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Save $2,500 on home improvement

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, April 29, 2009.

Q: We are planning to have a vapor barrier installed in our crawl space. When the estimator was here, he said he saw what might be mold and recommended that we have a mold inspection, and if necessary, cleanup, done first.

I just had the mold inspector out, and fortunately, he says there was no mold, but he did say we had a lot of efflorescence built up on our piers and that for $2,500 they could come in, clean it up and disinfect the crawl space.  more...

Lost equity puts boomers' future in doubt

By Tom Kelly, Wednesday, April 29, 2009.

Baby boomers -- the largest, healthiest and wealthiest group ever appearing on the U. S. growth landscape -- never met a loan they didn't like. After leveraging appreciation and location in their starter and move-up homes to pay for cars, college tuitions and trips, their home probably holds most of the equity in their lives.

According to a new report by Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), that home is not worth what it used to be. Coupled with the recent turmoil in the stock market, many boomers will be completely reliant on Social Security and Medicare to support them in their retirement years.  more...

Social media: icing on the cake Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, April 29, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melloveschallah/3440131767/" target=blank>melloveschallah</a>.

Marketing our real estate services, marketing any business for that matter, is a lot like a decorating a cake. You can put all the cherries and chocolate sprinkles in the world on top but if the cake itself sucks, no one is going to want any.

Seth Godin wrote back in July 2005: "Please understand that book publishing is an organized hobby, not a business. The return on equity and return on time for authors and for publishers is horrendous. If you're doing it for the money, you're going to be disappointed.  more...