Students Of Success

Knowledge is power.

When you are looking to make any major purchase or take out any long term insurance the first thing you should do is arm yourself with all the facts you need and this is by no means any different with your home owners insurance. Work out the value of your home and write up a list of the personal items in your home. This list should include absolutely everything that you would need to replace in the event of it being damaged beyond repair, stolen or broken. This itinerary will not only prove useful for calculating the level of cover you require but also for making a claim should the need arise.

Calculating your cover.

Home owners insurance is a little different to other insurance. Car insurance uses book value of your car, the insurance company being safe in the knowledge that you will be able to replace your car should the unthinkable happen. Going out and buying a house is a little different to this. There isn’t a set value on a house and you can’t just buy the house itself. In order to come up with a value on your home you need to find out the market value for similar houses in a similar area. In order to reduce the cost of your monthly premium you should seriously consider excluding a small amount of the money because while you need to insure the building and outbuildings you don’t to insure the surrounding or housing land.

Shopping around.

This is the key aspect to gaining cheaper home owners insurance and is a step that has been made much easier with the introduction of the Internet. Comparison sites are regularly available that will allow you to get quotes from a large number of home owners insurance companies. This will give you a much better picture of the type of price you should expect to be paying and will let you decide which policy has the best cover combined with the cheapest price.

Selecting your home owners insurance policy.

Once you’ve got your list of quotes in you should be able to tell pretty quickly which of the offers appears the best. Check it over to make sure it offers exactly what you are looking for and if it does you are onto a winner. If there are a couple of quotes around the same price look them all over to see if any have outstanding extra services that may make you give them slight preference over the others.

Renewal time.

You will need to renew your policy or change insurance provider on an annual basis and when this time comes you should check that the policy you are applying for still has everything you need. By doing this you will be able to stay on top of the prices you are paying and the coverage you are receiving.

Copyright 2005 Stacey Zimmerman

Stacey Zimmerman is the owner and webmaster of Free Insurance Quotes. His site offers free online insurance quotes for homeowners, auto, life, health, car and long term care insurance. Be sure to visit his site http://www.freeinsurancequotes.us for the latest articles, news and tips on all types of insurance.

A LOT of people are fascinated with the question of how some
savvy Entrepreneurs are using the Internet to make money for
themselves.

LOTS OF MONEY.

Chances are, you’re one of them.

Yes, you’ve heard of E-Commerce.

You’ve heard of entrepreneurs who became rich selling things on
the Internet.

And you may even bought from others who were selling the
products and services that you were looking for.

Yet you don’t know exactly what’s involved in the setting up of
an Internet Business, or in how you market one.

If so, this Special Report will enlighten you, and show you
things you’ve never known.

You’ll discover that it isn’t hard at all to be an Internet
Entrepreneur, if you know all the shortcuts and ingenious
business concepts that I’ve discovered when I was embarking on
my journey many years ago.

You’ll also discover that you don’t need an ounce of programming
knowledge to be able to make money online. More importantly,
it’ll show you how you can, immediately after reading this
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selling YOUR OWN product that you can acquire instantly.

Yes, you’ll become your own Merchant, earning 100% of the money
you make from your efforts - not an Affiliate of a Merchant,
earning only 20% - 50% of what the Merchant makes from his sales
resulting from your efforts.

And you’ll be able to do this in a shorter time than you think.

You’ll discover a very simple way to sell on the Internet that
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Join the Pajamas Revolution today at
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Consumer publications talk about why it’s a smart idea for owners to sell their own homes. These sellers are referred to as For Sale by Owners (FSBO). What’s hardly mentioned is what the other side (the buyer, customer, prospective homeowner) experiences so the seller can save a few bucks (usually at the buyer’s expense.)

There’s a whole laundry list of tasks that need to be addressed by one or the other party in a real estate transaction. Do you know what they are? Are you prepared to play the guessing game with a home purchase, which is likely the biggest purchase most people make in their lives? It sounds pretty risky, doesn’t it?

What about personality conflicts?

You never know what you’re getting yourself into when you start the process of buying a home from a complete stranger. When you work with a Realtor at least you can choose someone to act as your filter. The Realtor will work on your behalf, regardless of personality traits on the other side. Buying a FSBO means you might just have to deal with individuals who aren’t on your same wavelength. That can derail your purchase, even for a home you just love.

Who is doing the negotiations?

Unless you are a pro, negotiating for price and contingencies is a frustrating and unfulfilling task for any buyer. Plus, many buyers are unaware of certain things to ask for, what to expect and how to gauge the seller’s mood, capability or motivators. You should also know what form to use when making the initial offer and counter offer. Almost every sale involves a counter offer, so gather the information you’re going to need to know now, because counter offers generally have time limits.

Whose contract are you going to use?

Do you have your own attorney who can draw up your offer, or are you going to rely on using the seller’s contract? The seller’s contract is going to favor the seller. Your attorney is going to charge you to prepare the contract and any consultation time it requires.

Are you getting a deal?

FSBOs typically don’t know how to set price. If you’re not aware of market trends, the number of competing properties, current listing features and pricing, changes in mortgage rates and a multitude of other pricing influences, you might not be in the best position to judge the value of your intended purchase.

One of my first buyer prospects, prior to working with me, had found a FSBO that would not pay a fee for having a Realtor involved in the sale. At that point I had to back away from the transaction (to the horror of my prospect.) I continued to check in with the buyer during her negotiations. Each time we spoke, she expressed more and more frustration with the process. The negotiations took three times as long as she expected and caused considerable heartaches, at one point the she called me in tears. She got the property and overpaid by $25,000. To this day, I don’t think she even knows it. It will become apparent when she goes to sell that investment property and discovers her profit isn’t what was expected.

Do you have an established professional network?

To purchase an FSBO, your network should include a good attorney, title company, mortgage lender, pest inspector, home inspection service and a few others that may be called upon depending on the situation. Most buyers have to let their fingers do the walking and rely on instinct to quickly determine who to work with and which out of a pool of individuals represents the best choice. Your Realtor already knows the best of the best in each category. Working with a Realtor means you’ll never need to consult an attorney who will bill you, not the seller.

Avoid using the seller’s inspection network. The service providers will be working on the seller’s behalf, not yours.

How do you manage problems?

There are a multitude of challenges that will crop up during the transaction. It could be there’s a problem with termites, a water leak, the appraisal came in under the sale’s price, or the seller goes on vacation in the middle of your purchase. What is your course of action? If you aren’t prepared for any and all contingencies, you might be inclined to let it go. This is not a good idea, and in the long term, you’ll end up paying the cost of these contingencies, not the seller.

Are you still interested in buying an FSBO? Then contact Linda for her 9 point checklist of how to prepare yourself to buy a FSBO.

Linda Kazares is a Realtor with Windermere Sonoran Properties in abundantly sunny Scottsdale Arizona. She specializes in replacement property, 2nd homes, retirement living and Toll Brother resales in Scottsdale and North Phoenix areas. She can be contacted at 480-488-0221, kaz@kasakaz.com or visit her website at http://www.kasakaz.com

Submitting your web site to search engines is the
single-most important step, to bringing in a
flood of targeted traffic.

These people are actively seeking you out when
they type your keywords into that little search
box. Question is “Are the keywords they’re using,
the same keywords you’re using?” and if so, “How
relevant are these keywords to what you’re
selling?”

You see, when you submit your web site to a
search engine, some will ask you for a list of
keywords *relevant* to your web site.

Other search engines will only send a spider to
your site to look at your content. What they do,
is take a kind of inventory of the words you use
on your main page. Whichever words you use most
often on this page, the spider will assume that’s
what your site is about and will base your
listing on these words.

Then there are those search engines that will
base your listing on the keyword and description
tags within the heading tag of your page.

We are going to focus on getting the right
keywords in the right places (optimizing) for the
free-to-get-listed search engines; then we will
move on to the pay-per-click and the pay-per-
inclusion engines.

Before you begin compiling your list of keywords,
you need to do a little bit of research.

Start by putting yourself in your customer’s
shoes. Pretend that you know nothing about your
product or service; this can be very difficult to
do. The best way to find out what keywords your
customers may use, is to ask them. Using your
spouse or your friends as guinea pigs, is the
easiest way to do this.

Without telling them what your site is about,
give them a very vague idea; as most of your
customers really don’t have any idea that they
need your product. For example, you might say,
“Honey, if you wanted to make some extra money
for Christmas gifts this year, what words would
you type in this little box?”

If your spouse has the time and is willing to
help you out, ask him/her to go to at least 3
different search engines and conduct at least 3-5
searches, using different keywords and phrases
each time. Also, be sure that she/he clicks on a
few of the results, but only the ones she/he
feels is relevant her/his search.

Note: Most internet marketers are alone in their
work. Meaning, many times the spouse of the
marketer usually doesn’t know how internet
marketing works. (My husband can’t even turn on a
computer!) Allow your spouse to use any keyword
or phrases she/he needs to find what she/he is
looking for. There are no wrong answers here and
you’ll learn a lot more if she/he isn’t given a
lesson in search engines beforehand.

Make sure you write down *every* keyword and/or
phrase your spouse uses. Also pay close attention
to the web sites she/he clicks on from the search
results. This will give you an outside look at
how the majority of your customers are going to
find you.

After your spouse clicks on one of the search
results that she/he is interested in, ask them
“Why?” What was it about that particular site
that interested her/him? Take notes; this is good
stuff!

Note: Of course not everyone is selling
information on how to make money online. Some of
you may be selling crafts that you made yourself,
vitamins or weight loss products, long distance
service, etc. No matter what your site wants from
its visitors, you can still do this exercise.
Just be sure that your spouse only has a vague
idea of what she/he is searching for.

The next step in this exercise is to have your
spouse conduct their searches again, only this
time they should have a really good idea of
exactly what it is they are looking for. Tell
them to be specific in their searches.

Again, write down the keywords and/or phrases
they use, what sites they visit from the results
and why.

Be sure to also write down the URL of the web
sites they visit. (This is your competition!)
Next week, we are going to do a little undercover
work. You will become the ultimate internet spy!

Note: The reason I say to use your spouse or
friends for this exercise, is that we, as
marketers, tend to get so close to what we’re
doing, that it’s hard to get back, outside the
box, as newbies. We know what it is our product
does, and how it does it, but our customers
don’t! We need to get inside their heads and
discover *their* idea of our product. This is the
easiest way to do that.

***Attention, MRI subscribers!***

If your spouse isn’t available for this exercise,
try using the Keyword Finding Tools listed in the
“Search Engine Tools” category at

Click here Spend some time with the last
resource listed and you’ll have your keyword list
in no time!

***Attention, Non-MRI subscribers!***

You can subscribe to The Marketing Resource
Informer and gain access to the only ezine that
does all the work for you and provides you with
easy to use resources you won’t find anywhere
else on the net at
Click here

About the Author

Kerri Reeves is the publisher of A1 Home Business
News and The Marketing Resource Informer where
she provides subscribers with Keyword Finding
Tools that go hand-in-hand with this article.
Subscribe right now at
http://www.marketingresourceinformer.com/