Improving mind, health and body is the stated aim of many health and fitness classes that are offered today. Many clubs and gyms are offering a variety of exercise and fitness classes that are designed for both men and women.Some of the classes are traditional such as yoga, while others are offering new exercise ideas and methods to the public.Women have become the most enthusiastic members at many of the fitness classes, and there are many classes that are designed to encourage their participation. You may notice many exercise classes that offer aerobics or yoga, and the great majority of the participants are women. These classes encourage women to become more active and offer them great gains in their overall level of health. In fact, yoga classes are attracting more males now but their following remains overwhelmingly female.These particular exercises do not push ideas like muscle, strength and bulk, but do encourage and support stretching, balance and flexibility. These are traits that women seem to naturally value and they are usually quite successful in performing the exercises and stretching techniques.Males tend to gravitate toward the heavier forms of exercise such as weight training and body building. You will often see them sweating over heavy barbells and working with machines with large weights attached.Weight training is being offered in more of the health and fitness classes today and these classes are capable of improving the health of both men and women. Many of the fitness classes are finding ways to incorporate some type of mild weight training in with aerobic classes to introduce the activity to more women.It is now common knowledge that working with weights will not only improve the shape of the body, but weight training will create stronger bones. Weight training can provide women with a well defined athletic body as well.
The main disadvantage to trying to acquire tax lien properties is the long wait that goes into a tax lien investment before a deed can be obtained. Some states have a redemption period as long as 4 years (the time allowed for the owner to pay off the lien). And, after the redemption period there is often a significant wait time for the deed to actually be issued by the county and a quiet title action performed (this is necessary before you can sell the property with title insurance).Also, you’ll find that over the course of the redemption period, most tax lien properties will indeed redeem (pay you off), leaving you with a decent interest rate but no properties.I’m about to show you a way to get tax lien properties now, without doing any bidding, waiting, or investing your own funds to buy tax liens.Several years ago, while attempting to obtain tax lien properties myself, I noticed that 95% of the properties redeemed, and that using all my available cash I could only purchase 10-20 liens each sale. This meant that I only stood to get on property at the most from the sale. In fact, I never got any properties, all my liens paid off.At the same time, because there were hundreds of liens sold at the sale, indeed there were a couple dozen properties that were lost each year. The problem was, there was simply no way to know which tax lien properties would go all the way to deed, so you just had to get lucky with whatever liens you purchased.One day I was going over the final results of a tax lien sale that occurred the year before (there was a one-year redemption period which had just ended), and I was looking at all the lucky buyers that had acquired a property or two. There were actually some nice properties on the list that could have been redeemed for less than $10,000 that were worth over $100,000.It had been several months since the redemption period ended, and I thought to myself “I wish I had been on this owner’s doorstep right before the redemption period so I could have warned them – I could have at least given them some money for the property so they walked away with something!”.Then it hit me – why don’t I look at all the tax lien properties from this year’s sale, that could still be redeemed for the next few months, and start approaching all the owners who were about to lose their properties!I did just that. I looked up which liens had sold the year before, and crossed out all the ones that had paid off in the meantime. This gave me a short list of all the owners who were about to lose their property. The original tax lien properties list before the sale was over 10,000 properties. Of those, about 1100 sold at the sale and by the time I got the list 800 of them had paid off. So I had a prime list of 300 properties to really focus on over the next month.The results shocked me. Here’s what I found:Most of the properties were free and clear. I later realized that if a property had a mortgage, it was likely one of the 800 that paid off already because mortgage lenders redeem properties to save their own interest.
Far fewer of the owners were owner-occupants compared to mortgage foreclosures. Of those who did occupy the property, most had been given the property through an inheritance or other means. To this day I’ve never seen someone who spent 30 years paying off a mortgage and then allowed the property to fall victim to unpaid taxes.
Many of the property owners were deceased. I soon learned how to get deeds from the heirs and get instant title to the property. Most states have a “small estates” provision that will allow you to get good title to the property without a long, drawn-out probate. Since almost nobody outside the legal profession knows how to do this, you’ll have a tremendous advantage.
All the properties that “fall through the cracks” end up at a tax sale eventually. Maybe someone was given a property they didn’t want. Maybe someone was sick of paying for repairs and taxes and just gave up being a long-distance landlord. Maybe family members moved into the house and were supposed to pay the taxes but didn’t. For whatever reason, tax lien properties are the most interesting source of pre-foreclosures you’ll ever find – and the profits can be immense.Best of all, you can get involved with little risk by either making a token payment for the deed to the property (in the case of someone who tells you they’re letting it go), or by getting the property under contract and flipping to another investor.Incidentally, investors trying to get their hands on tax lien properties through tax lien auctions are excellent people to assign contracts to – they are proven cash buyers who buy sight unseen, and you can get them a property now with no bidding or waiting, at a bargain price! What could be better?
The advent of the internet has paved way to a lot of things. As a matter of fact, it has significantly changed the way people make business. Nowadays, you can make money right at the comfort of your own home. You can make money online, manage your own time, and be the boss of your own business. If you have the knowledge, skills, dedication, and perseverance, then you can certainly make money online. There are so many ways to make money online. If you are one of those people who want to make money online, then all you have to do is to follow these steps.1) Find a niche that buysThere are so many niches that buy products and services online. If you have a small business, the best thing you can do is to fine tune your products for a selected group of people. You have to establish your promotional strategy so that you will be able to introduce your business to the right market. First and foremost, you should distinguish whether the products and services you offer require a niche market. It would be a big help if you are going to participate in the different online forums and discussions. Through this, you will be able to know more information about your target market. You also need to ensure that your products and services are really marketable or else you will end up wasting your time and money.2) Find the common problem and create the solutionTo be able to make huge money online, you have to distinguish the common problems faced by people online. To be able to do this, you should conduct a thorough research, join forums, discussions, and blogs. After distinguishing the common problems, the next thing to do is to come up with the best solution. Finding a solution to the common problems may seem difficult, especially if you don’t have the right knowledge and skills. But if you have the dedication and zeal, then you will be able to create a perfect solution thereby increasing your chance of generating money online.3) Build trust in your nicheOne of the efficient ways to promote your product and services are through niche marketing. With the right niche market, you will easily target the right market and literally thousands of online marketers use this strategy. To stand out among your competitors, you should work on establishing trust in your niche. There are plenty of ways to build trust on your business and one efficient way is to make your website look like professional. If the site is professional looking, then there is a high possibility that more customers will be enticed to patronize your products and services.The amount of money you generate online primarily depends on the aforementioned factors. It depends on the degree of your dedication, skill set, and trust. These skills cannot be learned overnight, but if you are truly interested in making money online, then you will be more than willing enough to dedicate your time in mastering the art of making money online.
Whether you’re in the market for a major interior overhaul or you’re simply looking to give your home a quick and easy update, chances are you’ve spent some time online hunting for ideas and inspiration. That said, it can be pretty deflating to stumble upon a look you love only to discover the price to achieve it is well above your budget.
Fortunately, there are some killer home decorating blogs that show you how to refresh, revive, and fall in love with your home anew without breaking the bank. For a home that looks far more expensive than it costs to create, check out the following blogs for all of the interior inspiration and DIY tutorials you’ll ever need.
Welcome back to the week 5 update for the One Room Challenge. Check out the blog posts and updates for week 1, week 2, week 3, and week 4 if you missed them. It’s crunch time now and I’ll be honest… I don’t know that this project will be completely wrapped up for the reveal date. The great thing is the reveal and hitting a deadline is not the only goal of reason for this challenge. Ultimately having a fully functional and hopefully beautiful bathroom is where we want to end up even it things are a bit delayed.
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.
When we left off last time the countertops had been templated, the trim was freshly painted and the hardware had been ordered. The hardware took about 1 week to arrive. We chose the Menlo Park 4″ pull from Schlub in chrome because I think the pull has the perfect mix of square and some rounded elements that make it a great transitional hardware option. We went with all pulls for the drawers and doors since the knob option in that line weren’t our favorite.
Guest Bathroom Reno: Quartz Countertops and Grout – One Room Challenge Week 5
The quartz countertops are now installed and things can be put back together. Rectangle, undercount sinks were also purchased through the fabricator. The Marble look quartz from Pental and it is gorgeous with the warm gray veins running throughout. For the edge went for a flat polish eased edge for a clean, simple look.
Guest Bathroom Reno: Quartz Countertops and Grout – One Room Challenge Week 5
Two days after the quartz countertops were installed the tile installer came back to finish up tiling the niches, installing the tile base and grout everything.
Guest Bathroom Reno: Quartz Countertops and Grout – One Room Challenge Week 5
The electoral is being relocated for the new lights. There are some drywall and painting touch ups to do and plumbing fixtures to be hooked up. Plus adding all the finishing touches ???? All those little things like towel hooks, curtain rod, and accessories will bring this whole thing together.
It’s been too long since I’ve updated and even longer since this work has been started. This is me sharing remodel updates, mostly for myself (but also for my nagging family members). I’m sharing photos of the progress that has been made while also document the craziness that has gone on. This is just the beginning of the remodel.
Prior to moving in I had 3-4 weeks where my apartment lease overlapped with the possession of my townhome. This allowed me, with the amazing help of my family, to paint, tear-out carpet and somewhat put back together the upstairs portion of my place so that I could have a clean room to put a bed. At least one that wasn’t completely torn apart. One area that felt more livable that the rest. If you haven’t seen or don’t remember these are the before photos from when I took possession. To list it out here are the main things that I was tacking during those week prior to me moving in.
Phase 1 Remodel Projects
ripping out baseboard, carpet and tack strips upstairs and preparing for new hard surface flooring. (this flooring will go throughout minus the stairs and bathrooms/laundry)
installing flooring upstairs (one of my installers did this)
mostly gutting the master bathroom
installing a new tub and rough in plumbing for the master and powder bath
ordering and installing a rift white oak vanity for the master
Painting (and priming where needed) the ceilings and walls of the bedrooms. Caulking and painting the crown molding in the master
replacing and upgrading the baseboard heater in the master and patch the drywall
painting the hallway and down through the stairwell
adding skirt board to the stairs
installing new carpet and pad on the stairs (my carpet installer from work did this)
removing upper cabinets on the fridge side in the kitchen
partially demoing the wall diving the kitchen (prepare to move switches, outlets, heater and thermostat)
removing drywall on wall next to bar in dining area
painting the downstairs powder bath and removing vanity to prepare for a new floating vanity
Those were the main projects that took place and then I moved in the day after Thanksgiving. Getting rid of the original, nasty cat carpet and new flooring made a huge difference to the upstairs. Also neutralizing and lightening the paint made things feel so much more fresh. I still have no baseboards but I’ll get on that one day! For now here are some photos that I snapped along the way.
It’s been a while since been posting on here but I have some new updates and projects that I have been working on. Last summer into fall I was house hunting while knowing the lease on my apartment would be expiring end of the 2019. It felt a little crazy but was a fun process for me. After a bunch of searching I found and closed on a new home!
I was lucky enough to have a few weeks of overlap with my apartment (I ended up moving out 1 month early) so I was able to get started on projects and updates prior to moving in. I’ll share more about those in the coming weeks (there are still so many unfinished things!) but for now I think it’s best to start with some before photos. Also, follow along on Instagram where I post current project updates more often. The pictures show it in the state I bought it in. It’s a great first place to me and was functional as-is but as you might expect I’m here to make things my own by doing updates that I will enjoy while living here and that will also add value and functionality to the space down the line when I sell… or maybe even keep it as a rental. My dog, Nova, has been enjoying the space as well ???? There are a couple of things to miss about my Bothell apartment but I am very ready to have my own place and space.
In 2017 the guest bathroom was remodeled. You can see more photos and read about that here. Almost everything came out and all new things went back in. From emails and comments people have been asking for sources so I have rounded up what I could in this post to share paint colors, products and links that I could find for the bathroom.
Bathroom Sources and Details:
Wall color: BM Balboa Mist
Trim and door color: BM Chantilly Lace
Floor Tile: Pental Mark Chrome 12×24 matte
Shower tile: Jeffrey Court Weather Gray 4×12 gloss subway
Niche tile: Daltile clio mosaic
Bathtub: Maax Rubix tub
Cabinet: Spencer Cabinets – painted BM Cape May Cobblestone
Countertop: Pental Quartz Misterio polished 3cm
Cabinet hardware: Schaub Menlo Park Pull in chrome
Faucets: Hansgrohe Metris single handle in chrome
Shower trims: Kohler slide bar kit, wall mount supply and Hansgrohe tub spout in chrome
Mirrors: Homegoods
Towel Hooks: Delta Tolva robe hook in chrome