Negotiating the purchase price of a home

Buying a new home is a huge investment. For many people, it is the biggest investment they will ever make. Negotiating the purchase price of a home is not something that many people have experience with. It can be very stressful to try to make sure that the best price for a home is reached.

Before beginning the negotiating process it is important that the buyer has all the facts. Several pieces of information are not only important but necessary before you begin negotiating. Most important of all is the average price of homes selling in this neighborhood.

Prices in one part of town may be very different from prices in another part of town. Some neighborhoods are very popular and others, not so much. The market conditions will also determine where to start the negotiating process. In each market, it is important to know who has the advantage, the buyer of the seller. 

Conditions are different from one community to another and while prices may be falling in some markets, they are holding steady and even rising in others. How long is it taking the average home to sell in the neighborhood where you are looking to purchase a home? Are homes selling quickly, above asking price or are there a lot of homes for sale?

If a Realtor is handling the sale, they will be able to provide comparable sales prices for houses in the area. If there is no Realtor, then it falls to you to do the research yourself. The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) can be very helpful as can realtor.com

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Keep in mind that things have changed drastically in the real estate market and having a realtor will be a big advantage in negotiating the price of the house.

Many variables need to be considered when comparing prices; it isn’t just about square footage. Be sure to consider the age of the homes, the lot size and if there have been updates done. Things such as updated kitchens and bathroom can significantly affect the sales price of a house.

Is one house on a busy street, near the airport, abutting open land that may be developed? Be sure that the homes you are comparing are in the same neighborhood, it is often about location, location, location.

Once the comparable sales prices have been looked at, it is time to settle on a price that the house you want to purchase is worth in today's market. Having determined the home's real worth it is now time to determine a starting point for the negotiation. Keep in mind how much you want to spend as well.

Start lower than where you think you should end. Unless there are other buyers making offers at the same time as you, don't start at the asking price. If you want any concessions, keep that in mind when considering where to start the negotiations. Insulting the seller with an offer that is too low will not result in a positive experience.

Knowing what is non-negotiable is important. If you have no money for the closing costs, then you can ask that the seller contributes either the full or partial costs. A successful negotiation will go back and forth a few times until a figure is reached that both the seller and the buyer are happy with. Not all negotiations go well. Some sellers have not accepted the fact that their home is not worth what it was 4 years ago.

Sometimes it just isn’t going to be possible to reach an agreement. One great tip is to never become emotionally invested in a home until the negotiations are complete. It gives you a stronger position to have the attitude there will always be another house out there.

Negotiating the purchase of a house can be a nerve-wracking proposition. If you do your homework and know your real estate market, you stand a better chance to have a success result.

Cheaply restocking your child's wardrobe

Anyone who has children knows how fast they grow and how tough they can be on their clothes. It seems like you need to restock their closet every other month. This can put a real dent in your budget; and if you are like many people today, your budget just can’t take that kind of a hit. Here are some tips to help you to be able to afford to keep your children in clothes without sending your budget into shock.

Swap clothes

Most people have friends who also have children. If yours don’t quite fit with your children, consider making it an annual event at your children’s school or at your church. This is something that can not only benefit you, it can benefit lots of other parents. You can all bring in your children’s clothes that are in good condition and go away with some other clothes that will fit them better. This can end up being a seasonal event and is a great way to make new friends and get to know other parents.

Consignment shops

Get together all the clothes that you have that are still in great shape and bring them to the local consignment shop. After you leave yours, you can look through the other items that are being offered. Chances are you will find lots of new additions for your child’s closet. This is a great way to find an almost new winter coat or even a dress suit. Play clothes are less likely to be here because they are used the most and often are not in good enough condition to be sold at a consignment shop.

Thrift stores

Thrift stores like the Salvation Army and Goodwill offer used clothing at very inexpensive prices. This is the perfect place to get all the play clothes you will need to fill your child’s closet. They have regular sales and even certain days when you can get an entire bag filled with clothes for a set price.

Off-season

Some items can be purchased off-season. It is a great way to buy the things you will need in six months and maybe even in a year. Stores such as Kohl’s have discount racks where they sell things for as much as 80 percent off. You have to be diligent and check the racks regularly to get the best buys.

If you have a membership to warehouse stores like BJ’s or Sam’s, they often have good buys on clothes that are great for your kids. Another option is to check the off-price retailers such as Marshalls or Stein Mart.

It may seem as if you are always buying new clothes for your child or children. In fact, you are, since they all grow like a weed. These are just a few suggestions to help you to restock your child’s closet in the most cost efficient way.

Birthday Party Ideas Your Daughter Will Love

Every little girl is a little different than every other little girl and every one of them has their favorite movie, book, show, song or toy. When it comes to a theme for their birthday party, any of these things can be the perfect one.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice, whether you use the classic book or the movie, is a fun theme for a girl’s birthday party. If you want to make your own invitations, you can make cards with Alice on the front. There are free websites that have clip art that you can use to create the perfect Alice in Wonderland invitation. A tea party would be the perfect party for little girls.

Almost everything you need for the perfect tea party is available on this website, they even have a Cheshire cat cake mold. For the menu, tiny sandwiches, little chocolate chip scones, and even mini cupcakes and muffins. Think tiny bites. Instead of tea, chocolate milk or a fruit punch. You can have a Queen of Hearts crown for the birthday girl or the Mad Hatters hat. There are so many ways that you can use the Alice theme to create a birthday party your little girl will love.

Tea Party   

If Alice in Wonderland is not something that would suit her fancy, the idea of a tea party is still a very popular theme with little girls. Go all out and get lots of teacups and saucers, tablecloths, and fancy hats. If you can find white gloves these are perfect too for the tea party theme. Decorate with fresh flowers. Make little kabobs of fresh fruit to accompany the tiny sandwiches and a cupcake tree. 

Ask all the little girls to come in their Sunday best and then provide them with a chapeau so that they will be ready for their formal tea, white gloves are optional. If you like to do a craft at your birthday parties, provide the girls with everything they will need to make a flower to put on their special party hat, include lots of glitter after all this is a formal affair.

Get Their Nails Polished

For a tween girl, a pedicure/manicure party will be a big hit. You can take the girls to a shop for pedicures and manicures, be sure to check with the shop, there are some that have special birthday party packages. You can then bring the young ladies home for a make your own pizza party and a gift bag with their favorite color of polish included. 

Be sure to include the information about the manicure or pedicure on the information just in case there are parents who might object. With tweens, an ice cream cake might be a good choice, made with their favorite flavors of ice cream or cupcakes and a make your own sundae bar. Tweens are always a little harder to please.

Planning a birthday party for the girl in your life should be fun for everyone involved. You want her to think this was the best party ever, and if all the girls think that too, well that is even better

Study reveals successful aging in women includes alcohol

Normally when researchers come out with new information about women's health and more specifically menopause, the news is not good. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health have released the results of a study that has shown that have one drink a day can improve a woman’s health overall as they age.

How exciting is that? Yes,  you heard correctly, you can have one martini a day or a glass of wine as you age into your 50s and 60s and you will be healthier at age 70 than those who abstain from alcohol or those who indulge in more than one drink per day. If you enjoy your chardonnay you can now say with confidence, a glass of chardonnay a day keeps the doctor away or if you prefer, a Sam Adams.

The study was conducted in conjunction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The results were published in PLoS Medicine a peer-reviewed medical journal. Entitled "Alcohol Consumption at Midlife and Successful Aging in Women: A Prospective Cohort Analysis in the Nurses Health Study”, the study is based on data provided by 121,700 female nurses who enrolled in the United States Nurses Health study which has been going on since 1976.

The study concentrated on women who were not heavy drinkers and who lived to be over 70. This involved 13, 984 participants. The results seem to indicate that in this group, women who had any single alcoholic drink every day during middle age had better health in general than women who drank nothing or who had more than two drinks at one time.

The researchers, QI Sun, Mary K. Townsend, Olivia I. Okereke, Eric B. Rimm, Frank B. Hu Meir J. Stampfer and Francine Grodstein, used the term “successful aging” to describe the positive condition of the participants. Successful aging was considered as being free of 11 major chronic diseases and having no major cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or mental health limitations.

The nurses were given a validated food frequency questionnaire. Of the nurses who participated and lived to at least 70, 98.1 percent were deemed to have not been heavy drinkers in middle age and these were the questionnaires that were considered for the study. Factors such as smoking were also taken into consideration.

One other aspect of the drinking that was taken into account, the amount and frequency of the drinking. Did the participants indulge in one drink a day or did they indulge in a week’s worth of drinks in just one or two occasions? Spreading it out over the entire week was deemed to be the preferred method.

The conclusion was that if you drink one drink a day for from five to seven days a week you will receive more benefit than if you don’t drink at all or have more than one drink at a time one to four days a week. Women who drank between 3-15 drinks a week had a 28 percent better chance of aging successfully.

Women who have one drink a day for at least 5 days a week have almost double the chance of being healthy at 70 over women who drink nothing at all. Having a glass of wine with dinner or beer with lunch really can help you to be healthier after 70. So raise a glass of the alcoholic beverage of our choice and toast successful aging for yourself and all the other woman in their 50s and 60s that you know.

Preventing laundry pilling

Laundry is something that everyone has to deal with. If you want to have fresh, clean clothes to wear and you can’t afford to use dry cleaning for every item, then you need to know how to deal with the clothes that you own. You must treat stains, separate your clothes by color and handle clothes in a manner that will help limit the amount of pilling that occurs in the laundry.

Pilling is unattractive and it reduces the value of your clothing. Laundering plays a very important part in the maintenance of your clothing. While pilling doesn’t affect the life and use of clothing, it does make them less likely to be worn. If you don’t like the way a piece of clothing looks, you aren’t going to wear it.

Everyone has seen those unsightly little balls that seem to appear almost mysteriously on the sides, under the arms of sweaters and on the inside of pants where the thighs meet. Most pilling is caused by friction. That is why it shows up where the material rubs. It is often the result of loose weaving in less expensive fabrics but if you think you’re really expensive clothing is not going to pill, you are wrong.

Some fabrics, denim, in particular, are quite resistant to pilling but luxury fabrics such as cashmere are very apt to pill.

Now that you know what pilling is and how it is caused, what can you do to stop it from being aggravated by the way you are laundering your clothes? The first thing that you can do, with no additional cost to yourself, is to turn your clothes inside out before washing. Before you do that, you can look for stains that need to be pretreated.

One thing that can help is a mesh lingerie bag. If you can afford it, you can buy several and wash all of your clothes that are prone to pilling in a mesh bag. The less your clothes rub against other clothes, the less likely they are to develop additional pilling. Another thing that you can do is to wash smaller loads. You may even want to wash items that are especially vulnerable to pilling alone in the machine on a delicate cycle.

If you have some expensive pieces which are already showing that pilling is going to be an issue, you may want to just hand wash them alone and dry them flat on a drying rack or wrapped in a towel. This is much more work and obviously, you could spend a great deal of time doing hand laundry if you have a large amount of your wardrobe that is prone to pilling. It is a good idea, before you purchase items, to look at them and see that they are tightly woven and less likely to pill.

Once you have pilling, you can remove it by hand by cutting off the little balls or by purchasing one of the “shavers” that were created to do this job. Again, it is a time-consuming endeavor and with pilling, the old adage “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is particularly apropos. Avoiding fabrics that pill and being careful to prevent it from happening are the best way to go.