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Use Seller Financing to Purchase Your Property
There are many strategies in which to purchase commercial property. You can borrow money with a first mortgage, use a private investor's money, use your personal money, or use seller financing. Seller financing is also known as subordination.In commercial real estate, you must learn to optimize purchase strategies as there are many differences between the properties themselves and the owners who are selling them. What works for one seller, may not work for another. The more options you have, the easier time you will have purchasing property.Subordination occurs when the seller agrees to take back a second mortgage for a certain amount, often the remaining amount of the purchase price, after there has been paid a substantial down payment to the seller, and the new owner has already taken out a first mortgage on the property. In some cases, when a seller is extremely motivated, he or she may be willing t

rabbing on to a handy nearby swinging vine to save herself. Wishing she had never set out on this trip, she decided to stop to catch her breath. Taking the opportunity to look around, she suddenly saw a strange plant, its leaves an odd mottled purple that was at odds with all the greenery that surrounded it on every side. What a strange plant, she thought.

Going over to take a closer look, she was intrigued by the way the plant seemed to be in a space of its own. No other plants grew close in the dim light of the forest; this one was entirely by itself. What's Wrong With The Above Scene?

Plenty! I'm amazed you've persevered this far. (It made me nauseous just having to write it.) Okay, I've exaggerated the problems in the above excerpt somewhat to make my point - but I've seen worse. Much worse, a

Customer Loyalty: Investing In Relationships
Most businesses are like African baboons – these furry fellows race through the cornfields, picking corn and stuffing it under their arm. As fast as they stuff the corn under their arm, it falls out the back, but they keep on picking and stuffing! By the time they get to the edge of the cornfield, they are carrying one corncob and they’ve left a trail of corn on the ground. This is how many entrepreneurs handle customers. They’re so busy getting new ones that they neglect and lose their existing customers out the back door. Attrition spirals out of control and yet they continue to spend more money on finding new customers.We know it’s far more affordable to resell existing customers than to get new ones. We know that it’s better to retain our customers and to encourage referrals through added value service than to spend a lot of money finding new customers. So why don’t we act accordingly? Why don’t we

Most of us hate housework.

Nevertheless, even the most hopeless slobs amongst us would agree that we love having a clean, organised house. It looks more inviting. It's easy to find what you want, when you want it. If only it didn't take so much time to get it that way!

If you're lucky enough to have a cleaner, then you've solved the problem. It's someone else's job to clean up and get rid of the dust and the mess. Most of us don't have that luxury. If we want a clean and clutter-free environment, we have to work to get it that way.

It's exactly the same when it comes to writing. If you want a fresh, clutter-free piece of text - you have to clean it up yourself. Readers don't like to be surrounded by clutter any more than you do.

What Is "Clutter"?

"Clutter" in writing may be described as anything that clogs up the channel between the writer's imagination and the reader's experience. If you have a hard time identifying what is clutter and what isn't, use these points to guide you.

Be guided by the viewpoint character's thoughts, emotions and reactions. Climb inside the skin of the viewpoint character. What does he/she feel? Think? Decide? When something happens, what would this character's logical reaction be?
If something is not noticed by the viewpoint character, or is not important, don't put it in.
Don't over-explain. Remember that we all come to any novel with a host of experiences behind us. Readers and authors share many common experiences. For example: mention the word 'vomit' and that is quite enough for most readers to fill in the gaps. They don't need you to go into detail about the smell, texture, colour and so on.
Avoid the temptation to personify inanimate objects. If you attribute human characteristics or emotions to anything from a mailbox to a rock, it (a) distracts the reader, focusing his/her attention on something that is not important and (b) reduces the impact of the human character's emotions. (In a fantasy novel, of course, you may have all sorts of strange objects or creatures that take on human characteristics.)
Avoid repetition. This means repeated words or phrases (often repeated because the writer is too lazy to find an alternative) and repeated ideas. You don't need to explain the same thing three different ways.
Avoid words that will be unfamiliar to most readers. Don't take the high road and decide that it's your job to improve your readers' vocabularies. Most of them won't thank you for it. They don't want to put down the book and go find a dictionary. One unfamiliar word isn't a problem; a book full of them annoys the reader intensely. Do you want to annoy your readers? I hope not.

An Example Of A Scene Filled With Clutter

Gasping for air, Marcy raced through the dark green forest, not daring to look behind her in her state of raw panic. Tripping on a protruding root she half-fell, but recovered quickly and maintained her reckless headlong course through the knotted vines and lashing branches that were taking evil swipes at her as she ran. She had to get away from her pursuers.
"Ouch!" she yelped as yet another branch attacked her, the 'thwack' of its savage assault echoing through the half-light. Almost falling again she managed to recover, grabbing on to a handy nearby swinging vine to save herself. Wishing she had never set out on this trip, she decided to stop to catch her breath. Taking the opportunity to look around, she suddenly saw a strange plant, its leaves an odd mottled purple that was at odds with all the greenery that surrounded it on every side. What a strange plant, she thought.
Going over to take a closer look, she was intrigued by the way the plant seemed to be in a space of its own. No other plants grew close in the dim light of the forest; this one was entirely by itself.

What's Wrong With The Above Scene?

First Time Buyers in SC
With more houses being produced then ever before, the home market is thriving. First time buyers are a market that is actively and aggressively marketed to. However along with this abundance of availability of new homes has come a whole new set of financial problems and scams targeted at those who are not experienced in the real estate market. If you are a first time buyer then it is well worth your time to do some research into the real estate market and learn as much as possible about the purchase process. This is also a good practice for experienced buyers as the real estate market is one that is prone to rapid change and fluctuation.First time buyers in South Carolina have the same concerns as buyers nationwide, one of the primary concerns is home financing. Today more than ever there are unscrupulous lenders vying for a growing number of prospective home owners. They entice new clientele by offering loan

g that clogs up the channel between the writer's imagination and the reader's experience. If you have a hard time identifying what is clutter and what isn't, use these points to guide you.

Be guided by the viewpoint character's thoughts, emotions and reactions. Climb inside the skin of the viewpoint character. What does he/she feel? Think? Decide? When something happens, what would this character's logical reaction be?
If something is not noticed by the viewpoint character, or is not important, don't put it in.
Don't over-explain. Remember that we all come to any novel with a host of experiences behind us. Readers and authors share many common experiences. For example: mention the word 'vomit' and that is quite enough for most readers to fill in the gaps. They don't need you to go into detail about the smell, texture, colour and so on.
Avoid the temptation to personify inanimate objects. If you attribute human characteristics or emotions to anything from a mailbox to a rock, it (a) distracts the reader, focusing his/her attention on something that is not important and (b) reduces the impact of the human character's emotions. (In a fantasy novel, of course, you may have all sorts of strange objects or creatures that take on human characteristics.)
Avoid repetition. This means repeated words or phrases (often repeated because the writer is too lazy to find an alternative) and repeated ideas. You don't need to explain the same thing three different ways.
Avoid words that will be unfamiliar to most readers. Don't take the high road and decide that it's your job to improve your readers' vocabularies. Most of them won't thank you for it. They don't want to put down the book and go find a dictionary. One unfamiliar word isn't a problem; a book full of them annoys the reader intensely. Do you want to annoy your readers? I hope not.

An Example Of A Scene Filled With Clutter

Gasping for air, Marcy raced through the dark green forest, not daring to look behind her in her state of raw panic. Tripping on a protruding root she half-fell, but recovered quickly and maintained her reckless headlong course through the knotted vines and lashing branches that were taking evil swipes at her as she ran. She had to get away from her pursuers.
"Ouch!" she yelped as yet another branch attacked her, the 'thwack' of its savage assault echoing through the half-light. Almost falling again she managed to recover, grabbing on to a handy nearby swinging vine to save herself. Wishing she had never set out on this trip, she decided to stop to catch her breath. Taking the opportunity to look around, she suddenly saw a strange plant, its leaves an odd mottled purple that was at odds with all the greenery that surrounded it on every side. What a strange plant, she thought.
Going over to take a closer look, she was intrigued by the way the plant seemed to be in a space of its own. No other plants grew close in the dim light of the forest; this one was entirely by itself.

What's Wrong With The Above Scene?

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: Tips for Creating Success
Take a moment to think about the word “marketing”. What thoughts come up for you? Do you wish it would go away? Do you start to think of yourself like a salesperson? Do you have self-limiting beliefs, like “ I can’t market myself”? What feelings come up for you, do you get tense, do you get a knot in your stomach, or do your jaws clench?Old beliefs about marketing:Most people think of marketing as aversive and painful. “They Make comments like, “Why can’t I just do my work and have the clients come to me? I hate marketing.” This is because most people have old beliefs about marketing. Some of these are:• Marketing is phony • Marketing is begging • Marketing is pushy • Marketing is drudgeryNew beliefs about marketingSince our beliefs create our reality, It makes sense for us to reprogram any beliefs that would interfere with our success. Here’s some way to thin

e smell, texture, colour and so on.

Avoid the temptation to personify inanimate objects. If you attribute human characteristics or emotions to anything from a mailbox to a rock, it (a) distracts the reader, focusing his/her attention on something that is not important and (b) reduces the impact of the human character's emotions. (In a fantasy novel, of course, you may have all sorts of strange objects or creatures that take on human characteristics.)

Avoid repetition. This means repeated words or phrases (often repeated because the writer is too lazy to find an alternative) and repeated ideas. You don't need to explain the same thing three different ways.

Avoid words that will be unfamiliar to most readers. Don't take the high road and decide that it's your job to improve your readers' vocabularies. Most of them won't thank you for it. They don't want to put down the book and go find a dictionary. One unfamiliar word isn't a problem; a book full of them annoys the reader intensely. Do you want to annoy your readers? I hope not. An Example Of A Scene Filled With Clutter

Gasping for air, Marcy raced through the dark green forest, not daring to look behind her in her state of raw panic. Tripping on a protruding root she half-fell, but recovered quickly and maintained her reckless headlong course through the knotted vines and lashing branches that were taking evil swipes at her as she ran. She had to get away from her pursuers.
"Ouch!" she yelped as yet another branch attacked her, the 'thwack' of its savage assault echoing through the half-light. Almost falling again she managed to recover, grabbing on to a handy nearby swinging vine to save herself. Wishing she had never set out on this trip, she decided to stop to catch her breath. Taking the opportunity to look around, she suddenly saw a strange plant, its leaves an odd mottled purple that was at odds with all the greenery that surrounded it on every side. What a strange plant, she thought.
Going over to take a closer look, she was intrigued by the way the plant seemed to be in a space of its own. No other plants grew close in the dim light of the forest; this one was entirely by itself.

What's Wrong With The Above Scene?

How To Get Your Prospect To Take Action
There’s really only one thing that separates Image advertising from Direct Response. Image advertising just wants you to think about a product in a certain way. Direct Response wants you to do something about it. Now.Direct Response can be entertaining. It doesn’t have to sound like a used car salesman on steroids. But it will have one element that sets it apart from it’s “pretty” cousin:A call to action.Without a call to action you’ve got to spend the big bucks to be effective. And even then, you’ll never know for sure. I mean, how do you measure an image? On the other hand, if you ask your prospect to do something, he either does it or he doesn’t. Right away you know whether your money’s been wasted or not.But if you don’t ask him to do anything, it’s a safe bet he won’t.So get him off his rear and doing something. (After all, he can’t reach his wallet if he’s sitting on it!) Tel

t of them won't thank you for it. They don't want to put down the book and go find a dictionary. One unfamiliar word isn't a problem; a book full of them annoys the reader intensely. Do you want to annoy your readers? I hope not. An Example Of A Scene Filled With Clutter

Gasping for air, Marcy raced through the dark green forest, not daring to look behind her in her state of raw panic. Tripping on a protruding root she half-fell, but recovered quickly and maintained her reckless headlong course through the knotted vines and lashing branches that were taking evil swipes at her as she ran. She had to get away from her pursuers.
"Ouch!" she yelped as yet another branch attacked her, the 'thwack' of its savage assault echoing through the half-light. Almost falling again she managed to recover, grabbing on to a handy nearby swinging vine to save herself. Wishing she had never set out on this trip, she decided to stop to catch her breath. Taking the opportunity to look around, she suddenly saw a strange plant, its leaves an odd mottled purple that was at odds with all the greenery that surrounded it on every side. What a strange plant, she thought.
Going over to take a closer look, she was intrigued by the way the plant seemed to be in a space of its own. No other plants grew close in the dim light of the forest; this one was entirely by itself.

What's Wrong With The Above Scene?

Whole Life Insurance Companies
Life insurance is a big industry with financial assets of more than $4,000 billion in 2004. The major revenue model is life insurance, although it is slowly being overtaken by annuities, i.e. contracts that guarantee a fixed or variable payment over time. Still, the sale of term and whole life policies remain a significant portion of the business.Life insurance companies offer a wide range of products, including term and whole life policies, health, accident and hospital plans. Life-related sales accounted for 24% of the portfolio of insurance companies in 2004. The major customers are individuals and worksite employees. According to the NAIC annual statement database, the premium by way of sales of ordinary and industrial life alone is $108 billion, which is 20% of the premium collection in 2004.It is estimated that there are 1,000 companies selling insurance products in the U.S. They belong to a grou

Here are some of the problems in the scene I created:

Over-explaining; repetition. We are shown that Marcy is in a state of panic by the way she's racing through the forest 'not daring to look behind her'. It's not necessary to add 'in her state of raw panic' or even 'her reckless headlong course'. Ditto for the words 'strange' and 'plant' - look for the instances of repetition. The fact that a vine is 'handy' implies that it is nearby, and it's in the nature of vines to swing - so we don't need the words 'nearby' or 'swinging'.
Trees are just trees; vines are just vines. Marcy is getting caught up in them because she's running blindly to get away from her pursuer(s). Unless she's in some kind of enchanted forest, the trees could not be taking 'evil' swipes, and they are not 'attacking' her in some 'savage assault'. The writer should be showing Marcy's fear through her thoughts and reactions, rather than attempting to generate suspense through giving the trees human attributes.
Marcy's main aim is to escape her pursuers. Put yourself in Marcy's place. If you were running from someone or something, what would be your main concern? (a) to get away and (b) to make sure they were nowhere close if you had to stop. If you had to stop to catch your breath, is it likely you would suddenly forget your pursuers to look more closely at a strange plant? Of course not. You'd listen for sounds of pursuit and decide whether you needed to keep going or hide.
Make sure your characters act logically. Anything else is clutter. (In this case, if the strange plant is important to the plot, think of a more convincing way to bring it into the story rather than plonking it right in Marcy's path and having her 'suddenly' notice it.)
Avoid long sentences with lots of detail when you are trying to create the impression of haste and fear. For example: "Tripping on a protruding root she half-fell, but recovered quickly, maintaining her reckless headlong course through the knotted vines and lashing branches that were taking evil swipes at her as she ran." Do we feel Marcy's terror? Can we feel the burning of her lungs as she runs, gasping for air? Can we feel the pain as she falls? No, no and no. The writer is telling, not showing. In this sentence, the main character seems somewhat removed from what is happening to her. We're reading about her rather than looking through her eyes.
There's an over-reliance on the '...ing' construction. This is one of the main culprits in making a passage of text slow-paced and repetitive. In the example above we have sentences starting with "gasping"; "tripping"; "wishing" and "taking" - not to mention the other "ing" words that pepper the text: "protruding", "maintaining", "lashing", "echoing", "falling", "taking", and "swinging". Check all your work to make sure you're not showing symptoms of the "ing" disease!

These are just a few of the things that can clutter your writing and make it hard for the reader to struggle through. Cut the clutter - and keep your readers turning pages.

(c) copyright Marg McAlister

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ISO 9000 is a set of standards developed by the ISO (international organization for standardization) for quality assurance systems. It was first published in 1987 and the standards were modified in 1994. ISO 9000 serves as a true base for organizations to improve their quality assurance systems.

When you start to think of all the different credit card companies out there you may start to wonder if they are going to be a friend or foe to you. When it comes to the credit card companies giving you a line of credit when you first apply for a credit card, you are going to feel that they are your friends.

If you think you are having a hard time strategizing your insurance marketing, then you are not alone. That is one of the main reasons why some marketing strategies do not work. Some insurance agents simply copy what they see other agents doing, and soon everyone is using the same marketing strategy, which only confuses the customers. Originality becomes diluted, leaving nothing new to generate leads.

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