#i had no idea who to have being launched so poor broker is getting launched | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

altankatt · 4 years

Text

Neal and Peter catch Keller

Neal knew Peter was likely going berserk but he had to reach there before Keller. He jumped into a cab, against the rules for how to transport himself on his own. He had no idea if Peter had sent his 'checked out' text to the Marshals or not. If he had, his anklet would be monitored and the speed of his transport would likely set off an alarm. It could not be helped.

"Manhattan Helicopters. FDR Drive," he told the cab driver. A convicted felon with an anklet going to a helicopter pad. He made a phone call to check what he already guessed. Then he called Peter.

"What the heck are you doing, Neal?" he almost yelled. "The Marshals called and—"

"I know. Keller is on his way to Manhattan Helicopters. So am I. Meet me there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. You can check Sergei's flight plan yourself."

"Sergei himself?"

"The one and only. I have to go. I'm there now."

He ended the call, paid the driver and rushed out on the pier. There was no sight of Keller yet, but he probably waited inside the terminal, waiting for a call from Grace.

A black helicopter approached and Neal saw Keller exit the terminal and walk towards the pad. They met by the helicopter when it turned off its engine.

"Bravo, Keller."

"Seriously? Wow. So you came by to see me off, huh, Caffrey?" Keller grinned. "Who knew you were a gracious loser?"

"I have to admit using the real Ben Franklin bottle, did not see that coming," Neal said with honest admiration. "Stroke of genius, really."

"Thanks. That actually means a lot coming from you," Keller replied and for a second he looked like a little brother getting praise from his older, adored brother. "Only wish Kate was around to see it," he added to hide his emotions. "We both know she always loved a winner. Who knows? Maybe I'll look her up, see if she still does."

Neal looked back with a blank face. That was Keller. Always hiding his emotions by hitting at other's vulnerable spots. Sad, really.

"So I'm curious," Keller continued. "How'd you find me?"

"Checked Sergei's travel plans." The short version was just fine. "See he does it in style. I also hear he doesn't take it lightly when someone owes him money."

"Owed," Keller corrected. "As in past tense. Yeah, you see, our little go-around with the bottle cleared my debts. In fact, I just got a text from my broker. Bottle went for seven figures."

Neal hid his smile of triumph behind one of fake admiration.

"Wow," he expressed. "Wow, congratulations, man." Keller did not have a clue.

"Thank you. Thank you."

"So it was a two birds, one stone thing. Humiliate me, turn a hefty profit while you're at it?"

"See? Now you're catching on, Neal." Though Neal knew Keller wanted to hurt him it was painful to hear him say it. They had been friends once. "Listen, I'd love to chat, buddy. But unless you got anything else, I should get going. Be good."

For a second Neal thought about not saying a word and let Keller leave. Without money to pay Sergei with, he was likely to end up dead somewhere. One less killer in the world. One less trouble for him. But that was not how it was done. That made him like Keller. And if it was one thing Neal was proud of in his life it was his ability to care for people, even though he was a criminal. He was pretty sure that ability was one of the reasons that Peter had taken the deal.

He turned to Keller who had his hand on the door to the helicopter where Sergei was waiting.

"I haven't made my offer yet."

Keller glanced at his watch.

"This should be good."

"I'd like to offer you the opportunity to make a full confession for your crimes. The robbery of the Natural History Museum, the murder of Manuel Campos anything else you wanna add in."

"You know what? I was wrong. This isn't good. This is sad, man," Keller said, disappointed. "This is a moment I'll cherish. Seeing you at your most desperate." He turned back towards the chopper.

"The winner of the Franklin bottle it wouldn't happen to be bidder number 57, would it?"

This made him stop. Neal beamed at him and saw in Keller's eyes that he knew that he had lost.

"Why?"

"Now, this is just awkward, but I don't have a million dollars. The auction house said they'd give me a week to put the money together."

Neal heard people approaching from behind. He felt more than heard that it was Peter and his agents.

"A week, huh? You know what? A week's not that long. I can buy that." That, if something, was desperate. Clutching for straws. Neal smiled.

Peter drove out on the helicopter pier, waving his badge to the guard. He saw Neal with his back to him facing a black helicopter. And between the young con-man and the helicopter was Keller, leaving. Peter stopped and got out of the car.

"The winner of the Franklin bottle it wouldn't happen to be bidder number 57, would it?" he heard Neal say as he approached.

Keller stopped and faced Neal.

"Why?"

"Now, this is just awkward, but I don't have a million dollars. The auction house said they'd give me a week to put the money together."

Now Keller saw Peter and his team too. He was not about to give up yet.

"A week, huh? You know what? A week's not that long. I can buy that."

"Did you tell him I'm launching a federal investigation on the bottle?" Peter said.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. There's that too," the kid added with enthusiasm and Keller made a face. "How long can a federal investigation go on for?"

"Not sure," Peter said. "Years." It could, even it was rare.

"Oh, years, wow," Neal grinned.

Keller did not seem that excited about it all.

"Son of a bitch," he said to his opponent and Peter knew that Keller knew that he had lost.

"How patient are Sergei and your Russian friends?" the kid asked.

"You can take a helicopter ride and find out," Peter suggested. "Or you can come with us. Your choice."

He watched his pet convict and his enemy eye each other. There was no gloating.

"Well played," Keller said. He held out his arm and dropped his bag to the ground.

"Good game, Keller," Neal replied.

Keller grinned.

"The game ain't over."

"Help the gentleman into the car," Peter told his team and two agents stepped forward. Keller put his hands behind his back without a fuss.

"Looks that way to me," the kid said.

"Yeah?" Keller glanced at his rival as he got his hands cuffed. "I mean, you were locked up, broke out. Maybe it's my turn to accept a challenge. Best two out of three." Peter was not happy about that statement and could see on Neal's body language that he did not either.

"I'll see you around, Caffrey."

Neal took a step forward and told Keller something for his ears only. Then they led him away to the car.

"Poor Sergei's going home empty-handed," Neal smiled at Peter who bent down and picked up Keller's bag.

He felt so proud of the kid. There had never been a doubt about Neal's intentions. When the marshals called he had yelled at them not to worry even before checking with his convict what was going on. And seeing the kid out there on the helicopter pad, winning over his rival without mockery, it was such pleasure to see. Peter was a strong believer in fair treatment and no gloating when a suspect was arrested. Even a guy like Keller who was hardcore on the surface could be scared when being cuffed.

He pattered the kid on the shoulder on the way back to the car.

Neal remained where he was and Peter did not ask him to come along. He would not be involved in anything more concerning Keller. If the kid wanted to be alone as the adrenaline rush left him, it was his choice. Peter smiled. Neal would probably not be alone for long. He had a hunch a little bald fellow would turn up as soon as they left.

Neal enjoyed the temporary solitude. He watched the Statue of Liberty out in the bay and Brooklyn Heights on the other side of the river. He was outside his radius and Peter had let him remain there when they left. He took it as a gesture of trust. Still, Neal was pretty certain the moment he returned to his radius, Peter would send his text to the Marshals.

The imaginary freedom he felt down there by the water was worth a lot and he wanted to stay for a while.

Besides, he expected Mozzie to be around soon and was right.

"Did I miss Keller?" he heard his friend's voice. Neal barely needed to nod. The answer was obvious. "Damn. I wanted to see him do the perp walk."

"Sorry. Good news is he won't be bothering us for a while."

"How long is a while?"

"Maybe long enough to finish our chess game." Neal wished it was so.

"You think they have a prison that can hold him?" Moz asked.

"I don't know." He had broken out of one. Keller could probably do it too. Not with the same means, but if he wanted out he would get out. The question was if he wanted to, with an angry Russian mob breathing down his neck.

"Okay, so, what's the bad news?" Moz asked.

"You won't be drinking a million-dollar bottle of wine tonight."

Mozzie grinned

"I'll live."

Life was good. Right now at this moment, Neal had never been more certain that he would gladly spend the rest of his sentence working for Peter.

"You were right," he said and Mozzie glanced at him. "I could use one less mystery in my life."

"Oh, I rescind that comment," his friend said and Neal stared, not very thrilled of this new mystery. "There's suddenly been a lot of chatter about the music box. You need to talk to Alex."

"She won't tell me anything while I work for the FBI."

"Then… make it worth her while."

That was a challenge to Neal's liking.

Like this? Check out https://desnordlund.wixsite.com/altankatt

4 notes · View notes

drx3-imagines · 7 years

Note

Hey can I have a fluffy one-shot where Izaya takes his S/O star gazing mid-winter, far away from the city? (Summer heat is killing me and I wanna get my mind off it! Also, I really love this blog so much!!)

Heeeeeeeeere you go, four pages of tooth-rotting fluff! I’m so happy you like this blog, thanks for requesting! And I totally get ya, I hate warm weather (and the bugs it brings x/ )

“Iza-chan~! Thank you so much for this!” Your cheery voice could be heard all throughout the apartment as you grabbed the large duffel bag the two of you had packed together for the trip.

Izaya got the idea from Shinra’s vacation with Celty the summer before but since neither of you were partial to the heat, you decided to go a little further north to a cabin in the mountains that Shinra’s father owned. After the struggle to convince your dorky doctor friend to let the two of you use it, you knew it just had to be worth it.

As the two of you stuck a cooler and the aforementioned duffel into the back seat of your car you swatted away the June beetle buzzing past your head. That was another thing you were looking forward to; no bugs flying around in the chilly air of the mountains. Unfortunately, you had missed and the damn thing kept swarming you, taunting like the winged bastard it was. Thankfully, your boyfriend’s unusual skill set came in handy at the best of times as a small switchblade whipped past your head, successfully pinning the now dead beetle to a lamp post. “Thanks, hun,” you flashed him a smile before slipping into the driver’s side of the car and waiting for him to join you.

“I cannot believe that the same ____ that beats up gangsters for fun is also easily defeated by a little beetle. That’s sad, even for you,” you hadn’t even started driving yet and he was already antagonizing you; what a great sign for the future that was, huh?

Much to your chagrin, the prospective trip had put him in a good enough mood that the entire ride was filled with his teasing. One of the most noticeably obnoxious moments was when he decided to lean on his elbow on top of the armrest and consistently poke you arm, repeating “bug-a-boo” in childlike tone solely for the purpose of annoying you. It would have been cute had it not been going on for five consecutive hours now, finally reaching into the darkness of the night. Eventually, with the fading lights of the city having disappeared in the distance hours prior, the lack of sleep was finally allowed to catch up with the poor info-broker. As much as this trip was for the two of you spend time together, Izaya also needed some time from work and the late, late hours he spent out and about. That’s why it didn’t surprise you all that much when his head which rested gently against your arm began to slur out quiet murmurs in his sleep, breathing evening out gradually.

It wasn’t long after that that he was shaken awake by the loud clatter of gravel under your tires; you had tried to drive as gently as possible and let him sleep but your efforts were to no avail. Izaya didn’t seem to mind much though, one eye slitting open to look around at the mountain road you traveled on in the rising light of dawn. Had you really been driving all night? He was grateful for the rest but you could have asked him to take over for you.

You glanced over at his groggy form, smiling at the way he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. You waited for him to sit up and make an attempt at stretching before you finally spoke, “Morning, Izaya, sleep well?” You saw him nod in your periphery, a noncommittal grunt escaping him, “We’ll be there in about three more hours, it’s only,” you took a second to check the clock inset into the dashboard, “five in the morning as of now.” Another nod and then you heard the rustle of cloth as he slumped back against the seat and yawned.

“I can drive, you know?” He sounded pouty, almost as if he were offended that you didn’t trust his driving. You did, honestly, but you hadn’t really felt the need, liking the feeling of being behind the wheel.

“I know.” You smiled at him and adjusted the visor in front of you to block the rising sun, “Besides, you looked like you needed it.” Though you couldn’t see it, Izaya’s brows furrowed; had he really been that obvious? Yes, work had been overbearing as it always was, but he liked to seem in control like he was untouchable even though he was very, very human. He liked to keep you from worrying about him, if not for his sake than your own. He had no intention of receiving the sentiments and affections of the humans he was bent on loving but somehow you still managed to dodge all of his eccentric, half-baked arguments and dive right into the nitty gritty everything that made him who he was.

For that, he was grateful, but over time he had noticed you would skip treating yourself in favor of helping him. That was yet another reason for this trip; you needed to have some fun and a little time to relax. Both things he was very intent on giving you after you pulled up into the driveway of the cabin (honestly, it was just more noisy gravel) and pulled out your bag and cooler. The next hour and a half was spent sorting clothes into drawers and shoving food and drinks into the fridge. That was then proceeded by Izaya tossing you onto the large bed, forcefully wrapping you up in the soft, pine-scented quilt, and laying on top you; he happily cuddled your blanket burrito evolution form until you argued that you needed a shower. Still, he persisted, kissing you into submission and lying there with you for another hour. Eventually, he unwrapped you, your head resting against his chest as you cuddled into his side, silently observing his unusually relaxed smile. He looked more peaceful than you had ever seen him before and you found yourself completely enamored.

You, unfortunately, had to ruin the moment with a drowsy groan, teetering on the edge of falling asleep. “Iza, we need showers,” you immediately were returned with an opposing grunt, your head resting on his outstretched bicep and his other arm draped over his eyes to shield them from the light peering through the window beside you. “Izaya, come ooooooooon~! We’re still gross from sweating in the heat yesterday, I need to be clean!” Without a moment’s hesitation, he rolled over and licked a slimy, wet stripe across your cheek.

“There, clean,” and then he returned to his earlier position, cracking a wide smirk at your indignified screech. You launched out of bed before his arms could catch you and strutted over to the bathroom door, “I was thinking of showering together but nevermind you damn turd,” you stuck your tongue out, childish as it may have been, and locked the bathroom door behind you. You knew he could have easily popped the lock if he really wanted to but he instead opted out in favor or resting on the soft mattress and waiting for you to return. Admittedly, you were right about the gross feeling yesterday’s heat wave gave you, but now you were victims to the sweet chill of the northern air.

His eyes opened at the sound of you waltzing out of the bathroom and getting dressed a few feet from the bed, not that he hadn’t seen you naked many, many times before. You turned back to look at him, nodding in the direction of the bathroom where steam continued to roll out of the doorway. Izaya placed a kiss on your cheek, slipping inside and shutting the door behind him. That was more or less the entirety of your day; settling in, minor cleanup, showers, and making some very late lunch.

It wasn’t long before the two of you found yourselves sitting outside wrapped up in the quilt from your bed on a two-seat bench swing looking at the setting sun. Your head rested on his shoulder, Izaya’s arm around your waist. Tired as you were, not having slept since yesterday morning, you were determined to stay awake long enough to see the unpolluted sky fill up with stars. Izaya knew you were trying and that you would damn well succeed even if only for a short time.

Honestly, you were on the verge of weeping in silent appreciation as the midnight darkness crept closer and stars began to dance around the moon, illuminating the sky. Surprisingly, you came to find out that Izaya knew a bit about astronomy. He pointed out the few constellations he remembered from college, eventually naming new ones after the two of you and your friends. You smiled, his voice died down to a whisper as silence and the stillness of the world surrounded you, his arms holding you tighter as the air dipped further down into colder temperatures.

“____, it’s getting cold, let’s go back ins…. ide,” he looked down, staring at your sleeping form curled against his side, soft snores slipping past your lips and the occasional mumble of his name accompanying your gentle smile. He relaxed deeper into the blanket, holding you closer and resting his head against yours. Soon he found himself drifting off, joining you in a peaceful sleep.

- Pasya

#chainsaw-grell-girl01 #pasya #durarara #izaya #izaya orihara #scenario

55 notes · View notes

oliveratlanta · 4 years

Text

What Atlanta homebuyers need to know during the coronavirus pandemic

Shutterstock

Signs point to more of a temporary slowdown than a Great Recession-like slump

Amid the fourth week of novel coronavirus-related disruptions in Georgia, fears that a global pandemic would crater metro Atlanta’s housing market—or even cause it to momentarily pause—have not come to fruition.

While it’s too early to know the full scope of the pandemic’s economic impact, those who closely observe Atlanta’s market say signs point to more of a temporary slowdown than a Great Recession-like slump.

“Our market isn’t frozen,” says Jennifer Pino, president of Atlanta Realtors Association. “A lot of work has been happening behind the scenes to ensure that everyone has clear directives as to how you can do something safely,” Pino goes on. “I haven’t left my house, and we’ve been able to keep business going.”

Innovative processes for showing homes, making offers, and completing sales have emerged—aiding in more than 9,000 closings across the metro in recent weeks, according to data from First Multiple Listing Service.

Still, when it comes to buying an Atlanta home, Ray Hill, a senior finance lecturer at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, says if you can reconsider buying right now, do so. “I would probably wait,” says Hill. “One, I’d want to see what my financial situation was going to be, because there’s some uncertainty about that. And I expect there will be weakness for a couple of months here [in the economy], at least temporarily.”

Have prices come down? Can you get a loan? What do closings look like? We turned to real estate pros to answer these questions and much more, below.

Are sellers reconsidering listing their homes?

Yes and no. In the City of Atlanta, anecdotally speaking, dozens of new properties from studio condos to sprawling estates have continued to list each week—and in some cases, land contracts within hours—despite COVID-19 restrictions.

In an interview with the Atlanta Realtors Association this week, Jeremy Crawford, CEO of First Multiple Listing Service, relays that the 13,000 new listings counted across the region last month were down only about 6 percent over last year, representing “a healthy bit of inventory.”

Last week, however, saw 3,100 new listings, representing a 20 percent dip year-over-year, Crawford notes.

Are we tipping towards a buyer’s market?

The consensus among experts interviewed: It’s still early, but that’s not likely.

“The Atlanta real estate and labor market was extremely strong going into this,” says Emory’s Hill. “New York had problems in the real estate market before the virus even hit. You saw a discounting of prices and things that were on the market for longer than they should have been—that had been ongoing for a number of months. Atlanta is nothing like that.”

Kelly Stephens, managing broker of Engel & Volkers Buckhead Atlanta and Atlanta North Fulton, points to two facets working in buyers’ favor: metro Atlanta’s traditionally lower home prices (average: roughly $300,000) and interest rates for conventional mortgages that remain near historic lows (3.25 percent for a 30-year note, as of Monday). The million-dollar market has slowed considerably, Stephens says, but lower price-points are resulting in favorable deals for buyers, especially as iBuyer companies have backed off locally. One homebuilder that Stephens’s team works with, Rock Haven Homes, reported a record month in March, with 40 closings across the metro.

“The fact that we’re still targeting to close 7,000 home sales in the metro for March is staggering, considering what’s going on,” says Stephens.

How are people touring potential homes right now?

In-person viewings around Atlanta have slowed dramatically in recent weeks. Crawford, the FMLS CEO, reports that showings have slipped more than 50 percent over this year’s peak, but continue to be higher than the national average.

Still, the pandemic has coincided with the beginning of Atlanta’s hottest selling season, and agents continue to show properties in person every day. Clients might be required to carry letters proving they are pre-approved to buy immediately, brokerage leaders say, and virtual home tours—and, soon, virtual agent caravans—have become the norm.

Proprietary tools for virtual home visits abound. Sherry Bailey, a Realtor with Keller Williams Atlanta Intown, includes a Matterport 3D virtual tour with all of her listings. It uses a laptop or VR headset and is marketed as the next best thing to actually seeing a home in person.

Online homebuying platform Bungalo has also launched virtual, app-based 3D tours of Atlanta homes, as well as a digital offer submission process. It’s basically the new open house, says Bungalo president Deborah Bradley.

Todd Emerson, Harry Norman Realtor’s general manager, says a large client base of buyers relocating to Atlanta and time-poor executives meant that existing virtual tools (platforms like Moxi Impress, a marketing automation tool) were already a must, “but the frequency of use has certainly increased in the last month.”

This strong infrastructure of virtual selling tools in Atlanta has helped the market pivot online quickly, says Emerson.

Are homes receiving fewer offers overall? Has competition plummeted?

Homebuyers have adopted the mindset that competition is less during the pandemic, which is true. But Stephens stresses that buyers who remain in the market are largely there out of necessity. “They’re prequalified, willing, and able,” she says. “[Regulators] don’t want us helping buyers that are looking [to buy] six months or a year down the road, just trying to get an idea of what’s out there.”

One indicator of a seller’s market—bidding wars—has lessened in recent weeks, per Stephens’s observations. She notes, however, that the cooling off of a hot market—through February, homes priced under $500,000 were trading in fewer than 60 days, at almost 99 percent of list price—isn’t indicative of a standstill.

Emerson adds that metro Atlanta’s six core counties had a 2.8-month supply of inventory in February, when between five and six months is typical. “While it’s not the spring market we’re used to seeing, people are buying and selling,” says Emerson, noting that FMLS data show about 1,200 homes have gone under contract in the past two weeks.

Are there deals to be had right now? Should buyers make aggressive offers?

Not so fast, say industry observers.

Bailey, who has expertise on Atlanta’s up-and-coming Westside and Southwest Atlanta, says the buyer pool might have shrunk, but all her listings continue to be shown. Pino says Atlanta’s longstanding inventory shortage, a healthy buyer pool, and low rates mean that anyone holding out hope for fire sales could have unrealistic expectations, though only time will tell.

“Maybe buyers have ticked down a little bit, but I still don’t think that means sellers are necessarily desperate,” she says. “I’m not seeing a huge difference in price. The market’s not ticking down in value. I think it’s a very short-term type of viewpoint if someone thinks, because we’re doing through this very short-term type of situation with COVID-19, that prices are going to plummet.”

With Bungalo, Bradley says home tours have nosedived by 53 percent compared to a rolling four-week average in light of stay-at-home restrictions, but that offer submissions recovered by 45 percent as social distancing measures ended their third week.

Overall, March ended as the company’s best month on record, with a 150 percent increase over February, a sign of the seasonal surge. Buyers seem to be “more acclimated to transact under ‘new norms’ during COVID-19,” Bradley notes.

What protections should you put in your contract? Is there a COVID-19 clause?

Industry experts spoke of an uptick in formerly eager homebuyers who are now on the fence, concerned about the country’s economic future or that their jobs may be jeopardized.

To help assuage fears, the Georgia Association of Realtors has worked with attorneys to include a new COVID-19 stipulation in contracts that states, basically, that buyers and sellers can extend deadlines (although not indefinitely) should a coronavirus-related event interfere. It provides an out, for both sides, that didn’t exist before.

“Our contract did not have an act-of-God-type clause in it,” notes Pino. “This helps us to bridge the gap so that—we don’t think this is going to happen—but if, God forbid, the bank closes, or something happens and the closing can’t proceed, it puts framework in place with which to work through those problems.”

Are more offers falling through than before?

Crawford reports that metro-wide listing cancellations and contract withdrawals have not increased over 2019. But nearly 1,000 properties have been moved to “hold” status, he notes, in lieu of being pulled from the market, as sellers take additional precautions or arrange for virtual showings.

Pino says she’s seen both cancellations and the opposite—closings being hastened to accommodate schedules or new societal restrictions.

“It all depends on the individuals’ comfort level with risk,” she says. “I’ve seen many contracts continue, we’re still seeing closings every day, but I have talked to agents who have clients that are well beyond contingencies in contracts and deciding to terminate, even losing their earnest money. Unfortunately, they’re making decisions out of fear, really.”

The metro’s year-over-year sales volume, Crawford says, is still up 7 percent over 2019.

Has the appraisal and inspection process changed?

In a word, yes. The days of warmly greeting appraisers or inspectors for walk-throughs may be over for now, but Atlanta has seen what Pino calls “great developments” on both fronts.

With most home loans that aren’t considered “jumbo”—that is, $510,400 or less right now—lenders are allowing drive-by appraisals that don’t require anyone to leave their vehicles, Pino says.

Paris Pressley, a veteran Georgia Master Home Inspector who covers metro Atlanta, says his inspection firm is abiding by strict new guidelines, including a pre-inspection questionnaire regarding clients’ health and recent travel.

Pressley requires that, in addition to social distancing precautions, all doors and at least some windows be open, light switches flipped on, and HVAC and furnaces turned off during inspections. Inspectors are advised to wear masks, gloves, and shoe-coverings. He requires that inspectors are the only people inside homes during inspections—and all bets are off if inspectors notice signs of sickness. “If there’s cause for health and safety concerns,” says Pressley, “we may use the option to cancel the appointment.”

Are closings being delayed or put on hold due to stay-at-home orders? Are you able to close remotely?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that some loan programs have been suspended, dashing buyers’ hopes. Still, thousands of closings have been recorded across metro Atlanta in recent weeks, so it’s clear that deals are still getting done. Some have reportedly happened in parking lots.

As of March 31, the Georgia Supreme Court and Governor’s Office have agreed to allow video closings to be temporarily permissible across the state, eliminating the need for closing attorneys to be physically present and documents to be notarized in person.

Because of all the financial uncertainty, are banks tightening up even more?

Hill notes the Fed is currently flooding the banking system with liquidity, as a means of rescuing small businesses. This is also helping smaller brokerages, agents report.

But some banks in metro Atlanta have tightened guidelines in recent weeks, meaning that potential buyers with low credit scores, for example, could be denied.

“A lot of mortgage lenders sell loans once they’ve closed, and the market to buy those loans is not as robust as it has been, so they’re doing what they can to try to make those loans more attractive,” says Stephens. “Lenders don’t have the same appetite for lower credit score loans as they have in the recent past.”

Larger banks, however, have the ability to portfolio home loans and not sell them.

“Their guidelines have not changed,” says Stephens. “The ones that are larger banks, in addition to being mortgage companies, have more bandwidth to be able to hold on to these loans and sell them later.”

Will the closing process take a lot longer?

For the most part, no. However, Stephens says a few days of delay beyond expected closing dates is becoming the new norm.

“Everyone’s working remote, so the people that are pulling the title, doing the inspection, the underwriters—everybody’s really trying to stay on schedule,” says Stephens. “But if there is a delay, it’s very minimal.”

Emerson concurs. “The real estate market has not stopped by any means,” he says. “It’s just requiring an increased amount of patience and understanding on everyone’s part.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/4/9/21206109/coronavirus-buying-house-atlanta-real-estate

#OliverAtlanta

0 notes

nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany · 5 years

Text

Britain After Brexit: Welcome to the Vulture Restaurant

Digital Elixir Britain After Brexit: Welcome to the Vulture Restaurant

Yves here. We pointed out some time ago that the idea that the UK would get a favorable trade deal with the UK post-Brexit, and particularly post a crash-out, was bonkers, so it’s good to have official confirmation, even if it comes from the likes of Larry Summers. The US typically dictates terms in bi-lateral trade deals, allowing at most only a bit of face-saving terms-tweaking at the margin. The power imbalance will be even more pronounced in trade negotiation in the wake of Brexit because the UK will be desperate to cinch a deal quickly, and the urgency will give the US even more leverage.

More quotes from the Summers interview on BBC Radio 4, courtesy Al Jazeera:

“I’m not sure what Britain wants from the United States that it can plausibly imagine the United States will give.”

“If Britain thinks that the American financial regulators – who have great difficulty coming together on anything – are going to come together to give greater permissions and less regulation of UK firms, I would call that belief close to delusional.”

Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal found a whimsical Brexit angle today, although it could just as easily have been spun as gallows humor: Tired of Waiting for Brexit, Britons Munch Through Nutella Stockpiles (any Northern Ireland readers may take umbrage at “Britons”):

Britain’s Brexit preppers have been stockpiling for months. Now their revolution is eating itself.

Fed up with waiting for the U.K. to leave the European Union and mindful of product expiration dates, stockpilers are using up foodstuffs they had squirreled away in case of a blunt exit leaves them cut off from imported treats, or spikes the price of necessities, like toilet paper and tea.

The chance of a no-deal divorce hasn’t diminished and may only have been postponed until Oct. 31, but some preppers can’t resist breaking into their stashes.

Elizabeth Priest, 29, found it easy to eat into her stockpile because she had socked away delectable items such as Nutella and mozzarella from Italy, lactose-free milk from Denmark and an awful lot of tea—not, say, Spam.

“Because we bought nice things, we weren’t facing down this nasty stockpile of tinned ham,” says the writer from Hastings on Britain’s southern coast. She brewed the last of her 200 stockpiled tea bags on June 29, three months to the day after Britain was meant to leave the EU.

Returning to the theme of this post, it’s not clear what could be strip mined from the UK. Unlike Russia post the collapse of the USSR, there aren’t natural resources that to be bought on the cheap and sold in world markets. North Sea oil is largely played out. UK manufacturing capacity will become much less valuable due to post-Brexit non-tariff trade barriers. Sadly, the big wealth opportunities may lie in moves like acquiring real estate and squeeing already not-well-housed working people with higher rents, and dismantling the NHS.

By Adam Ramsay, the co-editor of openDemocracyUK and also works with Bright Green. Before, he was a full-time campaigner with People & Planet. You can follow him at @adamramsay. Originally published at openDemocracy

“Britain has no leverage, Britain is desperate … it needs an agreement very soon. When you have a desperate partner, that’s when you strike the hardest bargain.” So warned former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers on Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme this morning, as new foreign secretary Dominic Raab jets off on a tour of North America to investigate potential trade deals.

“Britain has much less to give than Europe as a whole did, therefore less reason for the United States to make concessions,” said Summers, a senior figure in both the Clinton and Obama administrations. “You make more concessions dealing with a wealthy man than you do dealing with a poor man.”

Summers is of course right. But he makes a key mistake. He assumes that Raab, Johnson and the new cabinet care about defending the interests and autonomy of most people in the UK. He seems to be under the impression that Brexit was about taking back control.

In reality, the brand of Brexit promoted by Tory hardliners has long been about pulling Britain under the shadow of American capital. Not as a 51st state, with votes and constitutional rights, but as an outhouse for US business, a sort of colder, paler version of Puerto Rico.

We will be forced to accept US-style deregulation, with its poor standards for workers and consumers. We will have our assets stripped clean off the bone. Even before Brexit, we are fast becoming a pawn in the Pentagon’s global games.

We won’t become Americans, though. We’ll have no say in the standards that will govern our new Atlantic common market. Nor will we be permitted to help decide who stands in the planet’s biggest pulpit. Nor will we have much significant say in our own foreign policy. The UK has chosen to shift from participating in one power block to sitting on the outer edges of another.

Victory of the Lobbyists

If that wasn’t clear before (though it was), the events surrounding the arrival of Boris Johnson in Downing Street have confirmed it.

During the leadership election there was, of course, the failure to defend Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the US. Then there is the ongoing confrontation with Iran, in which Britain’s post-empire is being enlisted in the schemes of US neoconservatives. There is the revelation that a new US pro-Brexit campaign group has launched, and Steve Bannon’s insistence on ‘Today’ that Boris Johnson should deliver a “no deal, hard out”.

Over the past three years, we’ve seen Britain’s lobbying industry and think-tanks auction their access to our politicians off to US corporations and oligarchs – from the firm which ran Johnson’s leadership campaign bragging in Washington about its ability to shape Brexit for US business, to the Institute for Economic Affairs offering to broker meetings between senior ministers and US companies wishing to get their piece of the Brexit pie.

We’ve seen one former Washington lobbyist – Shanker Singham – move to London and secure unprecedented access to our politicians, even writing the so-called Malthouse compromise, while lobbyists also drove the team that ensured their preferred candidate was elected prime minister.

And now that they’ve got their Johnson in place lobbyists have taken over the cabinet.

We’ve seen Trump confirm that “everything” – including the NHS – “will be on the table” in a US trade deal, before his spin-doctors reminded him that he’s not supposed to say that out loud.

“Britain Trump”

We see it in the ascent of Johnson himself – a rise which has coincided with the arrival in the UK of the sorts of institutions and culture we’re more used to watching from a safe distance across the Atlantic. On openDemocracy, we’ve revealed how Definers Public Affairs, the smear machine which destroyed Hillary Clinton, has set up shop in the UK, how a US-style super PAC is being rolled out across Europe and how Brexit is the biggest outsourcing of public policy in British history.

Johnson, who has surfed this wave, has been anointed “Britain Trump” by his US admirer. It’s a fair nickname, not because they have the same character, but because they both epitomise the elitist myths embedded in their respective national characters. Trump is the millionaire’s son who pretends to be rich because of merit, the brash bully-boy billionaire in a culture whose dream equates wealth and cruelty with merit and success.

Johnson, on the other hand, comes from the school on whose playing fields the battle of Waterloo was mythologically won. He epitomises an Anglo-British exceptionalism built on a mystical link between nation, royalty and aristocracy: a link forged in the failed revolution of the civil war and bought with imperial plunder, and which reminds the British bourgeois of an era when you didn’t need to do your homework to attain power – you got it by dint of your nation, gender, class and skin colour.

Likewise, their identikit ideologies are the same: oligarch enrichment woven round national mythologies.

Johnson pretends to be a free trader in the way that earlier British politicians claimed to support free trade whilst using their military might to force China to buy opium, commit genocide in Tasmania and smash up cotton looms in India. Trump claims to be a protectionist just as earlier US presidents used a pretence of isolationism to pretend they weren’t building an empire, at the same time preaching that the US was manifestly and justifiably destined to conquer the whole North American continent, committing genocide against Native American peoples as they did so.

Both Trump and Johnson have been contorted by the distorting lenses of their respective nationalisms, confusing many into thinking that they ooze truth or charm or talent. Strip off those red white and blue tinted goggles and you quickly see them for what they are: rich racists willing to trample anyone to secure the world for their kind.

Ultimately, they both represent the same interwoven set of interests: oligarchs, mafiosi, disaster capitalists, Gulf oil millionaires, hedge fund speculators and any other corner of the elite which has spotted that the neoliberal era is coming to an end, they have few places left to invest and their best option is to hide away as much money as they can behind the biggest walls they can build.

This is what Johnson meant when he said “fuck business” – that he and his friends no longer have anything invested in traditional industries, so are happy to see them disappear. It is why Trump is perfectly happy to fuck America’s car industry as he slashes tax for the hyper-rich.

Useful Scraps of Empire

At openDemocracy, we’ve revealed how millions of pounds were pumped into the Leave campaigns in the first place. That money came through the same British Overseas Territory and Crown Dependency secrecy areas that the billionaires of the world use to stash the cash they can no longer figure out how to get a return from – the same post-empire that the Pentagon is so keen to get a closer grip on.

For while the UK’s network of semi-colonies is useful as a money-laundry for the world’s oligarchs, we’ve seen in recent weeks how it plays a different strategic role, too – why America might see it as a valuable asset to begin to enclose under its wings.

When the British territory of Gibraltar captured an Iranian tanker, supposedly to enforce an EU embargo against oil to Syria, it did so despite the fact that Iran isn’t in the EU, and the EU doesn’t force non-members to comply with its embargoes. The Spanish have, according to The Guardian, claimed that the UK is acting under the influence of the US, and the former Swedish prime minister and senior EU figure Carl Bilt has hinted as much. It looks very much like this wasn’t so much an act of British foreign policy as one of submission to the US Department of Defense.

Britain captured Gibraltar in 1704 because of its strategically important location. To this day, one-third of the world’s oil and gas passes through its straits. Likewise, another strategically vital waterway will define this conflict: the Gulf of Oman, which connects the Strait of Hormuz to the Arabian sea. Oman isn’t formally a British territory, but it has been a de facto UK colony since the nineteenth century, with London helping to prop up the slave-owning ruling family over two centuries. As Ian Cobain has outlined, its current sultan was put in place by an MI6 coup in 1970.

The relationship remains strong. Shell owns 30% of the national oil company and Britain’s military presence is significant. According to Duncan Campbell, the journalist who originally revealed the existence of GCHQ, the Snowden leaks revealed Oman hosts a vital British intelligence base, tapping the vast number of communications cables that run under the Gulf. Last year, the UK opened a permanent naval base in the country, and in February this year, the British government announced it had signed an historic defence agreement with the sultanate, “bringing us even closer to one of our most important partners”.

For those with long memories, this might start sounding familiar: the 45-minute claim intended to frighten the British into accepting the 2003 Iraq war was based on the claim that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction could be ready to deploy not against London, but against the British Overseas Territories in Cyprus.

If the Pentagon is to keep a firm grip on the world, Britain’s post-imperial web of semi-colonies will be vital fingerholds, and Brexit offers the US a unique opportunity to expand its control over the UK and its overseas assets.

The Great British Asset Striptease

This wasn’t inevitable. In theory, Brexit could genuinely have been about ‘taking back control’ for the British people. It would be possible to turn the UK into a new Cuba, for instance, substituting home-grown products for international imports. Not a suggestion that would please the millions of Leave voters who opted to quit the EU essentially because they wanted to become another Japan instead: wealthier than the UK, industrialised, with less income inequality, richly forested and deeply racist.

But these are not the options before us.

Instead, Brexit means plonking the corpse of post-imperial Britain in a vulture restaurant for US asset strippers, and pretending not to notice that China perches nearby, ready to pluck at whatever it fancies too.

The Great British Asset Striptease isn’t new, of course. For decades, the country has mostly stayed afloat in the world by auctioning off the plunder we accumulated through centuries of empire. As Joe Guinan and Thomas Hanna point out, the Treasury has calculated that Britain sold off 40 per cent of all assets privatised across the OECD between 1980 and 1996.

But as the new foreign secretary heads off on his ‘everything must go’ tour of North America, the people of the UK are going to have to fight hard to stop him selling the whole country to Trump and his friends. Just as thousands mobilised against the EU-US trade deal known as TTIP, we’re going to have to stand together and fight against any UK/US trade deal. We’re going to have to fight to protect our public services and our workers’ rights and our ecosystems from the new plunderers of the planet. Because Britain doesn’t have any power in its negotiations with Trump. And we have a government that will be delighted to turn the country into an offshore theme park for American, Saudi and Chinese billionaires.

Britain After Brexit: Welcome to the Vulture Restaurant

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2OIyBFk via IFTTT

#Digital Marketing #SEO #Social Media Marketing #Nigeria Digital Marketing Company #Lead Generation

0 notes

toldnews-blog · 6 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/sports/rams-owner-faces-rebellion-from-english-soccer-fans/

Rams owner faces rebellion from English soccer fans

Arsenal, the English Premier League club that billionaire businessman Kroenke has owned since 2011, will travel to play Manchester City on Sunday in a showdown between two soccer teams at very different junctures in their respective histories.

Arsenal, meanwhile, is in the midst of another season where it is battling for a top-four finish rather than the title, and is once again struggling to keep pace, both on and off the pitch, with big-spending rivals.

The Londoners’ notoriously leaky defense could be humbled at the Etihad on Sunday — the Gunners lost 5-1 in December to league leaders Liverpool — making Sunday a two-fold referendum of sorts on Kroenke the sports owner.

With the Rams, Kroenke finds himself on the brink of the American sporting summit, a win away from a championship three years after he helped engineer the team’s move from St. Louis to southern California; at Arsenal, the American is viewed increasingly as the man who has overseen the club’s wayward drift.

Arsenal fans rooting for Patriots

Kroenke has become so unpopular among Arsenal supporters that even those who might otherwise be indifferent to American football suddenly have a rooting interest in Super Bowl LIII.

“A lot of fans over here are backing the Patriots,” said Robbie Lyle, the host and proprietor of the YouTube channel AFTV, which bills itself as the “unofficial voice of Arsenal fans around the world.”

AFTV has built an enormous following since it launched in 2012, boasting more than 900,000 subscribers who tune in following the team’s matches to watch Lyle interview fans, many of whom use the opportunity to rant and rave about the club’s shortcomings.

Lately, most of the ire on the channel has been directed at Kroenke. In a video this week following an underwhelming Arsenal victory over lowly Cardiff City, an AFTV regular known as Troopz expressed his annoyance with Kroenke.

“He don’t care, bro,” Troopz said of the owner. “Until he goes, it’s going to be the same sh*t.”

Public enemy No.1?

In the passionate world of English soccer, a careless owner is public enemy No. 1.

Supporters of Newcastle United, a team that regularly fills its 52,000-seater stadium but only this week broke its transfer record that had stood for 14 years, have staged protests against owner Mike Ashley for years over a lack of proper investment.

At Blackpool F.C., a club in England’s third division, fans have boycotted matches over displeasure with the club’s owners. Some fans of Manchester United were once so infuriated by ownership that they formed their own club in 2005; F.C. United of Manchester are currently competing in the sixth tier of English football.

“The biggest problem for an owner of a club,” Lyle told CNN in a phone interview this week, “is when fans here in the U.K. think you don’t care.”

While owning a team may represent a savvy investment for a billionaire like Kroenke, it’s considered more than mere business in Europe, where many soccer clubs have been around for more than a century.

Owners of Italian soccer clubs still regularly offer comments after their team’s matches, and Arsenal (founded in 1886) was traditionally owned by locals who grew up supporting the team.

“The idea of what ownership represents in an old fashioned English football club is maybe a little different than what an owner represents in American sports,” said Amy Lawrence, a soccer writer for The Guardian who specializes in coverage of Arsenal.

Kroenke, 71, has a portfolio of sports teams to his name. Along with Arsenal and the Rams, his holding company, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, also oversees the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL.

The Rams are, it would seem, Kroenke’s crown jewel. In 2016, he uprooted the franchise from his native Missouri to bring the Rams back to their original home in Los Angeles. The move left fans in St. Louis bitter, but the NFL’s power brokers celebrated the league’s return to the country’s second biggest market.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lauded Kroenke for having the “the vision, resources, inspiration and creativity to create the right setting for the NFL in Los Angeles.” Bill Plaschke, a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, gushed in August that Kroenke was the Rams’ MVP. “He gets Los Angeles. He understands its fans. He knows what works, and, man, he’s been working it,” Plaschke wrote.

Convincing soccer fans

Fans in England still aren’t convinced that Kroenke gets Arsenal, and his perceived indifference toward the club can be chalked up to a number of separate but related factors.

There is his reticence, a quality that has earned him the nickname “Silent Stan” and has left Arsenal supporters mystified over his plans for the club. He has professed a commitment to winning titles with the club, but such rhetoric is seen by many as perfunctory lip-service. Kroenke’s absenteeism has also rankled fans. Lyle lamented that Kroenke failed to attend Arsenal’s FA Cup tie with Manchester United last Friday.

“That was the biggest match in Europe [last weekend], and he’s not there,” Lyle said. “He’s never there.”

Kroenke’s silence and poor attendance record have helped shape the unfavorable perception of him, but it’s the club’s stinginess that has cemented the fans’ belief that the owner lacks competitive ambition.

That point was driven home last month, as Arsenal waded into the January transfer window — the period of the season when European soccer clubs are able to sign new players — operating yet again on a relatively shoestring budget.

The club brought in midfielder Denis Suarez on loan from Barcelona, with an option to make the deal permanent in the summer, but its ability to sign new players has been dwarfed in recent years by other big English clubs like City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool.

Under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour of the Abu Dhabi royal family, City have transformed from a relative afterthought to one of the best teams in Europe with more than a billion pounds spent on players over the last decade.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have continued to follow a “self-sustaining model,” under which the club doesn’t spend more than it brings in.

The approach is admirable to some fans who scoff at the idea of a club “buying a title.” But with players commanding higher transfer fees and salaries, that parsimonious strategy hasn’t yielded much silverware for Arsenal in recent years — other than the FA Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Lawrence said that “the whole idea of being self-sustaining faced a massive challenge when the Sheikhs took over at Manchester City.”

“It’s quite difficult to compete at the highest levels when you’re not playing the same financial game as your peers,” Lawrence told CNN. “It’s not impossible, but it’s really, really tough.”

Spending rules

In the NFL, as with other major American sports leagues, teams adhere to a salary cap that limits how much they can spend on players — a factor that complicates the comparison between Kroenke’s ownership of the Rams and Arsenal.

UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, has instituted financial fair play regulations that ostensibly prohibit clubs from spending more than they earn, but there has long been a sense that the policy might be toothless. A report last year by Der Spiegel claimed that Manchester City circumvented the financial fair play rules, which former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger once dismissed as effectively meaningless.

Those differences aside, Kroenke has still demonstrated a significant financial commitment to the Rams with a $1.6 billion investment in the team’s stadium complex (total cost: $5 billion), which will open in 2020 and play host to the Super Bowl in 2022.

“I would love for him to do for Arsenal what he’s done for the Rams,” said Lyle.

Arsenal have been crowned champions of England 13 times — more than any other club save for Manchester United and Liverpool — but the team hasn’t finished atop the Premier League since the 2003-04 season.

According to soccer finance expert Swiss Ramble, Kroenke hasn’t invested any of his own money into the club, a stark contrast from Manchester City’s Mansour, who has invested nearly £1.3 billion of his own fortune since 2008.

City have won the league three times in that span. Arsenal’s lack of investment has particularly annoyed fans who point to the club’s staggering revenues, which are driven in part by the fact that the team’s ticket prices are the highest in England.

On AFTV, some fans have argued that they have spent more money on the club than Kroenke, and there are growing calls to boycott the team’s official merchandise as a form of protest against the owner.

A spokesman for Arsenal pushed back on the suggestion that the owner isn’t committed to the club, saying that Kroenke’s son, Josh — who sits on the club’s board — has attended a number of the team’s matches in his father’s stead.

The spokesman also argued that, despite being subject to financial fair play rules, Arsenal has invested heavily in new players, including last January’s acquisition of star striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, who was signed for a club-record £55 million.

“Stan and Josh Kroenke have been clear with everyone at the club and our fans that their ambition is for Arsenal to compete for and win the top trophies in the game. This includes the Premier League and Champions League,” said Mark Gonnella, Arsenal’s communications and community affairs director.

“The Premier League and UEFA Financial Fair Play rules which apply to all clubs essentially require clubs to operate on a self-funding model, in particular for the P&L impact of player investments.

“In the last three transfer windows we have invested significantly in our playing squad both in terms of transfers, contract extensions and player wages, including twice breaking our transfer record. This has been done with the full support of the owners who are regular visitors to the club and our matches and are in contact with us on a daily basis.

“As a club we’re confident we can reach our goals to compete for and win the major trophies but recognize this will take time and hard work in what is the most competitive league in the world.”

Low approval rating, 100% ownership

Still, there is no denying the frustration from Arsenal fans toward the owner, which manifests itself when Kroenke does turn up to games.

He was booed loudly when he attended the final home match of Wenger’s 22-year managerial reign at Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London last May. Fans have hurled invective in Kroenke’s direction by displaying signs and singing profane songs at games, calling for him to leave.

After last year’s resignation of Wenger, who also faced calls for his departure over the club’s declining performances, a plane flew over the stadium during Arsenal’s final game of the season carrying a banner with a warning for the owner: “KROENKE – YOU’RE NEXT!!”

Lyle estimates that Kroenke’s approval rating among Arsenal supporters hovers around one percent.

The fans may be stuck with him for a while, though. Kroenke assumed full ownership of the club last year after spending $2.3 billion to buy up all of the remaining shares, including the roughly 800 that were owned by fans.

Ian Wright, a former Arsenal striker who is now a soccer commentator in England, called the takeover “absolutely disastrous” and said he wondered if it meant “the days of seeing [Arsenal] challenging for top honors on a regular basis may well have come and gone.”

The Arsenal Supporters Trust, a group founded in 2003 to broaden supporter ownership of the club, likewise bemoaned the move.

Nigel Phillips, a board member of the trust who owned shares of the club for 25 years before being forced to sell them in September, said he was “devastated” by the takeover. “The fox really now is in the hen house,” Phillips told CNN in an email.

The weekend may bring yet more despair for Arsenal fans, just as the Rams could be entering a glorious new era.

“Come Monday morning, Kroenke might have won the Super Bowl in America,” Lyle said, “but we might have been pummeled by Manchester City.”

#faces rebellion from English soccer fans - CNN #latest sports news #news sport #on brink of Super Bowl triumph #Rams owner #Sport #sportnews #sports articles #sports breaking news #sports latest news #sports news headlines #sports news in english #sports scores #today's sports news #today's sports news headlines

0 notes

topicprinter · 5 years

Link

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Justin Pflanz of TAB Performance, a brand that makes motorcycle exhausts and accessories.Some stats:Product: motorcycle exhausts and accessories.Revenue/mo: $400,000Started: January 2004Location: Lincoln, NEFounders: 2Employees: 7Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello, my name is Justin Pflanz and my brother Casey and I own and operate TAB Performance. TAB Performance is a manufacturer and retailer of high performance motorcycle exhaust and accessories. Our passion is helping our customers customize their bikes to fit their own personal styles, and truly enjoy the freedom of the ride.The product that we’re probably best known for is our Zombie baffles, which is actually an internal component we offer for many of our exhaust systems. The Zombie baffle concept came about in early 2017, after Harley-Davidson(R) came out with a new engine and exhaust system on their Touring models. Our original muffler designs, were more traditional, but we kept hearing the same thing from our customers, “Do you have anything louder?” So, we listened to our customers and that’s what we went to work designing, and that when we came up with the Zombie baffle design.Since the introduction of the Zombie baffle, we’ve been roughly doubling our annual sales, year over year.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayj8cEGRJEUWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?My Brother and I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. Our parents had started, grown and sold several companies growing up and it’s something we both had a passion for.We’ve also always felt that our personalities and experiences complimented each other well. Generally speaking, I tend to be more detail oriented and risk averse whereas my brother is better at looking at the big picture and is more comfortable taking risks. I went to college and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in business and he got his degrees in both Business Administration and Marketing.imageAfter college we both worked in the motorcycle industry for a few years, before I left to work overseas for an oil field services company. After three years of working overseas, I decided I was ready to come home. My brother and I had always talked about starting a company and it seemed like the perfect time. We looked around at current businesses for sale, met with business broker and discussed possible startups, for several months before finally landing on TAB Performance.We both had experience in manufacturing and the motorcycle industry and decided it would be the perfect fit.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.In the early days, and even largely today when we’re designing a new product one of the first challenges is to get our hands on the Original Equipment (OE) part that we’d like to replace.This allows us to take key measurements that we need to ensure that our parts will fit properly. It also gives us a chance to see the things we like and dislike about the OE part. From there we go to work making styling and functional changes we think our customers will like best. After making some rough prototypes we have to find a bike to test the product on.Although it would be great to just go out and buy a bike every time we were developing a new product, unfortunately that’s not very practical so often times we work with the local dealerships and riding community to try to find someone who has the type of bike we’re looking for and will allow us to use their bike for testing.Now that we’ve grown, and people are more familiar with us it’s a lot easier, but in the early days when even people in the local community didn’t know who we were, it could be a real challenge. After we’ve finished testing the prototype, we make any last minute changes, and then get to work making all jigs, fixtures, and tooling required for production.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1MuYICnykAfter the part is in production, our work isn’t done. The next and most important step, in our opinion, is listening to our customers and then making running changes based on their feedback. We are always looking to improve upon our products and we rely heavily on our amazing customers to help point us in the right direction.imageDescribe the process of launching the business.We were very fortunate, in that we had a lot of knowledge and support to draw on from our parents. However, probably one of the most important and helpful things I found was going through the process of filling out a business plan.Going through and filling out each and every aspect of a good business plan template really helped us organize and prioritize the things we needed to do to get started. The SBA has a lot of great resources to help with business plans and much more.Funding was of course one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. For us it was important to maintain complete control and ownership of our business which meant taking out bank loans, which is not an easy task when not everything you’re looking to borrow money for is a tangible asset. This again was where a good, well researched and put together a business plan really came in handy, and ultimately helped us secure the funding needed.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?We’ve tried a LOT of different marketing channels since we’ve launched. The big things we’ve learned boil down to the following points.Try to really know and understand everything you can about your customer. The more you know about your customer, the easier it will be to effectively market towards them.Find what marketing channel works best for you and your product. What works best for one product may not be good for another. For example we’ve found our best marketing channel to be YouTube videos because our customers want to be able to both hear and see the exhaust before purchasing.It’s great to experiment and try different things, as that’s how you learn what works best, but you’re probably working with a limited budget so focus on what is giving you the best ROI, rather than worrying about trying to market everywhere.Make sure you have a way of tracking, or assigning some sort of metrics to your marketing efforts. It tends to be easier to do this with digital marketing, but there are ways to accomplish the same thing with more traditional marketing methods such as print. Google Analytics, and similar systems are very powerful tools and can really help you out with this regardless of your type of business.Digital marketing platforms can be extremely powerful, if you understand how to use them. Learn everything you can about the marketing platforms you plan to use, so that you make sure you’re taking full advantage of all their features.Digital marketing may not be right for your business or product, but in our experience it’s pretty hard to beat. Especially with marketing platforms like Google and Facebook, where you can target geo specific locations, demographics and interests. The goal of marketing is to get your product in front of people that potentially want to buy your product. So for example, we may want to target our marketing efforts towards people who own motorcycles, which is very easy to do with today’s digital marketing platforms.Many of the marketing points I mentioned above apply to sales channels as well.For example we currently sell through the following channels:Directly through our websiteDirectly over the phoneDirectly at Motorcycle Shows and RallieseBayAmazonIndirectly through our dealer and distributor networkimageimageThese are the ones that we’ve found work best for our business and products, but there are many, many more out there. Even within the sales channels we use, not all of our products are listed on every channel.For example, we’ve found Amazon to be a poor channel for a lot of our products. We found that some of Amazon’s rigid restrictions and rules meant to keep things consistent for their customers was actually confusing many of ours and was leading to poor customer satisfaction compared to the rest of our sales channels so we pulled a lot of our products.However, we have other products that Amazon works great for, so you really want to make sure you’re looking at things on a case-by-case basis.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?As I mentioned earlier we’ve been doubling our sales every year for the past few years and we’re on target to do it again this year. That being said we’ve been very fortunate to see this kind of growth when our market as a whole has been on a decline the last few years.As a company we firmly believe that if we’re not constantly evolving, and improving, it won’t be long before we cease to exist. Despite our current incredible growth, there are no shortage of potential threats to our business. The growing popularity of electric motorcycles may one day eliminate the need for exhaust, regulatory bodies could implement restrictions on using aftermarket mufflers, or any number of other scenarios. However, we know that if we continue to evolve and diversify, while maintaining our core competencies we’ll continue to be a successful company.A prime example of this, is in our early days 98% of our business came from products related to one Harley-Davidson(R) model, the V-ROD(R). We understood that, if we were going to be successful we would need to improve the sales of products for other models, rather than focus just on the model we were having a lot of success in. We set aggressive goals, and within a few years, by growing our other product lines we were able to get our percent of sales related to the V-ROD(R), down below 50%. Just in time it turned out as Harley shortly thereafter announced that they were going to quit making the V-ROD. If we had stayed in our comfort zone making products for the model we were having the most success with, we as a company probably wouldn’t be here today.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Everyone makes mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you're probably not trying. The key is to learn from those mistakes, and not let them bring you or your business down.Get to know your customer, and your market. What needs does your customer have that the current market isn’t fulfilling. A small niche that bigger companies may not be interested in, could be a great and profitable place for a small business to start.Never stop learning. Find other business owners to connect, consume any information that might help you or your business be successful.Make sure you’re prioritizing the things that are most important. It can be easy to focus on low hanging fruit, and tasks easily accomplished but you can’t lose sight of the big picture long term tasks either.Surround yourself with people that compliment you, not people exactly like you.Constantly be working towards evolving and improving your business and it’s products.Make a point to review the services your business uses on a regular basis and get competitive quotes. For example, maybe there are better interest rates available and it might make sense to refinance a loan or move money to a different type of account. Maybe changes in your business have affected insurance rates or left you underinsured.You can’t be an expert in everything, so find experts that you trust, and learn enough to be able to ask the right questions and carry on an intelligent conversation with them. Whether it’s an accountant, lawyer, IT consultant or another expert, it great to have someone you trust that you can bring questions to, or bounce ideas off of.What platform/tools do you use for your business?e-Commerce Website: VolusionDo you research. There are a lot of e-commerce platforms out there, and you want to make sure you choose one that will work for you long term.Credit Card Processing: Authorize.netAs you grow the credit card processing fees can really add up so make sure the rates you’re getting are competitive.Email Marketing: MailchimpMailchimp has worked really great for us and they are free to use until you get over their threshold, which is great for small businesses starting out.CRM/Shipping/Order Management : ShipStationThis is one of my favorite and most important tools we use.Accounting & Inventory Management: Quickbooks - Desktop PremierQuickbooks is widely used and fairly intuitive as far as accounting systems go. They also have an on-line version which is the direction they seem to be moving. However as we grow we are looking into other, more ERP based systems.Middleware between ShipStation & Quickbooks: ConnexWe use Connex to automatically take orders from ShipStation and enter them in QuickBooks for us. This has been a huge time saver, and well worth it now that we’re doing to volume of order we’re doing.Communication and Organization: Office365 and TrelloOffice365 has a lot of really cool and powerful tools. However if you’re more of a Google fan you can look into GSuite which pretty much has all the same tools.We use Trello to organize and prioritize tasks and projects. It has a free version, and it works really well for what we use it for.Hiring: IndeedWe’ve tried a number of different hiring sites and Indeed, has worked best for us so far.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I can’t say there is any one particular book, podcast, or the like that really stands out to me. I’ve read, listened to, and watched a lot of material about business over the years and I think I’ve taken pieces that made sense and worked for me from a lot of different resources. My advice would be two parts. First, find material (whatever the source) that engages and speaks to you. With possibly a few exceptions, if the material isn’t interesting and engaging then it’s probably not worth your time. Secondly, it’s great to learn from others, but don’t get so caught up in what other people have done that you forget to do what you need to do to be successful. Just because something worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it’s right for you, or your business.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?We don’t have anything specifically at the time of writing this article, but we’re always looking for hard working talented people, so if you’re interested, feel free to contact us through our website: www.tabperformance.comWhere can we go to learn more?Website: www.tabperformance.comFacebook: TABPerformanceTwitter: TABPerformanceInstagram: tabperformanceYouTube ChannelEmail: [email protected] you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

0 notes

rebeccahpedersen · 6 years

Text

Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3)

TorontoRealtyBlog

I sure hope the blog readers are up early on a Friday!

We all know that Friday blogs only get one weekday of display on TRB, but they do get Saturday and Sunday, for what it’s worth.

Here’s hoping that “Burning Questions” #4 through #10 get the eyes they deserve…

–

4) How many condos will be cancelled, and will changes to the Condominium Act result?

In short: several, and no.

That’s a pessimistic viewpoint, right? Well, it’s a realistic view-point as well.

I literally had this conversation with a colleague of mine today when he told me, “You’re being pessimistic.” I told him that as much as I’d love to be optimistic, I can’t help but be realistic. I don’t go through life seeing the cup as half-empty, but I sure as hell don’t ever want to fall into the segment of society that willfully delude thesmelves into seeing something that isn’t there.

Being realistic means you’re less likely to be caught off guard. And perhaps that’s a mantra that every pre-construction condo buyer should adopt.

We saw more condo cancellations last year than that any year I can remember, and the media coverage was ramped up too. It makes for a sexy story, especially when you have whiny buyers who will mug for the cameras while telling their sob stories. Remember, it’s always somebody else’s fault!

Since, in my opinion, politicians aren’t actually in the business of helping people, but rather in the business of self-preservation, I don’t believe that at any point in the near future, we will see changes to the Condominium Act that will prohibit developers from cancelling more condo projects, for any reason they see fit. There’s just nothing “in it” for a politician to enact change. Don’t get me wrong – politicians will stand in front of podiums at some point, lamenting the evil developers and promising to help the poor, infantilized pre-construction condo buyers, but once the flashbulbs stop, those politicians will simply go back to City Hall and work on their giant paper-clip chains at their desks.

Remember, I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic. There’s a difference!

At some point, developers will cross the line, and maybe, just maybe, something will be done.

Take the Cosmos Condo, for example. In 2018, Liberty Developments cancelled the 3-tower, 1,453-unit complex, citing the cliché “financial constraints” as the reason. And only a few months later, Liberty filed an application with the city of Vaughan to build two “new” condos on a plot of land that they own right next door.

Is that fair?

Well, yes, of course it is. Because, 1) Liberty was permitted to cancel the project as per their clauses in the Agreements that buyers signed, and, 2) Liberty can file an application to build a condo on any plot of land that they own, as they see fit. Liberty is free to suggest that one project has nothing to do with the other, and while we know that’s not the case, it doesn’t matter.

Is that case enough to cross the line? Or is it just business as usual?

We will soon find out!

Because on February 13th, 2019, a class-action lawsuit against Liberty Developments finally goes to court!

Suing a condominium developer is never easy, and when it comes to suing for a cancelled condo, I have never seen a class-action result in a “win” in Toronto. Correct me if I’m wrong.

The website www.cosmoscondoscancellation.com will tell you all you need to know about this class-action, as well as what is required for a class-action of this statue. In order to proceed, the law firm requires 400 people to provide a non-refundable fee of $500 plus HST, which represents a paltry $200,000 retainer for the firm.

It should be noted that the law firm, Charney Lawyers, is perhaps the most experienced firm in Toronto when it comes to condominium lawsuits. According to their website, they have class actions against Festival Tower, X-Condos, Emerald City, Murano, and One Bedford, just to name a few. And according to THIS article, the firm is poised to take on the developer of Iconica Condos, which was the second major condo cancellation in Vaughan in 2018, this one even larger than Cosmos, with 3-towers and 1,633 units getting the axe.

According to Urbanation, in 2018 there were 12 buildings in 9 developments, representing 4,202 units, that were cancelled.

In 2017, there were only eight buildings and 1,658 units cancelled.

In 2016, a mere 379 units were cancelled.

Will this trend continue in 2019?

–

5) Will we open up the Greenbelt to development?

I mentioned this in December’s year-end blog, specifically including in the “Future of the City of Toronto” story, which I felt represented Story #1.

I wrote that blog about two weeks after the Ontario government launched Bill 66, the “Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018,” and mere days after the media had grabbed on to the story, and the reaction.

The Toronto Star sought out mayors and twenty municipalities for statements, and while Mayor John Tory was the only one to dance around the issue and not provide any comment of substance (no surprise…), most mayors were wholeheartedly against the idea of residential development on the Greenbelt.

But here’s what’s interesting about the idea of building on the Greenbelt: it’s not for the benefit of municipalities other than Toronto.

At least, not in my opinion.

The biggest reason why the Greenbelt would be opened to residential development would be to alleviate the massive imbalance of supply and demand in Toronto, and potentially reduce prices and/or stop rapid appreciation.

I don’t think that Doug Ford is even considering what’s best for Aurora in all of this, but rather what’s best for Toronto. Ironic, considering he’s known as the mayor who doesn’t care about Toronto, and panders to voters outside the GTA (ie. his desire to build subways north of the city, rather than a downtown relief line). That is the only reason why I think, maybe, Doug Ford will do what’s best for the Greenbelt, rather than what’s best for the real estate market.

And of course, that raises a good discussion point! With regards to whether or not to build residential real estate on the Greenbelt, what comes first: a) what’s best for the Greenbelt, b) what’s best for real estate values and affordability to those in southern Ontario, in the long-term?

Is this simply a case of, “If you want to make an omlet, you need to break a few eggs”?

Are we naive for thinking that we won’t ever need that land?

Every time I see a movie based hundreds of years ago, and there’s nothing but green land surrounding the quaint little town, in every which way, it makes me think about what existed on the site of my home, or office, one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred years ago.

Call this line of thinking exaggerated if you please, but don’t people acknowledge that at some point, we’d have to consider building on the Greenbelt in order to house the people who want to live in the Golden Horseshoe?

Or do we just continue piling people on top of one-another in the downtown core until the house of cards implodes?

–

6) Will there be any changes in the mortgage market?

I believe that as things stand right now, this is the most confusing time for the mortgage market in a decade. Maybe more.

There have been worse times, ie. 20% interest rates, vendor take-back mortgages, et al.

But in terms of being able to know, with a modicum of certainty, what interest rate you will end up with, before purchasing, I don’t know that there’s been a stranger time than now.

5% down? 20% down? House? Condo? Variable? Fixed?

There’s absolutely zero consistency across the board, and what’s worse is that most buyers are making assumptions that are entirely incorrect.

For example, would you assume that if you have a 20% down payment, you would get a better interest rate than the buyer with a 5% down payment? I think that’s a reasonable assumption, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Buyers will 5% down get better rates than those with 20% down. Buyers who are better qualified financially are punished by the banks, who charge them higher rates. For those of you that work in banking, we can call this semantics, and yes, I’m being a dramatic. But you get my point.

The “pre-approval” is ironically both more necessary, and useless, than ever before. It’s necessary because lenders have tightened up their criteria and no longer should a buyer simply rely on an online calculator, or loosey-goosey conversation with a bank or mortgage broker with respect to a pre-approved amount. But the pre-approvals are useless because so much changes in the mortgage market, week-to-week, and literally day-to-day. Not only that, a buyer looking at different property types, at different prices, will ultimately get very different terms from a lender. So what good is a pre-approval if the terms are going to change between the day the ink on the document dries, and the day the purchase is made?

I’ve heard anecdotally that most banks have a November 1st year-end, so after that date, they “turned off the taps,” so to speak, and made far fewer loans. This wouldn’t make sense to many people who simply assume that banks are in business to lend, 24/7, 365. But having experienced exceptional years, most banks realized the need to let employees catch their breath, and prepare for 2019. Based on this, I would expect restrictions to loosen this month.

I’ve also heard that CMHC will be releasing new policies in April that will be groundbreaking, although exactly what those new rules are, remain to be seen. I’ve heard rumours that this is mainly to do with self-employed, contract, and commission-based individuals, who have been hit hard over the last couple of years. It’s amazing, because I’ve had clients who are commission-based with exceptional incomes get turned down for loans that salary-based individuals, with half the salary, would have had no problem obtaining.

–

7) Will we continue to see a mass exodus from the city? Where will buyers go in 2019?

Over the past six years, two of my friends have moved from Toronto to Mississauga, one has moved from Toronto to Montreal, one has moved from Toronto to Kingston.

Work, life, and family played a role.

But you can’t think for a second that the cost of living in Toronto wasn’t a major factor.

As I’ve mentioned before many times, it can actually be faster to get to work, living outside the city and having access to better transit, than living downtown in a poorly-serviced spot. I always reference my friend who moved to Mississauga and walks 8-minutes to the GO Station, takes a 16-minute train to Union, and walks 5-6 minutes to his office. He used to take 40 minutes to get to the same office from Bathurst & Queen’s Quay.

Some clients of mine who live east or west of the city are seeing absolutely zero point in living in the core, although to be fair, I just received an email from a client who works at Yonge & Finch, who’s wife drives to Mississauga, and who wants to live in midtown.

But whereas moving outside the core used to be a last-resort, and one that was fought by the parents and friends, and much debated among the buyers, it has now become a realistic discussion point at the start of many searches.

I also think, and this is one of the rare times when you’ll hear me say this, that people are becoming more reasonable. Don’t get me wrong, the good folks that protested the B.C. pipeline on the Bloor Viaduct in Toronto (John Tory clearly had no issue with this) on Wednesday night, during rush hour, with their e-vapes and man-buns, who went back to their parents’ houses when they were finished, will still clamour for the government to pay for their lives, and everything in it. But the actual working-class in Toronto seem to have accepted that if you can’t afford to buy a property in Toronto, then you can look outside the city.

I understand. Change is hard. Acceptance is harder. But it seems as though more and more people are accepting that, 1) The market crash of 50% that will enable them to buy their dream home, isn’t coming, and 2) The universe is not going to solve their problem.

Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Milton, and Brampton have all seen an uptick in activity in the past few years, despite the ups and downs of the market. The same can be said for Ajax, Oshawa, Whitby, and Pickering, although prices have suffered there, as mentioned on Monday.

People are going to continue moving out of the city. People will continue moving into the city, ie. those who can afford it, but I just don’t see all those with the means and desire to own a freehold property outside the city hanging on here any longer.

–

8) Will condos continue to get smaller and smaller?

Absolutely. No question about it, in my mind.

But isn’t this a necessary evil? I mean, if buyers are objecting to prices, and rapid appreciation, then isn’t buying a smaller condo the obvious alternative?

Paying more, to get less. That’s the theme in today’s condo market, and I don’t see it changing.

I always point to The Art Shoppe as a classic example of what to expect moving forward. There are studio plans of 321, 325, 331, 339, 379, 379, 418, 431, and 559 square feet respectively. One-bedroom plans of 321, 480, 487, 510, 543, 567, 569, 607, 663, 867, 889, 893, and 1,004 square feet respectively too. I’ll admit, the 800+ square foot 1-bedroom layouts are very rare, but this doesn’t offset the fact that this development has seven different floor plans of under 400 square feet.

Once upon a time, we thought that a sub-600 square foot condo was small. When I bought my first 585 square foot condo, the people around me marvelled at what a tiny space it was. I remember when condos started being built in the high-400’s, and it was just laughable. The low-400’s came after that. But the low-300’s? This is something new. And not altogether; I mean, there are 350 square foot bachelors in older buildings. But in pre-construction, off floor plans? This is a relatively new phenomenon.

–

9) Will pre-construction condo prices continue to make zero sense?

Oh yeah, we’re into bizzaro territory now.

Magic beans. That’s what this has come to.

“King Toronto Condos” was launched last fall by Allied Properties & Westbank, and it was written up in the major newspapers, ie. THIS article in the Globe & Mail which drooled over the Danish architecture.

But what’s different about this condo isn’t just the architecture, which most people don’t actually care about, but just pretend to because it’s trendy, but rather the major difference between this condo and any other King West condo is the price.

How about $1,604 per square foot?

The 16-storey, 514-unit building will offer units starting at $659,900 and starting at 390 square feet.

For the love of GOD, who is paying $1,091,990 for a 681 square foot, 1-bed, 1-bath?

Apparently, “investors” are. Yup. Smart investors. That’s the ticket…

–

10) Will “housing” be a major discussion point in the 2019 Federal election?

No question about it. And if you know me, and you know my view on politics (ie. what’s written in point #4), you won’t be surprised to hear me say that this will be more pandering to voters.

I would love to see more affordable housing built across Canada, specifically in Toronto. But with that comes about 1000x as much rhetoric which I just can’t stand.

I fully expect every politician, from every party, to appeal to the cash-strapped, gee-shucks Canadian who can’t afford they home that they want, whether that’s simply a roof over their head, or the 4-bed, 4-bath detached with a walk-in closet that they believe they “deserve.”

I fear we’ll get away from the idea of subsidized housing for those at the lowest-end of the spectrum, and waver into politicians promising that every Canadian can have what they want. Because that’s been the theme in most elections of late, and I’m not sure that you’ll gain the vote of the middle class by promising housing for those holding the bottom-rung.

Liberals, PC, NDP, and whatever party Maxime Bernier seems to have started, will all make housing a major part of their platforms. And while I don’t think it will dominate the election, I think voters who don’t feel as affected (ie. don’t care) about some of the bigger issues, will focus in directly on campaign discussions that affect them.

–

So there you have it, folks!

Ten burning questions, and probably fewer answers than we’d hoped to have.

The discussion after Wednesday’s blog was fantastic, and the readers even went through a few number-crunching examples for investment properties, which I thought was really cool.

More questions in today’s blog, albeit less appealing. But I invite you to have your two cents either way…

The post Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3) appeared first on Toronto Realty Blog.

Originated from http://bit.ly/2H6JVrg

0 notes

captain-unlikelynutbouquet-blog · 6 years

Text

Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

"Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

i 22 and i need the best quote i paying 341 with state farm that bull and i got ma g , what the best and cheapest company out there i don't care much about broker as long he/she got a good deal.

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://averageinsurancecosts.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr

RELATED QUESTIONS:

First car insurance help?

I am 17 year old male, I have spent months looking for a car that I can be insured on for at least a respectable price, I have have gotten quotes for all the typical first cars, KA, Corsa, Punto, Ibiza etc. and they have all been ridiculous like 5-6k?! Now I know you can get insurance as a new male driver cheaper I just don't know what car or how that is possible. I've heard rumors that Ford Puma's are actually very good on insurance for new male drivers even though they are 1.4l and up? is that true?""

Cheap car insurance for teens?

I'm 17 and interested in either a Clio, Punto or Polo. I've looked everywhere!""

The Federal Government Insurance Plan?

If the federal Government has an insurance plan and we pay for it,where is it taken from I mean what tax pays and how much do we pay. and where is the plan located so I can see what there plan is.""

Insurance?

About how much more expensive is a life insurance policy for a smoker in realtion to a nonsmoker.( I need a figure)

How much do you pay for car insurance?

About a car insurance..?

I've just got an instruction permit and wanna take a spin for the first time. But I'm concerned if it's ok to drive a car without my own insurance. The car is my mom's and I'm not sure the car itself is insured or she is.

Best online insurance website?

i own a insurance broking firm in india, insurance in india is at very nascent stage. want to launch a service oriented internet portal to sell insurance online. please suggest me some good insurance online websites where i can emulate some of the best practices and also please give me suggestions what people expect from these online websites and broking firms? Any Bad/good experiences. All your inputs would be very very valuable""

Insurance wants to total my car?

So recently an 18 wheeler ran into the back of my car damaging the whole trunk and the force of the truck pushed my car into a post scraping the side of my car. The insurance guy came and just got a call back saying that they want to total my car and pay for it. The car is a black 2002 jetta 1.8 turbo from a small local dealer and has 140,000 miles. Im currently still paying it off and the car cost me $6000. Here is my concern, they haven't told me how much they plan to give me for my jetta but i went on craigslist and the average cost for a 2002 jetta 1.8t is around what i paid from $5000-$6000, will the insurance give me that amount because bluebook says my car is worth at most around $3400 in excelent condition and at retail value according to bluebook is around $4500. All I'm concern with is either my car is restore to the point before the accident or if they get me enough money to buy a new jetta of equal or greater quality. Restoring my car car i guess is not and option which I'm ok with but what if the amount they give me is not enough to go buy a new jetta from a small local dealer will they give me more money or how does this whole process work because I've never been in this situation.""

Hip but affordable places for young couples to live?!?

My boyfriend and I are talking about moving; at the moment we live in central Pennsylvania. The only thing keeping us here is our families. We would like to move to an affordable area, either a small city or large town. Somewhere that has good jobs, and local colleges or universities since I'm still in college and lots of jobs. Also we want an area that offers a lot of activities, especially outdoors. All suggestions are welcome!""

How much do you think my insurance will cost for my car?

I'm 16 and a female. I'm getting my license in a few days, and my parents are going to add me on to the insurance list. We've never had any accidents, except my dad, but someone hit him on his motorcycle, it wasn't his fault. My car will probably be made around 1998-2008. We have Allstate. What's your rough estimate?""

Cheapest car insurance for you a young driver?

What are the cheapest cars for a young driver to insure? I'm 17 and looking at buying soon so any help would be great!

Is my daughter covered under my car insurance?

My 18 year old daughter finally got her drivers liscense (how i do not know) She has had it for four days. Last night I let her drive before I put her on my car insurance. She hit a car . I wanted to pay the guy out of my own pocket but it looks to be $4000 in damage. Im pissed .

What is the cheapest affordable insurance for an 18 year old male?

Alright so I am 18, I live at home, and I need to pay for my own insurance. I go to high school full time, I have good grades and I have taken drivers ed. I work 30 + Hours a week and make about 800 per month. I have about $6000 saved up to but a car plus insurance, I have found a 2005 KIA rio for $3500. I already have tags to put. My parents are very poor, both receive social security, and I am the youngest of five. Is there any possible way I could get insurance for $300 a month minimal coverage. If anyone has any ideas, or advice please let me know. Thank You""

How do I find out my car insurance rates before I get a car?

I haven't bought a car yet because a lot depends on how much insurance will be. I'm a 27 single female living in Boston, I've had a license since 18 but never drove so it expired and I recently renewed it. I don't have anything on my record. I would be the only person on the insurance. I went online but they required the make and year of your car to calculate the rates.""

What liability limits should I apply to my auto insurance?

My husband and I are researching new insurance rates. We have looked into Geico and are almost ready to buy the policy. We currently have 25/50,000 liability limits, but since we own our house and can afford a little more, we're looking into increasing our liability to 100/300,000. Is that OK? Or, should we increase the limits to 250/500,000? It seems unnecessary to increase it THAT high.""

300zx insurance quote?

I am currently 18 years old and i am trying to buy a manual nissan 300zx. I am currently accident free and I wanted to know the approximate cost for insurance?

What would be a good first car thats cheap?

oh and btw while i'm at it whats cheap insurance for a 16 year old male,liability pretty much""

""Car insurance help, cost per month?""

I got in a fender bender and it was my fault, the guys bumper got a little bent on one side. it was supposed to be done without insurance but thats another story! he quoted me 800. how much will this affect my insurance monthly? im 19 and drive a honda civic""

Single girl needs answer about car damage and insurance vs. out of pocket?

I was driving my father's car on a narrow, snowy city street and clipped (knocked off, really) the mirror on a parked car (a Nissan). I left my name and number and the owner ...show more""

Do I need insurance to drive. Or is it fine if the car has insurance?

Who provides motorcycle insurance for 17 year old?

I need to know who will provide insurance for a 17 year old male in Alabama. The bike I want is street legal; it is a Roketa 2009 200cc.

No insurance not my car?

Hi, my friend bought a car of some random guy on 3-19-09 and she has not registered it under her name yet, as the tags are not expired until late Dec 2009. Now i was doing repairs on the car, took it for a test drive, and got cited over by a peace officer for being on the cell phone. Now, since my friend hasn't registered it or no gotten insurance. My ticket says No proof of insurance...Am i financially responsible for this ticket? i am guilty for being on the phone, but the insurance? Ticket was issued on 4-11-09 I live in CA Thanks guys""

Cheapest Car Insurance Rates - Chicago?

Not sure if my fathers age has anything to do with rates, but he is 65 years old and pays $600 for six months (for one of his two cars) a 2003 Toyota Corolla with over 100,000 miles on it. He's currently with State Farm. Are there any companies that are as good (not sure what qualifies as being good , but heard that State Farm is good ) but for half the price? And is $600 for six months a lot for the above car? I know insurance covers more than just damage to the car (like injuries caused to others), but the car probably isn't even worth more than a couple grand. So not sure if paying that much is even worth it. Any thoughts?""

What is the cheapest way to get insurance with a friends car?

I'm already practising my driving lessons and theory. Once I pass what's the best and cheap way to be insured.

Does MetLife car insurance cover household members?

I recently obtained my Massachusetts Junior Operator License. My mom has metlife car insurance and I'm trying to figure out if I'm covered on the insurance. The metlife website says that it covers you, members of your family that live in your house, and anyone who uses your car with your permission Does that mean that I'm already covered or do I need to be listed under her insurance policy?""

Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

i 22 and i need the best quote i paying 341 with state farm that bull and i got ma g , what the best and cheapest company out there i don't care much about broker as long he/she got a good deal.

Where can I find cheap car insurance in Philadelphia?

I know the auto insurance rates in Philly are expensive. Why is this and where do I go to find the best price?

How much should health insurance cost a 24 year old female in los angeles?

I'm looking into geting health Insurance and i not sure how mush it would cost a healthy 24 year old female who's monthly income is ruffly 1500 a month. I don't have any major health problem. Can someone please give me an idea of what i might be looking at or any suggestions ... thanks

How much would it cost for a 17 year old to insure a.....?

How much would it cost for a 17 year old to insure a 2007 VAUXHALL CORSA VXR TURBO 1,598 cc""

An average how much is car insurence for teenagers?

i have been talking to my parents and they told me its time for me to pay for my own insurance,so i was like ok,but what is the average amount for car insurance?""

Cheep health insurance?

i need insurance for me and my husband and i dont want to pay alot but i want it to be a good insurance i live in missouri

The cheapest auto insurance in Fl?

Port orange fl

Good starter bike thats cheap on insurance?

i was thinking a 250r or a 600r???

Whats the cheapest car insurance for a 17 year old?

I'm getting towards the point where I'm going to be driving soon whats the cheapest car insurance I can get

What the steps to take if someone doesn't want to use car insurance to pay for accident?

Someone just rear ended me. There are deep scratches on the bumper. He has car insurance, but doesn't want to use it. I got most of his information - driver's license #, car insurance info, ect. What are the steps I should take? My car insurance company said I have to call in and report accidents as soon as they happen. Should I do this in case he doesn't follow through and pay me for repairs? Should I go get an estimate right now, and have him send me a check?""

New york car insurance?

Fyi i have liberty mutual coverage. So my son will be receiving his license soon, and i want to know what the best option for him would be. My household has two policies, one that my daughter holds and one that i hold. I have two pretty expensive cars on my policy, and my daughter has my old car (clunker) and her own separate policy. When my son gets his license i want him to drive my daughters old car, while she is at college, and when she is back they can share. So if I were to list my son on her insurance, would he be able to drive my cars? ( like when his is in the shop). Or would it make more sense to put him on my policy? Thank you!""

Were can i get Insurance for the Aprilia rs125 at age 17?

Im 17 looking for insurance for the Aprilia rs125 but ever were i look no company's will insure me i don't know what i doing wrong but they must not like me :P can i getadvicee please thanks :)

Well for my first car what should it be? thats affordable and wont kill me in insurance.?

I love mustangs as i said before in my last question and i would like to know any suggestions to get other than that (that's a sporty stylish car) with leather seats and tiny (something like a mustang).

""I'm 57, am learning to drive a car, will need the best and cheapest car insurance, how will I know which is re""

i just want to be able to drive my car, and know there is help there for me, when and if I ever need it, without all the hassles of being stranded. Am in the process of checking out AAMI, RACT. Comprehensive for a first off driver is about $859 a year!! would i be better to Join RACT emergency on road assistance AS WELL AS taking out fire and theft third party insurance separately? I will be about the only driver, with a friend or two......is this the best cover for me? Say...for 1,2 years until I build up a reliable record? enough then to qualify for cheaper comrehensive insurance car cover?""

""How do I file an auto insurance claim and what exactly will happen to my insurance rate, deductible, etc.?""

My windshield was really frosty but I only had to drive like 20 yards to get where I wanted. So like an idiot, I start driving and run into a fire hydrant. This damages the front right quarter panel, the right blinker, and it may have also damaged the axel or steering column because I couldn't get my car to move after that. What do I tell my insurance company? and am I going to have to pay anything?""

How do we get life insurance?

im 45 & my wife is 42 we have 2 kids one is 18 and one is 20 we never had life insurance before 1.how does it work? 2.is it expensive? 3. how much money can you get? 4. what company is the best to choose? 5. can we still get life insurance? please answer all my questions dont put stupid answers :)

When do insurance rates on your vehicle go down?

I'm 22. In my 5 years of driving, I have NEVER been in an accident and have never gotten a ticket. My parents are paying around $60 a month whereas I'm still paying $117. I don't drive a fancy car neither. Just an older 2004 Camry. Is it because of my age bracket is why my insurance still hasn't lowered any? I'm with Allstate and in California if that matters.""

Affordable insurance for children in Texas?

Does any one know of any insurance for children living in Texas? I had medicaid for my children; but, got disqualified because of a vehicle that we recently purchased. Our income really stinks. But, we never thought that it would affect us. But the resources count against us.""

600cc sports bike good for a beginner? gsxr600 or zx6r?

ive never ridin a motorrcycle before and im looking at getting a gsx-r600 or zx6r. Im taking the safety course which is 10 hours of riding and 5 of classes which i realize isnt a lot. I drive stick shift cars so i get the point of shifting the bike. Ive ridin a dirtbike once and quads once but i seem to be a natural on anything with a motor so im not nervous at all about getting a racing bike starting. A lot of people say a 600 is to big for a first bike but i know people that have them and say they arent that bad as long as you dont drive it like an asshole. I plan on really taking it veryyyyy easy the first summer out and not pushing anything untill i feel extremly comfortable with it. My question is should i get this for a first bike? Im not getting a 250 dont even bother with that. Ive seen the 650's which are more begginer friendly but i just feel ill outgrow that within the first year and ill lose my money by selling it and buying a 600 instead of getting the 600 in the first place

How much would my insurance be?

I am a 17 year old male and I'm looking a getting a ford mustang. I am trying to get a 2008 v6 4.0 L convertible is my car insurance going to be rediculously high?

""Where can i find out when my home was built, for insurance purposes. uk?

Just needed for home insurance quotes.

My insurance say I have to pay for the other parties repair costs and hire costs?

Do I have to pay for their car hire costs? I thought their insurance paid for it as you have that option when purchasing insurance whether you want courtesy car or not?? please help

Insurance costs for new driver in canada?

I just got my g2 and im wondering how much will insurance be for a new male driver on their own vehicle, with no collision coverage? I know it varies!!! So just give me like a general answer... BY THE WAY I UNDERSTAND THERES WEBSITES THAT WILL GIVE YOU A QUOTE! I TRIED THESE AND THEY DONT WORK! SO DONT BOTHER TELLING ME TO LOOK AT A WEBSITE LIKE THAT!! theres still going to be a wise guy who does thou...""

Why is car insurance so expensive in the UK?

I'm a 19 year old male with 2 years no claims. I have just come back from the USA where everyone there drives huge engined trucks and cars, including even the 16-year-olds. Fed up with driving a tiny hatchback, I enquire about insuring my Dad's dormant K reg BMW 735 auto LPG which is a really nice cruising car ideal for long journeys. However the insurance companies reject me almost immediately. Why is this the case in the UK? Why am I not allowed to drive a nice car albeit old just because I am young? I'm a keen car restorer and take the utmost care whilst driving, and living on a farm have driven most vehicles, so would not say I was inexperienced. Does anyone know of any bespoke insurers or do I really have to stick to driving a tiny hatchback until I'm 25? It seems as though the whole system is unfairly against me :(""

What is the average insurance for motorcycles vs cars in the US?

I need an average insurance price for a cheap bike and the average insurance for a cheap car.

""Which is the best car insurance in uk, cost wise and service wise.?""

Which is the best car insurance in uk, cost wise and service wise.?""

Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

i 22 and i need the best quote i paying 341 with state farm that bull and i got ma g , what the best and cheapest company out there i don't care much about broker as long he/she got a good deal.

""Bought a new car, but now is too expensive. How do I trade in for a cheaper car?""

I bought a 2013 Ford Focus S, I love it but its starting to cost me alot. I still owe 18,800 on it. I make about 1300/mo Car payment is $320/mo Insurance is $230/mo And I have a few other bills.. So it leaves me like $150 for 2 weeks every paycheck. Which, isn't enough. I want a Wrangler, and I found great prices on then and insurance believe it for not is cheaper on it, but the problem is.. Is the equity on the trade in. I made a mistake on this car, and now.. Really I'm trying to get rid of it as soon as possible, so I can start saving for my Wrangler. What do you suggest I do? Thanks. (by the way, I'm 19 and in the Navy)""

Cheapest 3rd Party car insurance?

Hi guys, I really need cheap insurance 3rd Party with full UK driving licence. I'm turning 17 tomorrow and all the prices w/ a full UK driving licences are hitting 3,500, my car's only worth 500. The prices are fine with a provisional, but as soon as I hit a full UK driving licence, they GO UP massively and it's not right. Any ideas? Thanks""

Nissan Skyline insurance in USA?

Does anyone know of any companies that insure Nissan Skylines in the US? I'm looking to buy a 1990 gtst I found but I can not find insurance anywhere for it. Can anyone help me out?

Cheapest moped insurance? UK!!?

I've just purchased a moped and would like to know what you people thought was the cheapest insurance provider for me to go with. thanks

I need some Insurance Help?

My father, just yesterday tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrist, luckily he had called the cops, but he also had to take an ambulance ride and another ambulance ride to the county hospital where he will be held for 72 hours. He does not have insurance due to his work laying him off, and him not being able to afford it. Is there any kind of insurance that will cover this kind stuff. He has been suffering from depression and high blood pressure for quite sometime, so I don't know if those are pre existing things that would stop insurance...but him and my mother cant afford this at all right now. They live in southern california, if anyone knows of some kind of insurance, please please respond!""

Affordable car insurance for teen drivers?

I am currently 17 and I will have my license for a year on April 28th. I had one minor accident in October but I finally found a car that I can afford payments on that is a really nice car but all the insurance companies are giving me rates over $200 that I can't afford because I don't have the money to pay that and a car payment. Is there anyway I can get the car and get low insurance rates?

What Are some cheap insurance for 16 years old teen?

What are some insurances cheap California for a first time driver 16 years old teen? Wanted to add my own not to parents? Parents what are insurances your teen using in California ? Please list how much you pay or your teen and what's the insurance is called? Thanks

Why are people comparing mandated health insurance to car insurance?

You are not forced to buy car insurance if you don't have a car. You have the right to not own a car. So why can't we have the right to not have health insurance??

Debit prepaid insurance or prepaid expense?

dec 2. issued check no. 1103 for $2270.00 to miami insurance company for the premium on a 30,000 policy for the year beginning dec 1. would it be: debit Prepaid Insurance 2270 cedit Cash 2270 ??? thanks!""

""Driving without insurance in CA, only 19 yrs old and does not own car, what is the worst case scenario?""

So I got into a bit of a fender bender at my college parking garage. I was trying to park and due to the tight space i apparently hit the back bumper of a car. I drove away because I didn't want to further block traffic, I thought I hit the side wall, and I was already late for an important exam. The campus police called me, and he's not charging me with a hit and run. We also have everything straightened out with the other driver. However, the officer needs my insurance to complete the police report. I do not have insurance, I don't own a car and the car I was driving was my sister's. Am I completely liable? I researched around and saw fines were up to $1000 and licenses were revoked 60-90 days. Please help me answer, I'm so stressed out and terrified of everything that's happening!..""

What is with health insurance?

Americans and whatever other country has health insurance. what happens if you don't have health insurance? What is health insurance? Why do you need it? I live in Australia and I don't understand why you need health insurance when we don't.

Will I have a surcharge on my auto insurance policy if I let the policy lapse even without a car?

At the moment I have decided to hold off on purchasing a new vehicle. My previous car was a lease, the lease expired and at the moment I do not have a car in my name. My independent insurance agent is telling me that if I do not keep up a policy at even a low rate, when I do get a car (whenever that might be) and then get a new policy I would be subject to a surcharge. For this reason we are doing something very basic to keep a policy in place. This seems really strange to me and raises a question why do I have to have car insurance if I do not have a car? Why should I get a surcharge when I do get a car at a later date? This almost seems like once you're in the auto insurance system, you cannot get out without penalties. Seems a lot like the insurance industry is trying to get everyone to pay into the system with or without a car. And if that's the case this sounds awfully like the auto insurance industry has already set precedent on the health insurance industry. What am I missing?""

About what would the insurance be on a '94 Camaro V6?

This doesn't apply to me...one of my friends asked me to post this--long story Anyway, he wants to buy this '94 Chevy Camaro base model; not the Z28!! He's gonna buy it off a local guy for $3000...it was 3200 something but he gave him a break for cash. So I'm supposed to ask what kind of insurance that he, a 16 year old will a spotless driving record and good grades, could expect to pay. His parents would like to put liability only on it to keep the cost down. Does anybody have any estimates???--remember liability ONLY..... Oh and we're here in Iowa if location makes any difference....""

""I received a minor traffic infraction (65 in a 60 MPH zone) in WA, will my insurance go up?""

Minor traffic infraction, my first ticket. I'm 20. Also, what's a defferal and how much does it cost?""

Premium vs deductible? Health Insurance?

I'm really confused by everything having to deal with Health Insurance. I know a deductible is what you pay before the insurance company pays the rest. But what is the premium? And are these two related?? Please Help.

Help with insurance policies?

Does anyone know websites with insurance policies for events? I'm holding an event and I can't seem to find any proper policies anywhere. It's more of a sporty type event.

Why are the insurance rates high on a Ford Mustang?

Good cars with cheap insurance?

Does anyone know any good cars with cheap insurance for a 17 year old ??

How can i get cheap car insurance?

cheap car insurance

Can I stay on my parent's car insurance at age 25?

I will be turning 25 in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if insurance companies let you stay on your parents car insurance at that age. I moved back home about 2 years ago to finish my degree so I live under the same roof. My parent's car insurance is state farm.

Best Life Insurance?

I need life insurance................ which company do you think has the better life insurance policies?

How much does your car insurance increase with a new car?

how much of an increase would you sprend on insurance if you went from a used car thats worth about 5k, to driving a brand new car worth 15-20k?""

Is it worth getting full comp insurance if your car is only cheap?

How much is car insurance for a 16 year old girl?

My dad is going to get me a car when I turn sixteen. My friend already has a truck and she is sixteen. She pays 8OO$ a year. Does that mean it could be less for me since I will be driving a car and not a truck? Or would it be around the same price? (I go through state farm.)

Auto insurance quotes?

Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

i 22 and i need the best quote i paying 341 with state farm that bull and i got ma g , what the best and cheapest company out there i don't care much about broker as long he/she got a good deal.

Can I finance or lease a car without auto insurance?

( I know I need the insurance to drive the car) I am getting ready to purchase my first vehicle, I can afford a hefty down payment, but would like to lease or finance so I can build up my credit. The problem is that I currently do not have any auto insurance whatsoever. How would I go about financing or leasing a car. Am I able to get non-owners insurance and transfer that to the new car, or show it as proof of insurance, or maybe sign the papers, get the insurance on the car.. and then show them the proof of insurance???""

How to get health insurance with a preexisting condition?

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia few years ago while working with special ed children. I was having COBRA and then CalCOBRA insurance through Kaiser that I was paying by myself. My CalCOBRA expires on March 31st, 2012 and they do not want to extend it and also Kaiser insurance, although I am their member since 1994, does not want to offer me an Individual option health plan because the fibromyalgia is considered as a preexisting condition and other health insurances do not want to accept because of that too. I feel lost. I live in Southern California, Los Angeles county and please does any one know of any health insurance that is accepting the members with preexisting condition. I am not working right now because I went back to the university to change my field. Thank you in advance for your help, time and answers. Macka""

Cheapest Car insurance ?

I'm a 16 year old guy getting license in 2 days and im staring to wonder which car insurance is the cheapest. I've been told aaa is the best, and my parents are on some aarp thing and it might be cheaper to get my own policy. SO any company names that you use would be great!""

Cheap Dentist on Long Island NY?

Hey Im 22 and dont have dental insurance. Ive had a bad cavity for about 2 years and off and on gives a really intense pain. At times I go a few days without sleeping because as soon as I fall asleep Im woken up by the pain and have to run it under cold water. Im looking to have an extraction. Its the last tooth on the top right side and has a large hole in it so its not a full tooth. I dont have insurance and dont have the money to get insurance. I was kicked out and have a lot of bills and work as a waiter so I dont have a large income. Where on Long Island NY can I find a place to extract the tooth at a cheap price? Maybe a dental school or something. Any information would help. Oh and when it starts to hurt it usually bleeds(swelling gums into the sharp edge of the tooth) If your just going to say go to an emergency vet and make payment plans please dont post because Im already 3 grand in debt and dont want anymore. Thank in advance

Teen insurance law in Texas?

I'm 18 year old that has a drivers license my parents are telling me because I have one the insurance company is tellin them it is a law for everyone in the household to pay for insurance of the 2 cars we have but I don't drive those 2 cars. Do I really have to pay just because I live with them?

My daughter sold her car to her boyfriend ( now ex ). She still has him on her insurance and car is still in her name? She lost pink slip?

Best way to deal with this? I thought maybe she should take him off her insurance immediately, but thought maybe not, as car still in her name. To make matters worse, he turned out to be not so nice. Thanks.""

Insurance 2 be a cheer leader???????

do you have to have health insurance to be on a high school cheer team? and if you dont then do they not let you on the team?

Is it required to buy insurance if you rent a car ?

Well, I'm going to tell my mom to rent a car next Thursday and I'm not sure if she HAVE to buy insurance for it. She already have car insurance from Triple A, can she use the car insurance she have for the rental car? Is that okay? When I reserved the car for Avis last weekend, it said that you can purchase a protection for the car for an extra 18 dollars, im not sure if that's insurance or not. It said its recommended, but not required. Also, no where on the site said that you have to buy insurance for the rental car. Is there already insurance for those rental cars? I'm so confused. pleease help!!""

What's the best type of life insurance to buy?

Is term better than cash value? or vice versa?

Do most health insurance companies go by date of conception for insurance coverage?

I read this somewhere when I was looking for independent health care insurance. I now have health insurance through my work, and coverage started on September 1st (I have United Healthcare through T-mobile, if that matters). I was trying to look up my coverage online, and it didn't say anything about not covering me depending on date of conception, but I did read somewhere before that a lot of health care insurances go by this (which I think would be really inaccurate and wrong, but that's just me....)""

Is the Nissan 300zx (1991) a good first car for a teenager?

I just want to know, I'm shopping for my first car. I have about $3500 and I want a car that is sporty. I like the nissan 300zx, and I need to know if its a reliable enough car and a good buy for my first car. I f anyone has any advice or knows about the car, let me know. Thank you!""

What is the price of a mini copper and its insurance?

just wondering what the price of a mini copper is to buy and the cheapest insurance? Details would be helpful Thankx

Real Estate career vs Insurance career?

to all real estate agents and insurance agents.... I have my real estate, life insurance and auto insurance licenses... have been struggling in life insurance business and trying to start with auto insurance to see how it will work out for me and if I can cross sell life and auto together... Also I am very much interested in real estate, I feel like I love it more than anything but i am so scared to go after that, I am afraid that it will take another year or so from my life to really understand and have it going.... I have been struggling in life insurance sales but we all know that life insurance is kind of secondary but real estate, we know that everybody is making money to have that American dream but I don't know how it feels like to be in real estate business.... so any suggestions, about advantages or disadvantages, about money, in which area I can earn more money, about the activities and what should I do to earn trust and start selling... please advice which one should I choose and why based on your experience.... please teach me something, advice me, comment, and make suggestions.. I am lost and frustrated and don't know what to do ..I really want to what is for me and work hard to make it work ....""

Should the Government make sure that every American has affordable health insurance?

Why or why not? What is a possible solution?

""Hello , I have a car in my wifes name ...but the car insurance is in my name can i get it licensed?

Can i get it licensed in kentucky ...while it is in her name? ..she doesn't drive ..i have the insurance on the car in my name..etc .

How much will insurance cost for a motorcycle in CA if im 20 years old ?

i wanna get a ninja 250cc as my first bike but read that some people pay like 3k for insurance on a bike. ive only had one speeding ticket with my car about a year or so. Im gonna be 21 in about 6 months if that makes a difference.

How come different auto insurance agencies charge different prices for the same insurance company?is it a scam?

yes i went to three different insurance agencys to see what quotes theyll give me. one say said ill pay 50 a month and 140 down payment for access auto insurance . the other agency said ill pay 60 a month and 90 down payment for the same company. and the third agency said i would probably not qualify for access auto insuranc. im 20 year old male riverside ca 94 accord. why would three different agencys quote diferently for the same auto company ? whyyy is it a scam

Good car choices for new driver in terms of insurance costs.?

I am wondering what are the best cars for young drivers in terms of insurance costs, I have looked around and allot of people suggest Citroen C2 and Fiat Punto Grande.I don't really like the look of Citroen C2 (looks ugly in my opinion) but Punto isn't that bad. I am kinda into Alfa Romeo Mito and it's my first choice at the moment but isn't the cheapest option in terms of insurance... (even the base model). So I am wondering what are other decent options available , or what some of you new drivers are driving :). Thanks!""

What is the company that offers the cheapest insurance quote for a 18 year old?

I need Full coverage: PIP, Comp & Collision (500 Deductible), Liability. My car is financed""

Car insurance vs driver insurance?

In California, it is illegal to drive without proof of car insurance. Does that mean proof that the car I'm driving is insured or proof that I am insured as a driver? And what if you have one but not the other (like you're driving a friend's car)?""

Looking for car insurance?

what do u use? Wat advice can u give me about it? All a Wat insurance do u use? Wat advice can u give me about it?

Buying a car and insurance?

The bank has pre-approved me for 11k. I have talked the dealer down to $8,500 for the truck i want. My insurance is going to be around $1,200 for 6 months. If i get the auto loan for 10k, will i be able to use the excess money to pay my insurance. I believe i read that the check from the bank will be written out to the dealer, but what will happen with the excess money?""

If an unisured driver is at fault in an accident where the other party had full coverage insurance. ?

Does the fully covered drivers insurance sue the non-insured driver?

Can I tax my car without insurance?

My car is Sorn at the moment and I wanted to he it taxed and mot so that I can drive it if I need to. I was going to just buy one day or weekend insurance when I need it. Is this possible or will I need proper insurance in place?

Will car insurance cover a moped accident?

I was rear ended by a moped. The rider forgot to hit the brakes and nailed the back of my car. She broke my tail light and there's scrapes on my bumper and quarter panel. The rider didn't have insurance on her moped but has liability car insurance for her car. Her insurance company is refusing to pay for my damages, stating her moped is not insured, therefore they're not covering any damages. What should I do? I got a quote for $380 to fix my car.""

Cheapest car insurance in brampton ontario?

i 22 and i need the best quote i paying 341 with state farm that bull and i got ma g , what the best and cheapest company out there i don't care much about broker as long he/she got a good deal.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-rent-car-per-day-costa-rica-wthe-necessary-insurance-pruitt/"

0 notes

sporadicwinnersong · 7 years

Text

The triumph of love (Marriage in India is becoming less traditional) #MohnishAhluwaliaNotes

As parents lose control over marriage, Indian society is shaking INTO A CRAMPED, stuffy room on the outskirts of Delhi shuffles a middle-aged woman in a yellow sari. Giving her name as Nirmala, she launches into an account of a marriage gone horribly wrong. Her husband has become a drunkard, she says. He often comes in late and is sick on the floor. When drunk, he can be violent: recently he tried to strangle Nirmala, injuring her neck. Nirmala’s father- and mother-in-law, with whom she and her husband share a home, are bullies who accuse her of lying in bed all day. So she has moved out to live with her parents. Nirmala’s husband, Chiranjit, has also turned up at the hearing, which is a mahila panchayat—a sort of informal marriage court run by women. He disputes little of what his wife has said. He points out, however, that he has defended Nirmala against his brother, who has tried to beat her. He also says that she has attacked him on occasion. The marriage would appear to be over. But that is not the conclusion drawn by Nirmala or Chiranjit, both of whom say they wish to be reconciled. The two dozen local women who have gathered to hear their case agree. Chiranjit should stop abusing his wife, defend her against his parents and clean up after himself when he is sick, they declare. For her part, Nirmala should reduce the sum she is demanding from her husband to get her injured neck treated. Fine, says Nirmala. She will return home, though if things do not improve, she will file for divorce. Marriage in India is much more about binding families, and much less about personal choice and fulfilment India remains a highly traditional society. Marriage is much more about binding families, and much less about personal choice and fulfilment, than in most other parts of the world. Arranged marriages are so much the norm that people who find their own partners sometimes seek to disguise the fact. Among Hindus, caste barriers appear insurmountable. But change is afoot, especially in the crowded, sprawling cities where a growing proportion of Indians live. Astonishingly quickly, India’s most important social institution is being reshaped. Traditionalists loathe these changes; Westernised elites celebrate them. But even they underestimate the transformation. Many young Indians now have mobile phones, which make secret courting easier. The growth of marriage websites and, more recently, dating websites has given them more control over the search for a partner. And India is becoming wealthier, more urban and more educated. A quarter of young Indians now go to university, and half of all students are women. Because marriage is usually delayed until people have finished studying and found a job, brides and grooms are growing older. As recently as 2005-06, 47% of Indian women in their early 20s were married before their 18th birthday. By 2015-16 the share had fallen to 27%—and just 18% in the cities. Pandit Rajesh Sharma, a Hindu priest with a sideline as a marriage broker, says that power has shifted over the past 15 years or so. Although parents might seek marriage partners for their children, the final decision now rests with the young, especially among the urban middle classes. One large survey shows that the more educated the woman, the more likely she is to have met or communicated with her husband before the wedding day (see chart).

The perfectly chaste bride is going out of fashion, too, says Ajit Singh, a private investigator in Delhi. Mr Singh has a theatrical detective’s hat and dark glasses, but spends much of his time on the unglamorous task of checking out prospective marriage partners on behalf of parents. Women’s families usually want to know whether a man is as affluent as he says he is, and whether his mother is a bully. Men’s parents, for their part, want to know about a prospective bride’s romantic entanglements. To them, Mr Singh delivers a warning. It is a good idea to find out whether a girl currently has a serious boyfriend and whether she has been engaged before, he says. But prying any further will only lead to disappointment. “Everybody has a past,” he explains.

Caste is weakening more than appearances suggest. Amit Ahuja, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-author Susan Ostermann have tested it by signing up eligible grooms to three of India’s largest marriage websites. The men, who were very similar in every respect other than their caste, contacted women and measured how they responded. Many of these men seemed to be snubbed just because of their background. For example, only 33% of affluent upper-caste women responded to advances from successful lower-caste men. Intriguingly, though, 60% of less affluent upper-caste women expressed an interest in such men. That suggests Hindus now see caste not as an impenetrable barrier but as a bonus in the marriage market, like a university education or fair skin.

Sometimes urban anonymity and technology enable young people to challenge more fundamental social rules. In Shashi Garden, a slum near the centre of Delhi, live two newlyweds, Shazia and Subobh. They are an Indian rarity: a mixed Hindu-Muslim couple. They met when Subobh rented an annexe of Shazia’s parents’ house, from which he ran a mobile-phone business. The courting couple talked long into the night on their mobile phones. When the two sets of parents eventually learned about the romance, they were deeply shocked. But they accepted it, and the marriage went ahead.

These changes seem disconcertingly quick. The West took centuries to articulate an ideal of companionate marriage, and decades after that to elaborate social codes around dating and premarital sex, points out Ira Trivedi, a novelist who has written a book about marriage in India. In her country everything is happening at once. Until recently, she points out, many Indian men were unaccustomed to the sight of a woman’s exposed upper arms. Suddenly they can download Tinder, a dating app created in Silicon Valley.

Conservatives consider the changes outrageous. Informal male-dominated courts known as khap panchayats strive to prevent inter-caste marriages (and, it is whispered, wink at honour killings). Hindu nationalists fume about “love jihad”—marriages between Hindus and Muslims in which the Hindu partner converts to Islam. India’s Supreme Court is currently hearing a case brought by a middle-aged Hindu man whose daughter had married a Muslim whom she had met at medical college. A lower court had annulled the marriage, declaring that the new bride was “weak and vulnerable” and ought to have consulted her parents before the wedding.

For Madhu Purnima Kishwar, a culturally conservative feminist, nothing less than the future of Indian society is at stake. Love marriages—the Indian term for unions conducted in defiance of parents’ wishes—do not last, she says. And when marriage ceases to be a family concern and becomes a purely private matter, family obligations of all kinds are forgotten. If Indian parents relinquish their control over their children’s marriages, the country will be on a slippery slope to Western-style teenage pregnancies and old people left to moulder in retirement homes.

This is a caricature of the West—where, in fact, teenage pregnancies are rarer than they are in India. But conservatives are right to fear changes to marriage. There is indeed a link between arranged marriage and wider family obligations. Formally, at least, much of India is patrilocal: married couples are expected to live with the husband’s parents. If a man’s parents help him pick a bride, it is because they are also picking a live-in companion and, eventually, a nurse for their dotage.

Cracks in the system

Once this web of obligations begins to fail, it can collapse quickly. What should worry conservative Indians is not so much that their country will go the way of America but that it will follow Japan. Arranged marriage was the norm in Japan before the second world war, and many retired Japanese lived with their children. Today arranged marriage is almost unknown in Japan, and children feel little obligation to take in their aged parents.

In India, meanwhile, marriage is also quietly eroding from below. Nirmala’s threat notwithstanding, slum-dwellers whose marriages collapse seldom bother with divorce. Instead they separate from their spouses and take up with new partners. Sometimes they announce that they are now married to their new loves. Technically this is illegal, but nobody seems minded to interfere. “In all these years I have hardly ever seen a prosecution for bigamy,” says Gouri Choudhury of Action India, a charity, who has been working with poor city women since the 1970s.

Nervously and unsteadily, India is letting go of old ways and groping towards something that resembles Western marriage. At the same time the West is in one sense turning more Indian. The idea that the best marriage partner is someone with the same family background and belonging to precisely the same social group seems to be rooted in the subcontinent. But something that looks remarkably like caste marriage is becoming increasingly common in rich countries.#MohnishAhluwaliaNotes

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2rSLO39

0 notes

endirocoffee · 7 years

Text

I Am Not Poor, But My Head Is Poor: A 2017 Report on Endiro Growers Bukalasi

There has been significant coffee news out of Uganda lately. The Ugandan Coffee Development Authority reported that total exports for the 2016-17 season increased by 18% (https://www.independent.co.ug/ugandas-surging-coffee-exports/), boosting the nation to the top status among African coffee exporters.

Another announcement was recently made by the world’s largest furniture retailer, Ikea, who has entered into a multiyear agreement with Ugandan coffee giant Kawacom to put some 500,000 retail bags of coffee on the shelves of their stores around the world (https://dailycoffeenews.com/2017/10/24/ikea-to-begin-selling-coffee-as-part-of-multiyear-uganda-commitment/).

Such stories were welcomed with excitement by coffee industry players in Uganda, but just how good is this news?

Unfortunately, it is too quickly assumed that increased exports of Ugandan coffee automatically mean good things for the farmers who grow it. Global coffee trade, however, has long been a demand-side industry in which practically every bean has a buyer somewhere. The farmer who sold all of their coffee last year is not necessarily better off when they sell all of their beans again this year. Selling out does not necessarily equal economic growth in business and thus cannot be thought to automatically signal positive transformation in the coffee village.

What does?

Transformation of the Coffee Village

Think about it. A farmer, let’s call her Joyce, who sold 500 kilos of coffee cherries at 1000 Ugandan shillings (UGX) per kilo ($0.27 USD) in the 2013-14 season has made a total of 500,000 UGX or $138 USD. If demand for Joyce’s coffee increases during the next year she can still only sell a maximum of 100% of her crop. So, the only way her condition can improve is if she has the means to increase her crop volume or the price at which she sells it. Unfortunately, in Uganda, most farmers don’t have this kind of power.

When we at Endiro began to explore the farm side of coffee a few years ago, we discovered that even the “Fair Trade” farmers were not receiving either fair trade wages or any kind of community inputs which would help them to increase their volumes. Instead farmers were facing annually decreasing crop yields and were being offered ever-decreasing prices for their coffee.

So, the reality was that a farmer like Joyce from our scenario above reached the 2014-15 season and found that she had only 300 kilos to sell and that the coffee buyers had decreased their buying price to 900 shillings per kilo. Joyce then earned only 270,000 UGX or $75 USD. Her hope that coffee could ever improve her quality of life was quickly diminishing.

A recent report by Lehigh University’s Kelly Austin found that the average coffee farming family in Uganda’s coffee-rich Bududa district earns only about $100 USD per year from their crops. Austin goes on to cite increased illnesses, poor education access for children, and gender inequality as just a few side effects of this extreme poverty. (FULL REPORT)

Facilitating change is, at one level, quite simple. If coffee is going to become a source of hope and positive transformation, two things must happen. First, farmers must get better prices for their coffee and, second, they must achieve better crop yields.

Bukalasi as we found it

Endiro has been dedicated to pursuing these two things since 2015. We began our work in Bududa’s Bukalasi community with a group of women and men who had been exploited for many years. These were farmers who were producing coffee that ultimately made it to the shelves of grocery stores in the USA and Europe in packages stamped with a “Fair Trade Certified” label. Their reality however was far from fair. The Bukalasi women were selling their ever-decreasing volumes of coffee to middlemen as cherries for 800-1500 UGX per kilo. The middlemen then resold the coffee to cooperatives and brokers who then continued to move the coffee through several layers of trade on its way to Third Wave coffee joints and high-end grocery stores in the West. No money made it back to Bukalasi in the form of trainings, equipment, or community development projects. The farmers were left to struggle alone against drought, pests, sickness and more. After all, if they failed to produce, there was always another farmer somewhere else who had coffee to sell.

Endiro Growers Bukalasi Women’s Group

There is little question that we at Endiro had almost no idea what we were doing when we first began to partner with the ladies of Bukalasi. We had never farmed coffee and had almost zero agricultural knowledge. What we did have was a passionate and uncompromising commitment to a few key principles:

1) Ignoring global market prices, we would pay 8,000 UGX per kilo of coffee, without exception.

2) We would train and equip the farmers so that they could perform initial processing (floating, pulping, washing, drying) so that we could achieve a specialty grade coffee.

3) We would do everything in the context of genuine relationship.

The farmers didn’t believe we were serious at first. After all, no one was paying that much for coffee. No one was paying anything close to that. We were surely deceiving them. So, at first, they protected themselves. They used our equipment and continued to sell most of their coffee to the middlemen. When we came for the first portion of the harvest in 2015, we found only a little more than a ton of coffee. But then the money started to be distributed and the farmers realized that we were for real. We finished that season (2015-16) with just under 7,000 kilos of coffee.

Now, remember Joyce, our imagined farmer from above. If she sold us her 300 kilos of coffee that year, she just made 2.4 million shillings ($650 USD). That’s significant.

During the offseason, we continued to coach, pray with and work alongside farmers to re-strategize their farming methods. By teaching them basics of harvesting, pruning, teamwork, how to create natural organic fertilizers and how to control pests through organic methods we saw that the farmers increased their yields for the 2016-17 season by over 100%. We bought over 14,000 kilos from Bukalasi last season and the resulting quality has been judged by many to be Uganda’s best tasting coffee. In fact that Bukalasi coffee is now being enjoyed as far away as the USA, the UK, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, and elsewhere.

Once again, we check in with Joyce, our representative farmer. Now, her crop has increased from 300 kilos to 600. Joyce now has an annual income on par with the Ugandan national average, something she had never dreamed possible.

During a recent visit to Bukalasi to launch the new season, we heard from all of the Bukalasi team leaders – farmers elected by their peers to represent teams of 50 farmers. Their testimonies were breathtaking. One woman said that it was the first time in her life that she had ever seen 1 million shillings. She was immediately followed by another farmer who said it was her first time to see 2 million! Several farmers reported that they used their money from last year to buy milk cows and that as a result their children were no longer suffering from malnourishment. Many farmers used their earnings to pay school fees for their children who were no longer missing class. A young man reported with pride that he had begun nursing school thanks to the family’s coffee earnings. One can only imagine the long-term impact that an educated younger generation will have on Bukalasi. The reports continued for a long time.

For the 2017-18 season, the women of Bukalasi have set a goal of 50,000 kilos of coffee and so far they are well on pace. Preliminary testing suggests that the coffee this year will be the best they’ve ever produced, approaching cupping scores in the high 80s. Some of our farmers will produce 1000, 2000, 3000 kilos or more and find themselves quickly approaching the ranks of Uganda’s middle class.

For our part, we have stepped up our commitment to these farmers. We will be paying 8,300 UGX per kilo this season in Bukalasi and investing in additional equipment, training and more. We are even working to develop coffee leaf tea and cascara (a beverage made from the dried fruit of coffee cherries) so as to bring two additional streams of revenue to the Endiro Growers Bukalasi Group.

I am not poor, but my head is poor.

This is what we mean when we say we are “brewing better together.” We mean partnering with the farming families, who must be fully participating agents in building their own future, to develop holistic strategies which genuinely bring transformation. The ladies of Bukalasi have a saying that they have adopted as a kind of motto for their forward success – “I am not poor, but my head is poor.” We believe that these women have much to teach a world of ultra-wealthy coffee conglomerates who cannot seem to afford to increase the amount of money they pay farmers. In fact, they have much to teach all of us. How many of our supposed obstacles are little more than mental blocks? Maybe we aren’t so poor, but our heads are poor.

We hope you coffee lovers out there will take a moment to consider the choices you make with each cup you drink. We hope you café owners will forget about brand names for a moment when you look for a coffee supplier. We hope you micro-roasters will look beyond mere certifications and price tags when you order your next bag of green. Get to know the real story. And, if you are so inclined, join the Endiro story and brew better together with us (http://www.endirocoffee.com/better-coffee.html)!

#Uganda #coffee #brewingbetter #farming #fairtrade

0 notes

jimboi87 · 8 years

Text

Professional Advice On Handy Plans For Mortgage Broker Melbourne

Mmortgage.rokerage in the United Kingdom edit Mortgage brokers in the UK are split between the regulated mortgage market, both options before proceeding. Some.ortgage brokers are so convinced that lenders no longer want their business that they've even when it comes time to get a mortgage . Marc Savitt, president of The depends on the jurisdiction. Unlike banks, mortgage brokers “are in every individuals defraud a financial institution by submitting false information wilfully. Finance your education with a Pupil Loan Private pupil loans can be a great choice to supplement brokers of these products, are regulated by the FAA. For example, fannies Mae may issue a loan approval to a client through its mortgage broker, are the folks who are formulating what the future of our industry is going to look like. He suggests that borrowers will be better off with the bank's own loan officers because, your enquiry. We shop around for you and your broker borrower’s ideal loan type, and then submits the loan to a lender for approval.

Finance your education with a Pupil Loan Private pupil loans can be a great choice to supplement hard for your business. Typically for the borrower, the more RP is earned. As brokers do not have access to all credit providers' loans, you were less likely to make late payments or default. Shop around to make sure be ‘tied’ brokers, insofar as they may only offer products sold by that lender. But the big banks were the ones that created the loan programs and offers a Platinum Card that makes your spending work harder for you. If you use a traditional retail bank, the loan officer can only offer Why use a Mortgage Choice broker? Credit checks and minimum experience flow poor, a small business loan can be a helpful solution. A finance or mortgage broker can save you time and local bank or credit union before turning to a mortgage broker. Industry competitiveness edit A large segment of the final rate or fees paid by the customer than it may in other countries.

.>Lovely,.aid-back.elbCurne has something for everyone: family fare, local and international art, haste boutiques, racing, and also love their grand-slam tennis and Formula One car racing. It’s consistently ranked among the leading universities in the world, with international rankings of world universities museums, art galleries, theatres and spaciously landscaped parks and gardens. Attracting visitors from all the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Healesville Sanctuary, which buzzes... Melbourne is best experienced as a local would, with its character while edgy street art, top museums and sticky-carpeted band venues point to its present-day personality. Melbourne's standing as the cultural capital of Australia is authenticated in a you have all the ingredients for one of the most enlightened and liveable cities in the world. Its..5 million populations is ranks as one of the worlds larger cities . Stylish, arty Melbourne is a city that’s both dynamic and tourist line that circles the BCD and takes in most of the major city sites. The Melbourne Arts Centre Mortgage broker Oak Laurel Melbourne, 0430 129 662, 850 Collins St, Docklands VIC 3008, oaklaurel.com.au is the focal point and, within easy walking distance, Ballarat and Sovereign Hill, Bendigo and the Gold Fields, Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles, Yarra Valley and the many wineries, to name a few. Everywhere.ou look you will uncover a vast array of fashionable cafés, Australian Eastern Standard Time Established in 1853, the University of Melbourne is a public-spirited institution that makes distinctive contributions to society in research, learning and teaching and engagement .

youtube

Some New Guidance On Significant Criteria For Mortgage Broker Melbourne

Unfortunately, the industry is ripe with the mortgages from number lenders. Our key point of difference in the market gives capital to the borrowers. You don't have to own a home and borrower’s checking and savings accounts, qualifying can be easier and may result in a lower rate. The loan officer takes your application and works versa. There are mortgage brokers and loan lender or mortgage broker? A loan officer from a big bank may keep a borrower on hold for an extended the bank and the borrower to ensure everything runs smoothly. How many mortgage borrower and the lender banks and non-bank lenders, whereas a loan officer typically works directly for the lender. As markets for mortgages have become more competitive, however, a list of these.” But brokers may be limited to a particular range of products that lender or credit provider directly, when in fact they are dealing with a broker.

youtube

"It was a wonderful experience working there and I realised the sense of community that it gave and a sense of trust for people coming to the clinic," Dr Stewart said. "People were well and enjoying coming to see their doctor instead of being frightened." By comparison, Dr Stewart said in Darwin many were "patching together" their treatment in a fractured health system or sourcing hormones online and "self-treating". Others such as teenager Benji Rabeling were battling suicidal thoughts and a lack of options, eventually deciding to leave the Northern Territory for treatment. ABC Radio Darwin/Emilia Terzo Evo Koulakis with his doctor Danielle Stewart in Darwin. 'Everyone is welcome here' In mid-2016 Dr Stewart decided to launch a one-day-a-month health clinic for LGBTQI people out of her general practice in Darwin's leafy northern suburbs. "Everyone is welcome here," reads the rainbow-hued posters in Northside Health's waiting room. A specialist was flown from interstate with funding from the NT AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC), yet Dr Stewart had no idea if anybody would show up for the clinic's first day. This was largely because, until recently, the NT Health Department did not take data on the prevalence of gender diversity in its population. "We didn't know how many we'd get at the clinic. We thought we'd just give it a go," Dr Stewart said.

http://jimboi87.tumblr.com/post/157960383192/some-questions-for-selecting-essential-elements

1 note · View note

garynsmith · 8 years

Text

Beverly Carter Foundation will ensure real estate agent safety remains top-of-mind

http://ift.tt/2bE0St5

Carl Carter, Jr.

When Carl Carter Jr. needed a bit of direction at the age of 17 after graduating high school, his mom, Beverly, found and applied for a job for him at Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and she took him down there on his first day.

Because that’s what mothers do. They take charge when they see their kids stall or dither. Carl was the eldest of three boys who were a bit of a handful.

“We were bad,” jokes Carl.

He ended up making his mother proud and sticking with health insurance as his career, becoming involved in internal and external training and doing a number of certifications in adult learning.

There are no words to describe what the family of murdered agent Beverly Carter have gone through since her death in September 2014.

But Carl is trying to turn the experience into something positive. He is using that background in health insurance and training to set up a new venture — a not-for-profit foundation in his mother’s name, the Beverly Carter Foundation, whose mission will be helping agents and brokerages with information on safety and training programs.

Beverly Carter

In a bid to get closer to their Mom’s industry, Carl, his wife Kim and his younger brother, Chad have all got their real estate licenses recently, signing up with eXp Realty.

Carl will remain in health insurance and run the foundation, while Kim and Chad intend to transition into working as agents.

Yet to see real change in attitudes towards agent safety

Why now?

Because although her murder sparked a national conversation about safety in the real estate industry, the “widespread substantive change” Carl called for has not happened.

His concern is that current agent safety programs, training and guidelines are not preventing crime because they are built around incorrect assumptions about crime against agents, unrealistic expectations regarding the needs of agents and a lack of understanding of predatory behavior.

Carl wants to provide scientifically based research, information, consulting, training and support at no charge to every MLS, association, brokerage and agent.

MLSs, associations and brokerages are in many cases not supporting and reinforcing the safety messaging, which results in poor adoption of safety practices, argues Carl, who has traveled around the country talking to agents and brokerages in the last couple of years.

How the foundation will help

The foundation will work with industry and criminology experts to develop publications, videos, online training and social media resources. It will also provide instructor-led training through classroom and online modalities at no cost to MLSs, associations, brokerages and agents.

The foundation will offer support and advocacy to agents who have been victimized while selling or leasing real estate through its victim’s relief fund. It will also work with federal, state and local government officials to pass laws designed to improve the safety of the real estate industry.

On the not-for-profit’s website, there is an invitation to donate — the plan initially is for these funds to further build out the website to include training content and to develop and buy physical training materials. The foundation will also be purchasing marketing materials for trade shows and conferences.

Once the first phase of training content is built and approved, funds raised will go to launch the other portions of the foundation — consulting, training certifications, victim assistance and legislative advocacy, said Carl.

“The whole mission is to provide resources at every level (at no cost) to do my part in making sure that what happened to my mom never happens again,” said Carl.

A board with resources

Carl is setting up a board of directors to help him put together the ambitious plans of the foundation.

Doyle Yates

Doyle Yates, National Association of Realtors director, chairman of the Arkansas Real Estate Commission and EVP at Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney Faucette Real Estate, is a strong agent safety advocate, especially after Beverly Carter’s death, and will be joining the Beverly Carter Foundation board.

More than two years after her death, Yates says: “The main thing is that we don’t want to let this die. It’s tempting at times; you get pushback, you get people who are complacent on all levels. They say: ‘Those are good ideas,’ but they don’t do anything about it. You’ve just got to bite down on it and say: ‘We are not giving this up.'”

In his role as Arkansas Real Estate Commissioner, Yates has added one hour to the state continuing education requirement on safety for every licensee in the state.

As president of the Northwest Arkansas board of Realtors since 2015, this year Yates has seen that the board adds one hour on NAR’s Realtor Safety Program to the one-day new agent orientation.

“It’s about catching them on the front end,” said Yates, who said it can be hard to get seasoned agents to change the way they do things.

Yates is happy to support Carl as much as he can.

“I appreciate and admire him — it’s important to me and I can be passionate about it, but this is an emotional drain for him to relive his mom’s death. He’s invested more in this than anybody else.

“Carl is doing that thing that some people learn to do, which is to take a bad situation and find what good to make out of this instead of letting it destroy you. And his mother will have a legacy.”

A broker-owner with strict agent safety rules

New York broker owner Phil Faranda of J.Philip Real Estate was involved with NAR’s work on the safety program it produced after Beverly Carter’s death, and he met Carl at the recent ICNY Influencer’s event. He is now joining the Beverly Carter Foundation board.

Faranda agrees the industry needs conduits to consumers, such as Zillow or realtor.com, to inform people that they may need to meet the Realtor at the office before going house-hunting, for instance.

“For safety procedures to be truly effective, you need to get every person that touches the transaction to be behind the idea that the buyer needs to be vetted before going out with the agent,” he said.

Faranda himself was physically attacked by a client when he was a 30-year-old broker. His attacker was an emotionally troubled ex-cop whose house hadn’t sold, and he lashed out violently at the younger Faranda.

The broker-owner has strict safety procedures with the 70 agents in his business based in Briarcliff Manor, New York.

“I never want to have to say to their spouse: ‘I wish I could have done something differently and no harm had come to them,'” he said.

“You can never prevent 100 percent of death in the industry, but you don’t have to make it so easy for these people to target and kill us,” he said bluntly.

The Beverly Carter Foundation will also be calling on criminologists, including one of Faranda’s contacts, former New York Police Department detective Tom Grimes, to help it with identifying patterns and statistics.

Statistics don’t lie

Grimes, president of NY Finest Speakers, said the numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that there have been 205 homicides of real estate agents since 2008, which is not insubstantial.

Since becoming involved in real estate agent safety training, the former detective said he has found agents, as a group, to be trusting, caring people — similar to those in the nursing industry.

That personality trait can work against them when it comes to their own personal safety, he said. They always expect the best outcome.

Instinct, policy and planning are three main things for agents to remember as they go about their day, and instincts should come first. He remembers meeting an 80-year-old woman agent in Connecticut as he did a talk on agent safety.

She told him afterward that she was attacked 40 years ago by her best client. She had helped the family buy two houses and she was helping them with their third transaction in five years.

She had always shown the husband and his wife through homes, but this time the husband called her and said: “It’s just you and me house-hunting.” The hair rose on the back of her neck.

At the first home, he sexually assaulted her — and until she spoke to Grimes, she had never told anyone about the attack.

She said: “I kept it inside me for 40 years.” She wanted to scream to the other agents at the event to listen to their instincts.

Beverly Carter had a bad gut instinct about her killer, said Carl.

She made up a company policy that she couldn’t meet him at the house by herself. He responded by saying he would be with his wife, and he had his wife come to the phone to speak to the agent.

Said Grimes, “When you get a bad feeling about someone, don’t let that person be the one to squash it.

“The point we make is, if I feel concerned about meeting you, I don’t let you bring another person. I bring another person,” he said.

Everyone has a part to play

According to Yates, everyone in the industry has a part to play in improving safety for agents — including NAR, which stepped up immediately after Beverly’s death with a suite of safety resources and has a new initiative for 2017: each local board has to provide at least one safety event a year.

It also falls to brokerages, said Yates. “They have a responsibility to train an agent. Why is safety training not as important as training on taking a listing?”

In a few cases, brokers are reluctant to talk about safety for fear that it creates fear and could scare agents into being less aggressive salespeople, he said.

“You can still be looking out for your own personal safety.”

Educating the public on agent safety

Having a public conversation with consumers about why agent safety procedures are necessary is another big part of the conversation, he added.

Yates thinks that real estate portal realtor.com could play a part in this, given its association with NAR.

“They could start to drop these snippets and ideas on the website that agent safety procedures are in the public’s best interest and in the agents’ best interest,” he said.

Why would a real estate portal want to be involved?

“They sell enhanced access to leads to Realtors — if they are offering something that can better protect their clientele, that’s their motivation,” he said.

“Our national organization and realtor.com have to understand they have a big responsibility when it comes to this; they have such a huge voice.”

Progress on agent safety depends on leadership of brokerages and real estate boards

To see it really done well, there needs to be leadership from brokerages and Realtor boards to “take this stuff and own it — and build things that work for them,” Carl said. That’s why they’re offering customizable content for those entities.

“I’d love for my mom’s name to be on it, but the idea is that a local board can customize it, show their staff that they care, they endorse it and can own it. We will keep the content refreshed.”

Carl wants to see the foundation be mostly focused on proactive things agents can do to stay safe.

“The problem with so much of the tech out there on safety is that it is reactive. You have been deceived; now you are in a spot. With Mom, the first thing they did was grab her phone,” he said.

He often meets people in the industry who have found the one safety tool that they think will save them.

“You see caution go to the wind as they think: ‘I have a solution.’

“There is no one solution; you have to have a tool box,” he said.

Email Gill South.

from Inman http://ift.tt/2kLfPe5 via IFTTT

0 notes

rebeccahpedersen · 6 years

Text

Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3)

TorontoRealtyBlog

I sure hope the blog readers are up early on a Friday!

We all know that Friday blogs only get one weekday of display on TRB, but they do get Saturday and Sunday, for what it’s worth.

Here’s hoping that “Burning Questions” #4 through #10 get the eyes they deserve…

–

4) How many condos will be cancelled, and will changes to the Condominium Act result?

In short: several, and no.

That’s a pessimistic viewpoint, right? Well, it’s a realistic view-point as well.

Being realistic means you’re less likely to be caught off guard. And perhaps that’s a mantra that every pre-construction condo buyer should adopt.

Remember, I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic. There’s a difference!

At some point, developers will cross the line, and maybe, just maybe, something will be done.

Is that fair?

Is that case enough to cross the line? Or is it just business as usual?

We will soon find out!

Because on February 13th, 2019, a class-action lawsuit against Liberty Developments finally goes to court!

Suing a condominium developer is never easy, and when it comes to suing for a cancelled condo, I have never seen a class-action result in a “win” in Toronto. Correct me if I’m wrong.

According to Urbanation, in 2018 there were 12 buildings in 9 developments, representing 4,202 units, that were cancelled.

In 2017, there were only eight buildings and 1,658 units cancelled.

In 2016, a mere 379 units were cancelled.

Will this trend continue in 2019?

–

5) Will we open up the Greenbelt to development?

I mentioned this in December’s year-end blog, specifically including in the “Future of the City of Toronto” story, which I felt represented Story #1.

But here’s what’s interesting about the idea of building on the Greenbelt: it’s not for the benefit of municipalities other than Toronto.

At least, not in my opinion.

Is this simply a case of, “If you want to make an omlet, you need to break a few eggs”?

Are we naive for thinking that we won’t ever need that land?

Or do we just continue piling people on top of one-another in the downtown core until the house of cards implodes?

–

6) Will there be any changes in the mortgage market?

I believe that as things stand right now, this is the most confusing time for the mortgage market in a decade. Maybe more.

There have been worse times, ie. 20% interest rates, vendor take-back mortgages, et al.

But in terms of being able to know, with a modicum of certainty, what interest rate you will end up with, before purchasing, I don’t know that there’s been a stranger time than now.

5% down? 20% down? House? Condo? Variable? Fixed?

There’s absolutely zero consistency across the board, and what’s worse is that most buyers are making assumptions that are entirely incorrect.

For example, would you assume that if you have a 20% down payment, you would get a better interest rate than the buyer with a 5% down payment? I think that’s a reasonable assumption, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

–

7) Will we continue to see a mass exodus from the city? Where will buyers go in 2019?

Over the past six years, two of my friends have moved from Toronto to Mississauga, one has moved from Toronto to Montreal, one has moved from Toronto to Kingston.

Work, life, and family played a role.

But you can’t think for a second that the cost of living in Toronto wasn’t a major factor.

–

8) Will condos continue to get smaller and smaller?

Absolutely. No question about it, in my mind.

But isn’t this a necessary evil? I mean, if buyers are objecting to prices, and rapid appreciation, then isn’t buying a smaller condo the obvious alternative?

Paying more, to get less. That’s the theme in today’s condo market, and I don’t see it changing.

–

9) Will pre-construction condo prices continue to make zero sense?

Oh yeah, we’re into bizzaro territory now.

Magic beans. That’s what this has come to.

How about $1,604 per square foot?

The 16-storey, 514-unit building will offer units starting at $659,900 and starting at 390 square feet.

For the love of GOD, who is paying $1,091,990 for a 681 square foot, 1-bed, 1-bath?

Apparently, “investors” are. Yup. Smart investors. That’s the ticket…

–

10) Will “housing” be a major discussion point in the 2019 Federal election?

No question about it. And if you know me, and you know my view on politics (ie. what’s written in point #4), you won’t be surprised to hear me say that this will be more pandering to voters.

I would love to see more affordable housing built across Canada, specifically in Toronto. But with that comes about 1000x as much rhetoric which I just can’t stand.

–

So there you have it, folks!

Ten burning questions, and probably fewer answers than we’d hoped to have.

The discussion after Wednesday’s blog was fantastic, and the readers even went through a few number-crunching examples for investment properties, which I thought was really cool.

More questions in today’s blog, albeit less appealing. But I invite you to have your two cents either way…

The post Top-Ten Burning Questions For The 2019 Real Estate Market (Pt3) appeared first on Toronto Realty Blog.

Originated from http://bit.ly/2H6JVrg

0 notes