three -prevention, care and shelter services to the victim women

The prevention services involve educational training to professional workers who are providing services to the victims and they also involve public education for the community at large level In this program, grants are given to the community programs for giving services to the victims

The Advisory Council on Domestic Violence also disseminates programs with aims to review laws, carry on the need based research programs and formulate policy issues by giving recommendations for education and training to the community on giving aid and relief to the victimized women

Department also provides funds to the hotline operated by Women space Inc, giving all over state 24 hours services, seven days a week for victims of domestic violence and others seeking information about the same

Grants are also given for improvement or providing supplement to the direct services to the victims of domestic violence Funds thus allotted may also be used for other related programs like maintaining or if need be providing new physical structure and shelter

The grants and these programs are no doubt very important as the violence against women is increasing in various forms

If you look at the police records and statistics figures, you will yourself find in New Jersey alone that women are getting succumbed to numerous violence every day including rape, sexual assault and even trafficking It has been found that New Jersey has been a major destination state for trafficking of women and children

Looking at the depth and the seriousness of the program and the way commercial sex establishments are eating the very fabric of the democratic and vibrant social economy that makes America, it is high time more programs and more grants should be initiated at the Federal level

More grants mean more programs and more enthusiasm for the organizations and the likeminded people to control these crimes against women

John Goldman is one of the foremost advisors in matters relating to Government Grants and Financial Aid. To learn more about government grants and how to apply for them visit the Government Grant USA website

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Author : john mce

Stress is a medical condition which if often misunderstood and stigmatized but is actually one of the most common health problems in the UK Stress occurs when the amount of pressure you find yourself under surmounts your optimum point and becomes more than you can cope with Be it pressure at work, in your relationships or financially stress can cause serious physical and mental health issues

When facing the threat of repossession the three main pressure points are often tested at the same time You may also feel like the pressure of your financial problems in the face of eviction are causing your usual pressure values to become blocked, for example where your relationships with family members and friends usual allow you to channel your stress these may now also be stress points themselves

Stress can show itself in a number of ways, some common physical symptoms of stress include

- Increased irritability, often irrational

- Increased sensitivity to criticism at home or in the workplace

- Physical signs of tension, such as nail-biting

- Irregularities in your sleep pattern, in particular difficulty getting to sleep at night or out of bed in the morning

- Heightening of bad habits such as poor diet, smoking and drinking alcohol

- Indigestion and sickness

- Loss of concentration

If you think you may be suffering with stress its important to realise that you may have a medical condition An impending repossession may seem like the most important and urgent thing for you to deal with but if any of the above sounds familiar it may be time for you to put your health first

You are not alone

If you’re facing the threat of repossession its easy to feel like you’re taking on the world and its problems alone, but often this is not the case

Think about the people around you who can offer you support Not necessarily financially but emotionally Friends and family are usually the first port of call for this but in many cases an outsider may be better placed to help you work through your problems

If you think you may be suffering with stress professional help is available and your family doctor will be able to advise you Organisations like the Samaritans can also provide emotional support if you feel you have nowhere else to turn to talk It seems cliche but sharing your problems is often the first and best way to deal with stress

Dealing with the problem at hand

If you are worried about facing eviction it may be the only thing on your mind Despite this it’s a typical reaction to stressful situations to not face up to your problems, instead ignoring the tasks which could bring you closer to a positive resolution such as seeking professional advice for your financial problems

The important thing to remember when facing repossession is that you are not the first person to face these problems In the current economic climate plenty of other homeowners are going through the same thing as you and help is available

Start by making an action list of things you need to find out or do Picking up the phone is often the first and biggest step but by getting some advice you may immediately relieve some of your stress as you stop worrying and start acting

Speak to a repossession expert for free professional repossession advice and bankruptcy information. Freephone 0800 634 9676 or visit.

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Author : Monte Lee-Wen

Let s Get Real

We both know it is easy to find Commercial Properties with Problems with Issues or Challenges or Upside or Value Add

Whatever language you use these are deals with Hair on em The current owner is in a world of hurt and that s why they are selling

Now if you can fix those problems there might just be an extra dollop of profit to be made

Problem is this

The Broker takes that Pig of a Property puts a bunch of Lipstick on it and tries to tell you it s a real Beauty Queen deserving of a special place in your portfolio

The Lipstick is the Broker s Proforma

Your job is to wipe that Lipstick off and buy that property for what it is actually worth hair and all

The Challenge is buying the property at a price that acknowledges the current problems

The Offering Documents only give you the Broker s Proforma This is a projection of the property s operation under the most Ideal of Circumstances This is the Lipstick you don t want to kiss

Usually they project the income IF this property had a new coat of paint, was sitting on a different street and was rented up to market occupancy and at market rates

That is not what is happening at the Property

That is not why this Property is for sale

And that is why the asking price is not what the Property is worth

Let s get real

Wipe the Lipstick off this Piggie

Your job during screening is to figure out what is really going on with the property so you can buy it for what it is actually worth As Is

You need to know the Net Operating Income (NOI) and to get that you need the Actual Income and Expense figures

Throw the Broker s Proforma out the window and ask them for the following documentation on actual numbers from the property under the Seller s management

Profit and Loss statements for Year to Date and last year sometimes simply known as Financials

Current Rent Roll

Current list of needed capital improvements

Why the owner is selling

What they owe on the property

You might not get all that ask for it anyway

Here s what you will learn

The Financials

Will show you actual Income and Expenses broken down by the month

You can track the Net Operating Income month by month for trends is it going up or going down

You can track any unusual expenses and ask questions to the Seller

You can see unpaid rent and concession losses

The Rent Roll

Will show you exactly how many units are occupied and exactly what they pay in rent

You can compute your own Vacancy and Loss to Lease numbers

When you compare your Actual numbers with the Broker s Proforma you can see just how much Lipstick they used

ALWAYS make offers on your analysis of the actual numbers from the property

What if the Broker won t give them to you?

They really aren t much interested in selling if they expect you to make an offer based on their Lipstick version of the deal

Try this

I am a serious buyer of Commercial Property and, as you would expect, I make offers based on my own analysis of the numbers

I don t buy on Proforma and neither would you

When you send me the Financials and a Rent Roll I can get started crunching the numbers and that is the only way I can tell you whether or not I am interested

Remember

A Pig with Lipstick may look mighty cute AND it s still a Pig

Happy Hunting

Learn Insider Secrets of Commercial Property Investment from Monte Lee-Wen who has personally purchased over $150M in Commercial Real Estate. VISIT HIS WEBSITE NOW http://www.investortours.com for Instant Access to the 14 page FREE Report ’35 Reasons You Should Invest in Commercial Real Estate

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Author : Andrew Stratton

After years of soaring price appreciation, the U S real estate scene has finally cooled off, making it a buyers’ market again If you are looking to buy a house, you have great advantage over home sellers because there are plenty of new and existing homes available, with each seller competing with the others for your offer Prices in many areas of the country are lower than they have been in years and interest rates are still low based on historical standards Yet even with all this on your side, it is possible to slip up Here is what you need to know to make the most of this buyers’ market:

Get a Great Real Estate Agent

A real estate agent can be an invaluable resource in helping you find and buy the perfect house at this time Agents work on your behalf to locate potential homes for you While you can certainly use the newspaper and the internet to search for homes for sale, agents specialize in learning exactly what is out there at any one time and can do the searching for you You just let your real estate agent know your criteria and she will provide you with a list of possibilities and will set up walk-throughs so you can take a look at the promising listings Once you find the house you want, the agent can do all the bidding for you and walk you through the buying process And best of all, a real estate agent is paid a commission out of the profits of the sale, so you don’t end up paying for the services out of pocket

Don’t Wait If You Find the Right House

There is a lot of hesitation in a buyers’ market because buyers often get scared that prices will keep going down and they will miss out on better deals, or that they will experience negative equity While those scenarios could happen, the truth is that it is impossible to predict whether the market will keep falling and there is even a chance that prices might start to rise before you find the “right” deal The best plan is to aggressively search for a home and only buy one that you can truly afford, no matter what the market does Most home prices will appreciate over the long run, so in the end a little negative equity at the beginning will not hurt you if you start out in a sensible, affordable home loan

Use Your Negotiation Power

In a buyers’ market, sellers are very eager and sometimes even desperate to sell their houses This gives you enormous bargaining power to negotiate for a really good price This is especially effective if you have done your homework and know how similar real estate in the area is priced You can let the seller know that you have found lower prices elsewhere and ask if they will match them In most cases, there is plenty of wiggle room when it comes to the selling price

Look for Real Savings, Not Gimmicks

In hard times, sellers will try to offer incentives to get buyers to close the deal New home sellers will often advertise free big screen televisions, cruises, and even new cars to those who buy their homes Yet keep in mind that you are not in the market for these things; you are trying to buy a house Instead of taking the “door prizes,” ask the seller to take the value of those incentives off the price of the home Or if that is not an option, make sure the bonuses are things like free upgrades or landscaping These types of incentives actually add value to the real estate and make it a better purchase for you

If you’re looking for a great real estate investments during this buyer’s market, consult the Hendersonville, NC real estate professionals at Preferred Real Estate Center. To contact them, log on to http://www.preferredrealestatecenter.com .

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Author : Judson Voss

Most real estate investors get started in the business with a maverick mentality of, “I am just going to go out there and get things done ” I am with them on that The number one common characteristic I see among successful real estate entrepreneurs is the need to get out there and take action on a daily basis The perfectionist must be sidelined for the time being to do as one of my bosses used to say, “Do something, I don’t care if it is right, do something ”

That being said there is another side to this business of buying, selling and renting real estate Yes it is less sexy side, entity creation and asset protection Real estate investors need to realize they are not only getting out there and doing it but they are also creating and building a business Most investors don’t realize that this is a real business with real tax implications and real asset liabilities

When I started investing in real estate I did the right thing and created my entities from the beginning I put thought into the process and created an LLC and an S-Corp I filled all of the right paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office Unlike many real estate investors I even followed up and kept my entities in good standing with all of the right filings and all of the correct meeting minutes

About a year later after the process of trying to find the right accountant I found one He quickly informed me during our review that I had chosen the wrong entity for the wrong activities and we needed to change everything around Man, I messed up That was my first lesson in entities, it is ok to create your own and file them but let a qualified professional do the strategic part

Your entity choice it turns out effects more than just your asset protection but also your accounting and tax liability By improperly choosing your entities you could be forfeiting a lot in tax savings each and every year

Asset protection is not all about the entities In a recent conversation I had with John Hyre, accountant, attorney and real estate investors, he made a great point The best asset protection is to be nice to people Even if you need to evict a tenant be polite and business like If you have tenants now treat them fairly and kindly As he explained, people are much less likely to sue someone they like even if they did something wrong But if you are a jerk you will have a target on your back even if you are in the right

The moral of the story is create your entities the right way the first time and you will save yourself money Then live by the golden rule and you will save yourself some headaches

Judson Voss hosts a weekly real estate investing show. This article was
inspired by a recent conversation he had with John Hyre, CPA. You can
get more information and listen in at
http://www.getrealrei.com/taxhelp

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Author : Jim Pretin

Ideally, investors try to buy a stock when the price has reached a support level (a level at which the price is as low as it will go) and sell the stock when it hits a resistance level (a level at which the price is as high as it will go) This is easier said than done Most investors end up missing out on a continual rise by waiting for a stock to plummet first, or sell way to early by underestimating how high the price will go In this article, we will focus on the two most popular strategies that you can use to invest without having to worry about market timing

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is an investing technique intended to reduce exposure to risk associated with making a single large purchase According to this technique, shares of stock are purchased in a specific amount on a specified periodic basis (often monthly), regardless of current performance The theory is that this will lead to greater returns overall, since smaller numbers of shares will be bought when the cost is high, while larger number of shares will be bought while the cost is low

An example of DCA would be as follows: If I want to buy 1,200 shares of IBM stock using DCA, then I might decide to purchase 400 shares of IBM per month over the course of the next three months Hypothetically, during month one, the price of IBM may be $105 per share, and then it might drop to $95 per share during month two, and then rise to $100 during month three If I bought all 1,200 shares during month one, I would have cost me $105 per share But, by spreading the purchase over a three month period, I managed to buy IBM at an average price of $100 per share

The primary drawback of using DCA is that you may not be maximizing your overall return If there is an indication that a certain stock is currently undervalued and might shoot up in price, you would actually make less money using DCA than if you had bought all the shares in the beginning before the price skyrocketed So, it is not always a winning strategy to spread your purchases over a period of time

Value averaging, also known as dollar value averaging (DVA), is a technique of adding to an investment portfolio to provide greater return than similar methods such as dollar cost averaging and random investment With the method, investors contribute to their portfolios in such a way that the portfolio balance increases by a set amount, regardless of market fluctuations As a result, in periods of market declines, the investor contributes more money, while in periods of market climbs, the investor contributes less

Here is an example of DVA: I want to invest in Yahoo using DVA For the sake of argument, we will say that Yahoo is currently $10 per share I determine that the value of the amount I am going to invest over the course of 1 year will rise, on average, $1,000 each quarter as I make additional investments If I use DVA, I invest $1,000 to start

If, at the end of the first quarter, the share price has risen to $15 per share, that means that the value of my investment is now $1,500, which means I will only have to invest $500 at the start of the second quarter in order to bring the total amount of my investment for the first and second quarter to $2,000 So, I am investing less as the stock price increases

Dollar value averaging usually works better than cost averaging because value averaging results in less money being invested as the stock price goes up, whereas with cost averaging you continue to invest the same number of dollars regardless of the share price But, neither of these strategies are necessarily full-proof Make sure you know something about the company you are going to invest in before you go forward

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

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