New Year Rightsizing tips

Some folks have become the masters of accumulation. It especially becomes more noticeable as visitors and knick knacks compete for space with piles of old newspapers, spare parts in the dining room and oversized furniture.

This can cause problems. While you want to welcome visitors with open arms you may shutter at the thought of adding out of town guests into this jumbled picture. But, Aunt Susie will need a place to spend the night and of course the nieces and nephews or grandkids will all want to gather at your house.

Now is a great time to think about treating your guests to a few surprise gifts. It’s not exactly re-gifitng but close.  Just by passing along some of those items taking up extra space in your house, your life becomes simplified. File this under ….”you have the right to give your special tea set away if you have not used it in more than 3 years. “

During this time of year, it should be easy to transition those heirlooms, collectibles and other items to your loved ones.

While there’s something naturally uncomfortable about the feeling of moving on that makes it hard to part with items you’ve grown accustomed to, if  put in the right perspective and done during family gatherings, relinquishing those memories will be a bit easier.

Here are a couple of creative options for cleaning up the place that will make for a fun day:

1)    Try pulling out everything that’s taking up unnecessary space in your home and put them all in one room like a giant grab bag. This way everyone decides who gets what.

2)    Have family members go on a scavenger hunt for certain items that you put on a list

3)    Place smaller items like those old glass ornaments and other pieces in a bag and pass one out to everyone while having them guess what’s inside.

4)    Before giving them to loved ones you may even want to get out the video camera and tell a story about some of the items that you might have collected from vacations, or purchased on a whim.

Speaking of video, what looks one way to the naked eye can look completely different through the lens of a camera. If you have trouble deciding what to keep and what to give away now’s the time to break out the camera and take video or even photographs of the rooms in your house to look at them from a different perspective.

In other words, that once white shaggy rug that you purchased to go under the coffee table may now hint of a dingy gray color and doesn’t really do much for the living room once you see it on camera.

Remember, the point of rightsizing is so that you can enjoy your life even more, whether you stay in your home or move to another community that better suits your lifestyle.

An added bonus to slimming down and de-cluttering during this New Year is that if the goal is to move you will be ready for the early birds in real estate. These early birds are the folks that start looking for homes in February before the traditional spring season picks up.

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Guest Blogger – Charlie Tobias of Express Title Company

GOVERNMENT v. ECONOMY

 REVISITED 

Welcome to 2010. I took some time off last month to prepare for the new RESPA. In addition to our seminars that we gave our web page now has a Quick Quote so you can get all of your closing costs to prepare your GFE. Visit us at  www.expresstitle.com.  

My first piece last year was a 3 part series titled as above. If you recall, the essence of the series was that the government would be caught in a tug of war with the economy for the year in order to right the ship. So let us take a look and see where we are today.

The theme of 2009 was deflation and the Federal Reserve pulled out all of its tricks to inflate the economy. The DJIA hit a low in March of about 6700 and ended the year at about 10,500. Most commodities bulked up last year as well. While wheat, corn and natural gas were down, gold, coffee, oil, orange juice and copper were all up. GDP in the third quarter reversed direction as well and was up about 2.5%. Housing prices have stabilized in many parts of the nation, as well. Bernanke even said the recession is over. Looks like the government won.

Not so fast I say. To achieve the above, the government had to borrow or guaranty about 10-14 trillion dollars of debt. This is about equal to one year of our GDP. It is predicted that our national debt will equal 100% of GDP by the years end. Furthermore, 3.5 trillion dollars of debt must be issued in the next 12 months; 1.5 trillion to finance our budget deficit and 2 trillion to repay debt that matures. Unemployment remains at multiyear highs between 10-15% (depending on which figure you use) with jobs still being shed rather than gained. One of every four homes has negative equity. One of every seven mortgages is in default. Foreclosures remain at record levels and will continue to mount. When viewed on a chart, the number of Alt A, Prime and Subprime loans that will reset looks like two mountains. We have just hurdled the first mountain and are about to hurdle the second mountain which peaks in the last quarter of 2011.

The banks are still having problems as well. There were just shy of 150 bank failures last year with that number expected to double this year, according to the FDIC. Credit remains on the decline. The FDIC, FHA, Fannie and Freddie are broke. Congress passed legislation before the holiday agreeing to fund Fannie and Freddie any amounts necessary to keep them solvent. (Why can’t I get that?)

A record 37 million people received food stamp assistance. The number of food stamp recipients in Maryland increased 35% in 2009.

Furthermore, with all of the debt we must sell and with the central banks of Australia and China raising their rates recently, I expect our interest rates to rise this year as well.

On the face of it, it appears that the government is winning but the fact is the economy is still kicking our butt. As Bette Davis said, ”Fasten your seat belts. {2010} is going to be a bumpy {ride}!”

 STAY WARM and HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND. 
Express Title Compny
6110 Executive Blvd., Suite 300
Rockville, Maryland 20852
P 301-231-8200
F 301-231-8201
www.expresstitle.com

CHARLIE

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The 2010 Homeowner’s Challenge:      Live Well at the RIGHTSIZE
The Rules of Rightsizing  

1. You have the right to live your life forward.
2. You have the right to not feel overwhelmed.
3. You have the right to not feel under whelmed.
4. You have the right to a clutter-free home, one that you can walk around in without the fear of tripping over old newspapers, spare parts, pet toys, or lumpy stuff under the rug.
5. You have the right to a peaceful nights sleep on a bed that has nothing on it but a top sheet and a comforter. 
6. You have the right to a stress free life.  One that is not completely consumed with excessive maintenance, repair, and upkeep.
7. You have the right to furniture that fits comfortably in your living room.
8. You have the right to sell or pass along your 12-chair dining room set, if you have not had more than 6 people over for dinner at the same time in the last 3 years.
9. You have the right to give your special tea set away if you have not used it in more than 3 years.  (Unless of course you are planning to entertain the Queen of England in the not-to-distant future.
10. You have the right to simplify your systems and processes.
11. You have the right to have your basement be a place that you are not afraid to enter.
12. You have the right to not have a basement if you don’t need one.
13. You have the right to be able to see the far wall. In your attic.
14. You have the right to not have an attic if you don’t need one.
15. You have the right to a fresh start and a new beginning.
16. You have the right to have a one inch space between each and every hanger in your closet.
17. You have the right to a garage that you can park a car in without hearing that annoying crunching sound you hear when you run over things.
18. You have the right to own your possessions and not have your possessions own you. (This includes your house.)
19. You have the right to have nothing under your bed.  Nothing!
20. You have the right to be free to make new friends and have new experiences.
21. You have the right to be free of internal commitments that prevent you from making a difference.
22. You have the right to a safe and secure home.
23. You have the right to right sized living.
24. You have the right to simplicity in a complex world.
25. You have the right to have your life so organized that you can find your stuff when you want your stuff.
26. You have the right to get rid of clothes pins if you don’t have a clothesline.  (This right applies to anything that is useless in your life.
27. You have the right to pass up a yard sale or two or three if you find that you can’t pass up a bargain.
28. You have the right to know what the back of the closet looks like every now and again.
29. You have the right to open your closet door without the fear of being crushed.
30. You have the right to donate clothes that don’t fit.
31. You have the right to evaluate your internal commitments from time to time and make changes when it is time to make changes.
32. You have the right to organized, clutter-free drawers.
33. You have the right to throw away old copies of Readers Digest.
34. You have the right to say no to things that complicate, clutter, or confuse your priorities.
35. You have the right to a statement of simplicity.
36. You have the right to right size if you are entering a new chapter in life that does not require the space or the stuff that the previous chapter required.

To get a FREE copy of the “rightsizing rules” or a copy of “The Rightsizing Guide”, call (888) ERIC-STEWART, or send an email to team@pointingyouhome.com. 

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SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM ERIC STEWART AND FAMILY!

Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and prosperity in the New Year! Thank you so very much for your trust and support once again in 2009. All the best to you and your family!

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For those of you in the Bethesda, Rockville, Potomac, and Northern Virginia area, add “new home” to your shoppping list!

“The holidays are actually a great time to find real estate deals in today’s new economy.” says Tracey Velt of bankrate.com

5 Reasons to Buy during the Holiday Season:

1. Low Interest Rates

2. Serious Sellers

3. Slower Market

4. Faster Closings

5. Tax deductions

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In honor of Veteran’s Day last week, Ritchie Park Elementary School in Rockville, MD held a “Walk for Heroes” parade. 

Eric Stewart donated 600 American flags to the event so that every student could have one as they walked inside the school’s gymnasium to patriotic music. Eric’s generous donation shows his commitment to the community, and his appreciation for veterans. He wanted to honor members of the military in a tangible way.

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A Tax Credit Update for the country, including Bethesda homes, Rockville homes, Potomac homes, and Northern Virginia homes. 

Source: http://www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/pages/News2009110601

“Obama Signs Extended Tax Credit into Law
Expected to contribute approximately $22 billion to the economy, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan measure this week extending the $8,000 home buyer tax credit to April 30, 2010.

The legislation, which is part of a larger bill that also extends unemployment benefits, was signed into law by President Obama today.

More people are now eligible to take advantage of the law, which includes a $6,500 tax credit for buyers who are current home owners and have lived in their home for five of the past eight years.

Income limits for eligible home buyers were also expanded to $125,000 for single buyers and $225,000 for couples, up from $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples. Qualifying home prices are capped at $800,000.

NAR’s Government Affairs Division has compiled facts on the changes made to the current tax credit. NAR members sent more than 500,000 letters to leaders in Congress and made nearly 13,000 telephone calls to Senate offices last weekend to encourage support. So far this year, REALTORS® have spent nearly $14 million lobbying Congress, according to federal campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican and a former member of NAR, was key in extending the credit, as well as pushing it through initially. Other prominent boosters include the National Association of Homebuilders and the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Listen to NAR President Charles McMillan’s podcast announcement.

NAR economists estimate that approximately 2 million people will take advantage of the tax credit this year.

Sources: NAR and The Associated Press, Julie Hirschfeld Davis (11/06/2009)”

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Don’t forget to check batteries in smoke detectors!

 Daylight saving time ends Nov. 1. Get into the habit of checking smoke-detector batteries when you “fall back” and “spring ahead.” Also make sure household fire extinguishers are fully pressurized and in good working order.

>History of Daylight Saving Time<

“Daylight Saving Time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. According to the The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus by McClelland & Stewart Inc., Canada’s “[Sir Sandford] Fleming also played a key role in the development of a worldwide system of keeping time. Trains had made obsolete the old system where major cities and regions set clocks according to local astronomical conditions. Fleming advocated the adoption of a standard or mean time and hourly variations from that according to established time zones. He was instrumental in convening an International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 at which the system of international standard time — still in use today — was adopted.”

In 1918, the U.S. Congress made the U.S. rail zones official under federal law and gave the responsibility to make any changes to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the only federal transportation regulatory agency at the time. When Congress created the Department of Transportation in 1966, it transferred the responsibility for the time laws to the new department.

The American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The law does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time; all the law says is that if we are going to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must be done uniformly.

Daylight Saving Time has been around for most of this century and even earlier.

Benjamin Franklin, while a minister to France, first suggested the idea in an essay titled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” The essay was first published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784. But it wasn’t for more than a century later that an Englishman, William Willett, suggested it again in 1907.

Willett was reportedly passing by homes where the shades were down, even though the sun was up. He wrote a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight” because of his observations.

Willett wanted to move the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the spring and summer months. In 1908, the British House of Commons rejected advancing the clock by one hour in the spring and back again in the autumn.

Willett’s idea didn’t die, and it culminated in the introduction of British Summer Time by an Act of Parliament in 1916. Clocks were put one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) during the summer months.

England recognized that the nation could save energy and changed their clocks during the first World War.

In 1918, in order to conserve resources for the war effort, the U.S. Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WW I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed.

When America went to war again, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on February 9, 1942. Time in the U.S. was advanced one hour to save energy. It remained advanced one hour forward year-round until September 30, 1945.

In England, the energy saving aspects of Daylight Saving were recognized again during WWII. Clocks were changed two hours ahead of GMT during the summer, which became known as Double Summer Time. But it didn’t stop with the summer. During the war, clocks remained one hour ahead of GMT though the winter.

From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time. So, states and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not.

This, however, caused confusion — especially for the broadcasting industry, and for trains and buses. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.

By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time through their own local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in end the confusion and establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any area that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a local ordinance. The law was amended in 1986 to begin Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed by Congress and then signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005. Under the new law, Daylight Saving Time begins three weeks earlier than previously, on the second Sunday in March. DST is extended by one week to the first Sunday in November. The new start and stop period began in March 2007.”

 *source: http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html*

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