I was asked by my friends at MyMovingQuote.com to review their website.

A first look shows that the site concentrates on providing a complete directory for online moving companies, services and listings for professional movers and associated specialty services. Also, numerous articles on moving are provided to help educate the consumer on this important aspect of everyday life.

As one who has move a number of times, I can attest that the experience of moving from one house to another is a significant burden on one’s time, energy, bank balance and even one’s emotions. Researching, calling and shopping around before contracting the move will go a fair piece towards making the move less stressful.

The Better Business Bureau receives numerous complaints each year about the problems that consumers encounter when using even the most professional and better-known moving companies. The most common complaints are of damage to personal goods. Other concerns were about lost items, delays in moving and overcharging above the contracted price. The key to a successful move is to 1} plan carefully, 2) obtain written quotes, 3) ensure any contract is comprehensive in nature and 4) make sure that the contract is completely understood before signing.

Some moving companies form their quote on the basis of the time it takes to move the household possessions or office furniture. Other movers quote on the quantity or weight of the items to be moved. Quotes obtained over the phone or using the web put the responsibility on the customer to form an accurate estimate of the amount of items to be moved, either in quantity or weight. The most accurate quotes are obtained by having the moving companies come to your home or office, survey the type, quantity and weight of items to be moved and complete the quote form while on premises.

No reputable moving company can guarantee that all of your property will arrive at its final destination in the same condition as it started out. Damage to your property can occur in transit, in storage and/or when it is being carried in or out of the moving truck into your home or office. Things can be accidentally dropped, dented, or broken by employees of the moving company.

It is rare that insurance coverage obtained through a mover features unlimited liability. The coverage will most probably not completely cover the value of your property if lost or damaged. It is extremely important to make sure that your possessions are adequately insured before you move. As such, you will want to discuss the insurance matters with a qualified professional, usually your insurance agent or a representative of the company that may currently be underwriting coverage on your home or office.

Visit MyMovingQuote.com. You will be richly rewarded with a wealth of information.

These days, approximately one in five mortgage applicants opts for an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM). The element of an ARM least easily understood is the index. With an ARM, two main factors determine the rate you pay: the index and the margin. The index is a rate set by market forces and published by a neutral third party. The margin is an agreed-upon number of percentage points that is added to the index to determine your rate. A thorough mortgage shopper will run across a bunch of acronyms to denote various ARM indexes, such as COFI, LIBOR, MAT and CMT. Each index responds at its own peculiar pace to the economy’s ups and downs.

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search for : adjustable-rate mortgage, ARM

87.5 +/- ACRES AVAILABLE FOR RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION

Mountain Development, 7 miles from West Jefferson, NC, 20 miles from Boone, NC.

$2,000,000 Purchase Price, Paved Road and Bridge Built To State Specifications, Average of $23,000 per acre, this Property Should Retail For Approximately $50,000 to $60,000 per acre.

ALL PROPERTY HAS LONG RANGE MOUNTAIN VIEWS

Contact Greg Stikeleather, Broker, 704.880.5247
or
email Greg at grstike@charter.net

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Homeowners today treat their houses like piggy banks, readily transforming their equity into cash and credit. You have home equity loans (still sometimes called second mortgages), home equity lines of credit and reverse mortgages. Then there’s cash-out refinancing. It usually doesn’t make sense to refinance a higher amount at a higher rate. If your current mortgage is at a lower interest rate than you could get now by refinancing, it’s probably better to get a home equity loan.

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search for : piggy bank, home equity loans, second mortgages

Title insurance — for a lot of homebuyers — is a mystery. You go to settlement, and among the many items you have to pay is a large sum of money for Owners and Lenders Title Insurance. You pay it, primarily because the title attorney tells you that you will not get your loan unless the lender has adequate insurance. Several months later, your insurance policy is mailed to you by the settlement company. You tuck it away with the rest of your home-purchase documents, and then forget about it.

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search for : Title insurance, Owners and Lenders Title Insurance, settlement company

Four bills aiming to curb foreclosures in North Carolina have cleared the N.C. House, and now await action by the state Senate. The bills would significantly increase state oversight of the mortgage industry for the first time in more than five years. During that time, the number of foreclosures has climbed sharply. More state residents likely will lose homes to foreclosure this year than in any previous year. The problem is worst in Mecklenburg County, where almost 4 in 100 homeowners likely will face foreclosure. The current crop of legislation stems from the work last year of a special House committee appointed in response to the Observer’s reporting about rising foreclosures in the Charlotte area.

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search for : curb foreclosures, mortgage industry

New houses are much more durable. Modern copper water pipes, for example, will easily last the life of the structure, which certainly can’t be said for the rust-prone galvanized steel pipe found in most older homes. And the “engineered lumber” used in today’s houses — much of it made from mill waste that used to be thrown out or burned — is stronger pound for pound than the solid-sawn lumber used by builders of yore. Even modern glass is better: While the French doors in old houses contain plain glass that shatters into dagger-like shards, the tempered glass required in modern doors crumbles into harmless little granules when broken.

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search for : engineered lumber, French doors

I have owned a two-unit apartment building for the last four years. I have month-to-month tenants in one of the units that started renting there after I bought the building. They have a clearly written agreement that states they are the only two tenants and no subletting or other tenants are permitted. However, we are about 90 percent sure that someone else has moved in for the last nine months. He never comes or goes and yet he’s there day and night, seven days a week. How do we prove it and what recourse do we have?

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search for : apartment building, subletting

Lack of communication is often one of the biggest complaints that many boards receive. Yet, good communication is a fundamental imperative of every homeowner association. If the board is to succeed with its objectives, it needs cooperation from the members. How is this cooperation best obtained? The board needs to identify priority targets to aim for. Hitting each target requires a process to achieve a positive objective that will improve the HOA.

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“Foreclosure filings are skyrocketing in North Carolina. The main cause of the increase in foreclosures is the large and growing number of home loans made by subprime lenders,” says Alfred Ripley, legal counsel for Consumer and Housing Affairs at the NC Justice Center. “While subprime loans have been around for decades, they didn’t used to be as damaging or widespread as they have become in recent years.” In North Carolina, foreclosure filings have increased nearly threefold in recent years to an all-time annual high of over 45,000 in 2006.

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search for : Foreclosure filings, subprime lenders, subprime loans