Get Healthy in 10 Seconds
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1. Drink Your Milk. Think you're getting a nutritional boost from your morning cereal? Up to 40 percent of the vitamins in fortified cereals dissolve in the milk. If you don't drink the leftover cow juice, you're not getting the fancy-pants nutrients! 2. Ice It, Ace It. Drink a few glasses of ice-cold water before and during exercise. Studies show that the cold stuff can improve endurance by about 23 percent. And ice water forces your body to expend calories warming it up, boosting your metabolism as well. 3. Lift, Damn It! Verbally expressing emotion while lifting increases muscle strength by up to 25 percent. (Of course, it also increases your risk of being tossed out of the gym by the same percentage...) Or get someone to scream at you: You'll be able to lift 5 to 8 percent more weight if you get verbal encouragement from a trainer or workout partner. 4. Bribe Yourself Fit. Bet a colleague (like the one who's not so secretly gunning for your job) 50 bucks that you can stick to your workout program for 6 months. Studies show that those who do achieve an average 97 percent success rate. Alternate plan? Schedule your workouts, then put $5 in a jar for each one you make. Pledge the money toward something sweet, like a new bike or a trip to Vegas. 5. Pick The Red One. Red cabbage has 15 times as much wrinkle-fighting beta-carotene as green cabbage. Red bell peppers have up to nine times as much vitamin C as green ones. 6. Spear A Hangover. To reduce the severity of a hangover, order a side of asparagus. When South Korean researchers exposed a group of human liver cells to asparagus extract, the extract suppressed free radicals and more than doubled the effects of two enzymes responsible for metabolizing alcohol. 7. Listen To Your Feet. If you can hear yourself running, you're setting yourself up for injury. Pounding the pavement comes from bad form. Keep your feet close to the ground and use a quick, shuffling stride. 8. Don't Buy Wheat Bread. Huh? Isn't it good for me? Actually, "wheat bread" is often just white bread dyed with molasses to make it look dark. Look instead for "100 percent whole wheat" or "whole grain." Even better: rye bread. Swedish researchers found that 8 hours after people ate rye, they felt less hungry than those who noshed wheat bread, thanks to rye's high fiber content. 9. Cheat With A Dumbbell. Lift a dumbbell weight as many times as you can. Then, when you can't complete one more repetition, use your free hand to help push your weighted hand through another rep. Once you're at the top of the move, remove your free hand and slowly lower the weight. Studies show that negative resistance exercises like this are more effective at muscle building than standard exercises. 10. Dry Off Head To Toe. After a shower, you'll prevent a chill by drying your head and neck first. You'll also reduce the risk of anything nasty from the shower floor making its way up your body. Excerpted from The Women's Health Diet (Rodale, 2010), by Stephen Perrine and the Editors of Women's Health.
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Five Reasons Your Home Remains a Good Investment
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As families and friends gather for the holidays at homes across Illinois, it’s a good time to reflect not only the meaning of “home” but also on the value of homeownership for families and communities. The Illinois Association of REALTORS® offers five reminders why homeownership continues to be a sound long-term investment: building long-term wealth, stable monthly payments, tax benefits, freedom to adapt and live in a home that reflects your lifestyle and finally, making an investment in your future and your community. “Studies show that homeownership has a significant positive impact on net worth and is a primary means of financial advancement for many people,” said Sheryl Grider Whitehurst, president of the Springfield-based Illinois Association of REALTORS® and development and operations coordinator for Peoria-based Traders Realty. “Homeownership also boosts civic participation, health and overall quality of life. People who own their homes vote more, volunteer more and contribute more to their neighborhoods. Homeowners don’t move as often as renters, providing added stability to communities.” According to a recent survey by the National Association of REALTORS®, nearly eight out of 10 Americans still believe that buying a house makes good financial sense. The Illinois Association of REALTORS® points to five reasons why owning a home remains a solid investment: 1. Long-term Wealth: Owning a home is one of the best ways to build long-term wealth. Historically, a homeowner’s net worth has ranged from 31 to 46 times that of a renter, according to data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. Despite the economic downturn, homeownership today still represents a family’s primary means of financial advancement. Appreciation over time outpaces inflation, so a home provides protection against inflation and is a form of forced savings as a part of your payment each month goes toward equity. 2. Stable Monthly Payments: Most homeowners enjoy stable housing costs—a fixed-rate mortgage payment might not change for 15 to 30 years while rent typically increases three percent each year. Locking in today’s low interest rates has the potential to save homeowners thousands of dollars a year. And homes are as affordable as they have been in decades. 3. Tax Benefits: Homeowners can typically deduct mortgage interest and property taxes on their federal income tax return, leading to significant tax savings. 4. Freedom: Owning a home comes with the freedom to do what you want to the property. Homeowners are free to renovate, redecorate and modify their homes as they wish. If you want to paint the walls or make a simple landscaping change, there isn’t a landlord to stop you. 5. Investment in Your Future: While financial considerations are certainly important, a lot of today’s buyers are motivated by things beyond just dollars and cents. For many, homeownership is a lifestyle choice—a place to raise a family, build memories and be part of a larger community. To learn more about the benefits of buying a home, financing programs available, visit the consumer site www.YourIllinoisHome.com. The Illinois Association of REALTORS® is a voluntary trade association whose 46,000 members are engaged in all facets of the real estate industry. In addition to serving the professional needs of its members, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® works to protect the rights of private property owners in the state by recommending and promoting legislation that safeguards and advances the interest of real property ownership.
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Welcome to Minooka Home Source.com
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Welcome to Century 21 Danek Realty, your source for Residential real estate. If you own Real Estate that you're thinking of selling, I would be happy to provide you with a FREE Home Evaluation.
In today's competitive real estate market, timing is everything. Many good homes are sold before they are ever advertised. Beat other home buyers to the hottest new homes for sale in Your Area with my New Listings Notification.
Whether you are buying or selling a home, hire someone like me, who wants to earn your business. I invite you to contact me as I would be happy to assist you with this important transaction.
In addition, if you have any general questions about buying or selling real estate in Illinois, please contact me as I am more than willing to help.
Please browse my Website for listings, reports and important local real estate information.
Sincerely,
Bob Marshall
Century 21 Danek Realty
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10 Best Low Cost ReModels
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10 Big-Impact, Low-Cost Remodeling Projects Working with sellers who have some—but not unlimited—cash for upgrades? Here are budget-minded enhancements you can suggest to make their home stand out.  1. Tidy up kitchen cabinets.
"Potential buyers do open kitchen cabinets and look inside," says Morrissey. "Home owners can add rollout organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff."  2. Add or replace tile.
"By retiling very inexpensively, you make a room look way cleaner that it was," says Javier Zuluaga, owner of Home Repairs and Remodeling LLC in Tempe, Ariz. "Every city has stores that offer $1 to $2 tile, so home owners have to pay only for the low-cost tile and labor to replace a dated backsplash or add a new one. We also use inexpensive tile to upgrade bathrooms."  3. Add a breakfast bar.
When a wall separates a kitchen from a family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar. "In one home, there was a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and living room," explains Matthew Quinn, a sales associate at Quinn’s Realty & Estate Services in Falls Church, Va., who handles estate and real estate sales for family members whose loved ones have passed away. "We left the structure of the cutout, added an oversized granite breakfast bar, and put chairs in front of it. That cost about $600."  4. Install granite tile instead of a slab.
"Everybody is hot for granite kitchen countertops, but that can be a $5,000 upgrade," says John Wilder, a general contractor and owner of Fence and Deck Doctor in New Castle, Ind. "Instead, home owners can put in 12-inch granite tiles for about $300 in materials and get very high impact for little money."  5. Freshen up a bathroom without retiling.
"With a dated bathroom, I recommend putting in a new medicine cabinet for $100 to $150, light fixtures for about $100, a faucet for $50 to $75, and a vanity for $200 to $300," says Wilder. "And instead of replacing the tile, the existing grout can be lightly scraped and regrouted, which leaves a haze that can be buffed out and will make the tile look brand new. Also install glass shower doors. A French door adds a lot of panache and elegance for $250, and people will notice the door, not the tile. With all that, you’ve done a bathroom remodel for $1,000 to $2,000."  6. Freshen up the basement.
"If home owners have cement block or poured concrete walls in the basement, suggest they have a contractor fill in cracks with hydraulic cement and then paint with waterproofing paint," recommends Wilder. "They can then add a top coat to add color. They can also paint the basement floor with a good floor paint, which spiffs it up. The basement may not be finished, but it’s no longer a damp dungeon."  7. Add a room.
Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom for just the price of creating a wall. "One time, we closed off a half-wall to an office and added a door to the other side of the room, thus creating another bedroom," says Quinn. "That $400 procedure, which took a contractor one day, netted about $40,000 in the sales price." Zuluaga has also added bedrooms inexpensively. "In a two-bedroom house, there was an archway that led to a third room that was used as a den," he explains. "It had a dry bar where there would have been a closet, so we took out the dry bar and created a closet so the owners had a third bedroom."  8. Spruce up cabinet fronts.
Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. Reconditioning is the least expensive move for under $1,000. "If the wood is starting to look shabby from use or contaminants in the air, we take out the nicks and scratches, recondition it with oil, and put new hardware on," explains Heidi Morrissey, vice president of marketing and sales at Kitchen Tune-Up in Aberdeen, S.D. For $1,500 to $4,000, owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for $4,000 to $12,000, they can have all the cabinets refaced. "With refacing, owners can change the color of the cabinets by replacing the door and having a new skin put on the boxes," says Morrissey. "If they have oak cabinets today, they can have cherry the next day."  9. Replace light fixtures.
"In a foyer and in bathrooms and kitchens," says Wilder, "replacing overhead light fixtures provides a lot of pop for a little money." If the kitchen has track lighting, Zuluaga suggests the home owner spend $450 to $600 to have an electrician replace it with recessed canned lights on a dimmer switch to add ambience. For about $700, Zuluaga also suggests installing pendant lights over a kitchen island or peninsula.  10. Tech-up the garage.
"Sometimes we replace the garage door opener with a remote touchpad entry system," says Zuluaga. "That costs about $425 and makes it look like a high-end system." |
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10 Inexpensive Ways to Wow Buyers
Now is the time for home owners contemplating a spring sale to spruce up their properties in anticipation of what Mike Larson of Weiss Research calls a potentially vibrant home-selling season.
"If you have been beating your head against a wall, this is going to feel a lot better,” he says.
Here are 10 cheap ways to make a property more attractive to shoppers: - Improve first impressions. Touch up the paint on the front door and other areas that buyers see first.
- Clean up the landscaping. Trim the hedges and trees and plant some annuals in the flowerbeds.
- Paint the interior. A coat of light yellow or cream with contrasting white woodwork looks fresh and clean.
- Refurbish the floors. Buff the hardwoods. Install new carpets – or at least get them professionally cleaned.
- Take care of the big problems. If the house needs a roof or the front stoop is crumbling, get them fixed.
- Buy warranties. Putting appliances under warranty gives homebuyers a secure feeling.
- Improve energy efficiency. New windows or improved insulation tells a potential buyer the seller is on top of things plus they come with tax benefits.
- Replace light fixtures. Updated fixtures, especially at the entrance way and in the foyer, create a good first impression.
- Buy a stove. Home owners whose kitchen isn’t top of the line can jazz it up for a few hundred dollars by buying a new stove, which gives the room a fresh feel.
- Tidy up the bathrooms. Get rid of mildew, replace caulking, and replace stained sinks.
Source: U.S. News & World Report, Luke Mullins (01/21/2010)
4 Reasons to Sell Now
Selling a property in this tough market can seem like a challenge. Here are four factors that actually make this a good time to post a For-Sale sign.
1. Sell low and buy low. Because all property values are down, the loss on the property a home owner sells is really only a paper loss because the next property he buys also will be a bargain. If he buys smartly, when prices come back up in a few years, he’ll be in better shape.
2. Down-payment help is widely available. While nothing-down loans have disappeared, it is easy to find down-payment assistance for lower-income and first-time home buyers. Programs vary all over the country, but one good way to find them is to search online for “down-payment assistance programs” and the name of your region.
3. Your uncle has money to share. Besides the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and the $6,500 move-up credit, there are an array of energy tax credits that can make home improvements pay off in cash.
4. Good help is available. Really talented real estate practitioners, contractors, and designers are available and eager for business.
Source: McClatchy Tribune, Kate Forgach (02/07/2010)
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Banks Seek Payback from Walkaways
Increasingly aggressive mortgage lenders are seeking to collect deficiencies from former home owners who walked away from their properties or sold them in short sales.
Many states, including Florida, give mortgage holders as long as five years to seek a deficiency judgment. If granted, the bank gets up to 20 years to collect and the option to renew for another 20 years if the debt isn’t paid.
About one-third of U.S. states, including California and Arizona, prohibit collection efforts after foreclosure, but home owners usually waive that protection in a refinance.
Most states allow collection on unpaid home-equity loans.
Banks are most likely to try to collect from people who walk away from a property in which they are still making payments.
“The bank is going to pull your credit report, and if you’re current on your other bills they are going to come after you and potentially ruin you,” says Larry Tolchinsky, a Florida real estate attorney.
Source: Bloomberg, Kathleen M. Howley (01/28/2010)
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