For many the drastic turn in the real-estate market has proven devastating. Faulty loans and job losses have forced many people out of their homes leaving behind them a trail of emotional and financial damage. For those on the investment side, it is a gold mine. Housing prices have never been lower and for those who have the means, it is a prime time to buy.
If you have never invested in real-estate before it is always a good idea to talk to an expert before you begin. Transglobe property management is a Canadian based property management firm that has experience investing both commercial and residential type properties. If you have any questions about the way real-estate investment works the team at Transglobe property management are the ones to call.
There are several reality shows on television right now that show the house-flipping process. While it is a fairly simple process it does require an extreme amount of patience, flexibility, and organization. The key to flipping a house and getting a good return is being able to sell the house quickly and for more than you paid for it. Since there are many more houses for sale than people buying right now, it is not a feasible plan right now, unless of course you wouldn ‚ „ t mind renting it out until the economy picks back up.
Investing in land is almost always a safe bet. Like houses, the prices will always go up, even if it takes them awhile. If you can get in on a good deal now, than in 15 or 20 years your property may be worth 2 or 3 times what you paid for it.
With any investment it is best to take your time and not rush into anything. Weigh your choices careful and, as always, read the fine print before you sign anything.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
I am always stuck in time when I hear about these things. I would get to Seattle more often if I could, there’s lots of old friends I need to see, and plenty of old places I need to visit and offer some kinds of thanks for seeing me through my late 20s. More often, though, the days are filled with different kinds of work, being a parent, and juggling efforts to reinvent a life again. That’s an ongoing project, and Washington taught me some things about the importance of making new suits for yourself. If I could, however, I would book a luxury hotel. Washington is beautiful any time of year, no matter what they say.
I got used to the rain while I was there. Most people do, even when it’s raining all through your late 20s. Some, of course, don’t make it through, and Kurt Cobain is going to be one of the most important ghosts here. Not necessarily because of his own individual contributions to art in the world, but because the way he left it was so peculiar to the time. When Patti Smith came to speak here a few nights ago, presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures, I was there in spirit, and I’m sure so was he.
However, there was no ancestor of the beats and the neo-beats who was more honored than her former lover Robert Mapplethorpe. This story, his story, has to be told by Patti Smith, and has to be told at this point in history. Everyone who lived in Seattle in the 90s felt the loss of Cobain, and we all mourned in enormously sentimental, hard-edged ways, but it was never complete. That kind of loss has to be weighed in with the kind of loss where the one who’s dying is doing everything in the world to stay. Maybe that’s the line between sad and tragic, and one we couldn’t get over when we were living through the loss of a peculiar hero with a curved spine.
The heartbeat of popular music today is spread all over the place, and it’s clearer than ever that there really is no center. There are certain places of origin, however, that we could trace some elements of music and start marking the succession of influences over the years. New York, Seattle, and Minneapolis all have very pronounced music scenes, and so do Atlanta, Nashville, and Austin, but it’s possible now to hear much more diversity in sounds. Even in the past decade, the shift away from any kind of recognizable sound that gives cities a certain flavor, has been more pronounced, or at least noticeable. That doesn’t mean, however, that if you decide to book a luxury hotel in Georgia, that you won’t be able to find some roots here.
But here, as anywhere, it becomes apparent that even the idea of musical origins starts to get fuzzy. Looking into the heart of the blues, for example, reveals much more variety than unity of sound. So perhaps we’ve always been living in a multi-lingual universe, musically speaking. And one of the masters of many tongues is certainly James Brown. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, but had already been grabbed as one of their own by the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1983.
He isn’t from Georgia, originally, but was born in North Carolina. However, he started out his musical career playing gospel gigs around Toccoa with Bobby Byrd. This was after incarceration at a very young age, making his story a classic rags to riches adventure. It was an adventure, for sure, because he lived one of the most wild and interesting lives on public record. He was also at the forefront of several musical revolutions. R&B, Funk, and Rap were all part of his body of work, and trace a progression that suggests that some artists are brilliant at following the trends, and others at making them. Everybody in the hot tub.
There a lot of things to do in Denver, whether or not you are dead Denver lawyers know a lot about the things to do in Denver, at least the lawyer I know knows a lot. His name is Dexter. He knows the perfect spot to go for coffee. I am a coffee connoisseur, constantly looking for the perfect cup of coffee. I am a bit like Plato and his Forms in my search for a flawless and transcendent coffee.
My friend is also a coffee snob too. He laid down the coffee law to me one day and I think that is why I am the coffee snob that I am today. He knows the difference from a cup of French roast and a Spanish full body from thirty miles away. He has his own espresso machine and can a pull shot quickly. He is the John Wayne of pulling espresso shots among the amateurs of the coffee world. He was a barista while in college so it makes sense that he would own his machine. He does not care for Starbucks. He says “Sacrilege!” every time he hears the name. It is the MacDonalds of the coffee world, and those are dirty words to him, the ultimate in insults. He claims that the sissy cups of coffee with the seemingly three ounces of syrup and froofroo sprinkles take always from the way coffee should be experienced in the first place. The coffee flavor should be what comes through and not the saccharine tastes of corn syrup melded with other synthetic tastes.
He taught me about synthetic tastes are ruining more than just the coffee but also the whole coffee experience. Everyone should be able to afford a good cup of coffee, and not the super sweet kind that is over priced and over hyped. It should be a democratic experience. He is the same way about his law. He works for upper class clients so he can afford to work for those who might not normally afford his services and expertise. He is just as democratic about his coffee as he is about his work. He makes coffee seem almost patriotic the way he talks about it, especially when he suddenly shouts “Sacrilege!” after just getting a latte with me and seeing a cup of Starbucks in the hand of a pedestrian.
Believe it or not, our first restaurant we went to while in New York was Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company for lunch. It’s located right in the midst of Times Square and it offers a great view. We were surprised to see that someone had come up with a restaurant that was the dream of the character ‘Bubba’ from the movie ‘Forest Gump.’ We ordered the ‘Bucket of Boat Trash’, just to see what it was, when it arrived, we saw a metal bucket full of fish, lobster, shrimp, and fries. We also got a free ‘Bubba’ glass. There were these fun flip signs at the tables. What you have the sign flipped to, lets the wait staff know how everything is at your table, for instance – if everything’s good at your table, flip to sign to read ‘Run Forrest Run’, but if we need something, flip the sign to ‘Stop Forrest Stop’ and a wait staff will come right over.
From there, which really isn’t a New York experience, but fun all the same, we headed to the South West entrance to Central Park. It was around 4:30pm, so we walked up to and passed the Tavern on the Green, a saw it’s amazing outdoor terrace with tall animal shaped hedges; a gorilla, a rabbit and a horse. What was amazing is bumping into the couple who have a room next to ours at one of the luxury hotels of New York. We were all headed to the same place, the Ladies Pavilion. We were so happy to have bumped into them, and we all just loved how beautiful the pavilion looked and the amazing view. We all took pictures of each other on the rocks next to the pavilion, watched some people fishing in the lake and enjoyed listening to the Terrapins.
We headed back to our hotel and said ‘until later’ to our hotel mates. It was a good day, but we were still tired from our clubbing last night. So, we hit the bed at 8pm!
One of the great things about towns in America’s West is that you often run across places you’d never expect to exist. For instance, nearly two hundred miles outside Los Angeles, in the desert between here and the Arizona border, you’ll find the Gen. George S. Patton Tank Museum and a whole host of World War II tanks. In the deserts in Arizona, halfway between Tucson and El Paso, Texas, you’ll find the Thing Museum (hoping it still exists) a roadside attraction that features a mummy found in the desert supposedly ten thousand years ago. All across the country, there are interesting museums and places, and Lubbock, Texas, is no different. You might expect a museum about Buddy Holly there, because it was the famous rock and roller’s home town, and you’d be right. However, would you have thought to find a museum on World War II gliders? It’s there — the Silent Wings Museum, right near the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport.
The Silent Wings Museum opened on November 10, 1984, in Terrell, Texas, near Dallas, some 381 miles away. It was formed by a group known as the National World War II Glider Pilots Association, which began in 1971. They wanted to have a way for glider pilots to talk and meet socially and to preserve the U.S. history of the glider program. The group restored a WACO CG-4A glider they found on top of a Fresno tire store in California. They first displayed this glider at a 1979 national reunion held in Dallas, then worked to build the museum. The museum was moved to Lubbock, Texas, because most of the glider pilots had trained there; the museum outside Dallas closed in January of 2001 and reopened in October of 2002, with the CG-4A as the featured exhibit.
If you’re spending time in Texas, and specifically stopping over at a Lubbock hotel, then you may also check out one of their more recent additions, an Aeronca L-3 aircraft. Also known as an L-3 Grasshopper, this plane was made by Aeronca Aircraft and used in World War II as a Liaison aircraft (known as L-birds), playing a role in the glider training program for World War II. These planes had a variety of purposes, used as mail couriers and cargo planes to carrying troops. The crafts are able to land tight spaces, in fields and pastures. If you have an interest in aviation and history, you shouldn’t pass up this small museum.
Check into one the hotels of luxury in Fort Wayne Indiana and come see this beautiful land and the rich stories hit has ready to be told. Today the city is quite the business center and it has such a great blend of modern and historical both in buildings and mindset. This area played a very important part of the early wars of the United States. Like some other cities in this nation it was named after an important military figure of the American Revolutionary War. General “Mad” Anthony Wayne built the fort here to protect three rivers that were used for the trade industry. Many years along the city became the home of the latest industries of manufacturing. Some of the great companies of modern times had there home here.
One of those great companies is General Electric and it has a home in this city. The history of this company starts with a very important American. Thomas Edison came up with the first incandescent electric lamp. As time went on and others started to play with the new discovery a competitor came into the picture. The Thomson-Houston Company was created by Charles A Coffin that became a real leader in the electrical innovations. At some point it became clear that they should join forces and put all there research and supports together and created General Electric Company. In that merger the company took off making all sorts of products and they still make products for home, business, industrial building and medical equipment. He started in New Jersey but the manufacturing eventually spread south and landed in Fort Wayne Indiana.
Other companies of manufacturing were names like Magnavox, Westinghouse and International Harvester. The manufacturing jobs went over seas so the industry melted in this area but with the sign of the times Fort Wayne as strong as it is transformed into a new diversified economy. Health care and insurance companies and business have made there way to the city. Defense and security companies who are helping this nation stay safe has also made some homes in this city which is fitting with how Fort Wayne started.
In Tehuantepec, the region near Mexico City where Frida Kahlo was getting some of her inspirations for the style of dress she’d developed through her life, the indigenous culture is matriarchal. Most cultures in the world start out that way, and only the most evolved can stay that way. It’s a difficult balance. It was never easy for Frida Kahlo, no matter how she dressed, or where she lived. The paintings are a testament to one of the most difficult lives ever lived out in public, and part of her appeal is that she simply continued to work and paint, despite the pain in the body, in the heart, and in the mind.
In Mexico, she could enjoy some iconic status in her lifetime. People did recognize her, and her way of dressing, as a means of making very specific and pointed political statements, were understood and appreciated in many circles. But it’s also apparent that, from the size of her studio in the home she shared with Diego Rivera, she was in effect, living in a cage all her life. Her only escape was through painting, and we see moments where her talent found places to fly. These were the moments when she was at her best. Manhattan hotel living may have been a wonderful balm for the soul for her, judging from the freedom in her works here, despite the disturbing imagery.
There is a freshness to approach and style in the works painted in, or inspired by, the brief stay in Manhattan in 1930 and 1931. Her journal entries from the same period also reflect a remarkable optimism. Her English has inflections of contemporary New York slang, suggesting that she found a place where she could play with language and friendships. This is not to say that she was a helpless victim, because all the evidence shows she was everything but helpless, but there is equal evidence to suggest that she was certainly stuck, and forced to make very essential decisions that begin with waking up in the morning.
Joyce was just another starry eyed singer, dancer actor who had her sights set on Broadway, or so thought her boyfriend of two years Steve, who also adamantly attempted to dissuade her from pursuing her dreams. Of course he didn’t admit to her that the main reason for this was his own fear that he would lose Joyce and that he was extremely threatened by her love for theatre, particularly musical theatre and the fact that she demonstrated a great deal of talent for the stage. Instead he always stressed to his girlfriend the competitiveness of the field and would repeatedly state statistics regarding one’s chances of making a living in the theatre and much less becoming a star.
Unfortunately for Steve, nothing he said seemed to dissuade Joyce from her ambitions and then finally he thought the perfect solution would be to actually take her to New York and show her first hand the degree of talent that Broadway performers possessed and also demonstrate the extreme competition she would be facing. After he came up with this idea and congratulated himself for a few minutes, he became amazed that he had never considered this before. It was the perfect solution and Steve was more confident at that point than ever before that he would not lose Joyce to the theatre and that she would finally settle down and take a real job in the real world.
Joyce was absolutely thrilled when Steve showed her the plan tickets and reservations in the five star hotel New York. He was also surprised at the sudden change in Steve and was thrilled that he actually showed some interest in her dreams and even seemed to support them. They spent an entire weekend in the city and saw a production of Wicked and The Jersey Boys. They also checked out the audition notices and various want ads and apartment rate information. Steve had to admit he had a great time, though it was also enhanced by the fact he knew he would be changing Joyce’s mind about her plans to move there in a year. As they settled into their plane seats on the flight home he asked Joyce what she thought about the city. “I’m amazed, I guess I had no idea,” she replied. Steve was sure this meant his plan worked, and he gave Joyce his most sympathetic condolence smile. Then Joyce added, “I absolutely can’t wait to move here and I’m going to move it up six months if I can.”
