Duane’s Video May 27
| “It’s a great day to be in real estate! Duane Beisner here… sales manager and a sales representative for ERA real estate. |
Duane’s Quote of the Day
"Moral courage simply means you do what you think is right without bothering too much about the effect on yourself."
-- William Slim, British Field Marshal
Duane’s Joke of the Day
VARNING: MinnySoda Compewtr Virus
Ve haf just sent you da NORVEGIAN VIRUS. Since ve do not haf any programming experience and do not know how to actually demage your computir, dis Virus verks on da honor system. Please forward dis Virus to eferyvone on your mailing list and den manually delete all of da files on your hard drive.
Tank you for your cooperation,
Sven and Ole
Duane’s Business Tip of the Day
The greatest negotiating tool of all time is to simply be nice to other people.
Think about it.
Duane’s Social Commentary How to Keep Your Facebook Profile Secure…
Here's how to navigate the new settings and keep your profile secure:
1) Review Settings
Simpler controls may help most users, but an opt-out system will do little for users who don't look at those controls, says Paul Stephens, the director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. Unless users say otherwise, everything is shared. Use the "preview my profile tool" on Face book’s privacy settings pages to see what others can spot. Also consider downloading the free tool at ReclaimPrivacy.org, which flags unsecure settings and offers tips to revise them.
2) Eliminate 'Everyone'
Users would do well to stop thinking of social networks as somehow cut off from the broader Internet. "People understand that when they tweet [using Twitter.com], that it's a broadcast to the world," Aftab says. Anything in Facebook settings that's available to "everyone" is available publicly in the same fashion, potentially showing up to anyone who clicks on your profile, visits sites such as OpenBook or conducts a search on Google (GOOG, News. "Don't post it unless you want your parents, the police, predators and your principal [or boss] to see it," she says.
3) Opt for Security
Face book’s new policy still allows users to specify restrictions post by post. Opt for a more secure setting and tighten or loosen it further if the situation calls for it, Aftab suggests. For example, users can set photo sharing to "friends only" but then specify that their boss can't view the newly uploaded pictures from a recent party. On the other hand, they can broaden a job-hunt status update to include "friends of friends," instead of just people in their immediate circle.
4) Share with Caution
Even information shared with "friends only" could pose a security threat if a friend's account is hacked or a bug occurs, Stephens says. Seemly innocuous data, such as a birthday, a mother's maiden name or a favorite pet's name is enough for hackers and identity thieves to do serious damage. "You're providing a source of data that might be used by a hacker to access password-restricted sites," he says.
There's also the embarrassment factor. In February, a temporary bug resulted in a handful of Facebook users receiving hundreds of private messages meant for others. In early May, another glitch allowed users to view friends' private chats with other people
Duane’s Real Estate News…
April New-Home Sales Spike 14.8%
Sales of new homes jumped in April, climbing 14.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 504,000 last month, up from 439,000 in March, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Sales were up 47.8 percent over the same period a year ago.
The surge was driven by the home buyer tax credit, which expired April 30. "We got two solid increases in March and April," says Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo. "We may see sales fall to a record low in the aftermath of the tax credit program, but any fallback should be short-lived." The government estimates that there were 211,000 new homes on the market at the end of April, a five-month inventory.
In a somewhat related report… Post-Tax Credit Buyers May Save Money
Missing the tax credit deadline might have seemed like a big mistake to some home buyers, but waiting could have been the smartest thing to do.
Interest rates have fallen so dramatically since April 30th that the typical purchaser of a $350,000 home, financed with a $280,000 mortgage, would have saved a bundle by waiting until May.
At April’s average rate of 5.34 percent, a home buyer would have locked in a 30-year fixed rate loan with a monthly payment of $1,561.82. The same borrower could have snagged a 30-year fixed rate loan at a rate of 4.625 percent in May and paid $1,439.59 per month. That’s a $1,467 annual savings. Over 30 years, it’s a $44,003 savings, dwarfing the tax credit.
This is Duane signing off. Happy Trails to you! As always, I am proud to be an American. You can email me at duane.beisner@era.com Or visit my website at www.rejedi.com
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