Financial Reform
Yesterday, the Senate passed the most sweeping changes to our financial system since the 1930s. These changes will definitely affect you for years to come – here’s how.
How Financial Reform Will Affect You
Financial Reform
Yesterday, the Senate passed the most sweeping changes to our financial system since the 1930s. These changes will definitely affect you for years to come – here’s how.
How Financial Reform Will Affect You
So, this year, I decided I would overcome my pyrophobia and indulge the urge to buy some sparklers and a few fireworks for the season. We drove our boys to summer camp on the 4th, passing several stands selling elaborate displays of ‘crackers and I vowed to stop on the way home.
“Oh, if you all get fireworks, you’d better save some for us when we get home! We want Sparklers, too!”
Ok, I’m a sucker, but not THAT much of a sucker. We stopped at a huge stand on the way back home (they take credit cards these days!). We gaped at the variety of boxes of fireworks. They must have been the giant Saturn-shaped ones that you see at the elaborate shows in State Parks: $59, $69, $79, and upwards of $99 PER FIREWORK!!!! This was obviously more than a pyrophobia hurdle, it was becoming a finance-O-phobia issue.
After much ado, and a helpful teen’s advice (“oh, yes – my brothers and I chase each other holding these things EVERY year!!!! They’re just Roman Candles…. Well, I guess it’s not THAT safe….”), we bought a five-pack of Roman Candles (under $10) and three boxes of Sparklers (less than $1 each!).
Not that anyone wants to know the extent of my pyrophobia, but let’s just say, there were no candles in the church at our wedding, and I lost my breath during the candlelight ceremony in college sorority “Sentimental Night” every year…. The image of one person scalded by hot wax and dropping their candle next to another person’s gown/robe or whatever….. A whole room filled with people and flames trying to escape is not my idea of a party.
We set up our little show in the back yard on the 4th. We actually had the perfect Roman Candle stand: the concrete clothes-line hole (where you put the metal pole that holds the circular, tent-shaped clothes line that didn’t last a whole summer). I have to say, I was pretty excited, standing there with our five-year-old daughter and my husband, feeling pretty cool to be having fireworks in our own back yard.
You know, those things go off really fast. It probably would have been better to hold the stick than to balance it in the oversized clothes-line hole. After the first burst of color (aka FLAME) shot out, the Roman Candle turned about 45 degrees toward our house. Instantly, a second burst turned it another 45 degrees, and these things go off five times. You get the picture. My daughter and I ran screaming into the house, ducking for cover, while my husband tried to straighten the thing without getting shot by it.
Roman Candle #2: Same thing.
Onto the Sparklers! My husband used the incense-looking “ember stick” the teenager at the stand gave us to light our sparklers and fireworks. It didn’t work. Armed with a lighter and the patience of Job, he did finally get a Sparkler lit at the expense of a molten thumb.
Sparkler #2: Same thing. Only mine was the molten thumb.
Back to Roman Candles – one last shot (literally)! It still turned right toward our house and sent us all screaming for shelter.
We still have three boxes (minus two) of Sparklers for when the boys return, and two Roman Candles. Perhaps the safest thing to do is let them chase each other with the Roman Candles? They wouldn’t waste fire by pointing it at the house, that’s for sure!
In sum, I can say that the only thing that has changed over the last 40 years is that the Fireworks vendors take credit cards. Even the packaging for the Sparklers hasn’t changed since the 1960s. Same star, same smell, same colors, and I’m still just as afraid of them now as I was as a little girl. Mom’s still rolling her eyes at me from Heaven as she’s rolling over in her grave that I got near those things again. RIP, Mom – not quite ready to join you. We may have to table my pyrophobia-ending strategies for now, if only for our own safety.
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!
God bless,
Angie
So, this year, I decided I would overcome my pyrophobia and indulge the urge to buy some sparklers and a few fireworks for the season. We drove our boys to summer camp on the 4th, passing several stands selling elaborate displays of ‘crackers and I vowed to stop on the way home.
“Oh, if you all get fireworks, you’d better save some for us when we get home! We want Sparklers, too!”
Ok, I’m a sucker, but not THAT much of a sucker. We stopped at a huge stand on the way back home (they take credit cards these days!). We gaped at the variety of boxes of fireworks. They must have been the giant Saturn-shaped ones that you see at the elaborate shows in State Parks: $59, $69, $79, and upwards of $99 PER FIREWORK!!!! This was obviously more than a pyrophobia hurdle, it was becoming a finance-O-phobia issue.
After much ado, and a helpful teen’s advice (“oh, yes – my brothers and I chase each other holding these things EVERY year!!!! They’re just Roman Candles…. Well, I guess it’s not THAT safe….”), we bought a five-pack of Roman Candles (under $10) and three boxes of Sparklers (less than $1 each!).
Not that anyone wants to know the extent of my pyrophobia, but let’s just say, there were no candles in the church at our wedding, and I lost my breath during the candlelight ceremony in college sorority “Sentimental Night” every year…. The image of one person scalded by hot wax and dropping their candle next to another person’s gown/robe or whatever….. A whole room filled with people and flames trying to escape is not my idea of a party.
We set up our little show in the back yard on the 4th. We actually had the perfect Roman Candle stand: the concrete clothes-line hole (where you put the metal pole that holds the circular, tent-shaped clothes line that didn’t last a whole summer). I have to say, I was pretty excited, standing there with our five-year-old daughter and my husband, feeling pretty cool to be having fireworks in our own back yard.
You know, those things go off really fast. It probably would have been better to hold the stick than to balance it in the oversized clothes-line hole. After the first burst of color (aka FLAME) shot out, the Roman Candle turned about 45 degrees toward our house. Instantly, a second burst turned it another 45 degrees, and these things go off five times. You get the picture. My daughter and I ran screaming into the house, ducking for cover, while my husband tried to straighten the thing without getting shot by it.
Roman Candle #2: Same thing.
Onto the Sparklers! My husband used the incense-looking “ember stick” the teenager at the stand gave us to light our sparklers and fireworks. It didn’t work. Armed with a lighter and the patience of Job, he did finally get a Sparkler lit at the expense of a molten thumb.
Sparkler #2: Same thing. Only mine was the molten thumb.
Back to Roman Candles – one last shot (literally)! It still turned right toward our house and sent us all screaming for shelter.
We still have three boxes (minus two) of Sparklers for when the boys return, and two Roman Candles. Perhaps the safest thing to do is let them chase each other with the Roman Candles? They wouldn’t waste fire by pointing it at the house, that’s for sure!
In sum, I can say that the only thing that has changed over the last 40 years is that the Fireworks vendors take credit cards. Even the packaging for the Sparklers hasn’t changed since the 1960s. Same star, same smell, same colors, and I’m still just as afraid of them now as I was as a little girl. Mom’s still rolling her eyes at me from Heaven as she’s rolling over in her grave that I got near those things again. RIP, Mom – not quite ready to join you. We may have to table my pyrophobia-ending strategies for now, if only for our own safety.
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!
God bless,
Angie
My husband has been an estimator in the construction field for about 20 years. He often hears about the “new” thing long before I do, and radiant barrier was no exception. When we were building a home back in 2003/2004, he suggested we have a radiant barrier installed. I don’t think it was even in the upgrades list at the time, but we did it (and told our friends who were building to do the same).
Our second summer in that house, electricity rates began to climb. It was our 5th house, and the first time I’d ever given a second thought to choosing an electric provider or knowing if the rate was fixed or variable, or even what the cost per kilowatt-hour WAS. : ) Happily, we found that our electric bill in the most extreme months of Texas summer averaged about half of the bills our neighbors with similar floor plans were seeing (who hadn’t installed – or heard of – the radiant barrier).
My husband has heard mixed things about the spray-on, after-market radiant barrier products. Does anyone know what the average cost/sf this product runs, how effective it is, and how it affects resale values? Now that we’re on house #7, we’ve learned not to pour money into a house, as we rarely stay long enough to get a return on investment! We want to be sure we’ll break even on the energy bills before investing in this.
Thanks for any/all input!
According to the realtor.org web site, the deadline to close on contracts executed by April 30 has been extended. The new deadline is September 30, 2010.
http://angierealestate.info/2010/07/tax-credit-closing-deadline-extended/
2809 Hampton Court in Richardson, TX in Plano ISD
(June 30) The Senate passed the bill extending eligible closings to Sept. 30, so buyers who were in contract by April 30 can get the tax credit. For more information, go to http://www.realtor.org/government_affairs
The United States House of Representatives has just passed HR 5623, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, by a vote of 409-5. This bill extends the deadline for closing tax credit eligible transactions from June 30 to September, 30, 2010. The bill moves to the Senate where the outcome is much less certain. NAR will continue to update you as the events move forward.
Should Congress extend the date, information will be posted on www.realtor.org/government_affairs as soon as it happens.
The final outcome will be posted on www.realtor.org/government_affairs on July 1, 2010.
The United States House of Representatives has just passed HR 5623, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, by a vote of 409-5. This bill extends the deadline for closing tax credit eligible transactions from June 30 to September, 30, 2010. The bill moves to the Senate where the outcome is much less certain. NAR will continue to update you as the events move forward.
Should Congress extend the date, information will be posted on www.realtor.org/government_affairs as soon as it happens.
The final outcome will be posted on www.realtor.org/government_affairs on July 1, 2010.
NOTE that this law went into effect March 1st and applies ONLY to loans backed by Fannie Mae. From the C.A.R. Newsline issue emailed on 04 March 2009:
“NO MORE COMMISSION REDUCTIONS FOR FANNIE MAE SHORT SALES
Fannie Mae loan servicers no longer can require real estate brokers to reduce their commissions as a condition to a short sale approval. The new policy was effective March 1. According to Fannie Mae, the closing of a pre-foreclosure sale cannot be conditioned upon a reduction of the real estate commission to a level below what the listing agent and borrower negotiated. An exception applies if the total commission is more than 6 percent of the sales price.“This good news may be tempered by the difficulty for REALTORS® to ascertain whether the underlying loan in a short sale transaction is a Fannie Mae loan. REALTORS® may wish to ask the lender or loan servicer whether the loan is a Fannie Mae loan, and to consider submitting the Fannie Mae Announcement to the lender with the short sale package.
“For a copy of Fannie Mae’s Announcement 09-03 (Servicing Guide, Part VII, section 504.02), go to https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/guides/ssg/annltrs/pdf/2009/0903.pdf. For a list of Fannie Mae lender partners in California, go to http://www.fanniemae.com/flApplication/fanniemae/findLender.jsp?p=Find+a+Lender+Search/.”
SELLERS & AGENTS: If you want to find out if your mortgage loan is backed by Fannie Mae call 1-800-7FANNIE (732-6643) from 8am to 8pm EST. For Freddie Mac info call 1-800-FREDDIE (373-3343).
Sellers, if you want to sell your home instead of letting the bank forclose on your mortgage loan, please contact me and I can guide you in the right direction. I can educate you about the short sale process and recommend a great agent in your area!
Join my new AR group and post your blog at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice
Regina P. Brown
Broker, Realtor®, e-Pro
Author of eBook “Stop Foreclosure Fast: Solutions to Save your House“Text copyright © 2009 R.P. Brown, All Rights Reserved
Regina P. Brown
Broker, Realtor®, e-Pro
Join & post to my NEW ActiveRain group at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice
Text copyright © 2010 R.P. Brown, All Rights Reserved
Angie Stephens
179 N. Plano Road
Richardson, TX 7581
(469) 236-9899
