Rose Cottage Ltd

Believe it or not, only 17 days until the first day of Fall 2014 which is September 23. I have to say that as I’ve gotten older, fall is my favorite season. Less heat and humidity, and I’ve never minded raking leaves. Good thing too since I some how always find myself surrounded by trees. I think it’s a very worthy trade-off!

Happy Weekend!

++ Crashed Plane Belonged To Real Estate CEO

++ Real Estate Investing for Beginners

++ Which DIY adds most value to your property?

++ The Most Expensive Homes On the Market

++ Tiny Homes Attracting Attention

++ Shop heirloom seeds and plants

++ The 16 Best Towns To Live In

++ Retirees turn to farming as encore career

++ Master Gardener – Benefits of Natural design…

++ Easy water features to make for your garden

I heard something on TV yesterday stating that many US homeowners of or nearing retirement age still have a home mortgage to pay.

The musings from the financial pundit seemed to be that people had mortgages at 4% plus or minus, and were putting money into stocks and bonds – trying to gain a little dividend on those – instead of paying down their mortgage.

If anyone out there is listening – particularly if you are say in your late 30’s to early 40’s – get that mortgage paid!

No matter what you think about the economy or the stock market, getting into your mid-50’s and beyond and still having that payment to make each month will be a burden you CAN avoid. And let’s not forget the schizophrenic job market. Finding yourself “let go” from your job is a increasing concern these days. How much better would it be to hit the age of 60 and have NO mortgage left to pay???

This will be hard for those who have the kids and the new cars and the vacations – and for a 20 year span, seem to spend most of what they make. But others, who may be taking dollars each month for a stock portfolio may be shooting themselves in the foot. You can ALWAYS find somewhere to make savings – if you look for them, and making extra mortgage payments is a great place to apply them.

So if you buy a new home at 35 with a 30 – year mortgage, pay on your loan – whenever possible – at the 15 – year mortgage rate, or make an extra principal payment. Poor tax planning got you a larger tax refund than you expected? Put the extra into paying off that mortgage. How good would it feel for our 35 year-old to get to 50 and have a mortgage-free home??? Versus not reaching that point until he, or she, is 65?

I think a lot of people don’t realize that once you get your mortgage, it’s yours to manage. Most loans these days have no pre-payment penalty. If you aren’t sure about yours, check the fine print and shame on you for not checking before you signed.

There are plenty of places online with free mortgage calculators so you can “play” with the numbers. Have a 30 – year mortgage and want to see what you have to pay to be free-and-clear in 15 years instead? You can do it – and who cares if your monthly income didn’t qualify you for the 15 – year loan when you got it. I like Bankrate.com but there are plenty of online resources available to you.

It used to be that having a paid-for primary residence by retirement age was a given. People used to make this a priority. Now, they don’t. Housing prices are high, cost of living keeps increasing, and wages are not keeping up. But if you are just buying your first home now, take this advice from someone on the far side of 50 and consider paying down that mortgage as a financial priority. You’ll thank me later…

Some will say that having too much equity in their home might not be good since they planning on selling and buying again in future. “Too much equity?” There is no such thing. So you pay down your mortgage at an accelerated rate and then decide to sell – and your settlement check is just that much bigger. I don’t see this as a problem.

Another month of 2014 all but gone and Happy Labor Day weekend to all!

++ Terrible Real Estate Photos

++ Foreign investment in U.S. real estate widely underreported

++ Manhattan real estate prices hitting new records

++ What’s Behind The Blue Door of This $22K Tiny House?

++ Why You Should Hire a Professional Interior Designer

++ Wide selection of Eco-Friendly Bird Feeders! Spend $75 or more for FREE shipping

Ideas for semi-arid climates…
++ Free templates for landscape design

This is a scary thought for anyone whose home water is all well-based…
++ California Drought Squeezes Wells

++ Are You Cut out for Life in the Country?

Each week I try to find the most interesting or least publicized topics regarding real estate. This week, I’ve been taking a little turn from large and luxury properties – well, from looking at them anyway, to “tiny” houses and their designs.

It takes a lot more creativity to get all the necessary requirements into 400 square feet than it does into 4000!

Below are links to some books available via Amazon that may spur some new ideas – not only for someone wanting to downsize, but for anyone wishing to make the most efficient usage of whatever space they have. It’s YOUR space – so don’t think you have to be stuck with what the previous owners or the builder decided on when you study how you use your home.

This book explores the philosophies behind the tiny house lifestyle, helps you determine whether it’s a good fit for you, and guides you through the transition to a smaller space. For inspiration, you’ll meet tiny house pioneers and hear how they built their dwellings (and their lives) in unconventional, creative and purposeful ways. They’ll invite you in, show you around their cozy abodes, and share lessons they learned along the way.

Tiny Houses is an invitation to dream and, perhaps, to build any one of the 43 charming tiny houses. Both playful tribute and handy how-to, this is a wonderfully illustrated volume that features hundreds of photographs and detailed scale drawings. Whether you’re a student of philosophy aspiring to build a replica of Thoreau’s cabin, an ice fisherman in need of four walls to fend off winter winds, or just a dreamer with a vision of a humble cottage on a quite seashore, Tiny Houses is a precious resource for ideas, instruction, and inspiration.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a tiny home? Dream of having a smaller mortgage? Or none at all? Want to live a bit more simply and focus on the things that are really important in life? Tiny houses are becoming more and more achievable for thousands of people all over the world. This is a budding phenomenon that is seriously being considered by many people and for good reasons! There are many different motivations for adopting a tiny home and the lifestyle that comes with it. Less stress, more money in your pocket, more time to focus on other interests.

Inside Tiny House Floor Plans you’ll find over 200 interior designs for tiny houses – 230 to be exact. A tiny house is exactly what it sounds like, a house with many of the amenities you’d expect in a home tucked neatly into a super small space. Often these homes are built on trailers giving them the added benefit of mobility. But these designs could also be built on your choice of foundation. Each chapter focuses on one size footprint to show what can be done inside each size space – 14 in all.

Most if not all of these have a Kindle edition – and you know Amazon, if you want to get started Monday – they can probably get this info to you by then!

Hope everyone has a great and safe weekend!

In a real estate world of “bigger is better” there are still the few of us who keep fighting the trend. I don’t need several thousand square feet of living space to be happy and I can do without the $200,000+ mortgage that usually goes along with it.

Check out this site for some additional ideas for smaller footprint living. You might be amazed to find that the cozy little cottage pictured above was built for around $4,000 – with a bit of creative thinking and planning thrown in!

++ Zillow to Acquire Web Real Estate Site Trulia

++ Norway’s Arctic Circle Real-Estate Boom

++ Hydroponics Gardening Systems

++ Former Helmsley Estate In Greenwich Back On Market After Renovations

++ Million dollar homes: Most expensive house edition

++ Real estate brokers take digital trickery to new levels with virtual renovations

++ Odd pets bring their own challenges

++ Farmers, Ranchers Oppose EPA Water Grab

++ Garden.com – A Bird Sanctuary

++ House of the Week: Federal-era townhouse in Georgetown for $10.5M

NOTE: Some kids are already returning to school and many of the rest are out running around – burning off the last of summer vacation energy. Please drive carefully. And remember, leave no kids or pets in hot cars. Too many have died from heat exposure already this season…

++ Top 10 Real Estate Investor Mistakes

++ Zillow Buying Trulia – Antitrust?

++ House Hunting in – Scotland

++ Mortgage Rates Remain in Holding Pattern

++ 5 DIY projects using wooden crates

++ Economist who predicted busted housing bubble says another recession is coming

++ 10 Luxury Homes With Slashed Prices

++ Luxury Real Estate: The Best Addresses in Europe’s Top Cities

++ Real estate agent and former tenant disputing with alleged squatters

We haven’t had a lot of problems with “squatters” so far in the US. For anyone who doesn’t know, squatters will move into a vacant property and then after some period of time – could be days, could be weeks, will attempt to claim “ownership” of the property. It’s too much to get into the details at the end of this post but I’ll be writing more about it next week. With the number of illegal aliens on the rise in the US – and many properties sitting vacant due to foreclosure – this is about to become a HUGE issue…

I’ll admit to having ever-increasing concerns about some of the decision calls lately in the United States – here’s yet another example. You can watch the video via the link below.

++ California couple faces fine for brown lawn after complying with water-saving rules

In brief:

Laura Whitney and her husband, Michael Korte, don’t know whether they’re being good citizens during a drought or scofflaws.

On the same day the state approved mandatory outdoor watering restrictions with the threat of $500 fines, the Southern California couple received a letter from their city threatening a $500 penalty for not watering their brown lawn.

It’s brown because of their conservation, which, besides a twice-a-week lawn watering regimen, includes shorter showers and larger loads of laundry.

They’re encouraged by the state’s new drought-busting, public service slogan: Brown is the new green.

The city of Glendora sees it differently.

“Despite the water conservation efforts, we wish to remind you that limited watering is still required to keep landscaping looking healthy and green,” says the letter, which gives Korte and Whitney 60 days to restore their lawn.

They’re among residents caught in the middle of conflicting government messages as the need for conservation clashes with the need to preserve attractive neighborhoods.

It amazes me that a government that is breaking so many of its own laws, and these little fiefdoms at the local level, are so empowered to tell the rest of us what we can and can’t do.

Here’s another example of local government – corrupt, and bullying a local citizen:

++ Va. Farmer Says Green Group Urged County to Harass Her With Zoning Citations

On that note, if you are also appalled at the seemingly government-backed invasion of illegal aliens flooding our country, there is something you can do – today. At over 300 locations throughout the US there will be protests: “National Day of Protesting Amnesty and Border Surge.”

++ Locations and Times

If you pay US taxes you’ll want to go. If your kids attend US schools, you’ll want to go. If you are a US property owner, you’ll want to go. If you’ve paid into social security and ever want to see any of it returned to you when YOU need it, you’ll want to go. If you are a law-abiding US citizen, you’ll want to go.

And if you have not yet had the US Federal Government secretly bus in a couple hundred illegal aliens of unknown background and affiliation – some possibly carrying diseases – into your town, you’ll want to go. Because next week, it could happen right around the corner from you – without your knowledge and without your consent. In fact, based on the last couple of weeks’ “Homeland Security” activity, your own state GOVERNOR may not know what’s being done.

This is not the right way to treat US citizens and is adding another HUGE drain on US taxpayers – and it must stop. Do your best to get to a protest near you today – even if you just go to find out what’s really going on…

++ Foreigners Buying Up American Real Estate

++ Real Estate Valuation Websites Differ Greatly

++ FAA Has Commercial Drone Regulations Backwards

++ Off the Grid in a Florida Suburb, Fighting Municipal Code

++ Bathroom remodeling should start at the studs

++ Zombie houses haunt the market

++ Phoenix: Largest drop in homeownership in U.S. cities

++ Housing market is a ‘crapshoot’

Yes. It is. And if you read further than the headlines you’ll know why. Nearly 45% of real estate sales that are being reported as some sign of a real estate “recovery” are actually reporting all cash sales – from foreign buyers. In Florida, Texas, California and Arizona: International Home Buyers Cashing in on U.S. Market – it’s 55%.

This is creating an impression that does not really exist – at least not for US home buyers – and if the government is using this info to show a sign of economic recovery, then you’ll know you’re being manipulated yet again.

I keep waking up each morning to not good news and I am really tired of it.

Right about now, I’m not recognizing my own country and have absolutely NO CONFIDENCE in most of those who are supposed to have the safety and security of the United States and its citizens as their Number One priority.

I’m not seeing it…

Let’s look at this current invasion of the US by thousands of illegal aliens as if it was happening on our own personal property.

If I own property, (the country) it has property lines, (a border.) It is my duty to my neighbors (fellow citizens) to maintain my property, keep it neat and clean, make improvements when I can, and do nothing that would damage my neighbors or their property and otherwise, mind my own business. I pay property taxes to help cover the costs for things all my fellow citizens need – like roads and services, etc., etc. If someone illegally sneaks onto my property, I have the right to defend it – and should be able to call the local police to have the illegal invader removed from what is by RIGHTS and PAYMENTS – MINE!

And what happens when a space and property meant for 4 people now has to “support” 40, or 400? Think about it for a second or three. It just doesn’t make sense and there is NO chance it will be successful – much less for the property owner!

I won’t go into the decades-old lack of border law enforcement that had already placed a HUGE burden on the country and its ever over-taxed citizens. (Estimated costs of illegal immigration on US taxpayers is over $200 BILLION per YEAR!) That is not new news. This latest invasion of our country – is.

And it is an invasion – don’t be fooled by the convenient mention of “children” and the “humanitarian crisis” you might be reading about in some media headlines. In fact, we are LOSING our country – right before our very eyes, and most of us seem unable to do anything about it. If this doesn’t frighten you then I’m sorry, but you must not be paying attention.

This country has paid millions of dollars decades ago to eradicate diseases that are now being “imported” back into our country. People being all but shipped in to the US are of UNKNOWN origins and affiliations. Think about this the next time you read about your phone calls being monitored and your emails read – for “national security.” This is an expensive joke being played on American citizens since if one of our borders has been breached, the entire country and ALL of its citizens are at risk.

Even more frightening? Our government is the culprit. This US President – who swore an oath to protect and defend this country and its constitution, won’t protect it and won’t defend it and in fact, has taken his “phone and his pen” and all but guaranteed what is happening right now.

Where are the representatives of the people? Where are those in public office who are supposed to be supporting and speaking up for the near 80% of the US population who want this invasion stopped? That’s a darn good question.

There are too many US citizens and LEGAL immigrants to the US waking up this morning with the same question I have, “What country am I living in?” Right now, it is not one I even recognize.