The time is 22:00 (UTC) on January 4, 2007, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.
Tumbling Home Sales Can Work to Your Advantage
by
Adam J. Heist
Not everyone is upset that home sales are dropping sharply in some markets. Sellers, realtors, and mortgage lenders are, but buyers certainly are not part of that group. Years of overheated housing markets have taken their toll as home prices have surged, locking thousands of buyers out of the market. If you are looking to purchase your first home, then a slow moving market can work to your advantage if you follow the tips outlined below.
Know Your Market: Now is not the time to rush in and buy a home. In years past, many buyers did just that and bidding wars broke out that pushed home prices up by the tens of thousands of dollars. Sellers won and buyers were saddled with more debt that they needed. Relax: with less people in the market to buy, you can sit back and truly explore the housing market to find a home at a price you can afford.
Get Approved: Do not rely on a prequalification from a realtor when searching for your home. A realtor prequalification do absolutely nothing. Instead, search for the best mortgage financing deal available and secure your financing at a competitive rate. Lock that rate in for 90 days and then go shopping for a home. Oh, take that approval letter with you when you shop and youll have plenty of leverage with the buyers.
Negotiate: The longer a home is on the market, the more likely an owner who must sell will be in the bargaining mood. No, you may not be able to get them to whack the price of their home. However, you could have them throw in window treatments, a refrigerator, or some other important appliance you would have had to shop for once you moved in. If the local market has turned particularly sour, ask for the owner to pay your closing costs too.
Seller Financing: If you have difficulty obtaining a mortgage, consider asking the seller to hold the mortgage for you. If not receptive to this option, ask if they would consider allowing you to rent/lease for one year with an option to buy later on. Determine the selling price one year down the road and ask them to set aside some of the rent money for your down payment.
Yes, buyers are in the drivers seat the first time in more than a decade in some markets. Place the game right and you could walk away with a deal that simply cannot be beat.
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Tumbling Home Sales Can Work to Your Advantage}
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team.
Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project’s PR, compiled the below Q&A, which the full team approved prior to publication.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Journalist, counselor, painter, and US 2012 Presidential candidate Joe Schriner of Cleveland, Ohio took some time to discuss his campaign with Wikinews in an interview.
Schriner previously ran for president in 2000, 2004, and 2008, but failed to gain much traction in the races. He announced his candidacy for the 2012 race immediately following the 2008 election. Schriner refers to himself as the “Average Joe” candidate, and advocates a pro-life and pro-environmentalist platform. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, and has published public policy papers exploring solutions to American issues.
Wikinews reporter William Saturn? talks with Schriner and discusses his campaign.
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Following a Senate hearing in which the Bush administration’s nominee for EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, stoutly defended his plan to pay parents to document the effects on infants of insecticide use in the home, he reversed course and stopped the program.
Among the original requirements for the 60 families requested to be participants in the “Children’s Health Environmental Exposure Research Study” (CHEERS) study according to EPA were that they must:
- Live in Duval County, Florida
- Be a parent of a child under the age of 13 months
- Spray or apply or have pesticides sprayed or applied inside your home on a routine basis (You do not need to change your regular household routine for the study.)
This original version of the requirements can be viewed in the Internet Archive, a free online repository that creates copies of websites on a regular basis. The third requirement was reworded by November 2004, according to the Internet Archive: “Maintain your normal pesticide or non-pesticide use patterns for your household. We will not ask any parent to apply pesticides in their home to be a part of this study.”
According to the above document, the area of Jacksonville/Duval County was chosen for reasons of existing year-round high usage of pesticides and other household chemicals within the home, as well as relevant data from existing prior studies. The study involved researchers visiting the home of participants, parents videotaping their children’s activities with a supplied camcorder, children wearing a small “activity sensor”, and parents collecting food and urine samples for detailed analysis of the effects of chemical exposure to common commercially available chemicals, primarily pesticides, on which “current information… is very limited” [1].
Selection for the study began in fall 2004. As incentives for their participation in the planned two-year study, parents were to be given $970, a t-shirt, and other gifts, and would have kept the video camera at its conclusion.
Complaining that the study was necessary, Johnson yielded to two Democratic Senators who had threatened to block him, using all means available, from officially taking the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, of which he is the acting head. The block on his nomination was lifted afterwards although some Democratic Senators would not say how they would vote on the final nomination.
Under his guidance, the EPA agreed to accept $2 million for the controversial $9 million CHEERS study from an industry trade group, the American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical insecticide manufacturers. The study was to be conducted with the cooperation of the Duval County Health Department, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson, (D-FLA), demanded the cancellation of the study as proof of Johnson’s acknowledgement of what she called a “gross error in judgment”.
“The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way,” Boxer said. She added that testing on humans should not be a part of any United States environmental policy.
“I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children,” Boxer said.
Work on the study was halted last November by Johnson while an independent review of the study’s design was conducted at his request. Part of the reason for the study’s current cancellation was what the EPA in its press release has termed “mischaracterization” of the nature of the study as though children were being deliberately sprayed with pesticides.
Johnson defended his approach, “I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy. I am committed to ensuring that EPA’s research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards.”
In November 2004, William Farland, an administrator with the EPA’s research department, told The Oregonian, “There’s no suggestion that we are asking them to use pesticides. We simply want them to continue to carry out their day-to-day activities.”
Monday, July 1, 2013
Yesterday, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters and allies, paraded through central London and partied in the streets as part of Pride in London. With the Parliamentary debate around the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill continuing, the organisers decided that the theme for this year’s parade was to be “Love and Marriage”, with a number of the parade participants dressing as brides or grooms.
Some attendees took drag to extravagant levels. Image: Tom Morris.
Rainbow-coloured dresses worn by paraders as part of ‘Filipino LGBT UK’. Image: Tom Morris.
Two men both wearing hats with the word ‘Groom’ on the front. Image: Tom Morris.
Topless barmen and go-go boys. Image: Tom Morris.
Three men dressed as masked nuns to protest Vatican anti-gay attitudes. Image: Tom Morris.
Members of Imaan, an Islamic LGBT support group. Image: Tom Morris.
Members of LGBTory, a group for LGBT members of the Conservative Party. Image: Tom Morris.
Marchers from the Metropolitan Community Church, a gay-affirmative Christian group. Image: Tom Morris.
A group of gay and lesbian Jews with rainbow-themed Star of David flags. Image: Tom Morris.
An enthusiastic steward. Image: Tom Morris.
Supporters of Bradley Manning. Image: Tom Morris.
A man wearing a costume made primarily of inflated balloons. Image: Tom Morris.
Marchers from Stonewall with placards reading “Say I Do to equal marriage” and wearing t-shirts saying “Some people are gay. Get over it!” Image: Tom Morris.
A drag queen with an enormous red wig. Image: Tom Morris.
A man wearing a costume made up of party animal balloons.Image: Tom Morris.
A group of leather enthusiasts. Image: Tom Morris.
Gay squash players. Image: Tom Morris.
Members of a small Christian anti-gay protest in Lower Regent Street, before the parade started. Image: Tom Morris.
A man with bright red feathers and an ornate headpiece. Image: Tom Morris.
Two women sharing an affectionate cuddle at the end of the parade. Image: Tom Morris.
Friday, September 2, 2005
An explosion today in Makhachkala, Russia in the Russian region of Dagestan killed one and wounded five others, police say. The bomb detonated in a pile of garbage, where servicemen and a truck had been sent to search for explosives on a street near a military base. When the engineers got out of the truck to search, the bomb went off.
The Dagestani Ministry, reported by the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass, originally stated that the blast killed two servicemen and wounded three others. They later revised this to six servicemen wounded (as well as one civilian), but no fatalities. A police officer told ITAR-Tass news that a brigade had been on patrol when the explosion occurred.
According to RIA-Novosti and Interfax news, medics reported one death and six injuries. RIA-Novosti also reports that the bomb exploded near a trolley bus.
Police and ambulances were immediately brought to the area of the explosion, which was quickly sealed off by police.
The alleged planters of the bomb were followed by police, but escaped after firing at the officers.
This explosion is not surprising, as racial tensions in the Muslim majority region of Dagestan often lead to attacks on officials and police.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
A New Zealand woman who lay down between railway tracks and had a freight train run over her is “incredibly lucky”, sustaining only minor injuries, according to Sue Foley, spokeswoman for the railway company, Toll Holdings.
The driver saw the woman lying in between the tracks while the train was travelling at about 20 km/h. Despite the slow speed of the train, the driver was unable to stop the train before it ran over the woman. “By the time he stopped the train and walked back down the line, she popped out from under the third wagon,” said Mike Lawton, acting sergeant for Feilding police.
The woman was flown to Palmerston North Hospital after complaining about sore elbows and shoulders and receiving minor injuries.
The driver of the train has been offered counselling while he has been taken off driving duties.
Police and the train operator would not comment on why the woman was lying between the tracks.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Six teenagers were killed in a horrific road accident near Mildura in north-western Victoria, Australia late at night on February 18.
Cassandra Manners, aged 16, Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Cory Dowling, 16, Shane Hirst, 16, and his sister, Abby Hirst, 17, died at the scene. Josephine Calvi, 16, was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where she later died of head injuries. Seven other teenagers were injured, including 15-year-old Marco Medici who is now in a stable but critical condition in The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
The accident occurred after the teenagers left a 16th birthday party and walked along Myall Road, Cardross, south-east of Mildura. A car allegedly came speeding around a bend, hit the gravel on the side of the road, lost control and struck the group. The alleged driver, later identified as 34-year-old Thomas Graham Towle, fled the scene on foot, leaving his 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son in the car. Towle was later arrested by police in Redcliffs. He was taken to Mildura police station for questioning.
Towle has been charged with six charges of culpable driving causing death, four charges of negligently causing serious injury, one charge of failing to stop and one charge of failing to render assistance after an accident. Towle faced Mildura Magistrates’ Court on February 20. Magistrate John Dugdale remanded him into custody to reappear before the court on June 26.
Meanwhile, the town of Mildura and surrounding areas is in deep mourning. Premier Steve Bracks said the State Government will provide $AU40,000 for counselling and support services.
Around 3,000 people attended the funeral for Josephine Calvi today. Funeral services for the other five teenagers were held last week.
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