Saving for the Super Bowl: How to Throw a FREE Game Day Fiesta

Get 5 smart tips to save big on your game-day party—and share some of your own tips for a chance to win a Super Bowl bash.


On Super Bowl Sunday, you want your head in the game, not worrying that your party is a drag or your wallet won’t recover. HouseLogic has rounded up some smart ways to offset your party-planning expenses without sacrificing the fun come game time.

They want to hear from you, too. Join in the conversation through Facebook and you’ll have a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card to spend on game day preparations, whether those include an extra-large party platter or your dream Pittsburgh Steelers or Green Bay Packers Fathead wall graphic.

1. Cheer for charity

Have fun watching the game with friends and family while supporting a good cause—and take a tax deduction, too. Here’s what to do:

Choose a charity or cause you love.
Provide guests with suggested donations. For example, if you want to raise $500, recommend each person donate $25.
Ask your local liquor store if it would donate a little free product in exchange for free promotion at your event. More often than not, the business is willing.

2. Get sponsored

Go to HouseParty.com to see if your party could be sponsored by a brand that would supply some food or drinks.

Next, Let a brand donate their food and drink to your party. Here’s how to get involved:

HouseParty.com has a host of brands willing to provide free goods and services for your party, including DiGiorno Pizza and Kraft.
Pick the brand you’d like to host and then complete a questionnaire about yourself and your knowledge of the brand. Your answers help the House Party team know if you’re a good fit for the promotion.
If you’re chosen, the brand will supply a host of party goods for you and your friends to enjoy.

3. Go green to save green

Some NFL stadiums have been taking measures to go green for years now, saving hundreds of thousands in energy costs and recycling everything from straws to cooking grease. Here’s how you can conserve at home:

Use real dishes. Save about $20 and space in a landfill by not buying plastic plates, cups, and silverware.

Send Evites. Don’t send paper invitations. Use free electronic invitations instead.
Recycle, donate, or sell your big, old TV. Use the big game as an excuse to treat yourself to a sleek, energy-efficient LCD TV. It’ll cost you up front, though you may find a pre-game day deal (see below) and you’ll save on energy in the long run.
“Hypercook” it. A great way to save energy (and money) is to turn your oven off before your dish is finished cooking. You can also skip preheating or use a smaller cooker like a toaster oven to make some meals.
Turn off bar room light displays. You may love your Coors Light neon sign but you don’t need it, especially when the game should be taking center stage

4. Go Coupon Hunting

There are tons of blogs and websites out there that have the scoop on the latest deals at hundreds of retailers. Save big on everything from food to supplies to electronics just by spending a few minutes doing an online search. Here’s what we found:

CouponMountain.com has deals on electronics, decorations, food, gear, and even tickets to the big game. And sites like Bargain Babe and Deal Seeking Mom also keep tabs on great sales.
Safeway is also helping football fans prepare for Super Bowl parties with a host of party-themed recipes and coupons.
Also nab that LCD TV for less on sites like overstock.com or catch Super Bowl season sales at stores like Best Buy or Sears.

5. Get a Little Help from Your Friends

After all, it’s the company that really makes the party special. So rather than breaking your back (and the bank) trying to get everything done by yourself, include your guests and make it fun.

Have a competitive potluck. Have a cook-off for fans of opposing teams (or let each person fend for themselves). It’ll add to the spirit of the day and save you big on groceries.
Ask for help. Need extra chairs? Ask your friends to bring them instead of buying them. Looking for some preshow entertainment? Ask your friends to bring their favorite games to play. That’s what friends are for.

For more info check out Houselogic.com

Fit a Small Office in Your Small Home

By: Terry Sheridan

Published: January 21, 2011

Setting up a small office in your small home means finding new uses for closets and other tucked-away spaces. You can also get creative by making rooms do double duty.

Yes, you can! Squeeze a small office into your small home, that is. But that doesn’t mean you have to take over one of the kids’ bedrooms—just look for under-utilized space.

After that, it’s decision time: How much to spend, how big to make the office, and how you’ll use it.

Here are five solutions to consider:

1. Kitchen helper. From a $400 store-bought island for bill-paying to a breakfast bench nook with file drawers built in under the seats (cost: $5,000 to $15,000), your kitchen is a treasure trove of small office possibilities. Even a slide-out cutting board (about $500 in a cabinet package) can serve as a nifty desktop.

2. Closet conversion. Get rid of unused stuff or consolidate it in another area, and a 3- to 8-foot-wide closet accommodates a built-in desk, shelves, and lighting. Make a nearby chair do double duty for your desk.

With doors and wiring for lighting and a phone, and possible added drywall, your new small office would cost $2,000 to $4,000. Keep in mind that the more floors and walls that wiring has to travel through, the costlier it gets.

3. Porch possibilities. Convert that long, narrow space on the side of your small home that gets only seasonal use to a year-round office for about $15 per square foot. Use plug-in space heaters and fans for your HVAC system.

Use inexpensive, freestanding shelves to provide storage space. Cost: About $70 for a 30-by-80-inch bookshelf.

4. Those out-of-the-way spaces. Alcoves, lofts, stair landings, basement and garage corners, and bedroom nooks qualify as potential office space. Use freestanding shelving units and bookcases. Plants or privacy screens can “wall” the area without making it feel smaller.

You can build a bench for visitors with storage space inside for about $130. Want a craftsman to build it for you? Add another $300 to $400.

5. Under-used dining rooms. Formal dining rooms can be overrated. If yours isn’t being used regularly, convert it to a small office. You’ll be close to your main entry, making it easy to receive clients and business associates. If a nearby kitchen or other busy household area is a noisy distraction, install French or sliding doors as acoustic barriers.

Terry Sheridan is an award-winning writer who has covered real estate and home ownership issues for more than 20 years. She’s owned homes ranging from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet.

Inexpensive Ways to Boost Resale Value

According to HomeGain.com's newly released 2011 home improvement survey, the top five home improvements (under $5,000) that real estate professionals recommend to home sellers based on average cost and return on investment (from highest to lowest ROI) are:


•Cleaning and de-cluttering ($290 cost / $1,990 price increase / 586% ROI)
•Lightening and brightening ($375 cost / $1,550 price increase / 313% ROI)
•Home staging ($550 cost / $2,194 price increase / 299% ROI)
•Landscaping ($540 cost / $1,932 price increase / 258% ROI)
•Repairing electrical or plumbing ($535 cost / $1,505 price increase / 181% ROI)

Cleaning and de-cluttering continues to rank as the top suggested home improvement (since the survey was originally conducted in 2000), recommended by 99 percent of real estate professionals, costing less than $300 and returning a value of nearly $2,000 to the home's sale price, or a 586 percent return on investment.

"Sellers need to prepare their homes for sale before putting them on the market," said Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain. "Homes that have initial appeal have a better shot at selling faster and closer to the asking price than homes rushed to the market with no improvements."

Rounding out the top 10 low cost, do-it-yourself home improvements includes: updating electrical systems and/or plumbing, updating the kitchen and bathrooms, replacing or shampooing carpets, painting interior walls, repairing damaged floors, and painting the outside of the home.

The home improvement projects with the highest price increases to a home's resale value are updating the kitchen ($1,265 cost / $3,435 price increase), followed by painting the outside of the home ($1,467 cost / $2,222 price increase) and home staging ($550 cost / $2,194 price increase).

"No News is Good News"

It's been said that "no news is good news...." And while that can be true, lately many of the economic reports we have seen have been very good news, as they show signs that our economy continues to improve.

Stocks just enjoyed their seventh straight week of gains, due to the positive economic reports that have been streaming in. While this is certainly cause for celebration, an important question we need to consider is what does this mean for home loan rates in the short and long term?

On the one hand, improvement in the economy is good news on the housing front, as once people feel better about keeping their job or getting a new job, home purchasing activity will rise, and values will follow. But on the other side of the coin, as the labor market and economy improve, home loan rates will have to gradually rise as well. And remember, this all ties in with the Fed's plan to inject the full $600 Billion into our economy as part of their latest round of Quantitative Easing, known as "QE2."

Remember, the three part goal of QE2 is to create inflation, lower unemployment, and boost Stock prices - and we are seeing evidence of these goals occurring. Not only have Stock prices improved over the last seven weeks as we discussed above, but December's Jobs Report posted the lowest unemployment rate since May of 2009. And last week, we saw some evidence of inflation as the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale or producer level, came in higher than expected. While December's Consumer Price Index wasn't quite as hot as the PPI, going forward our increasing budget deficit could cause inflation to spike down the road.

So what's the bottom line if you have been thinking about purchasing or refinancing a home? Home loan rates are still very attractive right now, so call or email me if you want to get started.

Info from: Shane Atwell @ Primary Residential Mortgage

Your Weekly Mortgage News!

"Whistle while you work." Snow White.... That's something more people have been able to do lately, as the labor market continues to steadily improve. Here's what December's Jobs Report showed... and what it means for home loan rates.

The Labor Department reported that 103,000 jobs were created in December, and private job growth was 113,000. While these numbers were below the recently ramped up expectations, they do show that the trend in the labor market is improving. Also noteworthy are the upward revisions to the prior two months readings, showing 70,000 more jobs created than had been previously reported.

And yet, the real shocker in the report was a significant decline in the unemployment rate to 9.4%, which is the lowest unemployment rate since May of 2009.

So what did we learn from this Jobs Report?
1. While positive news, this Jobs number was still soft enough to support the Fed continuing on their plans for a full dosage of QE2 for the economy... and this won't be good for Bonds and home loan rates, as it carries along some real inflation threat down the road.
2. The recent tax package and lower tax rate extensions have not yet had enough time to be seen or felt in the economy, so those factors should help provide further improvement in the labor market in future months... but also will create inflation - bad news for Bonds and home loan rates.

The bottom line for right now is that the familiar chant "Don't Fight the Fed" continues to ring true. The Fed is intent on creating inflation, lowering the unemployment rate and raising Stock prices...and they have already been somewhat successful. QE2 will likely keep coming until the employment picture improves significantly, and this is all going to be unfriendly for Bonds and home loan rates ahead.

So what should you do if you have been thinking about purchasing or refinancing a home? The good news is that home loan rates are still extremely attractive right now, so call or email me now to get started.

Mortgage Weekly News From: Shane Atwell @ Primary Residential Mortgage.

Rent vs. Buy: Do the Math then Ask Mom

Do the Math

Let’s look at the financial aspects of renting vs. buying. With house prices falling and rental prices rising in many markets, the possibility that owning a home could cost less than renting one is growing.

In an article from CNN Money earlier this week, they looked at this issue as we move into 2011:

Perhaps not surprisingly, it makes more financial sense to rent than buy today in many U.S. cities…

But that may finally be about to change. Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi expects the trend to reverse this year in many major cities.

“By mid 2011 and certainly by end of 2011, buying will be superior to renting in most parts of the country,” Zandi says.

As one person said to us recently: “Rents are like adjustable rate mortgages. They adjust often and most times they adjust upward!”

Talk to Mom

Middle age parents who have owned a home understand its true value. A home has always been a good long term financial investment. However, homeownership also has many other benefits.

As a matter of fact, Fannie Mae just came out with their National Housing Survey which asked the question directly: Is this a major reason to buy a home?

The study broke up the answers into financial and non-financial reasons.

The top four reasons and six of the top ten reasons were NON-

FINANCIAL. The top four are below:

1. It means having a good place to raise children and provide a good education.
2. You have a physical structure where you and your family feel safe.
3. It allows you to have more space for your family.
4. It gives you control over what you do with your living space (renovations & updates).

Should this surprise us? Aren’t these the same reasons our parents bought their home? Aren’t these the same reasons we purchased our home?

These are the same reasons parents have suggested their children buy a home. They want the same things for their grandchildren that they believed to be important for their children.

Bottom Line

Now that the craziness of this housing market is beginning to show signs of settling, people are getting back to the core values that families have always embraced. Homeownership is definitely high on the list.

Key to Real Estate Rebound...

By: NICK TIMIRAOS And ANTON TROIANOVSKI from Wall Street Journal

After dragging the U.S. economy into a severe recession, property markets across the country now are relying on an economic recovery to help cure their hangover in the new year.


The housing sector, weighed down by a glut of unsold homes, needs job growth to boost demand and curb the flow of delinquent loans into foreclosure. For commercial real-estate investors, lackluster hiring means fewer new jobs to fill empty office space and less consumer confidence to drive activity in stores and distribution warehouses.

"The No. 1 biggest risk is that, for whatever reason, the overall economy does not grow sufficiently to produce any meaningful rebound in jobs," said Thomas Lawler, a housing economist in Leesburg, Va.


For housing markets, the past year was another bumpy ride. Home prices stabilized in the first half of 2010 as the government offered tax credits to spur sales, but transactions plunged to 15-year lows after that stimulus expired. Sales have rebounded only modestly and at the current pace, it would take 9½ months to work through the volume of existing homes listed for sale.

The market dodged a bullet in March when the Federal Reserve ended its purchases of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. Many analysts expected rates to rise, but they defied expectations by falling to 60-year lows, thanks first to the European debt crisis and later as the U.S. recovery faltered. (As the year ended, rates were rising but they remained historically low.)

Tail winds to spur a recovery are gathering. Large price declines have made housing more affordable than at any point in the last decade. New housing construction is stuck at its lowest levels in more than 40 years. "That will help absorb supply in ways that a lot of people underestimate," Mr. Lawler said.

But sellers also still will have to chop prices. Overall, prices are down 29.6% from their July 2006 peak to October 2010, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller price index. Many analysts expect home prices to decline by an additional 5% before stabilizing later this year. "We're bouncing along a bottom," said Ivy Zelman, chief executive of housing research firm Zelman & Associates.

Moreover, credit standards are still tight. And while mortgage delinquencies peaked in February 2010, foreclosures could remain at an elevated level for years as banks work through a huge backlog. The most realistic "best case" scenario for 2011 would "simply be a year in which things do not get worse," wrote Morgan Stanley housing analysts in a research report.

One of the most stubborn problems is the 10.8 million homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth, or 22.5% of all mortgage borrowers, according to CoreLogic Inc. These so-called underwater borrowers can't easily sell their homes, and they are at risk of defaulting if they lose their jobs.

Housing faces additional uncertainty because the government is set to reconsider how aggressively to support homeownership. Deficit hawks have their sights set on scaling back the mortgage-interest deduction, and the Obama administration later this month will put forth a proposal on how to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the broader mortgage market.

"What goes on in Washington will be of critical importance to housing," said John Burns, an Irvine, Calif.-based home-building consultant.

Another wild card: Regulators and prosecutors could uncover sloppy practices from the heyday of the housing boom. In September, some of the nation's largest banks, including units of Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., were forced to suspend foreclosures due to potentially fraudulent document-handling procedures.

Banks say they haven't evicted anyone who hasn't defaulted, but the foreclosure machinery has been slow to restart nonetheless. Some real-estate lawyers warn that problems could be worse if it turns out that loans weren't properly recorded or transferred during the process of bundling mortgages and selling them as securities.

Banks already face rising costs as foreclosures become more time-consuming. Investors, meanwhile, are pursuing new efforts to force banks to buy back money-losing mortgage bonds.

In commercial real estate, last year saw some markets start to come back after a dreadful 2009. The biggest winner: Washington, where the federal government sustained demand for office space from contractors, lawyers and lobbyists.

More broadly, downtowns across the country have seen things start to turn around, while suburban areas are still reeling from excessive construction and the economic ripple effects of the housing bust.

Vacancy rates are near historic highs, from 10.9% in retail space to 17.6% for office buildings across the country, according to data firm Reis Inc. The pace of construction starts for hotels, office buildings and other kinds of commercial real estate is still falling, with the total of $47 billion in commercial construction starts from January to November 2010 more than 8% below the same period the previous year, according to Reed Business Information.

When the economy does start posting a stronger recovery, investors will be watching how commercial real estate responds. There is concern that companies are figuring out how to use less space per employee, reducing new office-space demand, while the growing popularity of online shopping could eat into demand for retail space.

But in the financial markets, things are looking up. The market for commercial mortgages sliced, diced and sold on Wall Street is widely expected to expand this year amid investor demand and more certainty about where the real-estate market is heading.

J.P. Morgan Chase predicts that some $45 billion in commercial-mortgage bonds will be issued for U.S. assets in 2011, well above last year's level of roughly $10 billion but still a pittance compared to the 2007 peak of $228 billion.

For both landlords and lenders, amid falling rents and rising vacancies, low interest rates were a saving grace in 2010. As long as rates stay low, many commercial-real-estate players should be able to ride it out this year, as well. "If all this cash is still searching for yield, where else will it go?" said Murray McCabe, J.P. Morgan's real-estate investment-banking co-head.

Mortgage Forecast of the Week

The new year kicks off with a bang, as nearly all of the reports due out this week are rated as having the potential for a high impact on the markets!

•We start off right away Monday morning with the ISM Index. This is the king of all manufacturing indices and is considered the single best snapshot of the factory sector, so it has the potential to move the markets if it doesn't meet expectations that it will come in better than the prior reading.
•Tuesday brings us the first release of FOMC Minutes of the year. Although the Fed has already released its policy statement, the markets will be examining the minutes closely for indications of the Fed's thinking regarding important topics like inflation, rates, and the overall economy.
•We'll also see some important employment news this week. First up is the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday, which measures non-farm private employment. The report is expected to show fewer jobs created in December than the previous reading of 93,000 jobs created in November.
•The ADP Report will be followed the next day with another round of Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday. In last week's report, Initial Jobless Claims was reported at the lowest level since July 2008. That was good news for the labor market, but we still need to see if this report was skewed by the holidays or if it was the start of a trend lower in new unemployment claims.
•The big news of the week will be the release of the all-important Jobs Report this Friday. The Average Work Week and Unemployment Rate are expected to hold steady, while Hourly Earnings and Non-Farm Payrolls are expected to rise.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result.

Published by: Shane Atwell @ Primary Residential Mortgage

Titan's, Michael Roos and his wife, Start Development in Germantown!

A Germantown development spearheaded by Tennessee Titans offensive tackle Michael Roos and his wife, Katherine, will soon start rising from the ground.

4th and Madison LLC, operated by the couple, is building The Square at Fourth & Madison, a mixed-use development featuring condos, commercial space and space for a restaurant. They also own Germantown coffee, tea and dessert spot Drinkhaus.

Architect Nick Dryden of DA/AD, which designed the project, said it is ready to start going vertical.

Evidence of that fact came Tuesday, when a $448,000 building permit was issued for a parking structure with a rooftop tennis court at 1216 4th Ave. N. Crawford and Jones Inc. will handle the work.

The development is across Fourth Avenue from the 4th and Monroe condo complex, which was bought at a foreclosure sale in January and sold earlier this week to a company that plans to rent the units until the market improves.


Article:
Nashville Business Journal - by Dan Hieb
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 3:03pm CST