Save Energy And Money With An Electric Blanket

By Birney Summers

Saving money using an electric blanket is easy I just turn the thermostat down a couple more degrees and save by letting the furnace get some sleep too. Using a little energy right where we�ll be all night and avoiding using energy in the rest of the house will result in a net savings.

Yes, there is another factor that I need to mention. When we use an electric blanket, we make sure that it is well insulated. What you say, how do you insulate an electric blanket? That is easy, by hiding it under a quilt.

If the electric blanket has no insulation above it, at least half the heat you pay for goes upward into the room. What a waste. If you really want to stay warm and save money, turn the thermostat down extra low and add an extra blanket in the bed sandwich. But the extra blanket and quilt on top of the electric blanket to keep all the heat in the bed. Add a dog or two and you can turn the blanket off after the preheat job is done and stay warm all night.

You didn�t think you could keep the dogs off the bed after turning the thermostat down all the way did you?

If you do not like cold floors in the morning set your digital thermostat to bring the heat back up an hour before the alarm goes off. Using the digital thermostat to preheat the house is like using the electric blanket to preheat the bed. You get luxury comfort and save money too.

You can save money on your energy bills at home at work by visiting the ENERGY BOOMER blog at http://energyboomer.com

I am a Baby Boom Vintage Energy Engineer with a mission to help folks save money on their energy bills. I am building on my work experience, or rather trying to put it to work for my readers. Trying to save the planet from global climate change or delaying the economic collapse that using peak oil is expected to cause are good motives. But, saving some cash right now is better. I just want to help folks save a buck, both at home and at work. If it helps promote energy independence, I can support that too. When we each shave a little off our energy bills, it is good for the environment and good for our economy. It is nice to have good side effects while keeping cash in your pocket. I graduated from Michigan State University with a Mechanical Engineering degree in 1971 and have had a long career saving energy in a variety of industries.

Why You Must Obey Movie Copyright Laws In The Digital Age

By Richard Cunningham

Many people have pursued the hobby of downloading movies and songs on the Internet and sharing them with their friends and family online. However, this is direct violation of U.S. copyright laws. Not surprisingly, the biggest violators of the movie copyright laws are students. The movie industry is sending out copyright infringement claims to college universities around the country. One reason that college students may be the hardest hit is that they are not aware of how serious a crime copyright infringement is.

Many college students who have lawsuits brought against them are shocked, to say the least. They question why they were not warned about the perils of downloading movies and songs online and passing them along to friends. However, with the rise of claims, no one can claim ignorance for much longer. Word is being spread near and far that if you engage in illegal downloading and/or sharing, then you can be brought to court. College students are learning the hard way that it is against the law and in violation of copyright laws to share or download copyrighted material. Many colleges and universities now state in their handbooks that it is against the law to illegally download movies, music and other forms of media using school computers.

In addition to illegal downloading and sharing movies, the files take up space on the computer systems and use a considerable amount of bandwidth. While most universities and colleges will not look at the content an individual has -- they can isolate and identify the individuals who are hogging up bandwidth by using illegal file sharing.

The movie and music industries have stepped in and are demanding restitution for illegally downloaded movies, music and other forms of copyrighted media. They have detection agencies that have the technology to identify and trace copyright infringements straight to their source. Once the computer is located they can notify the university or the college that they are in violation. The university will be told that they have a copyright infringement claim against them. Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, once the computer is isolated, then Internet access is terminated to that computer and court proceedings can begin.

Does this sound far fetched? Well, it is not. You should know that a few years ago Recording Industry Association of America sued four students. These students attended Princeton, Michigan Technical University and Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. One student had an estimated liability of $150 billion. When you consider that you can be charged $750 per song that you illegally download, the total can add up fast! The good thing is the lawsuits against the college students were settled for amounts less than $20,000. That is not pocket change for college students -- or anyone for that matter!

Movies and music are meant to be enjoyed. However, illegally downloading movies and music is not much different than walking into a video store and sticking DVDs and CDs in your pocket. Be careful. You do not want to be caught violating any movie copyright laws.

Richard Cunningham is a freelance journalist who covers copyright law for www.ResearchCopyright.com. Download his free e-book, "Copyright Basics" at ResearchCopyright.com.

Michigan Non-Compete Basics

By Enrico Schaefer

We live in a highly competitive world where highly paid executives and business persons gain access to corporate trade information and knowledge, customer lists and other proprietary information. Unlike prior times, these executives and other employees are highly mobile, moving between companies and jobs, even between competitors. Michigan courts and the Michigan legislature ave recently tried to deal with the realities of our 21rst century marketplace in dealing with the enforceability of non-compete agreements.

In Michigan, the validity of non-compete agreements is governed by section 4a of the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act, a statute passed by the Legislature in 1987, as well as the many cases interpreting that statute. Together, the statute and the case law set forth the parameters defining those agreements that are enforceable and those that are not. The statute seeks to strike a compromise between the protection of an employer’s competitive business interests and an employee’s right to earn a living. As such, courts interpreting non-compete agreements focus their analysis in four areas:

• The agreement must protect a company’s reasonable competitive business interest. Among the factors in determining whether the agreement protects a reasonable competitive business interest are the employee’s position in the company, compensation paid to that employee and the level and amount of specific competitive information acquired during employment, which may include such areas as trade secrets or special training conferred on the employee.
• The agreement must be reasonable as to the length of time the employee is prohibited from working in the line of business. Again, each case is 'fact sepcific' and numerous factors are analyzed in determine what is a reasonable length fort non-compete contract.
• The agreement must be reasonable as to the geographic area the employer seeks to prevent the employee from working in. While the employee’s immediate area of employment would most likely be upheld as a reasonable territorial restriction, wider restrictions require a greater showing that the agreement seeks to protect the employer’s reasonable competitive business interest.
• The agreement’s restrictions on the type of employment or line of business must be reasonable. Courts will look less favorably on deliberately vague, over-reaching or “blanket” agreements.

Enforcement of Non-Compete Contracts Michigan courts have enforced and will enforce well-drafted agreements on a case-by-case basis, with remedies that include the issuing of restraining orders or injunctions and the awarding of monetary damages. It is important to note that even if one condition of a non-compete agreement is deemed unenforceable, the remainder of the agreement may be valid and enforceable. Businesses of all types, especially those with multi-state operations, must understand that the rules for non-compete agreements vary from state to state. What’s enforceable in Michigan may not be in one of our neighbor states. Moreover, employers should not delay in acting on known breaches of a non-compete agreement. The longer an employer delays between the discovery of unlawful competition and pursuit of a legal remedy, the weaker becomes the employer’s request for injunctive relief.

Like any contract, non-compete agreements define the expectations of each party and are subject to negotiations, depending upon the bargaining strength of the parties. Employers should have legal counsel help draft these agreements to ensure that they meet the employer’s expectations and are enforceable. Employees, on the other hand, should review such agreements carefully to ensure that they understand the restrictions on future employment should they ever leave the company.

Also, be sure to remind those leaving your company of their legal obligations during any exit interview. In this way, employers will strike a favorable, yet serious business tone, while best ensuring that any non-compete agreement can be enforced, should the need arise. I threat letter for any alleged violation is usually the first step to ensure the parties abide by non-compete terms and avoid litigation.

Enrico Schaefer is the founding attorney of Traverse Legal, PLC, a law firm specializing in non-compete, trade secret, confidentiality matters and also in minority shareholder rights litigation. To find out more about non-compete contracts and trade secret law, please visit Trade Secret Law Blog or Traverse Legal'sMichigan Non-Compete Enforecement Blog. For information concerning minority shareholder rights visit Shareholder Rights & Oppression Blog.

Detroit Windsor Border Crossing Study

By Sam Knapp

A study was prepared by Michael H. Belzer, Ph.D., President, Sound Science and and one of the world's most respected economic forecasting firms. This detailed and highly technical economic analysis probes the risk of having only one major border crossing point in the Detroit-Windsor region. This is a region that is economically integrated - particularly in the critical area of automotive production - and yet the region finds itself at a stalemate on the issue of how to add the physical capacity to keep the goods moving and to keep our regional economy growing.

The Detroit-Windsor region has carved a strategic economic niche by growing with and around the vital auto industry. In the next two decades hundreds of dollars added to the overall cost of production for vehicles and components produced in this region will diminish the region�s competitive advantage. These added costs will have substantial effects on the region�s ability to sustain or grow the automotive industry, which is so crucial to the region. Everyone now understands competitive advantage, and that global auto producers must weigh overall production costs very carefully when plants must be closed or new plants must be built. Ensuring adequate border crossing capacity and building the Jobs Tunnel must be our region�s response to this competitive advantage.

By building new border-crossing capacity with the Jobs Tunnel, the future economic costs can be offset or even reversed. First and foremost, the Jobs Tunnel is a unique public-private partnership, which brings US$419 million in new - and largely private - capital to improve border system capacity. With a planned construction time of five years for the Jobs Tunnel, positive impacts will be produced on both sides of the border. In southeast Michigan, the Jobs Tunnel will produce maximum employment of 547 full-time jobs during the peak year of construction and total construction expenditures of US$156.5 million (CN$218.4) would be pumped quickly into the southeast Michigan economy. Total output would average US$47.96 million (CN$66.95 million) annually, while the annual increase in value-added would average US$24.16 million (CN$33.73 million). Similarly, on the Ontario side, maximum employment of 893 full-time jobs would be created during the peak construction period. Total output would average US$80.43 million (CN$112.28 million) annually, while the annual average value-added would be US$40.51 (CN$56.55 million) per year.

The benefits of building the Jobs Tunnel are substantial and striking. The operation of the Jobs Tunnel will add US$10.14 million annually (CN$14.15 million), including labor and goods and services purchased and it will require 190 full-time positions for tunnel operations and Canadian Customs.

Perhaps most critical to those who live and work in the southeast Michigan and southwest
Ontario, the Jobs Tunnel will help this region retain automotive manufacturing jobs. The
capacity provided by the Jobs Tunnel could prevent the additional loss of nearly US$30 billion in transportation equipment industry output. This could save the region between 9,000 and 12,000 good jobs.

The Jobs Tunnel makes such good economic sense that the choice is clear. The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership is a partnership between two major private enterprises, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust (BTIT). The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership is committed to the design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of modern, safe and efficient rail tunnels that improve North American trade flows through the Windsor-Detroit corridor.

CPR is North America�s first transcontinental railway, and is the only transcontinental carrier with direct service to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. BTIT is owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), one of Canada�s largest pension funds serving more than 300,000 active and retired local government employees, and a leading Canadian investor in infrastructure projects.

The Find more information and resources on The Jobs Tunnel at http://www.thejobstunnel.com

Detroit River Tunnel Partnership (DRTP) is poised to build a new, high-capacity rail tunnel under the Detroit River to provide improved freight service between the United States and Canada. The DRTP is an equal partnership between Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Borealis Infrastructure Trust.

Find more information and resources on The Jobs Tunnel at http://www.thejobstunnel.com

Tips For Handling Early Signs of a Foreclosure

By Jeanette Pollock

A foreclosure can be a devastating experience for any homeowner. Foreclosure not only means the homeowner may lose their home, but also brings with it credit damage. When a homeowner starts struggling to make mortgage payments it is an early sign that a foreclosure may be in the future. Homeowners should learn to recognize and handle these early signs of a foreclosure so they can avoid the whole damaging process.

When a foreclosure begins it starts a legal process that is hard to get out of without some financial or credit damage. Fortunately there are early signs that a homeowner may be in danger of a foreclosure. The following list explains some early signs of a foreclosure:

- Problems paying bills on time.

- Behind on basic bills, like mortgage and utilities.

- Using credit to make purchases that should be made with cash.

- Using savings to pay bills.

Once a homeowner sees any of these signs they should immediate begin to handle the problem. If not taken care of these small problems could very well lead to major problems, like foreclosure.

Handling financial problems is becoming more and more important. With credit easily and readily available some people are falling into the credit trap. The credit trap is where a person starts using credit cards as if they were cash and burying themselves in debt. The following tips can help a homeowner who is experiencing early signs of financial trouble.

- Make a budget and stick to it. Writing up all expenses and allotting money to pay bills is the best way to ensure spending is kept under control. Sticking to the budget is the key, though. It is very easy to stray from the budget. That is why it is important to also set up savings as part of a budget for emergency expenses that are not planned for in the budget.

- Track spending. Tracking spending is a great way for a person to figure out spending problems. Tracking spending involves writing down every penny spent. This can help a person to see if they are overspending on certain things.

- Use credit cards only if they can be paid back when due. Credit cards are best used if the person can pay back the amount spent in full each month. The fees and charges associated with credit cards can eat away at a budget and provide an unstable financial future. Credit card spending should be limited to emergencies or large purchases when cash is not immediately available. Many people end up in financial trouble due to abuse of credit cards.

- Talk with lenders to try to renegotiate payment plans. Most creditors understand that situations arise that make it hard for a person to pay their bills. Creditors are not the enemy and will most often do everything possible to help a person that is willing to try and solve a problem before it becomes a crisis.

These tips not only can help clear up financial trouble, but also help a homeowner to avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure is bad for everyone involved. Banks do not like having to take a house back and will work with a homeowner to help them get financial back on track. For someone who is experiencing early warning signs that a foreclosure may be in the future, trying to fix the problems is the best way to avoid a foreclosure.

Jeanette Pollock is a freelance author and website owner of insideforeclosure.com. Visit Jeanette's site to learn more about tips for handling early signs of a foreclosure.

Becoming a Commercial Mortgage Broker

By Jeff Rauth

There are a few main skill sets that are needed in order to become a commercial mortgage broker.

1. You need a strong lender network.
2. Some type of reliable deal flow i.e. marketing program and
3. You have to be able to prescreen deals. Becoming a commercial mortgage broker is no joke and will require a few years of hard work to get established. There's a lot of people out there saying how easy it "really is". The sources touting this, are usually lenders with rates 200 to 300 basis points higher than market and are looking for newbie's to sell their rates to unknowing borrowers.

Strong Lender Network

Having strong relationships with your lenders is key. Although this would seem common sense many people in the business do not practice this, to their determent. You need quick, thorough decisions. Having your files on top of their pile is ideal. If the bank representative doesn't respect you, they'll think you'll will waste their time on deals that have a very low chance of closing or that will end up with a broker that does.

If you're still learning the business and they know it, they'll most likely appreciate a little loyalty from you as they hold your hand and teach you the finer details of the business.

Marketing

Marketing is fundamental. You need to compete on a lot of transactions in order to find fundable deals and ones in which you can have some control over. Obviously there are many marketing methods out there. The traditional method is developing relationships with the local developers, commercial real estate brokers, CPA's, attorneys, bank representatives, etc. This is probably still the best way, though it takes a lot of time and is the hardest method as you may work on a relationship for some time before the referral source even has a chance to "throw you a bone".

Newer methods include mailers, email campaigns, ads in newspapers, etc. Regardless of which route you go you need some type of program to keep that phone ringing.

Screening Deals

The amount of time and effort that goes into most deals is significant. Knowing how to examine and analyze a loan request is critical. You can easily waste 100's of hours on loans that have no chance, 0% chance of closing. It may sound dramatic but it is true. Probably 50% of the loans we screen are not fundable - period.

The reason? Its normally some type of combination of loan to value being too high, credit to low and here's the big one that all of us trip over, the borrower not being able to document enough income on their tax returns. Showing income for most entrepreneurs to the IRS is often like a spy reviling its secrets in an interrogation - they just don't want to do it. And there is definitely an "art" side of putting together tax returns. CPA's have some freedom on how they report income and will often put together tax returns in completely different ways.

Or many brokers drop the wrong deal, simply because the net business profit is negative on the tax returns. Many of these loan are fundable but the broker just doesn't know how to get really "deep" into the tax returns and find the income that is there and is often being sheltered by depreciation, depletion, amortization, or having items reported twice that can be added back to increase the income that can be just for underwriting to service the debt.

Jeff Rauth is President of Commercial Finance Advisors, Inc out of Birmingham, Michigan. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Loans between $100,000 - $5,000,000. Offers unique loan programs such as Commercial Second Mortgages, Commercial 30 Year Fixed, 90% non SBA financing, Commercial Equity Loans. 248 885-8797. In addition they have opened up a commercial broker STORE, offering legal contracts, training books, spreadsheets, etc.commercial loan officer training or how to read tax returns

Land Contract Buyout - Note Buyers Can Offer Immediate Cash For Your Land Contract Note

By Jamie Sherman

Sometimes after a homeowner sells his home, he or she will look for a land contract buyout in the future. Circumstances change and a seller who created a land contract real estate note will often not want to deal with it any longer.

There are many reasons why someone would legitimately want to sell their land contract note.

Some of the more common ones include: not wanting to deal with the paperwork hassles anymore; not wanting to live with the risk of the payor defaulting on the note; needing a lump sum of cash now to fund something, whether it be a business venture, medical emergency, putting a child through college, and so on.

If you have sold property on a land contract and now want a land contract buyout of your note, you'll be pleased to know that there are professional note buyers who will make you an offer if they deem your note potentially profitable.

A land contract is sometimes also referred to as "contract for deed."

Land contracts give the buyer ownership of the property because the buyer receives equitable title. Like a mortgage, payments on a land contract are made in installments, not all at once.

If you are interested in a land contract buyout, therefore, you will in essence be selling the income stream you are deriving from the note.

Certain states are land contract friendly and others aren't. One of the most land contract friendly states is Michigan, where a significant portion of houses sold are via land contract.

How much you can get for your land contract note will depend on numerous factors, and a general answer cannot be given. It will depend on your individual note if you want a land contract buyout. Speaking with a knowledgeable, competent note buyer is the only way to find out how much cash you can receive for your note.

Keep in mind, however, that your entire note need not be sold. You could sell it off wholly, or you could sell a portion of the income stream to raise cash now and retain the rest of the note for future income. In short, there is a great deal of flexibility.

However, because inflation always erodes the purchasing power of the dollar, a note buyer is going to need to buy your note at a discount to make it worth their while. Also, a land contract buyout means that the note buyer will be assuming the risk of the payor of the note defaulting. Because the note buyer takes over that risk, a discount is required for a purchase of your note.

The only question is how much of a discount will be needed to make a sale possible for you.

A professional note buyer should be willing to discuss your note with you over the telephone for a free, no obligation consultation. If anyone attempts to charge you just to discuss the possibility of a land contract buyout for your note, then that is someone you should not do business with.

Jamie has been working in the finance industry for many years and is a contributing editor to http://www.selling-your-note.com. Learn more about a land contract buyout and receive a free, no obligation quote from a professional note buyer on our website.

3 Proven Methods To Stop Foreclosure That Do Not Completely Destroy Your Credit

By Dean Williams

Few, if any, homeowners plan to go into foreclosure. Should you be facing foreclosure then you are probably feeling a great deal of anxiety and confusion regarding your situation. Before you pay anyone claiming to stop your foreclosure thousands of dollars be sure that you have investigated all the possible ways to stop foreclosure and save your home. Foreclosure scams are on the rise and many homeowners (just like you) are desperate for a fast solution and are having their homes stolen from them by con artists. The following passages will tell how you can take charge of your situation, avoid scams and get out of foreclosure now.

Once your lender has filed a Notice of Default (NOD), you are in the process of foreclosure and your options become very limited. You will be given a short amount of time to stop foreclosure by bringing payments current and paying the cost of foreclosure filing. This is commonly referred to as reinstating the loan. Obviously if you had the money, you would be out of foreclosure. If the lender is not willing to work out an agreement with you, then you should consider the following: sign a deed-in-lieu; consider a short sale; or sell your home. At first glance none of these seem like they will keep you in your home, but two of these solutions may actually do just that.

Deed-In-Lieu

Under this solution you sign a notarized deed and hand your home over to the lender. This will stop foreclosure; however, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure will affect your credit the same as a foreclosure. Your lender may also be willing to let you stay in your home until you find a new place to live. You should explain to the lender that if they were to continue with foreclosure you would still retain the right of possession of the home during the proceedings.

Sell Your Home or A Fraction Of It

Depending on the real estate market in your area, you may be able to sell your home and payback the lender. Ask real estate agents their opinion of the value of your home and how fast they think it will sell in your market. Carefully select your real estate agent, because they will greatly determine your ability to sell your home fast. You should probably look to hire the most prominent real estate agent for your neighborhood. Check with a local realtor association chapter to find out who that person is.

If your hardship is temporary, consider selling a fraction of your home to an investor or family member for the amount that will bring you current. This process will require the a real estate attorney, who can inform you and the investor of your rights and how to work out the future sale of the property. Keep in mind that the investor will be free to sell their fraction of the home to anyone anytime they wish. However, the sale of the home will have to be a mutual decision between you and the other party. If you are in a rising home market, this may be an excellent way to keep your home until your hardship passes. To find a eligible investor check with local business owners, doctors, lawyers, and local real estate investment clubs for individuals who have access to lots of cash.

Consider A Short Sale

Also called a pre-foreclosure redeemed, you and a real estate agent negotiate with the lender to sell the house to a buyer for less than what is owed on the mortgage. Many reputable real estate investors will do this for you and are experienced with the entire process. However, you should be cautious and before you sign any documents have a real estate attorney look over them.

Before you proceed with any of the solutions suggested above, you should fully investigate any realtor or investor that you are doing business with. Ask for at least three past clients and call them. You want to make sure you are dealing with someone who can help you and is comfortable dealing with the lender during this process. Have a real estate attorney look over any document before you sign it, and if anyone asks you to sign a "Quit Claim Deed" chances are it is a scam. Never sign over ownership of your home to anyone without having the lender paid in full first. Otherwise, you'll be on the hook for the full amount of your mortgage and you won't even own the house!

The solutions mentioned above are covered in much greater detail in this manual and over 20 other solutions are offered to help you out of foreclosure regardless of home equity, cash, or circumstances. To find out more visit www.foreclosure-help-book.com

Dean Williams is author of "The Foreclosure Solutions Manual", a step-by-step guide that helps distressed homeowners solve their own foreclosure problems without being scammed out of their home or pay individuals thousands of dollars for simple things they can do themselves to stop foreclosure. To learn more about this resource please visit: http://www.foreclosure-help-book.com

Philadelphia's Plan to Suspend Foreclosure Auctions

By Nick Adama

Recently, the local government in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has made the decision to suspend sheriff sales of foreclosed properties. No more foreclosure auctions will be conducted for homeowners who have adjustable rate, subprime mortgages, and the suspension will last all through the month of April. This remarkable measure may provide relief to thousands of homeowners, and is one of the very small victories for individuals in the foreclosure crisis.

From Ohio judges throwing foreclosure lawsuits out of court to this latest suspension of sheriff sales, local governments have been able to act much more forcefully to combat the rising foreclosures than the federal government. Anyway, no one can really tell which companies, hedge funds, investors, or banks own the paperwork and have the legal right to collect on the loan. The marketing of subprime loans was just a scheme to generate as much money as possible in loan origination fees and sell toxic loans to investors. This has been accomplished and now the fallout must be dealt with.

But banks are getting their bailout courtesy of the American public, through generous loans and packages provided by the Federal Reserve. It seems that it is only just for people, through their community leaders, to come up with their own solutions. In fact, maybe the entire foreclosure crisis will reach some sort of perverse equilibrium with the Fed stealing money from the public to bail out the banks, creating massive inflation and taking the banking industry completely away from all government regulation, while homeowners find ways to void out their mortgage contracts completely and suspend the auctioning of their properties and the financial destruction of their communities.

Another question that should be raised is if the banks are suffering any actual damages from the foreclosing mortgages. They are receiving hundreds of billions of dollars from the Federal Reserve, which essentially pays off many of these mortgages. So where is their standing to sue? The people who pay taxes have already paid off the defaulted mortgages through the Fed's granting of US Treasury securities to the banks. If the banks no longer own the mortgages, and have had them paid off nonetheless, it would seem they have little reason to keep going after homeowners to steal properties.

Ending the incessant whining about subprime mortgages going bad and the danger of the survival of the banking industry, though, would mean the banks would not be able to ask for more bailouts. The banks already made a killing on the way up by packaging what they knew were bad loans and selling them to unsuspecting investors, who were fooled by the bond-rating agencies into purchasing what they believed were prime-rated securities. Now that the loans are going bad, the banks' reserves are drying up (on paper), so they need generous loans and free money from the Fed to ensure that they can make more money on the resulting crash of the market.

The people of Philadelphia, by suspending foreclosure auctions, may be on to something important. Hopefully, the suspension will last longer than just one month and the banks will have no choice but to deal with homeowners as negotiating partners, rather than as hosts for their parasitic lending practices. The banks have put themselves into a situation where the only logical reaction for local governments is to realize the invalidity of the mortgage loans. With the decrease in property taxes to local governments, the banks' ability to manipulate local communities into allowing invalid foreclosure lawsuits to go forward may also be evaporating.

The ForeclosureFish website has been created to provide homeowners in danger of losing their houses with foreclosure help and resources they can use while they still have time. The site describes various methods that may be used to save a home, such as bankruptcy to stop foreclosure, mortgage modification, repayment plans, and more. Visit the site to read more articles about how foreclosure works and how the process may be avoided before it is too late: http://www.foreclosurefish.com/

Mortgage Defaults Continue to Climb

By Martin Lukac

Mortgage defaults continue their upward trend across the country.

The Midwest has been hard hit this year, with Michigan and Ohio together recording 45,000 mortgages entering foreclosure for the first quarter of 2006. Michigan had an increase of 91% in defaults when compared to the fourth quarter of 2005. Ohio saw a 39% increase. Both states have been hard hit by automotive industry job losses.

In Illinois, nearly 13,700 properties entered foreclosure, up 32% when compared to last year's fourth quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

On average, the U.S. is experiencing a 38% increase in mortgage defaults. This marks a larger increase than in any quarter of last year, said RealtyTrac statements.

Many of the defaults have been blamed on corporate downsizings and other job losses. In some cases there are health related issues. Americans in general are exhibiting increasing debt levels, making rising interest rates a factor.

Adjustable-rate mortgages are also to blame for many foreclosures. In the past five years, the booming housing industry led to many homebuyers stretching themselves to purchase a home. Now that rates are adjusting upwards, the homeowners are unable to stretch any further to afford the new payment amounts.

"The increases we've been seeing in foreclosures don't even reflect the worst-case scenario that could happen when the $2.7 trillion in adjustable-rate mortgages are reset over the next 18 months," explained Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac.

Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, says that while mortgage defaults and foreclosures are at a high, historically they remain low.

"It's a big jump, but from very, very low numbers on a historic basis," she explained.

Some experts and federal regulators consider loose lending policies as a potential cause of the upward foreclosure trend. Some financial institutions have recently been making mortgages available to those who barely qualify.

"People think they have to losen their restrictions, their guidelines, their policies," said William Gooch, chief executive of Community Bank of Elmhurst in Illinois. He explains that the increase in mortgage brokers has led many banks to consider looser standards to compete.

Foreclosure proceedings usually begin after a borrower misses at least three mortgage payments. The lender files for a judgment through the courts. It usually takes seven months from filing to the auction of the property. During that time, the homeowner can sell the property or catch up on the payments.

In many areas, several people in a movie theatre could be going through foreclosures:

According to first-quarter 2006 reports by RealtyTrac, the following households fall into foreclosure:

1 in 69 households in Indianapolis

1 in 70 households in Atlanta

1 in 99 households in Dallas-Ft. Worth

1 in 101 households in Memphis

1 in 105 households in Denver

Martin Lukac(http://www.MartinLukac.com), represents http://www.RateEmpire.com and http://www.1AmericanFinancial.com, a finance web-company specializing in real estate/mortgage market. We specialize in daily updates, rate predictions, mortgage rates and more. Find low home loan mortgage interest rates from hundreds of mortgage companies!

Facts To Consider Before You File For Bankruptcy

By Dean Shainin

Bankruptcy has spun out of control and has hit a record high. A new bankruptcy law has been passed called "Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act." Americans are concerned with their high debt and are having to deal with this new law.

Most people who are confronted with this tough decision vacillate between �fighting� to �fleeing.� Do you want to struggle to pay the debts? Or do you get relief from the constant pressure and start over.

Well, if you put it that way, it does not look all that bleak. Unfortunately, the situation is often not that simple. And changes to the law effective October 17, 2005 has made the decision even more important.

Whether or not you should file for bankruptcy is a personal decision on your part. The factors are far too numerous and the overall impact of bankruptcy on your future finance far too important to treat a decision such as this lightly.

Before you decide, here are the things that you need to know:

� What are your alternatives to bankruptcy?

� Which chapter of the Bankruptcy Code should you file under?

� What debts will be discharged in bankruptcy?

Are there other options?

Some people make the mistake of treating bankruptcy as the be-all and end-all of everything. They think that once you get to that point where your debts far outweigh your assets and the chances of paying them off is not likely to happen anytime soon, the situation is ripe to file for bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is not the only way. It is not the only solution. What you believe is an unsolvable problem may turn out to be quite solvable, if you only take the time to weigh your options well.

Always keep in mind that filing for bankruptcy has the possibility to be devastating both economically and emotionally. While there is less public stigma attached to the act for filing for bankruptcy these days, it could still do things to your confidence in making important financial decisions.

One of the positive aspects of filing for bankruptcy is that most bankruptcy cases are granted. So it is instant relief from debts versus toiling for years to pay off your debts. However, contrary to popular belief, bankruptcy is not an easy way out of a sticky situation.

Whether you are filing under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, the end result is almost always the same � extensive damage to your credit and long-term economic issues. Now, you know, of course, what this means. These credit issues brought on by bankruptcy would cause many problems in the years to come.

So what, then, are your options besides bankruptcy?

That, my friend, is the question.

Renegotiate Secured Loans May Be Your Answer

First of all, what is a secured loan? How is it different from all other loan types out there? Is it any different from a credit card debt?

The answer to the third question is: It is very different. In fact, a secured loan could not be any farther from a credit card debt.

Simply put, a secured loan is one where you are made to mortgage your property so that the lender can forcibly sell it to get its money back if you can�t repay.

Now, if you think that once you file for bankruptcy, you can escape all your debts and start with a clean slate (so to speak), well think again. Because not all debts can be discharged with bankruptcy. And one such debt is a secured loan.

Now, the thing with secured loans is that they usually involve large sums of money � generally the largest most people have. Your car and/or your house are secured loans. So even if you file for bankruptcy, these debts will neither lessen nor disappear.

A better option would be to try to renegotiate these loans with the creditors. That is, if your debt has not completely caught up with you and ruined your credit already. Or you could take the loan elsewhere.

Let�s say, for instance, that you have a home loan that is several years old. You can try to renegotiate for a lower interest rate on this. And depending on your principal balance and current terms, there is every chance that you can see your payment go down by several hundred dollars per month. That is money in your pocket which you can use to pay off other debts.

If your home loan has only a few more years left, you can also try to lengthen the period or ask for an extension so you can reduce your payments even more.

Advantages

� The moment you file for bankruptcy, all collection actions by your creditors, including foreclosures, repossessions, and garnishments, are automatically stopped.

� Your bankruptcy lawyer, if you decided to hire one to handle your case, will shield you from any inquiries made by your creditors.

� Most states allow your home, car, and other essentials to be exempt. Consequently, bankruptcy means that you will not wind up homeless and unable to get around.

� Declaring bankruptcy means that you can get started on rebuilding your credit and your life sooner. Moreover, if something unfortunate happens, you are allowed to amend your existing Chapter 13 plan to accommodate it.

� While student loan debt will remain, filing for bankruptcy will protect you from lenders taking aggressive collection action.

Disadvantages

� You will lose all your credit cards. However, if you have paid off your credit cards before filing, there is a good chance you may still keep some of them.

� You may have to give up some of your luxury possessions.

� You will have some impossibly tough time getting a mortgage after recently filing a bankruptcy. It will get easier, however, after about five years from filing.

� A bankruptcy is a spot on your credit report and tends to remain there for ten years. This, of course, makes it difficult for you to acquire credit, buy a home or car, get life insurance, or sometimes get a job.

� Not all debts may be �discharged� in a bankruptcy.

Dean Shainin offers online Bankruptcy and debt advice. For more information, articles, current news, tools and valuable resources on bankruptcy and debt solutions, visit this site: How To File Bankruptcy

Advantages of Buying a Home After Bankruptcy

By Mary Wise

After Bankruptcy is discharged

Immediately after bankruptcy is discharged your credit score is bottom low. What you need to do is start preparing for applying by increasing your credit score as much as possible. To do so, you need to meet all your payments on time, and start building some credit.

Small steps to improve your credit score can be taken safely. Get a secured credit card and start using it to buy what you would otherwise pay in cash. The Credit Card issuer will inform credit agencies of your timely payments and this will increase your credit score. You can then request small personal loans or get an unsecured credit card to keep improving your credit score. Make sure to pay your balances in full and never miss payments.

Once some months have passed after your bankruptcy has been discharged, you�ll be able to apply for a home loan. Usually after 6 months since the discharge, lenders won�t object your application due to your past bankruptcy. If your income is good enough, you�ll surely get approved and if you get declined you can always resort to saving some money in order to offer down payment or asking someone to act as a co-signer in order to guarantee approval.

Home Ownership Advantages

Becoming a home owner will contribute to recovering from bankruptcy. This financial transaction has many advantages, not only will you become the owner of your home, but the home equity loans will really contribute to improving your credit score and building a clean credit history.

Bankruptcy will remain in your credit report for many years. Thus, in order to restore your ability to get finance (especially unsecured loans and credit cards), you need to raise your credit score and show no blemishes following your bankruptcy in your credit report history.

Raising your Credit Score and Improving Credit History

Your rank will have to travel a long way till it reaches a Good Credit Score tag again. You�ve already made the first steps, and your monthly mortgage loan payments will do the next. A continual history of timely payments on your home loan will be reported by your lender to credit agencies and your credit score improvement process will be given a boost.

Other Benefits

Owning your home will also let you apply for home equity loans in the future. Home equity can be built either by repaying your mortgage or by an increase in the value of your property. When this happens, you�ll be able to request a loan and secure it with the property�s equity which will reduce not only the requisites you�ll have to meet but also the interest rate you�ll have to pay saving you thousands of dollars.

Mary Wise, a professional consultant with twenty years in the financial field, helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and preventing consumers from falling into the hands of fraudulent lenders.

You can visit her site and get aid for Bankruptcy regardless of your credit. If the link doesn�t work, just copy badcreditloanservices.com and paste it in your browser�s address bar.

Michigan Bankruptcy Law - A Way To Help You Out

By James Arther

Bankruptcy Laws: The standard bankruptcy laws are segregated into various chapters or sections. Some of the worth mentioning section is: Chapter 7 according to which the court can appoint a trustee to investigate the property of the bankrupt person. He has the right to undertake some of your assets to pay off the dues of your creditors. As per some legal terms the debtors are allowed to retain some of their properties.

As per Chapter 13 after one files a bankruptcy case he/she has to work out a way to repay his creditors. He/she will also have to pay the fees of the trustees appointed by the court. The trustee will be able to distribute the repayments made by you to the creditors.

Michigan Bankruptcy Law:

The Michigan Bankruptcy-Law is set on some basic parameters to help a person to pay his dues and debts to the creditors in times of his financial crisis. To some bankruptcy may seem like a dead-lock condition. But in fact there are ways to relax. The Michigan Bankruptcy Law requires a person to furnish sufficient evidences to convince the court when filing the bankruptcy case.

The bankrupt person must seek the help of a registered lawyer and financial advisor. Apart from that he must attend the credit counselling sessions of the government at least 6 months before filing the case. He/she must also produce the loan documents, assets and amount of property (like home, land, etc) possessed, income tax payments and returns, actual amount receipts of individual creditors and so on.

The good thing is that most of the debts and repayments are deducted if the bankrupt person is able to justify his condition furnishing suitable evidences. If you have earnings and outflow which are greater than the normal citizen then according to the Michigan Bankruptcy Law no case can be filed under Chapter 7 but can be produced under Chapter 13.

The Texas Bankruptcy Law provides the facility to the debtors to get away from the chief repayment liabilities. Also it works out measures for alternate ways of repayments to the acclaimers by the debtor. It helps in major relaxation of dues.

The Ohio Bankruptcy Law demands to produce evidences of bankruptcy without the assistance of legal representatives. The lawyers thus suggest the clients to settle matters by the help of the government's credit counseling sessions. Case filing is a bit convoluted.

Debtips is the most comprehensive resource on Debt Consolidation Loan, Bankruptcy, Mortgage and Credit . It is just the right channel to make you finance literate and also helps in managing your personal finances. Visit Debtips and find all the information on:

• Debt Consolidation
• Credit Report
• Online Mortgage
• Bad Credit

Bankruptcy is an unfortunate situation and can happen even to seasoned businessman or to a new entrepreneur. Go ahead for valuable reads about Michigan Bankruptcy Law, its types and how to use it when required.

Making Money On MySpace - Tips To Earn Loads Of Cash

By Jason Stilwell

MySpace; you've surely heard of it. Most of you probably have an account that you use to keep in contact with friends. Others may only know of it as "that place the predators hang-out", but if that's all you know about MySpace you're really missing the BIG picture. MySpace is the largest online social networking portal on the internet with 61+ million registered users and over 50 million unique visitors per month, and the site is STILL growing. MySpace is currently the second largest destination, by page views, on the entire internet. The MySpace visitor demographics are nearly an equal split between men and women and the primary age of the site visitor is between 16 and 34. There are 1.4 million registered bands on MySpace and the site reaches more men than ESPN.com. All that, and you still won't have to talk to more than 5 people to find someone who says "I hate MySpace". That's fine. Let them dismiss it, while you and I take advantage of one of the largest opportunities in internet marketing you may ever to come across.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

It is important for you to understand that it is against the MySpace "Terms of Service" to do any marketing on their site with the intention of profiting, but that does not mean you may not market "something". Look on almost any profile and you will find people promoting something. They're promoting themselves, their bands, and some blatantly selling items on their profiles, some with affiliate links and some more discreetly. Everyone is essentially marketing something. Your interpretations of these rules will be your guide to what is "black hat", "white hat" or that gray area in between. So let's get started already! Let's look at the squeaky side of MySpace marketing. if there ever was one.

Get started Now!

There are millions and millions of registered users on MySpace. Everyone has a profile. So make yourself one (or a new one). And since you're wearing your "white hat" you can do your best to tell everyone who you are while not telling everyone anything personal. You are never going to put your real name, number address, etc. on MySpace. Don't even use a real email address. It's not required to register or verify an account. If you feel you must, create free email account with yahoo, google, or msn to use with MySpace - again using no real personal information.

If you've been poking around MySpace you're probably wondering why everyone's profile looks cool and unique and yours looks so blah! Well trick it out! You can go to any one of the thousands of sites that give away free codes, graphics and stuff for your profile page. Search Google for MySpace Layout and you�ll see what I mean. Go ahead and make your profile "yours". This is what social networks are - a chance to tell the world who you are and what you're about in a one page profile. Add music, images, videos, voice recordings, text, blogs, just about anything you can imagine. If you do happen to go on to become a full fledged marketer, there are many more tools, resources and such below.

By now you're probably getting impatient and wondering how the heck you make money doing this. Relax, we're getting there. Ok, so you've got a profile and let's make up a topic for the sake of our example. Let's say you're totally into Xbox 360 and playing games. You wouldn't be alone right? In fact if you go to Google and search for the term "MySpace Xbox" you�ll get over 3.5 million results. Now what? Well you can start visiting the profiles one at a time, and you can click the "Add Friend" button on each one. It sends a request to the user to add you as a friend. If they accept, you become "friends". Then you do it another few thousand times and you've got a list of friends interested in the same thing as you. you can call this a "niche." It works well, but it takes time. We'll come back to this in a minute, but let me tell you about a few things to save you a ton of time.

Friend "bots" or "adder bots" as they're known are robot programs or "bots" that will go out and send these friend requests for you, hundreds at a time. There are many out there and they all have their ups and downs. I use two different programs: You can find and grab copies by visiting my website. Several complete videos demonstrating in detail how to use some of the advanced features of these programs are included in the member's areas.

Another quick way to get friends for free is to visit and join a "train". This is a place where you join up to let others know you're trying to get a lot of friends in a hurry, and you know they want the same thing. Now this type of friend adding is completely un-targeted, but you can build a friends list of thousands in a week this way. A few good train locations are listed on my website.

Ok, back to your niche. So you add a few thousand (or more) friends that are into Xbox 360. One of the keys is to remember, this is a "social" network. So socialize! Comment on your new found friends sites, visit their websites, read their Blogs, join their groups. Across the top of every MySpace page is the top navigation bar. On that bar you'll see "Groups". Click on it, and then search Xbox. Guess how many "groups" there are on MySpace for Xbox? 3100! The largest Xbox related group has over 31,000 members, second largest nearly 20,000, then 16k, 11k, 10k..you get the idea. Literally hundreds of thousands of users that have joined a group devoted to Xbox. Some are general "Gamers" some are "Xbox Live" junkies. But all are into your niche. Join some groups. This is another great way to find friends interested in your niche.

Now if you just start "spamming the PS3 out of everyone" in your group, you're going to get banned and likely deleted from MySpace in a hurry. And there are a few ways to deal with that. Depending on which hat you've decided to wear. Remember the "black hat". well you can have 50 profiles, all Xbox related and just continue to market and get deleted, market and get deleted, all the while making money. Or you can be more subtle about it and stay more within the rules al while wearing a pretty clean and attractive white hat :o).

In this scenario you'd be wearing the "gray hat" which is somewhere in between "white hat" (methods that don't really break the rules) and "black hat" (methods that outwardly violate rules, terms, or conditions for the sole purpose of individual gain). So you have al these friends. You�re chatting with them, slowly gaining credibility, knowledge, and maybe posting in your blogs, you send a message to your buddies saying "hey, I found this great cheat code site - check it out!"

Go to Google and do a search for "Xbox Affiliate" and you'll get the idea. There are hundreds of Xbox related affiliate programs. Cheat codes, hardware, software, accessories, etc. All you do is sign up as an affiliate and send you MySpace friends interested in Xbox some affiliate links to products they might enjoy. Anytime one of them makes a purchase you get an affiliate commission. That�s money in the bank. You're still in that "gray area" here because you're marketing for profit and remember it's against the MySpace TOS, but let's be creative. Let's make a small site related to Xbox; Maybe an Xbox blog of your own or an Xbox game review site.

You invite your buddies day after day to your site, and on your site you can market whatever you want. There's not really much objection to mentioning your own website to your friends if you do it tastefuly and aren't over-aggressive because after al, your website could be your hobby or interest, and hobbies and interests are things that are perfect to talk about on your MySpace profile. You can have Google Adsense advertisements on your website, affiliate links, build a mailing list. and you're driving free targeted traffic there using MySpace!

Ok, let's take a step back and review what we've gone over real quick.

Make a profile or make a bunch of profiles.

Be specific and target a niche, or be general and add tons of untargeted friends.

Use a bot to speed up the process.

Pick which ?hat' to wear and get started.

Use profile searches, groups and advanced search techniques to target your desired friends.

Decide how aggressively or passively to market.

Use affiliate programs to generate revenue.

Drive traffic out of MySpace to your site.

Use Adsense, affiliate marketing, pay per lead ads, & more to generate revenue.

All that and we're just getting started! We've really only discussed one niche I picked out of the air - Xbox.

Most people think that MySpace is a huge untargeted market, but that's just because they don't know how to use the tools available to narrow it down and find targeted leads. How about one of the most popular tactics, marketing on MySpace for a local band. MySpace is widely known for its wide assortment of bands that use it to promote their craft. This is an opportunity for you - even if you're not in a band! How? Let's go back to the MySpace toolbar at the top of the page. Back to Browse. Now look at the bottom of the top section of the Basic tab. See the postal code section and the miles of box? Put in your zip code and 50 miles in the miles of box. Up above in the between ages box, select 21 as the young and 50 as the old. Also select Both under "Browse For:" and then click update.

This will return all the men and women that are over 21 that are within 50 miles of your zip code. Get to work on building your friends list. Let's pretend you market yourself to bands in your area as a promoter. For the price of $100 you�ll build them a list of people on MySpace within 50 miles of their hometown (or wherever their gig is). Then for a recurring fee you�ll send out comments, messages, bulletins and event invites to "their list" at a given schedule for "x" amount of time before an event. Poof you're a promoter. With some training, you would have no problem whatsoever promoting bands on MySpace.

Speaking of making more money from MySpace, but not "on" MySpace, here is another tactic you can make a profile, add friends using a bot and trains. Get to say 10,000 friends (in a few weeks) and sell that account on eBay for $100 or more. Make 100 accounts with 1000 friends and sell them for $10 each. are you getting the idea yet? Making MySpace accounts and adding friends is a cinch once you've got the knowledge.

Perhaps your specialty is graphic or web design? You can offer your services customizing other people's profiles on MySpace for a small fee. Even if graphics & web design is not your specialty after learning how to do it, you'll be able to make the coolest MySpace profiles for your clients quickly, easily, thoroughly, & efficiently. Turn yourself into a MySpace money making machine!

These are just a few of the many ways you can monetize your MySpace efforts. I'm going to bullet-point a few more without going into detail about them. But the point is, there is such a tremendous opportunity here.

I can't teach you everything you need to know in this brief about MySpace marketing, but hopefully I've peaked your curiosity and got your creative juices flowing. If you visit the sites I have provided, and use the tools and resources you can find tons of step by step training videos, profile editing tools, and a very active member�s only forum where every single tactic we've discussed (and about 40 more) are outlined, detailed, demonstrated and discussed.
The MySpace marketing platform is changing daily so don't wait! Get in on it now!

Check out MoneyInCollege.com for more info.

My name is Jason Stilwell, a business and marketing student in the beautiful State of Michigan. I started MoneyInCollege.com with the sole purpose of showing students worldwide simple, fun and effective ways of making extra money in college and to connect you with others who share in this interest. I am not here to pitch hype at you, I'm here to show you how to make the money you need to live a better college life.

-Jason Stilwell

MoneyInCollege.com

History of Mergers and Acquisitions

By Marcus Peterson

In 1987, Stephen Jaques Stone James merged with Mallesons and they named their new firm as "Mallesons Stephen Jaques." At the time of the merger, Stephen Jaques Stone James was one of the leading Sydney based firms and comprised 79 partners and 251 solicitors and Mallesons was one of the leading Melbourne based firms and comprised 37 partners and 83 solicitors. This merger happened as a result of advancement in telecommunications and computer technologies and in addition, it was felt that the merger of the two firms with their similar cultures, and with many shared clients would give them the necessary depth of legal talent, and the level of technological support, to be able to assist their key clients internationally, as well as in Australia.

The European University Association is the outcome of the merger between the Association of European Universities and the Confederation of European Union Rectors' Conferences, which took place in Salamanca, Spain on 31 March 2001. The purpose of the merger was to create a single organization, serving and representing the whole university community in Europe, with a stronger voice and a more powerful presence.

Rite Aid's first store started in September 1962 as Thrif D Discount Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From the beginning, the company grew rapidly through acquisitions and the opening of new stores, expanding to five northeastern states by 1965. It was formally named Rite Aid Corporation in 1968, the same year it made its first public offering and started trading on the American Stock Exchange. Rite Aid acquired Perry Drug Stores, the largest drugstore chain in Michigan in 1995 and it is the largest acquisition to date for Rite Aid.

In June 1988, the acquisition of Tower Federal Savings Bank of South Bend, Indiana was completed. The bank acquired two savings institutions in Michigan, which are the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Kalamazoo, and Peoples Savings Bank in Monroe in 1989. In September 1991, Standard Federal entered the Ohio market, gaining a significant presence in the northwest Ohio area through the acquisition of United Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Toledo in September 1991.

Mergers And Acquisitions provides detailed information on Mergers And Acquisitions, Corporate Merger Acquisitions, Merger And Acquisition Strategies, Merger And Acquisition Companies and more. Mergers And Acquisitions is affiliated with Selling A Small Business.

The Most Unusual Businesses

By Steven Gillman

Since childhood I've had an interest in unusual businesses. I grew up with four brothers, and when it was time to vote for which television show we would watch, I sold my vote to the highest bidder. You could call that the business of politics. I collected the paper-wads that fell all over when my brothers had their wars, and then sold them back to them for a couple cents each. I was a war profiteer in the paper-wad wars. I also sold candy out of a hollow book in school.

My business activities were more conventional as an adult, but I still loved to hear about and read about the more unusual businesses. Sitting around a fire in an Arizona desert, I once talked to a man who sold used stuffed animals on the side of the highway. He claimed he sold $3000 worth his first month.

The Most Unusual Businesses

Then there was the guy I talked to in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who collected the bodies of dead deer. The county needed the deer carcasses off the roadsides for health reasons. They contracted with this guy for $25 per body. I'm not sure how he disposed of them, but maybe his other business was providing meat to dog food companies.

When I was living in Traverse City, Michigan, someone started a dog poop cleaning business. Want the dog without the responsibility of cleaning the yard? Call A-1 Pooper Scooper. I'm not sure if this would be better or worse than the dead deer collecting business.

Right here in Tucson, Arizona, there is a man who takes leaves from palm trees and twists and turns them into amazing animal sculptures. He sells these for anywhere from $2 to $12 in the street. The palm-leaf scorpions are the best. He just grabs leaves from the nearest palm tree and he can sell dozens of these in a day.

Unusual Online Businesses

Maybe you remember a few weird businesses from back before Ebay got all their rules. One woman made thousands per month selling used panties to fetishists. She bought new panties for her friends, who got them for free as long as they returned them to her unwashed, trading them in for the next new pair. The used and unwashed panties sold for $10 or more on Ebay auctions and they sold fast.

Perhaps you have heard about the online fantasy role-playing game called "Runescape." It has four million players now. What you might not know is that in addition to buying "virtual real estate" in the game, and earning online gold pieces, you can buy these game things for real cash. There are Runescape entrepreneurs who sell their online houses in the game for hundreds of real U.S. dollars. I think it would start to get confusing - what is real here and what isn't?

Then there was the guy in who decided last year to finance college by selling one million pixels of advertising space on his web page for a dollar per pixel. You had to buy a minimum of 100 pixels and you could have any image you wanted linking to anywhere you wanted. He succeeded in selling all one million within a few months. Maybe it's time for me to get back into unusual businesses.

Steve Gillman has been studying money for thirty years (and sometimes making a little). For interesting and useful information, visit his website, Unusual Ways To Make Money: http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

Current Commercial Loan Rates

By Jeff Rauth

Commercial loan rates are essentially the combination of the underlying index and the margin that the funding bank or lender charges. Borrowers should be careful on the way that their term sheets are written in regards to quoted rates. Below are a few suggestions on how you can protect yourself against having your commercial loan rate increased (bait and switch) while in process.

First of all, an indexes commonly used in the commercial mortgage industry includes Prime and the 10 Year Treasury. Less well known indexes such as the 5 Year Swap or the FHLB indexes are becoming more popular.

The margin is where the bank makes its spread. It is a very complicated process for banks to figure out what to charge as they basically have to predict the future and take into account the probability of default, adequately cover their costs, and of course try to make a profit. At the same time the industry is highly competitive and they have to price out their loans "skinny" enough to be able to bring in new borrowers.

The combination of the margin and index is commonly referred to as the Effective Rate. It's what the borrower will use to calculate their payments and what they normally think of when they ask for rate quotes. For example if a bank quoted you Prime plus 1% your Effective Rate would be 6% as prime right now is at 5%.

The main suggestion regarding not having your rate bumped up on you while your loan is in process is to have both the margin and index clearly written on the term sheet. The opposite is to just have the effective rate quoted with no mention as to either the margin or the index. If either or both go down for example, you would not know, and would not know that your rate should be lower. The lender could simply keep your rate the same and you would have no recourse or really any way of knowing.

A worse scenario would be to have your rate increase during process. Rate locks are rare in the commercial mortgage industry so it is possible for the funding bank to call you with the bad news that your rate will be higher. In fact, as of this writing 5/8/8, it's not that uncommon at all, as banks are constantly rethinking what they can and what they want to lend on - due to the credit crisis. And many will have the attitude of, take it or leave it. More to the point though if the margin and index are not clearly known the lender could mention any margin or index when challenge to "cover" his story.

Get it in writing or assume they will try the bait and switch on your commercial loan rate.

Jeff Rauth is President of Commercial Finance Advisors, Inc out of Birmingham, Michigan. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Loans between $400,000 - $5,000,000. Offers unique loan programs such as Commercial Second Mortgages, Commercial 30 Year Fixed and 90% non SBA financing, Commercial Equity Lines. 248 885-8797 or at SBA 7a Loans or commercial loan rates or commercial loan calculator

2008 College Football Bowl Cheat Sheet

By Nate Pachl

There are many different office pool variations for picking the college football bowl winners. I've compiled a list using a analysis from the experts to give you a cheat sheet for dominating in your pool. Each bowl is broken out by winning team, score, and confidence level. The best confidence level is 32 points, from there each game jumps down incrimentally by one point. Hopefully this helps you win a little extra money over the holidays!!!

Confidence Level - 32

Bowl Game - Gator Bowl

Texas Tech - 38 Virginia - 13

Confidence Level - 31

Bowl Game - Fiesta Bowl

Oklahoma - 34 West Virginia - 16

Confidence Level - 30

Bowl Game - New Mexico Bowl

New Mexico - 37 Nevada - 14

Confidence Level - 29

Bowl Game - International Bowl

Rutgers - 41 Ball State - 17

Confidence Level - 28

Bowl Game - BCS Championship

LSU - 24 Ohio State - 16

Confidence Level - 27

Bowl Game - Emerald Bowl

Maryland - 30 Oregon State - 17

Confidence Level - 26

Bowl Game - Music City Bowl

Kentucky - 38 Florida State - 21

Confidence Level - 25

Bowl Game - Rose Bowl

USC - 31 Illinois - 17

Confidence Level - 24

Bowl Game - Poinsettia Bowl

Utah - 41 Navy - 10

Confidence Level - 23

Bowl Game - Alamo Bowl

Penn State - 38 Texas A&M - 20

Confidence Level - 22

Bowl Game - Humanitarian Bowl

Georgia Tech - 21 Fresno State - 9

Confidence Level - 21

Bowl Game - New Orleans Bowl

Memphis - 24 Florida Atlantic - 6

Confidence Level - 20

Bowl Game - Liberty Bowl

Central Florida - 31 Mississippi State - 13

Confidence Level - 19

Bowl Game - Armed Forces Bowl

Air Force - 33 California - 24

Confidence Level - 18

Bowl Game - Motor City Bowl

Purdue - 44 Central Michigan - 41

Confidence Level - 17

Bowl Game - Hawaii Bowl

Fresno State - 41 East Carolina State - 27

Confidence Level - 16

Bowl Game - Texas Bowl

TCU - 31 Houston - 24

Confidence Level - 15

Bowl Game - Orange Bowl

Virginia Tech - 31 Kansas - 27

Confidence Level - 14

Bowl Game - Champs Sports Bowl

Michigan State - 27 Boston College - 17

Confidence Level - 13

Bowl Game - Independence Bowl

Alabama - 27 Colorado - 24

Confidence Level - 12

Bowl Game - Sugar Bowl

Hawaii - 49 Georgia - 38

Confidence Level - 11

Bowl Game - Outback Bowl

Wisconsin - 38 Tennessee - 27

Confidence Level - 10

Bowl Game - Cotton Bowl

Missouri - 36 Arkansas - 31

Confidence Level - 9

Bowl Game - Pioneer Bowl

UCLA - 24 BYU - 20

Confidence Level - 8

Bowl Game - Holiday Bowl

Texas - 35 Arizona State - 31

Confidence Level - 7

Bowl Game - Capital One Bowl

Florida - 42 Michigan - 31

Confidence Level - 6

Bowl Game - Chick-Fil-A Bowl

Auburn - 21 Clemson - 20

Confidence Level - 5

Bowl Game - Papa John's.com Bowl

Southern Miss - 31 Cincinnati - 28

Confidence Level - 4

Bowl Game - Insight Bowl

Indiana - 44 Oklahoma State - 38

Confidence Level - 3

Bowl Game - Sun Bowl

South Florida - 27 Oregon - 21

Confidence Level - 2

Bowl Game - GMAC Bowl

Tulsa - 52 Bowling Green - 48

Confidence Level - 19

Bowl Game - Meineke Bowl

UCONN - 16 Wake Forest - 14

I'd love to hear your opinions on these picks and also how much of you co-workers cash they helped you rake in. Please check out www.punchbook.com for all other things your girlfriend hates (gambling, sports, drinking). Good Luck!

By Nate Pachl
http://www.punchbook.com

Are you interested in learning more about things that your girlfriends hates? Punchbook.om offers tips on gampling/poker playing and making beer as well as offering articles on Baseball, Football, and MMA.

Please visit my website to learn more: http://www.punchbook.com

#1 State in Chiropractic Billing Performance Index in June is Illinois - The Blues and Medicare Lead

By Yuval Lirov

How To Buy A Million Dollar Apartment Building With No Money Down

By Dave Lindahl

Later in this article I�m going to show you exactly how two students of mine bought a $1,550,000 apartment complex with no money down, get a positive cash flow (spend able income) of over $51,200 per year, don�t deal with a single tenant and how they walked away from the closing with $32,300 dollars in their pocket!

You�re probably thinking, that�s impossible! It�s not, and it may actually be easier than buying single family properties with no money down.

Any time you buy a multi-family property you should have three objectives: get the highest appreciation in the shortest amount of time, put as little money down on the property as you can, get that money back as soon as you can.

The more properties you control with the least amount of money the wealthier you�re going to become.

When I first started buying smaller multi-family properties, I had to use no money down techniques because I had no money. I now look at every deal and try to get in with no money because the more properties I can buy with no money down, the more properties I can buy� and the more properties I can buy, the more cash flow I can create�, the more cash flow I can create, the easier my life is going to be!

There is one thing you must always remember when buying with no money down; the property must cash flow properly. By �properly� I mean the debt coverage ratio must be 1.20 or higher with 100% financing.

The debt coverage ratio is the net operating income (yearly income � yearly expenses) divided by the debt service (mortgage payment). This means that for every dollar that you pay out in debt service, you have one dollar and twenty cents coming in cash flow. This is the same measure that lending institutions use to determine if they are going to finance a property. It�s a nice conservative approach.

It�s easier to purchase a multi-family property with no money down for several reasons. When your dealing with the owner of an investment property, your dealing with an investor, investors care about numbers, if the numbers work, the deals get done.

When you�re dealing with the owner of a single family property, your dealing with an individual who is emotionally attached to the property. Your negotiating their the single biggest asset they have in their life.

Because it can be a challenge at times to finance multi-family properties between twenty and one hundred units, most multi-family owners had to use creative financing to purchase the property so they are more comfortable using the techniques to sell (banks make their money of a percentage of the loan amount, it takes the same amount of effort to do a twenty unit deal as it does to do a one hundred unit deal but since the bigger deal has a bigger loan amount, they make more money).

There are many private individuals that will be happy to loan you private money that they may have sitting in a savings account or an IRA if you are willing to give them an 8 � 10% return. Of course you factor the higher interest rate into the deal when calculating the numbers and if it cash flows properly, it�s a buy. If it doesn�t�not a buy.

Here�s how the Frews did it. Kevin and Kristy Frew are from the outskirts of Flint, Michigan.

Kristy set a goal that she was going to buy a multi-family property of fifty units or greater with in a six month period (it all starts with a written goal!)

They sent out direct mail campaigns, made relationships with commercial brokers, cruised neighborhoods and did what every other successful investor does�.they took action.

With in a short period of time they found a fifty one unit building that was for sale in their area. The original asking price was $1,700,000. They were able to negotiate the price down to $1,550,000. When they did the analysis, they realized that the property would cash flow at $32,000 per year with 100% financing and the rents were low (this is called a value play, you want at least one value play in every deal you do). Once the rents were raised, the new yearly cash flow (spendable income) would be over $51,200 per year.

Now the decision� how to structure this deal. They knew they could get 80% from their local lender and they informed the lender that they would be getting secondary financing from other sources. This is important because if the lender prohibits secondary financing, you need to find another lender.

Their first thought was to go to the seller and request owner financing. They asked for the full twenty percent, the seller countered back at five percent. The Frew�s countered back at ten percent but to no avail, the seller would only give five percent. Now they had to come up with the other fifteen percent.

They owned a single family property and were able to take out an equity line and come up with another four percent.

They then turned to friends and family members. After making several requests, it turned out that Kristy Frew�s father had always wanted to be involved in real estate and never took the time to be trained. When they explained the deal to him, it was obvious they had a deal that �worked�. Soon Kristy�s aunt wanted in on the deal as well. Between the aunt and the father, they came up with the last eleven percent.

Within her six month deadline, Kristy and Kevin Frew bought a 51 unit apartment building for $1,550,000 with no money down, created a $51,200 a year positive cash flow and walked away from the closing with $32,300.

How did they get the $32,300? He has his real estate license and that was his commission.

Won�t it be great when some one gives you money to take a million dollar property of their hands, a property that actually pays you month after month to have a management company manage the tenants�those are the same tenants that are paying that building off for you! What a country! Though it won�t happen unless you TAKE ACTION!

David Lindahl, also known as the �Apartment King� has been successfully investing in single family homes and apartments for the last 10 years. David regularly shares his secrets and experience on the same stage as Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Donald Trump! If you would like a free copy of the Special Report: 27 Ways to Buy a Multi-Family Property with No Money Down, please go to http://www.davespecialoffer.com/