Four basic ways to increase the price you get

Be it real estate or a piece of electronics on Craigslist, everyone wants to get as much cash as possible for items being sold. In the sea of online ads, getting that best price can feel practically impossible. You can improve the price you get when you sell online. It takes just a couple simple steps, and a few additional minutes of effort. Source of article – Four easy ways to get more money for what you are selling by MoneyBlogNewz.

1. Check photography out

Look at photos to start research as an online buyer. Looking at online photos is how 83 percent of individuals choose whether or not to visit a house. Taking a picture with your cell phone seems easy enough. Still, a 5 to 30 percent increase in price happens whenever you have good photos. Make sure the item you are photographing is well-lit, and use a tripod or a fast shutter speed (or “sports” setting) to eliminate blur in the photo. In case you are marketing a high-dollar item, it could well be worth the $100-$300 to get professional photography.

2. Make sure language is appropriate

Straightforward, concise, clear copy describing the item you’ve for sale will go a long way. Rather than listing the “seriously awesome camera that will make your photos 1 billion times better,” describe the item in concrete terms: “10 megapixel camera with full manual settings to control the photo.” It sounds better, and it will sell better. Most people should be specific. Use numbers if needed. Avoid too many adjectives. Not more than three per sentence is allowed. It might cost $50 to $100 to get a professional. You may just have a friend look over it instead.

3. You will need to search around

It’s OK to be hopeful about the sales price, however asking too much can put off potential buyers. Do your research on what comparable items are marketing for and adjust your prices accordingly. If you are asking for a higher-than-going rate, be sure to explain why. Explain why you would like less than the going rate as well on some products. Buyers might be very interested with your listing if you just explain yourself rather than go from the norm.

4. Spam is just irritating

It could be tempting to post your item for sale twice a day, just in case someone misses the listing. There is search functionality in most services. This is just online. Most viewers get really annoyed when you post it so often. You look desperate to sell. Only re-post your item if you make change to the price or the terms. It takes effort and money to list something more than once in one place. Keep away from this.

Information from

MSN Real Estate

realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13108474

Small Biz Trends

smallbiztrends.com/2010/04/5-tactics-to-improve-online-sales.html

Borrowing for college to enter billion-dollar realm

College campuses see a higher number of individuals in the form of students on a continuous basis who accept funds from financial institutions and promise to pay back the money with interest. Borrowing funds for education and the amount owed will reach the $1 trillion level this year after surpassing the total number of dollars owed by charge card borrowers in 2010. Money borrowed while a college student, most always regarded as a “good debt,” is more often becoming a “bad debt” as the cost of paying for an education, and the resultant money borrowed, are called into question as a result of low or negative return down the road for such a risk. Article resource – Student loan debt expected to hit $1 trillion and beyond in 2011 by MoneyBlogNewz.

More students have student loan debt as school costs go up

Student loan debt was something less than half of the students graduating with a bachelor’s degree had in 1993. There was a huge increase by 2008 though. It went up to two thirds. Then the average debt increased even more. By 2009, $24,000 was the average student loan debt a student left with. Total student loan debt is anticipated to reach $1 trillion this year and grow at even faster rate. Lower-income students can get Pell grants for financial aid, although Congress Republicans want to get rid of them. As cash-strapped states cut funding to universities and colleges, tuition increases will add to a mountain of debt that is anticipated to have a profound impact on the current generation of college students. The rate of student loan default is growing quite a bit with the student loan debt. There can be huge student loan payments that have to be made while credit could be damaged if they are not made. This could really hurt students in the future who are attempt! ing to have kids or attempting to buy a house. Those who have kids may have to choose between paying off their student loan debt and saving for their children’s college education.

There is some good debt

Payday loans, charge cards and auto loans are all forms of “bad debt.” Student loans, on the other hand, are considered “good debt” by many. In the aftermath of the recession, any kind of debt has become undesirable. However even as the average cost for a four-year private education has reached more than $37,000 a year, according to the College Board, student loans could be good debt if the degree outcomes in a salary that allows the debt to be paid in a reasonable amount of time. Most financial advisers suggest that individuals don’t borrow more than they could make the year after they graduate. That rule of thumb, however, highlights the risk of taking on student loan debt. Paying down the loans may be unlikely in sociology or history. The jobs for these degrees just aren’t there. The cost of debt is higher for engineering and medicine even though the risk is lower.

Loans are not always the answer

When it comes to good debt versus bad debt, the bottom line these days is simple: all debt is bad if you cannot pay it off. Default rates are rising – to almost 50 percent – among students who attended for-profit colleges. Bankruptcy doesn’t get rid of student loans. For federally guaranteed student loans, the government can garnish wages, withhold tax refunds or dock Social Security payments. Everyone in a low paying job can have the loans forgiven with the Obama administration. He made it so the debt is forgiven in 10 years if you are in a public service position or 25 years for anybody else who pays 15 percent yearly.

Citations

New York Times

nytimes.com/2011/04/12/education/12college.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Creditcards.com

creditcards.com/credit-card-news/does-good-debt-still-exist-1264.php

care 2

care2.com/causes/education/blog/student-debt-for-college-likely-to-exceed-a-trillion-dollars/

Amazon to release advertisement-supported Kindle for $114

The traditional writing industry has lost ground to e-readers, tablets and other mobile devices, and Amazon is sitting quite with its Kindle platform. Once the $114 Kindle with Special Offers ships May 3, Amazon should improve its 60 percent share in the e-reader market. Yet there’s a catch – those Special Offers are advertisements, a move that has several worried about the shape of the reading experience to come.

Paying $25 less for an ad-based kindle

The price of the Amazon Kindle has fallen a few times since the first generation was introduced at $399 in 2007. This is the first time, however, that a price reduction will consist of the placement of advertisements on the popular e-reader, a move geared to capture ground from the iPad in the e-reader market. May 3 is when the kindle will start with Special Offers. The ad-supported version could be found in Best Purchase and Target for the Kindle 3.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos sees the $114 Kindle with Special Offers as a “chicken in every pot” move:

“We’re working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one,” he said via a statement.

Reader response to a Christian Science Monitor article about the price cut seems to echo the fears most customers have about an advertisement-based Kindle. One reader argues for a free advertisement-based Kindle with $0.99 books, however that reflects another thorny issue regarding the price of electronic books. The $25 discount isn’t enough, according to some readers. Most experts’ say it is okay though since the ads only come up on the bottom of the home screen and on the screen saver.

“It’s very important that we didn’t interfere with the reading experience,” Kindle director Jay Marine told the Associated Press.

The price is needed

Getting to the $99 Kindle for Christmas 2011 is important, TechCrunch believes. That is what the $114 Amazon Kindle is leading up to with its Special Features. Traditional marketing psychology suggests the “.99″ price point is a magic number.

However, new research from New York’s Columbia Business School indicates the advantage is more imagined than it is real anymore. The “dollar-minus” approach (down to 99 cents, for instance) was actually less effective than “dollar-plus” price points (like $4.01), according to the Columbia study. Sales of goods that used the dollar-plus method increased by 3 percent, and customers felt greater trust for dollar-plus brands because the prices were perceived as being less manipulative.

Information from

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0413/Will-readers-accept-ads-in-exchange-for-a-cheaper-Kindle

Columbia Business School

gsb.columbia.edu/ideasatwork/researchbriefs/7314376?&top.region=main

Knowing and Making

knowingandmaking.com/2011/04/new-research-99-no-longer-optimal-for.html

TechCrunch

techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/amazon-kindle-99/

Kindle sales tripled after last price drop

youtu.be/PaAFm_fZQ2A

Government shutdown does not matter concerning Internal Revenue Service deadline

The IRS deadline for filing income taxes is still in impact, even if the federal spending budget brouhaha outcomes in a government shutdown. It was extended this year due to a city holiday in Washington D.C. That said, it is still April 18 If a shutdown occurs, refund checks will be postponed. Resource for this article – Government shutdown does not postpone IRS deadline by MoneyBlogNewz.

How the Internal Revenue Service employees are affected

In the event of a government shutdown, there can be a few agencies that are unaffected in their operations. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service would shut down. That means as long as there is a shutdown, all IRS agents would be required to stay home. Bloomberg states that our tax returns have to be filed nevertheless. On April 8, the government shutdown will occur, unless a deal is made.

Electronic filing will help a lot

None of the paper returns can be received by the IRS if there’s a shut down. That means paper returns will not be sent back either, so no refunds. Taxpayers are asked to file electronically to keep away from normal processing.

How government workers could be affected

It is contended that the shutdown is going to occur because Congressional Republicans insist on defunding Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions. Members of Congress, according to CNN, and the president, will still get their salaries automatically. The government employees are the ones that would be most impacted. Any “unnecessary personnel” or those that are not necessary to protect the states, will not have work anymore. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military will continue to work. These employees are required to work for free during this time. There is no guarantee they’ll get back pay.

Articles cited

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/shutdown-won-t-budge-april-18-tax-filing-deadline-irs-says.html

Times

curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/04/08/tax-refund-fears-would-a-government-shutdown-hurt-spending/

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/04/08/news/economy/shutdown_congress_pay/index.htm

Negotiation reached in federal probe into robosigning

An initial negotiation has been reached between banks and the federal investigation into the robosigning scandal. The scandal has shaken several people’s confidence in the real estate finance industry. The nation’s largest mortgage loan companies were found to have rubber stamped foreclosure documents without making sure that it had been done properly, and many people were foreclosed on that did not deserve it. A legal probe into foreclosure practices has reportedly reached a negotiation with those lenders.

JPMorgan exec discloses deal with some federal agencies

Reuters reports that JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon, explained that there was an agreement made recently with mortgage loan companies being investigated due to the robosigning. Dimon confirmed that no fines had been levied yet, but they’re likely to come. About a dozen federal agencies and every attorney general in each state was doing an investigation to the largest mortgage lenders. Only financial institutions in the Office of the comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Reserve are in the negotiation that has yet to be complete. A settlement with all 50 state attorneys general has not been reached.

Possible state settlements

The controversy stemmed from the discovery that a lot of foreclosure proceedings started when paperwork to start foreclosures was approved in a robotic fashion, or "robo-signed," without proper review. The robosigning problem needs to be solved easily. This is because foreclosure practices change sometimes. Bloomberg reports that JPMorgan plans to hire 3,000 new employees to make sure every little thing works out. In other words, there could be an increased amount of regulation in the mortgage industry when it comes to foreclosures, which means it will cost the loan companies in the mortgage industry more to lend and service a loan. Those costs can be passed on to the consumer at some point, likely in the form of requiring more money up front to get a loan. Since banks have been more worried about foreclosing lately, there’s a huge backlog of foreclosures on the books.

Not much with the mortgage modification program taking place

The mortgage modification programs were some of the biggest failures in all of the stimulus programs the Obama administration put together. Any person could apply for a modification if they were about to be foreclosed upon and were behind on mortgages. Any lender that was willing to modify a borrower's mortgage would be getting incentive payments from the government. USA Today reports that few individuals really used it. Between 3 million and 4 million people were in the goal to be kept in homes. There ended up being only about 630,000 individuals helped out with permanent modifications of mortgages.

Articles cited

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/04/13/us-financial-regulation-foreclosures-idUSTRE73C3DV20110413

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-13/jpmorgan-says-foreclosure-accord-with-federal-reserve-occ-may-come-today.html

USA Today

usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2011-04-12-mortgage-borrowers-letters.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Oil and gas determined to drop as costs pinch customer demand

Oil costs are soaring and gas prices are approaching amounts not seen since the summer of 2008. Speculators continue to drive up the numbers at gas pumps, never mind the fact there are no gas shortages in the U.S.. However reality will intrude on the markets, analysts say, when gas becomes too expensive for U.S. consumers to afford.

Prices on oil

The sweet crude for May delivery went up to its highest amounts since September 2008 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It went up to $111.90 a barrel. United States gas prices reached an average of $3.70 this week, their highest level since the summer of 2008 also. Several studied the rise in oil costs. There were several factors that brought on it. A looming government shutdown is worsening the dollar, which makes dollar-based commodities for instance crude oil more affordable for traders betting with other currencies. It doesn’t seem like the Libya conflict is about to end. The country has already stopped producing most of its oil. However as U.S. customers pay just a little more every day at the pump, the United States is awash in oil. In the week that ended April 1, United States oil inventories went up 2 million barrels the U.S. Energy Information Administration explained. There was an increase in over 14 million barrels a day in the crud refinery.

Supply and demand ignored

It used to be that OPEC was to blame for this. This hasn’t affected it at all though. There was an oil conference in Paris where the United Arab Emirates oil minister spoke. He said that prices have hardly any change anymore due to OPEC. OPEC gives enough oil to the industry according to Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli. The only reason for oil prices rising is due to traders. They are betting on a worst case scenario rather than paying attention to the facts. Oil speculators are being aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve, which has been giving hedge funds and pension funds money at zero percent interest so they can bet on increasing commodity costs. Oil futures are $15 and $20 increased than they need to be at according to analysts. The next betting frenzy could be triggered by elections this weekend in Nigeria, where output of 2.2 million barrels a day could possibly be disrupted by violence.

Oil tipping point

There are signs that oil and gas prices have risen to a level that United States consumers can no longer afford. In just the last four weeks, there has been a 3.7 percent drop in gas demand. Some analysts are saying that oil prices will reach a tipping point soon, unless another crisis in the Middle East or a Nigerian meltdown play into the hands of oil speculators. Oil was around $90 a barrel until the second quantitative easing plan (QE2) started to fail the Fed had in place. The whole plan might change in June when the QE2 ends. This might end up leaving crude oil around $85 to $95 a barrel total.

Articles cited

Wall Street Journal

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110408-707562.html

New York Times

nytimes.com/2011/04/09/business/09markets.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Industrial Fuels and Power

ifandp.com/article/0010617.html

Fortune

finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/08/oil-at-the-tipping-point/

Repaying the first-time home buyer tax credit

Taxpayers who claimed the $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit two years ago need to be ready to pay come tax day 2011, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. On Monday, April 18, the first of 15 annual payments is due on that loan. Article source – First-time homebuyer tax credit: Get ready to pay by MoneyBlogNewz.

Using the first time home buyer credit

A segment of new United States homebuyers were eligible to claim a tax credit equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of a home, up to a maximum of $7,500. The tax credit could possibly be divided by unmarried homebuyers or married individuals filing separately could get $3,750 each, according to the House and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Any homes bought between April 8, 2008 and January 1, 2009 was able to get the credit.

The tax credit was very popular for several individuals. The problem was that it was being called “credit.” Really it was just an interest-free loan be given out. Yearly, for 16 years, the first-time homebuyers may have equal installment payments to be repaying the government. A $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit will break down to $500 per year, unless the home is sold before the total amount is paid off. When selling the home, the balance is due immediately. It isn’t paid over time anymore.

Tax breaks homebuyers can get

The first-time home buyer tax credit was not the only thing Congress did. There were two other tax credits extended. The first offered an $8,000 credit to first-time buyers who signed contracts between January 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010. As long as the contract had been signed by April 30, the sale could be completed by September 30, 2010, and the taxpayer could qualify for the credit. There was also a $6,500 credit accessible. This was for long term homeowners that bought, between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, a new or existing home.

Both of these additional tax credits require that homebuyers repay the entire amount – either $8,000 or $6,500 – if the home is sold within three years of the purchase date or the property becomes a secondary a secondary residence within the same time period. It is simple to sell within three years nevertheless. There are ways around it. The sale of home may end up with a profit. If that profit is less than the amount of the tax credit, then only the profit needs to be paid back.

All the IRS returns trouble

Married couples filing jointly have been hard on the IRS. There have been lots of glitches in this, the Inquirer states. With the Form 5405: “First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit,” several filed before February 22, 2011. That means manual returns were required taking a long time to process.

Internal Revenue Service projections indicate that about 1 million United States households could be repaying the $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit. You can go to IRS.gov and look at the “Where’s My Refund?” connection to discover out more if you don’t have your refund.

Information from

Housing and Economic Recovery Act

frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h3221enr.txt.pdf

IRS

irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html

Philadelphia Inquirer

philly.com/philly/phillywomen/119915874.html

How Canada helps first-time home buyers

youtube.com/watch?v=lg_i8SRhMO0