It’s Back to School and Work– Is Painting on Your “Bucket List”?

If you’re an avid do-it-yourselfer, you know the value of a simple can of paint for sprucing up walls and revamping tired rooms. But you’ve probably also experienced the love/hate relationship that seems to be a part of painting, so here are a handful of tips that should make your next paint project a little easier and more enjoyable.

1. Get organized: Painting is more than just opening a can and grabbing a brush. If you take the time to gather up all your paint gear, paint, rags, ladders, tools, aspirin and everything else you anticipate needing before you start, the job will flow much smoother.

2. Mark the cans: Use clear tape to cover over the name of the paint color, as well as any custom-formula markings put on the can by the paint store. This will help keep them from being obscured by paint drips. To simplify paint touchups, [Read more…]

Our members request a comp report . . . we send it away at lightning speed, but every once it a great while, it gets “pulled over” on the information highway before arriving in your email inbox.

Unfortunately, our delivery of comps to your email inbox is at the the mercy of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ESPs (Email Service Providers) who have a complicated process of trying to prevent unwanted emails from getting into your inbox. [Read more…]

A study conducted by the WAV Group determined that most consumer real estate search engines show homebuyers only a fraction of the homes that are on the market. With outdated information and low accuracy rates convoluting most search engines, the study concluded that the best source for for-sale property is the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service)– available “only”  to licensed real estate agents and brokers.

As a member at Investway, however, you get direct access to the MLS. You can beat your own REALTOR to the deal. There is no middleman real estate agent to slow down searching, analyzing and making offers on real estate. Investway is a licensed real estate broker; we just put our investor-clients in the driver’s seat with instant data and comps at your fingertips. And if you really DO like your agent, you can keep ’em. We don’t require you to purchase your real estate through us.

With an Investway membership, you have real-time, direct MLS access, updated immediately when information on the MLS is updated. For more information and to get a free trial, visit www.investway.com.

Below is the original source for the recent study. Enjoy! [Read more…]

AOL, Mindspring, Time Warner/ Road Runner, Yahoo, Verizon, Gmail . . . your choices for email accounts are virtually unlimited. But I stand today on my soapbox to shamelessly tell all why I think everybody should use gmail for their email.

Reason #1: If you use your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for email ([email protected]), it’s inevitable that you will be coerced into changing your email address when your company merges/ aquires/ bankrupts, etc. Not to mention, you might want to switch ISP’s one day. I don’t know about you, but I like my email address to remain predictable for years to come!

Reason #2: When it comes to SPAM filtering, [Read more…]

The papers are signed. The closing check is cashed, and you are the proud owner of another single family dump. Fleas, mold, and a foot thick of decaying leaves in the yard are just the start of your problems. But if there aren’t too many surprises, this deal should put a little jingle in your pockets.

When you walk into your property, the tendency is to feel overwhelmed, but fear not! If you have an orderly approach to getting the job done, you’ll be singing your way to the bank before you know it. Here’s my take on an orderly way to tackle your next real estate dump. [Read more…]