While you decorate your home for the holidays, take the time to do the same careful trimming on your dollhouse as well. A dollhouse Christmas can bring warmth and life into your display, and you’ll almost be able to imagine the little people inside, enjoying the festivities. There are many ways to celebrate a dollhouse Christmas and add holiday spirit to your scene.

Every Christmas needs a tree, and your dollhouse is no different. You can create a miniature Christmas tree in your dollhouse parlor or living room. Many manufacturers offer conifer trees that would be used to landscape the exterior of your dollhouse, but you can certainly use these trees indoors as well. You can buy a miniature Christmas tree that comes already decorated for the festivities, or you can rise to the challenge of crafting a miniature Christmas tree yourself. Add decorations that resemble your own tree to bring your holiday spirit into your dollhouse.

Another way to get your dollhouse ready to celebrate the holidays is to create and then place, some packages to put underneath the tree. Additional decorating ideas include running some garland down a staircase banister and hanging greenery throughout the dollhouse. Any miniature decorations of Santa or other Christmas themes will also enhance the Christmas feel of your miniature house.

There are also many holiday decorating ideas that involve the outside of your dollhouse. Consider stringing some miniature lights around the eaves of the house and around the doorways. If you enjoy detail work, then you will really enjoy making a small wreath to hang on the front door of your dollhouse. It creates an even more dramatic effect if you can work some lights into the wreath. Also, when thinking about the exterior landscape, don’t forget about the aesthetic value of artificial snow. The addition of snow will complete the transformation of your traditional dollhouse into a winter wonderland.

You may find it fun to move the miniature people in your dollhouse outside at this time of year. Dress them in warm coats and scarves and create a scene that depicts them playing in the snow with the family dog or even sledding. Regardless of how you choose to set it up, the addition of some holiday flair to your dollhouse or miniature display will only serve to enhance the overall holiday decor of your home. See how much depth and character you can give to your display. Remember, don’t just stop at decorating a tree, Christmas is a holiday that affects the decor of the entire house, inside and out.

Learn more about the fascinating world of miniatures. Visit TheMagicalDollhouse.com today for a great selection of href="http://www.themagicaldollhouse.com/barbie-dollhouses.html">barbie doll house kits and dollhouse accessories from top miniature companies.

1. Stance

The power of your drive all begins with your stance. There are two things you want to do with your stance; increase the distance of the stance from the ball and spread your feet wider. By spreading your feet wider, you will have better balance and control allowing you to get a short and wide swing. In turn, this will allow you to get the control and power necessary for a strong drive.

2. Driving motion

Perfecting your driving motion can be particularly difficult, especially if you are a beginner. Getting a handle of your weight control is perhaps the most difficult aspect to your driving motion, but quite possible the most important part. You want to take your time and swing in rhythm.

3. Releasing the power

Driving the ball inquires a great deal of control and power together. If you have great control but no power, you will lack the distance required to set yourself up for a solid score. You want to build your power and release it throughout the swing. By keeping your swing short and wide, you will have great control over your swing while still releasing the power.

4. Know yourself

While there are a number of free driving tips that can be given to you, nobody knows you better than you. If you listen to others and swing outside of your boundaries, you will decrease your control and perhaps your power. It is vital that you distribute your weight evenly and stay balanced throughout the entire shot.

5. Practice

Practice, Practice, Practice!!! Go to the driving range as much as possible to help get a feel for your stance, your swinging motion and the power. Eventually you can take what you’ve learned on the driving range and apply it to your game on the golf course.

6. Imagine

Although it may sound cliche, it is crucial that you believe in your shot and your swing. Your odds of striking the ball solidly improve if you imagine the ball landing in the middle of the fairway.

By taking these free driving tips and applying them to your game on the golf course, you will find yourself striking the golf ball on the tee much more smoothly with great balance and power.

Joshua Spaulding is an Author and Golf enthusiest who provides Free Golf Tips including Golf Putting Tips through his Website at http://www.freegolfswingtips.net

Finding a bargain on a great piece is part of the joy of collecting miniatures for many enthusiasts. It’s not everyday that you stumble across a dollhouse furniture sale in your own neighborhood, so you have to know where to look. It may not seem like it when you first get started and are only looking at the catalogues of major suppliers since everything that you find there will be full price, but with a little practice and a few inside leads, you can find ways to make dollhouses affordable.

Though many manufacturers sell their products online as well as through paper catalogues, there are other places online where you can find some great deals and buy discount doll furniture at a fraction of the original cost. One online resource where this can be done is at the website of your favorite manufacturer. While they will have a full catalogue offering of regularly priced pieces, they may also have a closeout section of their site where they are selling older models, overstock, or clearance items for much less than the original price. Think of this page as their virtual clearance rack. Other online sellers offer a price-match guarantee. While this is hard to apply to custom-crafted pieces, many suppliers do carry the same mass-produced dolls and furniture and make a promise not to be undersold. By playing the pricing of several websites off each other, you can glean a substantial discount in the end.

Sites like Ebay, which allows buyers and sellers to interact in a virtual environment, are an ideal place to participate in a dollhouse furniture auction. Just like any other auction, you have complete control over what you spend. If the bidding gets to expensive for your taste, you can simply bow out and hope for a better deal next time. Auction sites are a great place to find everything from antique pieces to brand new dollhouse kits at discount prices.

Garage sales can be a veritable gold mine for miniature enthusiasts. Whether you stumble across a box full of old dollhouse furniture, or someone selling individual pieces, you can generally get a better price if you offer to buy the whole lot. Garage sales are generally held because people want to get rid of things that they no longer find useful. Instead of picking up each piece that may be priced individually, offer to buy their entire collection for a lower price. You will most often find that they are willing to let it go for less just so they can get rid of it in one sale.

Another place that you may be able to find collectibles and discount dollhouse furniture is at estate sales. At estate sales, items can be auctioned off either piece by piece, in lots, or sometimes as entire selections. You can visit the items for sale before the auction begins and take a close look at the collection that might be up for grabs. You’ll also have to determine your budget though, because pieces at estate sales could go for more than you were planning to spend, if other people are bidding.

Learn more about the fascinating world of miniatures. Visit TheMagicalDollhouse.com today for a great selection of href="http://www.themagicaldollhouse.com">discount doll house kits and dollhouse accessories from top miniature companies.

I love online fat loss challenges because I believe they can help get you motivated, especially when there is a deadline and you are surrounded by other’s that share the same desire.

Here are some women that are enrolled in a 12-Week Fat Loss Challenge and how they felt about their 1st week completed.

Wendy:

55 years young

I’ve always been interested in health and fitness and felt like I was eating healthy and exercising well. When I started working with Heather (taking her boot camp classes - she really gives you a great workout and working with her on my nutrition), I learned that I wasn’t working my body efficiently. I’ve never had anyone work with me to focus on changing the role that your mind plays as it relates to fat loss. My goal is to have a lean body as well. I have family members in MD that are on the same program and they are all losing weight. I’m talking about 90 lbs but it has taken them a year to do it. We just all need to be patient but we can do it too! Good luck to everyone.

Here is her recap of her first week accomplished:
What I did good this week: I fixed Easter dinner and only ate healthy foods. We went out with friends and I remained on my program. No alcohol! Social drinking can be a problem but I remained focus and think before I have a social drink.

My challenges this past week was that I didn’t work out hard enough since I was in Myrtle Beach part of the time. I’m back home and on track. I will continue to take Heather’s boot camp where I get the best workouts.

When I fixed Easter dinner, I really wasn’t tempted to eat the cheesecake or the twice baked potatoes that I fixed.

What I will do different this week is increase my workouts. I will maintain my healthy eating and focusing on putting only good fuel in my body.

Fat Loss Goals:

30 Days

My body is now fit.

I am a size 8

My challenges are when we go out for the evening. We have some things coming up and I will only put good fuel in my body. We have a trip planned at the end of April that will be a challenge for me because I know there will be lots of eating and drinking. We are going to Palm Springs, CA with about 24 members of the Harbor Club but I will stay focused on my eating plan. I will exercise while I am on vacation.

60 Days

To think more positive about my body. I continue to do my affirmations and listen to the CDs to stay focused.

90 Days

My body is now fit. I have lost body fat, continue to do my affirmations, eating healthy, and get some sort of daily exercise. Continue to enter my foods into FitDay and monitor my calories, fat, carbs and protein. I continue to have protein with every meal that I eat.

Denni

39 years old (young)

I’m 39 years old, married with 3 wonderful children. Grew up primarily in Goose Creek, attended college at CofC, been working in an environmental lab since my last semester of college. While I was in college, I started caring about my health after I put on the freshmen 10 lbs. I took some fitness classes (running, racquetball) and worked out sporadically at the FIRM. Moved to N. Charleston, joined a fitness center, didn’t really worry about the nutrition part of being healthy. Slowly put weight on over the years. Got married, had children. With each pregnancy, kept a few more pounds.

I am a size 8 (currently in size 14 clothing). My goal is to be healthy, lean and strong by eating the right foods and exercising regularly.

Set your goals:
Nutrition: I am eating protein with each meal. I am recording intake on www.fitday.com
Mental: I am a size 8 and I feel great.
Exercise: I am exercising at least four days each week.
Write affirmations:
I eat for my size 8 body everyday.
I train for my size 8 body regularly.
I use affirmations everyday.

What I accomplished this week:
I am back at the gym on a regular basis. I am recording intake on www.fitday.com.
Challenges:
Making time to focus on the mental part. Eating on Easter.
Changes for next week:
Better plan food. Make time for mental component of this healthier lifestyle.

Laura:
I am Laura. I am a 54 year old business woman,and grandmother. I quit smoking about 10 years ago, and I guess I substituted food for the smoking. I have just never gotten it under control again. I get on the wagon for a while, and do well, and when I fall off, and start eating unhealthy, I have a time trying to get myself back on track. I have diabetes now, and I know what I need to do to be healthy.

This disease is controllable, and nutrition and movement are the key. I could teach volumes, but I am really having a tough time following a healthy plan. I am, by nature a strong willed, determined woman, so when I am good, I am great, but when I am bad, well, I never do anything half way. I love healthy foods, and salads, but my weakness is starch, and sugar. ( sugar is a drug)

My goals are to be lean, strong, and healthy. The healthy part is so much more important than anything else. I want to ” sit on the back porch, covered with grandchildren, and yell NO, and Stop that!!” I am looking forward to the strength we will have as a team, and hope we can all help each other.

Tina:
When I moved to SC 2 years ago, I was in the best shape of my life, lean and in a size 4! I slowly started to gain the weight back when I did not join a gym and started picking on the boy’s fries, etc. The last 10-15 lbs came on fast when I was trying to clear my system from my thyroid medicine to start a new one.

My goal is to be lean, strong, healthy sexy and confident.

Sarah:

Well, to summarize in short story form, I’ve always been interested in fitness, exercise and healthy eating, but I have strong ‘binge’ tendencies when it comes to french fries, sweets & simple carbs.

I’ve always exercised regularly since graduating from college with a few bouts with minimal exercise, but exercise makes me feel SO good & full of energy. Of course, I didn’t have issues with weight until after having my children. But I got the weight down to a size 8/10 (8 is my norm).

I love to eat so I have to exercise to keep the weight from creeping on. When I say I binge, I mean I’ll eat healthy for a week and then eat bad one day and not just limit myself to 2 cookies etc…I will get in that mindset of ‘well, I’ve already blown it for today so I’m going to eat anything I want and how much I want - even though I may not be hungry’…it’s more of a mental game of emotional eating…then a few days later I’ll get back on track. I have yoyo’d with my weight for several years within 10-15 lbs. I was at the weight I wanted to be at until last Nov when I started eating bad and letting the lbs come on.

I have gained close to 15 lbs since Nov and I want it OFF and to be back in my size 8 pants! Since I work full time and have 2 children (8 & 12 yr olds) , I don’t have time to go to a gym so I work out at home…I have a treadmill,weights and a slew of workout videos (taebo, core secrets, turbo jam, hip hop abs and the firm) that I alternate with. I’m very interested in healthy eating and learning the proper balance between cardio and weight training.

I’m excited about my plan and learning about the role our mind plays, how we can ‘train’ our metabolism by eating the right balance of protein, carbs & fat.

I’m ready to get my discipline on track and to eat healthy for life with keeping moderation in mind at all times (when the sweets are around!) I figured a good old competition/challenge would be good for me as well!

Nancy:

It was a pretty good week. What I think I did right this week was watch my diet. I ate much smaller meals and more frequently. Their were a few times I could of eaten more, but managed to stay on track and never let myself get overly hungry.

My challenges came to pushing myself harder at the gym. I got there, but a few days I felt like I could of put more into my workouts. I will push myself harder this week.

I haven’t gotten on the scale, but my clothes seem to fit a little looser already. I feel very motivated!

Brooke:
I realize muscle weighs more than fat.

This Week Review:

Good: I was more conscious in my eating trying to eat consistently through day and get some pro in with meals (but not eating enough still) . I have been doing daily mind setting,affirmations, and goals.

Challenge: being on the road and finding a way to eat in car since I don’t like to stop. Also, eating more protein when not much appeals to me.

Goals: to keep eating consciously, but try not eat late at night. get more pro in my diet. keep weening sweet tooth. stay on track with mind setting (I am size 6).

Heather Picken, helps women 30+ all over the world with the surest and fastest way to lose unwanted body fat & inches. She is the creator of the revolutionary fat-burning system “6-Week Fat-Burning & Instant Motivational System” (http://www.mybodyisfitnow.com)

There are two main forms of this condition which vary by the extent of hair loss and require different types of alopecia areata treatment. The mild form is where less than 50% of the hair is lost from thinning patches on the scalp and the more severe condition where more than 50% up to 100% of the hair is lost.

When diagnosing alopecia areata it is useful to have some background information about the disease. Alopecia areata is known as an autoimmune condition that can be highly unpredictable and which affects about 1.7 % of the population. The body’s white blood cells attack the hair follicles resulting in a stop in growth. It usually starts with one or two small round bald patches on the scalp, but can develop into a complete loss of hair, both on the scalp (alopecia totalis) and body (alopecia universalis). It is not known what triggers such attacks, whether the trigger comes from within, or from outside such as in the form of a virus.

Recent research seems to show that some people have genetic markers that increase both their susceptibility to the condition and to its severity. One in five people with the condition will have a relative who is also affected. This is especially true in those who develop the condition before the age of 30. It is more common in families whose members also have conditions such as asthma, hay fever, eczema, thyroid disease, Addison’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, vitiligo, Addison’s disease or pernicious anaemia.

The condition occurs in people of all ages and races and can have huge psychological effects which are exacerbated by the fact that the public at large do no generally understand this condition. It is sudden in onset and can recur from time to time quite unpredictably.

There is no known cure for alopecia areata and hair loss is a side effect of the underlying disease. Current alopecia areata treatments therefore work by extensive stimulation of the hair follicles which needs to be continued for the duration of the disease.

The mild form of the disease is easier to treat and the most common form of treatment is to have monthly cortisone injections, injected directly into the bare scalp. These are usually quite painless giving a slight tingling sensation and have very few side effects such as minor skin depressions. This alopecia areata treatment is usually complimented with higher strength 5% topical minoxidil solution applied twice daily. Cortisone cream is sometimes used in combination with minoxidil for improved response and applied 30 minutes after the minoxidil application.

Another effective treatment is anthralin cream or ointment, a synthetic, tar-like substance widely used for psoriasis treatment. It is applied to the bare scalp once daily and as it can be a skin irritant is usually only left on for 30-60 minute periods then washed off. Successful treatments can stimulate new hair growth in eight to twelve weeks.

Extensive alopecia areata is much more difficult to treat and local injections of cortisone into the scalp are not that effective. In some cases cortisone pills are prescribed, these have a more powerful effect but there is a greater risk of side effects with extended use. In general they are not widely prescribed apart from to young healthy adults who may have higher tolerance levels for the drug. Topical minoxidil at 5% strength is still the most common alopecia areata treatment and effective even for extensive alopecia areata. Another method that is used frequently in Canada and Europe is known as topical immunotherapy. This uses the chemicals diphencyprone (DPCP) or squaric acid dibutyl ester (SADBE) to induce an allergic rash in the scalp. To date topical immunotherapy has been show to be the most effective alopecia areata treatment with 40% of patients regrowing hair after six months of treatment.

Sufferers of alopecia areata should not give up hope of a cure as there are many ongoing research projects are currently being undertaken. Some of the most promising involve gene therapy, stem cells research and hair follicle development and new alopecia areata treatments will continue to be made available.

For more general information about the causes of alopecia please visit our web site.

John Tulley has written many articles on the subject of hair loss treatments and remedies. To read further articles by John Tulley click here: Alpha7 Articles.
To download a free copy of John Tulley’s brand new e-book, “Hair Loss Treatments: How to Stop Hair Loss and Regrow Your Hair!”, click here: http://www.alpha7haircare.com.

It’s easier to build a home internet business than you think. Your basic setup requires a desk, a chair, a good computer, and a speedy internet connection, and maybe a little bit of expertise. To set up a home internet business, you’ll, of course, need to know what you’re going to sell to other people, but once you have that, the rest isn’t that hard at all. Let’s take a look at what you need for your home-based business beyond a great idea:

You should have an area for your office. While having your computer and desk in a visible spot so you can see every email as it arrives in your inbox is great, it can also end up developing a habit. Getting away from the computer is important to a home internet business. Yes, your business needs you, but if you don’t take care of your health and become obsessed, you won’t be able to be sharp, innovative, and happy.

You need more than a computer - you need a reputation. Your home-based business functions inside four walls, but your reputation has to get “out there” just like in any other business. Advertise, promote, and use the marketing possibilities you have with the internet at your fingertips. The advantage of a home-based business is that you can spread the word about your products or services faster and easier than another business setup.

In fact, marketing on the internet is cheap; very cheap. You don’t have to pay for expensive ads in local newspapers (unless you want to), and you can earn visibility for your company by only investing some of your time.

Also, finding pros that can help you with your home based business is easy and cheap as well. Search engines are your friend. You can quickly find answers to questions, learn about new strategies, get ahead on upcoming trends, and find better ways to have your business succeed. Networking with all sorts of gurus and experts is another thing that becomes that much easier when you work in a virtual world.

Targeting your market with a home internet business also takes on a new twist. Not only can you now expand on whom you sell your products and services to, you can also see what your competitors are doing to attract clients and try to beat them to the punch.

Beyond that, a home internet business is very low cost and easy to maintain. You’ll have very little overhead or need to spend money on things such as office space or business telephone lines. Some of your home expenses can be deducted for income tax purposes and the whole situation ends up with you having more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

Jack Lan is a Singaporean specializing in internet marketing and has help many people to start an online business and work at home. He has his own training team and has a mission to help 100 Singaporean and Malaysian earned an average monthly income of $2500 from internet just by working from home.

Visit his website and blog at http://www.sgsuccess.com

For many years the floppy disk dominated the data backup market for the home user as they offered affordable data storage. Ok using floppies was akward, slow and highly unreliable but at the time it was all we had. Then along came the Zip drive and the world of data backup changed overnight thanks to the creator of the Zip drive - Iomega. No longer were you restricted to a paltry 1.4MB of disk storage - now you could fit 100MB on one single Zip disk. Later this increased to, a then, massive 750MB of storage space which was completely unheard of at the time.

Zip drives worked in almost exactly the same way as a floppy disk except they were physically bigger and provided a much higher data transfer rate than home users had ever seen before in an “external” data storage device. The biggest problem with Zip drives is that although they were similar to floppy disks you still needed a separate Zip drive to read or write to these disks which in turn meant more expense for home users. Also there was a rival technology called the LS-120 or SuperDisk that found favour with many computer manufacturers (ironically enough the Zip drive long outlived the LS-120 in terms of popularity and usefulness) so the Zip drive faced an uphill struggle from it’s introduction to an eager computer market.

The Zip drive was/is available in a few different flavors. There were parallel, SCSI, USB and IDE Zip drives available on the market at one stage. This meant that regardles of what type of computer you had you’d be able to find a Zip drive with a compatible interface. This meant that both Mac and PC users tended to love the Zip drive although most Mac users tended to favor the Zips bigger SCSI brother - the Jaz drive… that however is the topic for another article for another day.

Alas for all their ingenuity the Zip drive has become all but obsolete. The current growth in hard drive storage capacities has meant that any storage device offering less than 10GB - 20GB of storage space is all but ignored as a useful backup device. Any computer user reading this who has ever owned a Zip drive will probably feel the same sense of nostalgia I felt when writing it. The Zip drive was incredibly revolutionary in it’s day and paved the way for a real boom in data backup technology for homes and small businesses. RIP Zip drive…. you shall be missed.

HREF="http://www.backupadvice.com/zipdrives.shtml">Iomega Zip drives provided a rugged and reliable form of data backup for many years. If you want to know what a zip drive is and how it works then pay a visit to HREF="http://www.backupadvice.com">http://www.backupadvice.com for more information on Zip drives and all kinds of backup devices.

Have you ever set aside time to work on an important project, only to find yourself distracted and unfocused? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You begin to wonder how you will ever get your major projects completed. There is a more effective way to use your time.

Most busy professionals and business owners spend their days attending to the needs of others. Important projects that will move your career or business to the next level are often put on the back burner. You often get to these at the end of the day, if you get to them at all.

When I work with a coaching client to achieve more success and reduce her stress, I assist my client to identify the times she is most effective at accomplishing particular tasks. For example, most people are at their creative best and are most productive between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. That is the time you should be blocking out to work on major projects. Yet, what do most professionals and business owners do during that period of time? Check email, return phone calls, and conduct meetings.

You can use your time much more wisely. When you have an important project to complete, try setting aside at least 90 minutes for yourself daily between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m. To maximize that time with yourself, get plenty of sleep the night before, workout or take a brisk walk to your office, eat breakfast, and settle in for heightened productivity! You will be amazed at what you get accomplished!

Small business and life coach, Sabrina Schleicher, Ph.D., helps you work smarter, experience more success, and have more fun! Get your FREE e-course: 7 INSIDE SECRETS OF ELITE PERFORMERS at http://www.tapthepotential.com

While most people still use Internet Explorer as their web browser, a new one has surfaced and has started to get more and more people interested. I’m talking about Mozilla Firefox, an open-source browser that has many advantages that could help your business, while having very minor flaws.

Advantages

The first thing you will notice when browsing the World Wide Web with this browser is that you won’t get as many pop-ups as you normally would, which is a great advantage in itself and is worth downloading just for that feature. I tried it on a web page where normally with IE I would get 5 pop-ups, I went on the same page with Firefox and found out that no pop-ups were appearing!!! I tried it again with a page that would have given me 3 of those nasty things, to find out that again nothing was appearing. After doing some research on many sites with pop-ups. I can state by doing some research on over 100 sites with pop-ups that Firefox will block around 95% of them.

Another advantage is that while Internet Explorer still gives you the option to delete the cookies, clear the history and such, Mozilla Firefox will do all of that at one click of the mouse.

Disadvantage

The only minor flaw that Firefox might have is that some sites are not currently set-up to accept it, mainly small web sites. This though is not a major thing, as only 1% of sites are affected by this.

Closure

While I don’t suggest you to delete IE from your computer and go only with Firefox, I can say that since I changed, I rarely went back to IE, and the times I did were only to check a site that was not appearing correctly with Firefox. Firefox is really the browser of the future, that’s for sure.

For more about internet tools and business, check out my site at http://webmoneymaking.googlepages.com

When was the last time you, your Property Manager or management company inspected your investment property? Do you know? If not, you should conduct an inspection as soon as possible.

I met an Investor who had not inspected his investment property in six (6) months. The tenants left without a final inspection. The final inspection uncovered substantial water damage from toilet. Black mold was growing on the ceiling and the walls. The doors to the dyer, refrigerator and freezer were in the backyard.

The damages were $17,000 and it was almost three (3) months before the property was restored. The Investor could have avoided the damages by conducting quarterly inspections.

Approach every investment like a business. Would you wait months or years to inspect your records and bills? Of course not, so why would you not conduct quarterly inspections on your investment property?

Many new clients say, “I don’t have time to conduct inspections.” A way to save time and money is to hire a Property Manager or management company to manage the property and conduct quarterly inspections. Property Managers and management companies charge a monthly fee. A major repair could be

significantly higher than the yearly management fees.

Still not convinced you should inspect your property at least once a quarter?
I heard about an Investor who was sued because a tenant cut her hand on a rusty porch railing. The Investor lost and settled for almost $45,000 for the cost of hospital bills and damages.

Another Investor had a build up of human feces in the toilets and bathtubs and on the walls. She had to replace all of the toilets and bathtubs. It took several hours and three (3) coats of paint to repair the walls.

Include a clause for repairs and/or damages with a deductible amount. If the repair is $200 and the deductible is $100, then your cost is $100. A home warranty may lower your out of pocket costs. The repair deductible should help reduce the amount of repairs and/or damages reported. Demonstrate that you value your property, as should your tenants.

When you conduct the inspection, ask yourself, “would I live here if items needed to be repaired or replaced?” If the answer is “NO,” then make the repairs to show your tenants that you value them and your
property.

The following are suggested of areas and items to inspect. Consult professionals who are legally qualified to provide you with the appropriate information or to complete repairs.

–Plumbing - Flush all toilets to check if they flush and fill. Inspect under the sink for any leaks. Do the sinks drain at a normal or slow pace? A slow draining sink is a possible sign of a clog or drain build up.

–HVAC - Check the filter. Manufactures suggest changing the filters every three (3) to four (4) months.

–Appliances - Inspect for missing knobs. Light all of the burners and oven to check for outages.

–Paint - There should be no signs of peeling paint inside or outside. Check the railings, along with the front and back door for any rust.

–Drywall - Inspect for holes, cracks or structural defects.

–Carpet - There should be no pulls or tears in the carpet. Check for any cigarette or other burns in the carpet. If you detect any snags try repair the snag so it will not cause further damage.

–Doors and Windows - Doors should close all the way. In the winter doors may shrink and in the summer doors may swell, so adjust accordingly. Windows should have no cracks or broken panes and have a screen for each window.

–Blinds - Check for broken blinds, chords or blinds that may have fallen.

–Home Exterior - Inspect the gutters for any signs of damage. The gutters should be affixed to the home properly and should not have any leaves or debris present.

–Fire Safety Items - Test the fire alarms. Batteries should be changed at least once a year. Inspect sprinkler heads for damage. Have a minimum of one fire extinguisher per floor. Check for lint build up in the dryer.

–Power Outlets - Inspect outlets for any loose wires for missing cover plates. Inspect the main circuit breaker for any damage.

Gutters, windows and plumbing are areas that can cause a lot of damage if there is little or no upkeep. Water can also cause a lot of damage because it is almost impossible to predict where water will travel.

Conducting quarterly inspections will identify any possible issues before it costs you a lot time and money. If you do not have the time, hire a Property Manager or management company for your real estate investment team (REIT).

For more information on hiring a Property Manager, assistance with setting up a real estate investment team (REIT), mortgage planning options contact Jennifer Johnson, your trusted real estate investment advisor.

Copyright© 2007 by Jennifer Johnson. Others may not copy this material without written permission of Jennifer Johnson. The views expressed in this RE News are those of the author(s). If you are currently working with a Realtor® to sell or purchase real estate this is not intended as a solicitation.

Ms. Johnson has been a licensed Realtor since 2004. She currently holds real estate licenses in Virginia, DC and Maryland. She is a member of Dulles Area Association of Realtors (DAAR). With over 70 active clients, Jennifer specializes in working with Professional Investors, while increasing their net worth and diversifying their real estate portfolios.

She was voted ‘Most Favored Agent’ to work with from the top producing Loan Originators among internet Mortgage Brokers in 2005. She is well known for her commitment and ‘mastery of detail,’ and has a deep interest in helping others achieve wealth through homeownership. She is committed to providing excellent customer service and strives to meet and exceed the expectations of all of her clients. She possess a “can do” attitude and an outgoing personality.

Ms. Johnson is from Reston, Virginia and has resided in the Washington Metro area since 1982. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from the University of Virginia in 1994.