I get 2-3 spam emails from “someone that I know” each week. Why the quotes? While the email comes from my friend, my friend didn’t send it. What? Say that again!
Here is what is happening. Some bad guys out on the internet are figuring our your passwords. They love to figure them out for common email providers like gmail, yahoo, hotmail and aol. They find your email someplace and then try to log in using a computer program. They try passwords that are common English words and names.
These emails typically have only a link to some site. Sometimes, the sites are just trying to get more traffic. Other times, the sites are malicious sites with viruses or they are trying to collect your personal information.
Whenever, I get one of these, I inform the sender that their email has been compromised and ask them to change it.
Here are some tips to create a more secure password. Try adding a few random letters, capital letters or better yet numbers or special characters to the end of your favorite password. So, instead of “Kermit”, try “Kermit853#”
Here is another tip, pick two keys on your keyboard. Then use a pattern, like right, right, up, left, down. Here is an example. Look at your keyboard so that this makes sense. I’m picking a and j as my two letters. Anyone can remember that so my password would be asdewjkloi. If that wasn’t clear. I typed the first of my two letters “a”. Then I typed the letter to the right of that “s”. Then I typed the letter to the right of that “d”. Then I continued up and left (e and w). Then I did the same thing for the j (jkloi).
Got it? Now go change your passwords. (Especially your email password, I don’t want any spam from “you”.)
Hose bibs come in two styles. Frost free hose bibs look like this. These hose bibs generally do not need to be winterized. You must remove the garden hose and and splitters attached to the hose bib or it will keep water inside and be subject to freezing. However, if the back of the hose bib is inside your home in an unheated area (garage, crawl-space), you still need to winterize or the pipes can freeze.
If you think that you don’t need to do this, take a look at this picture and you may be convinced otherwise. Remember, the froze pipe is inside your home and the water will be inside your home also.
Home Gain did a survey of over 1000 people who sell their last home. Some interesting stats:
The cost of buying a home is different than the price of a home. When you buy a home, there are additional costs (lender’s fees, title insurance, closing fees, recording taxes, home and pest inspections, appraisal). If you pay cash for a home, some of these go away and some are reduced.
So, let’s sum it up. Prices went down 8 1/3% ($300,000 to $275,000). Interest rates only went up 1% (5% to 6%). You saved $2,500 in down payment (10% of the $25,000 difference). You will also save $158.17 in recording tax. Grand total, you paid $9,751.03 more by waiting for the price to go down.
New Construction: This is when you purchase a home from the builder. In our area, these homes typically sell for 3-10% above market value. People value being the first person to live in a new home. There is value to being able to pick out your finishes and live in a super-clean home with that new-home smell. But much like a new car, when you sell, you are selling a “used” home and that 3-10% extra value is gone.
Foreclosures: Foreclosed homes are owned by a lien holder (typically a bank or a loan holder like 
Next example: same two homes. Now the foreclosure home has been abused. It needs paint on the inside. The carpets are torn and the previous owners took all of the appliances with them. Total damages $20,000. In this case, I would expect the foreclosed home to sell for $266,000 to $271,600 (95-97% of {$300,000 – $20,000}).
A short sale is not for the impatient. You make an offer and often hear nothing for months. Typically, in two to six months, you will get a response from the bank. The bank may counter your offer, accept it or simply reject it. More than half of these listings never get closed.
Virginia Real Estate 