Latest Articles by Kevin Bilberry

Real Estate And The Online World

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We don't need to tell you that the internet has revolutionized real estate. After all, you're here, reading this online. But there are still people out there who don't use the internet in their search for the right home to buy. For them, the process of finding the right home can take ages longer than for the lucky among us that know what an amazing tool the internet can be for real estate.

Most Realtors® realized long ago that the internet was an amazing tool for marketing homes. It gives buyers the freedom to peruse stock in the comfort of their own homes. It allows sellers a quick resource for comparing their home with what else is out there. It allows out-of-town-ers to search for neighborhood information, and learn all about a place they've never been to. For those of us that use it, it's as though the internet was designed specifically for selling real estate. But there are still ways to make the process more streamlined.

Of course, those of us that use the internet also realize it can be a procrastinator's dream. There are so many ways to waste time ont he internet! For example, if you're looking to buy real estate, you could spend a lot of time looking at homes you can't afford, just because the pictures of them are there, and they look so nice. But in order to truly make the internet work for your real estate needs, you need to focus your search. Just like any other real estate venture, it's got to start at the bank, or wherever you are planning on getting your mortgage, and it's got to start with you being pre-approved. Then you know what price range to look at, and whether you're searching the multiple listing service, trulia, zillow, or you've found the great site of a real estate agent, you can specify your search to meet your financial criteria.

And speaking of all the different places a person can go to search for real estate, it's probably a good idea to visit them all. You'll likely find one that appeals to you the most, but it's always good know what your options are. Plus, while there will undoubtedly be overlap, each source will have some unique content. You never know where you'll find exactly what you're looking for. And since new listings come up each day, it's a good idea to find a Realtor® you like and ask them if they have an email list to which they send out notice of new listings. Some can even tailor a notice to send you emails only when the homes that come up are within your price range, or the neighborhood you prefer, or whatever criteria are most important to you.

So although the internet is an amazing resource, just like when you're using it for any other purpose, without focus, it can be a quagmire of useless information. Don't let the vastness of it slow you down. Know what you want, look for it everywhere you can think of, and don't waiver from your purpose, except if you need the definition of a feature of what just might be your dream home.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Knoxville homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary resource.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Supreme Court Promotes Responsibility

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

So you moved into your new home and it was your pride and joy - for a few days. Then you noticed that the cabinet doors weren't always flush, the plumbing started talking to you, the floorboards creaked - and suddenly the dream was a nightmare. Fortunately in these cases of this type, unlucky home-owners can now benefit from a change in the U.S. law.

Once upon a time it was easy to sue a builder who was at fault; you waved the contract around in court and things happened. In the case of a contract between you - the buyer - and the builder, it is not difficult to make a case against the construction company.

But what can you do when the house that you buy is just not up to the standard that we all expect from brand new construction - and your contract is not with the builder? This becomes difficult as the contract signed by the home owner is with the middle man and not the builder.

Many new home owners have bought their home through a middle man, using a development company that has hired a construction company or a sales office etc.

This is also the case with strata complexes and condo owners - although there can be two different scenarios here. Either the owners have signed up with the management and not the construction company, or the owners have actually bought from the construction company.

In the latter case, some matters (i.e. the overall roof) would come under the jurisdiction of the Home Owners Association (who does not have a business contract, per se, with the builders).

In cases like this, the whole question of responsibility for workmanship could be sidestepped, but the Supreme Court has recently stepped in to rule over these types of situation.

A case had already gone to the Court of Appeals who had found that an Association (as opposed to an owner) had no legal precedent to sue a builder without a direct business relationship and this case raised many questions.

In August 2008 the case came before the Supreme Court of Arizona and the Court of Appeals decision was overturned by the Supreme Court who voted unanimously against it.

Now, even if you do not have a legal contract with the Contractor who built your home, it is still possible to have the construction company be held responsible for its workmanship.

The Supreme Court justified their ruling by saying that the marketplace was changing and in many cases a 'construction entity' builds the homes but a 'sales entity' markets them to the public. Even if it transpires that the builder and the vendor do not have a business relationship, the home buyer should still; have the right to enforce the implied warranty against the builder.

Now the U.S. Justice Department says that the cost of 'remedying defective construction must appropriately fall on the builder rather than on innocent end users'.

This is good news for the general public who may have purchased a home in good faith and when things went wrong they found that they had no recourse. In the lofty and powerful realms of the Supreme Court of Arizona, the little man was heard.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Milwaukee homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Home on The Range - Again?

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

While rural life would be considered a nightmare by some of us, the idea of 'living in the country' is still a heartfelt dream for many. Is it really so different living in the rural areas, or is it just more peaceful with more birdsong?

The first ever consensus-based standard for all residential construction, both rural and urban should surely throw some light on the situation. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is soon to publish its National Green Building Standard which will be a report that encompasses nation-wide housing information.

Some housing and lifestyle analysts are likening the NAHB's pending results to the findings recently published from a report on rural life in the UK. The similarities in lifestyle that are apparent in this report may have us all phoning our realtors to move house!

That report, which is not only about housing, but also about rural life and its comparable equality with urban life, had some pointers for builders in the USA to note. Certainly some of the observations sound similar to what we might expect to hear back home in USA. For instance, one of the UK recommendations, was requesting more high speed internet access in remote areas and this has already been echoed in rural North America.

Developers must realize that high speed Internet access would be a positive factor in selling a home in rural America. It will make the country side seem more attractive and less remote - even though it is this remoteness that is so attractive to many of the residents.

Another interesting factor that will likely apply over here, is that the number of start-up business have been higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Also they have shown overall growth compared to a net decline in urban businesses, so moving to the country has its plusses when you are trying to economize!

Many rural residents have larger plots of land and/or acreage than their urban counterparts. They often grow their own vegetables, or even keep animals on the land. In this respect, the positives and negatives of the two countries seem fairly similar. For example, the UK reported that healthier lifestyles are more the norm in the country, even though their housing costs use up a larger percentage of their wages, which are usually lower in rural areas.

The report closed by noting that the changing use of land will affect country folk. It pointed out that due to changes in the global economy, land usage is likely to change. Whereas its traditional use in both USA and UK has been that of solely growing food for eating, it may now switch and add the growing of food for energy.

This switch, coupled with "changes in the world economy and international security " says the UK report is likely to mean that food security will "drive policy".

If this report is anything to go by, maybe we should be phoning our real estate agents. It sounds as if we should all be considering a home in the country; it may be a good investment in the future to buy our own little vegetable patch where we can let a few chickens wander under the fruit trees!

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Tacoma homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Chain Saw Massacre on Your Tree.

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It seems that the best place to extend your home out into the yard always has a big set back, it is either a drain or a tree, and neither one is easy to deal with. Trees do add value to a property, so ask yourself if it really has to go.

Ensure that there is no other way that your addition could be achieved. For this you may need to have a party and ask all your friends over. Any excuse for a party? Not exactly, but you will have this new extension plan firmly rooted in your mind and you cannot think of an alternative, but other people will have fresh viewpoints.

If there is no alternative other than to go ahead with your addition and your problem is a tree, the best advice is to hire a professional tree-feller. Failing that, you must have insurance (both for yourself, the house and your neighbor's), you should be proficient with a chain saw or a pole saw, and hopefully you can persuade a strong friend to come over and help!

Usually the tree is near enough to the home to cause damage to it. Of course, Murphy's Law! For this reason it is advisable to remove all branches first, and then deal with the tree trunk when the tree is a manageable size.

Climb up the tree and decide in which order you will start to eliminate branches. This is often decided for you by the growth of the tree; although you would plan to take down the smaller branches first.

Your safety precautions would include clearing a large space around the tree, no children in sight and wearing eye goggles and a hard hat. Another safety rule with tree cutting and chain saws or pole saws is never to work with the chain saw higher than your waist line. Some people like to use a rope to 'tie themselves' onto the tree trunk. as wielding a chain saw in a small space can make you lose your balance.

Once you have finished with the smaller branches and you are ready to move onto the bigger branches, you can choose from two options. The first is to tie a rope around each branch before you cut it, to 'assist' and guide its fall (you can loop the rope around a higher branch for more control).

The second method is to cut the large branches off in smaller manageable chunks; this method will take longer but you may feel more in control of the situation! Before you come down from the tree, leave two large ropes hanging from the tree trunk in case you and your helper need to 'steer' the tree as it falls.

Trees can be deceivingly tall. It is not advisable to guess that you have enough length in your own back garden to fell this tree and then watch it crash through the neighbor's fence and swimming pool. Actually use a tape measure to calculate your tree's pathway. This will also be helpful in deciding exactly where and in which direction you want the tree to fall.

Once this is decided, cut out a horizontally shaped notch (like >) from the trunk. It will be facing the direction of the pathway the tree will fall along. (The horizontal > notch is made by cutting one straight line halfway into the trunk and then cut another line six inches above the first at a forty-five degree angle to join into the straight line. You only want the notch to cut into about half the width of the tree trunk. Once the two cuts meet the wedge of wood will drop out.)

At the same level, make a slit halfway through the trunk on the other side, and stand-by with your ropes. It is better not to use the ropes except for an emergency, in case one of you pulls more strongly than the other.

After a thunderous crash and an adrenaline rush - all that you are left with is the trunk! You can rent a stump grinder to get rid of this, or splash out and hire a professional to do the job while you take an axe to the above-ground roots.

There is no short cut method to the clean-up; it will probably take longer than the tree cutting job!

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Los Angeles homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary resource.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Buyer: Be Aware

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

There is nothing worse than going into an important situation and having it turn out far different than you imagined. If you are getting ready to buy, or are maybe already in the process, make sure you don't blow it by being too naive.

One big mistake buyers make is getting too excited about a home. If you love it too much, you might overlook some of its imperfections. You might decide you can actually afford more of a mortgage than you really can. Both of these set you up for serious future problems. Also, if a seller sees how much you want the house, they aren't going to accept your low-ball offer. They'll ride it out and bring you up to their asking price. It is far smarter to keep your cool, and point out to them all the flaws you spot. You could make a good offer, but put some repairs on your conditions. And don't be afraid to get inspections, and always ask the Realtor® about any issues you think may exist. What seems like your dream house may not be so perfect, and you need to be objective enough to see if it isn't measuring up, and flexible enough to let it go if you have to.

Eager new buyers often try to start the buying process too soon. Yes, it's exciting to see a home that seems to match your criteria perfectly, but if you haven't seen the bank to get pre-approved yet, you are jumping the gun if you try to make an offer. You're probably thinking that you don't want it to get away on you, but the reality is, you don't even know what kind of mortgage a bank will cover you for. There are a lot of things the bank or lending institution considers when deciding how much of a mortgage you are good for, and a lot of it might not be things you've considered. You may feel fine about scrimping to make a higher mortgage payment, but the bank might not see it that way. They have a formula for weighing your income against your debts and expenses, and that will decide your mortgage, not your willingness to survive on potatoes and instant noodles. Also, you may be thinking that great new job will help you pay that steep mortgage, but the bank sees it as an unstable income because it's too new. So before you get too serious about any homes, do yourself and the sellers a favor and visit the bank to start the pre-approval process. This will tell you the price-range you should be looking at.

Another mistake a lot of people make is to think that investing in real estate will make them a quick buck. We see stories of the one month millionaire and get all excited. In reality, any real estate investment is a long term investment. Flipping for a profit is rare, and takes either a lot of sweat equity along with renovation money, or is pure luck in good timing. But markets rarely change so fast that within a couple of months you could make a large profit with little effort. If you are buying, expect that you will be investing time and money into regular maintenance. And if you want to make hundreds of thousands in equity, get comfortable, because it'll probably take many years.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Okanagan homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every American state and in Canada - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary resource.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Getting Rid of Mold

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Mold can be the bane of a homeowner. At its worse, it can damage the structure of a home, and cause all sorts of health problems for those living or working in the space. Even in small amounts it is unsightly and stinky. It isn't impossible to get rid of, but it does require diligence to truly overcome.

The first and perhaps most important step to overcoming mold growth is figuring out why it is growing in the first place. Usually, mold growth is caused by excess moisture getting into an area. This can be due to a leak somewhere in the home, either from outside or from water pipes. Excessive humidity, combined with moderate temperatures, will cause mold spores to grow on any organic material. This includes wood, paper, drywall and even insulation. If the moisture is minimal, it might be enough to increase the heat to this area to keep it dry. Adding a ventilation source such as a fan will also help dry out an area. However, if you've got moisture coming in through a direct leak, or just a lot of general dampness like in an underground basement, you will need to eliminate it.

If the dampness doesn't have a clear source, but, say, your cement basement walls are always damp, you will need to consider outside drainage around the area. Gutters are important to prevent rain water from saturating the ground right outside your basement. If your lot is on the lower end of a slope, you may have a lot of underground moisture around your home, as the entire neighborhood drains towards your home. If this is the case, you may need to dig a drainage trench to direct ground-water around your home instead of through it. Line the trench with perforated pipe or drainage tile, then fill it with large gravel. On top of this you can lay topsoil and re-plant grass, or whatever you want in that area. This should dramatically reduce the amount of ambient and direct moisture coming into your basement.

Once you have dealt with stopping the source, you will definitely need to clean away the evidence of mold. Depending on the severity of the problem, it could be enough to wash the walls with a bleach solution, or paint them with one of the paints on the market that includes a mold killer. However, if mold growth was occurring in your walls or ceiling, or had spread to carpeting or furniture within your home, you will need to remove all the moldy material. Anything covered with excessive mold will have spores that can become airborne and encourage further mold growth around the home. They can also be inhaled, to the detriment of those exposed. Use a mask when removing mold damaged material, and make sure children aren't present. Then, clean the area, and replace whatever was removed with clean, new material. Hopefully, you stopped the mold problem before it began to eat away at the actual structure of your home. If that happened, you may need to seek professional help with repairing the damage.

If you can see mold, or smell a musty smell somewhere in your home, don't wait. Find the source of the mold and stop it from growing now. Ignored, it will only spread, causing more hassle and expense.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Charlotte homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Your Second Home

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you've recently taken the plunge and purchased a second home, or are considering doing so, there are a lot of special considerations to think about. Owning two homes is roughly twice the responsibility, twice the expense, and presents unique problems. However, all of these are manageable, and that second home can be extremely rewarding if it is managed properly.

Many people buy a second home so they can feel a bit of ownership over their favorite vacation spot. Sometimes it's because their lifestyle demands they have a guaranteed comfortable and accommodating place to come to whenever they want (for example, no one can tell you no pets are allowed!). Some buy a second home out of necessity because of a job that requires travel, or a spouse who works in another city. Whatever your reasons for buying a second home are, one thing is certain: you can't be in two places at once. When there are two homes, one is likely to be the primary home and one will be empty much of the time. Many people find success in renting their second home out to vacationers during the times they won't be there. This helps to pay the mortgage and also helps your home not seem abandoned.

However, renting your second home means you've essentially got groups of strangers taking turns staying in your home. In between guests, it will need to be checked for damage and cleaned. Depending on where this home is and how much time you've got on your hands, these jobs may be better handled by a property manager than by you. Having a property manager you trust can take a lot of the stress out of managing your second home. If managed carefully, your second home should easily be able to pay for itself and its maintenance, especially if it is a nice home in a desirable area.

A second home is also an investment in your future. Just like your primary home, it will gradually gain equity over time. Your goal may be to eventually move into your second home, perhaps when you retire. Depending on your circumstances, having that second home offers you a lot of choice. You can rent out your primary home, and if you've managed to pay off both of your mortgages, that's a nice little income for you. Or, you can sell your primary home and use the income to either pay off your second home or to retire on if you've already paid off both homes. Or, you can sell both and buy something that better suits your needs at that time. No matter what you do, you'll have twice as many choices with a second home as you did owning one.

If you are wanting a second home for vacation purposes, but just can't afford to fully own another home, consider time-shares or fractional ownership options. Time-shares are often condos or apartments, but could be cabins as well. These are often owned by a resort company, and leased in a way that allows each leaser a set amount of time in the home at a set time of year. Similarly, fractional ownership is when you own a share of a home or condo. A contract is drafted outlining use and payment arrangements, and the share is deeded in your name. Just like in full second-home ownership, a property manager helps to take care of the details in a fractional ownership situation. In fact, a manager may be even more important in the case of fractional ownership, because a manager is a third party and not a co-owner, so no personal issues can enter into the situation, and no one can claim to be doing an unfair percentage of the work of managing the home.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Palm Springs homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Selling It On Your Own

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

While most agents discourage the idea, making it out to be a huge and stressful ordeal, selling your home yourself can be a rewarding project, both personally and financially.

It is generally agreed that finding buyers is the biggest challenge when selling your home without an agent to represent you. Thanks to the many resources made available on the internet, marketing real estate to buyers has never been easier. Web sites like Craigslist and Kijiji are excellent for homeowners wanting to find buyers. In addition, there are a lot of web sites dedicated to marketing homes for sale by owner. These all allow you to submit a description of your home and photos. In order to attract interest, be sure your photos are flattering, and be as detailed as possible in your description.

Another major challenge is setting the price for your home. The best thing to do is get online, as well as out in your neighborhood, and look at what other homes are selling for. Compare your home to others in terms of square footage, number of bedrooms, yard size, home age, and other factors that help to determine the value of a home. Be sure to pay careful attention to the key details. If you have a finished basement, don't compare your home to a similar one with a half-basement, as that small details can be the difference of at least a few thousand dollars, depending on where you are and what other factors are involved. It may be best to go to a few open houses to get a good look at exactly what you are dealing with. An open house allows you to view a home without taking up an agent or homeowners time when you know you have no intension of buying.

Remember, those sellers that are working with an agent are actually getting less for their home when it sells, because a good percentage goes to pay the Realtor®. If you price your home in the same range as a similar home that is being sold by an agent, consider the commission you aren't paying to someone else to be your incentive to take your time preparing your home and marketing it properly.

Just like any other home on the market, those for sale by owner benefit from being well groomed. You should do the equivalent of giving your home a manicure, inside and out. This may include tidying up the yard, painting the outside or inside, and finishing up any minor repairs. It should definitely include getting rid of any excess clutter and giving your home a good cleaning from top to bottom.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Tacoma homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Friends Don't Let Realtors Design Crappy MySpace Pages

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you're a realtor who has a MySpace page to make contacts and generate leads, good for you! You're joining a growing number of business people who are using this to connect with colleagues and potential clients. MySpace, along with Facebook and other social networking sites, has a fast-growing adult demographic that uses the networking capabilities for business as well as for keeping track of friends.

Enough people are using MySpace for business that “professional MySpace designers” are popping up all over Google. Add to that the tutorials for professional MySpace layouts and you have some pretty compelling evidence that there is interest in business MySpace pages and, more, they work. Do a search for “social networking” and “real estate” if you want some more information on this growing trend.

This article is not a tutorial; it's a bunch of advice on what NOT to do to capture the interest of your fickle public. You want people to visit an attractively designed, well laid out page, which is easy to navigate.

First, you may want to register a separate MySpace account for your business profile. This way, you won't have to worry about your friends posting inappropriate messages, or people looking askance at the photos you posted of that time in that bar. If you have a personal profile where you lovingly enshrine your victories in wet T-shirt contests, set it to private. The Internet works both ways and clients may check you out on Google – you don't want anything unprofessional popping up on another profile you have.

I'm surprised that I have to mention this, but otherwise professional looking realtors have MySpace pages that make you want to claw your eyes out. Shocking pink is not a color to design your page around. Unless, of course, you're selling nothing but Disney Princess castles or life-size replicas of Barbie's Play House. Do a search for a tutorial on color and contrasting colors so your potential clients won't have to leave your page in seven seconds to prevent a change in their contact lens prescription.

Anything glittering, pulsing, flashing, sparkling or scintillating is the kiss of death to a professional MySpace layout. I shouldn't even have to mention hearts, skulls, and any design that you would see in a skate park. For the love of God, don't plaster the site with crosses, stars of David, pentacles or anything else that jams your religion into the eyeballs of your reader. If you want people to know that you follow the tenets of Islam or are a devout Christian or worship the great mother Goddess, a couple of tastefully designed symbols placed within your page will get the message across.

It's nice that you love your husband, kids, dogs, naked mole rats, etc. However, your clients most likely have little interest in them. Place one small photograph in the About Me section. Don't put them into your profile picture, since the client wants to know what *you* look like, not your family.

Don't use big text. It looks like a cheap ad and is very annoying to read. TYPING ALL IN CAPS IS ANNOYING TOO. IT ALSO INDICATES “SHOUTING” ON THE INTERNET. SHOUTING AT CLIENTS IS BAD. Also don't make text so tiny, your client will have to magnify it several times to read it. They won't. And they will leave. Use a maximum of two different fonts on your page and don't merrily switch in between them among the paragraphs.

Learn to spell. Worship at the altar of grammar. You may think that a few typos is okay, but I tell you that when I see someone trying to advertise themselves with poor grammar, I wonder how much attention they will pay to the details of a property transaction. Grammar and spelling are important. Get a friend to look over your text before you put it up. Hire someone if you have to. Having a MySpace page with sloppy spelling and grammar means that some people are going to think twice about your services.

Just say no to huge paragraphs with no line breaks. They are also hard to read and many people give up after the first few sentences. This is especially sad when you have good information on your page, which would benefit them to know. Break up these huge amounts of text into paragraphs that focus on one or two ideas.

Clients appreciate that you have represented successful sales, but be circumspect. If you're going to use a picture of one of the houses you handed off to a deliriously happy buyer, don't let it spread across the page, don't constantly repeat the image, and don't use it as your background - this compromises the readability of your text.

Learn to make widgets work for you. Widgets are small blocks of code that can be plugged into webpages. MySpace pages support widgets and there are many to choose from. You can use widgets to list the properties you represent or put a mortgage calculator on your page. They are a clean way of putting your real estate information on your page without having to go through one listing at a time.

Having a MySpace page to promote you to the millions of MySpace users is important. However, to keep them interested in your page as a useful part of their real estate transactions, you must portray yourself as professional and with good attention to detail. Taking some time to find a layout that works to present you in this capacity will be well worth the effort.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Charlotte homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary source.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

6 Tips for the Safe Realtor

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In the haste to make a sale, many realtors have forgotten that their safety is more important than any amount of commission. Realtors have been robbed, beaten, raped and murdered while showing homes. The isolated nature of an empty house makes it easy for people to be assaulted without the neighbors knowing. Here are a few tips to make your safety a priority while still closing sales.

1. Take a self-defense course

Good self defense courses don't generally teach you fancy moves to make someone wish they'd never touched you. The aim is to teach you to be more aware of your surroundings and more aware of your body and what it can do to protect you. Attitude is a big component of self-defense. Also, the course will teach you a few good strategies - holds, blocks and kicks that will get you free from someone's grip and RUN. Don't try to be a hero, just get away and out of the house.

2. Don't take anything at face value

Murderers and rapists are most often not slavering creatures hiding behind bushes and in scuzzy alleyways. They can be well-dressed, have a wife, have a husband, have kids, prefer their tea with lemon. In short, they're just as human as the non-rapist and can't be distinguished by looks alone. Don't trust someone just because they dress in an Armani suit. Do background checks and note their I.D. numbers, license plate numbers and other identifying characteristics.

3. Let someone know

Actually, let several someones know. Where you are going, who you're going with and how long you plan to be. Leave information with your office, friends and family. Let the client know that other people know where you've gone and who with.

4. Take someone with you

Would you rather deal with the awkwardness of having someone there who is obviously there for safety or end up being taken advantage of in the worst possible way? Would you rather risk being alone with someone you don't know in an isolated setting or delay a prospective sale long enough to get someone to go with you? If it makes you feel better, you can have them pretend that they're a junior realtor coming along for experience or whatever - just bring someone with you.

5. Choose defensive instruments carefully

Pepper spray only works if it's aimed in the right direction and has a directed stream. Some jurisdictions place limits on pepper spray possession and usage - be aware of your rights and responsibilities. A travel bottle of hairspray may also produce unpleasant sensations in the eyes of an attacker and it's legal just about everywhere.

On guns: Many law enforcement personnel recommend against carrying a gun because of the liability and in some places, it's illegal (Canada). If you decide to go this route, don't just go out and get a gun; learn how to use, clean, carry, and store it safely. Also, learn the laws of your area concerning gun usage for self defense. If you don't know how to handle a loaded weapon and when to use it, then you have no business carrying it around with you.

6. Trust your gut

It's been said a million times before, but it's still true. If something gives you a bad feeling, GET OUT. No sale is worth your life or your physical well being. Read Gavin de Becker's "Gift of Fear" for more information on trusting your instincts. Sometimes it may play you false, but most people have a decently developed sense of what is right and what isn't, even if their conscious mind isn't aware of that fact.

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Learn more about For Sale By Owner Chattanooga homes at HomesByLender.com, a website with regularly updated For Sale By Owner listings in every state in the nation - buyers and sellers interested in FSBO can use this site as their primary resource.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com