Household Safety Tips : Space Heaters

For spot and room heating, homeowners often turn to portable space heaters.  Often, it’s cheaper and faster to heat a small space with a heater than it is to raise the entire home’s temperature by a few degrees.

But space heaters can be dangerous.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, space heaters were responsible for a large percentage of overall fire-related damages in 2006, including:

• 43% of home heating-related injuries
• 51% of home heating-related property damage
• 73% of home heating-related civilian deaths

Clearly, as compared to central heating systems and fireplaces, electric space heaters cause a disproportionate amount of in-home damage.  This is why it’s important to be safe when using them.

So, here’s some basic space heater tips to follow at home:

• Never place anything flammable within three feet away of a space heater
• Never use an extension cord on a space heater
• Turn space heaters off when leaving a room or going to bed

Furthermore, make sure your space heater bears the label of a recognized testing laboratory such as Underwriters Laboratory.

Remember to test your smoke detectors monthly.

Source
Heating Safety Tips
National Fire Protection Agency

Simple Real Estate Definitions : Short Sale

A “Short Sale” is when a home seller sells his home for a lesser amount than what is owed on his mortgage, and the mortgage lender agrees to accept the lesser amount in lieu of a full payoff.

By way of example, a Short Sale may be appropriate for a Miami home seller whose mortgage balance is $250,000 but whose home wouldn’t sell for more than $220,000.  Rather than pay the $30,000 difference to the lender at the time of sale, the seller enters into an agreement with the lender by which all sale proceeds are paid to the bank and the deficient balance is forgiven.

Short Sales are a preferable alternative to foreclosure but the process still harms both parties. For one, the seller is penalized with a derogatory tradeline on credit for not fulfilling a mortgage obligation. And, two, the lender is forced to take a loss on a mortgage loan.  Versus an executed foreclosure, however, Short Sale damages are relatively limited on both sides.

For this reason, Short Sales are sometimes considered “the economical alternative” to default.

The process of getting a Short Sale approved varies from lender-to-lender and can be time-intensive. Home sellers should not go at it alone — speaking with a real estate agent about the proper protocol is usually the best place to start.  And sellers should be aware of how a Short Sale on their credit can impact future borrowing.

Current Fannie Mae guidelines prevent short-selling homeowners from obtaining new mortgage financing for a period of 2 years.

Conserve More Energy With Motion-Sensored Light Switches

Courtesy of Black & Decker, energy-conscious homeowners in Chicago now have another way to conserve natural resources.

Introducing the Lights Out Autoswitch, a 135-degree, motion-detecting device that turns the lights on when people enter a room, and subsequently turns them off after everyone has left.  The timer can be set at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes. 

Use it in bedrooms, home offices, children’s playrooms and anywhere else a person may leave the lights on.

Best of all, the device is easy to install.

The Lights Out Autoswitch runs on 3 AA batteries and slips right over an existing toggle light switch. There’s no electrical wiring or assembly required and the product ships with a 2-year warranty.

The Lights Autoswitch is available on Amazon.com for $23.

Home Values Rose In November 2009 By Another 0.7 Percent

Reporting on a two-month lag, the government said home values rose 0.7 percent in November. 

National home prices are at their highest point since February 2009.

But before we look too much into the FHFA’s Home Price Index, it’s important that we’re cognizant of its shortcomings; the most important of which is its lack of real-time reporting.

According to the National Association of Realtors™, 80% of purchases close within 60 days. As a result, because of its two-month delay, the Home Price Index report actually trails today’s market data by an entire sales cycle.

This is one reason why home values appear to be rising even while new data shows that both Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales fell flat last month.  The home valuation report is using data from November; the sales reports are using data from December.

The Home Price Index is a trailing indicator and next month, as the Spring Market gets underway, the government will be reporting data from the holidays.

The same is true for the Case-Shiller Index. It, too, operates on a 2-month lag.

All of that said, however, long-term trends do matter in housing and the Home Price Index has shown consistent improvement over the last 10 months.  In many markets, home sales are up, home supplies are down, and values have increased.  This trend should continue into the early part of 2010, at least.

If you’re wondering whether now is a good time to buy a home in Miami , consider low prices, cheap mortgages and an available tax credit as three good incentives.  By May, none of them will likely be available.

As We Watch The State of The Union, We Thought It Fitting to Post The Job Position

PLEASE CONTACT CHAD REIDL IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS JOB POSITION.  

chad.reidl@gmail.com 

From: Chad Reidl [mailto:chad.reidl@gmail.com]
Sent: Wed 1/27/2010 6:19 PM
To: Lynn Reidl
Subject: Re: Job opening at my work…
 

 

Salary range $50-60K

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Job Title:  Sr. Service Desk Technician

Location: One Griffith Center, Alsip IL 60803

Employee Type: Full-Time

Industry: Food, Consumer Products, Manufacturing

Manages Others: No

Job Type: Information Technology

Education:4 Year Degree

Experience: 3 to 8 years

Post Date: 1/18/2010

Contact: Kim Z

 

Position Overview:

•   This is a team role and will be responsible for providing support to the IT department.

• This role is also responsible for providing service to internal customers on the global Cisco IP phone system, unity voice messaging system and Webex conferencing.  
• Creates and implements policies and procedures, with the approval of unit/department head, regarding how problems are identified, received, documented, distributed, and corrected.  
• Works with other global unit/department heads to further define and document troubleshooting and resolution steps and procedures.   
• Ensures maximum issue resolutions in minimal time. Evaluates new products or services and suggests changes to existing products or services to better aide service desk performance and increase efficiency at the service desk level.   
• Works with global IT unit/department leaders to offer cross-functional support for improved first call resolution or issue escalation.  
• Assists with the global ITIL standardization efforts.  Supports all facets of the Problem Management process to meet business requirements and Service Level Agreements as it relates to user support.   
• Assumes Project Management responsibilities as it relates to user support and client services as required.
• First level support of the VoIP telephony Environment and training.

 Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  

Responsible for the administration and maintenance of the global Service Desk tool. 

First level maintenance and training of Unified Communication Manager (Cisco UCM) to support the VoIP telephony environment. 

Requirements Requirements:Bachelor’s degree or equivalent or three to eight years related experience and/or training. General Understanding of Microsoft operating systems, internetworking architectures, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco Call Manager), Cisco Unity Connections (voicemail), and New computing architectures (e.g., intranet, Web) is required.