Saturday, September 5, 2009

New Home Buyers Beware

Ican't believe how many homebuyers purchase a house, with very little information and a Lotta hope. I'm a general contractor and often work on these homes, after they have been purchased and a homeowner has their money, the real estate professional is no longer involved in the transaction and the new homeowner is starting to experience the pitfalls from buying the home, that they sincerely believe was in good condition.

It's usually somebody like me that gets involved with the new homeowners after everyone else is out of the picture and chooses not to return their phone calls or explains to them quite simply, it's not our responsibility, you're the new homeowner and we really feel sorry for you, please call us again if we can help you with anything.

You couldn't even help me with that, why would I want to call you again if I had a problem. I never could understand this thinking but have ran into it often. It sounds like an oxymoron when someone refuses to help you but offers you help in the future. What ever!!!.

If homebuyers had something else to rely on besides their real estate salesperson, home inspection service, mortgage or insurance professional, I believe they can eliminate some of these problems. Where do you start and how do you get the information. You can gather information from reputable people, books, the Internet and so on.

The problem is how do you know these people are reputable and the books on the Internet have good information. This brings us to another problem, but I've got the solution that will help eliminate some of the grief. I'm not going to remove all of the grief from your life but have a suggestion for you that will eliminate some of the pain when buying a home.

Arm yourself with a good home inspection checklist. You can search the Internet and they have quite a few good home inspection checklist to work with. These checklist can provide you with things you might not have thought of, and this is where you can eliminate some of the problems.

If you took one of these checklists with you while you were shopping for a home, you would be aware of some of the problems with the home. You might not find all of the problems but these checklist will help you with some of the problems.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more home inspection or home building ideas.

Are Christians Really Interested

Friday, September 4, 2009

Where Did the Bible Come from?

In the year 325A.D the emperor of Rome, Constantine gathered a group of church bishops and other leaders who believes in Christianity. The purpose of the meeting was to define the true God for all Christians and eliminate any confusion within Christ's church.

By the end of this council, Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit were considered one and the same. Before the council, there was confusion about, whether they should believe in one God, two gods or three entities.

Here's a statement from got questions, a popular Christian website, "The Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ and established an official definition of the Trinity-the deity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under one Godhead, in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons."

This was a pretty interesting article, if you've got time to read it, I would also suggest checking out Wikipedia for more information about the Council of Nicaea.

Here's Some of the Problems I Have with This Small Group of Proclaimed Christians.

If I'm reading this statement correctly, a group of people or religious leaders, 1700 years ago decided that Jesus, God the creator of everything in the universe and the Holy Spirit are the same. What does this mean to you? To me it establishes as a fact that a group of men, at a meeting, under the control of the Roman empire and the Emperor Constantine, made an agreement within the Council of man, not gods, that the Trinity was now a fact.

If this one thing was created by a group of men, doesn't it get you thinking about other things in your religion that might be false or even misleading. These are some of the facts that most Christians tend to either ignore or don't even have a clue that they exist.

I believe more Christians and other organized religions should inspire their followers to learn more about how their religions were formed and where they came from. I cannot verify that the Council of Nicaea ever took place, I'm basing this information on historical writings from man, that I either gather on the Internet or through books. I don't know if any of this is true or false, always use religion responsibly.

I don't need to believe the information, I don't need to believes the information in the Bible, I need to research and gather more information and with this information I can make an educated guess, and be happy with that, I suggest you do the same.

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing, marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a self help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Slow Market Home Pricing Advice

Homes are going to be sold in good markets and bad. When times are good, people often forget that bad times will be coming eventually. During good times, people often get caught up in the hype of the real estate boom. During tough times, houses will be sold eventually, or taken off the market and sold later. If you need to sell the home as soon as possible, for financial or other reasons, you will have to adjust your price with the current market and don't get greedy.

This is the hardest thing for most people to do, lower the price of their home in order to sell it in a slow real estate market. Don't get caught up in the value of your home, six months or even a year ago. Last year's prices are not going to be this year's prices and you need to get that through your thick skull. If the average homes in your neighborhood are selling for $250,000 and you have a swimming pool or done some upgrades, maybe a room addition. Your home is going to be worth more than the average selling price.

Most real estate professionals will price your home according to the length of time you have to sell it. If you're in a hurry to sell, they don't have time to test the market. The price of your home would need to be competitive or lower than homes selling in the area. Whether homes are selling fast in a good market for selling slow in a bad market, if you have time, you can ask a little bit more for your home. If the market hasn't reached the bottom, waiting could actually hurt you, because the prices of the homes in the area would still be dropping.

Listen to your real estate professionals advice when pricing your home. That's what you're hiring them for, they are in the real estate business. Your neighbors, relatives, friends and people you work with, will probably be guessing if you asked for their opinion on pricing your house.

Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Finding that person is the key to selling your home, finding that person as soon as possible could give you the illusion that you sold your home to cheap. Don't worry about it, your final objective is to sell the house.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If you really think your home is safe, check out these pictures about home water damage.

Are Your Prayers Being Answered

People With Self Confidence Get Noticed

I went to a meeting last week which drove me to write this article.

"Who's that loser sitting there, right at the back. The one with his head down, fiddling with his fingernails?" I heard the person two seats away to my right whisper rather loudly to her friend.

Her friend turned to have a look and both had a good old giggle. "What a loser," they both reiterated simultaneously, their giggles turning into laughter.

I did not need to have a look, for the giggly girls described him rather well to me.

The certain individual they were referring to was not a loser. He simply lacked self confidence. And that lack was portrayed in his posture; in the way he sat and fidgeted with his nails.

Those people who do not have self confidence end up not achieving very much in life. On the other hand, those who possess a good level of self confidence achieve many things; their aspirations, goals and dreams.

The individuals who have self confidence tend to accomplish much more and are noticed more that those who lack self confidence. You will find them at the front row participating in meetings, unlike the poor fellow the girls were making fun of.

Self confidence is a very important element to achievements and success in all areas of life.

With self confidence you can have great relationships, personally and professionally. We cannot do away with relationships. It is through our relationships that we become more and have more.

Here are three tips as to how you can build your self confidence to establish and retain productive relationships:

1. Play a more active role with the friends you already have. Go out with them more often, meet their friends and work your way up to having more self confidence where you can get more involved and chat more easily and openly. Watch how a particular confident friend acts and do the things he or she does. Act like him or her. And it is very important that you stay clear of people who lack self confidence.

2. Increase your range of interests, take up more hobbies. Enroll in evening classes or clubs. This way you will have to meet people. Sit with them during coffee breaks, ask them questions about themselves. Keep them talking. And by the time they ask you a question, you will be more relaxed and self confident. Find new interests; learn a new language or improve upon a language, take up photography, painting, whatever it is that takes your fancy. Keep your mind on your interest and the people there. You will be happy, fulfilled and you will build on your self confidence.

3. Go find yourself a business or executive coach, or even a life coach. A coach is a great catalyst to help you reach your goal of self confidence much faster than on your own. Maybe your self confidence is gradually increasing, yet you want to become more confident for a particular reason much quicker; for example, for a party, a wedding, a meeting, a presentation. With the advice and support of the coach, you will most likely be ready for the event sooner than you might think possible.

These are simple steps that you can take. Why not pick up the phone now or write an email to a friend and suggest having a coffee together. Start to build your self confidence with an email.

Download the free sample of Self-Confidence Building in 7 Steps and start benefiting today. Visit: http://www.free-self-confidence.com.

Hani Al-Qasem is a published author and personal growth specialist. He co-authored Self-Confidence Building in 7 Steps.

New Home Buyers Beware

Ican't believe how many homebuyers purchase a house, with very little information and a Lotta hope. I'm a general contractor and often work on these homes, after they have been purchased and a homeowner has their money, the real estate professional is no longer involved in the transaction and the new homeowner is starting to experience the pitfalls from buying the home, that they sincerely believe was in good condition.

It's usually somebody like me that gets involved with the new homeowners after everyone else is out of the picture and chooses not to return their phone calls or explains to them quite simply, it's not our responsibility, you're the new homeowner and we really feel sorry for you, please call us again if we can help you with anything.

You couldn't even help me with that, why would I want to call you again if I had a problem. I never could understand this thinking but have ran into it often. It sounds like an oxymoron when someone refuses to help you but offers you help in the future. What ever!!!.

If homebuyers had something else to rely on besides their real estate salesperson, home inspection service, mortgage or insurance professional, I believe they can eliminate some of these problems. Where do you start and how do you get the information. You can gather information from reputable people, books, the Internet and so on.

The problem is how do you know these people are reputable and the books on the Internet have good information. This brings us to another problem, but I've got the solution that will help eliminate some of the grief. I'm not going to remove all of the grief from your life but have a suggestion for you that will eliminate some of the pain when buying a home.

Arm yourself with a good home inspection checklist. You can search the Internet and they have quite a few good home inspection checklist to work with. These checklist can provide you with things you might not have thought of, and this is where you can eliminate some of the problems.

If you took one of these checklists with you while you were shopping for a home, you would be aware of some of the problems with the home. You might not find all of the problems but these checklist will help you with some of the problems.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more home inspection or home building ideas.

Effects Of False Prophets

Motivation or Inspiration

In a recent conversation a colleague discussed doing motivational speaking. Then she said, "or maybe it's inspirational." That got me thinking about a common dilemma that managers and leaders face, "is it my role to motivate or to inspire?" To me, the two terms are very related but have a definite distinction.

Motivation is something that comes from within. As a manager or leader, I dont believe I can motivate you to do something, especially something that you aren't interested in doing. Motivation is completely personal.

What I CAN do is to create an environment that fosters self-motivation, based on precisely what motivates you whether that's money, responsibility, trust, empowerment, social meaning or something else.

And that's where inspiration comes into the picture, in creating that environment. Inspiration is an external factor. It's the spark that lights up an individual's motivators and sets them into action.

One of the most inspirational leaders of our time was Martin Luther King. His words and actions connected with people's internal motivators, specifically ethnic pride and social justice. He connected with people and inspired them with a vision of the future, and then showed them how they could be a part of making it a reality. Did he inspire everyone? No. There were many whose internal motivators didnt connect or align with his vision. There was probably nothing he could do to have them take action.

Think of some of the great energizing speakers or leaders that you've encountered. Did they inspire or motivate you?

One of our jobs as a leader is to create an environment that inspires individuals to connect their own inner motivators to a collective vision. Here's an example. A few years ago, I was coaching a banking executive, a regional sales leader. The collective vision of her group was to provide exceptional customer service while selling bank products and services to customers.

One of the financial specialists in her group was not meeting his goals. To motivate him, the executive kept explaining to the specialist that he was leaving money on the table, incentive money, when he failed to sell these services.

I asked the executive to tell me about the individual, and I quickly understood why this method wasn't working. She told me that the individual spent a lot time volunteering in the community and enjoyed spending time with family and friends; he had been with the bank a long time and really loved to socialize with the individuals he worked with. I explained to the executive that it didn't sound like money was a major incentive for this person and that it might be time to stop trying to motivate and start trying to inspire.

To inspire him, she needed to tap into this man's unique motivators, so I asked her to experiment by talking to the specialist about the future he was helping his customers create - the secure retirements, the college funds for their children and the first homes they were helping young couples purchase.

In a month, the specialist was meeting and in some cases exceeding goals. When the executive stopped trying to motivate with what SHE thought would work and what motivated her, and began trying to inspire the specialist and tap into their own motivators, they found a common ground. She created a vision and environment where the specialist could be self-motivated and thrive.

What motivates the people that you lead? How can you inspire them by sparking those motivators and linking them to the companys or your vision? Find these answers and you'll all succeed together.

Bill Burtch, SPHR, ACC is the President of Harmony Coaching & Consulting a management consultancy focusing on Executive/Corporate Coaching, Human Resource Management, and Training Design & Delivery. For more information on this topic or for information on Bills services you can contact him at 901-272-7390, bburtch@harmonycc.net or visit him on the web at http://www.harmonycc.net

New Home Buyers Beware

Ican't believe how many homebuyers purchase a house, with very little information and a Lotta hope. I'm a general contractor and often work on these homes, after they have been purchased and a homeowner has their money, the real estate professional is no longer involved in the transaction and the new homeowner is starting to experience the pitfalls from buying the home, that they sincerely believe was in good condition.

It's usually somebody like me that gets involved with the new homeowners after everyone else is out of the picture and chooses not to return their phone calls or explains to them quite simply, it's not our responsibility, you're the new homeowner and we really feel sorry for you, please call us again if we can help you with anything.

You couldn't even help me with that, why would I want to call you again if I had a problem. I never could understand this thinking but have ran into it often. It sounds like an oxymoron when someone refuses to help you but offers you help in the future. What ever!!!.

If homebuyers had something else to rely on besides their real estate salesperson, home inspection service, mortgage or insurance professional, I believe they can eliminate some of these problems. Where do you start and how do you get the information. You can gather information from reputable people, books, the Internet and so on.

The problem is how do you know these people are reputable and the books on the Internet have good information. This brings us to another problem, but I've got the solution that will help eliminate some of the grief. I'm not going to remove all of the grief from your life but have a suggestion for you that will eliminate some of the pain when buying a home.

Arm yourself with a good home inspection checklist. You can search the Internet and they have quite a few good home inspection checklist to work with. These checklist can provide you with things you might not have thought of, and this is where you can eliminate some of the problems.

If you took one of these checklists with you while you were shopping for a home, you would be aware of some of the problems with the home. You might not find all of the problems but these checklist will help you with some of the problems.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more home inspection or home building ideas.

Are Your Prayers Being Answered