The best loss mitigation tool is winning the lottery.
CBS-Chicago recently told the story of Ricardo Cerezo out of Illinois.
Cerezo and his wife were about to lose their home to foreclosure when the pair discovered old lottery tickets stuffed into a cookie jar.
Cerezo’s wife told him to check the numbers or throw the tickets away.
Luckily, Cerezo checked his numbers — a move that resulted in millions of earnings overnight.
.The stunning flavors of culinary herbs make them star players in a healthy diet, and the best way to make the most of big-flavor herbs is to grow them yourself. This article includes plans for four herb gardens, each designed to fit into a 12-square-foot area, to help you make the best use of space near your kitchen door. See Top 12 Kitchen Herbs for more on the featured herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme.
You could grow kitchen herbs in a geometrical design dating from the days of medieval monasteries if you like, but there are easier ways to include culinary herbs in your landscape design. By following a few basic guidelines and choosing to grow the herbs you’re most likely to use, you can grow a generous supply of kitchen herbs in a surprisingly small space. Add some container herbs that are marginally hardy or prone to crowding out other plants, and you’re well on your way to a gourmet herb garden.
The first and most important step is to grow your herbs as close as possible to your kitchen door. “Accessing your kitchen herbs should be as easy as going to your pantry for the dried version,” says V.J. Billings, who grows herb plants by the thousands at Mountain Valley Growers in Squaw Valley, Calif. To find great places to grow herbs, simply walk out your back door and survey every space within 20 paces that gets at least a half day of full sun. As you plan, consider the times you will dash out to grab a handful of chives, dill or basil when it’s raining or something on the stove needs your attention. Having your herbs within easy reach of a walkway or well-placed steppingstones can also make a big difference.
Herbs need average or better soil and good drainage, but they are generally not as demanding as vegetables and flowers. With kitchen herbs, it’s better to make use of a convenient location than to move away from the house in search of better soil.
[Photos by Wil Blanche via National Archives. All captions are the 1973 originals.]
The tallest tower of the new World Trade Center reached its full height last week, 40 years after the Twin Towers opened as the original WTC. At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency hired photographer Wil Blanche to document the new giants and the changing Financial District. The Atlantic Cities recently highlighted the photos, which were taken in May 1973 as part of the Documerica project, a visual exploration of environmental issues around the country. The National Archives shared 87 of Blanche’s historic photos onFlickr, and we chose 18 to include in the gallery above.
18 Photos of FiDi When the Twin Towers Were the New WTC – Sepia Tones – Curbed NY.
When real estate broker Phil Immel, leader of a seven-person team with Prudential California Realty, wanted to differentiate his luxury brand from others in Southern California, he thought of drones.
And two months ago, he came up with this:
Video shot from a drone to market a listing represented by Phil Immel’s brokerage.
“I wanted to feature and differentiate my listings and farm areas from every other agent’s,” Immel said.
Technology has advanced to a degree that small, remote-controlled drone helicopters are more affordable than they once were, and cameras and their image-stabilizing systems are better, making aerial photography and video captured using drones an increasing phenomenon in a number of industries, including real estate.
Immel, who’s commissioned three videos of listings and four of neighborhoods from real estate visual marketing firm California Image Maker, is one of the first real estate brokers to enhance his sellers’ listings with aerial video imagery from small, technologically advanced remote-controlled helicopters, which feature multiple rotors and a stabilized location in their centers that holds a camera on a swivel.
BOSTON — Prices for single-family homes increased in 89 percent of U.S. cities in the first quarter as the housing market extends a recovery from a five-year slump.
The median sales price rose from a year earlier in 133 of 150 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report Thursday. A year earlier, 74 areas had gains.
Buyers returning to the housing market are bidding up prices for a tight supply of listings. The national median price for an existing single-family home was $176,600 in the first quarter, up 11.3 percent from the same period last year. That was the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Realtors group.
Background
The CPI does not track home prices per se, rather the CPI uses a concept called “Owners’ Equivalent Rent” (OER) as a proxy for home prices.
OER Weighting in CPI
 Mish Shedlock |
OER is now at 24.041% of CPI, which still rounds to 24.0%, but the other housing wedge is now an even 17.0%, down from 17.1% in the previous version.
U.S. foreclosure filings fell 5% from March to April with default slips, scheduled auction notices and bank repossessions targeting 144,790 properties last month, RealtyTrac said.
Compared to year ago levels, foreclosure filings declined 23% in April and total foreclosure activity reached a 74-month low, the real estate data firm added.
The study notes one out of every 905 U.S. housing units faced a foreclosure filing last month.
“The April numbers indicate that the pig is moving through the python when it comes to deferred foreclosures in judicial foreclosure states,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Foreclosure starts have been increasing for several months in many of the judicial states, and now that increased volume is showing up in the second stage of the process: the public foreclosure auction.”
The differences in judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states remained magnified with judicial foreclosure auctions increasing 22% from March to April and rising 31% from year ago levels to the highest point in over two years, RealtyTrac added.
RealtyTrac: April foreclosure filings drop 23% | HousingWire.
Bedford NY Area Strong Markets | Weak Markets | RobReportBlog
Strong Markets
South Salem up 26%
Armonk up 85%
Chappaqua up 15%
Bedford Corners up 25%
Bedford Hills up 11%
North Salem up 55%
Weak Markets
Pound Ridge down 11%
Bedford Village down 4%
Katonah down 4.5%
Looking at sales over the last six months compared to the same period last year.
Source: IMDb
If you live in Brentwood Circle, there’s a good chance Reese Witherspoon is the girl next door. With two existing homes in the neighborhood, the Oscar-winning actress has purchased another for $3 million.
The ranch-style home is described by the listing agent as an “enchanted cottage” that’s “warm and inviting.” With a glass art studio and hillside gardens, the home offers a retreat from downtown L.A.
It isn’t surprising Witherspoon would choose a getaway outside the city center — her Ojai ranch provided the feeling of being in the country while only an hour removed from Los Angeles. And, with a recent trip to jail on a disorderly conduct charge, the actress is likely looking to steer clear of the paparazzi.
It also isn’t surprising Witherspoon bought a few houses down from her existing property; celebs have a track record for hopping around the same neighborhood or owning several properties within the same ZIP code. Actress Kate Hudson is known for buying a $5.8 million home next door to her longtime Pacific Palisades residence, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also recently added to his collection of homes on Malibu’s “Billionaires’ Row.”
While celebs typically move up with successive home purchases, however, Witherspoon paid less for this property than her two other Brentwood homes. It’s also the smallest of the three, measuring 3,053 square feet
When I stumbled upon Twitter 54 months ago I was bemused, flummoxed and even curious. What is this social network that keeps me to 140 characters, sounds like a bird and seemed…well…. pointless?
I tweeted here and there and collected 31 followers in 90 days of meandering. Even followed people with large Twitter tribes on topics as diverse as food, photography and politics. Malcolm Turnbull, the local senator must have thought I was a Twitter groupie.
Luckily he didn’t report me for stalking.
My progress on Twitter was slow, confused but persistent. Despite this I continued to tweet, retweet and play. My curiosity was undiminished.
Obsession on Twitter is not unknown. Some people such as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend at the time tweeted so much that she decided that he loved Twitter more than her.
She moved onto boyfriend number twenty seven.
Twitter’s sometimes chaotic nature does make management of the torrent of tweets seem like herding cats. It is essential that you plug your Twitter account into a management tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. This will help you manage your stream with lists of people and hashtags that categorise on topics.
The real power of Twitter is that you can build a follower base that allows you to share a focused stream of content that adds value to your followers daily lives.
There are no fancy Facebook “Edgerank” algorithms to throttle your tweets and choke your content distribution.
Its pure and wild. I like that.
So what are some fundamental principles that you should embrace if you want Twitter to work for you?
Here are 10 commandments that may guide you to the Twitter promised land of a large and loyal following. That engages with you and shares your content with speed and velocity.
Moses used this term so I thought that I couldn’t go wrong if I borrowed the term “Thou shalt”
If you are using Twitter for purely personal reasons then go crazy and knock yourself out with a crazy and cute bio. If you are serious then make sure that when they read it they know in a heartbeat what you are about.
I don’t know how many times I have looked for a link to take a deeper dive into a Tweeter to see what they do and where they have come from but get stymied. If you don’t have a blog then take them to your Linked account or Facebook page.
Let them discover the real you. The bio is just the start
Build a tribe of Twitter followers who are passionate and interested in your topic of interest. That can be done with tools such as Tweepi or Twellow.
This may seem evil to some but as you grow your follower base things like following back become time consuming and unmanageable. Automate the boring tasks such as content distribution and follow back but not the conversation and engagement
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/08/the-10-commandments-of-twitter/#rCCZyAZAUwH7oUCG.99