Tip of the Week Archive

Tip of the Week Archive

Looking for tips? Here's our archive of past tips shared with thousands of other landlords and managers. This is a LONG Scrollable list with some good stuff...
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LANDLORDING TIP:

New data suggest that a condominium or town home may be a better investment than single family homes right now. Since 1996 condominium values have increased faster than those of free standing homes for a number of reasons. But there are things to look out for if you are considering buying a condo for investment, writes Broderick Perkins, in a piece for Realty Times. And, of course, you will need to find a development that is friendly to non-owner occupancy.

INTERNET TIP:

One free program can give you quick access to almost any compressed file you can find on the Internet. The award winning Stuffit Expander has been made even better. It will conveniently open any file compressed in the following formats: StuffIt, Zip, uu, BinHex, Gzip, Arc, MIME/Base 64, Bzip, LHa, Private File, Arj, and Rar. It is from Aladdin and you can download it here for free.

COMPUTING TIP:

Here is a page that definitely deserves a bookmark in your reference library. If you are wondering what all those different file extensions like .dll or .III mean, then this site is for you. This information is maintained by FILExt.com.

COOL SITE:

FindArticles.com is a vast archive of published articles that you can search for free. Constantly updated, it contains articles dating back to 1998 from more than 300 magazines and journals. This belongs in your reference library.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Just because you are a small landlord with only a couple of rental units does not mean that you do not have to comply with fair credit laws. Even if you have only one unit, if you rely on outside sources of information to make decisions about whom you will accept as a tenant, you need to comply with the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Take the time now to read our articles on the subject, which you will find in the Info Center under Tenant Screening. They will show you how to reject applicants so that you don't get into trouble with the FTC. Failure to comply with the law can subject you to civil penalties and punitive damages.

INTERNET TIP:

Occasionally you will find a page just loaded with great information, but is nearly impossible to read because whoever set it up made a poor selection of background and print colors, or selected a background that is so distracting that it seems to conceal the text. You do not have to put up with this, and can make the page much more legible with the help of your browser.

For Netscape, go to Options then to General Preferences. Click the Colors tab, then go to the bottom of the page and check "Always use my colors, overriding document," then click Ok. This should replace the background with your default colors and make the page easier to read once you go back to the illegible page and click Reload. Once you are done with the site, uncheck the box to undo.

For IE, go to Tools then to Internet Options. Click the button that reads Accessibility. On the page that comes up, select the "Ignore Colors specified on Web pages" option. Click Ok and the page should automatically reload with your default colors. Undo it by going back and unchecking the Ignore Colors option.

COMPUTING TIP:

Here is a page that definitely deserves a bookmark in your reference library. If you are wondering what all those different file extensions like .dll or .III mean, then this site is for you. This information is maintained by FILExt.com.

COOL SITE I:

Boogie Jack's Web Depot offers a large variety of graphics to dress up your Web pages. These are offered for personal use and the only compensation asked for is a link back to the Boogie Jack's site.

COOL SITE II:

If you do flyers to showcase your vacancies or publish a newsletter, or for that matter do any sort of presentation, then you need interesting fonts. Ariel and Times New Roman do have a tendency to get old. Fonts.com has everything you will ever need, and it is free.

LANDLORDING TIP:

If you are in the enviable position of having excess money coming in, you may be tempted to pay off debt. Most people want to reduce their debt as much as they can and that may include their mortages.

While debt reduction is almost always a good thing, it is important to give careful thought to which debt to pay down first, and even whether to pay the debt down at all. That's right, sometime it just does not make any sense to pay down a debt before its due date. Debt can be profitable, and should be used as an investment would be used.

The most important things you need to know are the amount of the effective interest rate and the amount of the prepayment penalties. The effective interest rate is what you would actually pay in interest from the day you propose to pay the loan off through the last payment, if you allowed the loan to be fully amortized. This issue does not arise with interest only loans. Note that your payoff on a fully amortized loan will be the amount of principal you still owe plus the prepayment penalty. The amount you owe will be calculated by taking all the payments you owe to date, less the amount of the interest that has accrued under the note, subtracted from the principal amount. Looked at another way, it is a rebate of the interest unpaid to the date of prepayment.

Note well that this interest rebate is only very rarely calculated on a straight line basis. In most cases the interest would be rebated as calculated under what is called the Rule of 78, or Sum of the Year's Digits. The effect of the rule is to front load interest payments. If you are, say, 2/3 of the way through a fully amortized mortgage, you will have already prepaid most of the interest that would accrue during the total life of the loan. This means that, for example, the effective interest rate you are paying on your loan for the final 1/3 of its existence may only be 3%, even though the rate on the face of the note is 8%.

The reason this is important is that the criterion for paying off any debt is whether you will end up with more money in your pocket by paying off the loan, or by using the money to create more income generating machinery. This is the principal of leverage.

If you believe that at the end of the day you will have more money in your pocket by paying a debt, then, by all means, do it. This is almost always the case with credit card debt, consumer debt, and unsecured business debt. It is not always the case with debt secured by real estate, or even personal property, such as automobiles. So do the math and remember that managing your debt wisely is not always the same as paying it off.

INTERNET TIP:

Finding fast help with your computer problems can be a problem if you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it. Protonic.com is a question answering service and a large collection of bulletin boards that permit you to expose your computer related question or idea before the entire Internet world. The bulletin boards are divided by category, so your contribution will not be lost in a jumble of irrelevant chit-chat. The concept looks great and it is free.

COMPUTING TIP:

The debate goes on without let up: Should you shut your computer down when you are finished for the day, or should you leave it on? There probably will never be a definitive answer to this question, but there is something you ought to know if you elect to leave it on.

Windows' memory management is not all that efficient. When you exit an application, including some that are within Windows itself, only part of your system resources will be released. Little bits and pieces of it get bitten off every time you use a program, and eventually, you will run so short of resources that your system will reboot again on its own, maybe in the middle of a very important task.

Consider doing a soft reboot every day. In windows you can do this by clicking Start on the task bar and selecting Restart instead of Shut Down.

COOL SITE:

This week's cool site is Kim Komando's excellent compilation of general income tax help on the Internet.

LANDLORDING TIP:

If you are selling a dwelling or offering it for rent, you need to be neat. Clean we take for granted. But neatness is something a lot of people overlook

The purchase or rental of a home is not a business decision for most people. It is largely emotional. When they view the place, lookers are thinking of what they can make of it, not what it is. That rental unit may be as spotless as a NASA clean room, but if it is cluttered, the people who look at it will have less chance to fall in love with it.

Store as much stuff as you can to get the highest price or rent and attract the best buyer or tenant. This is also a good argument for not showing the rental unit until it is vacant.

INTERNET TIP:

Today's tip is to visit Earth at Night. It is a composite satellite photo of the Earth, showing the lights in the areas of civilization. You can trace the population density by the intensity of the lights.

It is real estate related, vaguely. It has to do with the Earth; anyway, it's fascinating.

COMPUTING TIP:

Should you upgrade your O/S to Windows XP? The folks at ZDNet think so. Follow the link to find out why and see what some users think of it.

COOL SITE:

This week's cool site is the newly launched Consumer Information Source. On this site you can check out an insurance company you are thinking of doing business with, review its complaint history, and file complaints about your current insurer with regulatory agencies.

LANDLORDING TIP:

The quotidian crisis is mold. It will probably be the favored habitability defense, and there are emerging stories about lawsuits arising out of its presence in housing units sold or rented to unsuspecting victims. The ugly truth about mold is that we humans cultivate it through incompetent use of the housing unit, ineffective clean-up methods, and neglected maintenance.

Mold almost always appears due to poor ventilation. Stagnant, moisture-filled air will tend to precipitate water as it cools, depositing the water on walls, giving the mold that naturally exists in the air an ideal place to land and make a living. Tenants need to be counseled to keep their rental units well ventilated. This will eliminate practically all of your mold problems.

Where mold already exists, washing it with soap and water may remove what you can see, but it will not remove the problem. To do that, you need to kill the mold. The best and safest way to kill mold is with chlorine bleach. Mix a solution of about one part bleach, 10 parts water, and a little soap. (Never mix chlorine bleach with anything that has ammonia in it.) If you use this for cleaning, the mold will die.

Finally, tend to maintenance. If you still have a mold problem after ensuring proper ventilation and a thorough cleaning, then something is wrong. There may be a leaky pipe, a faulty dehumidifier, or some other repairable source of moisture that is providing the mold a comfortable home. Occasionally, the design of the structure, or its location, may make mold infestations inevitable. If the simple measures do not work, there are things that can be done to resolve the problem. Consult a professional.

All of this is definitely your department, and present attitudes toward the existence of mold demand that you no longer treat it as a minor inconvenience.

INTERNET TIP:

While you are enjoying your trip through the Internet, remember that anyone who goes to the trouble of setting up a Web site can post anything he wants regardless of whether it is true or false. In many cases, the one who posts it does not even know whether it is true or false, he simply reposts something he say somewhere else, with attribution sometimes, but often without. Often, the wildest and most amazing stories are myths, circulated by email and even word of mouth, as well as by reposting.

Purportal.com can help you decide when to believe and when to doubt. This site is a collection of links to some of the best myth-busting sites on the Internet, and definitely deserves a place in your reference library. As one wag said, keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

COMPUTING TIP:

SANDRA is an acronym for System Analyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. This piece of freeware is capable of analyzing just about every aspect of your PC and reporting back to you about it. It is out in its latest incarnation as Version 2002. If you want to know what is really going on under the hood, give it a try.

COOL SITE:

Having the latest drivers installed, and a place where you can easily find them is vital. The reason why I know this and feature this site this week is a subject I would rather not discuss, thank you. In any event, WinDrivers seems to have every form of device driver and technical support for Windows that exists.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Before you buy that next rental, make sure you add up the numbers that make up the street address. The result will determine the type of tenant who will reside there and the types of activities that will occur there. So says Pam Bell (any relation to Art?), as cited by Lew Sichelman just in time for Halloween. Doo-doo-doo-doo. Doo-doo-doo-doo.

INTERNET TIP:

FreshDevices.com offers a new download manager. It allows scheduling for low traffic periods, management of multiple downloads, “turbocharging” download files, etc. And it’s free. It has earned a 5-cow rating from Tucows, their highest.

COMPUTING TIP:

To find a computer on your network (Win 98\ME\XP)
Click Start, point to Find, and then click Computer.
If you know the name of the computer you are looking for, type it in Named. For example:
finance
If you know the path to the shared folder you are searching for, you can specify both the computer and folder name. For example:
\\finance\reports
Click Find Now.
COOL SITE:

The Wayback Machine is an Internet search engine with an attitude. While the Web as we know it has only been around for less than a decade, this site features the oldies but goodies, i.e., historic Web sites that have historical significance and have been around for a long time, like, more than three weeks.

LANDLORDING TIP:

The eve of the holiday season is a good time to double check your liability insurance policies, both those on your rentals and your personal homeowner’s policy. Holidays imply parties and activities for children as well as adults, such as Halloween. Risks of injuries to careful, negligent, and tipsy invitees alike rise. Check with your agent to assure that you have enough coverage. If your policies have only standard amounts, that may not be enough protection. A good insurance agent or broker will have access to the most up to date statistics on not only judgments but also out of court settlements in your area for personal injury claims.

INTERNET TIP:

If you have been intrigued by the idea of taking your own photographs online, either for business or pleasure, but did not know where to start looking for information about it, let Kim Komando point you in the right direction. This week she offers a short but information packed column on the subject.

COMPUTING TIP:

To change printer settings

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.

Right-click the icon for the printer you are using, and then click Properties.
The settings you can change depend on the type of printer you have. Click the different tabs to see all of the options you can set.

COOL SITE: This site is not just cool, it is gelid. I think you will agree when you realize that this computer and other information packed item was put together by pupils at the Gold Ridge Elementary School in Rohnert Park, California.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Occasionally old deeds of trust or mortgages will show up in your chain of title. This is because the mortgage is separate from the promissory note it secures. Payment of the note does not guarantee that the mortgage will be reconveyed, or that the reconveyance will be recorded. In other words, sometimes slip-ups happen. Benny L. Kass provides a thorough explanation of what to do if you should find yourself in such an annoying position.

INTERNET TIP:

n_Gen is a graphic design engine for those who do not want to invest huge amounts of money and time for something they may use only infrequently. This is apparently a test version and is free to use. While we haven’t actually tried it out, it looks attractive.

COMPUTING TIP:

To remove unneeded files - Win98/ME

Open Windows Explorer or My Computer.

Right-click the disk you want to free space on, and then click Properties.

On the General tab, click Disk Cleanup.

Click the unnecessary files you want to remove.
You can read a description of each file type in the area under the list.

Click OK.

COOL SITE:

This week’s cool site is Adrian’s Rojak Pot, an olio of freeware, shareware, and more for almost any need.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Refinancing has been quite the craze and many are tempted to follow the trend but before you do make sure that it makes economic sense. Of course you will take into consideration the points and other fees you may have to pay, and also contrast the contract interest rates on your old loan with the proposed new one. But wait a minute. That may not tell the whole story. What is the effective interest rate you are paying on your existing financing? If, for example, you have an amortized, fixed rate, 30-year mortgage and are into it 15 or 20 years, the interest you are actually paying may only be a fraction of the rate set out in the note. The reason is that such loans usually have their interest front loaded, so that practically all the money paid in the payments for the first third of the loan goes toward interest, and, naturally, practically all the money for the last third of the loan goes toward principal. Check an amortization table and consider this before you commit to refinancing.

INTERNET TIP:

If you like to hunt for bargains on the Internet this one may have eluded you. The URL is certainly counter-intuitive. Zulu Spear claims to bring the best of the best bargains from the largest retailers. Give it a spin.

COMPUTING TIP:

Using Microsoft Personal Web Server to publish and share Web pages

Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS) 4.0 is a desktop Web server. If you are connected to an intranet, or a corporate network, you can share documents with your coworkers from your own computer. Use PWS to develop and publish your personal home page. You can also test your Web site before you upload it to an Internet service provider.

COOL SITE:

Are you a law and order type of person? Joe Arpaio, the Celebrity Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, brings you this web cam from his now nationally famous facility. View booking, the holding cell, search cell, and more.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Can you transfer your property to someone who assumes the loan without triggering your lender’s Due On Sale Clause? Due On Sale clauses were developed to permit a lender to exit an unprofitable loan, say, one at a very low interest rate, by demanding payment in full on transfer. In 1982, however, the U.S. Congress enacted a law that specified nine circumstances in which a transfer does not trigger the lender’s right to call the loan.

·        A transfer pursuant to a decree of dissolution of marriage, or a similar decree

·        A transfer by operation of law involving the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety

·        A transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower

·        A transfer to the spouse or children of the borrower

·        A transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property (i.e. the so-called "Living Trust")

·        Any security interest securing a loan for the purchase of household appliances

·        A leasehold interest for three years or less not involving a purchase option

·        Any subordinate lien not involving a transfer of the right to occupancy

·        Such other transfers as may be specified by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in their regulations

INTERNET TIP:

If you are reading this you are probably one of those who uses the Internet as a learning tool. There is information about almost everything on the Internet. Unfortunately, there is also misinformation about almost everything on the Internet. How do you tell the difference? Crosschecking is important, and also is this site, the Urban Legends Reference Pages. A lot of valuable debunking goes on here. This is a must for your reference library.

COMPUTING TIP: (Win 98)

Using Dial-Up Networking

If you have a modem, you can connect to another computer or to your corporate network by using your phone line. With Dial-Up Networking, you can have access to information on another computer, even if your computer is not on a network. The computer you are dialing in to must be set up as a network server for you to use its shared resources. Both your home computer and the network server must have modems installed.

To connect to another computer or corporate network, you need to install your modem and then configure the connection. If your modem is already installed, start the New Connection wizard by double-clicking My Computer and then double-clicking Dial-Up Networking.

COOL SITE:

This week’s site is for all of you who want to fly the flag. Learn to do it right with this summary of the Flag Code, which sets out proper etiquette.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Maintenance requests are probably the single biggest service items you have to deal with, but handling them promptly is not just a favor to your tenants. Doing so enables you to keep your property in top shape, and avoids costly major repairs down the road after minor glitches deteriorate into major problems because of neglect. If you have more than one rental unit you should have a maintenance routine. This prevents the Wet Hen Syndrome when problems arise, especially when they arise outside normal business hours, which is more than 2/3 of the time. Your system need not be complicated, but should have the following characteristics.

      An easy, non-bureaucratic method of initiating maintenance action

      A simple method of documenting maintenance requests that is convenient to the tenant

      A routine for the transmittal of requests to the persons who are to perform them and an internal method to hold them accountable for performing them successfully

      A system that documents the successful completion of repairs and their cost

      A system for contacting decision makers in emergency matters requiring high level authority, and a delegation of authority to those on the spot in routine matters

      A follow up routine that ensures that the tenant’s satisfaction is verified

      A further follow up routine that ensures the tenant understands that you sprang into action immediately and did all these things

The last item is not to be overlooked under any circumstances. Although prompt maintenance is a benefit to you, your tenants perceive it as a service to them. Be sure they know what marvelous service they received and watch your reservoir of goodwill with them grow.

INTERNET TIP:

You mine the Web for information as well as entertainment, right? Are you satisfied with your search engines? Yes? How do you know? You are probably just skimming the surface if you rely only on the standard search engines. When you use those you see only what they want you to see. This week, Kim Komando shows you how to mine the mother lode of information, the stuff you won’t normally find.

COMPUTING TIP:

To see resource use on another computer

Double-click Network Neighborhood.

Click the name of the computer on which you'd like to view shared resources.

On the File menu, click Properties.

Click the Tools tab, and then click Net Watcher.

On the Net Watcher View menu, click the type of information you want to see.

COOL SITE:

Fact Monster is your on line source for everything. This gigantic almanac/encyclopedia/dictionary is amazing.

LANDLORDING TIP:

You may not need to replace the garbage disposal after all. With use, the blades will become dull. You can restore their edge by dropping a handful of ice cubes into the disposal and running it until they are all ground up. Pass this tip along to your tenants so they can keep their disposals in top shape.

INTERNET TIP:

This week we offer a snappy little utility that will convert units of distance, light, pressure, and so on and on automatically. This is one of those things that you don’t think of until you really need it. Convert, as it is called, is available free from joshmadison.com. [Link to: http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/ ]

COMPUTING TIP:

To control access to a folder or printer

In Windows Explorer or My Computer, click the shared folder or printer to which you want to limit access.

On the File menu, click Properties.

Click the Sharing tab.

If you are using user-level access control, click Add to specify the people with whom you want to share the printer or folder.
If you are using share-level access control, type the password you want to use for the folder or printer.

COOL SITE:

This week’s cool site is Executive Planet. Their mission statement tells it all.

Our mission is to inspire business travelers to travel with greater cultural awareness. We strive to bring you the most up-to-date and relevant information on international business culture, customs and protocol, gift-giving, negotiating tactics, business entertainment, cross-cultural communication and more.

This is a must for all you globe trotting business tycoons out there, and also for those that are just curious.

LANDLORDING TIP:

If high energy costs are eroding your margin, you may be tempted to give your tenants a notice of rent increase to cover them, but this may not be the best solution. Rent increases are a notorious source of tenant unrest and their anger will be directed squarely at you. Instead of a rent increase, why not give a notice of “energy surcharge.” If your biggest headache is the cost of heating oil for your building, for example, consider giving a notice of change of terms of tenancy effective, say December 1 and expiring March 31, in an amount sufficient to defray the increased energy cost. The notice could include an explanation giving the high cost of fuel as the reason, deflecting anger from you to the energy company you deal with. The fact that it expires after the winter and the rent goes back to normal would show your good faith. The notice itself would be just like any other notice of change of terms of tenancy, such as a rent increase, and delivered the same way. It should contain the phrase “this surcharge shall constitute additional rent for the premises,” so you can enforce it in the event of failure to pay. Of course, this option is not available if you are locked into a fixed term lease or if you are subject to rent control.

INTERNET TIP:

Are you tired of your dial up connection timing out when you are in the middle of an article? Iopus offers a neat little device that ISPs hate, the Always Connected Plug. The plug sends a signal to your ISP at periodic intervals, even when there is no activity on your end, tricking it into thinking that there is. You will find other neat freeware and demos at their site as well.

COMPUTING TIP:

CD-Rs have become popular as backup media, many people using them to fulfill the function of 5¼” of 3½” floppies in the days of 20 meg hard drives. An issue has emerged, however, as to the longevity of CDs. Information.com assesses the life expectancy of your backups.

COOL SITE:

Stat USA offers a wealth of business, trade, and economic information. A must for the reference library.

LANDLORDING TIP:

We have taken care to emphasize the landlord’s moral responsibility to promote fire safety in his premises, and also the legal and financial consequences of failing to do so. The following is an example why this is so. Recently a 3 year old child was hideously burned and invalided for life when a gasoline can overturned, spilling gasoline on the floor of the garage which ran to the water heater, it’s pilot light igniting the fumes. Among others, the landlord is being sued for damages. It seems the water heater was not elevated 18 inches above the floor as the code requires, which probably would have prevented ignition of the fumes, in that they tend to gather near the floor. It is well that the landlord was apparently adequately insured, and we can argue about the stupidity of her parents storing gasoline in a can that is subject to spillage if overturned, or at all. But what does one say to a three year old girl who suffered third degree burns over 95% of her body when one has contributed even a small degree of causation to such a disaster?

INTERNET TIP:

When you are surfing the Web, you will sometimes find it convenient to open a new link without leaving the page you are starting from, eliminating the need to click the back button. Having to use the back button when you have gone to a new site can be tedious, especially if the new site is a deep one. Occasionally the site may have great content but not be particularly well constructed to facilitate navigation and so offer no convenient way to get back to the home page or a main menu. If you are confronted with one of these situations you can remedy it yourself. If you are using Internet Explorer, simply hold down the shift key while you left click the link. The link will open in a new window. To return to the menu or link list you started from, just close the new page and you are there. If you use Netscape Navigator, right click the link and choose “open in new window.”

COMPUTING TIP:

To remove unneeded files (Win 98)

Open Windows Explorer or My Computer.
Right-click the disk you want to free space on, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, click Disk Cleanup.
Click the unnecessary files you want to remove.
You can read a description of each file type in the area under the list.

Click OK.

COOL SITE:

This week’s Cool Site is Davecentral.com. This is a great site if you are looking for a particular shareware program or software in general.

LANDLORDING TIP:

The single most important constant in life is change. It does not just afflict you, your tenants’ lives change too. Information is of value only if it is current. One of the elements is to see to it that the information your tenant gave on his rental application is still valid. Once a year, maybe every six months, you should ask your tenants if any information on their applications has changed, and if it has, have them update the form. The time to do this is before problems arise. Since you are in a continuing credit relationship with your tenants it only makes sense to see to it your information is current so that your decisions are based on fact. A major reason why many landlords end up with large bad debts is that they make decisions and take action on the basis of information that may be several years out of date. Our eForms section offers a choice of several good application forms.

INTERNET TIP:

Not all search engines are created equal. Some are better for some things and not so good for others. In fact, there is no one search engine that can do everything equally well. The University of Albany Libraries has put together a page ranking the major search engines by various categories of searches, with links. Now you can pick the right tool for your search needs.

COMPUTING TIP:

More powerful computers have given us multitasking. We can have several programs running at the same time, such as a word processing program for notes and an Internet browser searching sites. There is a Windows keyboard shortcut that permits moving between programs without the necessity of repetitive mouse clicks. Use alt+tab. When you strike these keys a box comes up showing all the other programs currently running. Hold down alt and strike tab to move from program to program.

COOL SITE:

This week’s cool site is from Kim Komando, part of her Web site. She provides us with a very thorough discussion of on-line auctions and how to use them to buy or sell.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Your real estate investments will form the core of your estate when you pass on. The chances are that when your loved ones inherit this estate they will be unable to keep it intact. Now, they may not want to. It may be in their interest to divide it, or sell some of it off, or sell all of it. They key is whether the decision to split the estate up is theirs, made in their own best interest, or that of your creditors or the government, made during probate because there is insufficient liquidity to keep the property you worked so hard to accumulate together. Insurance is a way to make sure your executor and legatees are in the driver’s seat. Insurance is largely a mystery to most persons, but LIFE can help answer a lot of your questions and suggest some you may want to ask your broker or agent. It also covers disability and health insurance.

INTERNET TIP:

This week’s tip has landlording applications, especially if you need images from time to time, to use in presentations, but is really not a landlording site. Google, of the excellent search engine, has a beta version of a new image search engine, and it looks like they are lavishing the same attention to detail on this as they did their main search tool. I typed in “Conlon Nancarrow,” an obscure expatriate American contemporary composer, and got back 18 photos and a variety of other material spanning three pages. Other searches for more mainstream material yielded proportionally more extensive results. The context in which the images appear on the Web is displayed via a horizontally split screen. Despite a few minor problems, which will surely be corrected during the beta phase, this site is already worthwhile.

COMPUTING TIP:

Being a prudent Windows user you undoubtedly keep a bootable floppy disc handy just in case of a crash. You also regularly back up your data files so you won’t lose all your work if you have to reformat or replace your hard drive. But have you backed up your Windows Registry? The Registry is a complete record of all the changes made to your system, such as new program installation, changes in settings, etc. Backing up your registry can be a real time saver if you ever have to reconstruct your hard drive.

The registry consists of two hidden files. Since they are hidden you will not be able to see them with normal settings. Make the files visible by going to Windows Explorer and on the menu bar select View and Options. Select View All Files and click OK. Now double click on the Windows folder and among other things you will find User.dat and System.dat in the right Window. These two files comprise the Registry. Copy them onto a floppy, using a compression program, if necessary, and keep the floppies with your other backup discs.

COOL SITE:

RealData is a site devoted to software and other resources for real estate investors, brokers, appraisers, lenders, and developers. [Link to: http://realdata.com/ ]

LANDLORDING TIP:

If you are going to have a picturesque artificial lake in your development, be careful what fish you stock it with. According to the Modesto Bee, Naraghi Lake, a man-made pond in a housing development in Modesto, CA, has been temporarily put off limits to the public after a couple of pre-teens caught five fish that look like piranhas. Public safety officials’ suspicions were aroused when they noticed that the nearly 7” fish had mouths and teeth big enough to chomp many mid-sized cars. It is thought that the fish may just be pacus, “relatively harmless” (from the article, whatever that phrase means) fruit eating relations of the piranhas. “We’re going to err on the side of public safety,” quoth Doug Ridenour, a police spokesman. Good idea. Officials plan to zap the lake with some scarce California electricity, then cull the piranhas, er, pacus, uhm, well the ugly, mean looking ones, from amongst the dazed fishies. Police theorize that someone who originally bought the fish as pets (!) dumped them in the lake where they were fruitful and multiplied.

INTERNET TIP:

FindArticles.com is an Internet guide to periodical literature. Type in your search parameters and FindArticles will search every article available on the Web that relates to them. This is an excellent research tool.

COMPUTING TIP:

This week’s tip is a security tool called Eraser, and is designed for use with Windows. As you probably already know, when you delete a file the data are not actually removed from your hard drive. All a deletion does is to modify your FAT (File Allocation Table). The data remain on your hard drive and can be recovered, which may not be what you want, especially if the data are sensitive. They remain on your hard drive or the floppy until they are overwritten. Eraser actually overwrites selected files with random patterns of 1s and 0s, destroying the files.

COOL SITE:

Findtutorials.com is a site devoted to listing every tutorial on every subject on the Internet. Learn everything from throwing the ideal birthday party to how to select a contractor.

LANDLORDING TIP:

Are you just entering the real estate investment game? If so, your instincts may tell you to go for one or two single-family units or duplexes, just to get your feet wet. Maybe you are inheriting your late parents’ old home, or plan to rent out your starter house instead of selling it when you buy up. But this instinct may be wrong and lead to trouble. Although it may seem counterintuitive, an apartment building may be a more appropriate start. An apartment building actually requires less expertise to operate than a single-family dwelling. The reason is that the single family dwelling will ordinarily require your hands on, day to day intervention to operate, and if you do not know how to do it, you are bound to make a lot of mistakes, which can end up costing you and setting your investment program back, or paying a lot of money to persons who know how to do things, a cost that may be exorbitant in comparison with the value of the property. On the other hand, a multi-unit building will have the cash flow to justify employing skilled persons to do this management for you, and you can gain a lot of knowledge in the process. The cost is spread over a number of units, not just one or two. Furthermore, you will not need a million dollars in cash to get into a multi-unit building. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and you may be able to form a partnership with others similarly situated to share the burdens – and profits, of course – of the investment.

INTERNET TIP:

This week’s Internet tip has nothing to do with landlording. Virtualology is a site devoted to highlighting the great personages, events, art, etc., of history. So do thousands of others, you say. True enough, but this site is different in two ways. First, it is easy to use, attractively presented, and HUGE. Second, it is a compilation of the work of students from the primary grades to postgraduate and technical schools. All of the material is gathered into a virtual museum which is logically and simply organized. I did a search for Ansel Adams and was amazed at the amount of material, including on line reproductions of his prints, that was available. You definitely need to bookmark this in your reference library.

COMPUTING TIP:

Your CD-ROM/DVD drive probably has an “auto-insert” feature that automatically launches CD-ROMs and DVDs when they are inserted. This can be a handy feature if you work with a lot of cds, but it is possible that it will degrade system performance. If you use your cd drive to listen to music, say, while you are working with another program, then you could suffer hesitations and other difficulties with the main program while your cd player searches for a newly inserted disc. If you think this is happening, try disabling the auto-insert feature. Go to START, SETTINGS, and CONTROL PANEL, then double click the system icon and select the DEVICE MANAGER tab. Select the CD-ROM branch of the device tree, select the CD-ROM drive and click the properties button. Select the SETTINGS tab and uncheck the auto-insert notification box. Reselect it in the same way if you decide to reinstate the feature.

COOL SITE:

Do you have a business plan? A real estate investor needs one, and if you are a landlord, that is what you are, even if just part time. If you have never prepared a business plan before, Bplans.com will show you how to do it.

LANDLORDING TIP:

You need not play the part of a landlord in order to reap the benefits of being one. If you already have a career that takes up most of your time, or you are retired and just do not want to invest the time and effort, you can engage the services of a property manager to take care of the day to day work for you, and at a fairly modest cost. In this week’s tip Chandler Scarborough explains why having a seasoned off-site property manager may be for you.

INTERNET TIP:

If you are engaged in a long Internet session, and find that the pages are loading more and more slowly as you pull up more and more pages, it may be that your Internet cache is full. You can solve the problem by emptying the cache.

For Internet Explorer, go to Tools, select Internet Options, and in the Temporary Internet Files box click “delete.” For Netscape, go to Edit, select Preferences, Advanced, Cache, and in the History area click “Clear History.” You computer should be back up to speed.

COMPUTING TIP:

Computing has its own acronyms and jargon, as we all know, and they change all the time. The Webopedia is an encyclopedia of computer jargon, frequently updated to remain current, and completely free. It will accurately translate and explain all the computerese you can throw at it.

COOL SITE:

We never want to pay more for insurance than we absolutely have to, but we want to ensure we have the coverage we need. This week’s site is NetQuote, a company that has been around a long time, by Internet standards, and may save you some money.

LANDLORDING TIP:

This week’s tip is from Tip World and is a word of encouragement for those of you considering starting up a small landlording business in your spare room, either as a supplement to or a substitute for your regular employment. Inc. magazine, which caters to entrepreneurs, does an annual survey of the 500 fastest growing businesses in the US. Their results for 1999 showed that nearly half of these burgeoning enterprises started at home. Almost six out of ten of them started with capital of $20,000 or less.

INTERNET TIP:

Landlording has to do with real estate, which has to do with titles, which have to do with lives and deaths and other vital statistics. Ancestry.com provides huge data bases including many public records dealing with genealogy death records, and other important records from many jurisdictions. File this one in your reference library so it will be handy when you need it.

COMPUTING TIP:

The 3½” high density floppy disk was hailed as a cavernous repository of data that could be easily stored in small places for easy data retrieval. That was more than a decade ago, however, when a complete backup of a typical hard drive could be put on a couple dozen discs. Most people have a large collection of the small discs and finding old programs and data can mean rummaging through many boxes of the little plastic rectangles. If you have a zip drive you can copy these to a few discs that are easily storable on your desk without adding to the clutter. Quik Floppy Copy, a small freeware program from Iomega, will enable you to copy your floppies onto zip discs quickly and easily, storing each floppy as a separate file.

COOL SITE:

Inc. magazine online is full of articles for the small businessperson.

LANDLORDING TIP::

If you are a landlord with only a couple of employees you may not have one of the sophisticated accounting programs that calculates pay checks, including deductions, etc. Now there is no need to do it manually. Paycheck City will do it for you, and a lot of other things relating to pay, such as bonus calculation. It is FREE.

INTERNET TIP:

If you make presentations and written proposals or have reason to produce and distribute other sorts of documents where appearance really counts, Adobe Acrobat is the standard. If you are unfamiliar with the program and would like an introduction, Adobe will let you try it on-line for free.

COMPUTER TIP:

Windows has a background printing capability that allows you to send a number of documents to be printed, which it sets up in a queue, and then do other things. This is really useful if you have a relatively slow printer and are printing a large number of documents. If you want to check on the status of the queue, what has been printed, what is waiting, and how far into the current document the printer is, you can walk over to the printer and peek, which can be inconvenient at times, or use a neat little utility that comes with windows. At the desktop, click “Start” and select “Settings” and “Printers.” Double click on the icon of your printer, or the one currently in use if you use more than one, and a window will pop up giving all of the information you want.

COOL SITE:

From the US Geological Service comes a web site that will tell you everything you need to know about the current state of water resources, including river conditions from the National Weather Service.

LANDLORDING TIP::

While the justification of a rent increased is based largely on market forces, there are some other factors that should enter into the equation. Indeed, some leases, almost always commercial, peg annual rent increases during the term of the lease to the CPI (Consumer Price Index). This index can be used to trace the increase or decrease in cost of representative commodities sold at retail and is compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can find the Consumer price index by going to the BLS, scroll down to the “Data” section, then select the data you need.

INTERNET TIP:

For all of you computer enthusiasts out there, an “enthusiast” is a user with an attitude, we present ExtremeTech. This site has everything you do not need to know about computers, and everything relating to computers, or at least it seems like it. You may select from articles, discussions, newsletters, opinion, books, and on and on and on. Perfect for reading while you are listening to that midday Saturday computer radio call-in show.

COMPUTER TIP:

You have finally broken down and gotten your first laptop computer. Like a new car, it is only a matter of time before it gets its first ding or scratch. After all, it is portable, and in the process of moving around…. Kim Komando, an accomplished and experienced, not to mention well known, portable computerist herself, gives the following two tips to help ensure your laptop stays in one piece.

Get a good case that is designed to hold laptop computers. Do not rely on your attaché or catalog case. They are not designed to absorb the bumps and abrasions that are inevitable. And do not skimp on the case. It does not make sense to try to protect a piece of equipment you just plunked a couple or few thousand dollars with a $9.95 bargain case. Get something that will resist extreme conditions like spills, heat, cold, etc.

Lay in a couple of spare parts. Carry spare connectors, which have a tendency to break loose with the inevitable jostling that movement implies, and replacements for those little flaps that cover the serial or parallel ports. Also, be careful of the PC card ejector button that projects from the computer when you are returning it to its case.

COOL SITE:

DevelopmentAlliance.com is a rich source of information on community development, demographics, and like information and news.

LANDLORDING TIP::

We often advise that you research your competition when making decisions that affect your property. Decisions like raising rent, adding amenities, and the like, will make sense only if made in light of market forces. The question is, who is the competition? There is a web site you can go to in order to find out. Springstreet allows you to determine who is competing with you within your own or other zip codes, and the advanced search engine lets you set the search parameters you desire. At the search engine, which is on the home page on the left, select “search by address,” then enter the city, state, and zip. You can then refine your search by putting in parameters such as number of bedrooms, rent, etc.

INTERNET TIP:

Google is a great search tool and now it is even better. If you use Windows 95 or higher and Internet Explorer you can add a tool bar that will appear with your regular IE toolbar. It enables you to do the following things with one mouse click.

· Go to Google search

· Search only the site you are visiting

· See Google’s page ranking for the site you are visiting

· Access more page info, such as similar pages, pages that link to that page, etc.

· Highlight the search terms that appear on the page you are visiting

· Do a word find.

Visit Google to download.

COMPUTER TIP:

If you have Microsoft’s Excel you can use it to compute the actual, i.e., effective, interest rate on a loan or contract of sale after compounding. This is one of Excel’s Add-Ins and is known as the “Effect” function. If you follow the steps below and get no result, Choose “Tools,” then “Add-Ins,” then select from the list. If “Effect” does not appear on the list, go to set up and copy it over from your program CD.

Go to cell A1 and enter: “=effect(15%,12)” and you will get the effective interest rate for a loan at 15% compounded every month.