Page 1 December 2011 Here’s how to sell your home in the shortest period of time First, make the outside of your home attractive. Drive-by prospects are more likely to be interested in winter if the snow is shoveled. In the spring selling season, be sure the lawn is cut and there are no toys or miscellaneous objects in the yard. Flowers near the entry are a plus. Organize closets and drawers. Prospects will open them and look inside. If a room is loud or is decorated in an unusual color, repaint it. Stage the inside of the home. Buyers decide whether they are interested in a home within 30 seconds after opening the front door. Rent a storage building and put your extra furniture into it. Make the home look more spacious by decluttering. Send the extras to storage or to a charitable organization. Depersonalize the house. Leave no personal objects in view on bathroom counters. Remove family photos from bookshelves and walls so prospects can visualize themselves in the home. Ask your Real Estate agent for other tips to make your house look as inviting as possible. Photos are real important in selling a house. Your agent will use the outside photo on fliers and newspaper ads, and the inside photos on the Internet. Don’t be afraid of having a For Sale sign out front. Real estate agents say they often get calls from people who have seen a yard sign and are interested in the property. Work with your agent to price the home correctly. You might think it's worth $250,000, but if comparable homes are selling for $175,000, buyers will go elsewhere. Vending machines will be getting smarter Technology is mercifully ending the days when we put coins in a vending machine, then have to give it a kick to make it work. The vending machine industry is entering the new age of paying by credit card or smartphone. They want to attract a generation of users that would rather use touch screens than coins. You might not have seen them yet, but they are on their way. The National Automatic Merchandising Association says they have machines that look and act like giant iPads. They are definitely changing the way vending machines operate, according to USA Today. The revamp is coming because users are populated less by lunchtime factory workers and more by college students and other young people. To attract Gen Y consumers the industry must install mobile-wallet platforms. Pepsico has a machine with a touch screen that allows the user to "gift" a beverage to a friend by entering the friend's name and mobile number. Users can personalize the gift with a short video. Kraft is testing a machine that lets you zoom in on the image of a package so you can read the ingredients and nutritional facts. It also lets you buy multiple snacks at the same time and on the same bill. Crane, the largest vending machine maker, has one that lets consumers buy snacks and drinks from several machines in a location but only pay once with a debit card, credit card or smartphone. The Ramen Noodle Station makes customized noodles in three minutes. If you kick it, the machine takes your picture. Joe P. Allocca, Realtor - (623) 760-6811 - [email protected]Brought to you by: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Giuseppe's Corner
Transcript
Page 1
December 2011
Here’s how to sell your home in the shortest period of time
First, make the outside of your home attractive. Drive-by prospects are more likely to be interested in winter if the snow is shoveled.
In the spring selling season, be sure the lawn is cut and there are no toys or miscellaneous objects in the yard. Flowers near the entry are a plus.
Organize closets and drawers. Prospects will open them and look inside. If a room is loud or is decorated in an unusual color, repaint it.
Stage the inside of the home. Buyers decide whether they are interested in a home within 30 seconds after opening the front door. Rent a storage building and put your extra furniture into it. Make the home look more spacious by decluttering. Send the extras to storage or to a charitable organization.
Depersonalize the house. Leave no personal objects in view on bathroom counters. Remove family photos from bookshelves and walls so prospects can visualize themselves in the home.
Ask your Real Estate agent for other tips to make your house look as inviting as possible. Photos are real important in selling a house. Your agent will use the outside photo on fliers and newspaper ads, and the inside photos on the Internet.
Don’t be afraid of having a For Sale sign out front. Real estate agents say they often get calls from people who have seen a yard sign and are interested in the property.
Work with your agent to price the home correctly. You might think it's worth $250,000, but if comparable homes are selling for $175,000, buyers will go elsewhere.
Vending machines will be getting smarter
Technology is mercifully ending the days when we put coins in a vending machine, then have to give it a kick to make it work.
The vending machine industry is entering the new age of paying by credit card or smartphone. They want to attract a generation of users that would rather use touch screens than coins.
You might not have seen them yet, but they are on their way. The National Automatic Merchandising Association says they have machines that look and act like giant iPads. They are definitely changing the way vending machines operate, according to USA Today.
The revamp is coming because users are populated less by lunchtime factory workers and more by college students and other young people. To attract Gen Y consumers the industry must install mobile-wallet platforms.
Pepsico has a machine with a touch screen that allows the user to "gift" a beverage to a friend by entering the friend's name and mobile number. Users can personalize the gift with a short video.
Kraft is testing a machine that lets you zoom in on the image of a package so you can read the ingredients and nutritional facts. It also lets you buy multiple snacks at the same time and on the same bill.
Crane, the largest vending machine maker, has one that lets consumers buy snacks and drinks from several machines in a location but only pay once with a debit card, credit card or smartphone.
The Ramen Noodle Station makes customized noodles in three minutes. If you kick it, the machine takes your picture.
Joe P. Allocca, Realtor - (623) 760-6811 - [email protected] to you by: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Giuseppe's Corner
Page 2
Health in the news
Optimists have a lower stroke risk
An American Heart Association study gauged adults over 50 on a 16-point optimism scale. They found that every point increase correlated with a nine percent decrease in stroke risk.
The association thinks optimistic people may make healthier decisions, such as eating well, exercising and taking vitamins.
Another explanation could be that positive thinking protects the brain from stress-related chemicals that can cause anxiety or depression.
A hormone for schizophrenia, autism, social disorders
Research suggests that inhaling puffs of oxytocin through the nose may relieve some symptoms of schizophrenia, autism and social anxiety. A naturally occurring hormone in men and women, it works by helping neurons in the brain talk to each other.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, oxytocin represents a whole new class of pharmaceuticals. It helps patients build trust. Those with schizophrenia improve functioning and have fewer paranoid thoughts.
In autism, patients using oxytocin are more able to recognize other people's emotions. They trust people more and behave more appropriately. Patients with social anxiety build a better self-image.
Have adequate vitamin D before bone surgery
Your body needs vitamin D to form bone tissue, but one study shows that almost half of patients had insufficient vitamin D prior to orthopedic surgery, including hip and knee replacements and fracture repair.
Study results were published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Deficiencies can often be corrected in 4-6 weeks with supplements.
Disease test for organ donors
New CDC guidelines recommend that organ donors be screened with the most sensitive test for infections including HIV and hepatitis C and B viruses. The guidelines were recommended in September 2011.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants the nucleic-acid test (NAT) to be used. It detects an infection acquired seven days before testing. The present test measures antibodies that may take months to appear.
Disease transmission through transplants is relatively rare, but from 2007 to 2010, 200 cases were investigated. Some led to deaths of transplant recipients.
Go Slow while shoveling snow
Snowstorms can be deadly in many ways, shoveling the white stuff is one of them. Here are some tips to do it safely:
* Wear layered clothing. Take the outer layer off if you get hot.
* Push it, don't lift it. Use a shovel with a curved blade. Push snow to the side of a walkway, even if it leaves a narrower path to walk on. For a driveway, push enough snow to the side for one car to get out.
* Use a leaf blower instead. Power up your leaf blower and blow off the walkway and driveway two or three times before the snow gets deep.
* Take breaks. Don't feel that you have to do the whole shoveling job at once. If you feel tired, stop and rest or go inside for a time to recover.
* Shovel before dinner. Eating a heavy meal before you shovel your driveway puts additional strain on the heart.
Brought To You By
Joe P. Allocca, RealtorColdwell Banker Residential
To solve a sudoku, you only need logic and patience. No math is required. Simply make sure that each 3x3 square region has a number 1 through 9 with only one occurrence of each number. Each column and row of the large grid must have only one instance of the numbers 1 through 9. The difficulty rating on this puzzle is easy.
Quick and easy baked French onion soup
If you love French onion soup, but not all the work it takes to make it, this recipe will please you and your family. The onion has been revered by chefs for its aroma and sweet to hot taste. The onion family ranges from the mild leek to sweet Texas and Vidalias and to the more-fiery reds and Spanish varieties. The word onion is derived from the Latin word unio, meaning large pearl. Over centuries, the word morphed into "onyon" and later to onion. Baked French Onion Soup 2 cans of Campbell's Select Harvest caramelized French onion soup 2 packages garlic and cheddar croutons 2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese 2 teaspoons Pernod or Herbisant liqueurs (licorice flavored) Divide the cans of soup into four portions, half filling four large oven-proof baking bowls. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the Pernod or Herbisant to each dish of soup and stir. Float 5-6 of the croutons on the top of the soup. Layer 1/2 cup of shredded cheese over the croutons. In a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees, bake the soup until the cheese has melted and is browning around the edges of the dish. Other cheeses, either shredded or sliced, may be substituted if desired.
Eating soluble fiber helps to reduce VAT Commonly called belly fat, visceral abdominal tissue (VAT), is the type of fat that becomes packed around vital internal organs. Excess visceral fat is also called central obesity, but you don't have to be generally obese to have it. With the exception of their "belly," some people with VAT don't look very fat at all.
Central obesity is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Scientists say there is a way to reduce to VAT. Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., show that moderate activity coupled with a 10-gram-per-day increase in soluble fiber results in a 7.4 percent decrease in VAT over five years. While that sounds like slow progress, it's certainly better than letting VAT build up along with its health risks.
Increasing fiber is easy to do, just eat more fruits and vegetables, nuts and beans. The 10-gram increase can be achieved by eating two small apples or one cup of green peas and a half cup of pinto beans.
Moderate activity is important to everyone but especially to those who want to decrease belly fat. Moderate activity is defined as exercising for 30 minutes two to four times a week.
What? Speakers in your light bulbs? It's kind of like elevator music for your home with tunes playing at your command from the ceiling and lamps, only this time you will actually like the music.
The MusicLites system uses an LED light that you screw into a standard light bulb socket. Inside the bulb is a hidden high-fidelity loudspeaker. A separate transmitter connects to a stereo receiver, computer, smartphone, digital audio player or TV. It communicates wirelessly with the light and speaker.
A remote control lets you brighten or dim the lights and adjust audio volume in up to five zones in your house. Each zone can be outfitted with up to 12 speaker lights and operated independently or in tandem with each other.
A starter kit with a transmitter and single light-speaker costs about $350. But you'll need at least two speaker-lights for stereo, and extras cost $250. You can get by with one transmitter unless you pipe music from different sources.
Joe P. Allocca, RealtorColdwell Banker Residential Brokerage9949 W. Bell Road, Suite 101Sun City, AZ 85351
