Should First Time Buyers Use A Real Estate Agent?

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Financing

Your real estate agent has no control over financing; however, they are often the first people to know when a new program is available. For example, recently there was a FHA based program that offered 100% financing for people who fell within the income guidelines. These programs are often time sensitive and dependent upon funding. In other words, the sooner you know about the program and the quicker you submit an application the better your chances for obtaining this type of financing.

Pricing

Real estate agents make a living selling homes, for many this is their primary occupation and as such, they are very well versed in home pricing. When you have a real estate agent working for you, as opposed to simply dealing with the seller’s agent, you have a person who will be quick to point out that a property is overpriced in comparison to other recent sales in the area.

Forms

There are standard forms for purchasing real estate, but if you are a first time buyer, you are not likely to be familiar with them. A good real estate agent will go over any and all forms you may be asked to sign and will take the time to explain them thoroughly. If you begin working with an agent who does not fulfill this obligation, look for a new agent.

Multiple Listings

Nearly every home on the market today will be part of a multi-listing. This means that any agent can show you a home, regardless if their office listed the property or not. If you were to go it alone you could quickly find yourself faced with several different listing agents, it is better to have one agent of your own.

Listing Agents

A listing agent has one job and that is to sell the property for the best offer possible. In other words, they work for the seller and will put their interests before anyone else. Remember their commission is based on the final sales price of the property and if they can sell to you without another agent’s involvement, they make more money. When there are two agents, listing and buyer’s agent, the commissions are shared.

Conclusion

There are many ways a real estate agent can make your first home buying experience a positive one. They will work tirelessly for you, advising, showing homes and explaining complicated paperwork all with one goal in mind, the successful purchase of a home for you. Take your time and interview potential agents until you find the agent you feel the most comfortable with.

Trendy Diet and Fitness Tips to Get You Motivated

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If your diet and fitness program needs a few zingers to keep you motivated check out these hot tips, just in time for summer!

1. Eat lighter and lighter throughout the day: Everyone knows that reducing your calorie intake will help you lose weight. But it’s also important to know WHEN to eat to make the best of your diet and fitness plan. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it gets your motor running. So consume your largest portion at this time to help keep your body moving and your hunger levels in check. Lunch portion should be smaller than breakfast but still a good size. Your dinner portion should be your smallest size and really limit those after dinner snacks. Eating up until bedtime can really affect your sleep. If you can stop eating 2-3 hours before bed, you’ll notice a difference in the quality of your sleep.

2. Sauce it up!

If your diet is bland and boring chances are you’re not going to stick to it. Unfortunately a lot of sauces to add to your foods are rich in calories, along with taste. Don’t give up! There are plenty of rich in flavour substitutes for you to try next time you’re grilling meat.

Some of your choices consist of:

Teriyaki Sauce
Tomato Sauce
Hot Sauce
Reduced-salt Soy Sauce
Mustard
Salsa
Vinegar (so many different flavors)

3. Supplements and Vitamins

If you find it hard to get in your daily dose of nutrients you should be turning to supplements and vitamins to help you out. They’re quick and easy to take and add much benefit to your daily diet and fitness goals. Just make sure you’re taking whole food supplements, like Juiceplus+ and/or good fats and whole food powder meal replacement shakes. It’s just as important to research your supplements as you do your foods.

4. Get your ZZZZ’s

While you sleep your body is deep in rest and recovering from all the hard work you did throughout that day. A lack of quality sleep will affect you in a physical and mental way the following day. It’s important to try and get the 6-8 hours of sleep that is recommended in order to keep your diet and fitness goals at the top of your list.

5. Put Fibre in Every Meal

Fibre not only aids with digestion but it will also make you store less of the fat you do eat. Eat an apple with breakfast. Try to have a salad a day. Eat multi-grain breads instead of white. Little choices like these make a huge impact on your physique over time.

6. Walk… More!

Find a way to walk more each and every day. This is in addition to any existing workout plan you may be following. Walk instead of drive when possible. Stairs instead of elevators. A brisk walk after dinner to help with digestion. Even an extra mile a day adds up. Your total volume of exercise compiles over time to burn extra calories every day to get you and keep you lean. 1 mile a day is 7 miles a week and 30 some odd miles a month. That’s a lot of calories.

7. Switch from Coffee to Tea

Although coffee contains no sugar it increases glucose levels and increases the glycemic response to food you eat with a coffee. The higher your glycemic response, the more likely you are to store the food you eat as fat. So make the switch to tea to keep your glycemic index low and help prevent weight gain.

Article Marketing Tips to Help You Drive Traffic to Your Site

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Article marketing is a popular and inexpensive way to drive traffic to your web site. And, while it may seem like it’s a lot of work, here are some article marketing tips to help you distribute articles with ease.

Tip #1 – Be Selective When Doing Article Marketing

There are dozens of article database web sites on the Internet and sifting through all of them can be a daunting chore. But the traffic from marketing that your web site will receive is well worth taking the time to set up some free accounts.

When you’re looking at marketing sites, take a look at how many authors are currently posting articles to that site as well as the types of articles the site accepts. For example, if you are planning to write a series of articles on how to get more traffic to your web site, it wouldn’t be worth your while to post those articles where the majority of authors are writing about pets.

Finding worth while marketing sites is as simple as putting the words “article marketing sites” into Google, Yahoo or Bing. From there, take a look at the sites that are listed on page one of each of those search engines and go visit them. The signup form shouldn’t take very long to complete — and if it does, that’s probably a site you don’t want to be part of.

Tip #2 – A Little Article Marketing Research Saves Time

When you’re considering writing an article that may have been covered by other writers, do a quick search on the topic before you take time to write the article. Some marketing sites will not permit the duplication of a topic if they already have several articles from other writers on the same subject. If that happens, think about how you can approach the same subject with a different angle

Tip #3 – Getting Traffic from Article Marketing

That’s really the goal of marketing, isn’t it? Getting traffic from the articles you write and distribute. Part of the way you get traffic from article marketing is through the resource box found at the bottom of your article.

A resource box is where you can tell the reader a bit about yourself as well as give your web site address or an e-mail address for readers to send you a message. Try to resist placing your own Web address into the article you’ve written because you don’t want the story to be about you. You want your articles to solve a reader’s problem.

You can not only create a steady flow of traffic from marketing, you can also become an expert in it and do a story about your own article marketing tips.